Carpe Consensus

This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to PaperImperium, the first and only pseudonymous crypto advocate, lobbying on behalf of MakerDAO in the corridors of power. 

PaperImperium, or Paper, or Chris (his real name, but he’s not keen to publicize his full name), is advocating for a clear regulation for DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organisations. 

DAOs are a brainchild of the crypto-anarchist culture, and the concept implies that communities can make decisions and solve problems by common voting, using their crypto tokens as voting mandates. 

Interestingly, Chris is not a huge fan of this idea itself, and he’s still on the fence on whether the concept is viable. Also, not everybody shares a belief that decentralized finance (DeFi) needs regulation at all, and recently the DAO members voted down the proposal to compensate Chris for his work. 

Why then is he so passionate about educating congressmen and regulators about MakerDAO and everything around it? What got him into crypto in the first place, and why is he so excited about Maker?

Listen to Anna, Ben and Danny talk to Chris about his observations about the moods towards crypto in Washington, D.C., his hopes for DeFi and other things.

PaperImperium’s handle on Twitter is @ImperiumPaper.  

Mentioned in this podcast:

Meet the DeFi Delegate Knocking on the Doors of Congress

What Is a DAO?

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The first bitcoin-linked ETF to ever hit U.S. markets has finally arrived. But what does that mean for bitcoin as an investment?

For starters, hundreds of millions of dollars in speculative bets from traders whose brokerage accounts have never tasted crypto before. But are they betting on bitcoin? Not exactly…. They’re betting on bitcoin futures contracts. And it’s not quite the same. 

Karan Sood joins the “Opinionated” squad to break down crypto’s hot new investment trend. His investment company, Cboe Vest, was one of the first to wrap bitcoin futures in a traditional finance shell. It's no wonder that he believes products linked to futures contracts are mainstream investors’ best way into crypto.

Ben, Anna and Danny don’t completely agree.

Listen to this week’s “Opinionated” for a contrarian take on the big bitcoin news. 

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Adrian Blust. Our theme song is by Elision. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s Policy Week here at CoinDesk!

We’re diving deep into Washington, D.C., lobbying, DeFi regulation, how non-fungible tokens (NFT) could be seen as securities, and much more through a series of feature stories, op-eds, interviews, research and video. 

For the “Opinionated” podcast, co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss some regulatory hot topics. 

First up: Is crypto a threat to financial stability?

A senior Bank of England official recently suggested as much, comparing crypto to the subprime mortgage securities that blew up the world economy in 2008. 

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund said the other day that digital assets could cause as much disruption as COVID-19 and climate change. 

If the high priests and priestesses of finance once ignored crypto, no longer! This once-insignificant industry is now firmly on the agenda. 

Next: The SEC is looking at NFTs. 

Non-fungible tokens have been one of the big stories of 2021. Artworks and collectibles have sold for many millions and the NFTs have served to bring many new faces into the crypto sector. 

But will 2022 raise compliance issues for NFT platforms and makers as regulators step in?

That’s the belief of many lawyers and NFT execs. Fractionalization, where works are split into pieces and sold off to investors, seems particularly likely to interest our overseers. 

Finally: Will Russia embrace crypto as a way around the dollar’s domination of international oil markets?

Recent comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin have raised hopes on this one. But, speaking from Moscow, Anna says it’s not likely, at least in the short term. 

Listen to the episode for more on the big policy questions of the moment. And subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcast service. 

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish became personally infatuated with non-fungible tokens (NFT) earlier this year. He’s now helping his sports betting giant navigate digital collectibles. It's one of the few publicly traded companies with an on-platform NFT marketplace. This week on “Opinionated,” Danny, Ben and Anna learn more about the Bored Ape Yacht Club-owning president of DraftKings.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the hosts spar over what makes an NFT valuable, whether fundamental tech specs matter, and why it's important to see big names like DraftKings jumping in. Non-fungible tokens are more than a phase, Kalish says: They’re a new way of trading and owning goods online.

Kalish, who has long loved sports collectibles, thinks NFTs are a natural evolution of the baseball card era. His platform is primed to take a hefty cut. It has signed up a long line of A-list athletes in some of their first NFT deals. That includes Tom Brady, the five-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback who sat through multiple sessions of digital autograph signing for DraftKings’ NFT debut.

The gang learns more about Kalish’s philosophy and DraftKings’ crypto plans. Is this a one-off act by the lucrative gaming outfit? Or is crypto here to stay, with NFTs only the vanguard? Listen to the latest edition of the “Opinionated” NFT series to find out.

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Art Blocks CEO Erick Calderon has turned generative NFT squiggles into a digital art behemoth. This week on “Opinionated,” we speak with “Snowfro” about the artists whose algorithms power one of the hottest corners of the metaverse. Their NFT sales recently helped Art Blocks raise $6 million from equity investors, Snowfro told “Opinionated.”

Ben and Danny (Anna’s out this week) sort through the term sheets to find what makes Art Blocks tick. Their conversation begins with its cap table. Galaxy’s an investor; so is FlamingoDAO, the crypto-native community of NFT investors. Believe it or not, the DAO apes into equity rounds, too. 

Snowfro helps demystify the philosophy underpinning the digital art scene. He doesn’t define success by making it to the MoMA – though that would be cool, he admits – or by billion-dollar transaction volumes – a milestone Art Blocks already crossed. He’s more interested in providing an outlet for really cool and unique art.

Speaking from his home in Houston, Snowfro walks “Opinionated” through his entrepreneurial history, which began with a college snow cone stand and evolved into an artisanal tile import business. His NFT side-hustle, Art Blocks, is less than a year old. And it’s not quite a side-hustle anymore. 

This episode  is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme Music is by Elision.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller address an emerging global trend: an increasing frequency of clashes between state and private money. Three recent stories bring these clashes front-and-center, through surveillance programs, regulator biases and crypto as a single-issue campaign.

Leaked documents show Chainalysis has a hush-hush advantage in the analytics race: its scraping of suspects’ IP addresses from walletexplorer.com. As CoinDesk reported, the honeypot preys on those wary of exchanges who might log their data, allowing the world’s largest crypto tracer to capture their IP address instead. As Chainalysis expressed in the documents, it’s providing “meaningful” leads for law enforcement. What are the ethical implications of such a scheme?

Next: whiz-kid Gary Gensler is not the hero crypto hoped for; the SEC chair has become a persona non-grata for bitcoiners and altcoiners alike. Gensler’s campaign against fraud, waste and abuse should not surprise insiders. Anna, Ben and Danny parse through the intricacies of a regulatory chief with his sights set on crypto.

Finally, we debate crypto and politics. With Messari CEO Ryan Selkis potentially running for senate (in 2024), how important has crypto regulation become to voters? To Selkis, it's a single-issue campaign. How effective could that messaging be against a fractured voting field?

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is from Elision. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“I don't think you're going to replace the stock market with the blockchain just because it's better. I think they can coexist. Take all the benefits that you have from blockchain and figure out a way to adapt it."  

Jaime Rogozinski is the founder and ousted chief of Reddit’s infamous trading community: WallStreetBets. He spent years watching crypto from the sidelines as a die-hard “stonks only” investor. This week on “Opinionated,” he tells Ben, Danny and Anna how he finally came around.

Now, Jaime is playing a leading role in WSBDapp.com, a project he says mixes global equities, smart contracts and borderless finance. The idea is to give investors a crypto token whose value is linked to trades they might not otherwise make. Jaime says it’s an innovative evolution of TradFi and DeFi.

The project is in its early stages, but the gang still has plenty of questions for Jaime. For example: Why would regulators allow tokenized stocks? How do tokenized ETPs differ from ETFs? Is this really going to be a boon for retail investors? 

Listen to this week of “Opinionated” to find out. 

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller are talking to Eric Wall, chief investment officer at a Swedish hedge fund Arcane Crypto – and one of Crypto Twitter’s favorite trouble stirrers. 

“I spent my entire 20s in bitcoin. What the f*ck,” Eric tweeted in July on the day of his 30th birthday, and that decade did not pass in vain for him: He’s been trading bitcoin since Mt. Gox (and lost his money there), he worked as a crypto guy in the legacy fintech firm Cinnober, and now he’s advising a hedge fund on crypto investments. Throughout crypto and mainstream. Eric saw a lot and has a lot to say.

You might be surprised to learn he doesn’t believe in technical analysis as a basis for trading decisions. Why, and what is he using instead? Just wait and listen. 

From bitcoin trading basics, we’re going right into the wild world of DeFi. Are there better protocols for DeFi than Ethereum? Is it better to invest in totally decentralized projects, or those that can freeze their coins? Will the regulators clamp down on DeFi and destroy it?

And, last but not least, what is the “digital condom” Eric thinks beginning traders might want to use when they jump into the dangerous world of DeFi? Listen to and learn from Eric together with Anna, Ben and Danny!

Eric Wall’s Twitter handle is @ercwl. 

Mentioned on this episode:

• CoinDesk: Thorchain's RUNE Token Tumbles After 2nd Exploit in 2 Weeks
• CoinDesk: Poly Network Hacker Releases Private Key for Remaining Looted $141M
• U.Today: Arcane Assets CIO Ridicules Charles Hoskinson And Cardano For Bitcoin Criticism On TV 

This was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller are getting a bit more light-hearted, discussing the hottest topics of this summer, which (sigh!) is officially over.

First, let’s get it clear: We’re not crazy about all those central bank digital currency (CBDC) announcements the central banks did throughout this year and summer. To Ben Schiller, they pretty much remind him of the 2018 hype around enterprise blockchains, which mostly came to nothing.  

The reason we are talking about it now? Nigeria announced it would work with a crypto startup, Bitt Inc., on a future launch of the eNaira, one of the rare instances of a central bank named a partner in the industry. Will the central banks of the world do something meaningful with all these CBDC plans in the end?

On the other side of the stablecoin agenda, Tether is resisting the full disclosure of its reserves with teeth and nails. Last week, the company appealed CoinDesk’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request on information about Tether’s reserves composition, which the company provided to the New York Attorney General as part of the investigation into iFinex settled earlier this year. 

Turned out, at least part of the crypto community is sympathetic with Tether, arguing the company has the same right to privacy as any individual. We’re discussing this point of view.

Last but not least, we couldn’t miss the latest Udi Wertheimer trolling campaign on Twitter where he stated that “bitcoin is the digital real estate.” Crypto Twitter gleefully picked the punch, and we did, too! But with the narrative ever shifting, what is bitcoin for you? Let us know in replies, and give the podcast some love wherever you’re listening to it!

Happy autumn, subscribe for more great guests and discussions in September!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Nigeria’s Central Bank Taps Bitt to Launch CBDC by Year’s End
• Tether Asks Court to Block NYAG From Releasing Documents to CoinDesk

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on “Opinionated,” the hosts dive deep into the non-fungible token (NFT) boom with guest Andrew Steinwold, managing partner at Sfermion, an NFT fund. Andrew works with wealthy clients from around the world who want a piece of the digital art boom. 

Our biggest question for Andrew was last week’s biggest news: Visa bought a CryptoPunk.

By Andrew’s telling, paying $150,000 for a pixelated head is a relative bargain, especially as an advertising tool. It’s good for CryptoPunks, too: Its narrative firepower only grows stronger with a name brand such as Visa buying in.

But what of the wacky NFT world beyond? Do other digital art pieces carry the same gravitas? Could Danny, who blew $150 on an NFT of a duck, ever recoup his cash? Andrew dredges up the ugly truth: Not all projects are going to make it.

He’s more bullish on the burgeoning internet economy that NFTs could support, things like digital land rights, digital clothing, digital games. His bets – and his clients’ bets – are that NFTs can create a new rail in online commerce and ownership.

Andrew provides the gang with some insight into the current NFT boom and debates what makes something valuable, even if it doesn't physically exist.

Mentioned in this episode:

Andrew’s podcast: Zima Red

Andrew’s NFT fund: Sfermion

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.