CoinDesk Reports

This week on “Borderless,” Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, about the intersection of bitcoin and activism, how global movements are using blockchain and what governments might try to do to stop it.

As more world governments step up their digital and financial surveillance measures, bitcoin has become a safe haven for pockets of oppressed. For example, in Nigeria female activists now harness bitcoin to get around government-ordered banking blockades. Alex and his partners at Human Rights Foundation use crypto grants and vocal advocacy to spotlight their stories.

At the same time, some governments have begun treating bitcoin as a tool of their own. The hosts discuss with Alex the ramifications of bitcoin weaponization and consider whether the problem is as bad as the United Nations makes it out to be. Does North Korea really fund its nuclear weapons program with stolen crypto? Alex has a lot to say.

Later in the episode, the hosts take on the non-fungible token (NFT) craze that’s taking the digital collectibles world by storm. What makes a LeBron James video worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, anyway?

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at [email protected].

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Dogecoin has come a long way since it launched as an entirely humorous take on cryptocurrency. During a recent meme-filled mania, the dog-themed coin was the 10th largest token by market cap and Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg became big fans. 

But bigger things were to come.

Today, in the latest sign of dogecoin’s ascension, the smiling Shiba Inu appears on the hood of Stefan Parsons’ race car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

You can watch the dogecoin-adorned car at 4:30 p.m. ET on the Fox Sports channel FS1.

How the hell did this all happen?

CoinDesk spoke to an early DOGE evangelist, Pinguino, about the project’s origins, from dogecoin parties in Hollywood to Pinguino’s thoughts on the new wave of dogecoiners and DOGE price appreciation, much of which she attributes to Elon Musk’s support of the meme-coin. 

Pinguino even organized a party to watch the original “Dogecar” race in 2014, a car that racer Stefan Parsons’ father happened to own.

Pinguino also discusses the WallStreetBets/SatoshiStreetBets phenomenon, her involvement hosting the Satoshi Square LA networking group in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2017 and beta-testing CryptoKitties NFTs. Tune in for fascinating stories from crypto’s pioneer days and an insider’s view of the dogecoin story. 

More about our guest

Artist Pinguino was the publisher of early-bitcoin era Spelunk.in and host of DogeParty West, advocating cryptocurrency use back when few knew what bitcoin was. Working in various forms of internet finance since 1995, Pinguino has lived through the internet’s Wild West and survived to tell the tale. These days, she’s combining her love of comics with crypto and creating non-fungible tokens, including a new set of NFTs in honor of the return of the Dogecar.

Find Pinguino on Twitter: @pinguino 

Note: Rob Mitchell thinks he can access dogecoin he acquired many years ago, but isn’t sure.

Image credit: Springrates and Craig Welty

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“There was a period [in early 2016] when all our sales teams … were coming back from client meetings saying that all our clients want to talk about something called blockchain. Can you find out what it is?”

That’s Ben Edgington, the lead product owner of the Ethereum 2.0 client Teku and the new co-host for the CoinDesk podcast series, “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”  

He fell down the “Ethereum rabbit hole” in 2016 when his colleagues at Hitachi Europe, his employer at the time, recommended he look into the buzz about blockchain technology. 

His research compelled him to spend his weekends and evenings learning more about Ethereum. Then, in October 2017, Edgington made his passion his full-time job. 

“I joined ConsenSys in October 2017 initially to work on enterprise Ethereum topics but my passion was really on public network stuff. I just love to understand things from the bottom up. I like to understand the nuts and bolts of what makes things work,” said Edgington. 

This naturally led him to focus more of his time at ConsenSys on Ethereum 2.0 and developing its base layer technology through Teku. Written in the programming language Java, Teku is branded as the software client for institutions that want to stake their ether on Eth 2.0 and earn validator rewards. 

Speaking to the development process for Eth 2.0, Edgington admitted the open-source nature of the technology and protocol results in a “massive coordination problem” for developers. Without a single source of authority guiding research and development, the work to advance Eth 2.0 is often inefficient and difficult. 

That said, this entire process has its strengths. 

“I would much rather be doing things this way than in a [private] lab,” said Edgington, adding, “It ends up with a much better product at the end of the process.”

To hear more about Edgington’s work on Eth 2.0 and his career in blockchain, listen to the full podcast episode. 

Links mentioned in the podcast: 

Valid Points newsletter - https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points 

What’s New in Eth2 newsletter - https://eth2.news

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This week on Borderless, tech reporter Leigh Cuen speaks with data analyst and entrepreneur Boaz Sobrado about how bitcoin became relevant to him when he had to use it at his e-commerce company. 

With the changes in the U.S. presidential administration in 2016 and the strict regulations that followed it became harder to bank in Cuba. Processing payments and conducting proper international transactions were causing his company to bleed money. So Boaz turned to bitcoin to move money in and out of the country safely and provide commerce to Cuban communities. 

However, bitcoin adoption in Cuba turned out to be harder than he thought. Due to COVID-19, Cuba is undergoing the worst economic crisis since the 1990s. At that time Cuba’s economic structure was so atrocious that portions of its population suffered from hunger. Boaz says, “We aren’t there yet” that it isn’t as bad as the crisis of the 1990s. However, with Western Union remittance rates going down there is less and less money in the country. This has caused inflation to rise and product delivery to the country of Cuba to become more difficult. 

Listen as Sobrado discusses the informal peer-to-peer development of the cryptocurrency markets in Cuba and how the internet penetration in Cuba is accelerating bitcoin adoption.  

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at [email protected].

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This week on the Opinionated podcast we’re joined by Brett Scott, the author of “The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money.”

Scott is a former derivatives broker who became a financial market reformer in the wake of the 2007-2008 crisis. 

Many such reformers became big fans of Bitcoin. But Scott’s views on cryptocurrency are mixed and nuanced. He appreciates some aspects of the technology, but also criticizes people in the space for over-indulging certain arguments about it. 

As he wrote recently in our op-ed pages, Scott believes that Bitcoin advocates often conflate points of attack that don’t belong together, namely that bitcoin can be a new form of money and a tradable asset simultaneously. 

Check out that op-ed here:

How to Win a Bitcoin Street Fight (Without Mortal Combat)

And then listen in to my conversation with Scott on the podcast. 

He has fascinating insights into the nature and future of money and how we can talk about bitcoin more usefully. 

Brett Scott’s Twitter handle is: @Suitpossum.

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This week on Money Reimagined, we bring you part two in our series on non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, the crypto-based digital scarcity solution that’s taking the art and entertainment worlds by storm. 

After last week tackling the stage-setting theme of how access to information determines value in the art world and who gets to set it, this week we go to the thin of the wedge and look at real-world use cases where NFTs are poised to blow up that centuries-old power dynamic. 

To do that we talk to two trailblazers in the exploding field of Black digital art: South African artist Lethabo Huma and NFT collector Cuy Sheffield, who also happens to be the head of crypto at Visa. 

Can this technology break open the 'Old Boys Club' of the art world? 

Can contemporary artists use the new contractual terms behind NFTs and the power of social media to more directly reach buyers and build a reputation? 

And how might it enable creative collaboration, not only between artists but also between artists and a new breed of algorithmic bots behind a brand new genre known as “generative art?”

We discuss this and more in this week’s episode. At a time when everyone from the NBA to Mark Cuban to Gary Vaynerchuck is diving into NFT mania, you can’t afford to miss this one. 

Image Credit: Mariya Tarakhnenko/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk

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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with the co-lead developer of Prysmatic Labs, Raul Jordan, the common reasons behind slashing events on Ethereum 2.0 and how they can be prevented. 

“Keep it simple.”

Jordan’s best advice to prevent validators who have staked 32 ETH (worth roughly $56,500 at time of writing) from being booted off the Eth 2.0 network for suspicious behaviour was to make operations as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible. 

“A lot of people try to get really clever at their staking setup. They’re like I need zero down time. I cannot afford having my software down for a second. … A lot of stakers at home try to go for these really complicated setups and I mean to be honest they’re fairly sophisticated. They know what they’re doing but there’s always room for something to go wrong,” Jordan said. 

Validators are the equivalent to miners on Ethereum’s new proof-of-stake blockchain dubbed Eth 2.0. These users earn rewards in the form of interest on their staked ether for running software that verifies and helps produce new blocks. 

Over-engineering validator setups can lead to what are called slashing events, according to Jordan, which are penalties exacted by the network to deter users from launching malicious attacks. However, it’s impossible for the software of Eth 2.0 to discern what is a premeditated network attack from an honest mistake by a sophisticated user simply trying to maximize his or her earnings as a validator. 

As a result, the best way to ensure a validator on Eth 2.0 isn’t slashed is to accept some downtime on the machine. Downtime means any period of time where validator operations aren’t actively running or connected to the internet and therefore not earning rewards. 

“If you’re online for only two-thirds of the year, you’re still profitable as a validator. So why do this? The risk is not worth it,” said Jordan. “If you get slashed you’re going to lose some funds. You’re going to get ejected [from the network] and then your ether is locked in there not earning anything until you can withdraw in the future.” 

Mining on Ethereum and other proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin are notorious for being activities where feats of engineering and specialization actually increase the chances of earning rewards. Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are prime examples of technologies built to maximize the profits of Ethereum and Bitcoin miners. 

However, the potential for slashing on Ethereum 2.0 is one of the main characteristics of the network that discourages similar types of innovation from profit-motivated validators.

If there’s any upside to slashing, it’s that it has encouraged Eth 2.0 developers like Jordan to work harder at building standards between all Eth 2.0 software clients to make the user experience as smooth and as seamless as possible. 

To learn more about these standardization efforts and how they’re helping educate users about running validator operations on Eth 2.0, listen to the full podcast episode with Christine Kim, Will Foxley and Raul Jordan. 

For more weekly insights on Eth 2.0 development, consider checking out Foxley and I’s weekly newsletter, Valid Points. 

Links mentioned in the podcast: 

Raul Jordan’s blog post - 

https://medium.com/prysmatic-labs/eth2-slashing-prevention-tips-f6faa5025f50 

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In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss the coming crypto taxation in Russia and India, North Korean hackers indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the GameStop story rolling into the U.S. Congress.

Russia is on its way to taxing cryptocurrency transactions. A draft bill on crypto taxation is now in Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, and it has just passed its first round of hearings last week. The bill says Russian taxpayers must declare crypto they receive to their wallets if its overall value reaches 600,000 rubles, or a bit more than US$8,000. 

India is also moving towards crypto taxation. According to a new draft bill, the government is likely to impose a personal income tax on crypto traders and a goods and services tax on trading platforms. So crypto exchanges will have to pay 18 % from the trading fees they earn. 

Around the world, it’s becoming our new reality: you deal with crypto, you tell your government about it. Danny shares personal experiences while Anna shares some fears about the future.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice went after three North Korean hackers for allegedly stealing over $100 million in cryptocurrency from exchanges, including a handful in the U.S. Prosecutors said North Koreans have become the “world’s leading bank robbers,” using keyboards as weapons instead of guns. As longtime listeners of the pod know, they’re using that crypto to build more sinister weapons: nukes! 

They even used an initial coin offering to raise money! (Not financial advice.)

GameStop goes to Congress: the U.S. lawmakers questioned Reddit and Robinhood CEOs, as well as the redditor Roaring Kitty. Hearings like this might become hits on their own, just as the Facebook hearings did a couple years ago. But should we expect any material changes afterwards? One thing is for sure: Traditional capital markets are aping right into the crypto world insanity.

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at [email protected].

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With much of the world focused on bitcoin and ether as prices breach new all-time high after all-time high, the “Money Reimagined” crew embarks on a more nuanced journey, one that eschews world-changing networks for an art-changing renaissance that's been long in the making. We're talking, of course, about the nonfungible token (NFT) movement that has engulfed the world of crypto collectibles. With big brands like Christie’s auction house and the National Basketball Association getting involved and some tokens already selling for six-figure sums, the question isn't if NFTs will force a very old industry to adopt some very new practices, it's when.

On today's episode of CoinDesk's “Money Reimagined,” Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Nanne Dekking, CEO of Artory and formerly the top salesman at Sotheby's.

Founded in 2016, Artory is creating the first standardized data collection solution by the art world, for the art world. In his former position at Sotheby’s New York, Dekking was vice chairman and the worldwide head of Private Sales. His close relationships with collectors and museums were integral to the continued growth of private sales at Sotheby’s. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Nanne was vice president of Wildenstein & Co. He advised individuals, museums and foundations on the formation and development of their collections. From 1996-2001 Nanne was the founder and principal of Nanne Dekking Fine Arts, an art consultancy firm and gallery in New York.

"Which scholar do I trust? Who in the art market do I trust?" Dekking said. "They don’t want to trust anyone."

In this wide-ranging introduction to NFTs, collectibles and the traditional art market, the discussion ranges from Sheila Warren's Cryptokitty genealogy to the challenges of selling paintings by the old masters in litigious modern markets, plus a whole lot more.

“There are so many charitable things you can do with all this technology but ultimately you want the market to understand the commercial benefits of it. Then it goes fast. The moment you’re in the realm of charity, it’s like ‘this is such a nice idea’ but in a way you’re dead in the water already if the market just thinks this is only nice for a charitable reason," said Nanne Dekking, CEO of Artory and formerly the top salesman at Sotheby's. "As long as the market believes opaqueness will help [its] business model, which it doesn’t any more, it’s a very old-fashioned idea… The moment Art-Net came up, the moment Google existed … it’s all about this crazy idea that you as a human being are so important in the sales process to an artwork. I mean, you’re not."

Image Credit: Anna Hunko/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk

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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with David Hoffman, the co-founder of Bankless, the market implications of a dual Ethereum blockchain and what new realities staking presents to the long-term value proposition of ether. 

According to Hoffman’s “Ether as a triple-point asset” thesis, Ethereum 2.0 bolsters ether’s value proposition as a capital asset. This is because Eth 2.0 enables staking on the protocol level. 

For all ether holders with a minimum balance of 32 ETH, they can earn an annual percentage return for locking in their crypto assets to the network and becoming a validator. This is a use case for ether on top of its existing functionalities as a form of payment for fees and as a store of value in decentralized finance applications. 

Eth 2.0 strengthens the diverse ways in which ether can be used. However, it also complicates the monetary policy of the Ethereum protocol. Instead of ether issuance being restricted to one blockchain network, the launch of Eth 2.0 has effectively created two parallel networks both issuing ether and driving up the crypto asset’s total supply. 

However, the dual issuance of ether is a temporary state that in the long run will make the Ethereum economy more “sustainable,” according to Hoffman. 

“Ethereum has committed to this early research and development phase in the beginnings of its genesis. That’s the whole entire effort behind Eth 2.0 and that’s why the monetary policy of ether is so jagged and unpredictable because the monetary policy of ether is a tool for Ethereum to reach its goals,” said Hoffman. 

And what are Ethereum’s goals exactly? Listen to the full episode to find out! 

For more weekly insights on Eth 2.0 development, be sure to check out and subscribe to Will Foxley and I’s weekly newsletter, Valid Points. 

Links mentioned in the podcast: 

EthHub Explainer on Ethereum Monetary Policy - 

https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-basics/monetary-policy/ 

Lyn Alden’s blog post - 

https://www.lynalden.com/ethereum-analysis/

Rocket Pool - 

https://www.rocketpool.net

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