The Chopping Block: Michael Lewis Swindled, SBF’s Effective Altruism Ruse, Ethereum Protocol Enshrinement - Ep. 552

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they discuss the wildest claims in Michael Lewis’ new book on Sam Bankman-Fried, debate whether SBF’s effective altruism was ever genuine, and whether Ethereum should enshrine more features onto its protocol.

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: 

Michael Lewis’ interview on “60 Minutes” and the wildest claims in his new book

Whether SBF would have paid Donald Trump $5 billion not to run for president 

Why Lewis characterizing FTX’s downfall as a bank run is misleading

Whether FTX executives, in the moment of the collapse, fled to their parents’ homes

Was SBF genuine in his belief in effective altruism or was it clever branding

Whether we will still be talking about the SBF trial years down the line

The debate on whether Ethereum should enshrine more features onto its core protocol

Whether Lido poses a centralization risk to the Ethereum ecosystem

Predictions on how the SBF trial will play out and whether SBF has a trick up his sleeve

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 

Robert Leshner, founder of Compound

Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 

Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures

Links

SBF’s trial: 

Unchained: 

Here’s How Sam Bankman-Fried’s High-Stakes Trial Could Play Out

SBF Trial: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Might Try and Win His Case

The High-Stakes Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried Begins: What to Expect

CBS: Rise, fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX at center of Michael Lewis' new book | 60 Minutes

Protocol enshrinement:

Unchained: 

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Warns of Risks in Lido and Rocket Pool

Some Ethereum Staking Services Commit to 22% Self-Limit of Validators

Others:

Cryptoslate: Terra's Do Kwon and Daniel Shin conspired to falsify transactions, chat logs show

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