Nelson Rauda, Salvadoran journalist for El Faro, comes to talk about the impact of Bitcoin in El Salvador, the needs of Salvadoran people, Bitcoin City and the Bitcoin Bond, and much more. 

• Nelson’s story and how he began covering BTC
• what kind of politician and president Nayib Bukele was before BTC
• what the financial reality was for Salvadoran people before the implementation of BTC
• the reasons for the high rates of unbanked people in El Salvador
• how Bukele changed the monetary policy with what Rauda says was very little discussion
• why Rauda believes the BTC law is not meant for Salvadorans, but instead is a PR stunt
• how people reacted after the announcement of BTC as legal tender, and how it resembled the dollarization of the economy in 2001
• how Nelson did not even understand BTC at the moment of the announcement and how he says there was not an effort from the government to educate the population
• whether BTC was successful in attracting investments and tourism, and how there’s no hard data about it
• why Nelson believes Bukele was trying to hide the scandals when he adopted BTC
• whether BTC has been used as a PR stunt
• why bitcoiners are enthusiastic about an authoritarian government adopting BTC as legal tender
• how Bukele might be undermining his own authority by adopting BTC, a type of money that is not controlled by a state
• whether the Chivo wallet is a surveillance tool
• why Nelson believes BTC does not represent a solution for the needs of average Salvadoran people
• whether the $30 dollar initial gift to download the BTC wallet was seen as just another subsidy
• the status of Bitcoin City and how Nelson believes it represents the most spectacular PR stunt from Bukele’s administration
• how the expensive prices of electricity in El Salvador make the country not the best place for mining
• the significance of Bitcoin Beach
• what the BTC bond is, what Bukele tried to achieve with it, and why it has been postponed
• whether El Salvador will default on its debt and what the impact of the BTC price has on the national finances and on how Salvadorans perceive Bitcoin
• how Nelson believes people in El Salvador do not have political freedom and how it contradicts the narrative of financial freedom that BTC aims to provide
• what Nelson thinks about Bitcoin and whether governments should adopt it as legal tender

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/

Oasis: https://oasisprotocol.org/grant-programs?utm_source=unchained&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=podcast-oasis-grants-program

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/raudaz_

• PwC report: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/financial-services/pdf/el-salvadors-law-a-meaningful-test-for-bitcoin.pdf

• Research paper on El Salvador by the NBER: https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968

• https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/25/bitcoin-city-el-salvadors-dreams-for-utopia-on-hold/
• El Salvador postpones BTC bond: https://www.reuters.com/technology/el-salvador-postpones-bitcoin-bond-issue-expects-better-conditions-2022-03-22/

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In a highly educational conversation, Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency, discusses the bankruptcy and liquidation of Three Arrows Capital, plus sheds light on similar processes unfolding with Celsius and Voyager. Show highlights:

• Wassielawyer’s experience as a lawyer and his professional background
• what the liquidation process looks like and what drives a company to get into this situation
• what the creditors of 3AC can expect from the liquidation process and who will be paid first
• why he doesn’t think the liquidators breached their fiduciary duty by not exercising the Starkware token warrants
• what Chapter 15 bankruptcy is and what it means for a company
• whether Zhu’s and Davies’ unknown whereabouts affect the liquidation process and whether they are likely to cooperate
• whether 3AC counterparties will get anything back from the credits they provided
• how Chapter 11 bankruptcy differs from Chapter 15 
• what Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing means for Celsius and its account holders
• what are the similarities and differences between Celsius and Voyager filings

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/ 

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wassielawyer

• Wassielawyer’s threads:
  • https://twitter.com/wassielawyer/status/1543238225338454016?s=20&t=kXB2gr4UCkAz5p09LD24XA
  • https://twitter.com/wassielawyer/status/1538167831946473472?s=20&t=kXB2gr4UCkAz5p09LD24XA
• Unchained Newsletter: https://unchainedpodcast.com/3ac-files-for-chapter-15-bankruptcy/

• Wassielawyer’s thread: https://twitter.com/wassielawyer/status/1545827666590601216?s=20&t=kXB2gr4UCkAz5p09LD24XA

• Wassielawyer’s thread: https://twitter.com/wassielawyer/status/1536192639112183808?s=20&t=kXB2gr4UCkAz5p09LD24XA

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Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Anatoly Yakovenko, Tsar of Solana, joins the show to discuss the use cases of Solana, whether it’s actually a blockchain, how Solana scales, and much more! 

Show topics:

Hosts

Guest: Anatoly Yakovenko

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko

Episode Links

Solana

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Ryan Berckmans, Ethereum investor and community member, and Alexandre Bergeron, Bitcoin investor, discuss Lido’s dominance as a liquid staking provider, whether that issue can be resolved, and how it could be a centralizing force for Ethereum. Show highlights:

• what stETH is, what the uses cases are for stETH, and why it is important
• how Lido had a first-mover advantage and how that kicked off network effects
• whether the liquid staking derivatives system is one of a “winner-take-all”
• how much of the staked ETH will be turned into a liquid staking derivative
• how Lido might have a huge MEV opportunity after the Merge
• what the proposer-builder separation is
• whether Lido's dominance will increase over time
• whether other competitors have been competitive with Lido
• why Lido is a natural monopoly because of the incentives and MEV opportunities
• what the implication of Lido’s monopoly is for Ethereum’s censorship resistance
• whether Lido is effectively a single entity despite having multiple node operators
• whether there could be a long waiting period for becoming a validator after the Merge
• how Lido is moving its staking derivatives to other chains
• how Lido’s new dual-governance proposal works, why it might be useful to decentralize Lido and whether it reduces the power of LDO token holders
• how Lido’s centralization is the biggest threat to Ethereum in the long term and what are the possible solutions
• why Ryan believes the value of ETH comes from its credible neutrality and whether Lido's centralization may jeopardize that
• whether finding solutions around MEV opportunities is a good way to reduce Lido’s monopoly
• whether Lido’s competitors could form an alliance and build a tokenized basket of their staking derivatives to compete with Lido
• whether Lido could airdrop the LDO token to all ETH holders to decentralize its governance token

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/

Oasis: https://oasisprotocol.org/grant-programs?utm_source=unchained&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=podcast-oasis-grants-program

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bergealex4

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans

• Lido’s explanation of what stETH is: https://twitter.com/LidoFinance/status/1535184472546889735?s=20&t=oQeB1uj7HG7Y4he-0gbcLg

• Alex’s thread on why ETH is broken: https://twitter.com/bergealex4/status/1410761639226318852?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ

• Lido + stETH dual governance: https://research.lido.fi/t/ldo-steth-dual-governance/2382

• Ryan on post-merge MEV: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans/status/1453597003397611526?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ

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Amir Haleem, CEO of Nova Labs and founder of Helium, talks about the use cases for Internet of Things (IoT), how blockchain and crypto help to construct a decentralized internet infrastructure, and what is the future of Helium. Show highlights:

• what Helium is and what it is trying to solve
• how, after struggling for years, introducing crypto tokens, finally helped Helium grow
• who the users of Helium are and how they differ from each other
• how Helium grew to have one million devices around the world
• what the challenges and use cases of the IoT space are
• why Helium decided to add new networks
• why Helium is launching specific tokens for each of the new networks
• what proof of coverage is and why it is useful
• what an open-source cellular network is and how it would work
• whether there is a need for some centralization of the network
• what Helium’s roadmap is and what the major milestones are for the future

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 

Ava Labs: https://avax.network

Amir

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/amirhaleem

Helium:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/helium

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Hasu, strategic advisor to Lido, and Tarun Chitra, founder of Gauntlet, explain everything about staked ETH, aka stETH, how it should be priced, Lido’s market dominance, and much more. Show highlights:

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/

Oasis: https://oasisprotocol.org/grant-programs?utm_source=unchained&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=podcast-oasis-grants-program

EPISODE LINKS

Hasu: 

Tarun: 

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarunchitra

stETH

Lido

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Badiucao, Chinese artist and activist, talks about the importance of NFTs for political activism, the role of China in his career as an artist, the significance of blockchain technologies to resist censorship, and much more. Show highlights:

• why Badiucao became an artist and how the censorship in China brought him to NFTs
• how Badiucao only learned about Tiananmen Square when he was 22 years old 
• why Badiucao took up work as a preschool teacher in Australia
• how anonymity is important for Chinese activists for their family’s safety
• the intention of Badiucao’s art and what is he trying to express
• the repercussions of Badiucao’s activism
• why Badicuao eventually gave up his anonymity
• why Badiucao decided to issue art as NFTs and what possibilities he sees in NFTs
• how Badiucao enabled people to write a message of protest in the blockchain with the launch of his NFT and how this represented the first large mass protest written into the blockchain
• whether the Beijing Winter Olympics is an outrage and a disgrace for the international community and how this inspired Badiucao’s NFT collection Beijing 2022
• how Niki approached the issue of the possibility of having the art taken down
• how Badiucao used NFTs to help Ukraine due to the war
• the reasons political art has so much value, and how NFTs enable possibilities for all political artists around the world
• whether NFTs are much more than just some apes, and how learning about art is important
• how to get started as a political artist and the importance to remain truthful
• the significance of using power as an artist

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 

Ava Labs: https://avax.network

Badiucao

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/badiucao

Niki

• Website: http://nikiselken.com/

Documentary about Badiucao:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10601676/

60 Minutes interview: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/badiucao-60-minutes-2021-12-26/

Unveiling his identity: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/world/asia/china-tiananmen-cartoonist-badiucao.html?searchResultPosition=1

The importance of NFTs

• How Activists are Using NFTs as Civil Disobedience: https://www.jumpstartmag.com/how-activists-are-using-nfts-as-civil-disobedience/

Beijing 2022 Collection

• https://www.badiucao.com/nft
• Badiucao launches NFT collection to protest against China's human rights record on eve of Beijing Winter Olympics: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/02/01/badiucao-launches-human-rights-protest-nft-collection-on-eve-of-beijing-winter-olympics

NFTs for Ukraine Collection

• https://www.badiucao.com/ukraine

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Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Taylor Monahan, matriarch of Metamask, joins the show to discuss the contagion of major crypto firms, the bear market, SBF saving crypto, and much more! Show topics:

Hosts

Guest: Taylor Monahan

Episode Links

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Shaun Maguire and Michelle Bailhe, partners at Sequoia, discuss their long term view and thesis about crypto, what do they look for to invest in a crypto project, the takeaways from the blowup of Terra, the insolvency of crypto companies, and much more. Show highlights:

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021

Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance/

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/

EPISODE LINKS

Shaun Maguire: 

Michelle: 

Bear Market:

** For more episode links and details visit the Unchained website **

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Derek Hsue, cofounder at Reverie, discusses the recent controversial decisions by Solend DAO and Bancor, the importance of establishing processes for black swan events, and whether decentralized governance truly exists. Show highlights:

• what situation prompted Solend to feel it was in jeopardy
• what Solend DAO’s response was to that situation
• why Derek views it as “the nuclear option”
• why the proposal sparked an outcry from the crypto community
• whether this issue could have been prevented or managed differently if the protocol was built on a blockchain other than Solana
• why, a day later, the DAO reversed its first decision to take over the whale’s account
• whether Derek thinks the DAO made the right decision to not take over the whale’s account
• what is Impermanent Loss Protection, a feature offered by Bancor
• why Bancor decided to pause Impermanent Loss Protection
• whether Celsius and 3AC had anything to do with Bancor’s problem
• how Bancor’s decision was made unilaterally
• how DAOs should deal with black swan events

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 

Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/

Derek

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/derek_hsue

Reverie

• Website: https://www.reverie.ooo/

Solend DAO Situation

• Covered on Monday’s Unchained Newsletter: https://unchainedpodcast.com/does-this-dao-deserve-emergency-power%e2%81%89%ef%b8%8f/

Bancor Pausing Impermanent Loss Protection

• Bancor’s post: https://blog.bancor.network/market-conditions-update-june-19-2022-e5b857b39336

DAO Governance issues:

• Lido DAO proposes to reduce the existing scope of governance of its token holders: https://research.lido.fi/t/ldo-steth-dual-governance/2382

Main tweet

On this Friday’s Unchained, Derek Hsue explains:

* why the first Solend DAO vote was the “nuclear option”

* whether Solana’s history of downtime spurred the proposal

* Bancor’s decision to stop Impermanent Loss Protection

* what this all means for DAO governance

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