Shrina Kurani, a Democrat running for a House seat in California, and Morgan Harper, a Democratic candidate running to represent Ohio in the US Senate, explain why they are running pro-crypto campaigns. They discuss how crypto will affect the 2022 midterms, justify being both pro-crypto and pro-environment, and talk about the importance of educating regulators about Web3. On this episode of Unchained, they highlight:

• how Morgan’s work at the American Economic Liberties Project and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau led her to run for Senate on a pro-crypto platform
• why Shrina chose to mint NFTs on Solana to help fundraise for her campaign
• what issues Morgan and Shrina have with the current financial system (and how they believe crypto could help solve such issues)
• why both Shrina and Morgan stress that education is the key to making effective crypto policy in the US
• what message Shrina and Morgan want to send to fellow Democrats about the crypto industry
• why Morgan believes that single-issue voting for crypto candidates could be dangerous

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Morgan Harper

• Campaign Website: https://morganharper.org/

Shrina Kurani

• Campaign Website: https://www.shrinakurani.com/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shrinakurani 

Additional Reading

• Information on Shrina’s NFT drop

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Dapper Collectives CEO and Friends With Benefits founder Trevor McFedries joins Unchained to discuss social tokens, NFTs, the creator economy, $FWB, VC snacks, DAOs, Cooper Turley, and more. Show highlights:

• Trevor’s past, which includes a top 10 album, working at Spotify, founding Brud, creating Lil Miquela, and, of course, falling down the crypto rabbit hole
• what Trevor’s vision for Dapper Collectives is
• what type of activities DAOs will facilitate in the future
• why Trevor is so excited to be working with Dapper Labs and Flow
• what Friends With Benefits is and how the $FWB token works
• what sort of tokens make up the Friends With Benefits treasury
• why venture capitalists who want to be involved with Friends With Benefits need to have a good snack game
• why Trevor is not worried about $FWB becoming a security
• what plans Friends With Benefits has in store for 2022
• Trevor’s response to Friends With Benefits suspending co-founder Cooper Turley regarding 10-year old racist and homophobic tweets
• what can be done to onboard a more diverse demographic to crypto
• how Trevor defines the passion/creator economy
• what Trevor is looking forward to in 2022 regarding NFTs, DAOs, and social tokens

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Laura is launching a paid Facebook discussion group where you and other listeners of the show can discuss recent episodes, ask questions in advance, get access to special AMAs with myself and show guests and more. Those who join now and for the next two weeks will get a special introductory price of $2.99 a month or $29.99 annually. Those who join from February 15 and on will be charged the regular rate of $4.99 a month or $49.99 annually. We will open up the group on the 15th, one week ahead of my book launch. If you’re interested in subscribing, head to  https://laurashin.bulletin.com/subscribe. 

Check out my new author website!

Keep up to date on all things I'm up to at the newly launched laurashin.com. There, you can find out all the latest on my book, all my writing, and press and speaking appearances. Enjoy!

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Episode Links

Trevor Mcfedries

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatdotcd 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-mcfedries-0a5285a8/ 

Work

• CEO - Dapper Collectives
• • Decrypt write-up: https://decrypt.co/82517/dapper-labs-nfts-daos-collectives-brud 
  • Announcement: https://medium.com/dapperlabs/the-future-of-x-is-decentralized-bb3245faf1b1 
  •  
• Founder → Brud
• • Twitter: https://twitter.com/makebrud

Friends With Benefits

• Basics
• • FWB website: https://www.fwb.help/ 
  • Mirror: https://fwb.mirror.xyz/ 
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/fwbtweets 
  • FWB Etherscan: https://etherscan.io/token/0x35bd01fc9d6d5d81ca9e055db88dc49aa2c699a8 
  • CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/friends-with-benefits-pro/ 

• Background Reads
• • Trevor’s role: https://consensys.net/blog/codefi/friends-with-benefits-a-new-model-for-social-tokens-on-ethereum/ 
  • a16z investment: https://a16z.com/2021/10/27/investing-in-friends-with-benefits-a-dao/ 
  • FWB deep dive: https://ra.co/features/3914

• Cooper Turley removed from DAO

• https://twitter.com/mewn21/status/1482202603563798530

• WHALE treasury tokens

Additional Links

• Sound.xyz

• Linda Xie:

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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. Show topics:

• Analyzing the market drawdown
• Twitter-native NFTs + Crypto Coven
• LooksRare — real or BS?
• Solana’s disappointing network performance
• What broke during the market downturn: OHM, Solend, and MakerDAO
• Predictions for market action going forward

Episode Links

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/hosseeb
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Background on certain topics covered:

• Twitter NFTs
• • https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/131052/twitter-begins-rolling-out-access-to-nft-profile-pictures
• Loot adding royalties
• • https://twitter.com/DappRadar/status/1486005954520907778
• LooksRare versus OpenSea
• • https://dune.xyz/hildobby/LooksRare-VS-OpenSea
• Tom’s issue w/ Dune queries
• • https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt/status/1485721279663534082
• Robert and his Crypto Coven NFT

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Will Papper and Ian Lee, the two co-founders of Syndicate, join Unchained to announce the release of Syndicate’s new product: Web3 Investment Clubs, an innovation they believe could end up disrupting the web2 investment world, along with the entire venture capital industry. For example, with Web3 Investment Clubs, users will be able to turn an Ethereum wallet address into an investing DAO with just a few clicks, transfer funds without going through banks, and manage a cap-table directly on-chain. Show topics:

• what differentiates a Web3 Investment Club club from a normal investment club
• what on-chain tools Syndicate has built for Web3 Investment Clubs
• how Web3 Investment Clubs work within existing regulations
• how Ian and Will met and what inspired them to create Syndicate
• whether Syndicate plans to decentralize
• why Will and Ian believe investment DAOs will disrupt the venture capital industry
• why venture capital firms invested in Syndicate, a company built to disrupt them
• what Will learned from building Adventure Gold (AGLD), the governance token for Loot
• what plans Syndicate has for 2022

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Episode Links

Will Papper

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillPapper 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wpapper

Ian Lee

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/iandaos 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrianlee/ 

Syndicate:

• Twitter: ​https://twitter.com/SyndicateDAO 
• Website: https://twitter.com/SyndicateDAO

Miscellaneous

• History of AGLD
• • https://twitter.com/WillPapper/status/1484215805478797312
• Will Papper’s previous Unchained appearance
• • https://unchainedpodcast.com/constitutiondao-did-not-win-the-auction-but-it-demonstrated-the-power-of-daos/
• Will DAOs disrupt crypto venture capital?
• • ​https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/06/will-daos-replace-crypto-venture-capital/ 

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Fais Khan, author of the Startups and Econ newsletter, dives into his recently published research report, "You Don't Own Web3": A Coinbase Curse and How VCs Sell Crypto to Retail. Show highlights:

• whether tokens perform better before or after being listed on Coinbase
• what relationship a16z, a venture capital firm, has to Coinbase
• why Fais believes that the poor performance of VC-backed tokens after being listed could be the result of insiders dumping
• other reasons for a token’s poor performance after being listed on Coinbase besides insiders dumping
• what type of coin/token went up 1,800% in 2020
• why Fais is suspicious of how quickly certain VC-backed tokens were listed on Coinbase
• whether Fais believes Coinbase or a16z is actually doing something nefarious 
• what sort of regulatory actions he believes would improve crypto
• what advice Fais has for token investors

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Episode Links

Fais Khan

Article

• https://startupsandecon.substack.com/p/you-dont-own-web3-a-coinbase-curse

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Binance Smart Chain is the third largest chain by TVL and its token, BNB, is the third-largest token by market capitalization. However, there are questions about hacks, centralization, lack of developer support, and sketch MEV transactions. On Unchained, Gwendolyn Regina, investment director of the Binance Smart Chain Growth Fund, and Samy Karim, ecosystem coordinator at Binance Smart Chain, give a candid interview discussing BSC, from its amazing growth in 2021 to some of the toughest questions surrounding the chain. Topics covered include:

• how and why BSC grew from 50,000 daily active users to about 7 million over the course of 2021
• what differentiates Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain
• why Binance Smart Chain decided to design its blockchain with only 21 validators
• how Gwen and Samy envision BSC fitting into a multichain future
• what plans BSC has to scale its throughput 
• why blockchain gaming is so important to BSC and how it will use its $1 billion growth fund to grow the gaming aspect of the chain
• how BSC’s relationship between Binance and BNB works 
•  

In the second half of the show, Sam and Gwendolyn respond to a few critiques, such as:

• is BSC really innovating, or is it just a copy and paste blockchain of Ethereum?

• why are there so many failed transactions on BSC?
• how is BSC addressing the numerous hacks on the blockchain?
• why has BSC’s share of total value locked among smart contract blockchains fallen from 20% in May to 6%? 
• how is BSC attempting to help developers, who, according to some critical posts, are struggling to work with BSC?
• why does it appear that some validators are front running without risk?
• does BSC have a future if Ethereum scales? 
• what does BSC have planned for 2022?

Thank you to our sponsor!

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Episode Links

Gwendolyn Regina

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gwendolynregina?lang=en

Samy Karim

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsulkarim/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryp7omaxi 

Binance Smart Chain

• Website: https://www.binance.org/en 
• Documentation: https://docs.binance.org/index.html 
• Binance Validator Reqs: https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/a-quick-guide-to-bnb-staking-on-binance-smart-chain-bsc

• Whitepaper: https://dex-bin.bnbstatic.com/static/Whitepaper_%20Binance%20Smart%20Chain.pdf 

Binance 2021 Recap

• https://twitter.com/gwendolynregina/status/1476089910498971648

Misc

• Top BSC apps: https://dappradar.com/rankings/protocol/binance-smart-chain 

Criticisms

• “Stoned teenager:” https://github.com/binance-chain/bsc/issues/553 
• NullQubit: https://github.com/binance-chain/bsc/issues/658 
• Other
• • Larry Cermak: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1359426876440207361 
  • Wilson Withiam: https://twitter.com/WilsonWithiam/status/1381420702918664194 
  • Ryan Watkins: https://twitter.com/RyanWatkins_/status/1381421858675953665 

BSC Research

• Nansen: https://www.nansen.ai/research/the-binance-smart-chain-scalability-in-action

Twitter questions I received about Binance Smart Chain

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Avid NFT collector Aftab Hossain (aka @iamDCinvestor on Crypto Twitter) discusses why OpenSea and NFT volumes are popping to start 2022, how LooksRare’s vampire attack is a good thing for the NFT market, and how royalties affect a project’s trading potential. Show topics:

• why Aftab thinks NFT floor prices are rising and what role NFT “flippers” have to do with his theory
• whether the NFT industry could continue growing even if fungible crypto assets enter a bear market
• how the LooksRare vampire attack on OpenSea works
• why people are wash trading NFTs on LooksRare
• why Aftab would choose to list NFTs on LooksRare over OpenSea
• whether LooksRare’s vampire attack will force OpenSea to decentralize and/or tokenize
• what sort of NFT projects should have royalties… and which projects shouldn’t 

Thank you to our sponsors!

Avado: ava.do

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Episode Links

Aftab Hossain

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

LooksRare

• LooksRare vampire attack + wash trading: 
• • https://decrypt.co/90317/ethereum-nft-market-looksrare-wash-trading

Background Links

• NFT volume to start the year: https://cryptopotato.com/opensea-records-over-2-billion-in-trading-volume-early-in-2022/ 
• OpenSea metrics: https://dune.xyz/rchen8/opensea 
• Fred Ehrsam tweet: https://twitter.com/FEhrsam/status/1370414944265572353

• The Chopping Block: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-chopping-block-why-the-crypto-markets-have-been-down-this-week/ 
• Nas NFTs: 
• • ​https://decrypt.co/89881/rap-legend-nas-sells-2-songs-as-nfts-on-dj-3laus-royal-platform 

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The Chopping Block is back! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. Show topics:

• why crypto assets experienced a drawdown after last week’s FOMC meeting that hinted at accelerated rate hikes
• which emerging assets Tarun, Haseeb, and Tom envision weathering a bear market
• which assets could be further hurt by a continued bear market
• the significance of Paradigm and Sequoia investing in Citadel Securities
• what aspects of Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike’s web3 article Haseeb, Tom, and Tarun take umbrage with
• whether Cryptoland is crypto’s Fyre Festival or whether it’s the metaverse
• what the heck is going on with the Pudgy Penguins community
• the lessons from the CFTC’s fine of Polymarket (disclosure: a former sponsor of my shows)

Episode Links

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/hosseeb
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Topics

• FOMC = Crypto assets dip
• • https://www.ar.ca/blog/debunking-more-overreactions-to-macro-a-ronin-case-study
• Paradigm + Sequoia invest in Citadel Securities
• • https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/11/paradigm-sequoia-to-invest-115b-in-citadel-securities-bringing-trading-firm-closer-to-crypto/
• Cryptoland
• • https://thenextweb.com/news/welcome-to-cryptoland-real-island-cryptocurrency-fans-analysis
• Moxie Marlinspike’s first impressions of web3
• • https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
• Pudgy Penguins drama
• • https://thedefiant.io/fire-on-the-iceberg-pudgy-penguin-holders-eye-coup-amid-acquisition-talks/
• Polymarket fined by CFTC
• • ​​https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/01/03/cftc-fines-crypto-betting-service-polymarket-14m-for-unregistered-swaps/

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Kristin Smith, executive director at Blockchain Association, and Jake Chervinsky, head of Policy at Blockchain Association, discuss the current state of crypto regulation. Show topics:

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Show Links

Guests

The Blockchain Association

Regulatory Topics Discussed:

Articles Jake Mentioned

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