Unchained

Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future and non-resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, explains North Korean usage of the internet and how it has changed over time, how it is reserved only for the few most senior people in the regime, and what the mobile devices of the other 25 million citizens connects to, and who is watching the activity on those devices. She also describes the various ways North Korea has shown an interest in cryptocurrency, how it's been determined that North Korea is engaging in those activities, such as cryptocurrency exchange hacks and malware, and its seeming interest in Monero. We also discuss how they convert crypto to fiat, and how well the government seems to have connected its cryptocurrency activities with its other real-world criminal networks used for other activities such as smuggling, drugs and counterfeiting cigarettes and US dollars. We also talk about which North Koreans have been trained to carry out such attacks and how and why they carry them out abroad rather than in North Korea. She also covers why Ethereum researcher Virgil Griffith's visit to North Korea, even if he were dispensing "public" information, would have been helpful in a country where everyone but a tiny elite is denied access to the internet.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Givewell: http://givewell.org/unchained

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Episode links: 

Priscilla Moriuchi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscilla-moriuchi-410297127/ 

Recorded Future: https://www.recordedfuture.com

Recorded Future on North Korea’s internet activity: https://www.recordedfuture.com/north-korea-internet-activity/

Full report: https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/north-korea-activity.pdf

Recorded Future report on North Korea’s interest in cryptocurrency: https://www.recordedfuture.com/north-korea-cryptocurrency/

Full report: North Korea targeting South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges: https://www.recordedfuture.com/north-korea-cryptocurrency-campaign/

Full report: https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/cta-2018-0116.pdf 

Podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/recorded-future-inside-threat-intelligence/e/52982550

Priscilla on why Virgil’s attendance at a blockchain conference in North Korea was helpful to the regime: https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-virgil-griffith-cryptocurrencies-bad-idea-analyst-2019-12

Priscilla on how North Korea uses cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/28/17055762/north-korea-sanctions-bitcoin-nuclear-weapons

North Korea’s interest in Monero: https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-north-korea-hackers-mine-cryptocurrency-abroad-1515420004

North Korea’s plan to build its own version of the Petro, I mean, Bitcoin: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke3ae/north-korea-is-building-its-own-bitcoin 

DOJ Complaint against Virgil: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1222646/download

Virgil’s Facebook post inviting others to North Korea: https://www.facebook.com/virgil.gr/posts/10112756681859159

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of the questions around whether or not Virgil Griffith's talk at a blockchain conference in Pyongyang could have helped everyday North Koreans, Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector, human rights activist, board member of the Human Rights Foundation and author of “In Order to Live, A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom,” talks to Unchained. She tells us about her life growing up in North Korea, how she thought the "dear leader" could read her thoughts, why freedom of thought is not allowed in North Korea, and how a South Korean had to teach her that Kim Jong Il was fat and not starving for the North Koreans, as she had been taught. She talks about what happened after her father was sent to a prison camp for selling copper, silver and nickel, how three generations of her family were then tainted and put in the "hostile" class of the caste system, and how watching the movie Titanic introduced her to the concept of romantic love. She tells the story of how, because of hunger, she fled to China — right into the hands of human traffickers, but decided to stay because of what trash cans in China signified to her, and describes the first time she heard the word "free." She also covers the difficulty of her transition to freedom and how reading George Orwell's Animal Farm was a turning point for her. 

We discuss why the strategy for liberating North Korea is mostly about getting outside information in, who benefits from tours to North Korea and why lifting sanctions would only help the regime. She also explains why the only people who would have benefited from Griffith's talk would have been North Korean elite, and how any actions in line with what the dictator wants help him maintain power. She says the best ways to improve the situation in North Korea are to boost awareness of what is happening, empower the people there by getting outside information in and helping during the rescue, as 300,000 defectors, most of them women and girls living as sexual slaves, are hiding in China. 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Givewell: http://givewell.org/unchained

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Yeonmi Park: https://yeonmi.com/

Yeonmi Park on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YeonmiParkNK

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialYeonmiPark/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yeonmi_park/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpQu57KgT7gOoLCAu3FFQsA

Human Rights Foundation: https://hrf.org/

In Order to Live: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318940/in-order-to-live-by-yeonmi-park-with-maryanne-vollers/

One of the first speeches by Yeonmi that went viral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei-gGvLWOZI

Yeonmi's TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/yeonmi_park_what_i_learned_about_freedom_after_escaping_north_korea

New York Times video op-ed with Yeonmi's message for President Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/opinion/north-korea-trump-kim-human-rights.html

DOJ complaint against Virgil Griffith: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-arrest-united-states-citizen-assisting-north-korea

Economist video on the efforts to get outside information into North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVRQpfXGQyc&app=desktop

Guardian article on North Korean defector activist groups attempting to get outside information into North Korea: https://amp.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/27/north-korea-defectors-ian-birrell

Wired article on getting outside information in: https://www.wired.com/2015/03/north-korea/

The story of Otto Warmbier: https://www.gq.com/story/otto-warmbier-north-korea-american-hostage-true-story

South Korean woman shot for crossing line at a resort in North Korea: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/12/korea

Unchained interview with Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation: https://unchainedpodcast.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-3-reasons-bitcoin-matters/

Unconfirmed interview with Alex Gladstein: https://unchainedpodcast.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-first-crypto-war-ep-021/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, talks about synthetic asset issuance platform, which enables people to create tokens that track the price of assets in traditional and crypto finance. We discuss the various types of assets available, why changing the monetary policy helped the ecosystem take off, why people would buy synthetic Bitcoin over Bitcoin itself, and why Uniswap has been pivotal to Synthetix's success. He covers the role the SNX token plays, why people minting synths must be over-collateralized by about 700%, and some of the changes coming down the pike, including futures, tweaks to the inflation rate, and a new oracle system. He also explains what happened when a trader made the system insolvent — and how they negotiated with the trader to keep it alive — how he thinks about decentralization and why the system's governance might one day be handled by a DAO.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

GiveWell: http://givewell.org/unchained

Kraken: https://kraken.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com/

Episode links: 

Synthetix: https://www.synthetix.io/

Synthetix on Twitter: https://twitter.com/synthetix_io

Kain Warwick: https://twitter.com/kaiynne

Havven transforming into Synthetix: https://blog.havven.io/havven-is-transforming-into-synthetix-2fdf727b8892

Synthetix overview: https://blog.havven.io/synthetix-overview-f4a5a6c41210

How Synthetix works: https://www.synthetix.io/how-it-works/

Synthetix lite paper: https://www.synthetix.io/uploads/synthetix_litepaper.pdf

Changing monetary policy: https://blog.synthetix.io/synthetix-monetary-policy-changes/

Oracle hack: https://www.coindesk.com/synthetix-trader-rolls-back-broken-trades-that-netted-1-billion-profit

Synthetix response to oracle incident: https://blog.synthetix.io/response-to-oracle-incident/

How staking works on Synthetix:  https://www.stakingrewards.com/asset/synthetix-network-token

https://help.synthetix.io/hc/en-us/articles/360020245314-How-can-I-earn-Synth-exchange-rewards-

Reddit complaint by trader who initially made the system insolvent: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/d4edxm/the_synthetix_dapp_deleted_my_balance/

Efforts to resolve the front running problem: https://sips.synthetix.io/sips/sip-6

Synthetix and Chainlink: https://blog.synthetix.io/synthetix-and-chainlink/

Kain’s tweets on the censorship vector stack: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1197265019169169409?s=20

https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1197265044204998656?s=20

Unconfirmed episode on Uniswap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-uniswap-quickly-became-one-of-the-most-popular-dexes/

Defiant interview: https://thedefiant.substack.com/p/theres-a-pipeline-of-etf-like-tokens

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carylyne Chan, chief strategy officer at CoinMarketCap, and Gerald Chee, head of research, discuss the history of CoinMarketCap, why the founder Brandon Chez initially focused on circulating supply to calculate market cap, how the ICO craze has changed the way CoinMarketCap defines circulating supply and how the kimchee premium on the Bitcoin price in Korea at the end of 2017 is influencing the future direction of the website. We cover why CoinMarketCap is branching out into other areas such as metrics, blockchain explorers, hosting conferences and more, how the site has made money historically, the demographics, geographical distribution and behaviors of users on the site, and how CoinMarketCap's web traffic is 90% correlated to the Bitcoin price. We talk about the fake volume problem, how CoinMarketCap decided to address it with a new liquidity metric, the new Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance they formed, and why they are working with some of the exchanges identified by Bitwise as being the most egregious in faking volumes, and how those exchanges fare when it comes to CMC's new liquidity metric. We also cover some of the other ways companies have tried to address the fake volume issue, how CoinMarketCap tries to identify the "true price" for any cryptocurrency (and why USDT makes this hard), and what the circulating supply of Ripple should be.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Kraken: https://kraken.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com/

Episode links: 

CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CoinMarketCap

Carylyne Chan: https://twitter.com/carylyne

Gerald Chee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerald-chee-8340a0161/

History of CoinMarketCap: https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2019/05/01/happy-6th-birthday-data-alliance-block-explorers-and-more/

Incident in which CoinMarketCap shaved $100 billion off the total market cap of crypto assets when Chez decided to remove South Korean exchanges from its calculations: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-programmer-at-the-center-of-a-100-billion-crypto-storm-1516708800  

CoinMarketCap's new interest for crypto loans  page: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/43460/coinmarketcap-now-publishes-interest-rates-on-cryptocurrencies-allowing-users-to-compare-and-choose

Bitwise report on fake trading volume: https://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-nysearca-2019-01/srnysearca201901-5164833-183434.pdf

The 10 exchanges Bitwise says have real volume: https://www.bitcointradevolume.com/

CryptoCompare Q3 Exchange Benchmark Report: https://www.cryptocompare.com/media/36569367/cryptocompare_exchange_benchmark_2019_11pdf.pdf

DATA: https://coinmarketcap.com/data-transparency-alliance/ 

Messari benchmarks: https://messari.substack.com/p/more-reliable-cryptoasset-benchmarks

Messari report on Ripple’s “circulating supply”: https://messari.io/article/messari-research-ripple-s-market-cap-is-likely-overstated-by-6-1-billion

Ripple’s response to Messari report: https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-market-cap-may-be-overstated-by-billions-messari-report-estimates

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Martin Chorzempa, research fellow the Peterson Institute, and Dovey Wan, founding partner at Primitive Ventures, discuss China's new blockchain push and the forthcoming DCEP. They cover how the blockchain initiative is part of an effort to set global blockchain standards, how it fits into the larger U.S.-China trade war as well as the threat from Facebook's Libra, and why part of the motivation behind the DCEP may stem from the shadow banking system in China. They also talk about how the DCEP might work, why it aims to be like cash, and ways in which a successful digital currency could be used to help internationalize the renminbi, but why other countries will likely still resist becoming more dependent on China's currency. We also explore what "controlled anonymity" will look like in the DCEP, why it might actually be preferable to transacting via WeChat Pay or Alipay and whether or not Chinese people will become interested in Bitcoin due to this exposure to blockchain technology.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Kraken: https://kraken.com/

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Martin Chorzempa: https://www.piie.com/experts/senior-research-staff/martin-chorzempa

https://twitter.com/ChorzempaMartin

Dovey Wan: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan

Xi Jinping’s speech: https://www.coindesk.com/president-xi-says-china-should-seize-opportunity-to-adopt-blockchain

Cryptography law: https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-congress-passes-cryptography-law-effective-jan-1-2020 

China’s 500 enterprise blockchain projects: https://www.coindesk.com/from-banking-giants-to-tech-darlings-china-reveals-over-500-enterprise-blockchain-projects

Changchun Mu, the deputy director of the payment and settlement department of the PBOC, on how DC/EP aims to replace the M0 money supply (banknotes and coins): http://www.cf40.org.cn/uploads/newsletter/20190803.pdf

Dovey’s article on how the digital yuan will affect the M0 money supply: https://www.coindesk.com/digital-renminbi-a-fiat-coin-to-make-m0-great-again

China’s already very digital economy: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/who-likes-facebooks-libra-currency-not-chinese

Reaction of Chinese dissident to China’s blockchain push: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-dissident-sees-dark-warnings-in-chinas-blockchain-push

Unconfirmed interview with Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-digital-yuan-could-one-day-be-seen-as-a-blunder/

The commercial entities involved in helping to release the DCEP: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2019/08/27/alibaba-tencent-five-others-to-recieve-first-chinese-government-cryptocurrency/#95e9d351a516

How they will be involved: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1191807688570626048?s=20

”Controlled anonymity“: https://twitter.com/ChorzempaMartin/status/1162071943568338944?s=20

Problems that could arise with the DCEP: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3035797/blockchain-endorsement-chinas-xi-jinping-could-lead-fraud-and

People with poor social credit banned from buying plane and train tickets: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/01/china-bans-23m-discredited-citizens-from-buying-travel-tickets-social-credit-system

The FT on why China’s currency will not replace the USD: https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/09/19/1537329600000/China-s-currency-will-not-replace-the-US-dollar/ 

2000 speech by Bill Clinton: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/030900clinton-china-text.html?mcubz=2&module=inline

Change in plans to eliminate the Bitcoin mining industry: https://www.coindesk.com/sichuan-should-work-to-remain-attractive-to-crypto-mining-policy-advisor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo talks about how his experience of the financial crisis piqued his interest in blockchain technology, why the CFTC thought the introduction of Bitcoin futures would help pop the 2017 Bitcoin bubble, and how "there's no simple answer" to explain when a token goes from being a security to a commodity. He discusses why he believes there needs to be a "refresh" of regulations written decades ago that are difficult to apply in a digital world, why he thinks Libra represents a fundamental generational change and why he thinks the project should be allowed to go forward. We also cover the Chinese digital yuan, why the USD should not assume that its global dominance today will translate into global dominance tomorrow, and his own proposal for a digital dollar, which he dubs "Zelle + JPMorgan Coin." Plus, he gives the behind-the-scenes look at why he decided to speak "as a dad" in the Congressional hearing that made him an overnight crypto celebrity.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Episode links: 

Christopher Giancarlo: https://twitter.com/giancarloMKTS 

https://www.cftc.gov/About/Commissioners/JChristopherGiancarlo/index.htm

CFTC: https://www.cftc.gov/

Chamber of Digital Commerce: https://digitalchamber.org/

Let the technology evolve before regulating/CFTC is behind on regulating: https://www.coindesk.com/cftc-chair-says-regulator-is-behind-on-blockchain

Popping the Bitcoin bubble: https://www.coindesk.com/trump-administration-popped-2017-bitcoin-bubble-ex-cftc-chair-says 

Talks with Facebook pre-Libra launch: https://www.coindesk.com/facebook-holds-talks-with-cftc-over-globalcoin-cryptocurrency-report

The introduction of Bitcoin futures helping to pop the crypto bubble: https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2018/may/how-futures-trading-changed-bitcoin-prices/

Wall Street Journal op-ed proposing a digital dollar: https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-sent-a-man-to-the-moon-we-can-send-the-dollar-to-cyberspace-11571179923

Initial confusion over LedgerX not receiving approval or disapproval within 180 days to launch Bitcoin futures: https://www.coindesk.com/what-happened-why-the-first-us-physical-bitcoin-futures-contracts-havent-launched

CoinDesk article with emails from LedgerX on CFTC dispute: https://www.coindesk.com/ledgerx-claims-personal-animus-drove-ex-cftc-chair-to-stall-approvals

Commodity Exchange Act: https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Commodity%20Exchange%20Act.pdf

Emails sent from LedgerX to the CFTC:  https://static.coindesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/19-00104-FOIA-Records.pdf

Paul Chou’s blog post summarizing what happened: https://blog.ledgerx.com/let-me-set-the-record-straight/

More context from Noelle Acheson on the dispute: https://www.coindesk.com/derivatives-drama-the-unintended-consequences-of-crypto-regulation

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christian Catalini, co-creator of Libra and chief economist at Calibra, explains why Facebook made the design choices it made for Libra, reveals whether the team was prepared for the regulatory blowback it received after publishing the white paper, and talks about what it means for Libra now that nearly all the initial payment company members have left the Association. He describes how Facebook defined stability for Libra, whether the Chinese renminbi could ever be added to the reserve the way it is part of the IMF special drawing rights basket, and if so, what the Libra or Calibra would do if the Chinese government tried to censor individuals or transactions in the system. We also cover the tension between the desire to have strong know-your-customer and anti-money laundering processes on the platform but then also to bank the unbanked, who often don't have strong government identification. We also discuss how Facebook will make money from Calibra, what it would take for Facebook to let the Libra Association go forward without it, and why Facebook, which not too long ago was trying to woo China to enter the Chinese market, now says it is the best counterweight to a Chinese digital yuan. Plus, he answers how Facebook and Calibra will handle privacy. 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Christian Catalini: https://twitter.com/ccatalini

Libra: https://libra.org/en-US/

Calibra: https://calibra.com/

Libra white paper: https://libra.org/en-US/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2019/06/LibraWhitePaper_en_US.pdf

Letters to payment companies from Congress: https://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Signed%20Letters%20re%20Libra%20to%20Patrick%20Collison,%20Ajaypal%20Banga,%20and%20Alfred%20Kelly.pdf

Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in front of Congress: https://www.c-span.org/video/?465293-1/facebook-ceo-testimony-house-financial-services-committee

Reported breakdown of the Libra reserve: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-libra-basket/u-s-dollar-to-be-main-currency-underpinning-facebooks-libra-spiegel-idUSKBN1W522K

Calibra — can send money at low to no cost: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/06/coming-in-2020-calibra/

Chargebacks in Libra: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/18/18682838/facebook-digital-wallet-calibra-libra-cryptocurrency-kevin-weil-david-marcus-interview

Asian central banks not too open to Libra: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-22/facebook-scaling-back-libra-will-please-asian-central-banks

Unconfirmed interview about UN work with blockchain-based vouchers: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-un-world-food-programmes-blockchain-based-food-vouchers-for-syrian-refugees-with-robert-opp/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hunter Horsley, cofounder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, and Matt Hougan, global head of research at Bitwise, describe their vision for Bitwise, its current funds and indices, as well as how it handles things like forks and airdrops. Then they give their reaction to and interpretation of the SEC disapproval of their Bitcoin ETF proposal, as well as what their focus will be now to try to get a Bitcoin ETF approved. We also discuss their general thesis around how the crypto space will develop, whether or not indices and funds around the top 100 assets will ever make sense, their ideas on how to value these networks and whether or not the company would ever try to compete in the DeFi space. Plus, don't miss our conversation on Bitcoin IRAs. 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://kraken.com

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Bitwise: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/

Hunter Horsley: https://twitter.com/HHorsley

Matt Hougan: https://twitter.com/Matt_Hougan

Unchained interview with Spencer Bogart: https://unchainedpodcast.com/spencer-bogart-on-the-20-trillion-in-store-of-value-assets/

Bitwise 10 Private Fund fact sheet: https://static.bitwiseinvestments.com/FactSheet/bitwise10/Bitwise-10-Private-Index-Fund-Investor-Class-Fact-Sheet.pdf 

Bitwise 10 Offshore Index Fund: https://static.bitwiseinvestments.com/FactSheet/bitwise10-offshore/Bitwise-10-Index-Offshore-Fund-Investor-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust: https://grayscale.co/bitcoin-trust/

Bitwise Ethereum Fund: https://static.bitwiseinvestments.com/FactSheet/ethereumFund/Bitwise-Ethereum-Fund-Investor-Class-Fact-Sheet.pdf 

SEC order disapproving the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF proposal: https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/nysearca/2019/34-87267.pdf

Matt on CNBC discussing the Bitcoin ETF proposal: https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1181309471349526530?s=20

Bitstamp/BitMEX trading manipulation: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1129246233917382656

Jake Chervinsky’s tweet about how the SEC is unlikely to approve a Bitcoin ETF under Chair Jay Clayton: https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1182149164177608704?s=20 

Unchained interview with Jake: https://unchainedpodcast.com/all-things-crypto-regulation-with-jake-chervinsky/

SEC commissioner Hester Peirce’s dissent to the disapproval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF: https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/peirce-dissent-34-83723

Van Eck’s withdrawal of the Bitcoin ETF proposal: https://www.coindesk.com/vaneck-solidx-withdraw-bitcoin-etf-proposal-from-sec-review

Chris Burniske on how to value these networks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-value-a-crypto-asset/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congressman Patrick McHenry, or 'Mr. Fintech' to his peers in the House, is announcing the reintroduction of the Financial Services Innovation Act, a bill that would create what he calls "permanent beta testing," or many jurisdictions call "regulatory sandboxes," in which entrepreneurs can apply for regulatory approval to conduct innovative experiments. The bill is intended to get regulators into a position where their default leans more toward yes than no. He describes how this would affect teams that want to conduct ICOs, how it would square with the phenomenon of some token teams trying to raise through Reg A+, and whether it would allow exchanges without BitLicenses to operate in New York. He also discusses what type of digital currency he believes is best suited to compete against a Chinese digital yuan, and says the government is currently looking into whether or not the Federal Reserve has the authority to issue a digital dollar.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Episode links: 

Congressman McHenry: https://mchenry.house.gov/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PatrickMcHenry

The House Libra hearings from July 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ZTkCNW0w8

Financial Services Innovation Act explainer: https://www.alta.org/file.cfm?name=McHenry-Bill-Explainer

Introduction of the bill in 2016: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-house-bill-aims-to-set-up-sandbox-for-fintech-innovation-1474539893

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/financial-services-innovation-act-us-wants-sandbox-too

Congressman McHenry’s interest in fintech: https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/09/patrick-henry-mr-fintech-interview-000214

CNBC article on how Libra is being slowed by regulation while China’s central bank digital currency speeds ahead: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/15/china-races-to-launch-a-cryptocurrency-that-could-rival-facebooks.html

Fortune article: https://fortune.com/2019/10/16/if-libra-fails-china-wins-the-ledger/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mariano Conti, the head of smart contracts for MakerDAO and creator of SelloutDAO, and Peter Pan, the summoner for Metacartel DAO, discuss all things DAOs, including how Peter started Metacartel DAO after being rejected from MolochDAO, and why Mariano initially voted against Peter joining. (Peter eventually joined.) They also discuss how they came to form YangDAO, why Mariano almost rage quit MolochDAO after the YangDAO formed, and how other MolochDAO members felt about SelloutDAO, which Mariano describes as an experiment in "on-chain corruption." We discuss how DAOs are actually heavily built on trust and why they require a lot of social coordination off-chain. They also discuss funding for LAOs, which have a legal entity such as an LLC affiliated with them, why Metacartel is launching a LAO, and which types of projects should be funded by DAOs vs traditional corporate structures. We also cover governance issues at MakerDAO, why it has a CEO, and what role leadership in general plays in a DAO. 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Mariano Conti: https://twitter.com/nanexcool

Peter Pan: https://twitter.com/pet3rpan_

MakerDAO: https://makerdao.com/en/

https://chat.makerdao.com

Metacartel DAO: https://www.metacartel.org/

https://twitter.com/meta_cartel

SelloutDAO: https://selloutdao.com/

Unchained interview with Ameen Soleimani of MolochDAO: https://unchainedpodcast.com/molochdao-could-this-decentralized-autonomous-organization-help-ethereum-scale-faster/

Unchained interview with Santiago Siri: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-blockchains-can-help-create-little-democracies-everywhere/

DAO Revival: https://www.coindesk.com/in-berlin-a-dao-renaissance-begins

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-05/crypto-rebels-trip-over-each-other-en-route-to-financial-utopia

Andy Milenius’s account of MakerDAO’s change from a decentralized to a centralized project: https://www.scribd.com/document/407743542/Zandy-s-Story

CoinDesk story on the rift: https://www.coindesk.com/darkest-days-yet-purple-pill-tell-all-details-years-long-rift-at-heart-of-makerdao-stablecoin-project

Two most recent MakerDAO votes:  https://vote.makerdao.com/executive-proposal/keep-the-stability-fee-set-to-a-total-of-105-per-year

https://vote.makerdao.com/executive-proposal/lower-the-stability-fee-by-2-to-a-total-of-85-per-year

https://vote.makerdao.com/polling-proposal/qmpem83sxjjwe1jvn2csdtetn4r3j95ejuzpbmtxef4lu5

Unchained interviews with Rune Christensen of MakerDAO: Part 1: https://unchainedpodcast.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-part-1-how-to-keep-a-crypto-collateralized-stablecoin-afloat/

Part 2: https://unchainedpodcast.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-part-2-how-dai-stayed-at-1-while-eth-crashed-from-1400-to-85/

MakerDAO vulnerabilities: 

ETH could have been stolen: https://hackerone.com/reports/684092

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/10/03/makerdao-security-vulnerability-ethereum-dai-stablecoin-collapse-theft-cryptocurrency/ 

The LAO: https://medium.com/openlawofficial/the-lao-a-for-profit-limited-liability-autonomous-organization-9eae89c9669c

Critique of the LAO: https://prestonbyrne.com/2019/09/03/the-lao-demystified/

MakerDAO launching multi-collateral Dai: https://www.coindesk.com/makerdaos-multi-collateral-dai-token-is-launching-nov-18

https://blog.makerdao.com/breaking-launch-date-of-multi-collateral-dai-announced-at-devcon-5/

Are DAO’s legal? https://www.coindesk.com/new-interest-in-daos-prompts-old-question-are-they-legal

Unconfirmed interview with Uniswap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-uniswap-quickly-became-one-of-the-most-popular-dexes/

Unconfirmed episode with Ryan Zurrer about resurrecting the DAO: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-ryan-zurrer-would-like-to-see-a-new-dao/

Unchained interview with Aragon: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-aragon-hopes-to-improve-on-democracy/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices