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Unchained
Unchained episodes
- Ethereum L2s Are About to Be the Hot New Thing in NFTs - Ep.498
It’s in the name: mint.fun. Co-founder Luke Miles joins the show to talk about his platform’s efforts to make NFTs more discoverable, accessible and fun. He also shares his on-the-ground perspectives on emerging trends in the NFT space – everything from Bitcoin Ordinals to the rise of Ethereum L2s as NFT hot spots. With last cycle’s NFT mania in the rearview, what’s next?
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:
- what mint.fun is and what problems it solves for NFT users
- how it is different from popular NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Blur
- why mint.fun is also launching on Ethereum layer 2s
- Luke’s thoughts on the current state of the NFT market
- why the narrative has shifted from PFP projects delivering a roadmap to the ‘single creator narrative’
- the difference between open-edition mints and limited editions
- why NFTs on layer 2s are “about to have a moment,” according to Luke
- whether mint.fun will launch on other blockchains
- what Luke thinks of Ordinals and the BRC-20 mania
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
- Stader Labs
GuestLuke Miles, CEO of mint.funLinks- Dune dashboard
- Fundrop
- Recent coverage on BRC-20s: Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable?
Unchained:- What Is NFT Farming? A Beginner's Guide
- Music NFTs: What Are They & How Do They Work?
- A Guide to Yuga Labs: The Most Important NFT Company
- Exploring the NFT blue chips
- What Is an NFT Marketplace?
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43 min - The Chopping Block: Why Everyone Is Talking About EigenLayer - Ep. 497
Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan explains his vision for providing “decentralized trust” to new projects on Ethereum. Was Vitalik Buterin’s recent “re-staking” post a shot across EigenLayer’s bow?
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:
- how Sreeram has transitioned from academia into the world of crypto
- why he believes that crypto is the “coordination highway”
- what EigenLayer is – explained to a five-year-old, a high schooler, a day trader, a developer, and a crypto professor
- how middleware enables technology innovation
- where the value accrues if there’s no token for securing a blockchain
- whether Vitalik is right in being concerned about the risk of corrupting validators
- what EigenLayer did to minimize risks and externalities to Ethereum
- whether protocols and applications will fork if they get hacked and whether Ethereum will “bail them out”
HostsHaseeb Qureshi, managing partner at DragonflyRobert Leshner, founder of CompoundTom Schmidt, general partner at DragonflyTarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot VenturesGuestSreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer- Previous appearances on Unchained:
- Do You Need to Think Twice Before Restaking Your Assets?
DisclosuresLinksDon't overload Ethereum's consensus by Vitalik ButerinPrevious coverage of Unchained on Ethereum staking:- Shapella in the Rearview: After Major Upgrade, What’s Next for Ethereum?
- How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?
- Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum?
- In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?
- Is ETH on Its Way to Becoming Ultra-Sound Money? Yes, Says Justin Drake
Learn more:- How Liquid Staking Works
- A Guide to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
- How to Stake Ethereum With Liquid Staking
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59 min - Ex-CFTC Commissioner Berkovitz Says ‘DeFi Should Be Regulated’ – But How? - Ep. 496
In the SEC’s push to rein in the crypto sector, one question looms large: Is ETH a security? Dan Berkovitz, a former CFTC commissioner and SEC general counsel, and Colin Lloyd, a partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, assess the current state of the regulatory turf war in the U.S., shedding light on some of Washington’s unanswered questions.
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:
- how an asset can be both a commodity and a security
- what it means that bitcoin and ether were listed as non-security futures
- whether The Merge may have changed regulators’ views on the classification of ETH
- who would be responsible for determining that ETH is a security
- what Colin and Dan say about ETH being a security or not
- what would happen if any regulator, be it the CFTC or SEC, determined that ETH is a security
- how and whether DeFi applications should be regulated
- why it is important to consider the “human initiative” behind DeFi platforms
- the implications of having a technology that allows for the sale of securities without an intermediary
- the implications of the SEC’s proposal to change the definition of an exchange
- how new technologies were integrated with the regulatory system in the past and how that differs from the current approach of the SEC
- the problems of trying to regulate a technology that’s changing so fast
- how other jurisdictions have been taking a more proactive approach to regulating digital assets
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Dan Berkovitz, former General Counsel at the SEC and former Commissioner at the CFTC.- Previous appearance on Unchained: Can a DeFi Smart Contract Be Regulated? Two CFTC Commissioners Discuss
Colin Lloyd, partner at Sullivan & CromwellPrevious coverage of Unchained on crypto regulation:- ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer
- Coinbase's Legal Action Against the SEC: How It Will Likely Unfold
- Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
- Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US?
- Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’
LinksCoinDesk:- U.S. SEC Moves Toward DeFi Oversight as It Reopens Proposed Regulations
- SEC Chair Gensler Declines to Say if Ether Is a Security in Contentious Congressional Hearing
Bloomberg: CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam on the Fight to Regulate Crypto- Unchained:
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler Avoids Question: ‘Is Ethereum a Security?’
- SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’
- Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition
- SEC Asks Court to Deny Coinbase Demand for Crypto Rules
- Financial Institutions Hub: SEC Proposal Targets Crypto Exchanges, Trading Platforms, and Brokers
- Emmer and Soto Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Provide Regulatory Clarity for Digital Assets
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1 hr 23 min - The Chopping Block: Wizards vs. Laser Eyes for the Future of Bitcoin - Ep. 495
Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, Taproot Wizards instigator Eric Wall joins the show to discuss the rise of Ordinals and what it means for the future of Bitcoin. Will inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens bring a slew of Ethereum-style problems to the original blockchain?
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:
- how Eric has set up a “war” between the “laser-eye tribe” and the “magicians”
- how the Bitcoin maxi community is different from the normal Bitcoin user base
- whether Ordinals fixes the lack of demand for Bitcoin block space
- what Taproot is and what it enabled on the Bitcoin network
- the MEV problem that could arise in Bitcoin now that demand for block space is going up
- whether Bitcoin’s values resemble a religion
- whether the increased demand for Bitcoin block space is good for the network, even if it’s fueled by JPEGs and “shitcoins”
- why so many people got worried about Ledger Recover
- why Robert thinks that Ledger’s new service is “terrifying” and why Haseeb is not so concerned
- whether Bitcoin is becoming a unit of account once again
HostsHaseeb Qureshi, managing partner at DragonflyRobert Leshner, founder of CompoundTom Schmidt, general partner at DragonflyGuestEric Wall, cofounder of Taproot Wizards
Previous appearances on Unchained:
- Eric Wall and Udi Wertheimer on Why Bitcoin Maximalism Is 'Like a Shitcoin Community'
- Is Bitcoin Doomed to Fail? Eric Wall and Justin Bons Face Off
- Why Terra Collapsed and Whether an Algo Stablecoin Can Ever Succeed
DisclosuresLinksCoinDesk:- Ledger Bats Back Criticism of New Wallet Recovery Service
- The Blocksize Wars Revisited: How Bitcoin's Civil War Still Resonates Today
- Nic Carter: There's No Such Thing as High Fees on Bitcoin
Unchained:- ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users
- ‘Technically’ Possible to Extract User Keys? Ledger Addresses Deleted Tweet
- Haseeb Qureshi’s thread on Ledger Recover
Previous coverage of Unchained on Ordinals and BRC-20s:- Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable?
- Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About?
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1 hr 18 min - The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service - Ep. 494
Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices Head of Content “Seth For Privacy.” He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream adoption.
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:
- how Ledger Recover works and why it caused an outrage in the crypto community
- why the fact that Ledger’s code is not open-source could be considered a problem
- what the concerns are about handing over additional data to Ledger
- how darknet markets have always existed for fake ID verifications and how it relates to Ledger’s new feature
- some of Ledger’s previous security lapses
- why introducing a trusted third party undermines one of Bitcoin’s most central tenets
- whether Ledger’s move is a “net good for society,” and whether people actually want a service like this in a hardware wallet
- whether something will go wrong with Ledger in the future
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Railgun DAO- Stader Labs
GuestSeth for Privacy, blogger and head of content at Foundation Devices
- Blog
- Foundation Devices
- Twitter thread on the logistics and risks of the Ledger recovery process
Links- Ledger CTO Twitter thread on Ledger Recover
- CoinDesk: Ledger Bats Back Criticism of New Wallet Recovery Service, CoinDesk
- Unchained: ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users
- Ledger Recover webpage
- Haseeb Qureshi’s thread on the Ledger controversy
Past Ledger security issues
- CoinDesk: Crypto Wallet Maker Ledger Loses 1M Email Addresses in Data Theft
- Cointelegraph: Ledger data leak: A ‘simple mistake’ exposed 270K crypto wallet buyers
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41 min - Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable? - Ep. 493
Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain.
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:
- what ordinal theory is and how it enabled Bitcoin “NFTs”
- how the Ordinals Protocol differs from the ERC-721 token standard used by many Ethereum NFTs
- how BRC-20s work by relying on some off-chain mechanisms
- why Bitcoin is not a “dinosaur chain,” according to Dan
- why Trevor says BRC-20 memecoins are superior to those on Ethereum
- what the practical utilities of BRC-20s are, if any
- why transaction fees in Bitcoin rose so much and why it’s healthy for the network
- whether innovation is coming back to Bitcoin
- whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have approved of Bitcoin NFTs
- the role of speculation in fueling bitcoin adoption
- the current and future state of layer 2s on Bitcoin
- why Dan says BRC-20s “absolutely” solve the problem with Bitcoin’s security budget
- why it’s hard to determine an “appropriate” amount for the security budget of Bitcoin
- how the NFT market could be shaped after the rise of Ordinals and BRC-20s
- what needs to be developed so that BRC-20s can flourish
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Dan Held, Bitcoin educator and marketing advisor at Trust MachinesTrevor Owens, managing partner at Bitcoin Frontier FundPrevious coverage of Unchained on Ordinals:- Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About? - NFT Crypto
- Unchained:
- How to Create a Bitcoin Ordinal
- Bitcoin Core Developers Mull Getting Rid of BRC-20 Transactions
- Binance Briefly Halted Bitcoin Withdrawals Amid Network Congestion
- Domo’s thread on BRC-20s
- Anita Posch’s comments.on the high fees
- Nic Carter: There's No Such Thing as High Fees on Bitcoin
- Nic Carter’s MIT presentation: MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 - 10 years of Bitcoin: Evaluating its Performance as a Monetary System
- Decrypt: Michael Saylor: Bitcoin Ordinals Are a ‘Catalyst’ for Adoption
- [bitcoin-dev] [Mempool spam] Should we as developers reject non-standard Taproot transactions from full nodes?
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1 hr 8 min - The Chopping Block: Do Aragon Association Members Get 'Fat Salaries' With 'Zero Accountability'? - Ep. 492
Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they talk about the recent issues surrounding the Aragon Foundation, the likelihood of Montenegro becoming an ETH hub, the BRC-20s mania, and much more!
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:
- why Zuzalu is “Burning Man in the daytime”
- whether Montenegro could become the “ETH El Salvador doppelganger”
- why the Aragon Foundation alleged that they were under attack
- why Aragon has “missed the boat on a lot of everything that’s happened in DAOs”
- whether the Aragon Foundation is “suckling on the teat of the DAO for a fat salary”
- whether Arca was right about wanting the Aragon treasury to be part of the on-chain governance
- how on-chain governance can do even more than many of the investment banking functions that exist currently
- why some Bitcoin developers want to censor BRC-20 transactions
- why the way XEN works gives Haseeb a headache
- whether Binance CEO CZ invented the memecoin PEPE
- what the impact of Jump and Jane Street decreasing their market making activity is
- where the next market makers will come from
HostsHaseeb Qureshi, managing partner at DragonflyRobert Leshner, founder of CompoundTarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot VenturesTom Schmidt, general partner at DragonflyDisclosuresLinksUnchained:- Coinbase Apologizes After Calling PEPE a ‘Hate Symbol’
- Market Makers Jump and Jane Street Withdraw From U.S. Crypto Trading: Report
- CoinDesk: Aragon Cancels Planned Community Control of $200M Treasury Amid Battle With Activist Investors
- The Block: Coinbase cuddles up to UAE policymakers as US outlook sours
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56 min - The IRS Wants $44B From Bankrupt FTX. How Is That Possible? - Ep. 491
News emerged this week that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) placed $44 billion in claims on the FTX bankruptcy estate. Now creditors of the defunct crypto exchange are worried that the taxman is going to gobble up funds that would otherwise be used to make users partially whole. Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency, joins the show to explain what’s going on, how that huge number is even possible, and why the so-called “trust argument” is not going to be the silver bullet that some FTX customers are dreaming of.
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:
- whether the numbers of the IRS claim are even correct
- how these claims may affect all customers and unsecured creditors of FTX
- whether FTX CEO John Ray will fight the claims
- what the trust argument is and how it could potentially save (or not) FTX’s creditors
- in what currency the investments made by creditors would be returned
- why the Three Arrows Capital case differs from FTX and Mt. Gox
- why what FTX allegedly did is similar, but different, from what Celsius or Voyager did
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Railgun DAO- Stader Labs
GuestWassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency
Previous appearances on Unchained:
- Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack
- Why the Messy 3AC, Celsius, and Voyager Bankruptcies Will Drag on for Years
- Three Crypto Bankruptcies: 3AC, Celsius and Voyager. What Happens Now?
Links- CoinDesk: U.S. Internal Revenue Service Files Claims Worth $44 Billion Against FTX Bankruptcy
- MeatTC’s Twitter thread
- Wassie’s Twitter thread
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42 min - Writing the Book on FTX’s Downfall: ‘It Was All Just Sam’ - Ep. 490
Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall of the one-time crypto wunderkind. “It became clear to me that Sam got really addicted to fame,” said Dale.
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:
- Brady’s background and how he came to cover crypto
- how covering the space for a crypto outlet is different from a more mainstream publication
- how Brady was able to finalize his book so fast
- what Brady’s favorite parts of the book are
- who was really responsible for the collapse of the FTX empire
- whether Sam Bankman-Fried will plead guilty
- whether FTX will make a comeback
- how SBF thinks differently from other people, and how it led to his downfall
- why Brady thinks the “dot-com bust” for crypto has yet to arrive
- whether crypto has betrayed its cypherpunk ideals
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios, and author of “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy”Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX:- The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning?
- How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing?
- Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years
- The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He?
- Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
- Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
- Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
- The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater
- Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
- The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
- Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC
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1 hr 2 min - $630M Due Next Week: Is DCG at Default Risk? - Ep. 489
The Genesis bankruptcy is about to take a high-stakes turn with a $630 million payment from Digital Currency Group (DCG) due by May 11. Barry Silbert’s DCG, the parent company of Genesis, is on the hook for the massive payment, but doubts are swirling as to whether the crypto conglomerate can cover it. Lumida Wealth CEO Ram Ahluwalia joins the show to unpack what could happen to Genesis creditors, Gemini Earn users, and the markets should DCG fail to cover its debt obligations.
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:
- whether DCG will be able to pay its debt to the Genesis bankruptcy estate
- the ways DCG can “plug the hole”
- what the likelihood of DCG filing for bankruptcy is
- how FTX’s intent to claw back $3.9 billion from Genesis would affect DCG
- whether Gemini Earn customers will be made whole
- why Ram says that asymmetric information has plagued the bankruptcy process
- whether the creditors should accept the latest term sheet
- how the Grayscale lawsuit against the SEC could impact DCG’s cash flow
Thank you to our sponsors!- Crypto.com
Railgun DAO- Stader Labs
GuestRam Ahluwalia, CEO & Founder of Lumida Wealth
- Previous appearances on Unchained:
- Genesis May Be Facing Bankruptcy. Could It Take DCG Down With It?
- Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
- How Will the FTX Collapse Affect Silvergate? A Bear and a Bull Debate
- How Is the Fed Going to Respond to the Banking Crisis?
LinksUnchained: FTX Moves to Claw Back $3.9 Billion From GenesisReuters: Crypto group DCG says bankrupt unit Genesis' creditors renege on deal- CoinDesk:
- Genesis Files for Mediator Assistance Over Amount of DCG Contribution to Reorganization
- DCG's CFO Steps Down as Crypto Conglomerate Repays $350M Loan
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46 min
About Unchained
From the publisher's feed
Crypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura…
Shin, an independent journalist covering all things crypto, talks with industry pioneers about how crypto assets and blockchains will change the way we earn, spend and invest our money. Tune in to find out how Web 3.0, the decentralized web, will revolutionize our world.