Unchained

On Tuesday, the US government seized $3.6 billion in bitcoin from the 2016 Bitfinex hack and arrested two individuals, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, on charges of money laundering. Tom Robinson, cofounder and chief scientist at the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, breaks down how law enforcement was able to seize the BTC, what techniques the alleged money launderers used to avoid capture, and who could have pulled off the initial hack. Show highlights:

background on the 2016 Bitfinex hack who was arrested this week and why  how the US government gained access to the private keys in Lichtenstein’s and Morgan’s control why AlphaBay, a now-defunct darknet website, was crucial to law enforcement’s effort to track down the stolen Bitfinex funds what money laundering techniques were used to cash out the stolen Bitfinex funds before this week’s arrests whether, as blockchain analytics technology advances, it will always catch up to be able to trace the movements of crypto as its laundered  why using Monero, a privacy coin, to cash out stolen funds is a red flag why Tom does not think the two individuals arrested this week for money laundering the stolen Bitfinex funds were the original hackers

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Episode Links

Tom Robinson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomarobinson?originalSubdomain=uk  Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomrobin 

Information on the Bitfinex hack + arrest:

DOJ Information: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-alleged-conspiracy-launder-45-billion-stolen-cryptocurrency  https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470211/download  Elliptic Coverage: https://www.elliptic.co/blog/elliptic-analysis-new-york-husband-and-wife-arrested-for-laundering-5-billion-in-bitcoin-stolen-from-bitfinex-in-2016  Unchained Coverage: https://unchainedpodcast.com/feds-seize-3-6-billion-in-btc-connected-to-bitfinex-hack/ CoinDesk coverage https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/08/us-officials-seize-bitcoin-from-2016-bitfinex-hack/  Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/92529/bitfinex-billion-bitcoin-who-keeps-it  The Defiant: https://thedefiant.io/bitfinex-leo-surge/ Bitfinex statement:  https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/766 

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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. On this week’s episode, Sam Bankman-Friend (SBF), CEO and founder of FTX, also dropped by. Show topics:

• Robert and SBF’s takeaways from previous experiences speaking to regulators
• what happened during the Wormhole hack and why building decentralized systems is difficult 
• whether AssangeDAO is a good use of money and how it showcases the power of DAOs + NFTs
• why GameStop dumping IMX tokens might have been Immutable X’s fault
• ENS drama, cancel culture, and whether or not the guys would have fired Brantly Millegan if it had been their company making the decision
• how the US was able to recover funds from the Bitfinex hack (and how Tarun knows one of the individuals arrested for allegedly using the stolen BTC via money laundering)
• Shape rotators versus wordcels: what is the meme, how does SBF identify, and Arthur Hayes? 

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

Guest

• Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX
• • https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda

Links

• Wormhole hack
• • https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/3/22916111/wormhole-hack-github-error-325-million-theft-ethereum-solana
• AssangeDAO raises ~$41M on Juicebox, larger than ConstitutionDAO
• • https://juicebox.money/#/p/assangedao
• ENS drama
• • https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/02/07/ethereum-name-service-removes-brantly-millegan-as-steward-over-2016-tweet/

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Variant Fund is a venture capital firm that describes itself as “a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.” Jesse Walden and Li Jin, co-founders and general partners at Variant, join Unchained to discuss the ownership economy, issues with web2 and web3, NFTs, the future of work, and more. Highlights:

• where Li and Jesse met and how their backgrounds as investors + founders led them to the crypto space
• how Li’s investing niche, which she describes as the passion economy, ended up intersecting with crypto
• why Li believes that web3 platforms will be better for creators than the current web2 ecosystem
• why Jesse was so inspired by Bitcoin after working in the music industry for so many years
• why Jesse believes that NFTs are the “port of entry” for the mainstream adoption of crypto
• what other use-cases exist for NFTs outside of the JPEG or PNG meme (and why Jesse is so excited about music NFTs)
• why Li believes that web3 tools can help fix the issues inherent to the “gig economy”
• Li and Jesse respond to criticisms of web3 coming from Jack Dorsey and Moxie Marlinspike
• how Variant Fund thinks about investing in crypto projects
• what token allocation Variant Fund targets when investing in crypto projects
• why mainstream platforms are experiencing backlash for integrating with NFTs and crypto
• what trends in NFTs, DAOs, and the ownership economy Jesse and Li think will pop in 2022

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Get a Signed Book Plate!

Many of you have asked me how you can get a signed copy of the book. Here’s how:

1. Pre-order the book, which you can do at bit.ly/cryptopians.

2. Make a social media post about the book that includes the pre-order link, bit.ly/cryptoptians or to the book on any bookseller of your choice.

3. Send a copy of your receipt to [email protected] with the subject line, “signed book plate.”

4. In the email, include a pdf of your receipt + a screenshot of or a link to your social media post + the address to which you’d like me to send the book plate + the name of who you’d like me to dedicate the book plate to.

If you show a pre-order receipt that shows you bought more than one format of the book, such as an audiobook and a hardcover, you can get two signed book plates.

Finally, if you sign up for the Bulletin premium subscription plus do all the above to get a signed book plate, you’ll also receive a POAP.

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Episode links

Li Jin

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ljin18 
• Substack: https://li.substack.com/

Jesse Walden

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewldn 
• Website (no blogs since 2020): https://jessewalden.com/ 
• Random Tweets
  • DAOs
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1459014962207244290

Variant Fund

• Variant Fund Twitter
  • https://twitter.com/variantfund
• Variant Fund website
  • https://variant.fund/
• Writing: 

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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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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

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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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