Unchained

Jess Symington, research lead at Elliptic, a blockchain forensics company, discusses the massive upswing in DeFi hacks during 2021, resulting in over $10 billion of DeFi value lost. Show topics:

• the state of crime in DeFi
• how much value has been lost to exploits
• whether the majority of hacks are the result of user or developer error
• the various types of exploits
• how to confirm when a project did, in fact, rug pull
• which blockchains are most susceptible to having exploits
• what has been happening recently in ransomware
• how DeFi hackers cash out
• why ransomware attackers, who usually request payment in Bitcoin, have a tougher time cashing out than DeFi hackers 
• whether hackers trend towards a specific profile/demographics 
• how easy it is for law enforcement to find hackers 
• whether blockchain’s transparency is proving to be a helpful tool for regulators
• Jess’s advice on how to prevent hacks for both protocols and users

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Episode Links

Elliptic

• Website: https://www.elliptic.co/ 
• Blog: https://www.elliptic.co/blog 

Hack Coverage

• Elliptic Research
• • DeFi: Risk, Regulation and the Rise of DeCrime: https://www.elliptic.co/resources/defi-risk-regulation-and-the-rise-of-decrime

Unchained Podcast on Ransomware

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Gabby Dizon, cofounder of Yield Guild Games, discusses his background in gaming, why he started Yield Guild Games, the performance of Axie Infinity, and more. Show topics:

• how Gabby fell down the crypto rabbit hole
• what inspired Gabby to co-found Yield Guild Games
• what Yield Guild Games does
• how blockchain games improve upon games in the traditional world
• a real-life story of Yield Guild Games improving a player’s life
• why it’s difficult for Yield Guild Games players to cash out earnings and how Yield Guild Games is trying to solve this issue via a partnership with XLD
• why Gabby thinks the value of $SLP in Axie Infinity is dropping
• what sort of game and tokenization mechanisms work best for blockchain games
• why Gabby wants a new Ethereum token standard
• what Gabby thinks makes an in-game NFT valuable
• why Axie Infinity is popular in the Philippines and Venezuela 
• where Yield Guild Games is attempting to expand next
• how Yield Guild Games built out the tokenomics for YGG, the guild’s native token
• what Gabby thinks about P2E games on chains outside of Ethereum
• how Yield Guild Games is decentralizing 
• how blockchain games are changing the nature of work 
• what sort of jobs exist in the metaverse
• why Gabby buys NFTs
• Gabby’s crypto prediction for 2022

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Episode Notes

Gabby Dizon -- cofounder at Yield Guild Games

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabusch 
• Website: https://y.at/%F0%9F%95%B9%F0%9F%A5%8A%F0%9F%96%BC%F0%9F%A5%83 
•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabbydizon/ 
• Cointelegraph profile

Yield Guild Games

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/YieldGuild 
• Discord: https://discord.com/invite/ygg

Miscellaneous

• Axie Infinity documentary:
• •  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo-BrASMHU4 
• XLD Token = “real-world use case”
• • https://twitter.com/gabusch/status/1467763722257301507
  • https://xld.medium.com/xld-finance-and-yield-guild-games-partner-to-enable-play-to-earn-gamers-to-pay-bills-with-crypto-d35c80d29a0d
• Play to Earn token economics

Unchained Episodes on Axie Infinity

• Axie Infinity’s July Revenue Tops $200 Million. Here’s How Filipinos Drove It (Leah Callon-Butler)
• • https://unchainedpodcast.com/axie-infinitys-july-revenue-tops-200-million-heres-how-filipinos-drove-it/
• How Axie Infinity Boosted Revenue 400%+ in 30 Days (Aleksander Larsen, Axie Infinity COO)

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Jeff Dorman, the chief investment officer at Arca, discusses the recent events surrounding SushiSwap, including CTO Joseph Delong’s departure this week, Arca’s proposal to create a hierarchical management structure for SushiSwap, and why Jeff is still excited about Arca’s investment in SushiSwap. Show topics:

• what SushiSwap is and how it has performed since its inception
• how Jeff views SushiSwap’s performance from an investor’s perspective
• how the departure of 0xMaki affected SushiSwap
• what Jeff thinks about the decentralization versus centralization 
• why Jeff thinks SushiSwap is in a fantastic position in which to receive investment
• what happened with the controversy around Joseph Delong leading to his resignation this week 
• what Jeff thinks about how Joseph handled his departure
• what three factors SushiSwap needs to figure out in order to function
• why SushiSwap could benefit from creating a legal entity
• why Jeff is in favor of hierarchical governance structures versus flat governance structures
• how SushiSwap could become a trendsetter for DAOs in general

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Episode Links: 

Jeff Dorman

• Twitter

Joseph Delong’s Departure

• The Block’s coverage: 
• • https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/126411/sushiswap-cto-threatens-to-quit-as-infighting-escalates
  • https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/126879/sushiswaps-cto-resigns-amid-infighting
• The Defiant:
• • https://thedefiant.io/sushiswap-leadership-crisis/

Sushi Bickering on Twitter

• Screenshot of 0xMaki being ousted:
• • https://twitter.com/makibacknow/status/1463078678724632576/photo/1
• Joseph Delong on SushiSwap drama:

SushiSwap Proposals

• Arca

Miscellaneous

• 0xMaki transitioning to an advisory role

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Some of the biggest names in the crypto industry discuss their personal giving philosophies, how blockchain technology could change the dynamics of giving to charity, and which crypto projects are making a lasting real-world impact. Guests include Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital; Caroline Ellison, co-CEO of Alameda Research; and Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos. Show topics:

• the definition of effective altruism 
• why Haseeb thinks crypto is the best industry for effective altruism
• how Haseeb and Arthur differ in their philosophy of doing good
• why blockchain technology is less important than liquidity when donating money across borders
• whether Axie Infinity is making a real-world impact
• why Arthur thinks Axie’s impact will be short-term and not sustainable
• whether people should donate now versus later
• Haseeb’s and Arthur’s thoughts on how giving changes people
• what people working in crypto can do to give back

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Episode Links

GiveDirectly

Guests

• Caroline Ellison
• • https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-ellison-309216a7
• Haseeb Qureshi

Miscellaneous

• Effective Altruism
• • https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism/
• Code to Inspire

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Ryan Zurrer, founder of Dialectic, a crypto wealth multi-family office, discusses his recent $29 million purchase of Beeple’s Human One and his experience at Art Basel in Miami, along with his thoughts on the NFT space in general. Show highlights:

• what Human One is and why Ryan purchased it
• how Ryan and Beeple’s personal relationship factored into the purchase of Human One
• why Human One is important to the metaverse
• how Ryan defied the odds in purchasing Human One
• how Miami’s Art Basel conference missed out by not capitalizing enough on NFTs
• what Ryan thinks about the NFT industry being described as a bubble
• how Ryan uses “proof-of-artwork” to determine which NFTs to buy
• Ryan’s experience visiting Beeple’s art studio/campus
• where Ryan thinks NFTs will go from here, and why he is so bullish on music NFTs in particular 

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Episode Links:

Ryan Zurrer

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

Human One

• Beeple x Christie’s interview:
• • https://www.christies.com/features/Beeple-gets-real-with-human-one-11940-7.aspx
• Barron’s on Human One purchase:

Art Basel Miami

Beeple saying NFTs are a “bubble:”

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On Unchained, two co-founders of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, dive deeply into the Solana ecosystem, discussing everything from the price of SOL to the Solana network outage to the competition between Ethereum and Solana. Show highlights:

• why Raj thinks SOL’s market cap grew from $86 million to $68 billion in less than a year
• Anatoly’s and Raj’s background and how they found themselves working together to build Solana
• why Anatoly thinks Solana will be a general-purpose blockchain rather than specializing in gaming or high frequency trading
• Anatoly’s goal to make Solana the first billion-user blockchain
• why Raj thinks NFTs on Solana have been so popular
• why, in the opinion of Raj and Anatoly, Solana’s purpose has shifted away from high-frequency trading
• how NFTs could replace ads
• why “everything is DeFi”
• how Solana Labs plans to allocate the recent $314 million funding round it raised
• what lessons Anatoly learned from the 18-hour September network outage
• technically speaking, what happened to cause Solana’s network outage
• why Anatoly believes that outages, at this stage, aren’t necessarily a bad thing
• whether “trading mercenaries” dominated at Solana Breakpoint
• why developers are interested in building on Solana
• how Solana and Ethereum compare as execution and settlement layers
• why Raj doesn’t like framing competition between Solana and Ethereum as a fight
• how Anatoly views the competition between Ethereum and Solana
• whether the arrival of Neon Labs, which is bringing EVM to Solana, could lead to developers leaving Ethereum
• how NFTs and Phantom wallets are bringing in new users for Solana
• whether Raj and Anatoly would roll back Solana if something like Ethereum’s DAO hack were to occur
• why Solana has the competitive advantage in throughput, according to Anatoly
• what would happen if FTX cofounder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave up on Solana
• their predictions for Solana five years from now

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Episode Links:

Anatoly Yakovenko

Raj Gokal

Solana News

• Anatoly Yakovenko -- ​​ It ‘doesn’t really matter’ if the network goes down again

Solana Topics

• Raj thinks Ethereum cannot be killed
• • https://twitter.com/rajgokal/status/1458420316569489410
• NFT Growth

Solana Basics

• CoinMonk: https://medium.com/coinmonks/solana-more-update-for-sol-becb65024877 
• Solana Labs: https://medium.com/solana-labs/proof-of-history-a-clock-for-blockchain-cf47a61a9274 
• The Tie: https://research.thetie.io/solana-ecosystem/ 
• Binance.Research: https://research.binance.com/en/projects/solana 
• Genesis Block: https://genesisblockhk.com/what-is-solana/ 
• Block Explorers: https://explorer.solana.com/supply + https://solanabeach.io/supply + https://solanalysis.com/ 
• Messari: https://messari.io/article/the-perpetual-sol-rise

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Maren Altman is a professional astrologer and crypto trader. On Unchained, she discusses her end-of-year price target for Bitcoin, how crypto fits into her natal chart, and how she uses planets to divine the price movement of crypto assets. Highlights:

• why Maren believes she was born to trade cryptocurrencies
• how long-term planetary transits explain the rise of cryptocurrency
• why the transits of Uranus, North Node, and Jupiter could lead to a big, extremely innovative “metaverse/cyber pandemic/internet of things” development in spring 2023
• how Maren determines the “natal chart” (a birth chart that determines a person or entity’s astrological chart) for cryptocurrencies
• how Maren uses astrology to trade cryptocurrencies
• Maren’s price prediction for BTC for the end of the year
• what astrological factors make Maren think BTC could crash after December 30th
• Maren’s EOY projections for ETH
• what Maren thinks about crypto regulation
• why Maren thinks CBDCs are inevitable
• whether Maren feels giving alpha for free via TikTok hurts her trading

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Episode Links

Maren Altman

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marenaltman

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Two tokenomics experts, Yan Liberman, co-founder of Delphi Digital, and Viktor Bunin, protocol specialist at Coinbase Cloud, discuss their experiences building tokens, their thoughts on the recent ENS/PSP airdrops, and what “fair” token distribution looks like. Show highlights:

• the definition of tokenomics
• what factors (such as utility, fairness, liquidity, security, etc.) token designers are incentivizing for
• what Yan learned from helping design Astroport tokenomics
• what Vikor learned from helping design Threshold, the token that was built to facilitate the merge of NuCypher and Keep
• how the EIP 1559 burn has changed Ethereum’s tokenomics
• how EIP 1559 has improved investor outlook for Ethereum
• why Viktor is worried about people actually using Ethereum going forward
• what Viktor and Yan think about how the ENS airdrop farming issue was handled
• what Viktor and Yan think about ParaSwap’s PSP airdrop and why Viktor thinks ParaSwap made a “mistake”
• how Viktor and Yan would go about airdropping a token to good actors instead of bad actors
• how improvements in on-chain identity could help future airdrops 
• fair launch tokens versus VC-backed tokens
• what the definition of fair is in terms of tokenomics
• why Viktor thinks a token’s distribution is more important than a token’s launch
• what could be the optimal way to distribute liquidity mining rewards
• how community affects tokenomics
• how to incentivize NFT-based tokens, like the forthcoming Bored Ape Yacht Club token, for the right goals 

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Yan Liberman -- co founder at Delphi Digital

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanliberman

Viktor Bunin -- protocol specialist at Coinbase (Bison Trails)

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktorbunin 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ViktorBunin 

Tokenomics 101 Primers:

• The Tie: https://research.thetie.io/token-economics/ 
• Smith and Crown: https://smithandcrown.com/research/issues-of-fairness-in-token-distribution/ 
• A Timeline of Token Distributions: https://blog.coinlist.co/the-evolution-of-token-distribution-models/ 

Recent Airdrops + Airdrop farming

• PSP:  

Airdrop Farming

• Potential airdrops coming up: 

Topics Mentioned

• Astroport tokenomics
• • https://astroport.medium.com/hello-astro-announcing-the-astroport-governance-token-drops-a07a1bf3ed94
• NuCypher + Keep merge
• • https://decrypt.co/73800/forget-hard-fork-what-happens-after-kee-nucypher-hard-merge
• SushiSwap vampire attack

Miscellaneous

• What is liquidity mining?

Other Fun Topics 

• How Token Governance Mechanisms can be implemented
• https://outlierventures.io/research/what-is-the-secret-to-building-valuable-tokens-part-2/
• Crypto Gaming economics

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Will Papper, SyndicateDAO co-founder and ConstitutionDAO contributor, tells the story of how a group of internet friends came together as a DAO to crowdfund a $41 million bid at a Sotheby’s auction for a physical copy of the US Constitution. Show highlights:

• how Will and other ConstitutionDAO members feel after losing the auction
• the significance of ConstitutionDAO despite its loss
• whether Will knows who the other bidder was
• why museums began reaching out to ConstitutionDAO and seem to be excited about DAOs moving forward
• why there was so much confusion over who was the bidder for the DAO and whether it had won
• why ConstitutionDAO did not bid more than $41 million -- even though the crowdfund was at nearly $50 million
• why ConstitutionDAO did not have a crypto-whale help keep the bidding war going
• how ConstitutionDAO plans to refund participants
• what Will thinks about using a layer 2 solution to refund ETH for ConstitutionDAO donations
• how the idea for ConstitutionDAO came about
• what role Will had in the formation of ConstitutionDAO
• what lessons can be learned from ConstitutionDAO
• what’s next for DAOs in general

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Episode Links

Will Papper

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

ConstitutionDAO

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO 
• Website: https://www.constitutiondao.com/ 
• Contribution page: https://juicebox.money/#/p/constitutiondao 

Sotheby’s Auction

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBa-9Lx3vc 

ConstitutionDAO’s Statement After Losing Auction

• ​​https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO/status/1461527516670316544 

Press

• Not Boring: https://www.notboring.co/p/lets-buy-the-us-constitution 
• Stratechery: https://stratechery.com/2021/constitutiondao-the-need-for-trust-memes-and-reality/ 
• New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/business/crypto-constitution-sothebys.html?smid=tw-share

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Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s senior vice president and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies, discusses PayPal’s crypto game plan, how CBDCs might be implemented, crypto regulations, and more. Show highlights:

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Episode Links

Jose Fernandez da Ponte

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-fernandez-da-ponte-a46ba81/

PayPal Crypto Basics

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