Unconfirmed

Freelance reporter and audio producer Chris Harland-Dunaway speaks about his long investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun after his acquisition of BitTorrent. In this episode, Harland-Dunaway describes:

• how after his acquisition of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent Justin Sun straddled the China-West divide 
• Sun's background, his early success and how he got into cryptocurrency
• how he treated the US-based employees differently from those based in China
• how Sun made a threat to kill an employee's family over an anonymous employee question about what would happen is TRX went to $0
• an incident in which Sun hit an employee
• how Sun handled ethical issues that cropped up around scammers on the app store on Tron, with piracy on BitTorrent product BT Movie and with dark web-style content on BT Live
• why he believes Sun's biggest liability is his lack of empathy as both a manager and entrepreneur

Thank you to our sponsor! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Episode links: 

Christopher Harland-Dunaway: https://twitter.com/ChrisHDeee

Justin Sun: https://twitter.com/justinsuntron

Tron Foundation: https://twitter.com/Tronfoundation

Chris's article on Justin in The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/21459906/bittorrent-tron-acquisition-justin-sun-us-china

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-has-never-been-healthier

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, discusses a controversial blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about how the company intends to take an apolitical stance, the pushback it received afterward, and the company's offer of generous exit packages for employees who disagree:

• why CEO Brian Armstrong wrote the blog post stating it would be taking an apolitical stance during these socially and politically tumultuous times
• why the company then offered a generous exit package to employees who disagreed with it
• which social and political issues caused the divisions at Coinbase
• how a question about Black Lives Matter at a a company all-hands back in June began the series of events that resulted in this blog post
• why employees walked out earlier this summer
• why Armstrong did tweet about the Black Lives Matter movement
• how the stance Armstrong took in the blog post is not a surprise to those who know his personality 
• why the reactions to the blog post were so wide-ranging
• how this affects Coinbase's place in the wider world of investment, which has seen a greater interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing
• why Coinbase's plans to go public in the next year or so might have affected Armstrong's decision to take the apolitical stance
• what happened in another all-hands meeting on Thursday to discuss this issue
• plus, we talk about the DOJ and CFTC charges against BitMEX, how Frank talked with BitMEX cofounder and CEO Arthur Hayes last night, and whether it seemed Arthur had any awareness this was coming

Thank you to our sponsors! 

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

Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org

Episode links: 

Frank Chaparro: https://twitter.com/fintechfrank

The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com

Coinbase blog post: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804?gi=2f36a2277d05

CoinDesk on the blog post: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-has-drawn-a-line-in-the-sand-for-its-activist-employees

What sparked the walkout: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79517/a-question-about-black-lives-matter-sparked-an-employee-walkout-at-coinbase-this-summer

Erica Joy’s tweet thread on the Coinbase engineering walkout: https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/1310741842594426880

Paul Graham’s tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1310583298666696705?s=20

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s response to Brian’s blog post: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1311423420274372608?s=20

Axios article: https://www.axios.com/coinbase-controversy-b707973c-0f24-4d1e-9690-78ac5fdb94e7.html

Coinbase offers severance package https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79247/coinbase-offers-exit-package-for-employees-not-comfortable-with-its-mission

How Coinbase's apolitical stance could affect its IPO: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79127/a-blog-post-by-coinbases-ceo-has-raised-a-fury-will-it-affect-a-potential-ipo

The Interface on Brian’s blog post: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/coinbase-bans-politics-281784

Links from news recap: 

https://unchainedpodcast.com/up-to-10-years-in-prison/

Jake Brukhman, cofounder and CEO of CoinFund, explains why people are excited about non-fungible tokens, how they can be used, and what new behaviors and businesses they might enable. He discusses:

• what a NFT or non-fungible token is
• how they can be "liquid intellectual property"
• what kinds of digital assets can be turned into NFTs
• what new types of behaviors and new products and services can be created based off NFTs
• why consumers would prefer to use an NFT photo or song vs. one from Shutterstock or Spotify
• why someone would want to buy an NFT when it's so easy to make digital copies of things like art or ebooks or mp3s
• how disputes over digital objects could be adjudicated in a global marketplace
• how NFTs enable fractionalized ownership
• how NFTs can be used as collateral to manage risk
• how NFTs are combining with DeFi to create NFTFi
• how NFTs and NFTFi bring non-crypto people in to the space and expose them to finance
• why the NFT space is much bigger than people probably expect, and how it's drawing a new crowd to crypto

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org

Episode links: 

Jake Brukhman: https://twitter.com/jbrukh

CoinFund: https://coinfund.io

CoinFund’s NFT thesis: https://blog.coinfund.io/all-digital-content-is-going-on-chain-ae26a7071657

Rarible: https://rarible.com

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

The LAO: https://www.thelao.io

https://twitter.com/thelaoofficial?lang=en

Yield farming on digital collectibles: https://www.coindesk.com/yield-farming-expands-from-finance-to-digital-collectibles-rarible-nfts

NFTFi: https://tokentuesdays.substack.com/p/defi-x-nfts-nftfi

Aavegotchi: https://aavegotchi.com

$MEME: https://medium.com/@dontbuymeme/nft-farming-guide-how-to-stake-meme-and-earn-crypto-collectibles-ac8121e93e8

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-uni-could-be-a-security/

David Kinitsky, CEO of Kraken Financial, talks about Kraken's news that it is launching a bank, after receiving approval to form a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) from the state of Wyoming. He discusses:

• why Kraken decided to become a crypto bank, and what it will be able to do with this status
• how this status will affect the consumer experience for crypto users 
• what kinds of crypto assets it will be able to deal with 
• how quickly it will list coins, such as those DeFi coins that quickly balloon to billion-dollar market caps
• what its designation, special purpose depository institution (SPDI) means, and why that has special meaning for crypto users
• what "bailment" means, and why that's significant for crypto users interested in using a crypto bank and how that would affect users in the event any coins were stolen or lost
• how Kraken Financial's status as a crypto bank will affect the longstanding problem in the industry of obtaining and maintaining bank relationships
• how this overlaps and works in conjunction with other recent regulations that have affected the crypto industry, such as the OCC saying banks can custody crypto assets
• how its SPDI status will affect how Kraken Financial is regulated in New York State where the BitLicense is in effect
• why Kraken, which has a reputation for pushing back on what it deemed to be overreach by regulators, decided to pursue the SPDI
• how Kraken Financial will make money, despite keeping 100% reserves
• David's extensive background in cryptocurrency
• the timeline going forward for Kraken Financial 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org

Episode links: 

David Kinitsky: https://twitter.com/Kinitsky

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/en-us/

Kraken announcement about Kraken Financial receiving the SPDI title from the Wyoming Banking Board: https://blog.kraken.com/post/6241/kraken-wyoming-first-digital-asset-bank/

CoinDesk story: https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-crypto-exchange-secures-bank-charter-under-wyoming-law

The Block story: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/77804/kraken-crypto-bank-launch-wyoming

Kraken Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori tweet storm on the significance: https://twitter.com/msantoriESQ/status/1306236234675740672?s=20

Previous episode of Unchained on crypto friendly regulations in Wyoming: https://unchainedpodcast.com/eth-denver-fireside-chat-with-2-of-the-most-crypto-friendly-governors-in-the-nation/

OCC allowing banks to offer cryptocurrency custody services:

https://www.coindesk.com/us-banking-regulator-suggests-federal-licensing-framework-for-crypto-firms

https://www.coindesk.com/banks-in-us-can-now-offer-crypto-custody-services-regulator-says

https://www.coindesk.com/occ-crypto-custody-years

Conference of State Bank Supervisors’ new regulatory regime: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-regulators-crypto/u-s-crypto-fintech-firms-to-benefit-from-slimmed-down-regulatory-process-idUSKBN2661OA

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/half-a-billion-dollars-overnight/

0xMaki, a cofounder of SushiSwap explains how and why he got involved in this project forked from SushiSwap, why he thinks his view of decentralization differs from that of many centralized teams that being such projects, and what the benefits of the SushiSwap vampire mining scheme have been. He discusses: 

• how and why he got involved in SushiSwap
• why he feels his view of decentralization differs from that of teams such as Uniswap
• who he believes the other cofounders are, demographically
• why cofounder Chef Nomi cashed out to take $13 million after a week's worth of work on the project 
• how it was decided to hand the admin key to SushiSwap over to Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX and Alameda Research
• how SushiSwap proved that liquidity is not a moat, although trading volume might be
• why he doesn't own $SUSHI
• how he feels about taking code from Uniswap
• the vision for SushiSwap going forward
• whether or not SushiSwap will be built on another blockchain
• where he got his $YFI sweatshirt and $YAM pants
• how SushiSwap introduced a lot of people to being liquidity providers for the first time, and why that's beneficial for DeFi in general 
• why, despite Chef Nomi cashing out, he thinks people will still trust anonymous devs going forward

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Cosmos: five.hackatom.org

Episode links: 

0xMaki: https://twitter.com/0xMaki

SushiSwap: https://sushiswapclassic.org

SushiSwap stats: https://sushiswap.vision/home 

The Defiant’s pre-migration recap of the SushiSwap saga: https://thedefiant.substack.com/p/sushiswaps-vampire-scheme-hours-away

How the SushiSwap migration went down: https://www.coindesk.com/sushiswap-migration-defi-protocol-politicians 

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/77324/sushiswap-initiates-migration-of-over-800m-in-liquidity-funds-from-uniswap 

Forbes interview with Sam Bankman-Fried on the SushiSwap drama: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/09/06/exclusive-sbf-speaks-out-on-defis-sushi-saga/#55e447d65145 

Chef Nomi’s explanation of why he or she decided to cash out: https://twitter.com/NomiChef/status/1302214292792422401?s=20

Reaction to Chef Nomi cashing out: https://twitter.com/alistairmilne/status/1302246157628956672?s=20

Sam Bankman-Fried’s proposal to build out SushiSwap on Solana: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EParJnqmYs1TJ1qX2q8nnyPeKCA1pF10zLCLYoDxTL8/edit

In the end, the total amount of liquidity across both AMMs is greater than before SushiSwap was created: https://twitter.com/koeppelmann/status/1303784413864636417?s=20 

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-key-metric-that-jumped-82-in-august/

Nadav Hollander, cofounder and CEO of Dharma, discusses the war currently being waged between Uniswap and SushiSwap, how this is driving up fees on Ethereum, and how Dharma's product can get around them. In this episode we discuss:

• why he conceptually supports SushiSwap and fair launch coins
• whether or not fair launch coins really are fair
• why SushiSwap makes him nervous
• why the battle between SushiSwap and Uniswap is a so-called "vampire attack," which is actually driving up the total value locked on Uniswap 
• how the SushiSwap yield farming works
• whether or not Uniswap will release Uniswap v3 in time to compete with SushiSwap
• whether he thinks Uniswap or SushiSwap will win
• what factors matter when it comes to which will win out between two nearly identical protocols
• how Dharma's product enables users to yield farm without paying the high gas fees on Ethereum, but what fee users will pay instead

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Episode links: 

Nadav Hollander: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander

Dharma: https://www.dharma.io

Uniswap: https://uniswap.org

SushiSwap: https://sushiswap.org

Introducing SushiSwap:  https://medium.com/sushiswap/the-sushiswap-project-c4049ea9941e

Total value locked in SushiSwap: https://sushi.zippo.io

The rise in SushiSwap: https://www.coindesk.com/uniswap-defi-pulse-tvl-leader-sushiswap

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/76419/uniswap-fork-sushiswap-700-million-total-value-locked

The frenzy of trading in $SUSHI: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1300703418688864262?s=20

Technical issues/red flags raised around SushiSwap: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1300625235427782657

https://twitter.com/AdamScochran/status/1300887520172019713?s=20

https://twitter.com/AdamScochran/status/1301243267636396032?s=20 

What factors could help determine who wins: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1300313617137500162?s=20

How Dharma is helping with high fees on Ethereum: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1301006789081575424?s=20 

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-yield-farm-without-the-hassle/

Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys and cofounder of Ethereum, discusses ConsenSys's acquisition this week of JPMorgan's blockchain solution, Quorum. In this episode, he talks about:

• why JPMorgan sold Quorum to ConsenSys, and how that fits into ConsenSys's larger enterprise offerings
• who Quorum's clients are and what it is used for
• whether or not ConsenSys is also acquiring the Quorum team 
• how the acquisition fits in with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and its standards-based approach to blockchain enterprise development
• how much JPMorgan invested into ConsenSys
• how much ConsenSys is raising 
• how the Quorum acquisition fits into ConsenSys's larger restructuring into two main arms focused on software development and venture activity
• how the pandemic has affected ConsenSys's business
• the recent outcry over MetaMask's changes to its licensing structure and how it may eventually monetize with a token
• his thoughts on Ethereum's five-year anniversary and where it is headed with Ethereum 2.0

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Episode links: 

Joe Lubin: https://twitter.com/ethereumJoseph

ConsenSys: https://consensys.net

ConsenSys Quorum: https://consensys.net/quorum

Announcement about acquisition of Quorum: https://consensys.net/blog/news/consensys-acquires-jpm-quorum/

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75947/consensys-jpm-quorum-announcement

The Block’s earlier reporting: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/74687/jpmorgan-consensys-investment-deal

Initial report about deal by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jp-morgan-blockchain-exclusive/exclusive-jpmorgan-in-talks-to-merge-blockchain-unit-quorum-with-startup-consensys-sources-idUSKBN2051AW

Interbank Information Network: https://www.jpmorgan.com/solutions/treasury-services/payments-and-cross-currency-solutions/iin

ConsenSys receives money from Payroll Protection Program: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/70511/ledgerx-consensys-tendermint-crypto-ppp-trump

MetaMask licensing: https://decrypt.co/39514/metamask-tightens-license-in-response-to-crypto-browser-boom

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/fidelity-and-the-next-best-thing-to-a-bitcoin-etf/

In this episode, I answer some questions submitted to me via Twitter. I take the audience behind the scenes at Unconfirmed and Unchained to discuss:

• how I started learning about crypto
• my pre-interview ritual and how I prepare for interviews
• the toughest interview I have done so far
• what I dislike about being a crypto journalist
• my interests outside of crypto
• what my recording setup and environment are like
• the storyline to my upcoming book
• who I consider to be the top five leaders in crypto 
• what the layer 1 blockchain future looks like
• whether my conviction in the crypto industry has grown over the years
• what I believe the next tech revolution will be
• what I think of the trends in dapps, alts and DeFi 
• how relevant fundamentals will be in the upcoming bull cycle
• whether I find time to reflect on how fast things are moving in the space

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Episode links: 

Laura Shin: https://twitter.com/laurashin

Unchained Podcast: https://unchainedpodcast.com/

Unchained and Unconfirmed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/UnchainedPodcast/

Newsletter link:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/ama-with-laura-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-my-shows/

Andreas Antonopoulos, speaker, educator and author of "Mastering Bitcoin" and "Mastering Ethereum," dives into the ETH supply debate that raged over the last week. In this episode, he talks about:

• why the question about the ETH supply is a "silly gotcha"
• what technical features of the Ethereum blockchain make it less straightforward to calculate the supply of ether
• how the shift to Ethereum 2.0 and a proof of stake system will affect the value of ETH as money
• why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not natural competitors and will continue to coexist
• how macro forces will affect Bitcoin, and whether it will ever be used as a medium of exchange in addition to a store of value
• whether the full Ethereum 2.0 transition will happen in time to meet DeFi demand
• why Bitcoin gives Ethereum the freedom to experiment
• why Bitcoin Cash shows that offering scaling with no community isn't enough to take market share
• why he supports diversity and inclusion efforts in the space

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Episode links: 

Andreas Antonopoulos: https://aantonop.com

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

Andreas's tweet storm: https://twitter.com/aantonop/status/1292877311570857990?s=20

Summary of the debate: https://www.coindesk.com/how-much-ether-is-out-there-ethereum-developers-create-new-scripts-for-self-verification

Andreas's video on the Lion and the Shark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0x6CtD8iq4

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/from-0-to-500m-to-0-in-48-hours/

Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments, talks about the strong growth in investment in its products, with inflows in Q2 totaling more than $900 million, bringing assets under management to over $5 billion. He discusses how Grayscale:

• saw more than $900 million in investment in Q2, up from $500 million in Q1
• why the macro environment is causing investors to focus on crypto
• why investors are expressing growing interest in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust
• how 80% of Grayscale investors have exposure to more than one asset
• which types of investors are coming in
• what developments within the crypto space are also leading to the increased inflows into Grayscale products
• Grayscale's filing of a Form 10 for the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which will enable it to become an SEC-reporting company
• why it is doing so for the Ethereum Trust as opposed to Ethereum Classic
• how the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin Trusts will soon by publicly trading
• what metrics they use to determine whether to bring a digital asset to market
• who are attracted to the Grayscale Digital Large Cap fund (GLDC)
• how Grayscale grew to have $5 billion in assets under management

Thank you to our sponsors! 

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

Nexo: https://www.nexo.io

Episode links: 

Michael Sonnenshein: https://twitter.com/Sonnenshein

Grayscale: https://grayscale.co

Grayscale's filing of the Form 10 for the Ethereum Investment Trust: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/08/06/valuable-sec-data-on-20-institutional-bitcoin-investors-could-soon-disappear/#27352c561de2

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-99-drop-in-value/