When The Music Stops

Bestselling author, David Gerard, goes in-depth into a seemingly harmless idea that has wreaked havoc on the hard drive market.

The creator of the highly successful file-sharing software, Bram Cohen, gains new notoriety with his latest invention in the blockchain space. Chia is a mining-based distributed system, much like Bitcoin, but with a seemingly positive new contribution. Rather than wasting the electric capacity of Iceland, Chia purports to be the eco-friendly solution. With a reward system enticing to any consumer with a computer or a phone, it seems too good to be true.  David Gerard talks proof of work vs proof waste, Tether, NFTs, crypto-investors' psychology and the blockchain industry as a whole.

Much of this interview talks about his 2017 book, "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain", a bestseller that brought much needed skepticism towards crypto. His latest book. "Libra Shrugged", details the attempt of Facebook to try to take over money. Both are available on Amazon.

Find more from David Gerard:

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/book/  

Follow him on Twitter:

@davidgerard

https://twitter.com/davidgerard  

His recent blog on Chia:

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/23/foreign-policy-chia-is-a-new-way-to-waste-resources-for-cryptocurrency/

Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at [email protected]

Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry. And special thanks to @Bitfinexed, my good friends Robin and Gavin, @CasPiancey and another big thanks to David for a great read and a great interview!

Upcoming podcasts:

Amy Castor talks NFTs!

Buttcoin Redditor discusses Microstrategy

& Will Bitcoin Save us from Inflation?  

As well as a very special secret guest who may be a moderator on our favorite subreddit.

Continuing on the discussion of systemic risks associated with Tether, Bennett describes additional risks in the broader cryptocurrency space. He talks Binance as well as MakerDao & Dai. For those who don't know, Dai is a crypto-collateral stable coin which allows users to interact with smart-contracts on the Ethereum blockchain and take out loans (denominated in Dai) against their cryptocurrency. Bennett describes the contraversial and potentially dangerous move by the decentralized band of merry bankers to use a tether-like stable coin as collateral (USDC). We also discuss the nature of the bubble/ponzi that is the cryptocurrency space as it currently stands.

Check out Bennett's work on his blog:

https://bennettftomlin.com/

Find him and his partner in crime on twitter:

@BennettTomlin

@CasPiancey

@CryptoCriticPod

Their latest show on Tether and other scams:

https://cryptocriticscorner.com/

Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at [email protected]

Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry.

And special thanks to @Bitfinexed for positive direction and regular ideas.

Upcoming podcasts:

David Gerard

MicroStrategy Inquiries

And more!

Tether is the largest stable coin in the cryptocurrency space, with more than 60 billion USD equivalent in circulation. It acts as the the shadow bank for a majority of exchanges worldwide, exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex. In 2014 Tether made a promise that each unit of Tether would be 1-to-1 backed by a real dollar. Since then, a lot has changed.

Check out Bennett's work on his blog:

https://bennettftomlin.com/

Find him and his partner in crime on twitter:

@BennettTomlin

@CasPiancey

@CryptoCriticPod

Their latest show on Tether and other scams:

https://cryptocriticscorner.com/

Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at [email protected]

Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry.

And special thanks to @Bitfinexed

Upcoming podcasts:

David Gerard

MicroStrategy Inquiries

And more!

Check out his work (which includes physical prints and paintings) on Instagram and on his website.

https://www.instagram.com/antonlukashov/

https://www.antonlukashov.com/

Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at [email protected]

Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry.

Upcoming podcasts:

Bennett Tomlin speak at length about the Tether scam (spoiler alert, it's a scam)

A lot of you have probably heard about the excitement around blockchain, tokens and ICOs, and if you have been paying attention to the space in the last year, you probably heard about Binance (the exchange), the Binance Smart Chain (the blockchain) and BNB (the Binance token). It seems like any twenty year old with a laptop and $500 can make a million, and in this episode we interview a Canadian kid with exactly that story. Although his profits are through the roof, his story says something very different about how the industry is making money.

Want to come on the podcast and talk about your experience in crypto? Message Aviv at [email protected].

Host: Aviv Milner

Interviewee: Charlie, Canadian kid who made about a million dollars in crypto

"When the Music Stops" is a podcast dedicated to the documentation of criminal and fraudulent behavior as well as general misinformation that plagues the crypto space. Although the goal is not to attack or berate a guest, the space as a whole is the victim in this scathing review of a space that is almost entirely hot air.