On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back for news and deals of the week. In this episode:  Is Yuga Labs’ NFT collection on Bitcoin genuine? Will the environmentalist attacks on PoW move to other industries? FTX’ Nishad Singh pleads guilty Ramnik Aurora maxed out donations to George Santos Silvergate is in trouble Why concentration risk makes it difficult for smaller banks to bank crypto firms UK banks are curtailing their crypto exposures Oasis returns $140m stolen from Wormhole to Jump NY Mag’s piece on Arthur Hayes Gensler continues to make vague threats against the crypto space Gensler’s regulation by blog post Greyscale’s case against the SEC is moving to oral arguments Can Bitcoin just change the code and move to PoS?

We host Matt Cutler, CEO and co-founder of Blocknative, in this episode to discuss the intricacies of block building and his thoughts on the future of MEV. We cover: The phenomenon of certain block builders subsidizing transactions The requirements for operating a competitive block builder Margins required for sustainable block building MEV redistribution and balancing interests of users vs. validators.  You can follow Matt @mcutler on Twitter and learn more about Blocknative here. 

Matt and Nic are back for the 400th episode of OTB! In this roundup:  Nic’s Vespa story More on Ordinals Is embedding non-economic data in Bitcoin Satoshi’s vision? How Ordinals accelerates efficiency improvements in Bitcoin More FTX crime family news SBF is hit with four new criminal charges Augustin Cartens claims that crypto has lost the battle against fiat NYAG vs Coinex The SEC alleges that UST is a security - does this implicate other stables? What can Congress do about Choke Point 2.0 or SEC overreach Rep. Emmer introduces an anti-CBDC bill Matt’s baseball card collection Silvergate is the most shorted stock right now The SEC blocks Binance.US’ purchase of Voyager assets

Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor joins us to talk ordinals, inscriptions, and digital collectibles on Bitcoin. In this episode: What is an ordinal? Why the name? The history of ordinals and inscriptions How does ordinal theory work exactly? How to participate in ordinals and do you need Ord The interaction between inscriptions and Bitcoin fees Should inscriptions be compressed? How should this happen? Why did Casey not use Counterparty? How Bitcoin is the most premium blockspace for NFTs Inscribed content property rights on Bitcoin versus Ethereum Will Bitcoin state just be pruned? Who will store inscription data? How bitcoin data availability might be improving over time How ordinals affect Bitcoin’s security budget Why NFT traders are looking at Bitcoin for the first time Where the inscription 400kb limit comes from ‘Ripping a 4 megger’ Is Casey concerned about out of band transactions Do ordinals actually increase the possible efficiency of operating a full node? The primary bottlenecks in running Bitcoin

Ray Hindi and Jake Lynch of L1 Digital join the show. In this episode we discuss: L1 Digital’s origin story and early path into the crypto ecosystem. The firm’s approach to investing in managers and making direct investment. The evolution of crypto funds including views on structure, strategy, focus. The fundraising landscape – how pensions/larger pools of capital think about crypto investing. Views on the impact of FTX. Thoughts on the current regulatory landscape. Real World Assets (RWAs) and how L1D is exploring this thematic area. DAOs and how this framework is evolving. To learn more about L1 Digital visit L1.Digital.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is peak FUD in? Is this the ‘custody rule rally’? OTB is keeping the deals of the week House is probing the connections between FTX and the SEC SBF is banned from using a VPN Is SBF a secret sports fan? SBF’s bail cosigners are unmasked SBF VC investors are hit with a class action lawsuit SEC sends Paxos a Wells notice Circle dispells Wells notice rumors Is the SEC going after all stablecoins or just BUSD? What does Reves say about stablecoins being securities? Tether is the beneficiary of the crackdowns in the US Can US regulators really go after Tether? How Paypal deposits are like stablecoins What’s in the SEC’s custody rules? Changes to market structure if the SEC’s custody rules go through Binance suggests that they are ready to settle up with US regulators

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Kraken winds down their staking as a service product The SEC asks all staking as a service providers to register Does 3rd party staking pass all of the prongs of Howey? The FT’s article on the final days of FTX Did the FTX executives leave the labradoodles in the Bahamas? Ordinals are bringing NFT enthusiasts to Bitcoin Matt has had a tough week Kyle and Su launch OPNX So what’s the deal with the crypto-focused Chokepoint 2.0? Major crypto-facing banks are cutting back their crypto practice What will be the fate of the Wyoming SPDIs? The boys review Bad Boys We discuss Colombia’s hippo problem DCG reaches a provisional agreement with creditors Our Storybook Brawl conspiracy Content mentioned:  Nic in Pirate Wires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

In this episode, we were joined by Josh Benaron, founder of Bundlr, a scaling protocol built on top of Arweave. Josh shares his views on: Censorship resistant and permanent storage The importance of provenance in attributing and distributing value Why Arweave's approach to decentralized storage is elegant How Bundlr addresses trade offs in Arweave and makes it more usable Follow Josh Benaron here. Learn more about Bundlr here.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Nic’s Proof of Reserves for Policymakers Charlie Munger attacks crypto The academic Tether truthers are back We unveil a new bad boy New allegations about Celsius surface The problem with exchange tokens How do you retire a token? The paradox of issuing tokens via an offshore foundation SBF is allegedly tampering with witnesses Did Sam really believe in EA? We review Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto Were the Maya really that bad? What on earth is going on with Ordinals? Are Bitcoin NFTs a DOS attack?  A conflict of visions in Bitcoin reemerges  Matt keeps tearing his shirts VC dress codes  Content mentioned in this episode: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2023 Report Coin Metrics’ report on MEV Dennis Porteaux, Illegitimate Bitcoin Transactions Nic Carter, Proof of Reserves for Policymakers

We host Julien Niset, co-founder of Argent in this episode on account abstract and smart contract wallets. We cover: Building the first smart contract wallet on Ethereum Why smart contract wallets improve the non-custodial experience Standardizing contract wallet implementations on L1s retroactively and on L2s natively Comparing and contrasting contract wallets and MPC (multi-party computation) wallets Capabilities (social recovery, gas abstraction, transaction batching) unlocked by smart contract wallets Follow Julien Niset here. Learn more about Argent here.   

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is there a socially optimal level of vigilantism  What's the deal with Modulo Capital?  SBF's mother and brothers are now in the crosshairs Matt and Nic hash our VR vs AR Ted Cruz asks cafeterias in the Capitol to accept bitcoin  Texas introduces Proof of Reserve legislation  What's North Korea's endgame with all their hacked crypto? Tucker Carlson's theory that the airline outage was due to Bitcoin randomware  Matt's Bell's Palsy story Roger Ver owes Genesis $20m  Tungsten cubes are making a comeback Our Super Bowl picks Content mentioned in this episode:  Fidelity Digital Assets, "2023 Look Ahead: Refocusing and Building on Digital Assets’ Core Principles." Galaxy Digital mining, "Surviving the Perfect Storm – 2022 End of Year Mining Report" Former Senator Phil Gramm and current SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce in the WSJ, "The SEC Seeks to Supplant the Market. Its mandate doesn’t include telling CEOs how to run their companies and i

Maneesh Gandhi and Michael Liddy of Evanston Capital join the show. In this episode we discuss: Evanston Capital’s history and foray into the blockchain ecosystem. Their views on the current market environment and how this crypto cycle compares to others. The evolution of the crypto venture landscape and how Evanston thinks about fund structure. Thoughts on the FTX collapse and the impact it will have on the market. How institutional LPs are thinking about the crypto/blockchain ecosystem. Areas of opportunity in the current market environment. To learn more about Evanston Capital visit www.evanstoncap.com

Arch cofounders Dhruv Patel and Himanshu Sahay  Arch coming out of stealth Key lessons learned from the crypto lending crisis Arch’s differentiated offering within crypto and other alternative assets Leveraging crypto rails to build a lender of the future Using experience at top technology companies to build a superior consumer product Learn more at Archlending.com and on Twitter

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  What’s going on with our merch? Nic’s pitch for pickleball What’s the deal with the leaked GTX pitch deck? What happened at CoinFLEX? Our conspiracy about GTX What’s the latest with the FTX crime family Will FTX or FTX.US be relaunched? SBF says FTX.US is still solvent DOJ takes down Bizlato Genesis is exploring a bankruptcy process Coinbase is pulling out of Japan What was the deal with NEM? What happened with Veritaseum Corporate loyalty programs are getting debased Peter Thiel liquidates his BTC Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Tony Scuderi, the founder of Imperii Partners joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The investment banking landscape for crypto/blockchain companies. How the fundraising environment is evolving in 2023. The impact of FTX on the broader market. How companies backed by FTX are taking action. The M&A landscape. Common pitfalls that founders make when selling their business. To learn more about Imperii Partners visit imperiipartners.com  

Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Luuk Strijers joins the show to talk about their new Proof of Reserve rollout. In this episode:  Why Deribit decided to do a PoR  What were the considerations going into it? What made Deribit cautious about the procedure? Which PoRs did Deribit look at for inspiration? Has Deribit received client feedback from the procedure so far? How does Deribit demonstrate asset ownership? Unique among exchanges, Deribit was able to do a PoR for all of your assets, and on a daily basis. How did they manage this?  Why Deribit chose to release the full list of liabilities  How does Deribit achieve end user privacy given the full liability dump? What data, if any, is leaked by the attestation? Did you look at audit firms in terms of supervising the PoR? Why did you go the auditless approach? Does Luuk anticipate moving to ZK proofs for liabilities eventually? How can PoR be improved?  Related episodes:  OTB 180, The Auditor view of PoR  OTB 212, The Proof of Reserve Restoration  OTB 283, J

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  What’s happening with Proof of Reserves? Will BTC and ETH have another fee crisis? Nishad Singh has met with the SDNY in a proffer session The SEC is investigating VC funds that invested in FTX FTX debtors and the Bahamas announced a cooperation agreement FTX announced that it has recovered over $5 billion in assets thus far Gemini and DCG continue to face off Cameron Winklevoss’ letter to DCG Nexo is raided in Bulgaria for alleged money laundering Robinhood is dropping support for Bitcoin SV DCG is under investigation from the SEC Mike Novogratz wants to punch disgraced crypto titans in the face Crypto charity boxing We review Ace Ventura: Pet Detective SBF starts a Substack Japanese retail sours on crypto Should there be more charity boxing in crypto? The state of crypto podcast sponsors Content mentioned in this episode: Ria on Mirror, Reviving Trust in Crypto Coinbase, 2023 Crypto Market Outlook Sponsor notes: Subscribe to th

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  A call for on-chain archeology Nic’s scuppered NYE plans More news from the FTX crime family Who is SBF’s mystery bail benefactor? SBF pleads not guilty SBF is prohibited from moving further FTX/Alameda assets SBF had four meetings with White House staffers regarding pandemic preparedness New inductees into the Bad Boys club Nic’s pickleball confession We revisit the 42 yard field goal challenge The Bahamas regulators wrangle with Jon Ray regarding FTX assets The SEC steps in to stop the voyager deal The House fails to elect a speaker NYDFS fines Coinbase $50m for deficient compliance DCG and Gemini’s wrangle India’s new crypto framework What’s happening with the institutionalization of crypto? Content mentioned in this episode: Sean Judge on Medium, Reasons to remain bullish after a year in crypto hell Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect dir

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Galaxy acquires the Helios miner facility from Argo Consolidating in the miner space  A new bad boy bursts onto the scene  Avraham Eisenberg is arrested in Puerto Rico  Should it be illegal to exploit defi contracts, even if you reach an agreement with the DAO? Craig Wright's case against Peter McCormack SBF is slated to enter a plea  What's the deal with IEX and FTX? Nic's Michael Lewis conspiracy The FTX blockfolio acquisition was mostly financed with FTT The cold snap causes Bitcoin hashrate to decline around 40% in a week  Exchanges are unbundling custody and order matching  Our predictions for 2023 Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newslet

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Are stablecoins still a priority in DC? The rise of the FUDfluencer Sam agrees to be extradited Did the SDNY wait for Sam to be extradited to release Caroline’s plea deal? Alameda was siphoning FTX funds from day 1 What’s the deal with Modulo Capital? Is Gerald Cotten back from the dead? Does Flashboys need a new chapter? What is going on with IEX? How did Michael Lewis not figure out something was up at FTX? Sen. Pat Toomey’s stablecoin legislation Core Scientific files for bankruptcy Why the mining shakeout might lead to consolidation The Fed’s stablecoin blog Visa’s autopayments for non-custodial wallets Stablecoins are having a great year Where are the remaining FTX execs? Content mentioned:  Coinbase, Regulating Crypto: How we move forward as an industry from here Visa, Auto Payments for Self-Custodial Wallets Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry.