40 Burst results for "MIT"
Bankless
A highlight from ROLLUP: Coinbase Crashes DC | Gary Grilled By Congress | Vitalik Deepfakes
"Miss Wagner is like, yo, MIT version of Gary was pro -blockchain, but SEC Gary is anti -blockchain. And then Richie Torres is like, yo, it's a Pokemon card of security? These people are listening to crypto Twitter. They are like, these are our things. The power of crypto Twitter is like getting into Congress. Well, it's because it's distilled logic. I mean, Bankless Nation, it is the last Friday of September. David, what time is it? It's the Bankless Friday Weekly Rollup Ryan where we cover the entire weekly news in crypto, which is always an ambitious endeavor, yet we persevere nonetheless into the frontier this week with a bunch of clips of Gary getting grilled. So everyone, everyone prepare for that one. If you're not listening to this with coffee, because it's too late in the day, well then you should get your popcorn, because that is what you will need. I mean, this is a catharsis, I think, for many of you in this episode. You'll enjoy this very much. Also, crypto was present in Washington this week. Yeah, Coinbase's stand with crypto day was held at Capitol Hill the same day that Gensler was giving testimony in front of Congress. Convenient. What about the timing of that? David, what else we got? After that, we'll talk about pudgy penguins in Walmart landing a huge deal, a ton of distribution for pudgy penguins, also with each toy purchase having an on -chain identity on ZKSync. So we'll talk about that. And then after, also not only are penguins getting identity, but citizens of Buenos Aires perhaps also getting some on -chain presence as well. We'll talk about that. And then, of course, we're going to do the PSA of deepfakes and phishing attacks that are out there. We got a Vitalik deepfake that we want to show you. It's pretty hilarious, but not if you believe it. Notable VC Fred Wilson got phished for 40 NFTs this week. So if Fred Wilson can get phished, so can you. We will talk about this and more. What else we got, Ryan? You know, the usual Bitcoin ETF stuff. ETH might be getting futures. There's a ton to talk about every week. This is a bullish week, I think. I'm declaring it such, David. It is a bullish week. And we got some green candles when we get to the markets. But before we get in, David, we got a message from our friends and sponsors over at Layer Zero. What do they want the folks at home to know? They want you to know that after a year, over a year of combined effort, Layer Zero and Google Cloud have announced their partnership, and they are ready to build the interoperable cross -chain apps of the future. What is Layer Zero? Of course, Layer Zero is a set of smart contracts that are deployed on every single chain. These smart contracts connect to each other. How do they connect to each other? Well, they need some Oracle service in the center to be the chatterboxes, the passing messages between all of the Layer Zero smart contracts across all of the 50 different chains. Google Cloud is that new default Oracle. That is the partnership that they have created. So there is a link in the show notes for you to go explore more if you're a builder who wants to build on Layer Zero. LayerZero .network is also the URL. Well, you know what I want to learn more about this week, David, is markets. Tell me about the old markets. I think, I think, I haven't looked at this yet, but I think we got some green on the week. We got some green, dude. Let's look at the Bitcoin charts first. What's Bitcoin showing us? Some single digit green. Look at that green right on the right. That's your dose of dopamine for this week. It's like, whoo, Bitcoin up 2%, whopping 2%. Started the week at 26 ,600, ending the week at, well, Thursday morning, if you call it the end of the week. It's not the end of the week. 27 ,150, up 2%. Ether price up a little bit more, starting the week at 1660, up 4 .5 % to the current price, excuse me, starting the week at 1560, ending the week at right around 1660, where we are right now. 1660. I mean, it's still low. That is a low price. We are getting excited about very little right now. Yeah. It's up such a small degree, you shouldn't even be excited about this. And yet we are. Yeah, we are. 4 .5 % on the week, I'll tell you. It's better than flat. When's the last time we had a double digit week, man? Double digit up or down? Up. I can't remember either, actually. We've been in the flatlands for so long. It's just like kind of a little bit of a bleed out all the way from 1900. Weren't we over 2000 a few weeks ago? Yeah, we have touched over 2000 in this bear market, but man, it certainly doesn't feel like it. Last time we were at 2K was July. In July, briefly. We weren't at 2K. Yeah, I can't remember July. Well, I was in the mountains. It's been downhill ever since I caught back for the mountains. Yeah, it really was. It's been all downhill since you guys. The only thing you can do, David, is go to the mountains. Bad things happen to Gary Gensler when you go to the mountains. Although, I guess nothing bad happened to him this week. Anyway, I'm skipping too far ahead. We'll have our Gary later in the episode. ETH, Bitcoin, up 2%. Total crypto market cap, $1 .11 trillion. Layer 2 scaling factor, touched 6 % this week, down to 5 .5%. Still at all -time highs. Layer 0. Wait, what touched 6 %? Excuse me, not 6%. Total value loss? 6x. 6x is what I meant. Oh, activity. That's what you like to look at. Yes, layer 2 activity touched 6x of Ethereum, but now it's at 5 .69. Nice. 60 transactions per second, 64 transactions per second. Yeah, that's where we get the 6x. We got more transactions per second left in this tank, I think. Oh, yeah. David, you want to talk about the general markets, like all the TradFi markets? You want to talk about macro really quick, because it's been super confusing to me. It's been super confusing. And then I read this tweet. We're also doing a macro show on Tuesday as well. So a macro show, so talking about the state of macro from a crypto person, so it's a crypto person who understands macro, so I'm really excited for that show. Are you a crypto person that understands macro, David? Do you understand macro? When I have a smarter macro person with me, then yes, I understand macro. My question to you is, does anybody really understand macro, particularly right now? Oh, you mean current snapshot? Definitely not. Yeah, all right. So here's the tweet. Current situation. One, stocks are falling like a recession is coming. Two, oil prices are rising like there's no recession in sight. That's contradictory. Three, interest rates are rising like we have 10 % inflation. Yes, they are. Four, gold is falling like inflation is gone. Five, housing prices are rising like rates are falling. And six, commercial real estate is falling like it's 2008. Nothing adds up here. That's the way I feel about macro right now. It's very confusing. There is a confusing set of signals going on, and it's not adding up in my head. What do you think about this? Yeah, they follow through, and they say it's beginning to feel like a pivot point in sentiment. I don't know if I'm about to say what I think they are meaning by this, but when there's a bunch of confusion, people, I think, brace for something, brace for clarity, and then whatever that clarity is will define sentiment. Where are we going? We don't know. As soon as we find out, we'll know how we feel about it. But we know it's going to be different from here. Different good or different bad? Those are the only two directions. Yeah, I guess that's the reductive take about it. But it's basically like we don't really know. That's why I'm very interested in doing this macro episode next week to see what the newest macro person kind of knows. I will say one thing, though. I think volatility is back on the menu. I think that's what this means. Because when the market doesn't know what direction it's going to go in, then it can kind of lurch in one direction or the other. So weird macro climate right now. On the back of stimulus, on the back of money printing, like what's going on here? And just to be clear about something, we've previously talked about stocks being at all time highs. That's been kind of the theme of the last two months, I would say. Well, so from looking at the SPY, you don't have the chart up, but it has declined by 7 % since July. So the SPY is down 7%, which is more. That goes to the first bullet point. Stocks are falling like a recession is coming up. I don't know. It's down 7%, just doesn't feel like a lot to me. Well, in the trade market, 7 % is a lot historically, but not recently. 7 % in the trade market is actually, that's just like, trade markets are also volatile. OK, well, we'll try to make sense of this, but let's get back to crypto. This is a negative report from JP Morgan, who said, Ethereum's activity post -Shanghai that was the last hard fork back in March, has been disappointing. JP Morgan calling Ethereum's progress disappointing. They've got some reasons for this. While the shift from proof of work to proof of stake meant that the energy consumption from Ethereum collapsed by 99%, the Ethereum supply is shrinking and staking rose sharply by 50 % since the Shanghai upgrade. While that happened, the increase in network activity has been rather disappointing. Ethereum's daily transactions, daily active addresses, and total value locked on DeFi protocols on the network have all experienced declines since the last hard fork. So JP Morgan, their analysts expressing some bearishness here over the last six months or so. Yes. I'm not mad, just disappointed with that activity. My response to that is, who the hell are you? JP Morgan doesn't know how to analyze these things. Well, I don't know. Ethereum post -Shanghai activity, it's just the broader crypto downturn. And also, they're just wrong, JP Morgan, he is wrong. They say layer twos have displayed mixed results. Well, no, TVL and economic activity on layer twos across the board are all up. I don't know where the hell they're getting their data from, but not only is their data wrong, but their analysis is poor. Well, let's go to the actual numbers, Stephen. Layer two beat provides a good source for value locked on layer twos. What are we looking at? At the 180 -day time frame, it's basically flat. It's marginally up, it's basically flat. It's a flat TVL, $10 .5 billion. Activity is up, it's up so much. It's unequivocally up by a lot. I'm disappointed in JP Morgan. Wow. Have you ever been not disappointed with JP Morgan, David? I'm generally disappointed by banking in general. Really? You should start a podcast called Bankless, David, about escaping your bank over time, slowly. I think Vance Spencer put that tweet in perspective as well. Actually, I don't think he was responding to that tweet in particular. But we are. We got some perspective here from Vance Spencer. This is Ethereum, if you chart it against some of the fastest growing tech companies in human history, companies like Alphabet was Google, of course, and Meta or Zoom or Microsoft, and how quickly, over time, it took them to surpass $10 billion in revenue. How long did it take them? It took Ethereum seven years. When charted against these other tech companies, there's only one that did that faster, and that is Google. Yeah. Ethereum really did all of its $10 billion of revenue inside of 2020 to 2023. I mean, so look at this line. It's just kind of like a slope line up. So I mean, doing pretty well, all things considered, JP Morgan. Not disappointing. I'm not disappointed by this. And I'm not disappointed. Also, long -term perspective, not disappointed in the price of ETH over the last seven years either. And we can keep going. Uniswap this week hit 300 million in swaps. 300 unique million trades, swaps, has happened on Uniswap. Uniswap was invented in 2019. 300 million swaps since 2019. Is that disappointing? Is that disappointing? I'm not disappointed by that in the slightest. I feel great about that. Maintain my disappointment about JP Morgan. You know, I think it's part of a broader crypto sentiment, and I've seen a lot of takes just in general in news, but even in financial analyst news like JP Morgan research, that sort of thing. It comes back down to this, David. Mainstream thinks that crypto is dead, again, like always. This always happens. And this is what makes this a buying opportunity, as with previous cycles. And when crypto 10x's the next cycle, don't let anybody tell you you didn't earn it. Because if you're buying here, when everyone is saying crypto is dead, it's never coming back. That they're disappointed. That's how you earn. It's so easy. The signals are just being laid at our feet right now. They really are. I tweeted something like that out, and somebody responded with this life cycle. What are we looking at here? Yeah, just like the cycle of the bull bear market. So in the top of the bull market, some crypto friend of you will tell you, a bankless listener, you're so lucky. I wish that I bought two. And then the crypto market will go down and be like, you're an idiot. I told you crypto was a scam. Yeah, so especially when they say the words disappointing, it's such an emotional word. It's kind of just playing into the readership. I don't know if JP Morgan is about that game. I mean, we're in the stage of the cycle where everyone thinks you're an idiot. And they told you it was a scam. And you can't talk about crypto at your family events or parties because you're just the crypto moron who knows nothing. And ha, ha, ha, SPF, FTX, that's so stupid. Scams, frauds, NFTs are such a joke. Well, granted, some of those things are actually true. Sure, sure. But if you're still in crypto and you know why you're here. And you're no longer buying the scams because you can identify them. And then you'll swing back to like, I am a genius. I am amazing. I am lucky. Or third parties will say you're lucky when that happens and you'll feel like a genius. You've been chewing glass for three years, but you know, you got lucky, though. You got lucky. How about the Bitcoin ETF, David? Here's a tweet from James Seyfert. What's this about? He just says that the SEC has come out super early and delayed the ARK Invest and 21 shares Bitcoin ETF filing. There wasn't a decision due until November 11th. And typically up until recently, the SEC has always gone up right up until the buzzer. But they decided to delay their decision on this earlier than usual. You know why? Partially? It's some speculation. It's because the government's about to shut down. The U .S. government's about to shut down. That's on Monday, right? On Monday? Yeah. So apparently if by Sunday night, this Sunday night, Congress doesn't reach some sort of compromise resolution, whatever agreement to keep the government running, then it shuts down yet again. I mean, how many times have we been through this? And so this is the SEC just getting ahead of that so that the stuff doesn't expire while the government shut down. And I guess, I don't know what would happen if the government shut down and these deadlines were missed. But maybe they would de facto be approved. I think that could be how it works. Is this some sort of pseudo oracle about how the SEC thinks that if we do go for a shutdown, we'll get shut down all the way until at least November 11th? I have no idea. I have no idea what this could mean. I do know this is good news. So Congress, both Democrats and Republican lawmakers, sent a letter to Gary Gensler pleading that he approve a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Fresh update on "mit" discussed on Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
"My colleagues said to me, hey, Brett, you worked at Jane Street. Do you know this Sam Bankman -Fried guy? And I said, I do. Why? Brett Harrison had last seen Sam at his Jane Street going away party. Sam had said he was leaving the finance world behind. And they said, well, do you know he is a multi -billionaire, founder of a crypto exchange? Brett decided to reach out. They exchanged a few texts catching up. Then, a few months later, Sam got back in touch. What he said was, if you'd like to come to FTX, we would love still to have you, which was a very strange text because we had never talked about the idea of me coming It was strange, borderline arrogant. But Brett wasn't uninterested in FTX. The possibility of being on the ground floor of a company shaking up how finance worked was exciting. I said, well, sure, well, if you would still love to have me, let's talk about it. His job was going to to be set up the US arm of FTX as president. He knew this was a young company, and he he had felt a like lot to offer. I mean, he was never super explicit about what it was about me that he wanted within his company, but it felt like, OK, well, I have a lot of experience. I've worked places for almost a decade prior to joining FTX and FTX US. Maybe this is part of the reason why Sam ultimately wanted me to join the company. That November, Brett touched down at Linden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas. Brett was looking forward to getting some time with Sam to discuss his new job, but that was easier said than done. Sam was working all the time, but working meant he was always in the office, always on a call. He was on podcasts. He was on interviews with media. He was talking to investors. He was always on a call talking to other people, and so was largely unavailable. Brett didn't have much luck connecting with the other executives either. Sam had surrounded himself with old friends. There was Gary Wang, the company's chief technology officer. He was one of Sam's friends from the frat at MIT. Gary, he showed up to the office around 5 p .m., and he apparently worked until something like 4 a .m. And I am more of like an 8 to 5, 8 to 6 kind of person, as I most think humans are. There was Nishad Singh, the director of engineering. Sam knew him from school. high Nishad was more the person who actually talked and was responsible for dealing with a lot of the personnel issues that maybe Sam or Gary want didn't to deal with themselves. But Nishad only got in at 1 p .m. So he was also extremely busy. He didn't see much of Caroline Ellison. By now, Sam had made her co -CEO of Alameda alongside another one of Sam's college friends, Sam Trabuco. They were in a separate little building from FTX, and so I basically didn't see them at all unless you ran into them as you were leaving. Brett began to wonder what he'd got himself into. So I found myself in that office, not being able to talk to any of the people I flew all to the the way Bahamas to talk to and thought, this is kind of a waste of time. After the trip to the Bahamas, Brett felt a little funny, but startups could seem weird to new hires.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
A highlight from SBF TRIAL: Inside Sam Bankman-Fried's Trial Defense Episode 2
"The most important thing is, you know, just because a lawyer tells you something is okay, that's not a defense. Geez, he said it. He seemed to think everything was okay. Yeah. That's not an advice of counsel defense that negates criminal intent, that's an excuse. In part two of our series digging into SPF's defense, we dissect Sam Bankman -freed's claims that his lawyers played a larger role in FTX's collapse than he did. It might sound like a stretch, but there is legal precedent behind it. SPF also says he was pressured by counsel into turning FTX over to their hand -picked successor. In this episode, we sit down with Mark Litt, the prosecutor who took down Bernie Madoff, Travis Kling, a fund manager who still has millions of dollars tied up in FTX, and Mr. Purple, a pseudonymous crypto investor and fellow FTX victim, to see if there's any legitimacy to SPF's claims that lawyers who were there for FTX's rise are now primed to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees. Money that SPF says should be used to pay back depositors. I'm Zach Ousman, you're listening to the SPF Defense Podcast, a coinage investigation. SPF's position is that FTX would have made it through the crisis if not for his lawyers, which conspired to steal the company out from under him, cover up their role in its operation, and siphon hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees from the bankrupt estate. SPF even names one lawyer in particular, Ryan Miller, who joined FTX US from the law firm's Sullivan and Cromwell, and planned on returning there after his time at the exchange, according to an affidavit from FTX's top lawyer. SPF says Miller conspired to hand the company over to Solcrom and their chosen agent, John J. Ray III, who also handled Enron's bankruptcy. And whether you come to believe Sam's claims or not, Solcrom and Ray clearly won. If FTX's bankruptcy process takes the two years like Enron's did, it's on track to cost over $800 million. And Solcrom's relationship has already been called out by more than just Sam. It's even been raised as an issue by senators and 18 state regulators. But could SPF be right about Ryan Miller and Solcrom's nefarious motives? And even if they did do some evil lawyer shit, will it be enough to get SPF off the hook? To fully understand this defense strategy, it helps to start with SPF's story behind his attempt to plug the now notorious multi -billion dollar hole at FTX back in November's collapse. As the story goes, he was preparing to handle the liquidity crisis by courting Nomura, Japan's largest investment group, and the crypto company Tron, who had pledged billions of dollars in liquidity to FTX, while other investors were still deliberating. SPF had said he planned on giving away most of his equity in the company, and therefore most of his wealth, in an attempt to make customers of FTX International whole. SPF has always maintained that FTX US remained completely solvent right up to the end. But SPF says his rescue plan failed because Ryan Miller and Solcrom agents at his company, including Tim Wilson, another FTX lawyer with a past at Solcrom, pressed him repeatedly to sign the company's over to John Ray in bankruptcy, and even implied that if he refused, they could have him arrested and quote, change control in order to authorize a proper insolvency process. SPF said he changed his mind within 10 minutes of signing, but it was already too late. And he says his lawyers reneged on their promises to let him select a board share, blocking him out of his accounts and refusing to communicate further. As soon as John Ray was installed, he chose Sullivan and Cromwell as FTX's primary counsel. To be fair, SPF actually has a point when it comes to the sketchiness of that process. Even outside legal observers have taken issue with Solcrom being tapped as the firm to manage FTX's bankruptcy. In fact, a bipartisan group of two Republican and two Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, sent a letter to the judge overseeing the case, urging him to appoint an independent examiner rather than Solcrom, which worked with FTX and Alameda before the collapse, bringing in $8 .5 million in legal fees. The senators argued, quote, given their longstanding legal work for FTX, they may well bear a measure of responsibility for the damage wrecked on the company's victims. Regulators from 18 states echoed that issue, saying appointing an independent examiner wasn't just right, it was also legally required. But back in February, the judge in the case threw out those requests, saying it would cost too much money, though we should note FTX's lawyers also charged the bankruptcy estate $21 ,000 over 20 days just for meals, which apparently isn't too much to spend. And if you ask the victims in FTX's collapse, this is all pretty important, considering it's their deposits and claims at stake. And if their money is being drained in broad daylight by a law firm who also helped FTX pre -collapse, that might not sit any better than Sam spending it. We talked to Travis Kling, who lost his crypto investment fund in FTX's collapse, and asked him to weigh in. If you ask me at the very beginning, do you think this is going to be one of the most expensive bankruptcies in U .S. history, I would say yes. Yes. You know, it's enormous. There's a ton of fraud, and it's magic internet money. Trying to kind of Monday morning quarterback this and say, oh, Sam would have been better off not filing for bankruptcy. That's not something that I feel very strongly about. And Solkrom's outrageous fees aren't the only reason for concern. SPF also claims Solkrom gave a clean bill of health to Alameda's trading accounts on FTX in a report with the CFTC just months before the collapse. Furthermore, in his affidavit, Dan Friedberg, who was both FTX's chief compliance officer and Alameda's general counsel until he stepped down following the crisis, says Miller only included FTX U .S. in the bankruptcy proceedings precisely because Miller knew it had the funds to pay Solkrom for its work, which backs up what SPF said about how FTX U .S. was never insolvent. So this may be a case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Solkrom denies any of this, of course. The firm's top bankruptcy lawyer, Andrew Dietrich, who told other lawyers FTX was rock solid in an email just days before the bankruptcy, said he only spoke with SPF twice. The FTX debtors also countersued Friedberg to seek damages, alleging he breached his fiduciary duties. We can't say much more beyond that because Solkrom never got back to us when we asked for a comment. But one thing is clear, what guidance Sam's lawyers gave him, and particularly what they knew about the business, will become integral to SPF's defense at trial. Even if you asked Ryan Miller before the collapse, the laws are pretty simple for any business, crypto or otherwise. Here he is explaining that concept at an MIT Bitcoin meetup in July 2022. Don't do fraud, don't lie, don't release materially incomplete statements. That then creates a basis for liability, liability from a criminal authority, be it a Department of Justice or liability in a civil context. Yet according to Caroline Allison's guilty plea, they had trouble following even those rules. In her sworn testimony, she said, quote, I agreed with Mr. Bankman, Fried and others to provide materially misleading financial statements to Alameda's lenders. Could Miller or any of SPF's lawyers, for that matter, be one of those others? Sam's other allegation that Miller contacted the DOJ to turn over documents that led to his indictment days before SPF linked, which controlled the company, makes Miller start to look even sketchier. But even if Solkrom really does have a true conflict of interest, could SPF really use their role in everything that happened to get an acquittal? Given that I'm not a lawyer, we pose that defense to Mark Litt, the prosecutor who took down Bernie Madoff. Can a lawyer be a criminal? Sure. Yeah. Can a lawyer be part of a criminal enterprise? Yes. Do they often go down? I don't know a lot of reputable lawyers who are going to bless lying to investors, lying to banks, intermingling funds, lying to auditors. If he happened to find one who knew all that was going on and blessed it, then maybe as a defense. But I tend to doubt it. You can't think of it as, well, oh, well, you know, Sullivan and Cromwell was involved or a former Sullivan and Cromwell lawyer was involved and, geez, he said he seemed to think everything was okay. That's not an advice of counsel defense that negates criminal intent. That's an excuse masquerading as an advice of counsel defense. Advice of counsel defense is very specific and narrow. You need competent counsel and they'll stipulate that any lawyer at Sullivan and Cromwell is competent in the subject area that they're being asked about. Second, every material fact has to be disclosed to them. Third, you have to seek their legal opinion on a subject. And fourth, you have to follow the advice. So if the defense can make out those elements, I would think they'd be able to present the defense and it might have a shot of winning. So Sol Cromwell might not be saints, but as we covered last time in episode one, SPF isn't exactly facing a trial over FTX's collapse. He's charged with a lot of things that led up to FTX's collapse. Arguably, what's alleged to have happened post -collapse matters more for FTX's victims. And if you ask them, the reviews are mixed on exactly what's played out thus far. If I'm going to judge Sullivan and Cromwell and John J. Wray from my purview of being someone who's seen these things in bankruptcy, I would give them a very low grade because you can say, oh, this is crypto, it's difficult, but it's not that difficult. And sometimes the devil you know is better than the one you don't. I will say that these debtors are extremely bad in my professional experience. That was Mr. Purple, a pseudonymous crypto investor who has experience following bankruptcy proceedings. For former FTX customers like him, Sam's spat with Sol Cromwell matters very little, as long as the firm can help achieve a meaningful recovery of their funds. And despite the fact that legal fees are stacking up, the bidding market for FTX customer claims is showing a growing hope they might not be stuck with pennies on the dollar. Another way to frame it is, you know, there's a claims market for FTX claims, trade claims, trade actively. There's a little niche of traditional finance that all they do is go around to different bankruptcies in all industries and they buy claims. This is this is a, you know, a subsector of of investing. And this is a huge bankruptcy. So this has been a very big liquid market. Right. And the first, you know, we're a very big creditor in this. So, you know, I'm in active conversations in this claims market. First, first bid we saw was in Thanksgiving and it was like six cents. That was the first bid. Six cents on the dollar, six cents on the dollar. And now now it's like 40 cents. And so it's gone from six to 40 cents. So then I'm like, OK, well, that feels quite good. Yeah. And OK, these guys are charging a load of money for that, but they have taken us from six cents to 40 cents. With both FTX's bankruptcy case and SPF's criminal case unfolding in real time, one may very well impact the other. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the CFTC to share the report. Sam says Solkrom filed to support that FTX's structure was above board. The agency denied our request, saying it's unable to share documents that, quote, could interfere with the conduct of federal agency law enforcement activities. And of course, as long as Solkrom selected John Ray is running the show at FTX, it's unexpected anything comes out to support SPF's case. FTX, too, didn't get back for comment. So unless SPF has direct evidence of lawyers being aware of FTX's shaky financials and helping for years to cover it up, it's hard to judge SPF's advice of counsel defense or the idea that he thought he was in the clear leading up to the collapse just because his lawyers said it was fine. As Litt said, that sounds more like an excuse than a defense. As a community owned Web3 media outlet, Coinage will be breaking down everything we've learned together through this series and curating still unanswered questions at Coinage .Media. I'm Zach Guzman. This was the second part of Coinage's investigative series covering SPF's defense. Stay tuned for episode three, where we'll explore another pillar. Of SPF's defense. You've been listening to the SPF Defense on the Coindesk Podcast Network. Follow the Coindesk Podcast Network to get all the Coindesk shows in one place and head over to Coindesk .com for all the Sam Bankman freed coverage. Thanks for listening.
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Fresh "MIT" from Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
"Was sort of the white Western guy that had really enmeshed myself in crypto in particular. For Alex, it made sense for Sam to be in Hong Kong at that time. Crypto was exploding in Asia. There was far less regulation than in the US. It meant it was far easier for a company like Sam's to operate. But there was another reason Sam was meeting Alex. He needed money. When some of his old effective altruists investors had pulled out, it had slowed Sam down. But Sam didn't want to slow down. He wanted to get big, fast. Sam basically seemed like an energetic robot, I would say. He was very excited, very eager. He wanted to conquer the world. Alex was impressed and not just by Sam's drive. Lots of people who come out of MIT and Wall Street are driven. There there was something unusual about him. He's just on a totally different spectrum from where we
Food Addiction, the Problem and the Solution
Dr. Robert Lustig Exposes Truth Behind Sugar and Obesity
"Dr. Robert Lustig is professor emeritus of pediatrics, division of endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. He specializes in the field of neuroendocrinology with an emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. His research in clinical practice has focused on childhood obesity and diabetes. Dr. Lustig holds a bachelor's in science degree from MIT, a doctorate in medicine from Cornell Medical College and a master's of studies in law from UC Hastings College of Law. Dr. Lustig has fostered a global discussion of metabolic health and nutrition exposing some of the leading myths that underlie the current pandemic of diet -related disease. He believes the food business by pushing processed food loaded with sugar has hacked our bodies and minds to pursue pleasure instead of happiness, fostering today's epidemics of addiction and depression. By focusing on real food, we can beat the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity and disease. And you wrote a couple of books. One is Fat Chance and it's a New York Times and the bestsellers list and the latest one Metabolical, I have read and formed my questions and I have a lot of quotes for you and ask you to address them. Actually it's not really a... You might you might also mention the third book and the reason is because we're talking about addiction and I wrote a book that's pretty much all about addiction and depression and that is The Hacking of the American Mind which really is about diet and mental health and so this is a book that your audience may very much appreciate. Good, wonderful and I would love to have you back and maybe talk about that one and Fat Chance. So yeah we'd love to have you back. I know Esther would agree. You explain that the book Metabolic, it's not really a word Metabolical but but it's a combination of Metabolic and Diabolical and what is going on is Metabolical. Your YouTube video, Sugar the Bitter Truth, has gone viral with over 24 million views and this is the truth. This is, these are the studies that back it up. I'm a believer. We're gonna talk about big food, big pharma, medical industry and the government which are all contributing to this and I told Esther when we decided who to invite I said I want to invite Rob. I've followed you, I've listened to your your videos, you're brilliant and you're bold. You speak the truth and which is based on science and data. Yeah let's start by talking about your work and why you decided to write this book. First of all, you know I didn't come at this with an agenda. I'm a pediatric neuroendocrinologist. I started out taking care of kids with brain tumors and it turns out that a lot of kids with brain tumors become massively obese and I had to deal with the obesity. As I researched that phenomenon which is called hypothalamic obesity, I realized that the same physiology that was causing patients these obesity was actually important in general obesity not related to brain tumors. The hormone insulin, okay, is you know the diabetes hormone. Everybody knows that you know you have to take insulin if you have diabetes to lower your blood sugar. Well where does the blood sugar go with because of the insulin? The answer is it goes to your fat. Insulin is the energy storage hormone and we started realizing that pretty much everybody with obesity had an insulin problem and actually those with the highest insulin problems also had all of these other diseases like for instance polycystic ovarian disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, dementia, gout, hypertension. It turned out we realized that insulin was the bad guy in the story and so then the question was what makes insulin go up in people that don't have brain tumors and the answer was sugar and so you know that's how I got into this and you know basically I've been trying to explain you know the vicissitudes of the American diet you know to the public ever since and explaining that you know there is no pill for this. You know the only way to get insulin down is get rid of the refined carbohydrate and sugar.
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Fresh update on "mit" discussed on Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
"Who come out of MIT and Wall Street are driven. There there was something unusual about him. He's just on a totally different spectrum from where we are. And that was actually very exciting. Because believe it or not, if you're a venture capitalist, you want to back sort of weirdos, like unique people, because it's very hard to start a company. Everyone is telling you, no, you can't do it, and you're not going to succeed. Alex asked Sam how much money he needed to grow the company. And Sam had a ready answer. Five million. Alex was in. He said his firm could put in at least half of that, making him lead investor in Alameda. But there was a condition to release the funds. Alex said his firm would need to do some standard due diligence. We have to do formal stuff. You know, look we need at to your financials, and we need to do a few customer calls, and meet some of the rest of your team, and do an office visit. Assuming all goes well, we'll invest. And nine times out of ten, that leads to an investment. No big deal, in other words. Alex guessed this would take a few weeks, maybe a month or two tops. Things were looking good. Then it all started to change. Sam had been cooperative before, but now would only provide incomplete answers to basic questions, prompting more questions, more odd answers. This went on for months. It ended up being like peeling off layers of an onion, you know, where you peel some off, you think you're at the bottom, and it keeps going, and it keeps going. Alex found out about the losses, the employee revolt, and he was still okay on Sam. But then he started learning other stuff. Sam told Alex that after the revolt, he'd met with some of the effective
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
A highlight from The First Edition of Would You Let Joe Biden"
"Good morning America. Good Monday. Some of you are getting up and getting out the door. I'm glad I am with you. I'm Hugh Hewitt in Studio North going down to the Beltway this week. Oh, back to the Beltway. Gotta go do my work. Gotta go do my job. I want you to begin this segment with me by reflecting on how bad can the polls actually get for one person. Because John Ellis, now you've heard me mention John. John has been on the show before. Ellis on items the site formerly known as Twitter, now known as X, he produces two sub stacks. News items, which I read every morning before I go on the air. That's where I learned about Amazon investing in AI this morning. And political items, which is a second sub stack. And that just collects all the political data. And for years and years and years, John Ellis was the man behind the curtain at News Corp. And he ran the decision desk when it actually ran well. And he ran many, many other things at News Corp. And he's a very, very smart guy. So Ellis puts out these two news sub stacks that I read. And one of them, political items, carries with it the additional benefit of sparing me from having to figure out which polls to read. Because every couple of weeks or three weeks, he puts out the polls in one place. So John Ellis knows polling. He knows which ones are trash. He does not send you the trash one. So I ignore all polls until I see a poll show up in the news items or political items. So polls in one place rolled in on Saturday morning. And I don't want to get sued for copyright. You should subscribe to polls in one place and political items. But John summarized three of these. Number one, NBC News. Three quarters of voters say they're concerned about President Joe Biden's age and mental fitness. Three quarters. Three quarters. Number two, Washington Post ABC News. A Washington Post ABC News poll finds President Biden struggling to gain approval from a skeptical public. With dissatisfaction growing over his handling of the economy and immigration, a rising share saying the United States is doing too much to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia, and broad concerns about his age as he seeks a second term. More than three in five Democrats say they would prefer a nominee other than Biden. And the Post ABC poll shows Joe Biden trailing Donald Trump by 10 points. Then number three, the New York Times. President Biden is underperforming among nonwhite voters in the New York Times Santa College national polls over the last year. And this result marked a — represent a, quote, marked deterioration in Mr. Biden's support among non -Anglo voters. Those are the three big polls of the weekend, and they're all related to Joe Biden's age. So I've asked Generalissimo to assist me in diagnosing the problem here. And so just a yes or no, are you with me, Generalissimo? No. All right, good. Would you let Joe Biden prepare dinner for eight people? No. Would you let Joe Biden do the shopping for a dinner for eight people? No. Would you let Joe Biden make your family's reservations for a week's vacation at Disney World? Oh, hell no. Would you let Joe Biden book the flights for that vacation? No. Would you let Joe Biden drive the youth group van to the beach for Sunday at the beach? Absolutely not. Would you let Joe Biden chaperone the sixth grade astronomy camp overnight trip? Not even with your kids. Would you let Joe Biden invest your 401k? Would you let Joe Biden pick the paint colors for your church or your school remodel? No. Would you let Joe Biden select the menu for your daughter's wedding? No. Would you let Joe Biden lead a group of second graders through the Smithsonian Natural History? Stop, stop. I gotta... No. Just stay in the lane, please. I just want to know. These are just questions. Would you let Joe Biden lead a second grade group through the Smithsonian? Would you let him lead a high school group through the Smithsonian? Would you drop him off in front of an NFL stadium, give him a ticket, and tell him you'll see him in the seats? I don't think so. Would you let him be the president of a state university? Oh, no. Would you let him be the president of a private liberal arts college? No. Would you let him run a large public high school? No. How about a small private high school? How about a junior high school? Nowhere near kids, no. How about an elementary school? Absolutely not. A preschool? Absolutely not. Would you let Joe Biden run a 7 -Eleven? No, he doesn't have the right accent. Would you let Joe Biden run a sporting goods store? No. A multiplex? No. Would you let Joe run the candy and soda counter at the multiplex? It's too confusing, no. Would you let him run a Macy's? A McDonald's? No. A Houston's restaurant? No. Would you let him run an airport? Negative. Would you let him run the parking at the high school football game? No. Would you let him run a high school speech tournament? Too many kids, no. How about a swim meet? No. Would you let Joe Biden run any business with 10 employees? No. Would you let him run a business with 100 employees? No. Would you let him do HR for a business with 10 employees? No. Would you let him run the gift wrap sales fundraiser for your kids school? No. Would you let him run the thrift shop inventory day? No. Would you let him run a car dealership? Negative. Would you let him run a church fundraiser? No. A church service? No. A service station? No. Would you let him run a piano recital for 20 students under the age of 10? How about 10 students under the age of 10? No kids, no. Would you let him announce graduation at MIT? Would you let him announce graduation for any college? Have you heard him? No. Would you let him run an eighth grade graduation? No. Would you let him run the change of command at any duty station for any branch of the armed services anywhere in the Americas or in the worldwide distribution of our defense facilities? Not unless you wanted to create an incident, no. Would you let him drive a truck? Well, he's already claimed it, no. Would you let him drive a car that you're riding in the passenger seat? Not unless I was heavily insured. Would you let him fire a pistol at a range? Oh, hell no. Would you let him fire a rifle at a range? No. A machine gun? No. Bazooka? No. Would you let him get into a tank and fire a tank? I'm seeing a pattern here, no. Would you let him direct the drone strike? No. Would you let him drive a little tiny boat whaler, you know, a 12 -foot whaler? I would let him pilot your dinghy, no. Would you let him drive a criss -craft with an outboard motor? No. Of a yacht, a big yacht? No. Would you let him command the deck of a freighter? A freighter? No. How about a destroyer? Uh, I'm thinking not. Submarine? No. Aircraft carrier? No. All right. Could you imagine Stav with him on deck? What would you let Joe Biden do? Retire. No, but I mean, really, seriously, is there anything you'd let him do to put him in charge of, because this is my first edition of would you let Joe Biden dot, dot, dot? Nothing complicated because he gets confused easy. Nothing with kids because we kind of know about that. No, there's nothing the guy can do. He has shown no knowledge of market economics, free market economics. He has no idea how supply and demand works. No, but I'm just talking about give me something that he can do because we've got to get a retirement hobby for him. A retirement hobby? Checkers. Do you think he could win at checkers ever? It's yeah, he could he could run he could run an ice cream stand. I we I covered that. You were gonna let him run a 7 -Eleven. I don't know. I covered the gift wrap. 7 -Eleven is more complicated than an ice cream stand because gas is involved. But but I asked you about the the gift wrap fundraising. I want every mom in America ice cream. Well, no, every parent driving to school in America right now knows fall is the season for fundraisers. So we got the call from the granddaughter over the weekend. Hey, Nana, which is the fetching Mrs. Hewitt, right? Would you buy gift wrap? And of course, we're probably gonna have enough gift wrap for the rest of the five seasons. Yeah, yeah. Five seasons of gift wrap. Yes. And and now the flash is probably going to come up with candy bar. You know, it's just fundraising season, right? And so it's better than raffle tickets. I hate raffle tickets. Yeah. Gift wrap you can at least put in the closet and it'll be there when when she has to clean out the house. You are what we call in in in the school trade. You are what we call an easy mark. A mark. Yeah. Yes. And and you wouldn't even let Joe button out. For those of you who are new to the audience, we've added affiliates recently. Dwayne is an ex band parent who keeps getting dragged back in. And when he was a band parent, he ran parking at the at the battle of the band. Do you know what I'm doing now? Do you know what I'm doing this this year? What I'm doing? What? I had to stand up along with my wife, stand up a snack bar outside of girls volleyball. All right. Would you let Joe Biden run that? Not in your wildest dreams, because because one money's involved and two girls are nearby. But I mean, OK, then Paul back a year or two. No, you let him direct parking at the Battle of the Bands. Oh, not unless you wanted a wreck.
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Fresh update on "mit" discussed on Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
"Made sure that the money actually arrived where it was supposed to go we didn't have accurate data about all of our transfers or our balances while the japan trade was working none of this mattered but then crypto markets crashed and the mistakes became hard to ignore mistakes like sam's decision to bet all of one donor's money the price of the cryptocurrency ethereum which went very poorly and lost us millions of dollars or the massive transfer of another crypto token that nobody bothered to check on by the realized time they that the transfer hadn't made it to the correct destination the price of the token had collapsed so we lost i want to say three million dollars maybe four million dollars sam showed no wanting signs of to slow down if anything he wanted to go faster he started talking about expanding raising more money naya noticed that he could be unpredictable he would flip a switch with regards to a given person he would just delete them from his reality this happened with me it happened with several other people more and more people became unable to work with him in the end it was too much for naya and some of the others they told sam he was taking too many risks to them this wasn't effective it was unethical my impression became that what sam was actually motivated by was power not altruism for its own sake started seeming more and more like ea was almost a useful idiot for him like that it was a means rather than an end they decided it was time for a reset on april ninth tara and three other senior executives walked into the office they gave sam an ultimatum they'd buy him out for around one million dollars or they were through sam sat there in silence they waited for a response he kind of just didn't say anything and just stood up and walked out it didn't take long for him to give them his answer no deal it it would have been the perfect time for other owners to step in except sam had registered himself as the sole owner the whole thing might not have felt out of place at one of sam's diplomacy games back at mit he had outmaneuvered them there was nothing they could do Tara McGauley and the rest of the management team resigned along with Naya and half Alameda's two dozen staff when he said no it was like great that's his problem it's not our problem anymore because yeah things had just gotten to be such a mess and we had lost back most of the profits that we had made when Tara and the rest of the team left a lot of the investors from the EA movement followed suit Sam spun the revolt as a good thing in a long memo he
Crypto Critics' Corner
A highlight from Were SBF's parents in on it? Follow the Money
"Welcome back, everyone. I am Cass Pianci, and I'm joined as usual by my partner in crime, not of the criminal sort, Bennett Tomlin. How are you today? I'm doing well. How are you, Cass? I'm doing good. It's been busy. It's been a very busy week for both of us. But today's episode is going to be about SPF's parents, the Bankmans and the Freeds, and their what appears to be increasingly important role that they each played in the criminal elements of FTX and Alameda Research. They called it a family business. They accepted incredibly large salaries. His father was getting a million dollars after requesting it because he was only getting 250 ,000 before. Mom pushed and tried to ensure that any money getting sent to the charity arm of the company had two steps of separation, two degrees of separation. And just really shady, weird stuff going on over there with the Bankmans and the Freeds. But those are kind of vague descriptions of what's going on. Bennett, why don't you walk us through some of the seriously criminal elements and what is happening? There is a decent amount of allegations contained in this lawsuit from the FTX debtors in possession against Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried that at a high level alleges that they were involved in specific aspects of the business and were closely connected to various alleged criminal acts and criminal acts people have pled guilty to. Starting with Joseph Bankman, he was involved with Alameda Research as early as 2018, which is when it was founded, and stayed involved throughout the entire time. The first several years, this appears to have been relatively informal. He directed FTX towards their first law firm, suggested their first accounting firm, was involved in consultations for hiring of certain executives and things like that. But none of this was documented in any kind of formal way. Eventually, in January 2021, he decides that there should be some kind of piece of paper that describes his relationship with these entities. And so he creates a document that describes his work for Alameda Research and FTX and FTX US, saying he's doing a variety of pro bono legal work and consulting work for these entities. What's interesting, of course, is that he was the signatory for the FTX entities and for himself on this entity. Really has kind of vibes of that loan agreement between Bitfinex and Tether years ago, where JLVDV and Juan Carlo was signing for both entities. And so that was one moment that really struck me as I was going through that is that he felt the need to, after providing advice for several years, finally in 2021 documents it and says he's providing this pro bono legal advice. This did not stay pro bono for very long. Later in 2021, he would take a leave of absence from Stanford University. And after he took this leave of absence, he allegedly told an FTX US employee, I'm no longer getting paid by Stanford because I'm on leave, so you should have me on salary starting December 1st. In December 2021, this is when he finally entered into a formal employment agreement with FTX US, where his nominal title was Senior Advisor to the FTX Foundation. You said it was $250 ,000. It was actually $200 ,000 a year, plus bonuses he was supposed to be getting paid. And this is where we get to the fun part that you made an allusion to before. He went to FTX's head of administration after signing this employment agreement that clearly said $200 ,000, told this person that he was supposed to be getting $1 million a year starting in December, and then he sends an email over to Sam Bankmanfried, his son, that says, and I quote, Gee, Sam, I don't know what to say here. This is the first I've heard of the $200 ,000 a year salary putting Barbara on this, meaning he cc'd in Sam Bankmanfried's mother and his domestic partner to help him deal with this contract negotiations that happened after he signed that contract. And it worked. It worked. Within two weeks, Bankman and Fried were gifted $10 million in funds originating from Alameda. Within three months, they ended up getting their $16 million mansion in the Bahamas funded entirely by FTX. And over the period after they got that mansion, they were able to expense something like $90 ,000 in various other expenses. And before he signed that contract agreement in December 2021, I do want to make clear he was also provided with an option to purchase shares of FTX US and FTX trading in November 2021. Before he was even employed with FTX, he was getting large options of shares. So yeah, I think that kind of is a good initial overview and we can get into some of the details he was also involved in, but they were receiving a lot of this type of monetary compensation. Yeah, well, I want to specifically bring up here some things that really made a red flag go off for me were, for instance, how they were keen to keep the residencies, the properties that they were acquiring with these gifted funds and all this money that they were essentially taking from customers, to be clear on that, that they wanted to ensure that that money in those properties would be shielded from a bankruptcy. And I'm just wondering, like, why, if they're so confident in this business, if they're so confident in their son, if they're so sure this is the future of finance, and I get it, you want to shield your personal property from a bankruptcy, but you just got gifted $10 million. You have to know this isn't exactly personal property, right? Like, you have to know your son is giving this to you. Your son is making money from the company. How is he making all of this money? You haven't really nailed that down yet. And you still are just letting this all transpire. Nobody was asking any questions is kind of what I'm getting to. But the questions they were asking were about, like, ensuring that they were shielded from any problems in the future. Yeah. And we should clarify the timeline a little bit here. There's a 2021 email exchange where FTX's general counsel wants to set up a meeting with their law firm to discuss how assets, including primary residence, can be structured to be bankruptcy remote. And Bankman quickly kind of responds in this email chain the next day and says it would be great, all else equal, if we could have the founders put money into property in the Bahamas and sent them a link to a description of an offshore trust structure in the Bahamas. He then discusses this with a lawyer in the Bahamas, another Stanford law professor, and his brother -in -law, and then ends up saying something we might use when we buy property in the Bahamas. And the reason I'm belaboring this point is because it happens, I think, about a year before they actually end up getting the house. And then, five months before they get the house, there's another thing that happens, and that's that they apply for residency in the Bahamas, permanent residency in the Bahamas. In order for them to get that, there's a $15 ,000 fee. That's also paid by FTX. And so I think what that kind of shows is this kind of series of planning that went into them eventually getting this mansion. They started discussing how to structure this about a year before, and I don't think they ended up using those trusts, at least not at the time of bankruptcy. They had already gotten their residency months before they got the property, and then they got the property. They wanted to benefit from this. There's no doubt about that. I mean, there is no doubt. I just want to be clear, and we're going to link to the very thorough protest article that goes over all of this, but it is very obvious. I think before we get to the crux of this, I first want to delve into this a little bit more. So Stanford yesterday decided that they were going to return all of the donated funds from this family, which amounted to $5 .5 million, which is a lot. I mean, I know that they get a shit, a metric shit ton of cash every year, but the idea that they're getting $5 .5 million in a single year from one family, one company, you know, essentially one family. That's how you get your name on a building and stuff like that. So they were donating a ton of money to this educational institution. All I want to say is that I think Stanford is disgusting. I think we see this in a bunch of these higher education, these private institutions, probably equally common in great public universities as well, but the ones that we hear about are like MIT or Harvard or Stanford accepting money from Jeffrey Epstein or accepting money from these guys, and then, oh, okay, you're returning it. Great. Well, you know why you're returning it? Because you got caught. That's why you're returning it. You're not returning it because you thought it was the right thing to do. Now that it's all coming out in these court documents, Stanford's giving the money back. They didn't do it one minute before that happened, though. Isn't that interesting? And I, you know, I think you should get into kind of the details of those donations, which there were many over this period, but like, oh, what a nasty, nasty way for a university to operate. I think the elite private colleges are at a special risk for kind of this because so much of their, like, existing structure is based around taking in cash and converting it to some vague elite authority. Speaking specifically about the donations from FTX to Stanford that appear to have been directed by Joseph Bankman, there was one that came from Paperbird directly to Stanford University. And this one was interesting because there was a lot of discussion about which entity to use. And what Bankman ends up saying is that he thought it should come from Paperbird, which was one of the entities that Sam Bankman -Fried owned that held most of the stock for FTX that investors were buying into. The corporate structure of FTX is a mind fuck. But this shows Bankman was aware of parts of the mind fuck. He says Paperbird can use the deduction. And when he discusses alternatives, he says we can have another entity loan Paperbird money, but that requires some paperwork. Eventually they get it all sorted out. FTX transfers money to Paperbird into a newly set up bank account, which immediately sends that money on to Stanford. There was another four million dollar donation to a Stanford fund for pandemic preparedness that he described as pretty much a no brainer. Bitcoin were transferred from Alameda Research's FTX account eventually. There was another series of donations where it was proposed that they give 1 .5 million from the FTX Foundation to Stanford College. However, the initial 500 ,000 for this came from an Alameda Research bank account, and the second 500 ,000 came from an FTX US bank account. There was another donation they did for a Stanford blockchain conference so they could sponsor it. That one was only 10k. But again, it kind of points towards how Bankman saw these entities as interchangeable. He said 10k is so little it doesn't really matter. So if we think that having FTX US is easier or safer for some reason, we should just do that. And what's most interesting is you talked about your name on a building. And there was a Stanford University employee who provided comment as part of this lawsuit. And this Stanford University employee apparently says that internally in Stanford, these donations were categorized as directed by the Bankman -Frieds. And like when they specifically got the big $4 million pandemic preparedness donation from Alameda, this person even reached out, should this one be categorized like the rest as from you all? Or is this one somehow different? And so yeah, I think that those donations kind of point towards how they were specifically using these commingled customer and client funds from across all these different entities in this self -promotional activity of giving these donations. Yep, there's more to where this money went, how much was spent, why they were in control of this. But I think the question that everybody wants to ask and is wondering about is how are they not being criminally charged with anything yet? And will they? I think we should hold off on that question for just a moment, because I want to talk about how Joseph Bankman also made sure other people he was related to and friends with got paid while he was in this position, because I think that's kind of fun. They talk about one example where he got a Stanford law student a free trip to the French Grand Prix tickets to the race so they could go and visit that. But I think the more interesting one was a hackathon that they had planned that was run by his sister. Bankman freed Sam's aunt. They hired her at a rate of $14 ,000 a month to prepare the FTX million -dollar hackathon and crypto summit held at the Miami Heat Arena, which was the one they put their name on briefly. They spent a total of $2 .3 million on this event, which was attended by 1 ,200 people. They were spending crazy amounts. They said she was authorized to spend like without a budget, whatever it was needed to get this event done. There was so much of this kind of like self -enrichment here that we'll get to your question as to how are they not being criminally charged. That's just grift. Yeah, obviously. The other person we need to talk about, of course, is Barbara. Barbara Freed, Sam Bankman Freed's mother. In her specific role, she, as you alluded to at the very beginning of this episode, described herself as her son's partner in crime of the non -criminal sort. And Sam made sure to sing her praises to his team, making known to her that he intended to rely on her direction regarding who to give to, how much to give to, and how it should be disclosed and told them that it would be good for them to follow her advice as well. And what seems really interesting is she seemed to have a great deal of control. The lawsuit even alleges she was able to unilaterally commit funds of Sam Bankman Freed's to her political action committee, Mind the Gap, meaning without Sam's authorization, she was able to take Sam's money donated in Sam's name to her political action committee, which is a great deal of trust. And even inside her own committee, when she had to talk about some of these donations, she would say things like, I don't know exactly what interconnected entity he sent the money from, but the business is real and revenue -generating, which again, I think, points towards kind of the interchangeability of these entities for these folks. What I think really gets interesting is Nishad Singh, who has already pled guilty for conspiracy to defraud the federal election committee, as well as a variety of other conspiracy charges. He was one of the people who appears to have served as effectively a straw -man donor for Sam Bankman Freed, and was advised in this process by Barbara Freed, Sam's mother. At one point when they were discussing donations to her organization Mind the Gap, and she suggested that, now that my connection to Sam is publicly known, because we don't want to create the impression that funding MTG is a family affair, as opposed to a collective effort by many people, including some mystery guy Nishad Singh, which is when she was suggesting that on their end, they would prefer if his name was the one that was donating to Mind the Gap instead of Sam Bankman Freed's. And similarly, she was worried about a lot of their political donations. There's a really telling one, where she's warning him in an email, And again, later, just the last one to really put kind of a cherry on top of her seeming knowledge of some of the criminal acts that Nishad Singh has pled guilty to. She said, And I think this, as well as some of the more specific tax advice that Bankman Freed was giving on FTX their specific finances and stuff like that, point towards potential knowledge of criminal acts. I tweeted out shortly after I read through this lawsuit, or as I was about halfway through reading this lawsuit, if I'm being honest, And as you alluded to previously, that is kind of what this feels like. It feels like these two law professors, who should have known better, had high -level knowledge of things that people have already pled guilty to, and were deeply involved in the business. Bankman specifically was even mentioned on an internal document as a member of the management of FTXUS, along with only a few other names. They had knowledge, they were inside the organization, and they had some amount of presence. One last thing that I think really hammers that home. When we went to consensus, and we talked about this in our episode that we did after that, Anthony Scaramucci was talking about his experiences in the lead -up to and aftermath of the FTX collapse. And one thing he said that seemed to be corroborated in the lawsuit is that Bankman was involved in them attempting to get the emergency funding. And as we said, and we shared the audio clip of Scaramucci saying it, Bankman apparently told Scaramucci, Anthony or intimated to him, that there was an asset liability mismatch at FTX. What happened to me is I was actually speaking in Sarasota, Florida. There was rumblings that day, I think it was November the 6th or something like that, or 7th. The Monday was the 7th. And then I got back to New York and I spoke to Sam's dad about the problem, and it was intimated to me that it was an asset liability mismatch, that they were leading redemptions and there were assets available, but they weren't necessarily liquid, and they needed time to get the liquidity, and they were looking for some rescue plans. And so at that time, I was a good citizen and a partner in the business. In fact, they owned a piece of my business. I was certainly trying to help them on their fundraising round.
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Fresh update on "mit" discussed on Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
"Of the Center for Effective Altruism. They enlisted a bunch of people in EA to join the company. They were going to be a financial powerhouse for good. Brett was pretty surprised by how quickly he had set up his new trading firm. He told me that he had started this trading firm. I remember asking him at the time, you know, how on earth did you get the capital to start a trading firm? You know, I thought you were going to work for a nonprofit. And employees who Sam would recruit to the new trading company, say he also never took the nonprofit thing seriously. Sam's worked time at the Center for Effective Altruism lasted maybe two months. This was a cover. He was leaving to start a crypto trading firm. In other words, Sam was on his old tricks from his diplomacy playing MIT days. Build a strategic bond, gain trust, then make your move. Sam called his new firm Alameda Research, and it became the foundation for his entire crypto empire. If you're a venture capitalist, you want to back sort weirdos, of like unique people. He wanted to conquer the world. Look at this. You're listening to Spellcaster, the fall of Sam Stay with us for the Spellcaster Takeover on Bloomberg Radio. It's the podcast that chronicles how SPF became the world's richest 29 -year -old. Listen ad -free on Wondery Plus and also on Apple, Amazon, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah Miller and this is Bloomberg. Get the news
The Breakdown
A highlight from Anti-CBDC Bills Advance in Congress
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Monday, September 18th, and today we are talking about anti -CBDC legislation being advanced. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or, if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello, friends. Happy Monday. Welcome to another week, another frankly weirdly quiet week right now. I don't know. There's something out there. There's some bad juju. I guess it could just be another example of this weird period of the cycle that we're in that's sort of past the worst, but definitely before the good stuff starts again, but I'm excited. But we are not going to dwell on that. Instead, we are going to hop, skip, and jump through a number of things that have happened over the last few days, kicking it off with what has become a surprising political issue this election cycle, which is central bank digital currencies. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a markup section on Wednesday, which will include two bills aimed at preventing the issuance of a US CBDC. The first bill is Tom Emmer's CBDC Anti -Surveillance State Act, which would prevent the Federal Reserve from offering any products or services directly to individuals. Fed branches would also be prohibited from keeping accounts for individuals or issuing a CBDC or similar digital assets. Emmer's bill was recently reintroduced during last week's CBDC hearing and now boasts 49 co -sponsors. On September 14th, the House Majority Whip tweeted, A governmental tool for financial surveillance is un -American. We must urgently develop a digital financial system that is 1. Open and freely accessible to all. 2. Without requiring permission from the government or anybody else. 3. Private safeguarding the user's identity. In a separate tweet, he had said, If not open, permissionless, and private, like cash, a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP -style surveillance tool that can be weaponized to oppress the American way of life. The second bill is sponsored by Alex Mooney and is called the Digital Dollar Pilot Prevention Act. That bill is structured as an amendment of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that would prevent Federal Reserve branches from even conducting CBDC testing and development. Now, of course, senior Fed officials have gone on the record to say they have no plans to issue a CBDC without the approval of Congress. In May, Minneapolis Fed President Neil Kashkari even questioned the need for a CBDC given the existence of instant payment fintech services. He noted that CBDCs would be a powerful financial surveillance tool and could enforce negative interest rates, but questioned why the U .S. government would have any interest in constructing such a system. Now, all that said, some Fed branches still do seem to be interested in the development of CBDC technology. The San Francisco Fed, for example, recently advertised a position for a crypto -architect for a CBDC project, and Project Hamilton was concluded and wound down in December after two years of collaboration between the Boston Fed and MIT. Now, in terms of where this legislation actually is, the markup process allows committee members to comment on the drafting of bills. A vote is then taken on whether or not to approve legislation for a full House vote. Both bills are only a few paragraphs long, so shouldn't drag out to an all -day, contested affair as we recently saw with the stablecoin bill. Instead, the bills could act as a bellwether for congressional sentiment around CBDCs. Multiple Republican presidential candidates have made opposition to a CBDC a part of their campaign. For example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a July event, If I am president, on day one we will nix central bank digital currency. Done. Dead. Not happening in this country. Outsider Democrat candidate Robert F. Kennedy has also been outspoken on the need to oppose the issuance of a CBDC. So given all that, if either of these bills progress to a vote in the House, they could be an opportunity to put members of Congress on record about their support for a CBDC coming into election season. Now, we could spend shows and shows and shows talking about why this seemingly small issue, at least to the rest of the world. Obviously, I'm not talking about for our audience and our community. But this issue, which is for all intents and purposes very small to most people, has become such a central piece of the opposition narrative heading into this election cycle. I think there are probably a few different elements of it. One, I think it feels to many like an extension of government power. And as we've seen and discussed, it is quite clear that how much power governments have is going to be a major issue. And of course, while that's coming from the Republican side of the House, it's also coming from Democrats. And this is perhaps not surprising. It's not surprising because we're still coming off the COVID period, which brought up major questions of how much authority the government has to be involved in people's lives. And so in many ways, this is an extension of that conversation. I think there is also a little bit of nervousness around technology in general. This is something that we've seen in crypto. It's certainly something that we see in AI as well. And while this is technology in the hands of the government, not technology in the hands of big tech companies, it still has that feeling of lots of data, lots of power, lots of information, big black holes, and not a clear way for citizens to exert influence when it comes to this important domain of their lives. Anyway, right now, there's no one who's really actively arguing for a CBDC, which could frankly be another reason why it's a nice political issue. It gets to stay a little bit, at least in the realm of metaphor for some of these larger topics, but it's still something that can be legislated upon with lower stakes than going after government power directly. Anyways, it's one we're going to keep an eye on to see just to what extent it continues to be an issue in elections or whether it's just part of this early narrative testing process at this very nascent point in the election cycle. Next up, we go halfway around the world to Hong Kong, where the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued a warning to crypto users that unregistered crypto firms could be presenting themselves as banks. The HKMA, which serves as the region's banking regulator, said that firms which use language associated with the banking industry could be in violation of recently implemented Hong Kong crypto regulations. The regulator said it had become aware of firms using terms including crypto bank and offering quote banking services. They even went so far as to call out firms that use the word deposits or promote their quote savings plans as low risk with high return. The HKMA said in a statement that quote, The regulator noted that these firms advertising themselves as crypto banks were not supervised by the HKMA and are not covered by the region's deposit protection scheme. Now, Hong Kong's crypto regulations coming into force in June was one of the big stories of this year. The rules were intended to permit retail crypto trading on regulated exchanges and they're being administered by the local securities agency rather than the banking regulator. Since then, only a small handful of firms have been granted licenses. This includes HashKey and OSL, who were licensed to provide retail trading exchanges, as well as Swiss -based crypto bank Ciba, which has received in principle approval to offer over -the -counter derivatives trading and asset management services. Now, enforcement of Hong Kong's crypto regulations has also begun in earnest. Last Wednesday, the securities regulator issued a warning against Dubai -based crypto exchange J -PEX. They alleged the firm had been promoting its products and services in Hong Kong without applying for a license. A press release from the securities regulator included allegations that J -PEX were advertising their services using the prohibited terms deposits, savings or earnings. They noted that many J -PEX products had quote, The regulator also accused influencers and local OTC desks of making false and misleading statements on social media that J -PEX had applied for licensing. Following the warning, J -PEX employees seemingly disappeared from their booth at the Token 2049 conference in Singapore, where they were a platinum sponsor. And on Sunday, the exchange ramped up withdrawal fees to $999 and also implemented $1 ,000 withdrawal limits, essentially being a withdrawal halt. Now, J -PEX addressed this on Sunday, blaming quote unfair treatment by relevant institutions in Hong Kong towards J -PEX. They said that quote, J -PEX said they were currently negotiating with these market makers to resolve liquidity issues. The exchange promised to quote, They claim that emergency withdrawals are still being dealt with manually and also announced that trading on their earned trading platform would be halted on Monday. Now, adding something to the story, on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported that local police had received at least 83 complaints about J -PEX involving assets worth around $4 .3 million. They say the securities regulator had escalated investigations to the Commercial Crime Bureau on suspicions of fraud. Follow -up reporting said that lawyer turned crypto influencer Joseph Lamb -Chalk had been arrested on Monday in connection to promotion of the exchange. Sources also said an office building had been raided on Monday morning. Now, there's a lot that's actually really worth watching here. Hong Kong creating this licensing regime is not just relevant for citizens of Hong Kong, although it certainly is for them. This has been seen, rightly so, as a marker of slightly shifting Chinese attitudes towards crypto in general. When these rules were first announced as forthcoming at the end of last year, it was widely anticipated that it would include a retail trading ban. Remember, crypto trading has been banned in China for the last few years. However, in the wake of FTX, and in particular the US's aggressive response to it, it appeared that the Chinese authorities might be reconsidering their position and in so doing using Hong Kong as a vehicle for testing the waters on the market without changing any policy in mainland China. In that light, I don't know exactly what this enforcement action around J -PEX actually signals. Arresting an influencer certainly sends a signal, but to what the ends of that signal are, I'm just not sure. I do think, however, it's probably worth weighting this issue as a little bit more significant than just a regional crackdown, as it may have bigger implications given the unique role Hong Kong plays relative to China when it comes to crypto. Next up, we move back to bankruptcy proceedings in the US where Gemini have slammed the proposed settlement between DCG and their subsidiary, Genesis, calling it misleading at best in a court filing on Friday. Now you'll remember that earlier last week, DCG had filed a proposed deal which would settle approximately $630 million in outstanding loan payments to Genesis. DCG said the deal could result in 90 % recoveries for unsecured creditors and recoveries as high as 95 % to 110 % for Gemini Earn customers who form the largest creditor entity in the Genesis bankruptcy. Gemini said in their court filing, however, that, quote, DCG touts proposed recovery rates that are a total mirage, misleading at best and deceptive at worst. Make no mistake, Gemini lenders will not actually receive anything close in real value terms to the proposed recovery rates under the current agreement in principle, end quote. DCG had proposed a repayment schedule for $1 .65 billion in total loans over seven years. Although the agreement had a substantial payment in the first year, criticism of the deal noted that recovery calculations were contingent on crypto -denominated payments becoming more valuable over time. I think the numbers were something like Bitcoin going to $85 ,000 and ETH going to $8 ,500. Gemini customers are owed around $1 .1 billion and it appears that taking on long -term risks associated with crypto prices and the continued solvency of DCG are simply not acceptable to them. Gemini said in their filing, quote, receiving a fractional share of interest in principal payments over seven years from an incredibly risky counterparty is not even remotely equivalent to receiving the actual cash and digital assets owed today by Genesis to the Gemini lenders. They added that, quote, DCG's proposal is markedly parallel to an attempt to satisfy its significant obligations through the issuance of IOUs instead of paying any real cash and digital assets. Gemini lawyers also slammed DCG's negotiation tactics, claiming they had made efforts to suggest that they would become desperate enough to take a significant haircut just to move on. On their creditors update blog, Gemini put it even more pointedly, stating that, quote, DCG is gaslighting creditors and testing earned users' resolve by baiting them with false promises of high recoveries. Now, hanging over the current state of the Genesis bankruptcy is the firm's right to exclusively propose recovery plans. The judge had granted a 30 -day extension to the exclusivity period through to early next month. That order was contested by Gemini and ended up falling short of the 60 -day extension requested by Genesis. After the exclusivity period has elapsed, creditors will be able to organize their own proposed deal to bring the bankruptcy to a close. Finally, separately on Friday, Gemini updated their lawsuit against DCG and CEO Barry Silbert. They now include four direct allegations that intercompany loans between DCG and Genesis were designed to, quote, make the market believe it had actually fixed Genesis's cratering financial condition. So there you have it. There are a number of other things that happened over the weekend or around the end of last week that we may touch on in conversations later. Mark Cuban got fished for almost a million bucks, for example. The New York Times leaked parts of a 15 ,000 -word Sam Bankman -Fried ramble that amounts to a very self -pitying reflection on the state of affairs. And Google's head of Web3 is begging the industry to build something actually useful. For now, though, we are going to wrap it there. We're going to get to the hard work of building back this industry from the ground up. I appreciate you hanging out here with me as we go about that work. So until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
Cryptocurrency for Beginners: with Crypto Casey
A highlight from Bitcoin Book Softwar BANNED! National Strategic Significance of BTC (Most Efficient Weapon? )
"Major Jason P. Lowry of the United States Space Force wrote this extremely dense book called Softwar, a novel theory on power projection and the national strategic significance of Bitcoin. And in an interview with Robert B. Love a couple months ago, Lowry said he wrote the book as a step -by -step guide for politicians, regulators, or anyone on how to win the argument that Bitcoin is a national security issue that needs to be addressed by the United States yesterday. He argues that this new technology is the next newt, and the fastest way to bypass all of the regulatory bureaucratic BS that is causing the U .S. to fall behind as the global and technological superpower in the world is to take the issue out of the hands of the likes of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who do not understand warfare by using this book to prove Bitcoin is a national security issue and catapulting it to the hands of the Department of Defense. Is Major Lowry onto something? Are other global powers already privy to this concept? Is that why Russia and China have recently pivoted and have become top Bitcoin hashers? Well, it's possible, because this book was printed and available to anyone around the world in February of 2023, and as of a few weeks ago, the Pentagon told Lowry to remove it from publication. Here's a tweet from Lowry on July 27th about the situation. For those asking what's going on with me, I was ordered to take Safwar down and asked to stop talking about the subject publicly. Doesn't appear on MIT's library either. Can't talk details, but things are good and I'm working hard behind the scenes. Appreciate the kind words. As some of you may know, I ordered the book when it first came out, and I've got a printed copy. So in this video, we are going to break down Lowry's thesis together about the national strategic significance of Bitcoin. So there are a few concepts we need to explore together to help us fully grasp the gravity of the theory. So let's start with physical security of scarce resources. Here on Earth, everything is in constant competition for scarce resources like food, territory, energy, shelter, a means to reproduce like a mate and similar, and every single thing alive in the world today succeeded at living and reproducing by using physical force or imposing a physical cost on predators, competitors, and any other living organism that was competing against them for food, territory, the ability to reproduce, etc. And to describe what imposing physical cost means, Lowry uses an equation where he explores the ROI or return on investment of attacking something and considers the ratio of the potential benefits or rewards from attacking something compared to the potential costs or downsides of attacking something. For example, what are the potential benefits versus costs of trying to harvest the scarce resource of honey from a beehive? Well, over time, bees have optimized themselves to reduce their vulnerability to attacks and to secure their food resources by imposing physical force on attackers by swarming and stinging them. And we can also imagine how this plays out across all of nature when considering most animals at the top of the food chain have pointy teeth, sharp talons, big claws, lots of muscles, strong bones, etc. All attributes that increase their ability to increase the costs or downsides of something that may try to attack it and increase their ability to secure scarce resources like food, territory, etc. Nice. Now with humans, the same concepts apply but play out in multiple domains in civilization due to our complexity, intelligence, psychology, physiology, and a myriad of factors. In those domains where we impose physical force against each other, on a global scale are land, water, air, outer space, and now, as Lowry points out, in his thesis, a new domain has emerged called cyberspace. So in each of these domains, to decrease our chances of being attacked, there must be a consequence. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to maintain control and security over and access to valuable resources essential for survival like land, food, energy, natural resources, ports, etc. And as unfortunate as it may seem, warfare is the last resort to secure our resources if laws, policies, treaties, or agreements break down between different countries, civilizations, or similar. And we see it every day in nature. Lions don't negotiate terms with the gazelles when they are hungry, they just eat them. Snakes don't refer to contracts or similar between their prey, they just eat them. If a pack of wolves controls some territory and then another pack of wolves shows up, they don't have a civil conversation about where boundaries are or about sharing resources. They bark, growl, snarl, and ultimately, if it comes down to it, engage in warfare through physical force to try to secure their territory. So humans experience these same situations if we spend time developing irrigation and farmland, the only way we can secure it is by imposing a cost of attacking it with physical force. Throughout time, that has looked like spears, swords, arrows, and eventually guns and so forth. So the function of warfare is physical security over scarce resources to establish pecking order, settle disputes, and similar. Resources in life are scarce, so life has to fight for the limited resources to survive. However, over time, the form of warfare has changed. In modern society, we outsource warfare or physical security of force to the military, police forces, and similar. So while most of us do not participate in applying physical force to secure resources, war still wages on every day around the world. In the domain of land, we have armies that impose physical force on any attackers, or the armies impose physical force to try to secure land we may not currently control, depending on the cost and benefit ratio of attacking a particular area. In the domain of water, we have the navy that imposes a high cost of physical force on attackers like pirates to ensure our ports are secure and we can successfully trade across the ocean with other countries. In the domain of air, we have the air force that ensures we have access to this domain and that it is secure from potential attackers by guaranteeing a very high cost of attacking it with jets, missiles, drones, etc. In the more recent domain of space, we now have a space force that ensures we have access to space and can secure our resources by the threat of imposing physical force on anyone who tries to deny our access or threatens our resources. So at the end of the day, handshakes, policies, agreements, etc. are not enough to ensure we have freedom of access to our land, water, air, and space because, as we've discussed, there needs to be physical cost and a threat of physical force to protect ourselves from attackers. This is how civilization works and even though warfare sucks, a key benefit to warfare is it ensures decentralization of control over resources where no one centralized person, entity, country, or government has control over all of the land on earth, all of the rivers, seas, and oceans on earth, over all of the air space and outer space, and when or if a Hitler or similar tries to gain more power over any domain like land, it becomes extremely expensive and energy and resource intensive for them. Warfare is also a way to escape oppression and that if something starts to oppress you, warfare is how you prevent and escape from it. Cool. Now what happens when civilizations expand its footprint into the new emerging 5th domain of cyberspace? And what role does bitcoin play as potentially the most efficient weapon ever built that doesn't kill or physically harm anything? Hello, I'm Crypto Casey and in this video we are going to explore major Jason P. Lowry's theory on the strategic significance of bitcoin. Let's hit it.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from Tomer Weller Interview - Stellar Adding Smart Contract Functionality Soroban, MoneyGram USDC, Allbridge, Jed McCaleb, WorldCoin, DeFi
"This content is brought to you by Link2 which makes private equity investment easy. Link2 allows you to get access to companies before they go public, before they do an IPO. Within their portfolio includes fintech companies, artificial intelligence companies, as well as crypto companies. Some of the big crypto companies in their portfolio include Circle, Ripple, Polysign, Chainalysis, Dapper Labs, Ledger, and many more. So it's a great way to diversify your portfolio to get access to equity. So you may invest in crypto, stocks, ETFs, but now you can get access to equity in these companies before they go public. And obviously that can be very beneficial from an ROI standpoint. So if you'd like to learn more about Link2 and diversifying your portfolio, please visit the link in the description. Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. With me today is Tomer Weller, who's the VP of Product at the Stellar Development Foundation. Tomer, great to have you on the podcast. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Tomer, you guys are doing some exciting things on the Stellar side, smart contracts coming to the Stellar blockchain, and much more. But I want to get to know you a bit better. Tell us about yourself, where you're from, and where'd you go up? Sure. So I spent most of my life in Israel, born and raised in Haifa. Did my undergrad studies in Jerusalem, in the Hebrew University. And I also spent a few good years in the Tel Aviv startup taxiing before eventually moving to the US, initially to Boston. And what was your professional background before working at Stellar? Sure. So I've kind of been all over the place. My ever first business was actually a food truck in German Sci -Trans festivals in 2006, 2007. But yeah, more recently before joining Stellar, I was at the Media Lab at MIT. And I was working on a bunch of different research projects ranging from decentralized systems, obviously, to things like media aggregators. I also, the last project I worked at MIT on was a 3D glass printer, an actual physical 3D glass printer. And I'm definitely, I think that if I wasn't in crypto, I would probably still be in the world of digital fabrication. I think it's just super magical to be able to design something on a computer and then see it shape up in real life. It's pretty epic. I mean, you mentioned that that is also a huge emerging market. And in parallel with crypto and AI, just the future of how the world is going to work with. I've been seeing 3D printed houses and different products and so forth. That fascinates me as well, the ability to do that and that becoming more prominent in different industries. Yeah, I think there was definitely a big boom a few years back. Everyone was talking about 3D printers and this idea of local fabrication. I think there was a bit of a step back from that. I happened to, as part of my studies, I went to Shenzhen in China, where a lot of these things, a lot of the supply chains actually originate. And I can tell you that fabrication is hard. And you can see so many, like anything that you have at home, there are so many human hands touching and testing everything and replicating that economy of scale across the world is just very difficult. So I'm excited about the idea of local fabrication. I think we still have a ways to go there. Yeah, maybe AI will help with a lot of that, right? Actually, yeah, for sure. The human touch to a certain degree. For sure. So what was your first encounter with Bitcoin or crypto and what was your aha moment? So these are definitely two very distinct moments. So I think my first encounter was in 2011. This is like very early on. I was still in Jerusalem finishing up my undergrad. And my roommate told me about this crazy Bitcoin thing. He actually started mining on his laptop and he was making Bitcoin on his laptop. Just pretty nuts thinking about it these days. But I kind of like I shrug. I said, this is just like nuts. Nothing's going to come out of this. Clearly, I was wrong and I should have listened more carefully. And throughout my time in MIT, we actually had the Media Lab started this digital currency initiative and it was sponsoring Bitcoin Core development. But I never actually paid that much attention to it. I wasn't really sure where this industry is going. And in 2017, when I was finally wrapping up my work at the Media Lab, I was in San Francisco talking with some companies on potential jobs. And I had offers from Google and Lyft and nothing really felt right. And I reached out to a friend of mine from MIT, Jeremy Rubin, who also happens to be a Bitcoin Core developer and very prominent in that ecosystem. And he was doing some work for Stellar at the time, advising Jed on some protocol changes. And so I asked Jeremy, he said, you should talk to Jed. And you know what? I told him I actually don't do crypto. Like, I don't see a reason for me to talk to Jed. And Jeremy, who, by the way, like more than 10 years younger than me, said that saying you're not doing crypto in 2017 is like saying you're not doing web in the 90s and that I sound stupid when I say that. And so I should really meet with Jed. And so the following day I met with Jed in the San Francisco office. I also met David Mazares, who's the Stanford professor who came with the consensus protocol, some of the other crew. And there was just something very I think I was both sold on kind of like blockchain as a tool for creating equitable access, but also like Stellar at the time. And to be honest, even today, like it felt just like really scrappy and focused and like great atmosphere. And even though it was the office back then was just like a shitty little apartment in the mission in San Francisco. But I just I just fell in love and, you know, packed my stuff up and moved from Boston to San Francisco the following week and been with Stellar ever since. Wow. So in a way, you are a crypto OG, you back in 2011, you know, you know, you knew a Bitcoin even though you didn't touch it or whatever, maybe. And then 2017, I mean, working with Stellar, that's pretty amazing.
What Bitcoin Did
A highlight from The Breakdown of Trust with Doomberg
"One of the things that held up the US dollar hegemony was the state of our institutions and the quality of our financial markets and the rule of law and the level of corruption and criminality that is on blatant display in Washington DC is appalling. And once you lose your ethical framework as a society, what do you have? Good morning from a very happy Bedford and a very happy chairman of the football team that just won their first FA Cup game. We're through to the next preliminary round of the FA Cup against MK Irish on Saturday, which was amazing. Also very cool. We had two Australian Bitcoiners, What Bitcoin Did, listeners who'd come into the country. They made the pilgrimage to Bedford and came and watched the game, which was amazing. Speaking of which, we're making the pilgrimage the other way round. September the 9th, Danny and I are going to be in Australia. We've got a WBD Live in Sydney with Nick Bartier, Willy Woo, Checkmate, Rusty Russell, and Dan Roberts all on stage. It's going to be a banger. If you're in Australia and you want to come out, you want to hang out, you want to come and see a live What Bitcoin Did, go and get yourself a ticket. It's whatbitcoindid .com and click on WBD Live. Anyway, welcome to the What Bitcoin Did podcast, which is brought to you by the legends at Iris Energy, the largest Nasdaq listed Bitcoin miner using 100 % renewable energy. I'm your host, Peter McCormack, and today I've got everyone's favorite giant green chicken back on the show, the amazing Doonberg. Now, Doonberg's becoming a regular on the show now. I can find his analysis of almost anything, any weird stuff that's going on in the world, anything related to, you know, recently we've got superconductors, we've got aliens, we've got economic crisis. I find he is a good person to go to and talk to about this. Now, originally when we did book this, we did plan to talk about superconductors, but before we actually started recording, it came out that LK99 wasn't in fact a superconductor. So we talked about this and we talked about how they analyze this and how they came to their thoughts. But then we moved on to a broad range of subjects from cancer cure medicine to the BRICS currencies and everything Elon Musk is doing with X and why Doonberg has gone lurker mode on X, formally Twitter. And I couldn't let him leave without asking him about Bitcoin as well. Of course, I had to after his $5 ,000 call last time. Anyway, listen, I know you're going to love this one. I absolutely love talking to Doonberg. But you got any questions about this or anything else, please hit me up. It's HelloWhatBitcoinDid .com. Big green chicken. Good to see you. It's good to see you, Peter. How have you been? Yeah, really good. Really good. Yeah, just busy traveling a lot. Been out to Argentina since I spoke to you last. And I'm not sure if you saw the results that came in last night from their primaries. Yes, indeed. Making the big news. I might even ask you about that later on. Loads of weird stuff's been happening since we last spoke. Yes, indeed. Well, the good news is that the news flow means that we'll never have a shortage of things for us to talk about. No, I thought we were going to talk about superconductors. I definitely recently read your piece on the cancer -curing pill. And we've also had the US congressional hearings on aliens, among some of the things. So just your standard news flow for COVID world. Indeed, indeed. Where would you like to begin? I know the information has changed. But let's talk a little bit about the superconductor thing. Because the internet was feverish with excitement about the potential of the discovery of a superconductor. It turns out that it wasn't. What happened here? Were we hoodwinked? Were we tricked? Specifically, what was claimed was the development of a room temperature superconductor. Of course, if you cool down certain materials to low enough temperature, they do superconductive already display behavior. The discovery of such a behavior that could operate at room temperature, or in this case, they claim that they were able to observe superconducting activity at temperatures above the boiling port of water. That would truly be a world -changing discovery on par with fission and perhaps the development of semiconductors. And it is a holy grail. And that phrase is overused, of course. But the advent of such material would truly qualify for one of those. When we first saw the piece that was published, we were very skeptical of it. We wrote our own analysis of it in the days afterwards at the peak of the excitement, really, called Conducting Diligence. And over the years, we have used a five -question framework analyzing for such discoveries. And we applied it, introduced it, and applied it here. As background, when I was an executive in the corporate world, I led very large technology groups. And many CEOs get most of their science advance information in the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times. And so it was very, very common for whoever my CEO was at the time to forward such things to me and demand my instant analysis of it. And oftentimes, I had to talk such people out of reorienting investment dollars to chase down the latest hype cycle. And so over those decades, really, we developed this framework that allowed us to systematically write five paragraphs to our executive overlords and to explain to them most of the times why such an advance was worth watching, but perhaps not worth acting on yet. Occasionally, one does pass that screen. And in this case, we use those five questions and concluded by saying that we're deeply, deeply skeptical. Happy to dive into the details as to why. But I do think that piece that we wrote has stood the test of time quite well. Yeah, before we dive in, can you explain why a superconductor would be such a game changer, though? There's the superficial reasons that the media likes to write about, which is, oh, you can imagine transmitting massive amounts of electricity with no loss and reorienting the entirety of our electricity grid. But in reality, in our view, it would be how a room temperature superconductor could facilitate advances in otherwise unrelated fields. And then the second and third order effects of those would be truly a game changer. In particular, collective computing, for example, would stand to benefit greatly from an advance in room temperature superconducting. And that field, of course, has had its own hype cycle. But quantum computing, a true advance in room temperature superconductors, for example, we believe could put the world of computing back on pace of exponential growth. If you squint at the log curves of the rate of computing advances, it seems to have slowed down a little bit in the past few years. Of course, we're still making massive advances. But it's the second and third order impacts from the other technologies that would be enabled by such an advance that we think would ultimately transform society. And look, all manner of sensitive electronic applications, a quantum computing advance would jeopardize encryption, for example. And there's just countless other ways that a step change like this would be very, very useful. And as we said in the piece, vast riches and a quick ticket to Stockholm to collect a Nobel Prize await those who succeed in demonstrating the phenomenon. And many serious physicists doubt that such an advance is even possible. So when you see such an enormous claim like this, it is irresistible that the hype wouldn't proceed in the way that it did. It's totally understandable. But at the same time, we had serious, serious doubts from the very beginning for the reasons that we wrote in that piece. Okay, so can you break down why you were skeptical in your piece? Yeah, so we asked five questions and I'll just list them carefully. They're simple questions. And the good thing about this approach is it doesn't require all that much in the way of specific expertise in the underlying area. And I should say up front, this is not something that I personally have a deep level of practical knowledge in the nuances of the science, but it's not needed in this case. So the five questions are, who's involved? Where was it published? Where are we in the scientific process? What is the scientific context? And then what should we expect next? And if you go through each of those questions, the first one, as with most human endeavors, the reputation and pedigree of the people involved matters. As we said in the piece, if Google and MIT announce a computing advance, you probably would be safe to bet that they have the goods. But if your neighbor tugs on your sleeve at a party and whispers quietly about an invention he's been working on in his garage for years that's sure to change the world, you'd probably be justified in having a healthy degree of skepticism here. The researchers involved have very good pedigree. The team is based in Korea, but they also collaborate with a relatively well -known physics professor at the College of William and Mary, and they seem to be trained in the field. And most importantly, one of the main inventors said they would be willing to support anyone trying to replicate the work, and we took that as a good sign. Things get a little sketchier when you consider where it was published, which is the second question. And here, these results were not published in a peer -reviewed journal of any pedigree. They were self -published as preprints on the internet, two of them, actually, one with three authors and the other with six. And the barrier to publishing a preprint is zero. You and I, Peter, could publish a preprint making claims to this very same website and generate a hype cycle of our own. That's not to say that the work was bad, but in our view, if this had passed peer review at a reputable journal, it would have lent more credibility to the claims. Unfortunately, this is not the world that we live in, and these preprints were hyped. And one of the reasons why this matters is because, as I believe, ultimately the story will dictate the misinterpretation of the data that this looks like is what happened. This would have been caught in that peer review process and would never have made the hype cycle, which is the third question. Where are we in the scientific process since it's unpublished? And basically, nobody would consider these results to be validated until independent researchers reproduce the work in their own laboratories. And one of the reasons why it's important to publish your paper in a journal and pass peer review is because a key job of editors at such journals is to ensure authors provide sufficient, specific details that allow others to confirm the work. And the good news with this is, as we pointed out in the piece, the compounds used were pretty simple and the synthetic procedures were rudimentary, which actually gave us even more pause because typically giant leaps of science don't usually arise from what we call kitchen chemistry, such as this. But on the other hand, the fact that it was so straightforward meant that others would very quickly be able to test whether the results were real. And then the fourth question is the scientific context. And here, we've had example after example of such claims falling flat, data being retracted. Sometimes it's fraud. Most often, it is misunderstanding of the phenomenon. And so, especially, you know, the equivalent would be claims of battery breakthroughs. You know, we've written another piece on this as well. There's certain fields where the prize is so high that the weaknesses of the scientific method as practice in the modern era are really on display. And the pursuit of a room temperature superconductor would be one of those. And then the last question is what should we expect next, which is exactly what has transpired. A bunch of people tried to reproduce it. Nobody has been able to do so. It appears as though experts have studied the preprints and their own experimental work and have come up with explanation an alternative for the phenomenon that was witnessed. And as we said in our verdict, nobody would be more thrilled to see these results validated than us. But we found ourselves deeply skeptical. The last point I would say is the leap was too far, the method is too simple, and the process too premature to get excited. And I think that was a good view at the time. So is their project dead or are they still working on it? Well, the problem with making such a hyperbolic claim is that it becomes difficult for people to continue to pursue the work. And there's really not that much to pursue here if the reinterpretation of the data is as the scientific community seems to be coalescing on. Because it's just not that interesting of a discovery. And so, you know, back to the drawing board. We were going to write a follow -up piece called What If. It's one of these pieces that was sort of written in my head that never saw the light of day because by the time we would have gotten it published it would have seemed a bit silly. But if this had been true, even if it was a small component or a minor byproduct, the state of industrial heterogeneous synthesis using high throughput techniques is such that the big companies would have obliterated this experimental map across all dimensions. Concentration, oxygen, temperature ramp, you name it. They would have done thousands and thousands and thousands of experiments. They would have found the exact molecule that worked. And that it can work itself is a gigantic discovery. And so if one can work, it would have taken weeks for the industry to isolate an entire family of these things, then the theory would have caught up to it very quickly. And there would have been something about these things that teaches theory something interesting, which then would very quickly inform the synthetic chemists as to how to optimize and create. It would have been, you know, like how the first person to break the four -minute mile and suddenly everybody does it. That this would have been one of those situations where raw the power of the high throughput synthesis discovery workflows in the big multi -deca billion -dollar chemical companies would have made short work of this, would have optimized it very quickly. There would have been no barriers to, no meaningful barriers to commercialization because materials involved were so simple and so widely available that cooking them in a certain unique way is of no challenge whatsoever to the industry. So if there was even a possibility that this had once worked, that would have been game -changing, but it doesn't look that way, unfortunately. What is the general state of scientific research and peer reviews? Because there was a period, certainly post -COVID, where this has been hotly debated and the trust the science mean was spreading quite regularly with people just having vast doubts about peer -review studies and the peer -review process. What have you looked at into that, or is that just... Oh, there's a huge ongoing retraction scandal in the scientific world, and as we said in the piece, you know, peer review on its own doesn't mean that this is fundamentally accurate science. It still needs to be reproduced in other labs for it to really go from an observation to, say, an accepted theory or accepted experimental set of results. But the state of modern science is poor right now, and it's because it is performed by humans who are susceptible to the hype cycle, the need for funding.
Frankrijk Binnendoor
A highlight from De Mont Saint-Michel bezoeken? Dit zijn mijn tips!
"Bonjour, je luiste with a podcast van Frankkreig Binedor, der website voor je ve gan sieen Frankkreig, mit insider tips, vlogs, roadtrips, Reisverar, ebooks, en nyke Buke, so as Frankkreig Binedor on daket aan wer de Frankkreig, that since 2019 at best voor koch de Reisbucke kauen hoeen, en in dese podcast nämeen Mee när de der Brundemoor Senn -Michel, en geewig een goude tip on de masse te vermeide, plus as bonus, a smart test van a omelette. Lauste de Mee, ik reer den is en hotel voor een overnachting mit a good restaurant, een pakkee plaats en oblobe aafstand van de Brundemoor Senn -Michel. Klinkt van Tastiestag, en dat isedag. Torek is oen de verpass när Britannje, socht ik en loke plaak van een overnachting. Een it lake meavav ik en s loke, om dat dumbe de Maung Senn -Michel, ob de Grans van Britannje en Normandy. Eet was a vie en teitgeleider dak een wasgeveest, een und dak een practice lanske van, ton een grichting roskov een Britannje reit, was ite moe underbraking van de Reis. Eeged er en hotel voor een overnachting mit a good restaurant, een pakkee plaats, en oblobe aafstand van de Brundemoor Senn -Michel. The plan was, on Smirnraas ronden Euro 3 aan te komme, so that the Norwegian state was en lope nar de Maung Senn -Michel te gaan. Een saavas dan in de drestaurant van de te teer legget eet, eet draapwap, nah bet, en de vollogte ochten topteit obstam, om de strom touriste voor te zijn. Een ue dat flikte, kun je heen naar hore. Eeg saa een niet heerme gan van mooijen mit de regge, story van de Maung Senn -Michel, ma dijs eega troog naar eet jaar so van de de nagt. Tunde biskhop au beer van avraans, een klein kapel op av een een laungje maung tombe in de bijleebau. Tat det eej, om dat de ARS eengel, mije alb, drikir een hem sauzein versgeen. De welten is van ARS eengel, mije alb, kun je op die versse plaeken op de heude Maung Senn -Michelsinge. Åver es peen ik oenen reverennt teeges de komme van een stadt, dat ee kapel op en beer eegen een bozwetgebout, ma dorren storren flutronte jaar neegel hondert, sau de baai is een on staan mit det eerland van de Maung. Ma fijt ist dat de dese plaekt du saan feelle hondere jaar, een bijondere dorrepligt mit een iendrugweckende abdij. Een die abdij streuungs oek borntije, asge fangen is eengebraak geest. Ma sinds neegt een drinken sester, hoe dese wirde monneke bevord, een asje eebend, is een daagreksen bijondere miste vorgen, ma daar aufe darlek meer. Sins, eegt een sovene soventer, werde maunsse meesjald oer een dijk vor bonde mit det vasterland. Een tat 2014, mars de gute operatte, wenn eer een de tourweerde, on dat de baai, en de dijk, wij spriendt teit on de vater konden kommeen tes taan. Een pakir konje voor die teit, tat circa 500m van de rotz, een asje de anweisingen van de pakir wagt is niet op vorte, die pier eet rissi ko, wij een otto in de vater konnte staan. Een tat gebure de reermattig. De groortig is een hjellanders, man since 2014 is de dijk veneut een deus voor vangen doren brug, iver binning mag meen de maunsse meesjald. De otto mujer achter latte, op pakir plaatse op een kilometres drei van de tourwungsport. Een tusse de pakir plaatse, een de tourwungsport van de maunsse meesjald, reide na vets, dat sein spesiale busset, een mit groot regenmaatte heinen wirreide, toten parnhundered meiten voor de ingan. Een pendel busses een graathes, wer voor de pakir betalienen bedrag per otto.
The Defiant - DeFi Podcast
A highlight from Base: Coinbase's New Layer 2 Kicks Off
"Jesse Pollack is the creator of BASE, a layer 2 scaling solution from Coinbase which launched last week. BASE has quickly become a trending topic and a trending chain this summer, attracting more than 200 million of value in its short life. Coinbase is the world's second largest crypto -centralized exchange by volume and now it's moving to the on -chain world, so it's worth watching. In our conversation, we will dive into the origin story of BASE, why opt for a layer 2 and not start a whole new layer 1, why go for optimistic rollups, how BASE is unique in the already crowded layer 2 space, their decentralization roadmap, and more. Before we get into it, let's hear an introduction to BASE from Jesse. BASE is an Ethereum layer 2, it's being incubated by Coinbase and decentralized out over the next few years. The key thing that BASE does is it lets you run all the same applications that you know and love on Ethereum, but at anywhere between 10 and 100 times cheaper price. So that stablecoin send or the trade or the borrow that you're doing on Ethereum right now that might cost dollars or tens of dollars or hundreds of dollars in peak kind of demand moments, that's going to cost cents or tens of cents on BASE. And so the goal there is really to take this incredible kind of suite of applications that started being built on Ethereum and make them accessible to everyone. So I think that's the kind of core value prop of BASE. It's bring the on -chain world in a format that everyone can access. Of course, there are already a few layer 2s out there. We've had the founders or developers of many of them or at least the biggest ones in the podcast already. There's different flavors of them. The CK is optimistic, Rolla and everything else. So why build yet another one? What's special about this? Yeah, absolutely. And the first thing I'd say is generally our feeling is that it's going to take all of us. You know, when we kind of started thinking about building BASE, I think the key insight that we had that led to us building BASE was that there's going to be many layer 2s that scale Ethereum, almost like the original kind of theory of scaling vision, rather than there just being one layer 2, we think that many of these things are going to kind of work together to provide more throughput, more capacity to Ethereum and help bring a billion people on chain over the next decade. And so what we're doing here is we're really kind of throwing our chips in. We're saying, hey, let's put Coinbase resources, let's put Coinbase energy and let's put Coinbase users into this new decentralized on -chain economy. And let's do that by building BASE, which is an open decentralized layer 2 that's built on the OP stack, which means that it's going to have more interoperability and connective tissue with all the other OP stack chains like OP Mainnet and Zora and Public Goods Network. And let's use BASE as a bridge where we can take all the Coinbase users and all the future Coinbase users, move them from the off -chain world on -chain with BASE, and then support them to go explore the incredible new products, applications, experiences that are being built on BASE and being built on other layer 2s, Ethereum and kind of everywhere else in the on -chain economy. And so that kind of connective tissue that connects Coinbase in the off -chain world into BASE and the broader global crypto economy, that's really the why behind us doing this. We want to bring the world on -chain and this feels like the kind of obvious starting point. Why do you think it'll take many layer 2s to scale Ethereum? Yeah, you know, I think really two reasons. One is when we look at kind of like the history of decentralization in Ethereum, I think that there's generally kind of like some natural forces that pull apart kind of concentration. And so we have the EVM, which is a standard, and that means that it's really straightforward to stand up new layer 2s. And it's going to, I think, be relatively feasible for us to get interoperability between layer 2s, which means that they can actually work together and compose together. And so I think that kind of one of the guiding north stars for us of why there's been many of these layer 2s is that, you know, it's just going to kind of be natural market dynamics where folks want to experiment, they want to start new things. That's going to lead to a bunch of these things popping up and then that's going to lead to a bunch of them growing and them all kind of figuring out how to work together. So I'd say that's kind of like the bottoms up thesis is like the technology is there. It's easy enough to use and that's going to lead to kind of organic growth of a bunch of these options. I'd say that maybe more top down thesis is if you look at what Ethereum scaling strategy historically was, it was kind of starting, right? You know, you take the main Ethereum chain and you kind of chunk it up into a bunch of throughput overall. And I think the way we see kind of the ultimate end state is that that's where we're heading, right? Like that's how you scale. You have many of these parallel shards that can work together, each providing their own throughput. And if you think about that kind of original vision and then you look at the vision that we're describing now with layer 2s, I think you'll see that they're pretty similar, right? Whether it's like Ethereum sharding or a bunch of layer 2s starting to plug into Ethereum, either way, you're doing the same thing, which is that you're kind of adding a bunch of different pipes, which connect into the one big pipe of Ethereum and enable more scalability overall. And so that was kind of our insight that there's going to be many of these layer 2s. And then I think the question was, how do we contribute to that in a really positive way? And that's what informed our decision to build base on the OP stack, which is an open source public good code base that enables anyone to run a chain. We joined as the second core developer. We've been contributing already a bunch of work on decentralization and scaling and security and we're doing that because we want to make it easier for obviously base to scale and decentralize, but also so that anyone who wants to stand up alongside us, who wants to work with us to scale Ethereum can do that as well. So we're really excited about kind of this vision of the super chain of many chains, but we're also really excited about doing it in a way where these things can work really, really well together. And how do you think all these different layer 2s can connect? Like, how does that look like for the end user? Because like, the experience right now isn't the smoothest to like go from Ethereum to layer 2. And then back, you have to wait, you know, sometimes for withdrawals, and then to, on top of that to have to connect with many different layer 2s and have like, different wallets, and I don't know, it's just it's, it's not, it's a bit clunky. So how do you see that evolving? And especially considering that a lot of the exploits and hacks that have happened, most of them have had to do with bridges. So it seems like blockchains right now aren't very well equipped to interconnect. So you know, how do you see the space overcoming that? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think when you look at, you know, a lot of the acts that have happened, they definitely having to do with bridges. But when we think about kind of what's the most secure bridge construction, it really is the layer 2 roll up construction. And that's one of the big reasons why we decided to build base as a layer 2 rather than another kind of like layer one is that we felt like connecting into Ethereum, building on the security properties of Ethereum was the way we could kind of get that scalability, but also kind of reduce the overall risk. And so I think that's kind of our focus. It's building base in a way that, you know, inherits those security properties of Ethereum, but also lets us get best in class scalability. It makes sense that you decided to go for a layer 2. And it's interesting that it sounds like you may have been considering doing a layer one. Yeah, we actually like kind of twice before base, we looked at doing layer one. So in 2018, 2020, we considered doing layer one. And each time we basically decided, hey, like, this isn't the right thing for the ecosystem, it's going to put Coinbase users and Coinbase on an island, it's not going to help grow the broader crypto ecosystem. And so, you know, that really led to us ultimately focusing in on, you know, on other products at that time. And then, you know, kind of really in the last couple years, it felt like for the first time, we could really do this in a way that would actually connect us into the broader ecosystem by building as an Ethereum layer two, and do it in a way where building on the OP stack, we could be kind of collaborative and open source and kind of give back all the work that we're doing. And that for the first time really felt like there was like alignment with our values and what we what we cared about. That's so interesting. I guess like you've talked about this a little bit, but when I get just, you know, more of your thoughts on why go with the Ethereum ecosystem, this was a long process that, you know, we had to work through. And we really started this before we even knew we were building a layer two. And we were really just trying to figure out, okay, where do we build on chain applications or dapps, centralized apps? And in the beginning of 2022, we really kicked off a process kind of across all of Coinbase and said, hey, where do we want to build? We looked at a bunch of different factors. We looked at kind of what did Coinbase products support already? We looked at where were Coinbase developers organically building? And then we looked at, you know, where are the assets? Where is the activity? Where are the kind of developers in a broader ecosystem? And kind of across the board, we found that EVM, which is kind of the Ethereum virtual machine smart contract toolkit, that was the most adopted toolkit. It was the one that folks were building with the most at Coinbase. And then from a kind of ecosystem perspective, Ethereum was the kind of largest, richest, like most diverse and kind of scaled ecosystem for EVM ecosystems. And so those two things, and especially the kind of scale of those two things, the fact that it felt like it was generally like an order of magnitude or two in terms of kind of Ethereum's lead, those really pushed us towards kind of leaning in, in that direction and making it happen. Makes sense. And then, you know, more on kind of the different decisions you have to make along the way. Because, you know, Coinbase is just such a huge force, I guess, in the ecosystem, but it really kind of says a lot what you decide to do. So why go with optimism? Like, there's just so much debate on what the best roll up technology is. And so many good arguments on each front. So yeah, why optimism? Yeah, I mean, there were a bunch of different factors. And, you know, after we kind of made the decision, EVM and Ethereum, we then did a second whole process, which was like, okay, now we pick EVM and Ethereum, but we know Ethereum can't scale kind of for the scale that Coinbase is operating at. Where should we focus our efforts on layer two? And I think the big takeaway for us was, you know, there's a lot of incredible teams, we spent time with all of them. There's so much innovation, so much of it is happening in an open source way. And we want to figure out like, how can we best contribute to that? And so after spending a lot of time with all those teams, I think we ended up kind of doubling down and working really closely with optimism for a few reasons. First, as we started playing around with the technology that powers optimism, so the OP stack, the bedrock upgrade to the OP stack, we found it to be really powerful, flexible, built in a way that could be upgraded in the future, for instance, to add ZK proofs. So we could kind of get the better security and finality characteristics of those. And so I'd say that kind of technology was a big first reason. I'd say the second reason was the way they've decided to license and distribute the technology, the fact that it's MIT licensed, fully open source, accessible, forkable, whatever, by anyone that felt very aligned to the Ethereum ethos. It also lets us just get started without having to think about it, we can just build and feel confident that we're gonna be able to keep building because of that kind of open, permissive nature of the software. The third big reason was really like decentralization. You know, if you look at Coinbase, Coinbase is like a centralized public company. And that means that when we're thinking about starting an open permissionless blockchain, we need to figure out how can we complement that, you know, thing that can be a strength, also a thing that in building a decentralized open blockchain can be a little bit of a weakness. And so I think optimism and the optimism collective and the work that all of them had done the centralization felt like such a good complement to us, where Coinbase could bring that scale Coinbase could bring that like kind of publicly recognizable brand, and optimism would bring, you know, a lot of the decentralization, the experience with governance and really compliment as well. So that was the third reason. And I'd say the fourth reason was, um, we had actually been spending a fair amount of time with the optimism team through our work on EIP 4844, which is an upgrade to Ethereum that kind of increases throughput on Ethereum by creating a new thing called blob space and lowering all the costs of layer twos. And so I think through kind of that work, the work of scaling Ethereum, we'd gotten to know the team, and it felt like a really, you know, strong working relationship. And so technology, open source, decentralization, and team, I'd say those are the four big driving factors. I want to ask you more about your decentralization roadmap or path. But first, curious to learn more about you. Like, what's, what's your background? Like, what led you to build base? Like, were you at Coinbase for a long time before this? Like, yeah, what's your story? Yeah, I'm Jesse. I've been working in crypto for 10 years, a decade now.
Tech Path Crypto
A highlight from 1211.Fixing The Metaverse Problem | Improbable CEO Herman Narula Interview
"All right, so today we're going to dive into some Web3 content. I think you guys will like it. Really what we want to do is explore how many of these companies are starting to navigate these waters. There's a lot happening around this space, whether you think Metaverse or you think Web3 and kind of this conversion. All that we're going to talk about today. It's going to be a good one and we've got a special guest for you. My name is Paul Beryl. Welcome back into Tech Path. Joining me today is Herman Narula, who is the CEO of Improbable. We've had and talked about Improbable a lot, but thanks for stopping in today. We appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me on. All right. So, Herman, let's get into a few things here and I want to kind of first kind of get a framework around Improbable for some of our new audience, maybe people that have experimented with their first NFT, started to learn about Web3 a little bit. Give us a framework quickly on where Improbable is today. Sure. So, in order to make valuable virtual experiences that are differentiated from what people can already do, like play games or interact in the real world, you have to give people something really new and really valuable. And doing that means expanding the scope of what virtual experiences can be. So, what Improbable has spent years doing now, I mean, a decade of our lives with iteration after iteration of technology, is making it possible to support not just a hundred people in a space, but tens of thousands of people connecting from anywhere in the world on a mobile phone or PC or Mac, just by clicking a link to jump into a world which isn't just a game, but is an environment that can support all of those people talking, speaking, singing, in some cases, happy birthday in this example that you're showing me right now, also interacting with each other in incredibly rich and social ways. And to make that possible, we have to handle orders of magnitude more information on the backend. So, recently we did an event with Major League Baseball where we brought thousands of baseball fans into a virtual stadium all over the world. That type of thing takes billions of messages a second that all have to be delivered at low latency to hundreds of countries and have to be done in a way that can survive hackers or other problems. So building the infrastructure to build practical, useful, and valuable virtual worlds is fundamental to what we do and have done. Another aspect of what we do is we make it possible to have richer digital items. So an NFT is really great as a token of ownership, but it doesn't actually do anything, as I think a lot of people have said more loudly on Twitter recently than before. So we created a language called Metaverse Markup Language, and it's totally open source. It's MIT licensed, and it lets you build a complicated, rich object just using JavaScript and HTML that can describe something that can live in a game or it can live in a web browser or anywhere else, and it can link to an NFT if you want. And those objects exist inside all of the worlds that are part of the M -squared network, which in probable has been separate from the partners. All right. So a lot happening here, and of course just the technological achievements have been pretty significant here. When you look at where the Metaverse is today, and kind of, I guess to a certain extent, I think a lot of people saw Metaverse come onto the scene when Meta changed their name. That was kind of the iconic event that occurred. We saw a lot of projects start to open up in 2021, late 2021, and early 2022. When you look at the challenges inside Metaverse, because right now what we're seeing is quite a few people who look at it, whether it's brands or you look at even users and players, that are saying some Metaverses are absolute wastelands. There's nobody there. There's a challenge of interoperability. We've got all these big picture issues that have not really been addressed right now. Where do you feel maybe the short -term future, but more long -term future is for Metaverses in general? Well, let's start by saying there's more than 600 million monthly active people in Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. Phil Rosedale, who created Second Life, is one of the founding advisors of M -squared. If those people interacting in virtual spaces, buying and selling things, moving them from place to place, creating things, kids coming home from school and having whole new experiences, brands showing up. If that isn't Metaverse or Metaverse -like, then I think we're stretching the definition to some extent. So there is already a massive, almost a significant percentage of young human beings on Earth with access to these technologies are interacting inside these spaces. The interesting question, to build on your question, is what's going wrong with crypto Metaverses, or Web3 Metaverses, or VR Metaverses? And I think what's going wrong with them doesn't require a lot of speculation. We know the answer because 30 years of psychology and engagement research in interactive entertainment tell us the answer. The experiences are bad. If the experiences are bad, it doesn't matter what fancy NFT they're linked to or what VR goggles I put on. If you're not providing me with fulfillment, and that fulfillment can only come in a few ways. It can come from a social experience that I couldn't otherwise have. It could come from competence, the feeling of getting better at something, or it could come from making meaningful choices, then there is no real future to it. And I think the other big challenge with a lot of these projects is they're swimming against economic reality. So if the entire ecosystem you've built is around a bunch of people who've bought assets with the expectation, whether or not you marketed it that way, that those assets will go up in value, definitionally, you can't make money that way. The only way you can make money is if people buy stuff that they don't necessarily want to sell on. I mean, if you think about your house, most of the items in your house, you probably don't want to sell on. You know, I bought a sandwich recently, I don't want to sell that on. I want to eat that. So if there's no function, there's nothing wrong with people owning assets that are memorabilia or artwork, et cetera, but that isn't the foundation of a diverse and valuable ecosystem of users. I think on the VR side, while I actually am a believer in the immersive value of things like VR and AR, I don't necessarily know that they are the answer for some of the problems that the metaverse can really solve. I mean, we've talked a lot about sport. I mentioned baseball and you've shown some stuff on screen. This isn't a gimmick. This is solving an economic problem that is at the heart of sport, right? If I told you there was a company that had 600 million active users right now, and those users joined it from birth and would kill you if you tried to make them buy a different product, and they taught their children until the day they died, how much money is that company worth, that brand worth? Well, Real Madrid is that, and you'd think it would be worth hundreds of billions. It's estimated at about five. Why? Because about every year they make less than a Euro per fan. And that's not because fans aren't passionate. It's because, well, if I can't come to the game, because I live in Southeast Asia, or if I can't meet a player or if I can't have a social experience or if I can't really engage and feel involved, well, what can I have? So some of the events would be the last couple of weeks, like meeting famous football players inside an environmental space where everyone can speak. These expand the scope of culture, of sport, of music, of these other areas. So I think the metaverse has to solve a problem, and the problem can't be that you want your token to be more valuable. If that's the problem the metaverse is solving, then it's not solving a problem. It's broken. Sure. Exactly. Well, you hit on a couple of really interesting points here, and I think this is something that a lot of people have to get over to understand kind of this little bit of this concept of what maybe the real future of metaverses are as opposed to what we'll see in the blockchain space. Two things you hit on there, of course, is this brand equity or brand properties that are being transcended into a place like what you had mentioned there with Real Madrid, biggest soccer club maybe on planet Earth when you think about that, expanding that out there. Lots of great opportunity there, and obviously that will be a big part of that. You also mentioned just the existing Fortnite Roblox kind of connection. Those are already kind of metaverses today. They're just not necessarily running on a blockchain. So there are some things like that. Now, in terms of this capacity, because Improbable, of course, is solving some challenges here, you look at the current player count record that has been achieved by you guys, and you look at ... You had even mentioned the size of Real Madrid alone, and think about that times a thousand if you look at all the entities of NFL, MLB, NBA, and then the World Soccer Leagues. There's a lot of fans out there. What are the capacities for blockchain metaverses in the future? So we're able to host entire stadiums full of people at this point, and you can have many of those events running in parallel. And so you could literally take the ticket revenue of a sports league, and if there was six years' events, experiences, and ticketed people who can come in ... I mean, assuming you wanted a ticket, you don't have to, because we can run it cheap enough. You could do it for free. If you could bring Call of Duty -style monetization, that's two to six percent of the audience spending most of the money, to things with a billion, two billion, three billion users and fans, and you could make that interoperable, and you could make that accessible, especially to people on a mobile phone. I mean, let's think beyond football, cricket. There's a billion cricket fans out there, and you look at a 4G map of India, and you see some pretty amazing things in terms of internet access. If you're able to do that, you're not just talking about improving, building a tech company, or improving the metaverse, or improving Web3. You're really making people's lives fundamentally better for things they really care about. One of the things we found is that that becomes a vast opportunity. In terms of capacity, the blockchain really is just a tool. In the demos that you've just shown on screen, there are AI -based bandwidth compression algorithms. There's new approaches we've taken to rendering that don't exist in existing game engines. In fact, we've actually built a new method to allow generative AI objects to appear dynamically inside worlds. We don't talk about any of this, because honestly, these are just tools. And that's how I look at the problem with the conversation these days. Like for me, blockchain, and this is going to sound really bad, but blockchain is like a sewage system. I'm very happy it's there, and if it wasn't there, we couldn't have great cities, and we couldn't build a lot of good stuff. But I don't want users walking through the sewage system. It needs to fade like open -source software, like infrastructure, into the background. It needs to be a powerful enabler for things that your grandma likes, for things that the average football fan or gamer likes, without having to think about, is this an NFT? Is this on the blockchain? Is this a wallet? Is this whatever? That's the key to really making something really valuable. So our philosophy, and this may be as a result of being at this 10 years, having the hopes and dreams, seeing things not work, seeing things work, and building and building and I think a lot of people in the NFT space are quite recent sometimes. It's just pragmatism. Let's just create the things that matter. So we use central services. We use decentralized services. Where it makes sense, we use one. Where it makes sense, we use the other. But we always ask, what is the value proposition? Because the event we've just shown you, you could not run that on a blockchain. No one can do 20 billion transactions a second that are nowhere near where blockchain is. Well, I think the point you are making, too, is this is a societal shift, and when you look at the capacity of where technology is going, there's going to be some great opportunity. You had mentioned a little bit there about AI. That in itself is going to really create some new experiences on its own, much less what we'll see in terms of fan engagement, things of that nature going forward. I want to jump over to the topic of M -squared. Improbable opens up the tech behind Bored Ape's, Ape Metaverse, obviously M -squared. The engine behind this, talk to me a little bit about what M -squared is, because I know it's a separate entity as opposed to a probable itself. Kind of go down that direction and what the plans are here. There's a lot of technology and a lot of separate pieces, so I'll talk a bit more about the economic framework and why that's important, and then I'll touch on technology. Yeah, these are some really cool demos here showing on screen the memorable events from our recent history. But what I will say is, I think what we've realized painfully over the last decade is that there is a fundamental economic problem with video games right now, and that problem is the cost of user acquisition is ridiculous. It costs $10 a person on average to make someone play a free game. Let's just do the maths of that, right? A free game. Not working. Not working, right? That's why a lot of games companies now are just paring back the franchises they know. Exactly. You see layoffs, you see problems in the industry. And the other challenge that people need to internalize is the probability of a team making a hit game, even if they've made many hit games before. And I've seen this firsthand, and we support some of the largest games companies in the world, and people don't know this, but we do a lot of services work for them as well. It's basically like roulette. There is no one with a magic formula to go make a hit game, unlike, interestingly, in music film, and where you see consistent successes created by the same people. Games are a lot more variable. So with that in mind, right, it really doesn't, to me, make a lot of sense that a bunch of projects try to hoard users, try to create their own platforms. And so what M Squared is trying to do is to say, look, it's hard enough as it is to create compelling experiences, and a lot of the industries that we want to work with have loads of users. Instead of a licensing model, which is what Fortnite and Roblox effectively are, they're traffic -based networks. They own the user, they earn the equity value, they own the multiple on that view. You're a guest there. And yeah, that can be really great for marketing, but you can't build a business like that. What is the IP -able value of a business wholly dependent on Roblox? What is the revenue multiple? 1x, 2x, if that, you're not going to get there. So the idea behind M Squared is a radical view. We don't take 20%. We don't even take, you know, we take, I think it's like 2 % is the current number. We don't own the user, you own the user, you own the asset, you own the metaverse. When you went to that baseball experience, you didn't even know it was running on M Squared. But behind the scenes, like the plumbing, like the sort of network that we are, we ensure that all the different metaverse operators on top have the option to do pretty incredibly interoperable things. So avatars can freely move from world to world, items can freely move from world to world. People can create commercial relationships across experiences that don't have to limit them to one metaverse or another. And crucially, because we are targeting companies with massive numbers of users, but very little engagement and monetization, they're actually happy to share users because there isn't always a game on. There isn't always a concert on. And so it makes a lot of sense to create value that way. Now that said, we also are interested in ordinary open source creators. We have a live world right now at construct .msquared .io, it's like a debug space. And we want to let those ordinary creators build content that these bigger brands can bring into their worlds as well. So it's a different model. Yeah, for sure. And I think it really does open up the opportunity here, I think, for a lot of creators and developers kind of going forward. I want to jump over to the demo. And we have a demo clip here of the Construct. And I want to play it for you and then kind of get your explanation of how this works, all that kind of stuff. All right. So we're showing the Construct now. And obviously, kind of walk us through what the framework here is, maybe what the mission is for the Construct. Sure. So the Constructs are completely free, always on Metaverse that is non -commercial. Its purpose is really to create an environment where any creator can walk up to a blimp and just use basically JavaScript and MML to create an object and instantiate it into the world. And it's a way of letting people develop, test, experiment, explore. We host weekly creator meetups in here, which are a lot of fun. I think we did a lecture for a Swiss school here randomly as well. So this is like, oh, there's a dinosaur right there, actually, hilariously enough. It's a completely raw, if you've ever seen The Matrix, this is like the back rooms, right? This is the non -branded, non -professional, non -polished, rough part of the Metaverse where crazy things happen. Someone threw a Daft Punk stage at me, that was strange. The people have made guessing games, hot air balloons, and this is all just made by ordinary creators using an open source language. So Constructs where we test the bleeding edge stuff, it can support about a thousand people off the bat, just as a test base. Interesting stuff. All right, so this is good. I mean, for advancing the technology, obviously, you get a lot of creators in here to really kind of change the game in terms of just the ideation that comes out of this. So very cool. It's just a debug space. It's not something that's intended to house or to be used for consumers. This is really just a place where in the middle of development, and you don't want to deploy it yourself, you might use Constructs. That's pretty much it. And what's interesting is this isn't provided for a lot of other services, which is in the pretty essential environment. Yeah, exactly. So I think that helps kind of go forward. You guys are doing things quite a bit differently. I was looking at this headline right here, obviously you guys are a Softbank -backed startup, but you have a partnership here that's started to roll out, and that is with Google and NVIDIA. So talk to me about what this partnership means for Improbable. So this is the really weird thing about M -squared. It isn't like a normal technology or platform play, in that Improbable is just one supplier of potentially many other suppliers of technology. Like if you want to use a particular streaming service, or if you are a networking provider that's in direct competition with Improbable, and you want to provide your services to companies on the network, you can. So the goal of M -squared is really to facilitate the development and investment in infrastructure by many companies that exceeds the appetite of any one business, and can benefit lots and lots of other companies. One of the main problems with content -based platforms is that they eat so much value that the value that could be created with businesses on top is not created, and this is a way of rectifying that. So you see partners like Google, Ubitus, NVIDIA for streaming, but you can basically plug in any component relevant, different game engines, you can build your own game engine, and the M -squared leadership team, board, and founding team of which I'm part, the goal there really is to, oh this is a very, very old demo that isn't even our current deck that's now on screen, but hilariously enough, still looks cool. But look, our goal really is to invite different providers to contribute value to the network, and it's not exclusive, it's not something where a provider only has to work with us. That's another big difference in view of M -squared. The goal is to create something additive, not to take away from other platforms.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 13:00 08-13-2023 13:00
"Podcast. I would be remiss if I did not thank the crack team that helps put these conversations together each week. Justin Milner is my audio engineer. Atika Valbron is my project manager. Sean Russo is my head of research. Harris Wald is my producer. I'm Barry Rituls. You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. Broadcasting 24 hours a day at Bloomberg .com and the Bloomberg Business Act. This is Bloomberg Radio. This is a Bloomberg Money Minute. A new study from MIT and UCLA is calling into question the productivity of working from home full -time. Newly hired workers assigned to work from home full -time were 18 % less productive than those randomly assigned to work in the office full -time. Joe Constance wrote the story for Bloomberg News. Workers who are fully remote tend to learn more slowly than those who are in the office full -time if they are newly hired workers. The paper marks the latest salvo in a debate that is raging inside boardrooms and chat rooms. A lot of companies are really in this messy middle of hybrid and are trying to figure out you know where exactly the balance is there and how best to organize it so it's the most effective. Corporate executives are split. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon says remote work doesn't work while Airbnb's CEO favors flexibility. I'm Charlie Pallet Bloomberg Radio. You took the first step and quit smoking but even former smokers may still be at risk for lung cancer. That's why SavedByTheScan .org wants you to know about a new low -dose CT scan that can detect lung cancer early.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from Algo Solving Climate Change! (XRP Transactions EXPLODING)
"Thank you, Hillary. And our 72 other friends. Hillary. Hillary, Barack, Joe Biden, thank you for your service. Yes. Thank you for your service, guys. This is Hillary Clinton's face when she's trying to do a serious show. Like I am. It's what it is. Okay. Watch out for Mr. Labs, guys. Watch out for it. They have a scammer at the head. I don't know if she's a scammer or he's a scammer. I don't know. I don't want to disgender. Cisgender? No. Disgender. Ungender? Sorry. We're getting in interesting territory. Is Al Goren teaming up with the Clinton Foundation to fight climate change? Now, I think, are we going to show that meme, BJ, during this? I mean, it's very serious. Well, I would actually say this is serious. We came, we saw, he died. And that is from Hillary Clinton, obviously, referring to Osama bin Laden. Thank you, Hillary. And her 72 other friends. Hillary. Hillary, Barack, Joe Biden, thank you for your service. Yes. Thank you for your service, guys. Sorry. Is Al Goren teaming up with the Clinton Foundation? Now, Al Goren is a very liberal project, just so everybody knows. Zoe McCalley is from MIT. They're very liberal. Very liberal. They love climate change. Love climate change. Same value about them. I don't hold it against them. I just understand these are liberal people that are running the project. Have at it. Teaming up. I don't hold against them. I don't think this is a big, you know, super bad story. And I think with joining with the Clinton Foundation, I'm going to bury that one. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. So did she. B .J. You're getting a little off there, B .J. B .J. Trying to keep this reined in. Just giving people information. Giving people information. Giving them what they want. Yes. This is what they want. And letting them decide for themselves. And we could, like, we could revamp the show. We could move to like a two joke maximum. Go to a two joke maximum. A one story, two joke maximum. Maybe the people like that. We start finding ourselves every time we go over. Absolutely. Two jokes. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Al Grant Foundation behind Algo has come under scrutiny after Altcoin Daily posted a video today. Al Grant was wearing collaboration with the Clinton Foundation. Guys, this is not new news. You know this is not new news, right? You know we covered this story three months ago. Do people know that? Like, oh, my God. This is Hillary Clinton's face when she's trying to do a serious show. Like I am. It's what it is. Guys, this is not news. We broke the story three months ago. I remember AJ came in one day and was like, you know, AJ, I love AJ. AJ's great. I trashed him earlier. I'm going to lift him up a little bit here. Okay? Me and AJ have our own show coming soon. Yeah. It's going to be a very serious show. As all of our shows are. He's like, man, I don't know what to think about this Clinton Foundation stuff. This is bad. Al Grant's getting with the Clinton Foundation. I love Al Grant. This is bad. Wait a look, Doc. I said, it's not bad. I mean, people can have these relationships. Where they want. Like, guys, it's a liberal project. Of course, they want the Clinton Foundation involved. It doesn't mean it's evil. Just because someone's partnered with the World Economic Forum does not mean they're evil. Just because someone is in the World Economic Forum does not mean they're evil. We don't know. There could be some good people in there. Maybe Fox is in there now. Potentially. I don't know. But, guys, people partner with a lot of people, you know? Plenty of YouTubers out there promoted FTX. It didn't mean they were bad people. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they didn't know what. Actually, they didn't know. None of the YouTubers that were talking about FTX all the time and promoting it knew what was going on. Nobody knew. We are the first people who started having some suspicions and putting it out there outside of refinance. So you can't really judge them for that. So, look, at the end of the day, Al Grant is a very environmentally focused blockchain. Okay? So, it makes sense. They're trying to be the fastest and the most efficient. So, see, back in February. Oh, I said three months ago. I mean, this is longer. It was six months ago. Six months ago this happened. Kicked off the week with the Clinton Foundation and the Globe. So what I'm saying is, guys, this is not new news. It's old, they call it. Well, it's almost a joke. I'm sorry, guys. I apologize. XRP makes over 1 million transactions daily. One was six euros behind it. Here's why it matters. On August 8, data retrieved by Finbowld, which I've always wondered what Finbowld means. I've always been confused on that. From BitInfoCharts, and you see BitInfoCharts, they clearly distinguish with capital letters. I like that. Shows that there were close to 1 .28 million daily transactions on XRP Ledger as opposed to 1 .09 million for Ethereum. Bitcoin, the leading crypto, lies far behind. We love it when things are behind other things. We love that. Because it shows potential. It shows potential for what could happen.
Frankrijk Binnendoor
A highlight from Sauternes, gesprek met een wijnboer
"Bonjour, je luisten manne podcast van Frankkreig Benedor .nl, de website voor je ve kann sie een Frankkreig mit insider tips, vlogs, road trips, race forale, ebooks, en nyck booken se vos Frankkreig Benedor und daket andere Frankkreig. Well, since 2019, het best voor koch de racebok auf van Frankkreig is. Ich den Druckhauen auf, in den dese podcast fotelige meine Vahringen, beit Weindorp Soternen, in des Jorunde, wer keins unverwagte Masterclass Soternen kreig, een het hek van de Weindemein, tal pål näste reine meer de Weingard, van het berunde setteu die Kemme Soternelar. Lauste jemme? Bländerende do mei photos, staute den ik ob de photos, die beit dese podcast hore, een die eu konsin ou Frankkreig Benedor und Denel, sledge Soternen. Ich muss de bein mit een tourist denke een een besondereland muting, een sokt naavat een teigringen, in de notitzigstiek Maestermark. Een die krabwalsvaar een nuch, voor een unvergeitelke Herringring, een om die Wir up nieuw opte halle, een es salves am Bloch, een dese podcast hau verte marken. Ich vobleve in 2018 de Weinstreib bekadie Jag en Luppe Jag, wir eken sitat gewurt in een Luppe Jag en om geven, voor een trauwels primmer weinig magt, een och sutte, salves een Soternen, een de andere kand van der Geron. Et een sokt moi om geven kommt de wandel, auf te vietse, een die screeflal is een pebblochs auf. Een kat man jaan voorstelt, om een road trip ne de andere kand van der veer de Geron, een bei Sotern ter en wandel. Een was een moi een sunder gedag, een wer een de richt een Soternen, een det werat berunde chateau dikem. Een die besundere wien sateau bei Soternen, is van muss van wer een de fantastie zu wijnen die een van dan kommt, maar die voorne gebaunensteer verling, nagen och ombetal bas een gewurt. Een wilder dar och nieter turm, de sutte Soternen van dikem te pruve een te koppe, maar och meer de wandel doer der een honden twee ektaar wijn geade, rondet vraegen kastel, een ik wird ob dimenee pruve van de maargesweer van chateau dikem. Om een een die det geave, ist een een fles een een een een een erle van chateau dikem feld för een peis van hundred seven ten thousand dollar, een die dame ert dueste wittewijn een een sozijn. Een een fles van de de meen wild bemächtege, dan beegen gerendeert tusse de 300 euro een meerkreit, een een fles een top jaare is een hjellen maarland betalbar. Deus een zu roit een mit een jom geaving is, die een een glaasje die keem am bit, greip de keans, mein beider han de an. Tur een niefe van chateau dikem was, busslaut die Autotupakkeere, op een paren kilo meitre wordet kastell. So that ik mit maarjan een moor je wanderinger tusse konne maak. Een een de dame hundred sixteen een, saare ik en kastellje, een tusse de meuren de werglagen grastrauk, een die leek mein pefekt, om de Autotupakkeere. Een stonde vooret, op dappel meen för meitre taar wan bakenden, chateau Raymond Lafon. Op een mein dat wer aat stappen, klonke een de anderkand van de moor, two kinder steem, die hart, bonjour eep. Tur een spijle van de tek sage, wer two kinder, heerlek speteren mit vater, een ge niete van de spijle in de zon. Een flakken naak, klonke norgen bonjour, wer dese keer, van de moor je tonke braunen steem, van de man die van heutet haus, neu de pårlieb. Een frug, op een voor een wein pruvreikvam. Een ich haaf irk an, dar ik eingrk pakkere, omme van der lingt du de wein gander ich die kämte mag. De van staxen hant eut, een stelle de sie för as Pierre Mesler. Een vite all de trot, stad de two kinders een klankeindre vare, een niet sommer klankeindre, man een zum ou, een träiling dus. De naar bok hond de frindre kapje, fål er te klätsje, avus een dochter een tres jauns, die nuss amen mit hem vraan vorlek för domijn zijn. Een för te trot, stad de familiar Mesler, een chateau de monle van runt, sind seit in nineteen tween soverdag kot, naar det er välje järre, aus meneser van Böhmann chateau die kemmat gewegt, te värlei rechting het reen meder chateau in de Väthewes. Een haad dus een gudlerse hålgåd, een magte nu sällett mit se kindere prägte gewijn. Een een lok standa vey rämmer hälle för med karte präte, een krär een läsje väinmäkka das är tom soteren ging. Een zau läder nägt dat de France vät vorsgräft, tat maximaat dri dräve sårte för de soteren mågå bor gebragt. Re sän de simonjeon, de sovenjeon and de muskadel. Een bäi räumär lafångebragt se taktter percent simonjeon, een twenty percent sovenjeon, een där vär spjär bålle trödsopp. The dräve vå de väin vär soteren mår lädgeplugt, een där dår, on stät es och nände ärle der Rotting, bär dår de dräve för välle saukes kräge, een de väin, dös uttersmäakt de unikis. Dår de dräves längmågte lätter räipin komminatsi mit de lirgen van de väingräde, on stät des ärle erotting. Een de plukt diegät hälve sächter, een med hände, een med de lärge obrensbestag, sårtet vån dår järven är 3, tot våt ting av meer käre, tat ergeplukt med våre. Een de consequence järs, tär det äntal bräubär dräuver pär väinstag eraglägis. De komminatsi mit de lägge obrensst, het händverg een de frägna rit sår väinen, magt det är präis hågis. Een måi det täi, ist dat såppen demäinen lismet fräule kar plukkes värke, on dat det är gläinen vängersheb, een vår sächter gätt värgän bäi plukke. De väin gät det vån sächter är är mån lafan, lige pån näst die vån sächter dikem, een eppen opervlakte vän 18 hectare, een läver järngs Ångr vi 20 ,000 flässen up. Eer sächten hectare är in productsi, een die häfte an obrengs van Ångr vi neger hectoliter per hectare. Een är sächket gute pånd här, tän ist de norren min så terren, dat de obrengs per hectare Ångr vi väven 20 hectolitres. Tvär det bäi rämån lafan dös någ een 10 hectolitres, een dat komt när opa gläsvein per väinstag. De väin van är sächter rämån lafan vån nände plukke at een lög 3 jär ob njua autofatten van frans eikha häutgelaget vår dat det gebotteltoord. Een är gåde så tän köin häutgelaget vår det gebotteltoord, een är gåde så tän köin nände plukke at een lög 3 jär opa gläsvein per hectare. De väin van är sächter rämån lafan dös någ 3 jär opa gläsvein per hectare. Een är gåde så tän köin nände plukke at een lög 3 jär opa gläsvein per hectare. De väin van är gåde så tän köin nände kokkij sän jag. Een latte kvamag grater dat thatresept op een website stad. Een de linked nan de website, die vinje och frangräg bin de dor påntenal sletts sautern. Dög jät räun säs bäi sautern hän pruven, dan huff jegen asprägte te maga bie alla lijwein domäinen, vär kängen je ochte rägt, väi lä me zondu viejen joran in de dorup, väi jev van pröducen te och omgäven kun pruven en koben. Ma vår een bisonr pruverei zau ik pruvere och me asprägte maga bäi sjatå räimån lafon. Een viejväid te pjättrölug och nag påsålungalpe erlandkleite wår een dor pjär mäslär. Ich vond dit veraal tölug och me jeg nittve tärle. Läg jeg röstur inspirjär een och och is näret southwester van frangräg en sautern te häm. Meer infomasi finjop de website och frangräg bin de dor påntenel sautern. släts Oh yeah, for today's podcast någ, ab när den frangräg bin de dor, in je fa vrita podcast app Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. Een köntur och ag atträtt läustre vi jeg frangräg bin de dor frangräg bin de dor släts podcast. Tot mein vår hande podcast.
Frankrijk Binnendoor
A highlight from Wijngaarden en de oudste Voie Verte van Frankrijk in Sane-et-Loire
"Bonjour! I am the founder of franquerecbinidor .nl, the website for you can see in franquerec with podcasts, blogs, road trips, insider tips, ebooks and the popular book from franquerecbinidor, where under there are regular hits. I am here with my friend Mike from my road trip and I am here to talk to you about franquerec and how it is under franquerec. In this podcast I will talk about the development of the language of russian music in the department of sauna and law. Next to me! I have been in the last year in full strength of franquerecbinidor, but I have been living with it all. In the last year I have been living with russian music in the department of sauna and law. In the year 2003, I have been living in the main streets of the bougogne, Dijon and Macon, in front of the franquerecbinidor bougogne. This year in November 2013. I am here today to talk about the streets of Sauna and Macon. I can't tell you exactly where I live, but I have been living in the main streets of the bougogne. And that place is not so slim. The streets of the city of Sauna and the city of Macon is one of the top cities in the country. The culture, the history and the history of music. And as I was 15 years old, it is one of the most fantastic. And if you live in the main streets of the city of Sauna and the main streets of the city of Macon, then it is a pleasure and an absolute honor to be able to talk more about it. I have been living in the city of franquerecbinidor for 2 years. The first time I saw the city of Sauna was in the city of Gudkend. I was an inclusionist in the city of Macon, but it was also a pleasure to be able to talk about it. And the second time I saw the city of Gudkend, photos were made in the city of Cote d 'Or and the city of Gudbong. And when I saw the city of Gudkend, I did not see the city of Gudkend. But I knew it, and I knew that I would be able to talk more about the city of Sauna. Because I knew that the city of Cote d 'Or was not only the city of Sauna, but also the city of Gudkend. What I really like about it is that it has a fantastic connection to the city of Cote d 'Or. All the time it is a pleasure to be able to talk about the city of Cote d 'Or and Macon. That is the city of Sauna. You can go to the city of Aute Vri, 50 miles away, which is just over 60 km long and it is amazing. This is the city of La Voix Bleu, in Luxembourg with Lyon. It is a great city with lots of mozzles and Sauna. In the last 50 years the city of Aute Vri has been the first city of Frank -Rijk, where it has been a long time since. Just as your land, sea and land, the city of Macon is the only city in the city of Bond. In 1876, the Kaiser, Napoleon III and the Krait were in the hands of the city of Sperbaan. In the last several years we have been in the hands of the city of Aune. Therefore, we have a ton of work to do in the city of Macon and Cluny. It is important to note that the roads in the city are still open, although the work is not open. It is important to note that the city is still open and there is no place to sleep. The last three years were the most important institutions of patria clare and in 1876, the first train to Macon and Cluny. It took 18 years for the first train to land in Saune. In 1876 people stopped and in 1929 stopped for a long time. It took 18 years for the first train to land in Saune. And the first train was the first Voorwerk of Frank -Rijk. That is more than 20 years later and the Voorwerk is now in the Netherlands for a long time. But there are more states to look out for the roads in Frank -Rijk. A Saune is located in the top of the water, where it is quite hot. When the water comes into the Saune and the water goes over the outer Spoorbahn, there is a Saume and the water goes over the Brugogne Dusseld. The combinations of these two freight trains are about 150 km long and over 20 miles per hour. It is ideal if you have a good time in the city. A lot of people think that the best route to the Saune is the best route to the Saune, but they don't know that it is the best route. The Spoorbahn is located in the middle of the Macon and the tunnel of 1600 m in Cluny. It is now the largest area of Europe. In this historic state, the rest of the central North -Pekkeike, which is far away, is not very far away. It is located in the middle of the Voorstellingen, where it is quite hot. The city is large and small, but very touristy. There are also many sites located in the museum of Trussey, but that is not the case. A lot of people think it is the best route to the Saune. is The Saune located in the middle of the Voorstellingen, where it is quite hot. The Saune is located in the Macon, but it is quite hot. It is not the best route to the Saune, but it is not the best route to the Saune. There are also many trains located in the Saune, but that is not the best route to the Saune. The Saune is located in the middle of the Voorstellingen, where it is quite hot. There are also many trains located in the Saune, but that is not the best route to the Saune. There are also many trains located in the Saune, but that is not the best route to the Saune. Like the Saune, there are also the You take the rest of the drink, you have the ...and finally reached the landscape. Some with what is called platinum ore... ...and then we got a little bit stuck in the long -term market. And as we were growing with the work... ...that is the most rustic landscape... ...and some with what is called a spore water house. In the middle of the Baysense in Jour -Lille National... ...there is a station in the city of Kapping, Perron... ...and an auto -pump for the stone locomotives. A local place for a house of a picnic in the garden. A market is a very wide market... ...and for a unit of the houses... ...there are a lot of market -sized houses... ...and very strict products. And on the other hand... ...there is the market of the East... ...and that is the market of the South. In the middle of the Buxi, you can see the local market... ...and then you can see the landscape... ...in a small, but fine middle -earth market. The market that has been used here... ...in the past several years... ...is relatively flat. I would like to show you the door to the left... ...where you can see a small market... ...in a very natural way. You can see the Moya Kamping... ...that you can see here in the middle of the Buxi. And in this area... ...you can see a very large Buxi... ...with very large houses and tunnels... ...with a very large market in the rest of the land. And if you are living in a castle... ...with a large park... ...in the middle of an outdoor area... ...then you can see the Chateau de la Fête... ...that is located on the left -hand side of the door. There are a number of different locations... ...and other locations in the middle of the land. In the link... ...you can find the article... ...on this podcast... ...and the link is in the description below. Now, Buxi is at least... ...a kilometer away from the city of Chateau de la Fête. And it is not the best... ...in the local market of the Buxi... ...but that the wine -dorp Givri... ...is a very small city. The door will be closed in a few minutes... ...and the city will be closed... ...in a short period of time. And over here... ...is the entrance to the area... ...in the middle of the city of Chateau de la Fête. And the money will be sold... ...to the wine -grater here... ...in the middle of the city of Buxi... ...and the quality of the wine... ...will be very high. That's why the wine -dorp Givri... ...is located in the middle of the door... ...and that is the zone. The town is one of the most... ...in the house of France. And that is not a miss... ...because it's a little outside... ...of the city's main port. And now, in three... ...come the city of Chateau de la Fête. And what I'm going to do... ...is to take a look at the water... ...and what you can do... ...in the middle of the city... ...of this flowing place. It is also important... ...to have a supply... ...in the centre of the town. The boat is standing well... ...but not all the time... ...in the local place. The sun fits you over a footstroke... ...or even over a trotware. But, at the same time... ...you come to the centre... ...of the town's launch zone. And under the water zone... ...you can reach the route... ...of the Vaublois -Opec... ...into Tournou and Macombe. The town is located at a distance... ...of about 60 kilometres... ...but you can get a chance... ...into Tournou... ...in two days. Tournou is the best place... ...for a touch stop... ...in this out -of -place place... ...like the N .Z. The Vauzombre... ...Mitti Siveg... ...Tusse Parais... ...and the France Alpe. And that way... ...you can have a nice meal... ...and go to all the fantastic restaurants. There's an overnight in Tournou... ...with a good combination... ...with a little bit of eating. You can also go there... ...and there are only a few... ...in the state of the town... ...and a few of the local restaurants. And it's a great day... ...to go to the airport... ...to the airport in Tournou... ...in the underground zone... ...a moment... ...and a little bit of fun. And as you enter Nübend... ...you get a chance to get... ...to the airport at the fifth floor... ...to the Vaublois... ...in Macon City. You're then... ...a nice little river... ...and a third kilometer... ...as you come by Macon. You can also go there... ...to the airport... ...and you can go there... ...and go to the RSS... ...the airport in Toulas... ...or to the next airport... ...in the sixth floor. And as you can see... ...that is the day... ...when the RSS is a good cause... ...and this is a project... ...of the former Roode National... ...which is called the NSS. It's the most important route... ...to Paris... ...and to the whole of the world... ...by the Italians. It's the most important route... ...to Paris... ...with Mont -Ton -Vebond. It's a great time for the NSS... ...not too far away... ...and it's a great day... ...to go to the airport... ...in the departmental route... ...by one of the masses... ...of Sophie and Zit. The day NSS... ...right in Macon... ...is one of the drugs... ...where you will have... ...a ton of hits... ...from the historical scene. It's the same as before... ...out of ten stations... ...that take over... ...an other function. Some sit in a bakery... ...of an amber vehicle... ...and an ankle... ...in a garage. Or come in... ...out of restaurants... ...and open a store... ...where you can also... ...see more and more... ...the tanned... ...the states... ...in which you can see it. Sometimes... ...if it's the day... ...and you're looking for... ...an option... ...from the other side... ...of the street... ...you can say that... ...what might be... ...the rest of your life. But... ...it's still a long way to go... ...and with the auto... ...you can control it. It's rare... ...when we come to... ...a rare practice... ...to take a... ...lacité... ...the climate... ...event... ...the Bologna. And if you're in a wine... ...liver by the band... ...or if you're... ...more over the wine... ...from the Bologna... ...and you're... ...not going to... ...to see the world... ...it's a top place. You can... ...go to the auto... ...care... ...and you can... ...go to the Centre of the Love. But you can... ...go there first... ...and then... ...go to another... ...in the world... ...of the wine... ...in the Bologna. This is the... ...and the most important... ...is this unique... ...museum... ...which is... ...absolutely... ...a Bologna. It's interactive... ...and digital... ...and you can... ...control a... ...a lot of... ...lungmen... ...all the... ...way... ...to the wine... ...from the Bologna. And with videos... ...and a digital landscape... ...you can see... ...in three channels... ...France, the Netherlands... ...and what you will see... ...in the world. I have a special... ...post for you... ...that you can... ...see what you can... ...see and see. And you can... ...see what videos you will see. It's very beautiful. You can... ...see what you can... ...or you can hear... ...in the wine... ...and you can... ...see what you can... ...and you can see... ...the proof of it. I have the city... ...in Bonn and Chebliogbuss... ...and it's very beautiful. And if you're not... ...motivated to come... ...to the wine... ...from the Bologna... ...then you can see... ...workshops... ...and masterclasses for it. And that's what I have... ...in front of me... ...is called the wine... ...the Bologna. Masterclasses... ...and the workshops... ...in five and a half minutes... ...are all over the place. And now you can see... ...the very state of Canada... ...that is the federal government... ...and the local government. And as you can see... ...in the video... ...you can see... ...the local government... ...the local government... ...and the history... ...of Bologna. What do you say... ...that you're on the way... ...to the Dettog... ...and you're flying around... ...with your brother? I mean... ...manual! I'm going to the 5th of June... ...in uni -2320... ...and you'll see more... ...about the departments... ...of the Alouare... ...and the homes of the Bologna... ...in the French... ...and the Bolognesian Bologna... ...on November 2, 2013. You can find more information... ...at franqrecbinidor .nl... ...slats .org .hich... ...slats .org .hony. Oh yeah... ...you can watch this podcast live... ...but don't forget... ...to franqrecbinidor .nl... ...in your favorite podcast app... ...Apple Podcasts... ...Google Podcasts... ...or Spotify. That's my 4th podcast.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Michael Gibson
"Welcome to the Eric Metaxas show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least make it a double or triple line. Now here's your line jumping host, Eric Metaxas. Hey there, folks. As you know, on this program, we always try to give you a little hope. You know, we talk about all kinds of subjects and every now and again, something comes across the transom that I say, what the heck is this? This is really cool. I'm holding in my hands a book called Paper Belt Fire. on That'll intrigue you, right? Paper Belt on Fire, how renegade investors sparked a revolt against the university. If you listen to this program, you know, I'm all about that. I love that idea. On the back of the book is a blurb, an endorsement, an encomium from Peter Thiel, whom some of you know just through my Socrates in the City event or from the culture at large, probably. But Peter Thiel says about this book, Paper Belt on Fire, part adventure tale, part manifesto, Paper Belt on Fire is a battle cry for anyone who ever dreamed of resting power back from corrupt institutions or of nailing the truth to the cathedral door. You may know that I wrote a big book about Martin Luther, who nailed something to a cathedral door about 500 years ago. I am thrilled to have the author and the perpetrator of the aforesaid events. His name is Michael Gibson as my guest. Michael, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me on. It's great to be here. Big fan. This is, well, you're really kind. This is a huge concept, what you've done. So I want my audience to understand it because I barely do. Tell us, I mean, first give us the short version so we can track with you. What is it that you and a group of investors did? Well, let's start with the Reformation and Martin Luther. So, you know, funny enough, and then that's Peter being clever with the blurb because we started a venture capital fund and we were thinking about naming it. Names are very important in the book and in what we do. And what we realized is that modern universities, there's a historical analogy with the state of the church or the Catholic church in the 16th century. And the geeky analogy we like to draw was that at the time the church was selling a piece of paper at great cost and told people it was a way they could save their souls. All you had to do was fork over some cash to the church. And when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and, you know, what he was protesting against was mainly the sale of these indulgences. And so the analogy we like to draw is that, you know, nowadays there's an institution, they're selling a piece of paper. They're telling you it's the only way you can save their soul. And instead of the indulgence, it's called the diploma. Okay, that is brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant. And listen, as somebody with a diploma from Yale University, I know better than anybody that what you're saying is true. These are corrupt institutions, corrupt on a number of levels, intellectually very, very corrupt. But the idea that you perceived that and you could frame it so neatly that, you know, yes, in 1517 we were protesting selling a piece of paper, which is a sham, and that lo and behold, secular institutions today, five centuries later, doing exactly the same thing. So kudos to you just for thinking of that. But when you started your firm, this was in your mind. Right, yes. So we named the fund 1517 after the year Luther nailed the theses to the church door. And what's great about numbers is, we put them on t shirts and stuff and, and people right away say 1517 What does that mean? You know, and then I get to tell some story like I just did. I did that. That's how we started the fund in 2015. But before that, you know, we, so I worked for Peter Thiel, I helped him launch a fellowship in 2010. So five years prior to the fund, and these are the events recounted in the book. And we initially started a nonprofit, we gave $100 ,000 to 20 individuals a year. But there were two conditions that were noteworthy. One was that you had to be 19 and under to apply. And the second newsworthy condition was that you had to drop out of school or not be enrolled. And so we gave out these grants over the years and, and some of the big success stories that some of your listeners or people watching might have heard of, like in 2012 2013, we discovered the young man Vitalik Buterin helped him launch the cryptocurrency Ethereum. There's another more recent Adobe bought a company called figma for 20 billion, we helped the founder start that company in 2012. So we had been doing this nonprofit, and we decided, wait a second, we, we could be making money doing this. So I wanted to tell this business story that by investing in people who don't have college degrees, who don't have credentials, can we show that there is a fulfilling path to a successful career without that credential? I mean, it goes way beyond that, because not only are most people wasting a lot of money, and a lot of time getting a piece of paper that's essentially worthless, if it were merely worthless, they'd be wasting time and money. But it's worse than worthless. It is usually a ticket to decades of ideological confusion. And that has become increasingly true over the decades. It was true when I was at Yale in the 80s. It was already very true then. But it's become increasingly true when Buckley wrote about Yale in his 1951 book, got a man at Yale, he's writing about the Yale of the late 40s. So this has been part of the academic world, but it's gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. So for you guys to be encouraging people not to go to college and to do these things, I just want to say thank you for that. So what exactly - Well, it's been fun to pick those fights. Yeah, so I wanted to, so we've talked about higher education as this institution that relies on a piece of paper. The title of the book, Paper Belt on Fire, that expands that theme. So a friend of mine, we were just jamming one night, trading ideas. And we thought, and this is back 2012, 2013, we thought just as the Rust Belt defines the Midwest and the hollowed out industries that are left barren due to either globalization or technological change, we thought there were some technological trends and political trends that were going to cause trouble for what we decided was the paper belt. Now this is from Washington DC to Boston. In DC, they print money, laws, regulations on paper. In Delaware, that companies incorporate on paper. In New York, there's media and advertising on paper, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Madison Avenue. And then we thought Boston as the pinnacle of the arch symbol of American higher education, Harvard and MIT are printing diplomas on paper. So what all these institutions have in common that are paper -based is that I think in terms of computer security, I'm very influenced by the cypherpunks. And what they notice is that if you're using a piece of paper, you need an institution to validate it and authenticate it, to validate that one, it's real, and two, that whatever information it's signaling is accurate and true and reliable. And so we can think of the Federal Reserve, for instance, and the Treasury Department, they tell us that these dollar bills they print are worth something and they authenticate whether they're real. And likewise, we've been trusting universities to print diplomas and authenticate them and say, hey, this is real. But what I've noticed is that in any of these institutions over the last 40, 50 years, the people running them are either incompetent or have become corrupted. Whether it's collusion inside, insiders against outsiders, or just plain old, hey, we don't know what we're doing, it's clear that the performance of these institutions have declined over time. So that's higher ed, the media, and even the Federal Reserve, you name it, we could go across the board. Well, I say I say often that the all these legacy institutions are dead. And people need to wake up to the fact that they're dead. Yale is dead. Harvard is dead. The New York Times is dead. They're dead. Whatever they once were. They are now decidedly not that they have been sliding. They had been sliding for a long time. But they weren't like really fully dead until recently. It wasn't until recently that I could say the New York Times is mostly trash. I could say five or 10 years ago, there's a lot there that I don't like. They're leftward leaning. But they have really become horrible. Not just ideologically off, but really horrible. I know for me, I used to read the Sunday Times just for the magazine and the book review. And like you, I know like the book reviews were excellent. And then all of a sudden, six, five years ago, that got terrible. We've got a lot more to talk about, folks. The book is Paper Belt on Fire. Michael Gibson is my guest. Don't go away. Every day, the parallel economy grows bigger and bigger. It's powered by everyday Americans who are sick and tired of all the propaganda being jammed into every product they consume. Big mobile companies are no different. For years, they've been dumping millions into leftist causes. And we had to take it because you needed a cell phone, probably thought there was no alternative. But now there is. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider offering dependable nationwide coverage on all three major networks. So you get the best possible service in your area without the woke politics. Their 100 % U .S.-based customer service team makes switching easy. Keep your phone, keep your number too. Just go to patriotmobile .com slash Metaxas, free activation today with the offer code Metaxas. Ask about their coverage guarantee while you're there. Get the same dependable service and take a stand for your values. Make the switch today. Patriotmobile .com slash Metaxas or call 878 -PATRIOT. Legacy Precious Metals has a revolutionary new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. In a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your metals of choice and choose to have them stored in a vault or shipped to your door. You'll have access to a dashboard where you can track your portfolio growth in real time, anytime. You'll see transparent pricing on each coin and bar. This puts you in complete control of your money. The platform is free to sign up for. Visit legacypminvestments .com and open your account and see this new investing platform for yourself. Gold can hedge against inflation and against the volatile stock market. A true diversified portfolio isn't just more stocks and bonds, but asset different classes. This new platform allows you to make investments in gold and silver, no matter how small or large with a few clicks. Visit legacypminvestments .com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool that they've added. Please go check it out today. That's legacypminvestments .com.
Epicenter
Jose Macedo's Unlikely Journey From Poker to Crypto
"Is customary on every center, I guess the first question we asked generally is sort of how did you end up in crypto? So I think for you, this is a quite interesting story, so excited to hear a bit about it. Yeah, it's a long story. I started off playing MIT's kind of playing professional poker, which was the way that I first got into economics and game theory and stuff like that. Then I went to university studied politics philosophy and economics there. I started a couple of businesses, including very random businesses, like a cleaning company, a martial arts academy, all sorts of different stuff. And then actually someone came like a friend of a friend came to train at my martial arts academy in this person who still encrypted, and I think it doesn't like to be ducks. It has quite a big kill count as well in terms of getting people into crypto. But they kind of talk to me about Ethereum. And it just made sense to me pretty much instantly. I had heard about Bitcoin a bunch of times before. People had even offered to settle transactions back in the poker days in Bitcoin and stuff, but I just never bothered to look into it and also it wouldn't have clicked for me, I think the kind of just pure and unstoppable money thing, but the world computer thesis really, really did click for me. And so pretty much a week later, I had put everything on hold, like all the businesses and everything, and it was just kind of diving down the rabbit hole, reading everything I could on crypto and on monetary history and all sorts of stuff like that. And then yeah, I started working in this space pretty soon after just because I wanted to find more smart people to kind of learn alongside. Started off as an analyst at a company called amazings back in the days. I don't know if you guys remember that. It was like a community management company from the ICO days. I was just like speaking to a bunch of founders assessing a bunch of projects. We worked with like bancor and a bunch of other kind of cool projects. And I was writing research on my blog in my spare time and kind of connected through that with delfi had written
Was ist Narzissmus?
"mit" Discussed on Was ist Narzissmus?
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Against each other dita's unwilling or the unseen in washington. I'm gonna mitzi a face to face as eight. Kudos active vicarage can. Email is not monmouth diego on slash decides. Sean the depends on on sean as each on ramos about Come close links name. Scientists my gun schooled god defeated zoom caused Off my on shut-ins because he quits open become sean mason spin and delete Some haute cuisine. It has become schaumburg. Dibnah megan's guns unless and start again inside the hooton. Suzanne got the aba unsighting youtube Will yima islands a kunda. Indie camera shot auspey. Mashed to dine marketing. Endless mina fauna between a glenn sets ya a bingo. Actually a option would not trillions zone on my collar allow. I wasn't thinking garnished. We run out of food. Do caffeine mushroom deloitte. The is it's cloth to beasted must photos three and below. I wish by soom people's confidence finished. Does fish abidin videos also biden cup that you have money into is direct to come as a cover story as a technician clog loose obviously gusty douche bid jewish gin don of semester me as a college. You'd mounted when they come sean Vita couldn't be pulled designs which they come out double false. I'll take somebody as eclipses and video calls have mandatory book but as does a tight hunting schanzer to give it a come up. I live candid about online. By tons from annexed by mita atmosphere may get speak on off the dealer today. Thematically henderson instagram lives muffin. Oda said Muslim shaughnessy who could become an The food i'm a little flip book guns muslim feel ill clinton i'd many. I'm talking to a big shot. Hundred eds lipsky. Bbc's community got suan inside look smoky. Movies creedence sharm. Lock wong easter yet. Kind nation we are. This is this must damage so god. When did you see.
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Tonight on does some commissioners each box on the man. Nine jets wonders. place else. mega should Annoying addict motor Johnny those Above fifty ultimatum. Duggan advocate advocates On as a de la began on team entrepreneurs van of mission. But you thima. He didn't call him at the news. As is getting trump hawks sign becomes nine hundred hockey monday. Backup assist which were done. Who else Sheeting line. It might be hunt placement in but guns And mama's would be unbalanced giant mix backup by monger monday dot gives an exact how saddam the highest walk and talk as the echoes until instructs on donald sexy. After the fuse of. Walk and talk. Shot at clash aside the again. Be giving tips demon clubhouse As not on human rating also on the guest this. What does more designed out you out. Kind.
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"No malice although biz indicate and checking in the lessing or an uncouth in media. You'd be awkward for job coaching. Come off the might come be i end dick sedan do from then not signed. But it doesn't mean to coddle shula oba fear mia. i'd missed the earth on in this levels. Dot here's anchor. The guy from would reminded cite the vendor. He'd be suitable coverage not of north winds in spending deva's vic one skeptic list has been learned negative klina lupin reduce alleged. Visable hatani suna Not of on does this hour voyage as visceral ago. I'm fucking as students You cannot awesome disdain for me yet you putting a mix of you cannot jiangsu. Klein has yet. He's a hog in national tour unto plow the aids on a few a delegates. fun A boston devo visa of item Had the analyst nutrition beatles entrepot off the Transplant and the obama Xio about Dish on on as to abide jesus fat som- of despite fund. You can hit beautiful. Pin has typhi decimation photo. Against what it is as the soup is an outrage keita is someone who won't be nested. The topic forward love was creamy. Became nine kumaon. Kern muslims at the john young as will initiate. He is is unnecessary. Expense on smock Agana albert's conflict. Would you fly spending hiking Voguish fish Identifies as he atom. Our done done done is not a whole coin plaza. An hour book locally off button From time in mind i talk on doesn't eventual eventually as much contempt last months. Avanced as you get. Isn't that goal to define it as a one unwinded. Now i'm a few few ainge Now would have official ties. Does not unrefundable announcement will have to shot to. Sean feet of miami jumps by monolithic shooting carbonated or and is it. Vinik off on the us i. It's absent and a lot of mantra ultimate aspect without ceiling for one or the other on the wall and i for him and of capacitor. Scanning do we signed. The nazism's are needed for house after evanston ond undone of mountain along dozen doesn't jack is in milan. Couldn't not let these guys have this spice Afternoon factor. kind kinda. I don't know he comes on Merged be overstated Zine have benicia on did not keep it as he's been spikes pats and keita kidnapping expat who this year. Buddy get kids. Aiden nation order these next patties Unique again as a niche mukhlis taught..
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Utilization a dog. When diana from biden hd on goofed into one of the denver for us to concentrate on the island disney's travel plazas on doesn't notice was caught in some today this stick He team some of the bugs. I as a company The ice mellitus Fiction vicar this order And you can. Nobody not floodgates here this want tears on issues bookish combined. Thank you on how. The bunch of heinisch does Goes up practice depending on them that's a few replace He has asthma. His yoga's clung Test about superleague. More than adults who themselves came out. Who invented came off to andrew unconscious. Be all the of the cheinal might just given cloud facade killer in the what's hasn't been an absolute in fired building magnon your distinctive hostile to his home. I wasn't acid. Bet he's be to civilize deal. These broken beal differ license. Yep we're your medical wasn't enforced. I understood the actions of measures hundred musudan missiles of us to tell us what i can up. Conventional dank choosy plan on august combined. Noticed the t. adding more humid because Needs does devoid absolutely above us. Most onto the chief in jerusalem moments must mackel dislocation cleanser binge dismissal on this show up center. She does state much when i needed. Zied idea. The niche plopping plots of design k. Don't is much much. Shouldn't genetics lukin yellen. Wisdom stretch has vanished twelve report.
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Com. Sounds a few snowing on eight m. you should stop mccain code that gives almost essen despite Die few Kinch via in that key don so called as the one mentioned have to give one another to. I don't have done this. Australian a sneak them ended on all official most feel of yes. Chef puckett a To hyacinth or not given to chef indians each dana's Many exist Heinz you cannot demand for frosty off lows vision zesty nine scottish snobbish reporter Hippy younger foot size. After can by a gap in spanish because to be food Foul have than apps shrine. Whose job on the uncooked gifting. Fun fun fun. Don't get on Hedge benching was out Dusty via in english stolen Clients to detailed the hof own Tash team stotts. Who lighten to destroy the outer stupid lighting at the. How just keeps you know mike. You got a line of emotional. No mile cod inside took off from my english. Real time is mid because look fans conine. Alka falls as a talk. The senior gave my hours for mood as much as electron called anguish. Nine schlegel to cut by that in half demanded how auditions to shunde Incision cutout cabinet pools. Calm down faucets as to get and once computer science tigers get get into these move on vanguard anson these against the quite zone mid in the teams. I'm facing to of the skipped an comedy house for dr inside all muslims logos in targets to might be caught guests on minute on yet since i paul talking. Keita's here the vehicle so it's-it's gate it's tie it like. Oh my god. It's all this college. Well as it should be anger in the sinai could removes side and i will be going to result via who's divided angry and so yeah it's it's most still genius. Union not would not your again by eldon garnet keita. With king via talk it was the risen. Seniors had soon before sentencing. You cannot v stressed. Donna to initially did the audio nasr does doesn't change the car to shield him coaching. Have some. you don't like to sit idly shafi's in forbid multiply teams. He cannot you who was As fungus lockdown to nets new off off short for yard when he does Stupid in bonuses knobs on. Does she come after. Keita's an english bookish to about Into a as captain feeling me to come that off the pie to As movie spied on denson's Teams involved team stagnant too much because office concept as investment ugo. I rented on his head smashing him setting in. Zion are culpably nine if you might be times. When klein as finance.
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
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Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Benicia mit meinen puck. Cost the be on. When my mama's else this joint or angle on wong all time behi hobbit when slots in each who own swamp near my uber. I won't stock analysis. Young festival permission realized the gordon luckily or and isn't short behind journey recently of office flemish odyssey. And we ask. Does he stood to push us investors. Okay i'm it all your on. Sue cut on okay. Wall mid mia took on mr bosch. Madonna reason minus can wolf scott. Yeah stint of okay so much. This infamous does asian. Vocational industry is still mogi and they asked been technically to their coach. Not package for sweden under the towards coaching audible. Bahaj on this list to show on gains lies in a gun side visor. When few pick until i disagree the mud enga woodstock house. Chowan busters infra sue. Ya object on ignited at suzy. A tuft of suppression issue for you've been of those muslim which is okay as a times and giant dimension assia a nutritious would app status on into fan but she sheds madden yet of anthem. Black pa- pizza neom shift hunt which added the computer. Okay binge. yeah yeah now. what's good. What's not to an awful on you also to your tight as y'all's and sliced why trump spark the small on okay good as head on so does address food. Yes to your concentrate on politici- of dangle board stat tune laddish onions and hot sortation display papaya because moussa sign route. Good is yellen. exciting. By chris diskin. Oh why young sled desperately. In house indies click lot Might still a.
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Hi. Tom chopped up his initiative. Ed stop A veto confidence of bevy nas feminist. I'm the few even as steve. Familiar coaches touch up to ninety nine episode. An old for die hat. Cochin as is nice. Does my city put our skin with put cost volley by youtube construction fight. Kazan girl media diversity needs to piston s. Goes to college in the tired. A kind of tuscon. Some guns is a judgment zaza as as kufr. theon talk. and communists. wouldn't feeding. and then ask unsee. It's of dot ca fear despite all giants upstairs done beat up. 'cause ensenada a side that these are also sign any nafta. Statistics coordinator chits zeitz. Let's do our interview for if this is a saudi nafta strike the seaver maturity on stress mess spots who little that does not michigan's. Aft cabin is affordable reminds us team message then she should resume tied coming in the notable than to gaba oxygen see More cortisol come on tussle. I come on. Diffusion type akin. Okay but my daddy. Neuro transmitters eat as dopamine serotonin hop on l. Gob on has little data tune has the name spot a canal status consumer on us without a the got skin on beacon esoteric and for just the tuna to chicago. Bama board of moment will house ask Mystery gada Stouffer zipcars dopamine venezuela tunin. Gabow exited seen other naughty. Naughty naughty a stressful Despiser took mac Island of the concerns of the oil empowerment for canada off the The out of office. You me my concert. Shaw partner okay. What analogy the monotony tinus Obviously got until now has a wounded. I lombardo shot i might also cutting off oregon. Zoom is me somberly causal as per cabins device mench yet earth by the form of my vehicle. Heads i'm the it's from blogs from the narva that says be here mobile. Plastic is actor. In a compact for spectrum this shaft is formed by hands jittered site benistead other demise. Cool ninety so said. This is another vice. Does normal cuts for titus When he stuff zone vici- vicinity. Nash stuff hits harrow on design. A that's affecting them eventually. it's not mad. Infected each field usual on consolidation. Answer to recommend the A neil's artem as our team was on ninety saga ish. Democrats shown the normal consumer approach to hit environments now absorbed savings as Tied it into Team often mountains Affect follows zafy affecting ostriches This'll be is he office in my eyes This come on palliative An understatement coming up to give him an immune system Your comment you spirits. Steam out macleod. These stated it might cats building ivine shoots affect with building a biden others version aside via via an issue. You're love so i talked to. And both the muslim launched on map limited pilot when zimbabwean government on aim for influencing undivided the coupon of and a number with your home. Love me organization of imagine the minimal itemize are off so my fleischer is indistinct or do strike us going to not be produced so why do also giants and title mystery. Indicate miss lisa. Let's on the hospital's been a defect. Bendy lloyd's tommy. Media might baking ewbal video unbeatable. Also do before. We just spend hours registered phone end when shakespeare dan auto does she take a ticket. Help somebody i used for up. Steam out That's awesome Golfing office border. Or does this high but he's a knowledge of yin bid. What is vic leash..
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Inch. Tunsil couldn't a sound effect to. You must've gotten benson. Asthma isn't much especially as them. Studying can can autism support odd. Almost money it's mcnaughton monday. To be themed monogamous each in mice linked to somehow got me inside slow Such of she took issue with then. The us i knew i wasn't wanted to click on the novels. Kings team ryan got the short. The building is looking at all in cornish. now eastern ohio state of the central. This is emma's in past obama. Stay in Much mish ideal him understood mission by mid the michelle endemic. Miami should on walks. It is how against his look permanent. Saga is in these these os venice so much. Bjorg mental poetry upped industry collins davidge album intended kusuma zanu annual forum in our document assaulted them got also sent Insulin had lobbed fear niskanen also kinda because i to mandate by have some confrontation as in the Shish must move worker and all she data. I'm first year sentence for she who wouldn't demand okay. It's been answered criteria of the job because it is asked to do on the internet. This is his enj- nick. Does your show must complete as simple as mosk against into pins. Yeah mackenzie has clear of this. Not until it's in vermont. Mandinka above some little. Kent vice the and among can am guys of listening. Vdi accident was not too sure. Many income our polish disney sin mice An unbeaten. I have a dog just crash. Tiger team of house comes in jeopardy. Moyer editor will not much of the window vita mia title down. It's awesome. she's no discounts. The true my swab. Your doesn't know is that suit. Which mentioned you in decades when you can come. Yagi cloud not also has a splendid sight wasn't of politics is operatives frontino by i'm ending my of my mom's office iman of mission and mice on its vital for us. Pantano was real ones on holiday stylized to roam the of mccain. Canton opposites. isn't actually..
Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"mit" Discussed on Pod Cast Away - Gespräche mit Samson
"Active. I missed it Fact in austria by toy nap. Long as it's not guy johnson Does the shabina position type of system and liberal towers over by placebo actually off a now and cement Funding for gain in orange and dan business chin fussy not before stead yet. So it's kind of ball substantial. We come in towards them but does packet worcester pocket. Being in the entire mid is mine. Cavs nets tone even in ceo. Ambulatory sunglasses on a complete lock momentum. Bodine invincibility is unconfirmed. muslims yachtsman's a local sign noun The stat would have been done. Your i'm on. Music fits to clean. Lucy being will see off dayton that's constantly redeem. you will end. I'm a d. do i mean fitness. would i wouldn't out you buddy. Add in those. You know when also touched finance fantasia as fast washout win ham festive stage. Watch like this zone on fasting. Woo that fashion would also S vendor About boston wouldn't stuff at As confessed Odin staffer in Academian Fast fits nothing is. Is it not Stress that Big big nickless as now We should on his mom. Is white house. Seen this video. When swan king star on cassette steffi's milan's tight screener on the team is In naples omits cassettes. Unseal cooked on doesn't visit business. Visit thoughts walkie common onto harden image. A clear as you that. And let's let's really niazi in the house comes wins co bank in on the on. Wow when he of his is onto route or and undoes hausky for might be in this day and age lease in more food club in our off. Your antle media is saying on landside kind of worst ninety percents on deserve student from the into yard. Communicative john for community..