Crypto Critics' Corner

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by the absolute legendary shortseller Jim Chanos (who successfully shorted Baldwin-United, Enron, and Luckin Coffee) to talk about his thoughts on cryptocurrency, shorting, Coinbase, and other economic woes and fears. If you want to follow Jim on Twitter, find him at https://twitter.com/WallStCynic This episode was produced by Griffin Davis recorded on Friday,...

Today Cas Piancey reads an article titled "Finding Finex" - a piece written in 2020, two years after a trip to Hong Kong - that describes his fall down the stablecoin rabbit hole and search for the offices of Bitfinex and Tether.

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by Lily Francus, director and quantitative research strategist at Moody's Analytics, who helps us understand the underlying risks, rewards, and caveats of participating in the decentralized financial industry. Follow Lily on Twitter @nope_its_lily or join her free Substack here https://nopeitslily.substack.com This episode was produced by Asher Hirsch and recorded...

Today Bennett and Cas discuss Terra, an algorithmic stablecoin, again. This time they discuss its collapse in realtime (this episode was recorded live as Terra collapsed), what it could mean as far as contagion is concerned, and if other stablecoins need to begin to worry. This episode was produced by Bennett Tomlin recorded on Wednesday, May 11th, 2022

Today Bennett and Cas talk about Terra, a stablecoin that uses an algorithm to stay pegged to numerous currencies (mainly the US dollar). Recently, Do Kwon, the creator of Terra, and its token that buoys the stablecoins it supports, Luna, decided to spend $10 billion worth of Luna's reserves to buy Bitcoin. What does this even mean? Let's figure it out. Bennett's appearance on the Blockchain Debat...

Today Bennett and Cas discuss Reginald Fowler, a former part-owner of the Minnesota Vikings and co-owner of Crypto Capital Corp - cryptocurrency's shadow bank of choice for years. Reggie recently pled guilty to numerous counts of... we'll just say financial malfeasance, and now faces up to 90 years in prison. For background on Crypto Capital Corp, listen to episode six of Crypto Critics' Corner: h...

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by the richest man in the world*, Colin Platt: creator of PTK. While you may not be aware of this quadrillionaire, he tokenized his way to being king of the world. Other topics discussed include: wash trading, NFTs, and traditional financial issues versus issues seen within the cryptocurrency landscape. *Colin isn't the richest man in the world in any real sense. R...

Today Bennett and Cas talk about the unfortunate tale of Virgil Griffith, who was recently sentenced to over five years in prison for helping North Korea attempt to evade US sanctions. The story is absurd for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to: • generally, as a rule of thumb, don't evade US sanctions • if, indeed, you plan on continuing with your sanctions evasion plan, don't writ...

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by pioneering cryptocurrency author and skeptic David Gerard so he can tell us why he was skeptical in the first place and why he continues to be so today. David's books:  Attack of the 50 Foot Blockhain https://www.amazon.com/Attack-50-Foot-Blockchain-Contracts-ebook/dp/B073CPP581 Libra Shrugged https://www.amazon.com/Libra-Shrugged-Facebook-Tried-Money-ebook...

Today Cas (Orson Newstat) and Bennett talk about Cas' previous arrest record and why he's being forced to share his name and discuss an arrest from 16 years ago.

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by returning guest and assistant professor of law at Willamette College, Rohan Grey. We're going to speak with him about the ECASH Act (which you can read here: https://lynch.house.gov/_cache/files/1/7/17e47e5a-2bff-42c1-b509-eb8a50931fa6/BDDFF183213326821B5C88B7F326EABB.ecashact-lynch.pdf ) , a bill he helped author that aims to bring the privacy of physical cash...

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by a brilliant creator, münecat, who recently did a wonderful YouTube video about how Web3 is ushering in a libertarian dystopia. Watch her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-sNSjS8cq0 Watch her video on Gary Vee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xpx0l6FXJU This is the book she mentions at the beginning of the episode: https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Google...

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by two Salvadoran natives - Mario Gómez, a developer who was arrested in El Salvador for voicing criticism about the Bitcoin bill, and Oscar Salguero, a senior software engineer who has been traveling to and from El Salvador, testing the limits of the cryptocurrency remittance services. Para nuestros oyentes en español, hay una transcripción disponible aquí: https:...

Bennett and Cas are joined by their good friend, former executive director of the Zcash Foundation, and current board member of the Mina Foundation, Josh Cincinnati. We wanted to pretend this was a debate about whether money laundering should be illegal, instead we all pretty much agreed, "Yes, it should." But we had to define it first and discuss the rules and regulations put in place because of...

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by John Reed Stark of John Reed Stark Consulting and formerly with the Securities and Exchange Commission for over two decades. We discuss our frustrations with the SEC, the perceived lack of action, and what John expects to see from them in the coming years. Visit John's website: https://www.johnreedstark.com/digital-trust-watch/ Or, follow him on T...

Today Bennett and Cas are proud to have Francine McKenna, former auditor, current journalist, and soon to be professor at Wharton, to talk to us about all the problems with auditing, cryptocurrencies, and, let's face it, Tether's totally garbage attestations. Francine's newsletter: https://thedig.substack.com The Chickenshit Club by Jesse Eisinger: https://www.amazon.com/Chickenshit-Club-Departmen...

Bennett and Cas talk about Justin Sun (or Sun Yuchen): billionaire, creator of TRON cryptocurrency, citizen to five-ten countries, and egomaniac who has managed to outrun and outpace law enforcement for years. Read the fantastic The Verge article about Justin: https://www.theverge.com/c/22947663/justin-sun-tron-cryptocurrency-poloniex

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about the proliferation of cities associated with blockchains, why the concept in and of itself is silly, and go through some historical and current examples. If you'd like to listen to Bennett and Cas' other podcast, Innovated: Blockchain City, you can listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovated-blockchain-city/id1611390567

Today Bennett and Cas talk about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces (as dictated by Vladimir Putin). We discuss the need for being cautious when donating to newly created charities, to not FOMO into giving, and the deep effects that sanctions against Russia may have within the space. If you'd like to donate to a humanitarian relief effort that will support Ukraine, here are three (f...

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are lucky enough to be joined by the "Batman of Cryptocurrency" - pseudoanonymous Twitter user ZachXBT ( https://www.twitter.com/zachxbt ). We ask him what it's like uncovering every fraud and scam in crypto, why he does it, and whether the Cryptocurrency Batcave has a secret "nuke scam project" button. Donate to Zach either at his ETH address: zachxbt.eth Visi...

Bennett and Cas are joined by Dr. Ángela Vergara - an expert in company towns and co-author of Company Towns in the Americas. We try to address why they tend to fail, how they usually harm employees, and why they've never really gone away. If you want to follow Dr. Vergara on Twitter, you can find her @vergara_angela. The new podcast Bennett and Cas will be hosting is available here: https://podca...

Today Bennett and Cas have the distinct privilege to have on Molly White, the creator and maintainer of www.web3isgoinggreat.com - a beautiful showcase of all the disastrous projects that have plagued the Web3 ecosystem thus far. We ask Molly why so many grifters are interested in blockchains, her goals with her website, and why the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Jamie Dimon are paying her billion...

Bennett and Cas talk about the most recent scam that's been omnipresent on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets: the verification scam. If you've spent any time on Twitter or Instagram, you'll have noticed verified accounts with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers that are spam liking tweets (usually about NFTs). But there's a lot more to the story than a simple compromised ac...

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by the portfolio manager and chief strategist for Simplify Asset Management, Michael Green (on Twitter @profplum99). In one of our most wide-ranging discussions, we had the opportunity to pick Mike's brain on what inflation means for the U.S. and the world, how the Fed should respond, the Canadian Trucker Convoy / Protest, and what all of it might mean for Bitcoin...

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by Ben McKenzie (star of Gotham, Southland, and The O.C.) and Jacob Silverman (author of Terms of Service and writer for The New Republic and Slate) who discuss the ideas behind their upcoming book about cryptocurrency, their issues with celebrity shilling of speculative assets, and how it really feels like corporate greed is eating our democracy. He...