Crypto Critics' Corner

Today Bennett and Cas will be talking about how $3.5 billion dollars (of $4.5 billion) worth of Bitcoin stolen 6 years ago was found and seized by the US Department of Justice. We discuss Ilya Lichtenstein, Heather Reyhan Morgan, what this means for all the Bitfinex tokens, and if it's possible the funds won't be returned to Bitfinex at all. This episode was record on February 12th, 2022.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about the recent incredible hack of the cryptocurrency bridge, aptly named, Wormhole. Did $320,000,000 worth of ETH evaporate? Yes. Did Jump Crypto 100% cover that? Also yes.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey have the opportunity to chat with THE BEAR LORD - or just Travis, if you prefer - about all things SCARY when it comes to the future of the dollar, yields, cryptocurrency, and the economy as a whole. Follow Travis on Twitter @coloradotravis (Recorded on Monday, January 31st, 2022)

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey bring you up to date on an old character in an old story: Michael Patryn - er, should we say Omar Dhanani? Or 0xSifu? It's all up for debate, because on January 27th, 2022, the cofounder of QuadrigaCX, a now defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange - reappeared in a big way: by being the chief financial officer and treasurer for one of the biggest decentralized...

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss the long, complex, and fraught history of DAOs (or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and try to understand the current hype cycle.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by Doomberg - Twitter and Substack's favorite Little financial Chicken - to discuss Bitcoin's, and cryptocurrency in general's, biggest threats for maximum liquidations and pain (including, but not limited to: Microstrategy, El Salvador, and Tether). Follow Doomberg on Twitter @Doomberg or subscribe to their Substack at doomberg.substack.com If you'd...

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss online Poker's Black Friday - April 15th, 2011 - and it's everlasting effects with Jason Bral, a semi-professional poker player.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about how Bitcoin mining works, why the Bitcoin miners have (mostly) fled China, why the Bitcoin miners moved to Kazakhstan, and how Kazakhstan's spike in in fossil fuel prices and political upheaval has effected Bitcoin.

Today Bennett and Cas are lucky enough to have the opportunity to discuss the Elizabeth Holmes trial with Elizabeth Lopatto, Deputy Editor of The Verge, who was present for the entirety of the trial. Please read some of her eye-opening pieces written during and since the end of the trial here: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/5/22867505/elizabeth-holmes-guilty-fraud-investing https://www.theverge.c...

Today Bennett and Cas talk about Craig Steven Wright, the self-proclaimed "Satoshi Nakamoto," and lawyer, doctor, ninja, and creator of Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision.

For the last episode of 2021 Bennett and Cas are joined by Nicholas Weaver (@ncweaver on Twitter) to discuss the history of the darknet marketplace The Silk Road, which was owned and operated by Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a double life sentence without parole, and its association with Bitcoin.

Today Bennett and Cas rant about the ineffectiveness of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and its mostly failure fraught 87-year history.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about the history of Ponzi schemes, the definition of Ponzi schemes, and why they're both pretty tired of hearing everything described as a Ponzi scheme (hint: it's because most things aren't Ponzi schemes).

Today Bennett and Cas talk about an idea being passed around that NFTs or non-fungible tokens will ruin shorts and change the market forever. The reality? No. Definitely not.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss a really interesting and weird idea: the El Salvador Bitcoin Volcano Bonds offered by El Salvador in collaboration with Tether, iFinex, and Blockstream.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about the concept that maybe stablecoins play an intimate role in how successful a fork of a major cryptocurrency is or whether the cryptocurrency forks at all.

Today we dissect The Tether Papers along with one of the main authors, David Canellis - also the head of the Protos newsroom. Please follow along at home by reading The Tether Papers here: https://protos.com/tether-papers-crypto-stablecoin-usdt-investigation-analysis/

In today's episode Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss the President's Working Group, which recently released a report on stablecoins, and the issues that the creator of TerraUSD (an algorithmic stablecoin) is facing.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by a good friend and special guest Daniel Goldman, an engineer working on the Ethereum layer 2 solution called Arbitrum, but who is also a cryptocurrency critic. Daniel helped create a Twitter bot that allowed skeptics to follow any and all Tether prints for years, and without his work the chore of monitoring every large Tether print during the early days...

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk with Oliver Beige, an engineer turned economist, who tell us whether decentralization is sustainable and how tribalism plays a role.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by Blockworks author Sam Reynolds, a Taipei-based reporter, who discusses the early history of Tether in Taiwan and what can be implied by their issues with their early banking partners.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about a huge investigative drop from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: the Pandora Papers. The leaks will help the public understand how the rich, famous, and politically connected are able to evade taxes and move money without anyone knowing. If you'd like to read about the Papers yourself, please visit https://www.icij.org/investigatio...

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey review Liberty Reserve - the first stablecoin and the first stablecoin shutdown by US regulators.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined, once again, by David Z. Morris, the chief insights columnist at Coindesk, to discuss what's happening with Evergrande, why it matters for other regions and industries, and how the property market on the Chinese Mainland operates.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey explore the incredible interest rates offered by centralized cryptocurrency lenders, how they likely make their money, and whether or not any of them are "risk-free."