On The Brink with Castle Island

In the first episode in our web3 music series, Cherie Hu , founder of Water & Music , sits down with Ria to talk about transitioning Water & Music into a research DAO and Cherie's thoughts on the growing interest of musicians in crypto. We discuss: How Cherie found a niche covering the intersection of music, technology, and now web3 The decision to formalize the Water & Music community into a rese...

Veteran Bitcoin commentator and inventor of Drivechains Paul Sztorc joins the show to talk Bitcoin's sustainability and the role of merged mined side chains. In this episode:  Why Paul is the 'Steely Dan' of Bitcoin Revisiting 'Measuring decentralization' Revisiting Paul's argument on Proof of Stake being veiled PoW Why you should roll your own statistics Concentration of power in miners and minin...

Matt and Nic return for deals and news of the week. In this episode:  Fidelity's Wise Origin spot Bitcoin ETF is denied Putin walks back the central bank ban on mining NY isn't processing BitLicense applications Facebook is selling their IP being Diem/Libra to Silvergate Ripple buys out their Series C Investors Google's cloud division makes a blockchain push A DeFi protocol founder is revealed to...

Chris King , Founder & CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors , a digital assets SMA platform, join the show. In this episode, we discuss: Eaglebrook's Series A announcement Chris' path into the digital assets space and the origins of Eaglebrook Advisors Crypto penetration in the RIA and asset management space Inflection points in the market over the last couple years that have put a spotlight on solutions fo...

Will Peck, the head of digital asset at WisdomTree joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Will's path to WisdomTree and how the firm began researching digital assets How WisdomTree is approaching exchange traded products in the public blockchain ecosystem Views on the Bitcoin futures ETF products vs. the proposed spot products Views on the various Bitcoin ETF proposals and the prospects of an...

Matt and Nic return for a busy week of deals and news. In this episode:  We cover the witness selection for the House energy hearing on Bitcoin mining The SEC goes to war with its employee union The SEC rejects the Skybridge Bitcoin ETF proposal GBTC is trading at a 30% discount Walmart is building its own metaverse Twitter rolls out NFT avis Crypto dot com's ad copy We correct the record on Ari J...

In this latest installment of the mining miniseries, Iris Energy cofounder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts joins us to talk through their approach to mining. In this episode:  How Dan came to work in mining Backgrounds of the Iris executive team Which thinkers influenced Dan in his Bitcoin journey Why Iris focuses on sustainable energy and on only entering energy markets where they will not drive prices...

Matt and Nic return for more deals and news of the week. In this episode:  Matt loses the podcast audio New Turkey drama Rep Emmer introduces a bill banning a retail focused CBDC Nic releases a song with Gramatik The story behind the Scribbler song We investigate Fan Controlled Football Paypal looks to build a stablecoin Several banks issue the USDF stablecoin Crypto-dollarization in Turkey Why do...

House Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) joins the show to share thoughts on his crypto policy agenda for 2022, as well as his views on inflation, MMT, stablecoins, and CBDCs. In this episode:  How Rep. Emmer came to be interested in public blockchains Rep. Emmer's interest in Austrian economics How Rep. Emmer stays up to date with the industry Are MMTers the establishment or an outsider group? Is Wa...

Matt and Nic return for more news and deals of the week. In this episode:  Everything is selling off Is the US losing its status as global reserve? We announce our policy miniseries Sen. Lummis will reportedly propose a crypto bill Opensea raising $300m at a $13b valuation Illicit activity in 2021 was only 0.15% of total crypto volume The Boston Fed CBDC pilot program rumbles on Kazakhstan turns o...

Luxor COO and CPO Ethan Vera and Guzman Pintos join the show to talk about their relaunched data product, Hashrate Index and other trends in mining. In this episode:  The history of the firm Why Luxor created the hashrate index How Luxor gathers data on ASIC pricing and creates their time series charts ASIC pricing dynamics Are sell side analysts correctly pricing ASICs on the balance sheets of pu...

Nic and Matt return for the last episode of 2021. In this episode:  Someone makes an unauthorized Nic NFT Microstrategy buys more BTC Blake Masters sells a political NFT Why do gamers and artists hate NFTs? We look back at our 2021 crystal ball predictions Best predictions of 2021 Our outlook for crypto policy in 2022 Our favorite OTB episodes of the year We look back at the Token Daily 2019 cryst...

Gabe Frank and Robert Masiello, the founders of Arcade , a financial services platform for NFTs join the show. In this episode we discuss: Gabe and Robert's origin stories in the crypto industry and the path that led them to founded Arcade The similarities in the market structures for bitcoin in the early years and NFTs today The role of MPC custody in the crypto markets How they think about the v...

Matt and Nic return for a festive Christmas eve roundup. In this episode:  Reevaluating our intro song Jack Dorsey's web3 beef What's on our Christmas list Is PoW inherently high-fee? We steelman the Jack Dorsey and the pro web3 arguments Is there a paradox in web3? We advance a model of tapered token issuance for web3 The downsides of token issuance to early adopters Is Liz Warren right about cor...

Anders Larson, head of strategic finance at U.S. Bitcoin Corp , joins us to talk about how miners make decisions and allocate capital. In this episode:  The Wharton class of 2018 Are Bitcoin miners clogging up the chip supply chain? Why Bitcoin miners are 'tier 2' customers at foundries The scale of US BTC operations in terms of hashrate Why US BTC has been so quiet historically How US BTC targets...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  A glitch in the CoinMarketCap data feed causes disturbances in the crypto industry  AscendEX is  hacked last week to the tune of $77 million Coinbase urges the SEC to approve NYSE Arca's application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund  Bitwise launches a blue-chip NFT fund A bipartisan group o...

Alex Wilson, co-founder and CEO of The Giving Block joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Alex's path in the blockchain space, from consulting to founding The Giving Block The landscape of charitable giving, and how the company is assisting charitable organizations The pain points that charities face when accepting donations Perspectives from the donor's perspective and why donating cryptocu...

Matt and Nic return for deals and news of the week. In this episode:  Are cubes a suitable holiday gift? Best crypto Xmas gifts Bitcoin purchases we regret The House Financial Services committee holds a hearing Our Congressional hearing MVP Brian Brooks' evolution SBF kicks off shoegate Takeaways from the House hearing EOS holders reject a payment to Block One Block One's weird pivot to Bitcoin Gr...

Matt Cutler, the founder and CEO of Blocknative joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Matt's entrepreneurial history and path to founding Blocknative How he came to see blockchain transaction data as a big opportunity for his company How blockchain mempools work and why they are important The types of customers that are monitoring blockchain network data and how this data is actionable Matt'...

Matt and Nic return for deals and news. In this episode:  Art Basel is now a crypto event Is the crypto industry culturally relevant? Jack Dorsey leaves Twitter Will Twitter become more censored Square renames itself Block Celcius CFO is arrested Fidelity launches a Bitcoin ETF in Canada David Marcus is leaving Facebook Regulatory projections from Cowen BadgerDAO hacked Content mentioned:  Cowen's...

Galaxy Digital Mining Associate Brandon Bailey and Research Associate Karim Helmy join the show to cover a new accounting methodology for Bitcoin miners. In this episode:  Galaxy's new miner margins accounting methodology Brandon and Karim origin stories in mining How the randomness-based miner fingerprinting works How Karim thinks about miner depreciation schedules Why the Bitcoin e-waste paper u...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Coinbase acquires Breadwallet El Salvador's Bitcoin City Is El Salvador's Bitcoin Bond worth buying? New merch on the website Midwest tungsten releases a new shape Is India banning crypto again? Miners coming back online in China The OCC, FDIC, and Fed will release cryptoasset guidance in 2022 Saule Omarova's nomination to r...

We sit down with James McGinniss , CEO and Cofounder of David Energy to talk about Bitcoin's role in the energy transition and how Bitcoin mining is a useful source of flexible load for increasingly renewable grids. In this episode:  The fundamental change happening in the US grid today What distributed energy resources are and why they are important Why DERs are catching on in California Why bitc...

Nic and Matt return for more news and deals of the week. In this episode:  ConstitutionDAO Why you can't smelt tungsten Breaking down the Keep Innovation in America Act The SEC denies the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust Crypto.com buys the naming rights to the Lakers arena The US Marshalls are auctioning BTC seized from Bitconnect Is Gerald Cotten deceased? Load ze quantum FUD Is David Chaum right about Bitc...

Nic and Sean sit down with Kevin Anetsberger, General Manager at Midwest Tungsten , to cover their journey as a business and their entry into the crypto industry In this episode:  The history of Midwest Tungsten How Midwest got its start making metal steam Industrial applications of tungsten Tungsten's physical properties and how that makes it suitable for industrial applications Military applicat...