Unchained

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, Taproot Wizards instigator Eric Wall joins the show to discuss the rise of Ordinals and what it means for the future of Bitcoin. Will inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens bring a slew of Ethereum-style problems to the original blockchain?  Listen to...

Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices Head of Content “Seth For Privacy.” He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream...

Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcas...

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they talk about the recent issues surrounding the Aragon Foundation, the likelihood of Montenegro becoming an ETH hub, the BRC-20s mania, and much more! Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Po...

News emerged this week that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) placed $44 billion in claims on the FTX bankruptcy estate. Now creditors of the defunct crypto exchange are worried that the taxman is going to gobble up funds that would otherwise be used to make users partially whole. Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency, joins the show to explain what’s going on,...

Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall...

The Genesis bankruptcy is about to take a high-stakes turn with a $630 million payment from Digital Currency Group (DCG) due by May 11. Barry Silbert’s DCG, the parent company of Genesis, is on the hook for the massive payment, but doubts are swirling as to whether the crypto conglomerate can cover it. Lumida Wealth CEO Ram Ahluwalia joins the show to unpack what could happen to Genesis creditors,...

In this episode, Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, and Konstantin Lomashuk, cofounder of Lido Finance, discuss the complex world of staking in Ethereum's post-Shanghai ecosystem.   Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how the sta...

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in digital assets. In this live episode from Consensus 2023, they are joined by Avery Ching, chief architect of Aptos, to discuss the latest SEC enforcement actions, an embarrasing admission by audit firm Certik, and crypto’s impact on the coming election. Listen t...

Major crypto exchange Coinbase has decided to take action to get an answer from the Securities and Exchange Commission: this week, they filed a court action seeking to compel Gary Gensler’s agency to give specific rulemaking on crypto assets. J.W. Verret, associate professor of law at George Mason Law School, talks about how both parties are playing this game, how it could change the Howey test, a...

Two lawyers, Josh Klayman, head of digital assets at Linklaters, and Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Labs, offer their takes on the SEC’s recent crypto crackdown. They share what they heard from SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Congressional testimony, whether this crackdown was inevitable or sparked by FTX, and why a proposed change to the definition of an exchange could be an existential thr...

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, the gang plays “guess the chart” and takes a deep dive into the booming world of Ethereum Layer 2s. Show highlights:  how much Layer 2s are spending to post data to Ethereum whether L2s suck up all the value of ETH the challenge of...

It got heated this week on Capitol Hill with SEC Chair Gary Gensler testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on his agency’s efforts to rein in the U.S. crypto industry. Jason Gottlieb, partner at Morrison Cohen, unpacks what was said and whether we’ll continue to see more crackdowns from the U.S. securities regulator. Show highlights: Whether ETH is a security and what would be th...

Maximal extractable value, or MEV, is a mainstay of the Ethereum landscape. But the process of validators reaping profits from handling new blocks is not without controversy. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and bloXroute Labs CEO Uri Klarman assess the current state of MEV. Hear them disagree about the path forward for making Ethereum fairer for all its economic actors. Show highlights...

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they’re joined by Unchained’s Laura Shin to debate FTX revival rumors, what the U.S. Treasury got wrong about DeFi, and whether VCs are antithetical to crypto’s core principles. Show highlights:  how much ETH is getting unstaked and deposited af...

Laura’s 10-Year Anniversary of Self-Employment: A Personal Message  Laura Shin, the host of Unchained, celebrated her 10-year anniversary of self-employment on Wednesday, April 12. She tells her story and has a message that she hopes will help others on their journeys.  Links:  Original Twitter thread Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s major Ethereum upgrade, Shapella (it was really two upgrades, Shanghai and Capella, in one), brings the network’s multi-year journey to proof-of-stake to a close. With validator withdrawals now live, the Ethereum Foundation’s Tim Beiko explains Shapella’s significance, why EIP-4844 is the next big thing, and what else is on Ethereum’s roadmap. Show highlights: how Ethereum transitioned...

How can decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) be more resilient? Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, and Fatemeh Fannizadeh, lawyer and researcher at Geneva-legal.ch, survey the landscape and offer their insights on what will fuel the next wave of DAO innovation. Are new rules from U.S. states like Wyoming and Utah a boon for DAO creation? Or will the proceedings against Ooki...

Amidst a wide-ranging crackdown on all kinds of crypto players, Representative Tom Emmer talks about recent enforcement actions, the classification of cryptocurrencies as securities or commodities, the potential impact of US regulatory actions on the country’s global economic power, and the Federal Reserve's upcoming payment system. He touches on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship i...

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they are joined by Laura Shin, author, journalist, and host of Unchained, to discuss the drama around the Arbitrum governance’s proposal, the MEV attack on Ethereum, the Shanghai upgrade… and much more! Show highlights:  what the intentions behind A...

Brian Quintenz, head of policy for a16z crypto, and Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, talk about Operation Choke Point 2.0, the relationship between the government and the crypto industry, the status of different tokens as securities or commodities, and potential future developments in the space Show highlights: what the original Operation Choke Point was like the "evidence" t...

In this episode, Austin Campbell, a professor at Columbia Business School, discusses the recent allegations made by the CFTC against Binance, and whether or not criminal charges will be brought against company officers such as CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, or former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim. He also sheds light on how this case could shape which agency will have regulatory authority over c...

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they discuss Binance's recent regulatory issues, the potential impact on the crypto markets, the CFTC's stance on tokens, and also touch on Do Kwon's arrest and Hong Kong's approach to crypto regulation. Show highlights:  whether t...

In this episode, Stanford cryptography professor Dan Boneh and a16z General Partner Ali Yahya elevate our knowledge of zero-knowledge proofs and their applications in the blockchain world. Listen as they dive into the intricacies of succinct proof systems, the difference between SNARKs and STARKs, the magic of recursive SNARKs, and why zero-knowledge systems are essential to the evolution of Ether...

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, shares his concerns about the SEC’s recent warning that it would pursue legal action against the crypto exchange. With the U.S. markets regulator failing to provide clear rules on digital assets, Grewal discusses the implications for Coinbase and for the future of crypto in the United States. Show highlights: why Grewal was not surprised by the Wells no...