Cupid & Hercules (Groom Lake) on Preventing and Responding to Cybercrime (EP.658)

Walt joins the podcast to discuss the current state of Bitcoin and what is investable in and around the Bitcoin ecosystem. In this episode: Austrian economics and Bitcoin Bitcoin's strengths and limitations when it comes to innovation and durability The modern role of decentralization and trust Whether nation-states will fully adopt BTC The role of Bitcoin in network states Owning BTC and other cryptoassets directly vs in equity wrappers Assessing the monetary value of cryptoassets BTC for payments?

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We reminisce about the fork wars Figure goes public Gemini is slated to list The Winklevoss Quintenz drama rumbles on DAT updates CLARITY updates The fight over stablecoins paying interest continues Prediction markets and sports betting SwissBorg is hacked The CBOE is launching BTC and ETH “continuous futures” Harberger taxes  

Wyatt sits down with Austin Federa, the founder of DoubleZero to discuss the hardware systems that underlie blockchains and the internet. In this episode: Building a newer, better fiber network How and why much of internet hardware infrastructure is antiquated Why software innovation has taken precedent over hardware innovation Vertical integration and who has access to the best hardware systems Why hardware innovation requires startups and new entrants Why blockchains demand faster, reliable bandwidth Why a token framework offers a better incentive mechanism

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  We review the US Open The Clippers scandal Fantasy football and the efficient market hypothesis Tax treatment of sports betting on Poly versus sports betting apps Are prediction markets more efficient than bookies? Galaxy launches a tokenized version of their stock NASDAQ is adding supervision rules for DATs Is it over for the DATs? World Liberty Fi launches and gets into a fight with Justin Sun Gemini files to go public Stripe releases details around their Tempo L1 Some academics have an explanation for why MSTR might trade at a persistent premium  Content mentioned in this episode: Nic on Substack, Situating Stablecoins in the Payments Landscape Valuing Microstrategy

Wyatt sits down with Daniel Lev, the founder of Coinflow, to discuss the evolution of payments amidst a wave of stablecoin-enabled innovation. In this episode: Lurking legacy issues of payment networks How our current payment networks benefit end users but not merchants Types of merchant profiles and who stands to benefit Creating faster settlement Marketplace models and better rails How blockchain can reduce fraud and help businesses know their customers

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic reviews the stablecoin conference in Mexico City Will the banks obsolete stablecoins? Some DATs are having trouble The government is putting GDP on the blockchain The CFTC opens the door to US customers trading on non-US exchanges Trump fires Lisa Cook Can the Fed be considered “independent” Google is developing a blockchain A BNB DAT gets delisted Tether is building on Bitcoin via RGB How does insider trading work in prediction markets?

Wyatt sits down with Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, to cover Sandy's work with the CFTC and DTCC and creating sandboxes for onchain financial markets. In this episode: How wallets stand to become the hub of asset management Lasting policy for crypto Protecting consumers in an open financial system

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Wyoming releases a stabletoken “FRNT” Matt’s bear encounter Bowman and Waller’s speeches at Jackson Hole Eric Trump’s Bitcoin prediction Is there an example of a DAT that makes sense? Should DATs trade at a persistent premium? Figure is going public Bullish goes public Is Saylor cornered? Quintenz’ nomination The DoJ decriminalizes writing open source code Is Polymarket cooked? Does a trial by a jury of your peers make sense? Content mentioned: Reducible Errors, Predicting our own demise

Wyatt sits down with the founders of Groom Lake. In this episode:  How social engineering attacks are being used to exploit companies in crypto and beyond How companies can better protect themselves and be vigilant of these exploit attempts The future of cybersecurity software for crypto

Wyatt sits down with Luke Xie, cofounder of SatLayer for a conversation about Bitcoin yield. In this episode:  What makes financial markets for BTC unique How BTC DeFi will evolve, in the backdrop of the broader macro environment DeFi vs CeFi financial systems for BTC