Unchained Laura Shin

Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, discusses Elon Musk’s appearance at ‘The B Word’ conference, along with a few current events in the Bitcoin world. Show highlights:
her main takeaway from ‘The B Word’ conference why governance plays an essential role in Bitcoin’s block size arguments what Neha thinks of proof-of-work mining and Bitcon’s environmental concerns why Neha is skeptical of Dogecoin becoming a serious cryptocurrency why Jack Dorsey’s new Bitcoin platform business is a good idea what Bitcoin’s dip in hashrate due to China’s crackdown could affect network security going forward what questions Neha has about Bitcoin’s adoption in El Salvador why Neha thinks cryptocurrencies and CBDCs will coexist what DCI has planned for the rest of 2021  
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Episode Links:
Neha Narula: https://twitter.com/neha MIT Media Lab: ​​https://twitter.com/medialab  Digital Currency Initiative https://dci.mit.edu/ CBDC research https://dci.mit.edu/cbdc-central-bank-digital-currency  Bitcoin network development https://dci.mit.edu/cbdc-central-bank-digital-currency  The B Word conference Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Cathie Wood conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwx_7XAJ3p0  Neha’s appearance: https://www.thebword.org/c/track-3-Supporting-the-Developer-Ecosystem Miscellaneous Square’s Bitcoin DeFi platform https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/square-is-building-a-decentralized-finance-business-for-bitcoin.html Bitcoin and El Salvador https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/05/el-salvador-becomes-the-first-country-to-adopt-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-.html Bitcoin hashrate drop https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/chinas-bitcoin-miner-exodus-.html 

Gurvais Grigg, Chainalysis public sector CTO, and Kim Grauer, director of research at Chainalysis, review the ransomware landscape. Show Highlights:
their backgrounds and roles at Chainalysis how a ransomware attack works what types of businesses are usually targeted in ransomware attacks why ransomware as a service (RAAS) is a booming business why Kim and Gurvais believe the hacking group REvil is becoming more sophisticated what characteristic of REvil hints that the group could be affiliated with Russia how the RAAS business model works how ransomware payments can be tracked why ransomware reporting has a data problem why Bitcoin is the preferred method of payment amongst ransomware attackers what two factors makes BTC preferable to privacy coins how ransomware groups teach victims to transfer BTC how ransomware groups cash out of their BTC how counter-terrorism tactics can help fight ransomware attacks how the Department of Justice may have partially recovered part of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware payment what tools and strategies governments can and will use to battle ransomware Thank you to our sponsors!
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Conjure: https://conjure.finance 
 
Episode Links
 
People
Kim Grauer - Director of Research at Chainalysis
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-grauer-a9501144 Gurvais Grigg - Global Public Sector Chief Technology Officer at Chainalysis
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurvais-grigg-b1027a153/   
Chainalsysis Ransomware Data
https://go.chainalysis.com/rs/503-FAP-074/images/Ransomware-2021-update.pdf   https://go.chainalysis.com/rs/503-FAP-074/images/Chainalysis-Crypto-Crime-2021.pdf   https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/applying-counterterrorism-strategies-to-ransomware   https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/eastern-europe-cryptocurrency-market-2020   
Ransomware Attacks
Kaseya https://decrypt.co/75246/what-the-revil-ransomware-attack-means-for-crypto https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-03/ransomware-attack-us-revil/100265656  Colonial Pipeline https://ciphertrace.com/ransomware-seizure-blockchain-analytics-helps-us-authorities-seize-over-2-million-in-darkside-ransom-paid-by-colonial-pipeline/  https://www.elliptic.co/blog/us-authorities-seize-darkside  JBS Holdings https://www.wsj.com/articles/jbs-paid-11-million-to-resolve-ransomware-attack Other
Chainalysis  Twitter: https://twitter.com/chainalysis Website: https://www.chainalysis.com/ Who is REvil?  https://fortune.com/2021/07/07/what-is-revil-ransomware-attack-kaseya/ https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/revil-threat-actors/  Combating ransomware: https://securityandtechnology.org/ransomwaretaskforce/report/  Why Gurvais joined Chainalysis: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/gurvais-grigg-chainalysis 

Christine Parker, partner at Reed Smith, summarizes the slew of regulatory headlines facing Binance and how such scrutiny may affect the exchange going forward. Show highlights:
which countries are investigating Binance why it has been difficult for governing bodies to regulate Binance whether the reports that regulatory bodies, like the CFTC/IRS/DOJ, coming after Binance are correct when Christine expects regulators to make a move against Binance how hiring ex-regulators might help Binance in Congress whether Binance’s strategy of leaving countries with tight regulations helped or hurt the exchange what Christine thinks of Binance’s strategy to localize its business model  whether or not it is too late to avoid regulatory penalties for Binance why transitioning to a DAO business model would not absolve Binance of prior infractions how the BitMEX situation could inform Binance whether criminal charges could be in Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s future Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021 
Oasis: https://oasisprotocol.org 
NEAR: https://near.org  
 
Episode Links
 
Christine Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-parker-b09a31/
 
Binance Investigations
https://www.coindesk.com/state-of-crypto-binance-is-firmly-in-the-regulatory-crosshairs  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/110380/thailand-sec-binance-crypto-exchange-criminal-complaint https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/104836/binance-crypto-irs-us-government-investigation-report https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/110510/barclays-customers-in-the-u-k-can-no-longer-transfer-funds-to-binance https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/110617/binance-suspends-deposits-from-key-european-payments-network https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/111482/italy-binance-consob-warning  
Binance Material
CZ letter https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684902301/A-Letter-from-Our-CEO-Reflecting-on-Progress-and-the-Road-Ahead CZ Unchained appearance https://unchainedpodcast.com/listen-to-cz-compare-binance-to-bitcoin/  Binance’s compliance hiring spree https://www.radicalcompliance.com/2021/07/08/binance-compliance-hiring-spree/

Aaron Wright, co-founder of OpenLaw and Professor at Cardozo Law, and Ross Campbell, SushiSwap core developer and LexDAO contributor, discuss the latest breakthroughs and legal implications in the burgeoning world of DAOs. Show highlights:
how Aaron and Ross fell down the crypto rabbit hole whether a DAO, like Curve, could sue to protect its IP when a governance token might be considered a security who owns the copyright to a DAO how SushiSwap handles its open-source licenses why Ross views Uniswap’s business license as a good thing what an DAO is and how the idea stems from Bitcoin how Wyoming’s DAO law works what makes a Wyoming DAO different from a DAO registered as a Delaware LLC how an algorithmically managed DAO might work in the future why Aaron thinks a DAO should not be allowed to be manager-managed why wrapping a DAO into an LLC could be advantageous the difference between private and public ordering Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2
Tezos: https://tezos.com/discover?utm_source=laura-shin&utm_medium=podcast-sponsorship-unconfirmed&utm_campaign=tezos-campaign&utm_content=hero
Conjure: https://conjure.finance 
 
Episode Links
 
People
Ross Campbell
Social Twitter: https://twitter.com/r_ross_campbell Medium: https://medium.com/@rosscampbell9  Career OpenLaw: https://www.openlaw.io/ LexDAO: https://lexdao.substack.com/people/867851-ross-campbell SushiSwap: https://app.sushi.com/swap   
Aaron Wright
Social Twitter: https://twitter.com/awrigh01 Career OpenLaw: https://www.openlaw.io/ Cardozo Law: https://cardozo.yu.edu/directory/aaron-wright Content The Rise of DAOs: https://stanford-jblp.pubpub.org/pub/rise-of-daos/release/1  
DAO Information
Basics:
https://ethereum.org/en/dao/  https://1729.com/daos  Kain Warwick: DAO First Capital Formation
https://blog.synthetix.io/dao-first-capital-formation/  https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1287961077041393664 DAO Stats
https://deepdao.io/  Wyoming:
https://www.wyoleg.gov/2021/Engross/SF0038.pdf https://lexnode.substack.com/p/wyomings-legal-dao-saster https://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1370002015644962816?s=20 https://www.coindesk.com/wyoming-dao-llc-law-passed  https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1407668599205027843?s=20 https://decrypt.co/75222/americas-first-dao-approved-in-wyoming  Delaware:
https://ricardian.gitbook.io/ricardian-llc/is-ricardian-legal  Curve IP: 
https://gov.curve.fi/t/cip-xx-enforce-curves-ip-rights/1890 https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/108561/the-first-dao-lawsuit-proposal-asks-if-curve-should-protect-its-ip https://www.coindesk.com/curve-dao-contemplates-its-intellectual-property  https://twitter.com/SamMiorelli/status/1405141398479847426 https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1405251782574497799  Uniswap V3
https://www.coindesk.com/uniswap-v3-introduces-new-license-to-spoil-future-sushis  https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1374738548239314951 https://defiprime.com/uniswap-v3-explained

Aleksander Larsen, co-founder and COO of Axie Infinity, discusses Axie Infinity’s recent growth, which has seen the platform do 20X the volume of NBA Top Shot in recent days. Show highlights:
what is Axie Infinity? why there has been such an uptick in network activity and profitability how the Axie Infinity team came together  how Axie Infinity uses blockchain technology within its game how Axie Infinity leverages the ‘play to earn’ mania sweeping across Web3 applications what problems may arise as Axie Infinity starts to decentralize  how Axie Infinity is attempting to lower the expensive barrier to entry that comes with blockchain-based games why the Philippines is going crazy for Axie Infinity why building out a sidechain has been such a positive development for the company the two ways Axie Ininity makes money what’s next for Axie Infinity  
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021 
Oasis: https://oasisprotocol.org 
NEAR: https://near.org 
 
Episode Links
 
Aleksander Larsen: https://twitter.com/Psycheout86
Axie Infinity: https://axieinfinity.com/ 
 
Content
Philippines: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/14/people-in-philippines-earn-cryptocurrency-playing-nft-video-game-axie-infinity.html Sidechain: https://medium.com/axie-infinity/introducing-ronin-axie-infinitys-ethereum-sidechain-8745e31eaef1 The Game That Helps Pay Bills: https://startups.my/the-game-that-helps-pay-bills-axie-infinity/ CoinDesk write up: https://www.coindesk.com/axie-infinity-token-quadruples-nfts Play-to-earn: https://metaportal.substack.com/p/the-memetic-power-of-play-to-earn Unchained Axie Infinity write-up: https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-nft-marketplace-does-20x-the-volume-of-nba-top-shot/

Kevin Zhang, vice president of business development at Foundry, breaks down the latest developments surrounding China and bitcoin mining. Show highlights: 
how he came across crypto and which Bitcoin OG he joined at Bitcoin.com to help start its mining operations arm what Foundry does and its relationship with Digital Currency Group (DCG) why DCG wanted to build out a mining infrastructure business what news from China in early March kickstarted the process of the mining ban how China’s Central Television broadcasting company might have brought extra scrutiny to cryptocurrencies  what the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party has to do with its Bitcoin mining ban why the Inner Mongolia and Sichuan Bitcoin mining bans were especially disruptive for Chinese miners how much of China’s hash rate Kevin estimates has been shut down since May where are miners relocating to  why Chinese mining equipment will not be allowed to turn on in the US whether or not China’s Bitcoin mining ban will stick why China banning bitcoin mining will be good for the network in the long run  what significant risk to Bitcoin’s network is solved by China banning bitcoin mining how much Bitcoin’s hash rate will drop and what effect this will have on miner revenue why Kevin thinks that Bitcoin is good for renewable energy how immersion cooling technology works what tangible benefits miners could find by moving to North America if El Salvador’s volcanic bitcoin mining plan is feasible what Kevin predicts will happen in the Bitcoin mining industry for the latter half of 2021 Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2     
Tezos: https://tezos.com/discover?utm_source=laura-shin&utm_medium=podcast-sponsorship-unconfirmed&utm_campaign=tezos-campaign&utm_content=hero     
Conjure: https://conjure.finance  
 
Episode Links
 
Kevin Zhang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SinoCrypto  Mining tweet storms: https://twitter.com/SinoCrypto/status/1407524150885994497 https://twitter.com/SinoCrypto/status/1409227438262046723  Content from previous work experience: Greenridge Generation https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/57943/a-power-plant-in-new-york-is-reportedly-mining-roughly-50000-in-bitcoin-each-day  Project Spokane https://medium.com/@derekbrouwer/the-bitcoin-barons-how-a-marketer-and-a-money-launderer-sold-montana-on-digital-gold-2a255c96c981   
Foundry, Subsidiary of DCG
Twitter: https://twitter.com/foundryservices Website: https://foundrydigital.com/  Foundry USA Pool Bit Digital: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bit-digital-joins-foundry-usa-pool-with-5-679-machines-adding-up-to-280-phs-of-compute-power-to-the-pool-301283792.html  Bitfarms partnership: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/04/23/2215897/0/en/Bitfarms-Partners-with-Foundry-to-Expand-Bitcoin-Mining-Fleet-and-Join-Foundry-USA-Pool-Instantly-Boosts-Operating-Hashrate-By-15.html  China’s Bitcoin Mining Ban
Travis Kling noted 25 different announcements from China in June alone: https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1410630499748388865  Glassnode: mining difficulty to face its largest decrease ever https://insights.glassnode.com/the-week-on-chain-week-26-2021/  The Block: hash rate dropped 50%, Foundry up while everyone else is hurting https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/109315/bitcoin-hashrate-declines-50-percent-china-mining-crackdown Nic Carter: breaking down the hashrate migration https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-unpacking-hashrate-nic-cart-migration Secondhand mining equipment prices are spiking https://www.coindesk.com/chinese-logistics-firm-airlifting-bitcoin-mining-machines-to-maryland-report https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/109301/secondhand-bitcoin-miner-supply-spiking-bitmain Bitcoin miners sh