The Crypto Conversation

Bitcoin price action is subdued this week with Mt Gox jitters spooking the market. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. It's this week's crypto market sentiment report. Why you should listen: Andy looks at the most important data points and narratives driving the crypto news cycle this week. The Mt Gox Trustee's pool of bitcoins (about 141,000 BTC) appears to be getting ready to be distributed. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. Zhu Su says he has "abandoned" Ethereum due to the chain's failure to scale and is there a connection between ​​Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson and Satoshi Nakamoto. Supporting links: Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Artist Grace Ng is about to launch Crash Punks - an NFT collection on Stacks/Bitcoin. Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime, and Snow Crash, the iconic 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash has been an inspiration for the Stacks and Bitcoin communities and is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. Why you should listen: Grace Ng is a tech entrepreneur, angel investor, neuro-artist, co-founder of Lean Startup Machine, and VP at the Stacks Accelerator. Grace is the creative force behind Crash Punks, an NFT collection of 10,000 unique art profile pictures on Bitcoin/Stacks. Crash Punks is inspired by the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. "Computers rely on the one and the zero to represent all things. This distinction between something and nothing-this pivotal separation between being and nonbeing-is quite fundamental and underlies many Creation myths," Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash Supporting links: Crash Punks Stacks Accelerator Is Neal Stephenson Satoshi Nakamoto? Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Cecil Pang and IIan Klein are co-founders at Open Art Source, a blockchain-supported marketplace where artists can sell their works. It provides the tools necessary for artists to showcase their works and for collectors to research their purchases. The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. The project is funding the development of the Open Art Source platform, which brings a blockchain data layer to the physical art market. Why you should listen: The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. Open Art Source and Shaderverse came together in the Stacks Accelerator. The Arties is the first 3D NFT project on Stacks, and they're attached to specific benefits on the Open Art Source platform. Shaderverse has developed AR 3D game-ready assets for each Artie in the collection, and these assets will be sent to Artie holders for Christmas/Chanukah. Arties are minting now on STX. Cecil Pang is an artist; a technologist, and a world-class computer scientist. With CS credentials from Stanford and Columbia and art credentials from Parsons School of Design, he's the perfect person to tackle the structural injustices of the art world. Supporting links: Arties Mint Arties Open Art Source Hyperspace Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Sam Zou and James Bayly head the team at SubQuery, a decentralized data aggregation, indexing, and querying layer between Layer-1 blockchains and decentralized applications. SubQuery is focused on the fast-growing Polkadot ecosystem. Why you should listen: The team had experienced first-hand the difficulties of testing, deploying, and managing blockchain infrastructure. The team founded OnFinality to solve key pain points around decentralized infrastructure management and automate the deployment of Polkadot/Substrate based networks to the cloud. In 2020, while helping key Polkadot parachain teams, the team listened to requests for a data indexing service to help the teams better understand their chain data. Additionally, these teams wanted this in place to ease the barriers to entry for their future development communities. After a period of research, the team formally established the SubQuery project at the end of 2020 through a Web3 Grant, delivered the first open source version in January, and announced the platform to the world in February 2021. It now has backing from Arrington Capital and Digital Currency Group. Supporting links: SubQuery Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Stacks 2.0 (formerly Blockstack) is a layer-1 blockchain that connects to Bitcoin and brings smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized apps to Bitcoin. Smart contracts and apps developed on the Stacks platform are natively integrated with the security, stability, and economic power of Bitcoin. Why you should listen: Trevor Owens is the managing director at Stacks Accelerator. The Stacks Accelerator works with the Stacks Foundation's Grants program to deliver flexible, fair, and efficient funding options. It invests $50K at a no-valuation cap into teams solving real-world problems on Stacks. Stacks 2.0 implements a new mining mechanism called Proof of Transfer (PoX). PoX is a consensus algorithm between two blockchains. It uses an established blockchain (in this case Bitcoin) to secure a new blockchain (Stacks). PoX connects to Bitcoin with a 1:1 block ratio, meaning anything that happens on the Stacks blockchain can be verified on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Instead of burning electricity on proof of work, PoX reuses already minted bitcoins as "proof of computation" and miners represent their cost of mining in bitcoins directly. Clarity is a new language for smart contracts on the Stacks 2.0 blockchain. The Clarity smart contract language optimizes for predictability and security. Stacks 2.0 anchors clarity smart contracts to Bitcoin making it possible for smart contracts to operate based on actions seen on the bitcoin blockchain. Crash Punks are a 10,000 collection of unique and generative art profile pictures as Bitcoin/Stacks NFTs, inspired by the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's the first major collection by entrepreneur and crypto artist Grace Ng and will be the community dedicated to all of her future artistic work related to AR/VR, 3D, visual art, music, and neuro-feedback art. Supporting links: Stacks Accelerator Crash Punks Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Nick, the lead developer at ENS, the Ethereum Naming Service joins Andy for a wide-ranging discussion on ENS, DAOs, Proof of Stake Vs Proof of Work, and why Cory Doctorow is wrong about NFTS. Why you should listen: ENS is a decentralized naming system for crypto addresses, wallets, websites, and more. ENS is moving towards decentralization and has passed ENS governance to the community through their new governance token, ENS. The token was distributed by an air drop to ENS users. Community members could apply to be ENS delegates and delegate their voting rights to others. Supporting links: ENS Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Markets are on the edge, torn in opposite directions by two big news events. Inflation hit 6.2% hitting earners and shoppers in their wallets. In response, Bitcoin was poised to smash through $69,420 before Evergrande headlines spoiled the party. Why you should listen: Bitcoin got tantalizingly close to the mythical $69,420 level today as investors continue to seek exposure to Bitcoin to hedge against inflation. However, news that Evergrande may default on its next interest loan payments sent all global markets into a spin. Supporting links: Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Shiba Inu (SHIB), a dog-based crypto memecoin, has defied all expectations to become the best-performing asset of 2021. In the last year, the token is up ~75,000,000%, and for the last month, it has felt like everybody wants a piece of it. What is the bull and bear case for Shiba Inu? Why you should listen: Brave New Coin analyst Aditya Das joins Andy to discuss the fascinating, controversial history of crypto's current Memecoin of the moment, Shiba Inu. Has SHIB topped out? Or are there more gains to come? Supporting links: Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Memecoins are dominating the crypto markets while Bitcoin takes a breather. U.S. politicians from all sides are warming up to Bitcoin, with some even taking part of their salaries in BTC. It's the weekly Crypto market update. Why you should listen: First, there was DOGE. Then SHIBA. Then SQUID. Memecoins are dominating the frothy end of the market as the meme narrative attracts new retail investors. Bitcoin is cooling off after the surge following the approval of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF. Pressure is mounting for the U.S. to next approve a spot-based ETF but it's not likely in the short term. Supporting links: Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Checkmate is the lead on-chain analyst at Glassnode, an on-chain data and intelligence platform for the crypto markets. Checkmate joins Andy to discuss the edge that on-chain data can provide and why he is bullish for Q4 and beyond. Why you should listen: With a background in data and engineering, when Checkmate discovered blockchain he was immediately drawn to the data-driven insights that on-chain analytics can provide. Checkmate says that the dip in mid-2021 can be viewed as a mini bitcoin bear market. We are now at the beginning stages of a new Bitcoin bull market. Due to the inefficiencies in the fiat system, one way of viewing Bitcoin in the long term is that there is no top. Supporting links: Glassnode Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.