Cointalk

Alt season on college quads everywhere decentralized videos on DTube George Soros makes the dictator case for Bitcoin the Telegram ICO gets retracted what happens when companies HODL and prices crash James Surowiecki’s MIT Technology Review piece “Bitcoin would be a calamity, not an economy”

@Ledgerstatus, the only trader on Twitter that Jay & Aaron trust, returns to the show to talk about why the fundamentals on Bitcoin have never been stronger, the future of altcoins, and how he remains optimistic during downswings. PLUS: The Floyd Mayweather / DJ Khaled-shilled coin Centra is unsurprisingly a scam. Which celebrity ICO promoters would we trust? And a full breakdown of everything we got wrong in our blockchain episodes (thanks to the listener fact-checkers out there!) Ledgerstatus.com

Maaaaaaaailbag!!!! Plus the Satoshi Vision Conference and the creepy stuff that's getting logged for eternity into the Bitcoin blockchain (Mailbag starts at 21:00)

Aaron & Jay got into crypto as the market skyrocketed, then rode the crashes down. Now as they sit near break even, they discuss all the mistakes they made as amateur traders: chasing alt highs, panic selling the bottom, getting swept up in Twitter hype, and generally making the wrong decisions at every juncture.

After failing to internalize the business/humanitarian potential of blockchain technologies in the last episode, Aaron talks to the reporter Adrianne Jeffries about her Verge article "Blockchain is Meaningless". @adrjeffries Adrianne Jeffries' weekly crypto column on The Verge Bitmain’s new $12K cryptocurrency miner might be useless by the time it ships (The Next Web) Blockchain is Meaningless (The Verge) IBM launches a cheaper platform for start-ups to build blockchain projects (CNBC)

Aaron & Jay try (and fail) to wrap their heads about the blockchain itself and how it could be revolutionary in realms outside currency. Can you believe in the blockchain but not Bitcoin? What do companies like IBM want with blockchain technology? Has anyone actually done anything worthwhile with the blockchain other than issuing coins? Thanks to Adrianne Jeffries whose Verge article '‘BLOCKCHAIN’ IS MEANINGLESS' inspired this episode.

Aaron and Jay are back on their bullshit for a late night chat about Coinbase's newly announced Index Fund (which includes a full buffet of the 4 Coinbase coins weighted by market share) and revelations that Mt. Gox's Japanese trustee dumped one of the world's largest cache's of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, decimating the market just as it reached an all time high. Plus a really stupid Bitcoin Cash (BCH) rap video.

Jay and Aaron talk about: what an ICO (initial coin offering) is and how they might be regulated in the future handicapping betting odds for the next tiny country to issue its own cryptocurrency And then interview Peter Van Valkenburg, the director of research at Coin Center which is the "leading non-profit focused on the policy issues facing cryptocurrencies."

Aaron & Jay try to wrap their heads around yet another scammy ICO—the Petro (PTR) issued by Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. 04:25 Nicolás Maduro looks at Bitcoin miners 04:28 kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com 8:45 Coin Talk #5: Tether (USDT) is the New Disneybucks 33:33 The Petro Hasn't Raised a Dime (Alejandro Machado, Caracas Chronicle)

Aaron and Jay talk about Robinhood, the Telegram ICO and the TON token, and then bring on Maria Bustillos to talk about the Civil project which aims to bring the blockchain to journalism and includes her Popula publication. 8:32 Brokerage App Robinhood Thinks Bitcoin Belongs in Your Retirement Plan (Max Chafkin, and Julia Verhage, Bloomberg) 10:45 Bitcoin Thieves Threaten Real Violence for Virtual Currencies (Nathaniel Popper, New York Times) 21:19 @EricWl "Just looked through the Telegram ICO 132-page whitepaper for their TON Blockchain. Essentially a 100% premined, centrally issued, unbounded supply, PoS sharding shitcoin. One of the worst whitepaper I ever read. Full of blockchain armchair guessing and baseless estimates. 0/10." 29:40 Popula

Aaron & Jay go inside the privacy altcoins Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC): what coin fungibility and anonymity really mean how privacy coins differ from Bitcoin—and whether Bitcoin might add those features as a secondary layer in the future whether the association of Monero with dark net markets and money laundering is good or bad for price (and ethics?) how academic research led to defining privacy features of Monero (Ring Signatures) and Zcash (ZSnarks) and how they work (actually we don't really understand, but we try!)

Adrian Chen wrote the first article about the darknet marketplace Silk Road and Bitcoin, causing the price of BTC to go from $10 to $14. Adrian discusses: why he never has owned a single Bitcoin his investigation into Satoshi Nakamoto's identity the misperception that Bitcoin is anonymous *whether crypto has scrambled Jay’s brain Plus, Aaron shills his bags HARD. 7:30 Bitgrail hacked 7:33 Nano (XRB) 14:03 "The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable" (Adrian Chen, Gawker 2011) 17:33 BitcoinTalk forum 24:41 @AdamBack / Wei Dai 25:16 @JiaTolentino 28:28 @NickSzabo4 31:42 Bitmex 45:02 Tor 48:30 "Suspected AlphaBay founder dies in Bangkok jail after shutdown of online black market" (Washington Post, July 2017) 55:01 Bail Bloc 56:29 The New Inquiry 1:04:53 [Dogecoin (DOGE)] 15 1:05:36 Catbreading

On the official podcast of Bitcoin crashes, Aaron & Jay: listen in on CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo's hero-making comments to the Senate try to understand why exchanges like Binance are so opaque during downtime (even if they didn't actually get hacked) consider the first prediction market on the Augur (REP) platform which is a bet on "whether Augur will get hacked" 13:20 Forbes' First List Of Cryptocurrency's Richest: Meet The Secretive Freaks, Geeks And Visionaries Minting Billions From Bitcoin Mania (Forbes) 14:33 @CZ_Binance 16:01 Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money (Nathan Popper, Harper 2016) 19:16 Augur (REP) 19:30 Augur Ahead? One of the Oldest ICOs Is Almost Live (Coindesk) 26:37 Giancarlo defines "HODL" for the Senate 33:51 Giancarlo discusses whether Bitcoin is a commodity

Aaron and Jay answer some Twitter questions at the entire crypto market crashes before their eyes, then find some solace in an interview with Bitcoin veteran Jameson Lopp. @Lopp Lopp.net Show Notes (1 hr) 13:08 The Worst Crashes in Bitcoin History 30:35 Lightning Network 35:37 Statoshi 36:23 BitGo

Aaron and Jay try to understand how Tether works and whether its collapse could bring down the entire crypto house of cards. Plus the Coincheck hack and some listener questions from Twitter. (Since this episode was taped last night, it was reported that Tether and Bitfinex had received a subpoena from the CFTC on December 6th.) "U.S. Regulators Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether" (Matthew Leising, Bloomberg) 7:50 Tether (USDT) 17:09 Tweet by @Nouriel 25:13 "Japan’s Cryptocurrency Whiz Kid Faces $530 Million Reckoning" (Takashi Mochizuki, Wall Street Journal) 27:04 Stablecoin (SBC) 33:47 "More than 1 million people sign up for early access to Robinhood's new crypto trading service" (Evelyn Chang, CNBC) 36:42 Tweet by @PeterLBrandt 44:32 Oink's Pink Palace 46:09 The Silver Jews Thanks to our partner Medium! Read a transcript of every episode at medium.com/cointalk

In this episode: -Aaron & Jay answer a provocative mailbag question as to whether they even fundamentally believe in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies -The crypto “long winter -Mining and electricity consumption -Ethereum’s hacky-sack mentality vs Bitcoin’s scorched earth =Buzzfeed tech reporter Charlie Warzel comes in for a new deep dive segment on the ERC-20 casino token Funfair (FUN). Send us mailbag questions: hi@cointalk.show @CWarzel 4:40 RaiBlocks (XRB) 11:19 "What It's Like To Be Absolutely Obsessed With Bitcoin" (Jay Kang, Vice News Tonight) 12:01 Report: India's Government Sends Tax Notices to Cryptocurrency Traders (Coindesk) 13:22 Local Bitcoins 22:32 Ripple (XRP), Tron (TRX), Verge (XVG) 24:09 "There Is Nothing Virtual About Bitcoin’s Energy Appetite" (Nathaniel Popper, New York Times) 31:13 "Satan’s Credit Card: What The Mark Of The Beast Taught Me About The Future Of Money" (Charlie Warzel, Buzzfeed) 36:00 "Bitcoin Boom is a Boon For Extremist Groups" (Cra

The biggest Bitcoin crash in over 2 years has come and gone—and we still don't totally understand what happened. We talk hodling, panic selling, and why each successive crash in your own crypto history is easier (and funnier?) than the last with professional poker player and actor Doug Kim. @SweetJustice Just Doug on Facebook Watch 6:54 @Matthew_D_Green 27:27 Zoin (ZOI) 28:34 "A Theory About the Recent Crypto Price Plunge" (Matthew C. Klein, FT Alphaville) 36:11 Storm (Storm) & BLOCKv (VEE) 40:50 "Just Doug is one of the few good Facebook Watch series in a sea of clickbait" (Shannon Liao, The Verge)

An interview with Nathan Park, an attorney who has been active in crypto regulations in the Korean market, about: —why Korea caught crypto fever —the massive "Kimchi Premium" paid on Korean exchanges like Bithumb and its ties to Chinese mining and money-laundering —what to expect from Korean regulators in 2018 Plus San Francisco's crypto-rich and the J-Pop band "Virtual Currency Girls." This episode was taped Monday, January 15th and 11am EST. The Bitcoin Price Index was $14,066. "Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not" (Nellie Bowles, New York Times) "Japan has a new cryptocurrency-themed J-pop band" (Thuy Ong, The Verge)

Aaron and Jay ask one of their favorite Twitter trader @ledgerstatus what every crypto noob should know, plus C.E.S.' saddest product the "Kodak Kashminer," blockchain dentistry, Toshi serfdom and highlights from a Warren Buffett interview on Bitcoin. 3:30 Kodak Kashminer 11:48 Dentacoin 15:22 Toshi 27:02 Warren Buffett on CNBC 33:00 @Ledgerstatus 57:52 The Ledgercast 1:01:30 ledgerstatus.com

Introducing COIN TALK —a new show for crypto-noobs. An overview of the show, plus a bonus chat about Ripple mania, how Aaron became a Sumokoin ($SUMO) baron, and why Jay draws no distinction between altcoin buying and sports gambling. READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE Show Notes 9:30 This Cryptocurrency Inventor Has Suddenly Become One of the World's Richest Men (Time) 9:48 Meet The Crypto Billionaires Getting Rich From Ripple's XRP (Laura Shin, Forbes) 9:55 @NathanielPopper: On the rise of Ripple. If this is a tulip fever, the fever has spread to chrysanthemums and poppies. (thread) 12:00 The Ripple Effect (Izabella Kaminska, FT Alphaville) 21:41 Sumokoin (SUMO) 23:00 HQ Trivia 33:00 I See You, $XRP (@TwoBitIdiot, Medium)