Ether Capital Podcast

When is the Merge going to happen? Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions in crypto since the launch of Ethereum's beacon chain in late 2020. We caught up with Tim Beiko from the Ethereum Foundation who runs the core developer calls and has his finger on the pulse when it comes to Ethereum's highly-anticipated upgrade to proof of stake. We asked him all about the work being done on the world's leading smart contract platform, timeline of events and what traditional investors can expect post-merge. 00:00 - Introductions 00:50 - Breaking down the Merge: What it is and why it matters 03:15 - Timeline of events related to the Merge 07:30 - Challenges and opportunities discovered while working on the Merge 09:30 - Has the pullback in asset prices affected developer progress on the Merge? 11:10 - What ether issuance post-merge will look like 13:40 - Why should traditional investors care about the Merge? 15:25 - How Ethereum stacks up against other Layer-1 protocols 18:10 - Future upgrades on Ethereum  20:00 - Will the end user experience change as a result of the Merge? 22:40 - What will happen to miners who have invested in computing hardware? 23:30 - What innovation is Tim most excited about

We caught up with Gordon Liao, Head of Research for Uniswap Labs, to talk about his transition from traditional finance to the nascent ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi). Most recently, Gordon worked as a senior economist for the United States Federal Reserve and co-authored a report on stablecoins that was published in January 2022. 00:00 - Introduction 01:15 - Gordon’s career trajectory and how he was first introduced to cryptocurrency 03:30 - Can you have blockchains without tokens? 05:45 - Problems Gordon noticed while working for the Fed  07:35 - Will traditional finance use open-source infrastructure?  10:00 - Why Gordon left the Fed to work in decentralized finance 14:30 - Can KYC apply to DeFi? 17:15 - Where do policymakers get hung-up when it comes to crypto regulation?  18:30 - Gordon's view on stablecoins 23:40 - Why should governments lean into stablecoins?  25:00 - Gordon's role at Uniswap Labs 29:00 - Long-term vision for the DeFi industry  31:15 - What needs to happen for traditional finance and decentralized finance to coexist 33:40 - What excites Gordon the most about the industry

In February 2022, we hosted a webinar on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrency with Carolyn Wilkins, external member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee and former Sr. Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada.  Our discussion focused on understanding how CBDCs operate and what makes them different from cryptocurrency. We also talked about/debated if there's a way they can co-exist.  Ether Capital's CEO Brian Mosoff took part in the event, which was moderated by Bloomberg Senior Editor Michael Regan. This is a special podcast episode that features the full recording of our conversation. 05:50 What differentiates a CBDC from digital banking 07:20 Can CBDCs and cryptocurrency co-exist? 12:30 Looking at stablecoins and how they factor into the equation 15:30 The true meaning of decentralization and whether or not it's achievable  20:40 Views on how traditional finance will respond to CBDCs 27:05 Price speculation vs. innovation 31:45 Financial inclusion in developing countries 33:30 A whole world outside of Bitcoin  39:00 Regulators have their work cut out for them 43:00 Q&A

Chris Giancarlo, former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, joins us to talk about embracing digital transformation. He explains why governments need to update legacy banking infrastructure and create a more open and inclusive financial system. 00:00 Disclaimer 01:04 "Crypto Dad" 05:33 Digital generation and TradFi exclusivity 08:20 Entity-based regulation vs. activity-based regulation 11:00 The highway analogy 13:31 Financial insitutions gathering too much information 16:41 The Empire Strikes Back 18:58 No clear message from Washington 21:07 Countries getting it right 22:38 Achieving financial liberty and protecting individual privacy 26:00 How institutions can compete with an open financial system 28:43 The Fed engaging the private sector 31:22 What Chris Giancarlo would like to see happen

We caught up with U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to talk about her views on crypto and the challenges American policymakers face when it comes to regulating the US$2.5+ trillion industry

We welcome Ken Kruger, of MOON, a startup focused on making crypto an easy and efficient form of payment. How does it work? Will this onboard more users into the crypto ecosystem? Listen in to find out how this startup is working to changing the game.

Our guest is Justin Drake, a leading researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. Justin is an architect of the Ethereum 2.0 vision. We discuss Ether's store of value thesis and its new monetary economics.

We talk with Som Seif, CEO of Purpose Investments about the recent announcement of the world’s first physically settled Bitcoin ETF.  Som is considered a pioneer in the ETF industry, first through his work building Claymore, which he then sold to Blackrock in 2005 and is now building Purpose, an asset manager with over 10 billion dollars of AUM. We drive into the journey that got us to this historic moment.

On todays episode, our guest is Hugh Karp, Founder of Nexus Mutual - an on-chain insurance alternative for the digital asset world. Nexus Mutual is not your normal insurance company. It's a protocol that lives on Ethereum where the token holders provide the actual coverage. This is a fascinating dive into how blockchains make something like this even possible, so stick around.

Earlier this week, Slack, the popular work messaging web application was offline for hours, and I reached out to Greg Markou, Co-Founder of Chainsafe Systems to hear his thoughts on what happened, and how blockchain technology might one day prevent such major outages.  For those curious about the Ethereum and blockchain world beyond just the price, this is a look into how the technology might reshape the structure of the internet.

Diogo Monica, CEO of Anchorage, is our guest. We discuss crypto custody, the ever changing crypto services landscape, institutional adoption and regulatory challenges. Diogo's background is unique in the crypto space and he is an expert in the field. He provides outstanding insights.

Ethereum is transitioning from proof of work to proof of stake. This is part of a network upgrade that will give Ether holders the opportunity to generate a yield by participating in networking security. It's been years in the making, and a major milestone on the Ethereum roadmap. Tim Ogilvie, CEO of Staked, joins us to discuss what it's all about and why traditional finance needs to pay attention.

There are over US$900 million of the Dai stablecoin outstanding. But what is Dai? What is a decentralized stablecoin? And how does MakerDAO create this crucial piece of infrastructure on Ethereum? We explain in plain English with Greg DiPrisco, head of Business Development at the Maker Foundation. ETHC Disclaimer for Podcast ©️2020, Ether Capital Corporation. (“ETHC”). All content is original and has been researched and produced by ETHC unless otherwise stated. No part of ETHC’s original content may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of ETHC. The content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or an offer or solicitation in respect to any products or services. Certain statements contained in this podcast may be statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on ETHC’s current views and assumptions, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of ETHC and the digital assets, digital networks, companies and securities discussed in this podcast to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. All content is subject to change without notice. All statements made regarding digital assets, digital networks, companies or securities or other financial information in this podcast are strictly beliefs and points of view held by ETHC or the third party making such statement and are not endorsements by ETHC of any digital assets digital network, company or security or recommendation by ETHC to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or security. The content presented does not constitute investment advice, should not be used as the basis for any investment decision, and does not purport to provide any legal, tax or accounting advice. There are inherent risks involved with investing in ETHC, digital assets and digital asset networks, as set out in ETHC’s Annual Information Form on www.sedar.com. There is no guarantee that ETHC’s objectives will be achieved. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and ETHC disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments. All third party content linked or provided in this podcast is provided “as is” and “as available”. ETHC does not guarantee the accuracy of its content. ETHC will not in any way be liable to any person for any inaccuracies, errors, omissions, delays, damages, claims, liabilities or losses, regardless of cause, in or arising from the use of third party content linked or provided in this podcast.

Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum so far this year. What does tokenizing bitcoin on Ethereum mean? Why is it important? How are people using bitcoin on Ethereum? Ether Capital&apos;s CEO, Brian Mosoff, explains and discusses the trend with Matthieu Jobbe Duval of CoinList, one of the companies leading the charge on tokenizing bitcoin on the Ethereum network. <p> ETHC Disclaimer for Podcast</p> <p> ©2020, Ether Capital Corporation. (“ETHC”).</p> <p> All content is original and has been researched and produced by ETHC unless otherwise stated. No part of ETHC’s original content may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of ETHC. The content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or an offer or solicitation in respect to any products or services. </p> <p> Certain statements contained in this podcast may be statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on ETHC’s current views and assumptions, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of ETHC and the digital assets, digital networks, companies and securities discussed in this podcast to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. All content is subject to change without notice. All statements made regarding digital assets, digital networks, companies or securities or other financial information in this podcast are strictly beliefs and points of view held by ETHC or the third party making such statement and are not endorsements by ETHC of any digital assets digital network, company or security or recommendation by ETHC to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or security. The content presented does not constitute investment advice, should not be used as the basis for any investment decision, and does not purport to provide any legal, tax or accounting advice. There are inherent risks involved with investing in ETHC, digital assets and digital asset networks, as set out in ETHC’s Annual Information Form on www.sedar.com. There is no guarantee that ETHC’s objectives will be achieved. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and ETHC disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments. </p> <p> All third party content linked or provided in this podcast is provided “as is” and “as available”. ETHC does not guarantee the accuracy of its content.</p> <p> ETHC will not in any way be liable to any person for any inaccuracies, errors, omissions, delays, damages, claims, liabilities or losses, regardless of cause, in or arising from the use of third party content linked or provided in this podcast.</p>