Episode 19 – Inflation, deflation, and stablecoins with Frances Coppola (Part 1)

Inflation, deflation, and stablecoins with Frances Coppola (Part I) – Crypto Critics' Corner

Frances Coppola – "infamous" nocoiner and author – joins Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey to teach everyone a thing or two about inflation, deflation, hyperinflation, and stablecoin regulation.

In this episode Cas and I are joined by Frances Coppola to discuss inflation and deflation along with stablecoins.

You can find Frances’ Twitter here, her blog here, and her book here.

Episode 18 – Crypto Charity: where you donate to random people making promises and get nothing in return

Crypto Charity – where you donate to random people making promises and get nothing in return – Crypto Critics' Corner

Today's episode is guest-less! Just Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discussing how particularly egregious cryptocurrency-based charities tend to be. Examples include Jacob Kostecki, Binance's Pink Care Token, and Deltec Cares.

In this episode Cas and I are discussing the problematic history of charities in the crypto space.

I discuss Jacob Kostecki here:

A List of Facts about Jacob/Jakub Kostecki

Episode 17 – From Skeptic to Believer: Preston Byrne on the cryptocurrency ecosystem

From Skeptic to Believer: Preston Byrne on the cryptocurrency ecosystem – Crypto Critics' Corner

Lawyer Preston Byrne joins Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey for a wide-ranging discussion that goes from his own crypto journey (of skeptic to believer) to regulatory and legal risks for stablecoin operators. Visit his Twitter to see more from Preston https://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne

In this episode Cas and I are joined by Preston Byrne of Anderson Kill Law to discuss stablecoins, his perspective on crypto, and the interplay between regulation and decentralized finance.

You can find Preston’s Twitter here.

Episode 16 – Stablecoins, CBDCs, and the STABLE Act with Rohan Grey

Stablecoins, CBDCs, and the STABLE Act with Rohan Grey – Crypto Critics' Corner

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by Assistant Professor of Law at Willamette University and one of the authors of the STABLE Act, Rohan Grey. We discuss how stablecoins operate, what he hopes to see from CBDCs and the problems he sees in all kinds of new(er) money markets. Find him on Twitter @rohangrey

In this episode Cas and I are joined by Rohan Grey, Assistant Professor at Willamette Law and one of the creators of the STABLE Act to discuss money transmitters, stablecoins, CBDCs, and the STABLE Act.

You can find Rohan’s Twitter here.

Episode 15 – Revisiting Enron with David Z. Morris

Revisiting Enron with David Z. Morris – Crypto Critics' Corner

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by David Z. Morris to discuss what happened at Enron, the ramifications of its downfall, and how the climate during Enron relates to today. If you'd like to hear more from David visit his website http://www.davidzmorris.com/  his twitter profile https://twitter.com/davidzmorris or subscribe to his substack http://davidzmorris.substack.com

In this episode Cas and I are joined by David Z Morris of Coindesk to discuss Enron and how we think this relates to the current cryptocurrency ecosystem.

You can find David’s Twitter here, his Substack here, and his book here.

Episode 14 – Behold the Brash Bunk from Bitfinex and Binance

Behold the Brash Bunk from Bitfinex and Binance – Crypto Critics' Corner

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss Cas' trip to Hong Kong in search of the ethereal Bitfinex headquarters, how and why exchanges continue to try to get away with existing nowhere, and what it means for consumers.

In this episode Cas and I discuss his investigative work to check out the addresses for Bitfinex and Tether.

You can read Cas’ article on this here.

Episode 13 – BitClout is Bad

BitClout is Bad with David Canellis – Crypto Critics' Corner

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey bring on David Canellis, the director of news at Protos Media (https://protos.com) and long time journalist covering cryptocurrency and fintech, to discuss the "decentralized" social media platform BitClout. We'll talk about its odd origin story, why David thinks it's probably destined to fail, and why it reminds us of so many other projects that never made it out of the 2017/2018 cryptocurrency bullrun.

In this episode Cas and I are joined by David Canellis of Protos Media to discuss the controversial cryptocurrency BitClout.

Episode 12 – Regulatory Capture and Regulatory Arbitrage: Sleeping with your Enemy

Regulatory Capture and Regulatory Arbitrage: Sleeping with your Enemy – Crypto Critics' Corner

In this episode Bennett and Cas discuss the concepts of regulatory capture and regulatory arbitrage – systemic problems that aren't unique to any particular industry, but have helped dissolve public trust of regulators and enriched some of the worst companies and individuals.

In this episode Cas and I discuss the new tendency for cryptocurrency businesses to hire regulators and the old tendency to try to avoid regulation at any cost.

Episode 11 – El Salvador and Bitcoin

El Salvador and Bitcoin – Crypto Critics' Corner

Bennett and Cas try to discuss an intensely complex and controversial topic: what Bitcoin being declared legal tender in El Salvador will mean for the small, Central American country.

In this episode Cas and I discuss the politically, economically, and historically impactful news that El Salvador is adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.

Cas Piancey provided some additional context on this issue through his reporting at Protos that can be found here:

Read this before criticizing El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender

Frances Coppola also provided an interesting perspective on the issue here.

Episode 10 – This one weird trick will stop you from ever having a bank run!! (never let anyone redeem)

This one weird trick will stop you from ever having a bank run!! (never let anyone redeem) – Crypto Critics' Corner

In this episode, Bennett and Cas discuss the confusing concept of what a "Tether redemption" would look like: an ever-shifting definition built on a stablecoin with an ever-shifting definition of what 1-1 backed by traditional fiat currency means. Though we haven't seen an actual Tether redemption shown on Twitter, or otherwise, for the world to see, we look forward to someone coming forward with one shortly!

In this episode Cas and I discuss what is a Tether redemption, what’s a Bitfinex redemption, and why all this talk about redemptions even matters.