I didn't know the whole story of Sam Bankman-Fried. This book will do that for you. From our very good friend of the show Brady Dale: SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto's Very Bad Good Guy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, veteran crypto journalist Brady Dale unpacks his new book, SBF: How The FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto's Very Bad Good Guy. The book explores Bankman-Fried's worldview and his quest to make FTX the number one crypto exchange in the world, no matter the cost. Despite FTX's bankruptcy last year, Dale believes the exchange was not necessarily doomed to fail and that Bankman-Fried's need for absolute control was a critical factor. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CleanSpark. About CleanSpark CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.
Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall of the one-time crypto wunderkind. “It became clear to me that Sam got really addicted to fame,” said Dale. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: Brady’s background and how he came to cover crypto how covering the space for a crypto outlet is different from a more mainstream publication how Brady was able to finalize his book so fast what Brady’s favorite parts of the book are who was really responsible for the collapse of the FTX empire whether Sam Bankman-Fried will plead guilty whether FTX will make a comeback how SBF thinks differently from other people, and how it led to his downfall why Brady thinks the “dot-com bust” for crypto has yet to arrive whether crypto has betrayed its cypherpunk ideals Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Guests: Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios, and author of “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy” Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX: The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning? How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing? Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He? Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting? Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX? The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto? Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What is a DAO? How do they function? What is the history of this idea? Why have DAO's become so popular all of the sudden, and what are some examples of successful DAOs? The great Brady Dale from @DefiantNews joins Chris and Brian to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
So, as I said, this is one of the clubhouse rooms we did this week. In fact, it’s the one from last night. Chris convinced me to split the two rooms into two episodes, so I’m releasing this one, from Friday first, and tomorrow I’ll post the one we did Monday night. Topics for this episode: Slack getting into social audio, Microsoft buying Discord, what the heck is BitClout! The great Brady Dale @BradyDale from Coindesk helped us out with that. And more explication of my rant concerning the whole Medium situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I don’t think this one requires any in depth intro. The great Brady Dale of Coindesk, walks us though the whole NFT phenomenon. What are NFTs? How do they work? Why are people so crazed about them at the moment? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I don’t think I’ve made any bones about the fact that I blow hot and cold on crypto. Sometimes I grow frustrated that it always seems to be a lot of sound and fury, ultimately signifying nothing. Or at least, not amounting to much that touches normal people’s lives. I dunno if that’s a fair way to look at crypto or not. But at the same time, there is no single corner of tech that has more activity, that has more passion and energy and, just pure, crazy creativity. Lots of people in crypto have adopted my book about the first half of the Internet Era because they hope it’s a guide for how, just when everyone has written off a movement, that’s when it finally breaks through. And I’ll admit, that’s why I keep my eye on a space. That’s why the activity around DeFi has caught my eye. By some measurements, this is crypto actually being USED, in a tangible real world way, and in volumes of activity we’ve never seen before. Is DeFi actually fulfilling the original economic promise of crypto? What, the heck, is DeFi? What is it doing? It’s hard for a knucklehead like me to get my mind around. So, I sent out the bat signal to Brady Dale of CoinDesk to tell me, what the heck is going on with DeFi? Brady's rough history of the DeFi movement Brady's explanation of Yield Farming Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For the final weekend bonus episode of the year, I wanted to check in with Crypto. What a year for the space! Seemingly dead at the beginning of the year. But then the Crypto Spring™ happened. And then Libra happened. And so… where are we? No one better than CoinDesk’s Brady Dale to catch us up… Sponsors: PixelUnion.net Mealime Sofi.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Well, given the news of the week, I knew we needed to do a deep dive on Libra, so I called up our friend Brady Dale at CoinDesk and we get into it. What do crypto folk think of Libra? Is he surprised by the governmental backlash? And since by the time you hear this, bitcoin might already be back above $10k dollars? Are we out of the crypto winter and into crypto spring? Sponsors: PaintYourLife.com: Text the word TECH to 48-48-48 Rhone.com/ride promocode RIDE at checkout Subscribe to the ad-free premium feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sometimes the bonus episodes are for getting news in areas that I might have missed or might not have made our show, but I still find interesting. This week I reached out to Brady Dale of Coindesk, because I know he’s a listener and I knew he could give us some more background on Facebook’s recent moves in crypto, but also some other crypto news we haven’t gotten to and just the state of the crypto-space generally. Sponsors: LinkedIn.com/ride Tiny.website Subscribe to the Premium, Ad-Free Podcast Feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices