The Chopping Block: The Ethereum Foundation Manifesto + Who Really Runs Crypto?
Crypto insiders debate the Ethereum Foundation’s new “CROPS” mandate: is the EF losing touch with builders, why does Solana keep pulling startups away, and what will it actually take for Ethereum to stay ahead? Expect a candid conversation on governance, comms, and crypto culture wars.
Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’ve got plenty of firepower with special guests Taylor Monahan (formerly of MetaMask, now a security sensei) and Bankless impresario David Hoffman. The crew digs into the Ethereum Foundation’s freshly dropped “CROPS” manifesto — a 38-page PDF full of cypherpunk values, new acronyms, and debate fuel.
What does it really say about where Ethereum is headed? Is EF finally embracing “sanctuary tech,” or just giving startups another reason to choose Solana? Who deserves credit for Ethereum’s growth: the Foundation, the community, or the market?
Expect sharp takes on EF’s endless comms problems, why L2s aren’t a cure-all, and whether crypto culture matters as much as the tech. It’s a spicy, insider-heavy episode — so grab your popcorn and dive in.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights
🔹 Ethereum Foundation’s new CROPS mandate—what it says, what it avoids, and why it sparked a vibe war
🔹 Is Vitalik’s “sanctuary tech” vision pushing builders away or just keeping Ethereum pure?
🔹 The never-ending battle between “cypherpunks” and “pragmatists” in Ethereum’s governance
🔹 Why Ethereum’s “bad comms” tradition keeps causing existential crises
🔹 Solana’s support playbook: How culture, not tech, is dominating the builder mindshare
🔹 Are new projects ditching Ethereum L1 for Base, Arbitrum, and Solana—and does platform risk even matter now?
🔹 Should EF just stick to research, or actually help grow the ecosystem? And what does “supporting builders” actually mean?
🔹 Can you keep your values if you don’t win? The hard truths of crypto capitalism
🔹 Lessons from Defi Summer, NFT mania, and what L2 drama says about ecosystem incentives
🔹 Haseeb goes “political”: Why virtue-signaling and simple narratives are killing real debate
Hosts
⭐️ Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly
⭐️ Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures
⭐️ Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly
Guest
⭐️ Taylor Monahan, Security expert & Host of Uneasy Money
⭐️ David Hoffman, Host of Bankless
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:51 EF Mandate Explained
03:23 Pragmatists vs. Cypherpunks
05:13 Tay’s Middle Ground
08:54 David Reads Between Lines
13:51 Tom & Tarun Push Back
18:20 EF Factions & Solana Shadow
24:13 Does Ethereum Want Growth
31:01 Virtue Signaling
35:35 Where to Build Now
39:16 Solana Support vs Ethereum Stability
42:12 EF Promotion & Builder Support
47:54 Goldilocks Time Horizons
51:10 Ethereum Soul and Body
56:03 Does EF Leadership Matter?
01:02:45 Stewardship and Market Failures
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North Korean Hackers Are Winning. Is the Crypto Industry Ready to Stop Them? - Ep. 789
$1.5 billion gone in an instant. And what’s worse, to fund a nuclear weapons program.
The largest crypto hack in history just hit Bybit, and the culprit is the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus. Known for some of the most sophisticated cyber heists ever, they often use social engineering tactics and start by tricking low level employees. Although they can often wait to launder funds, in the case of Bybit they started right away.
How did this happen? Could it have been prevented? And what does this mean for the security of the entire crypto industry?
Taylor Monahan, security at MetaMask, and Jonty, a senior investigator at zeroShadow, talk all about it.
Show highlights:
2:53 Taylor’s and Jonty’s backgrounds and why they are relevant to this discussion
6:06 What the mechanics of the hack were
13:03 How Lazarus usually operates and the tactic of blind signing
17:11 Jonty’s important tips for people handling large amounts of crypto
23:45 How Bybit was able to say almost immediately that their other assets were secure
29:02 How much exchanges typically hold in each cold wallet
32:00 Why the evidence of the hack points to North Korean group Lazarus
41:01 Why North Korean hackers don’t care if their attack is linked to them
49:30 How Lazarus typically social engineers its hacks
53:48 Why Jonty thinks the industry needs a serious upgrade in terms of security
58:08 How the funds get laundered in such cases and what the industry can do
1:09:54 The chances Lazarus actually makes money from the hack
1:15:34 How DeFi protocols should approach this problem
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
Mantle
Bitwise
Guests:
Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask
Jonty, a senior investigator at zeroShadow
Links
Previous coverage on Unchained about North Korean hackers:
How North Koreans Infiltrated the Crypto Industry to Fund the Regime
Why North Korea Is Interested in Cryptocurrency
Yeonmi Park on Why Doing Business With North Korea Is Like Buying a Ticket to a Concentration Camp
GitHub - pcaversaccio/safe-tx-hashes-util: bash script that checks that the Safe transaction that you are signing is the one that you intend to sign
Cointelegraph: Crypto exchange eXch denies laundering Bybit’s hacked funds
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How North Koreans Infiltrated the Crypto Industry to Fund the Regime - Ep. 715
The crypto community is facing a new kind of threat—North Korean devs are infiltrating crypto companies to steal millions and funnel funds back to the regime in order to bypass sanctions.
In this episode, Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s deputy managing editor for tech and protocols, and Taylor Monahan, security at MetaMask, explain how North Korea has embedded its operatives into the crypto space, the red flags companies should watch for, and what these hackers are doing once inside crypto firms.
Plus, they share their most interesting stories about how these hackers have gotten hired at crypto companies and the red flags the industry should know about.
Show highlights:
What Sam found in his investigation about North Koreans infiltrating the industry
How Taylor has found that this is a recurring issue
Why Sam and Taylor refer to these infiltrated workers as ‘IT’ workers
The most interesting stories that Sam and Taylor have discovered
The trends in the hiring process that lead to North Koreans being hired and also what the big red flags are
How “easy it is to de-anonymize” addresses and transactions in blockchains
What assets and networks these workers often use to get paid
How, after infiltrating a company, those projects get hacked
How to deal with a situation in which you’ve already hired North Koreans
How to protect a protocol from another type of North Korean hack: by hacking groups
Whether the industry is getting better at security
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
Mantle
Guests:
Sam Kessler, CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for tech and protocols
CoinDesk: How North Korea Infiltrated the Crypto Industry
Taylor Monahan, Co-Founder of MyEtherWallet
Previous appearances on Unchained:
The QuadrigaCX Case: Taylor Monahan on What We Know From the Blockchain
MyCrypto's Taylor Monahan on Why She's Not a Fan of ICOs
Links
Previous coverage of Unchained on North Korea:
Why North Korea Is Interested in Cryptocurrency
Yeonmi Park on Why Doing Business With North Korea Is Like Buying a Ticket to a Concentration Camp
Others:
DL News: North Korean hackers are infiltrating crypto job boards in a ‘quiet war’ that rakes in $600m
FBI PSA: North Korea Aggressively Targeting Crypto Industry with Well-Disguised Social Engineering Attacks
Chainalysis:
2024 Crypto Crime Mid-year Update Part 1: Cybercrime Climbs as Exchange Thieves and Ransomware Attackers Grow Bolder
Funds Stolen from Crypto Platforms Fall More Than 50% in 2023, but Hacking Remains a Significant Threat as Number of Incidents Rises
Russian and North Korean Cyberattack Infrastructure Converge: New Hacking Data Raises National Security Concerns
ZachXBT: How Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25+ crypto hacks to fiat from 2020–2023
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:59 Sam's findings on North Korean workers infiltrating crypto projects
04:04 Taylor on the recurring nature of the issue
09:05 Why they’re referred to as ‘IT’ workers
16:17 Most interesting infiltration stories
34:16 Hiring trends and red flags for North Korean operatives
44:02 How easy it is to de-anonymize blockchain transactions
51:05 Assets and networks used for payment
54:06 How infiltrated companies end up getting hacked
58:36 What to do if you've already hired North Korean operatives
1:00:21 How to protect a protocol from being hacked
1:06:22 Is the industry improving in security?
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Blockchain Detective Taylor Monahan Explains $10M Hack and How to Stay Safe in Crypto
Taylor Monahan is the founder of MyCrypto, an Ethereum wallet, and today she’s helping build MetaMask. As part of her job, she has become a full-time blockchain detective. She’s also a character in my book, The Infinite Machine! Taylor is the first one who alerted us to the fact that in the past several months, a mysterious hack has taken over crypto wallets, draining $10 million worth of ether from OGs in the space. We begin our conversation with Taylor breaking down the hack from the beginning and also the latest in this saga. Then we go over her own, long history in the space, she gives risk management advice for crypto users and developers, and ponders some deep questions on whether code is law and whether DeFi should really be immutable.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsor:
Stader Labs, a multi-chain liquid staking platform with 40k+ DeFi partnerships across 6 chains, is coming to Ethereum soon. Sign up to get alpha on ETHx—their ETH LST. Be the first to know about $1M in DeFi rewards!
The Chopping Block: Here’s What Was So Bad About Three Arrows Capital - Ep. 368
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Taylor Monahan, matriarch of Metamask, joins the show to discuss the contagion of major crypto firms, the bear market, SBF saving crypto, and much more! Show topics:
The importance of UX and security
How Three Arrows Capital’s practice of borrowing to leverage their bets has caused a crisis for crypto lenders that rippled out to many customers
How the GBTC arbitrage trade was part of 3AC’s undoing, and how that trade was one many other crypto trading institutions had previously abandoned
How crypto lenders were being degens with customers funds
Why SBF stepped in and made sure that BlockFi and Voyager didn’t default on customers’ deposits
Whether this whole wind-down reflects a credit cycle
How DeFi protocols were built to avoid these kinds of centralized finance problems
How the systemic issues caused by CeFi institutions like Celsius, BlockFi and Voyager are reminiscent of the Great Financial Crisis
What are the similarities between this crypto meltdown, the Mt. Gox debacle, and the 1907 and 2008 financial crises
What are the consequences of losing retail money vs. institutional money
How surviving a credit cycle crisis creates the best risk managers
The lessons to be learned from all these crises
How MakerDAO is trying to figure out what to do with its money
What happened with Solend and why the DAO resorted to a centralized action
Why DeFi needs more clauses about how to handle edge cases
The difference between doing dumb things and wrong things
Why Tarun is impressed with Solana’s DAO tooling
Why Taylor is thankful for the bear market
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
https://twitter.com/hosseeb
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
https://twitter.com/tarunchitra
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
https://twitter.com/rleshner
Guest: Taylor Monahan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tayvano_
Taylor’s thread on resources to learn about all things crypto: https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1509380091184246784?s=20&t=kNk8fJ7pJAWfEEVZQHwpvg
Episode Links
Crypto Contagion
3AC: https://blockworks.co/three-arrows-capital-brink-default-owes-voyager-657m/
Voyager
Celsius + Goldman buyout? https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/goldman-celsius-bankruptcy
BlockFi bailout: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/21/blockfi-receives-250m-credit-facility-from-ftx/
Unchained newsletter on BlockFi’s bailout: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-says-this-deserves-mockery/
CoinFlex: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-27/crypto-exchange-coinflex-to-issue-tokens-after-withdrawal-freeze?sref=Q2SpVkJl
Babel: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/20/babel-finance-reaches-debt-agreement-with-counterparties-after-withdrawal-freeze/
Unchained Coverage: Why Possible Insolvencies by Celsius and 3AC Could Spell Disaster for Crypto: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-possible-insolvencies-by-celsius-and-3ac-could-spell-disaster-for-crypto/
Solend DAO situation:
Unchained Coverage: Solend and Bancor Drama: Did These DAOs Violate the Ethos of Crypto? – Ep. 366: https://unchainedpodcast.com/solend-and-bancor-drama-did-these-daos-violate-the-ethos-of-crypto-ep-366/
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/06/19/solana-defi-platform-votes-to-control-whale-account-in-bid-to-avoid-liquidation-chaos/
Covered on Unchained Newsletter: https://unchainedpodcast.com/does-this-dao-deserve-emergency-power%e2%81%89%ef%b8%8f/
MakerDAO governance proposal: https://www.theblock.co/post/154515/maker-governance-is-voting-to-invest-500-million-in-us-treasury-bills
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Will MetaMask Drop a Token? Breaking Down the Biggest Wallet Merge Ever
MetaMask and MyCrypto are teaming up to build the ultimate crypto wallet. Revamping efforts on security, user experience, as well as features & integrations, this is a massive moment in the world of non-custodial crypto wallets.
As the passport to Web3, improving and innovating the crypto wallet is increasingly vital as the entire industry continues to scale outwards. Building a secure and intuitive flow for asset management is do-or-die for the crypto space.
With Dan Finlay from Consensys and Taylor Monahan from MyCrypto, we're exploring the implications of this monumental merger and what it means for the broader crypto user experience.
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------ Topics Covered:
0:00 Intro 6:00 The MetaMask MyCrypto Merger 13:57 Power & Responsibility 17:58 What Happens Next? 24:08 By the Numbers 25:57 What is a Crypto Wallet? 32:33 The Passport to the Metaverse 35:44 More Merger Details 43:30 What's After Swaps? 47:58 Aggregators and Bridges 52:44 The Layer 2 Metamask 57:03 Polynya's Social Recovery Question 1:02:58 Vitalik's Light Client Question 1:06:00 Wen $MASK Token? 1:11:14 Closing & Disclaimers
------ Resources:
Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danfinlay?s=20
Taylor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tayvano_?s=20
The Announcement: https://medium.com/metamask/welcoming-mycrypto-to-metamask-8ee46e2ae740
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures
Ethereum's EIP-1559 Will Solve Some Problems But Big Ones Will Remain - Ep.250
Taylor Monahan, CEO of MyCrypto, and Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation core-dev facilitator, discuss the upcoming upgrade to the Ethereum network, EIP 1559. Show highlights:
why Tim believes EIP 1559 is necessary
what narrative is driving EIP 1559
what problems the network upgrade will solve
how Ethereum transactions/fees work
whether gas prices are correlated with ETH/USD
the 3 main protocol changes that EIP 1559 proposes
why Taylor, as the CEO of a wallet provider, is wary of EIP 1559
how EIP 1559 will affect Ethereum’s block size
what changes wallet providers are considering due to EIP 1559
whether ‘Black Swan’ events will be more or less likely after the network upgrade
how EIP 1559 will affect miners
whether Tim or Taylor believes that miners could fork Ethereum to stop EIP 1559
how EIP 1559 will change the state of miner extractable value (MEV)
how Taylor and Tim feel about the Ethereum as sound money narrative in light of EIP 1559
when EIP 1559 will go live
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2
Tezos: https://tezos.com/discover?utm_source=laura-shin&utm_medium=podcast-sponsorship-unconfirmed&utm_campaign=tezos-campaign&utm_content=hero
Conjure: https://conjure.finance
Episode Links
Taylor Monahan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tayvano_
MyCrypto: https://mycrypto.com/
Tim Beiko
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimBeiko
Ethereum Foundation: https://ethereum.org/en/foundation/
EIP 1559
Resources: https://hackmd.io/@timbeiko/1559-resources
Taylor Monahan tweets
https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1397725861575421953
https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1408000351916093441
https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1407853518493413379
Actual proposal: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-1559.md
Research: http://timroughgarden.org/papers/eip1559.pdf
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DeFi Security: With So Many Hacks, Will It Ever Be Safe? - Ep.170
Dan Guido, cofounder and CEO of Trail of Bits, and Taylor Monahan, founder and CEO of MyCrypto, discuss all the recent hacks in DeFi, how it can be made more safely and who is responsible.
We tackle:
the Hegic security incident: whose responsibility it was to make sure the contract was secure — the auditor (Trail of Bits) or the team (Hegic) — what Trail of Bits was saying in its audit summary, and how to read between the lines of an audit summary
how long an audit should be
upgradeability: particularly around when more advanced technology and contracts interface with older technology/contracts
centralization vs. decentralization: whether contracts can be made safely while maintaining adhering to the principle of decentralization, why Taylor would prioritize centralization and security, and how teams can create different levels of risk for users
bug bounties: why asking what amount they should be is the wrong question
the security threats posed by oracles
and what a checklist for DeFi teams might look like
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.com
Kraken: https://www.kraken.com
Stellar: https://www.stellar.org
Episode links:
Dan Guido: https://twitter.com/dguido
Trail of Bits: https://www.trailofbits.com
Taylor Monahan: https://twitter.com/tayvano_
MyCrypto: https://mycrypto.com
Initial tweet by Hegic calling the security issue a typo: https://twitter.com/HegicOptions/status/1253937104666742787?s=20
Hegic tweet saying, “It’s not a security issue”: https://twitter.com/HegicOptions/status/1253954145113038849?s=20
Trail of Bits saying it will no longer work with Hegic: https://twitter.com/dguido/status/1254260725431894020?s=20
Taylor breaks down the audit summary: https://twitter.com/MyCrypto/status/1254058121342803968?s=20
Molly Wintermute’s Medium post on requesting a week audit vs. three-day review: https://medium.com/@molly.wintermute/post-mortem-hegic-unlock-function-bug-or-three-defi-development-mistakesthat-i-feel-sorry-about-5a23a7197bce
Unconfirmed episode with Haseeb Qureshi on the Lendf.me attack: https://unchainedpodcast.com/haseeb-qureshi-on-the-unbelievable-story-of-the-25-million-lendf-me-hack/
Unchained interview showing Matt Luongo's approach to kill switches and upgradeability with tBTC: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tbtc-what-happens-when-the-most-liquid-crypto-asset-hits-defi/
Discussion of the bZx attacks on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-bzx-attacks-unethical-or-illegal-2-experts-weigh-in/
Issue with Curve contract: https://blog.curve.fi/vulnerability-disclosure/
Compound bug bounty program: https://compound.finance/docs/security#bug-bounty
Taylor on “upgradeability makes things more insecure”: https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1222564979657723904?s=20
Synthetix oracle incident, allowing a bot to profit $1 billion: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-synthetix-became-the-second-largest-defi-platform/
Taylor’s tips on how to get more ROI on an audit: https://twitter.com/MyCrypto/status/1254061500244713474?s=20
Tips to follow before getting an audit: https://blog.openzeppelin.com/follow-this-quality-checklist-before-an-audit-8cc6a0e44845/
Resources for security in DeFi:
crytic/building-secure-contractsGuidelines and training material to write secure smart contracts - crytic/building-secure-contractsgithub.com
https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/
https://forum.openzeppelin.com
https://swcregistry.io
https://diligence.consensys.net/blog/2020/03/new-offering-1-day-security-reviews/
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MyCrypto's Taylor Monahan on Why She's Not a Fan of ICOs
The cofounder of MyEtherWallet and CEO of newly launched MyCrypto walks us through the nuts and bolts of how MyCrypto works, how it differs from a company like Coinbase, why the keys you get from the site even enable to work offline -- and how the company makes money. She also describes how the crypto community changed in 2017, her crazy sleeping schedule during that year, and how she responds when users ask questions like whether or not an initial coin offering will really deliver on the returns promised. We also cover what it's like being a CEO when running a company was never in her game plan, how she got into crypto after starting off in film school and what her tips are for not losing your crypto.
https://mycrypto.com/
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