Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they discuss the wildest claims in Michael Lewis’ new book on Sam Bankman-Fried, debate whether SBF’s effective altruism was ever genuine, and whether Ethereum should enshrine more features onto its protocol.
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:
Michael Lewis’ interview on “60 Minutes” and the wildest claims in his new book
Whether SBF would have paid Donald Trump $5 billion not to run for president
Why Lewis characterizing FTX’s downfall as a bank run is misleading
Whether FTX executives, in the moment of the collapse, fled to their parents’ homes
Was SBF genuine in his belief in effective altruism or was it clever branding
Whether we will still be talking about the SBF trial years down the line
The debate on whether Ethereum should enshrine more features onto its core protocol
Whether Lido poses a centralization risk to the Ethereum ecosystem
Predictions on how the SBF trial will play out and whether SBF has a trick up his sleeve
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Disclosures
Links
SBF’s trial:
Unchained:
Here’s How Sam Bankman-Fried’s High-Stakes Trial Could Play Out
SBF Trial: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Might Try and Win His Case
The High-Stakes Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried Begins: What to Expect
CBS: Rise, fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX at center of Michael Lewis' new book | 60 Minutes
Protocol enshrinement:
Unchained:
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Warns of Risks in Lido and Rocket Pool
Some Ethereum Staking Services Commit to 22% Self-Limit of Validators
Others:
Cryptoslate: Terra's Do Kwon and Daniel Shin conspired to falsify transactions, chat logs show
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices