The Blockchain New Zealand Podcast

E15 - Steve Vallas on Aligning Blockchain Incentives in Asia Pacific

Steve Vallas is the managing director of Blockchain APAC, previous CEO of Blockchain Australia, and an all around Linkedin Wizard.
Steve came to Auckland to meet with industry discussing aligning incentives and shared interests between Australia and New Zealand.
In this conversation we touch on the scam narrative within crypto, how it has affected the nft space, and crytpo marketing, and of course regulation and where we're at in Asia Pacific.----------------Timestamps:01:30 Southern Hemisphere Perspectives10:26 ICO hangover & NFTs20:35 supply chains24:40 nftFestAus29:39 crypto marketing bros34:41 regulation41:14 lessons from Singapore48:41 stablecoins52:57 blockchain orgs55:52 fin----------------Some notes from the show:
doodles pivot https://www.fastcompany.com/90783396/doodles-domination-how-a-1-year-old-nft-project-turned-into-the-next-big-thing
opensea https://opensea.io/
magiceden https://magiceden.io/
blur https://blur.io/
starkware https://starkware.co/
nftfest aus https://nftfest.com.au/
MiCA European Crypto Assets https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-mica-crypto-regulation-is-a-balancing-act-paris-blockchain-week-2023 
BIS's Carstens says fiat has lost https://insidebitcoins.com/news/bis-head-crypto-has-lost-the-battle-against-fiat-currencies 
Singapore crypto ad restrictions https://archive.ph/FKD5Y
Singapore's Regulatory Sandbox https://www.mas.gov.sg/development/fintech/regulatory-sandbox 
Contact Steve:
Twitter https://twitter.com/stevevallas
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevevallas/
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 781595. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E14 - Paul Salisbury on Crypto Estate Planning

Paul Salisbury has been around the crypto scene in New Zealand for over a decade. He's been a founding member of BlockchainNZ and BlockchainLabs, and now has a new venture into crypto estate planning with Everlasting to help folks manage their crypto because one day you're not going to be around to sign a message with your private key. 
Paul and I talk about auditing smart contracts, layer 2s & privacy, multi-sig and key recovery methods and one of my favourite topics - long term plans and low time preference.
Timestamps:01:58 early days in Bitcoin04:11 Ethereum ICO07:33 BlockchainLabs NZ10:58 auditing smart contracts16:52 layer 2s19:38 anonymity & privacy 22:35 crypto estate planning32:32 multisig37:20 social recovery43:56 nunchuck & casa46:46 local jurisdictions52:02 long term plans57:31 staking & DVT1:01:12 BCNZ1:04:40 rapid fire1:08:57 fin
Some notes from the show:
coming soon
Contact Paul:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsalisbury
https://twitter.com/paulsalis
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 776561. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E13 - Sorel Carr on FinTech

Sorel Carr is the Head of FinTech Business at BNZ (Bank of New Zealand). Sorel comes from a decade in corporate banking and has been down the blockchain rabbit hole looking to inject new emerging tech such as defi into the more traditional banking world. 
In this conversation we discuss the centralised networks banks are part of such as SWIFT & CBDCs, and the decentralised competitors that can run stablecoins, and defi protocols like Uniswap.
Timestamps:01:27 how do you define fintech?06:09 is a bank a fintech?09:22 future of money RBNZ & CBDCs17:49 future of cash21:58 SWIFT28:24 stablecoins33:11 defi41:12 pancake swap & uniswap48:05 UST & FTX50:21 tokenisation52:52 bcnz54:29 rapidfire: chatGPT, future outlook1:02:17 end
Some notes from the show:
software is eating the world https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world/
RBNZ future of money https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/money-and-cash/future-of-money 
CBDC tracker https://cbdctracker.org/
NZ helicopter money https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114413517/give-kiwis-helicopter-money-cash-payouts-if-economy-crashes--treasury
China CBDC status https://cbdctracker.org/currency/china-e-cny
UK CBDC pilot https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/consumers-face-20000-pound-limit-digital-pound-bank-england-says-2023-02-07/
Russian SWIFT sanctions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT_ban_against_Russian_banks
China/Saudi oil priced in Yuan https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-Considers-Ditching-The-Dollar-For-Chinese-Oil-Sales.html
alternatives to SWIFT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT#Competitors
NAB to launch stablecoin https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/19/national-australia-bank-becomes-second-australian-bank-to-build-stablecoin/ 
NZ corruption index https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/new-zealand
JPMorgan defi trade https://www.benzinga.com/markets/asia/22/11/29552324/jpmorgan-executes-first-defi-transaction-for-singapores-project-guardian 
Aave https://aave.com/
NZDs(table) https://www.techemynt.com/
BSC validators https://bscscan.com/validators# 
SushiSwap zombie attack https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/sushiswap-uniswap-vampire-attack
pancake swap tokenomics https://docs.pancakeswap.finance/tokenomics/cake/cake-tokenomics
Matt Damon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEjjufPd3Is
no crypto at the Superbowl https://cryptonews.com/news/there-will-no-crypto-advertisements-during-super-bowl-year-heres-why.htm
Roofstock sells house as NFT https://www.forbes.com/sites/amydobson/2022/10/26/blockchain-makes-deeper-inroads-into-real-estate-as-roofstock-announces-its-first-nft-home-sale/
chatGPT https://chat.openai.com/chat
NFTs on Bitcoin https://decrypt.co/resources/what-are-ordinals-a-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-nfts
Contact Sorel:
LinkedIn https://nz.linkedin.com/in/sorel-carr
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 775626. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E12 - Year in Review 2022

Our Year in Review 2022 show brings together Bryan Ventura, Stephen Macaskill, and Paul Quickenden for a panel discussion of the years key events.
We starts with the SBF FTX debacle that is still unwinding, then we discuss the fallout from all the links that led to FTXs collapse. 2022 has been a record year for hacks as well, mostly bridging hacks, and we discuss security and the perception of crypto to the broader community. We finish with our picks for winners & losers in 2022, and trends for 2023.Timestamps:00:00 intro01:48 FTX collapse06:00 FTX reactions17:14 CeFi dominoes fall back to UST/Luna24:24 record bridge hacks33:00 losers of 202239:36 winners of 202244:44 trends for 202355:47 finPanel Guests (Podcast):Bryan Ventura https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/e/e07-tornado-cash-and-the-merge-bryan-and-jeff-roundtable-1/ Stephen Macaskill https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/e/e06-stephen-macaskill-on-economics-money-and-bitcoin/ Paul Quickenden https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/e/e02-paul-quickenden-on-navigating-crypto-markets-growing-a-business/ Panel Guests (YouTube):Bryan Ventura https://youtu.be/Oain31005Go Stephen Macaskill https://youtu.be/luJSgA9vkIc Paul Quickenden https://youtu.be/boAGDM-urWY Some notes from the show:Sam Bankman-fried interview (by George Stephanopolous on GMA) https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1598296985010073600 List of hacks in 2022 https://chainbulletin.com/the-7-biggest-crypto-hacks-of-2022-so-far Alexey Pertsev of Tornado Cash https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tornado-cash-developer-alexey-pertsev-123423038.html 
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 766048. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E11 - James Bayly on Indexing Blockchains & Web3 Decentralisation

James Bayly is the COO of SubQuery and onfinality which are basically data service providers focussing on non-EVM chains such as Polkadot and Cosmos. In this conversation we talk about indexing blockchain data and making it available for users and apps to query in a manner that’s cost efficient, quick, and reliable. We also touch on the modern evolution of blockchains, the blockchain trilemma, and creating a Web3 data marketplace.
Timestamps:00:00 intro01:45 indexing blockchain data11:24 opensourcing code14:13 FTX debacle & boom bust cycles20:37 SubQuery decentralising data25:00 tokenised incentives28:22 reliability & uptime29:47 onfinality infrastructure31:30 building in New Zealand35:24 Polkadot as a 3rd gen blockchain44:30 blockchain trilemma48:22 industry groups & legislation52:23 rapid fire55:59 fin
Some notes from the show:
SubQuery 
onfinality 
Etherscan 
Consensys/MetaMask/Infura 
Coinbase holds 2m bitcoin 
FTX leaked balance sheet 
Kimchi premium  
Mt. Gox 
Centrality 
blockchain trilemma with sharding 
bridge hacks in 2022 
Contact James:
Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesABayly 
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bayly/ 
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 765227. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E10 - Ben Rose on Marketing in Crypto and Binance in NZ

Ben Rose is the GM of Binance New Zealand. He has a long history of sales, marketing, and growth with New Zealand businesses from start ups to banks like ASB and NIB. 
Last month Binance launched here in the New Zealand market and Ben is tasked with growing the crypto market and *maybe* bringing back our futures trading once Binance is properly licenced. 
In this conversation we touch on marketing, regulation, education and some self sovereign topics like custody and  ownership. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben Rose.Timestamps:00:00 intro01:46 sales and marketing09:10 the NZ customer12:53 Binance in NZ15:10 licensing in NZ20:00 customer protection23:40 education in crypto26:00 but crypto isn't backed29:54 self custody35:02 near term outlook 36:24 on podcasting38:09 rapid fire 40:46 finSome notes from the show:
Tesla's no spend marketing 
Binance registers in NZ 
1-in-10 Kiwi's hold crypto 
NTSB retrospective  
SAFU 
Robett Hollis busting myths 
Federal Reserve Building (NYC) 
Is there any gold in Fort Knox (Kentucky)?
Blackrock's long journey toward crypto adoption 
Koura's crypto Kiwisaver fund 
NZ Sales & Marketing Insider podcast 
Contact Ben:
LinkedIn 
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 762353. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

E09 - Marc Krisjanous on Security Standards in Crypto

Marc Krisjanous is a cyber security turned crypto auditor that been working with the C4 cryptocurrency consortium to develop the new cryptocurrency auditor certification course (CCSSA). Marc is presently undertaking the first ever audit of a business using the standard to asses their crypto security practices. In this conversation we talk about where the standards fit into a business, what they consist of, and touch on best practices both for businesses and for people getting into crypto. 
Acronyms(!)
QSA - Qualified Security Assessor
PCI - Payment Card Industry 
DSS - Data Security standard
HSM - Hardware Security Module
CCSS - Cryptocurrency Security standard
CCSSA - CCSS Auditor
C4 - Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium
SOC2 - System and Organization Controls standard
ISO27001 - Information Security Management standard
Timestamps:01:44 background in credit card security10:22 crypto security standard14:09 attack vectors17:04 profanity vanity generator20:59 CCSS levels25:35 the audit boundary28:34 social engineering30:29 practical takeaways for businesses35:00 multi-party compute37:33 security advice for newcomers40:10 wen audit? 45:39 rapid fire48:20 proof of reserves52:28 fin
Some notes from the show:
Marc's writing 
C4 
CCSS  
https://rekt.news/
Profanity hack 
emp data storage 
Quadriga podcast: A Death in Cryptoland 
MPC
Sandbox
Decentraland
Celsius Machinsky withdraws 10m in customer funds 
proof of reserves
Contact Marc:
LinkedIn 
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 757090. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.
 

E08 - Paul Stonham on Enterprise DLT & Tokenising Assets

Paul Stonham is the General manager of the DLT division at the Australian Stock Exchange. For the last few years the ASX has been developing an enterprise DLT that uses VMware's blockchain and runs the DAML smart contract language. In this conversation we talk traditional finance getting into distributed leger tech and some of the use cases. Paul is a technologist always looking to improve efficiency; and we get into tokenisation of assets and the utility of NFTs. 
Timestamps:01:42 background in traditional markets05:00 DLT as a service09:42 is it a blockchain?11:00 simplifying the path to adoption13:46 enterprise client's use cases23:33 competitors - hyperledger etc.25:37 on trust in tokenisation of digital assets28:46 real estate & tokenised land31:27 web3, NFTs, & a metaverse37:12 DLT fit at ASX39:14 blockchain New Zealand41:53 rapidfire44:37 fin
Some notes from the show:
CHESS replacement with DLT 
VMware blockchain 
daml 
BFT distributed systems 
PBFT based on The Part-time Parliament paper 
Barclays, JPMorgan use haskell 
KPMG & NSW Building Trustworthy Indicator
Hyperleger 
Corda 
Speed & Trust 
Culture’s new home on the blockchain 
Australian Open NFTs 
Contact Paul:
LinkedIn
ASX
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Sponsor:
The Blockchain New Zealand podcast is brought to you by EasyCrypto
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 754135. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.
 

E07 - Tornado Cash and The Merge; Bryan and Jeff Roundtable 1

Bryan Ventura is here for our first roundtable; Bryan is a lawyer specializing in blockchain and Web3. Today we're covering two main topics:
Tornado cash - what is it and why was it sanctioned - and the downstream effects of platform level censorship along with freedom of expression and how open source code fits in.
Then we dive into Eth2.0 (I still call it that) - The Merge - we talk about some of the history of proof of work transitioning to proof of stake ethereum and what people are expecting afterwards.
We wrap up with a shoutout to Roger Ver and Zuckerberg's metaverse.
Timestamps:00:00 intro00:57 Tornado cash intro06:27 OFAC & US regulatory influence09:27 Circle censoring USDC tx13:30 Multiple identities & dusting accounts17:08 freedom of speech 23:51 Dutch jailed the founder25:57 contributing to open source27:18 FATF virtual asset guidance32:56 is code speech38:26 Eth2.0, the merge & the history of PoW45:46 merge performance & fees51:20 validators55:37 deflationary distribution of ETH59:15 Roger Ver1:01:11 metaverse1:13:20 fin
Some notes from the show:
What is Tornado Cash 
Sanctions 
Roman Semenov 
Chainalysis report & Lazarus North Korean hacking group 
Bernstein v. Department of Justice 
Developer jailed for 90 days 
Stable Diffusion 
Dall-e 
pgp privacy 
Github's co-pilot 
Ethereum difficulty bomb 
Otherside land mint fees 
Ethereum nodes 
Futureverse 
Horizon Worlds 
paper cheques 
Zuckerberg on Lex 
Contact Bryan:
LinkedIn
MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 752817. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.
 

E06 - Stephen Macaskill on Economics, Money, and Bitcoin

Stephen Macaskill is the CEO of Dasset, a trading platform for buying bitcoin and other digital assets. Before digital assets Stephen ran a precious metals company helping people maximize their savings and financial literacy.
In this conversation we talk about:
precious metals and gold's role in recent monetary history including Bitcoin;
the definition of money and Austrian and Keynesian methodologies within economics;
bitcoin and its intrinsic versus subjective value;
spontaneous orders, and
human cooperation through decentralized autonomous organizations.
Timestamps: 00:00 intro01:23 precious metals and gold's role in monetary history07:04 WTF happened in 197113:27 what is money19:46 Austrian vs Keynesian27:35 social data vs natural science32:59 Bitcoin39:30 intrinsic vs subjective value of Bitcoin43:32 on enabling global collaboration45:52 scaling blockchains49:13 defining digital assets51:53 potential of DAOs59:07 insurance1:01:23 rapid fire1:04:02 fin
Some notes from the show:
what happened in 1971? https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
Turkish rare earths discovery https://www.wired.com/story/turkey-rare-earth-metals/
French try to redeem gold https://www.huffpost.com/entry/august-15-1971_b_4284327
Austrian methodology https://mises.org/library/methodology-austrian-school-economists-0
Keynes & rise of macroeconomics https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/keynesianeconomics.asp
tomayo https://www.newworld.co.nz/shop/product/5267101_ea_000nw
Bitcoin whitepaper https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
spontaneous order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_order
coinmarketcap https://coinmarketcap.com/
Vitalik's essay on DAOs https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bootstrapping-a-decentralized-autonomous-corporation-part-i-1379644274
Whitehouse redefines recession https://twitter.com/EpsilonTheory/status/1551349167674499073?s=20&t=i4KWmNn8oWiVhCt7MdvMVg
Contact Stephen:
Dasset https://dassetx.com/ 
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenm/  
Find Jeff:
Twitter
LinkedIn 
The BCNZ Pod:
Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
YouTube 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify 
iHeartRadio 
Media & Sponsorship Enquires:
team@blockchain.org.nz 
Recorded at blockheight 746718. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.