The Blockchain New Zealand Podcast

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.  

E05 - Tak Suzuki on Funding Emerging Artists through NFTs

Tak Suzuki is the co-founder of Senkusha, a funding platform looking to support and grow emerging artists, musicians, and athletes through NFT sales. Tak is soon to be a physiology graduate from the University of Auckland, he loves experimenting with new tech, and has an impressive CV at a young age. In this conversation we talk about:  Music labels and the motivation for a crowd funding platform NFTs, mp3s, transparency, and minting on Ethereum The upcoming launch with musician Ash Supé Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:06 When did you first hear about crypto? 05:36 Senkusha 08:19 Not a music label 11:04 Finding talent and upside for artists 13:06 Business model & royalties  17:06 Why NFTs & mp3s?   19:40 Minting on ethereum 24:14 Transparency & DAOs 28:02 Ash Supé 30:32 the Senkusha 500 34:50 BCNZ 36:47 rapidfire 39:42 fin Some notes from the show: Banksy NFT  Mike Shinoda's music NFTs  At least 2600 fake tickets to the Champions League Final  IPFS for storing NFTs  Contact Tak: LinkedIn  Senkusha  Find Jeff: Twitter LinkedIn  The BCNZ Pod: Website https://bcnz.podbean.com/ YouTube  Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify  iHeartRadio  Music: Liféstyle Freéstyle by Ash Supé Spotify Instagram Media & Sponsorship Enquires: team@blockchain.org.nz  Recorded at blockheight 743902. The BCNZ Podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.  

E04 - Jit Maharaj on Crypto Payments with BSC/BNB

Jit Maharaj is a former commercial pilot turned crypto co-founder of Pay it Now, a payments network that uses a custom layer 2 built on the Binance smart chain (now BNB) that makes it easy for merchants and businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments. Jit is also a long time web developer, an Ethereum miner, and a Solana critic.  In this conversation we talk about:  Payments networks and providers, Building on the Binance smart chain Customer rewards programs and creating a token Regulation in the crypto space in New Zealand $20k bitcoin, and being a pilot. Timestamps: 00:00 intro 01:18 what is PayItNow? 03:25 fixing gas fees 09:56 what's a layer 2? 13:33 how does a merchant onboard? 18:00 on bridging tokens 19:53 why token? (&safemoon) 25:18 competition with bitpay/stripe/shopify/solana 30:33 regulation in NZ crypto 35:28 $20k bitcoin? and market activity 40:05 cofounder story flying 737s 44:45 BCNZ in the industry 45:36 rapid fire 49:31 fin Some notes from the show: Pay it Now BNB Smart Chain   Matic & Polygon   Solend debacle  Harmony bridge hack  Indian crypto regulation   USDD lost its peg similar to UST the last bitcoin  Hal Finney (the GOAT)  Contact Jit: Pay it Now Find Jeff: Twitter LinkedIn  The BCNZ Pod: Website https://bcnz.podbean.com/ YouTube  Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify  iHeartRadio  Media & Sponsorship Enquires: team@blockchain.org.nz  Recorded at blockheight 742914. The BCNZ Podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.  

E03 - Liz Izmailova on Ukraine and Charitable Crypto Donations

Liz Izmailova is a Ukrainian New Zealander that has been working in blockchain for the past five years, she is a marketing manager at CENNZnet which is part of the Centrality ecosystem. In this conversation we talk about:  Financial Inclusion and the monetary situation in Ukraine, both before the war and presently. Ukraine has been ranked 4th in global per capita crypto adoption by Chainalysis and are likely the first to have a government directly accept crypto donations and provide transparency on where those donations are going. We cover a lot in the crypto-donation space in general, and some local New Zealand based projects. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:06 Ukrainian background, financial independence and entrepreneurship at an early age, coming to New Zealand 05:20 Financial privilege in the West 10:45 Crypto donations and the currency situation in Ukraine 16:07 New crypto legislation in Ukraine 20:04 War donation transparency 24:02 FlufWorld F*ck the War campaign & Universe.xyz 29:29 How are NFTs helping? 33:40 Crypto & NFTs for gen-Z'ers 36:35 Crypto friendly New Zealand charities 40:15 How can BCNZ help with education? 42:25 Rapid fire 44:37 fin  Some notes from the show: Letter criticizing financial innovation https://concerned.tech/ Rebuttal for financial inclusion https://www.financialinclusion.tech/ Ukrainian Government crypto donation https://donate.thedigital.gov.ua/ Ukrainian Government Bitcoin address visible in a block explorer: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P National Bank of Ukraine partners with FTX https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/03/14/ukraine-partners-with-ftx-everstake-to-launch-new-crypto-donation-website/ USD $100m raised so far https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/09/ukraine-has-received-close-to-100-million-in-crypto-donations/ Ukraine legalises Bitcoin https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/03/17/ukraine-war-zelenskyy-signs-a-new-law-officially-legalising-bitcoin-and-other-cryptos  $411k raised and donated to Ukraine by Auckland based FLUF & NonFungible Labs: https://luckytrader.com/nft/fluf-world/news/fluf-world-finalizes-400000-donation-to-ukraine Michael Chobanian, president of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine https://www.theverge.com/23138465/decoder-ukraine-war-cryptocurrency-michael-chobanian-interview-bitcoin-usdt Charitable Donations with cryptocurrency UNICEF https://www.unicef.org.nz/donate-in-crypto Childfund https://childfund.org.nz/pages/donate-your-cryptocurrency-to-childfund Savethechildren https://www.savethechildren.org/us/ways-to-help/ways-to-give/ways-to-help/cryptocurrency-donation Heart Kids via the Giving Block https://thegivingblock.com/donate/heart-kids-nz/ Ukrainian NFT projects https://metahistory.gallery/ https://www.avatarsforukraine.com/ Ukraine DAO’s Flag NFT Sells for $6.75 Million https://decrypt.co/94353/ukraine-daos-flag-nft-sells-for-6-75-million Fidelity Charitable Study Insights https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/insights.html NFT marketplace https://lithoverse.xyz/ FLUF World https://www.fluf.world/ ASM/Non-Fungible Intelligence https://www.alteredstatemachine.xyz/ BCNZ https://blockchain.org.nz/     Contact Liz: LinkedIn Cennznet Find Jeff: Twitter LinkedIn  The BCNZ Pod: Website https://bcnz.podbean.com/ YouTube  Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify  iHeartRadio  Media & Sponsorship Enquires: team@blockchain.org.nz  Recorded at blockheight 740812. The BCNZ Podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.  

E02 - Paul Quickenden on Navigating Crypto Markets & Growing a Business

Paul Quickenden is the current Head of New Zealand for EasyCrypto. He's been active in the blockchain and Crypto sector for a number of years, consulting to numerous projects and helping them with successful capital raises and commercial launches.  Prior to that Paul was the CEO of Putti Apps, and held numerous roles in Product Marketing and Strategy within Spark New Zealand.  Paul is passionate about growing New Zealand businesses, helping us to stand out on the global stage, and make a difference to the lives of New Zealanders. In this conversation we talk about:  Recent market activity: everything's down but people are still buying EasyCrypto expanding into overseas markets, Their process for listing new digital assets - how do they decide what to list and their ethical considerations, The TerraLuna crash and stablecoin depegging event, The price of cheese. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:25 Current market conditions 06.08 Do market factors affect Easy Crypto? 09.13 People are still buying crypto  13:45 Is crypto its own asset class? 15.03 Koura Investments KiwiSaver 17.37 EasyCrypto global expansion 20.58 On the Brasilian crypto market 22.30 Lightweight NZ exports 26.56 Banking as an export & the regulatory aspects 30.52 Ethics around coin listings & approaches to risk 36.46 Terra death spiral 41.27 EC circuit breaker 47.38 BCNZ 51.33 What's next for easy crypto? 54.50 Rapid fire 56.43 Fin Some notes from the show: EasyCrypto’s expansion overseas https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/452991/easy-crypto-secures-17m-backing-from-investors Koura KiwiSaver Scheme https://www.kourawealth.co.nz/ Terra Death Spiral https://blockchain.org.nz/2022/05/17/crypto-market-plunges-hard-and-fast-investors-are-spooked/ Kindrik Partners (prev. Simmonds Stewart) has free resources for startups: https://kindrik.co.nz/resources/startup-resources/ BCNZ https://blockchain.org.nz/  Contact Paul: LinkedIn EasyCrypto Find Jeff: Twitter LinkedIn  The BCNZ Pod: Website https://bcnz.podbean.com/ Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify  iHeartRadio  YouTube  Media Enquires: team@blockchain.org.nz  Recorded at blockheight 737904. The BCNZ Podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.  

E01 - Jonty Kelt on Venture Capital in Crypto

Kia Ora and welcome to the very first episode of the Blockchain New Zealand Podcast. I’m Jeff Nijsse and today I’m talking to Jonty Kelt. Jonty is the Founder of Fantail Ventures, a venture capital business that has invested in some of the biggest names in crypto, including Kraken, Ledger, Stacks, Yield Guild Games, and Uniswap, just to name a few. In this conversation we talk about:  Jonty coming out of Otago University and getting his start in finance; and the role of education in tech; He was building an online advertising business in the early days of the internet and his business was eventually acquired by google and we discuss the work culture at google in those days; Jonty has strong feelings about blockchain adoption providing a financial lifeline to the underbanked, and how digital ownership is just getting started; He’s an advisor for the teams behind VeVe–the NFT marketplace, and also Altered State Machine, the non fungible intelligence protocol; We wrap up with Jonty’s views on blockchain regulation in New Zealand and he gives us his thoughts on who Satoshi is. Timestamps: 01:47 From Otago to NYC 04:58 Being a non-technical founder 07:03 Technology in education 11:55 Building an online advertising company 16:45 Google in 2008 20:54 Xero: a NZ success story 22:59 Fantail ventures 25:26 Advice for young entrepreneurs 26:58 Blockchain & income inequality 33:10 Bitcoin and debasement 36:00 Security & energy criticism 41:40 NFTs 47:46 Regulation in New Zealand 52:08 Rapid fire Some notes from the show: Peter Thiel Fellowship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiel_Fellowship No college degree required https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/15-companies-that-no-longer-require-employees-to-have-a-college-degree.html Google is ten years old https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/05/google.google Jonty’s talk at Kea New Zealand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVfICUToQ58&ab_channel=KeaNewZealand NFTs with your bank account (Tweet) https://twitter.com/provenauthority/status/1517166544270381063 Crypto Kitties https://www.cryptokitties.co/ Ecomi & VeVe https://medium.com/ecomi/ecomi-advisors-introducing-jonty-kelt-2264026e0f97 Immutable Layer 2 for Ethereum NFTs https://www.immutable.com/  BCNZ https://blockchain.org.nz/  Contact Jonty: Fantail Ventures LinkedIn Find Jeff: Twitter LinkedIn The BCNZ Pod: Website https://bcnz.podbean.com/ Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify  iHeartRadio  YouTube  Media Enquires: team@blockchain.org.nz  Recorded at blockheight 734642. The BCNZ Podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.