Ray Cline and Shaun Connell (Lancium) on Stabilizing the Grid with Bitcoin Mining (EP.254)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 10/25/2021
Weekly Roundup 02/07/25 (FDIC Files, House & Senate Hearings, SEC crypto priorities) (EP.594)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: Matt and Nic’s ski adventure Berachain launches Mike Lempres of Silvergate finally speaks What we learned in the Senate debanking hearing The FDIC releases 790 pages of new documents related to the pause letters The FDIC is reprimanded by a judge in the Coinbase case Senator Lummis reveals a Fed memo that may be proof of OCP2.0 The SEC releases their list of priorities for the Crypto Task Force Hagerty releases the GENIUS Act on Stablecoins Czech Republic waives capital gains on Bitcoins held for 3 years Microstrategy is...
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Mike Lempres on Silvergate’s Collapse, Bank Regulation, and Debanking (EP.593)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Former Chairman of Silvergate Bank Mike Lempres joins us for a discussion of Silvergate, the crypto-focused bank that was forced into liquidation in early 2023 following a bank run. This are the first on the record comments from any Silvergate executive following the voluntary liquidation announced in March 2023. In this episode: Mike’s background at the DoJ, at Coinbase, and how he came to be chairman of the board at Silvergate How Silvergate grew to become the premier crypto-focused bank with $14b in deposits Why the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) was so useful to the crypto space How...
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Weekly Roundup 01/31/25 (Senate Debanking Hearing, Powell's pivot, Tokenized Securities) (EP.592)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Should we revisit Basel rules on Bitcoin? Jay Powell evolves on banks serving crypto Are banks going to offer crypto custody post SAB121? Gensler joins MIT Sloan Should crypto firms boycott MIT? The Senate will hold a hearing on debanking next week Choke Point 2.0 is getting caught up in conservative debanking Where are we on DeSci? Is tokenization finally going to happen? X is adding payments to the platform with Visa Truth Social is launching Truth.Fi...
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Weekly Roundup 01/24/25 (Trump EO, the Stockpile, Ross Free, SAB121 Gone!) (EP.591)
On The Brink with Castle Island
The episode where we logged on and won forever. Probably the biggest week in crypto history... In this episode: Ross Ulbricht is granted a full pardon Did Ross Ulbricht deserve a life sentence? SAB121 is finally gone Why SAB121 was bad Crypto ball review Trump launches a memecoin Trump is inaugurated OCP2.0 is over CBDCs are banned We review Trump's Executive Order No Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, but a stockpile instead Larry Fink calls for 600-700k BTC Mark Uyeda, the formation of a new task force: SEC Crypto 2.0 Senator Cynthia Lummis the formation of the...
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Weekly Roundup 01/17/25 (Lummis FDIC letter, the Tether tower, American made coins) (EP.590)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: Lummis instructs FDIC staff to not destroy evidence of Chokepoint Did the FDIC call Nic poor? Coinbase wins a partial victory against the SEC Canary Capital files for a Litecoin ETF Tether is moving to El Salvador and building an HQ there Atlanta Fed gets stablecoins The case for non-USD stablecoins Is there a case for other assets in a Strategic Reserve?
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Weekly Roundup 01/10/24 (FDIC Pause Letters released, SEC v Coinbase) (EP.589)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back after a week off. In this episode: Southern District of New York grants Coinbase’s appeal in their case against the SEC The Governor of the Czech national bank is considering Bitcoin in their reserves Do Kwon is extradited to the US E-trade is launching crypto trading The FDIC is forced by a court to further un-redact documents Coinbase asked for in a FOIA request We cover the FDIC’s Pause Letters Content mentioned in this episode: Fidelity Digital Assets, Bitwise, Nick Anthony,
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Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm (Paul Hastings LLP) on the 2025 Digital Asset Legal Landscape (EP.588)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm of Paul Hastings LLP join the show. In this episode we discuss: The common legal and regulatory considerations that are encountered by companies in the digital asset industry. Common pitfalls that entrepreneurs in this ecosystem should avoid. The state of the stablecoin industry and the regulatory considerations in this category. Potential changes ahead in 2025 on how digital assets are regulated in the United States. To learn more about Paul Hastings and their fintech and digital asset practices visit
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Weekly Roundup 12/27/24 (Tether x Rumble, quantum threat, End of year predictions) (EP.587)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for an end of year episode. In this episode: Tether invests $775m in Rumble Who are the Rumble shareholders in Trump's admin? Microstrategy seeks approval for more Bitcoin buying We review the quantum risk to Bitcoin Matt and Nic's predictions for 2025 Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics, In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 291, we revisit major stories that shaped the digital asset industry in 2024 with a data-driven lens
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Janusz and Red (Bitcoin Layers) on Bitcoin Season 2 (EP.586)
On The Brink with Castle Island
and from join the show. In this episode: Innovation on Bitcoin, previously and now Technology vs consumer adoption The future of BTC use cases More about
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Weekly Roundup 12/20/24 (No SBR?, Prometheum, Crenshaw) (EP.585)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic comes out against the SBR on Bloomberg More Prometheum nonsense MicroStrategy an additional 15,350 BTC for roughly $1.5 billion, bringing the company's total holdings to 439,000 BTC. Microstrategy was also to the Nasdaq 100 this week, which will lead to the stock's inclusion in several large ETFs including Invesco's QQQ. Anchorage Digital has New York BitLicense approval, enabling them to offer digital asset custody and trading services to more customers in the state such as RIAs and other...
info_outlineRay Cline, Lancium CTO, and Shaun Connell, EVP Power at Lancium, join the show. We cover the changing Texas grid, several models for renewable based mining, and how miners can serve as a controllable load. In this episode:
- Personal backgrounds and crossing the threshold from energy to Bitcoin
- Origins of Lancium
- Features of Texas grid
- Why Texas is so suitable for renewables
- How Texas is the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of renewable generation
- Why renewables grew so fast in Texas
- Two reasons why prices reach negative prices
- Three models for mining
- Grid connected with new gen miners
- Renewable colocation with new gen miners
- Off grid renewable colocation with old gen miners
- How different ASIC vintages affect the power price you can tolerate for the units and what interruptibility they can deal with
- ERCOT’s surplus renewable power
- How the Texas grid is splitting in half
- How Bitcoin is a ‘premium customer’ for energy assets
- Why miners depreciate their miners over 4-5 years, and not 1-2 years as Digiconomist claims
- Are energy producers aware of the importance of Bitcoin mining as an alternative energy buyer?
- Introduction to Demand Response
- What a Controllable Load Resource is and how Bitcoin miners uniquely satisfy the requirements
- History of Controllable Load in ERCOT
- Why controllable load is so useful to grid operators
- Why Bitcoin miners can be flexible load, and why other industrial consumers of energy cannot
- Why the economics of operating an interruptible load as a miner make sense
- Are other grid operators looking to build programs for BTC miners?
- Do Bitcoin miners decarbonize the Texas grid in the final analysis?
- Will Bitcoin mining improve the reliability of the grid?
Sponsor notes:
- This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
- This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto.