Alexei Zamyatin (Build on Bitcoin) on True Rollups on Bitcoin (EP.608)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 04/02/2025
Weekly Roundup 07/31/26 (Situational Awareness collapse, Coldcard exploit, latest on CLARITY, Visions of Bitcoin 8 years on) (EP.732)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: What the novel Hyperion tells us about AI doom Situational Awareness liquidates most of its public book after a sharp AI selloff Will Leo have a second act? Why has AI been selling off? Over 1000 BTC stored in Coldcard wallets were stolen due to bad entropy Where does self-custody go from here? What happened with Coldcard? Political winds are shifting against crypto as midterms loom Strategy continues to strengthen its balance sheet with MSTR common sales An ice cream shop in CA is hedging the weather with Kalshi...
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Weekly Roundup 07/24/26 (BTC Security Consortium, Genesis’ Terra trade, DAT departures, Farewell to BitMEX, Network State drama) (EP.731)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Nic and Matt are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The Fat Model Thesis Are OAI and Anthropic in real trouble with Kimi? The Bitcoin Security Consortium is announced to tackle quantum risk Galaxy announces their Quantum Readiness Initiative Clarity is beleaguered in Washington Polymarket and Kalshi keep feuding The SEC settles with Coinbase over Gensler’s lost text messages We uncover some new documents revealing that Genesis inadvertently kicked off the UST depeg Jack Mallers leaves the XXI Capital DAT Movement Labs declares bankruptcy BitMEX finally winds...
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Weekly Roundup 07/17/26 (Teleprompter insider trading, the AI DeFi apocalypse fizzles, NY’s datacenter ban) (EP.730)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with the deals and news of the week. In this episode: Nic licks his World Cup wounds Do Bitcoin Treasury strategies make sense? Trying to make sense of Saylor’s “bitcoin rating” Trump’s teleprompter operator has been trading on what Trump is going to say in his speeches Why do people keep insider trading on prediction markets? Clarity Act odds are trickling down Strategy shores up their balance sheet Is the Bitcoin cycle finally turning? Stripe bids for Paypal The AI DeFi apocalypse didn’t happen Kathy Hochul’s AI datacenter moratorium Why is Anthropic...
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Weekly Roundup 07/09/26 (BonkDAO exploit, Choke Point 2.0 extended to audit firms, Kraken v Mazars) (EP.729)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Strategy sells $216m worth of BTC Where does Strategy go from here with STRC? Kalshi’s case faces the ban of sports contracts in NY TeraWulf signs a massive lease with Anthropic BonkDAO’s legal hack Vanguard hires a head of digital assets Kraken wins arbitration against Mazars for de-auditing them in 2022 Vitalik lays out a new four year plan Polymarket’s 5 minute BTC markets are being manipulated Content mentioned:
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Weekly Roundup 07/03/26 (OpenUSD announced, Binance leaves the EU, Strategy’s new framework) (EP.728)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Saylor releases Strategy’s “Digital Credit Capital Framework” MSTR stabilizes for now though STRC is still discounted Is Saylor transitioning MSTR into a Bitcoin hedge fund? Is Strategy doing anything tricky with their mNAV calculation The OpenUSD consortium is announced Is the Tether and Circle duopoly broken? Can stablecoin consortiums work? What could cause OpenUSD to fail? Trump's 2025 diclosures include a lot of crypto Binance leaves the EU for now The K-pop DAT ends its digital asset...
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Weekly Roundup 06/26/26 (Quantum EOs, STRC's selloff, more MSTR) (EP.727)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Our recording snafu STRC's depeg explained Saylor's path forward Why Strategy's issue is the converts Polymarket's questionable marketing Trump's Quantum EOs
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Weekly Roundup 06/19/26 (STRC under pressure, Illinois’ crypto tax, Open weight AI vs the AI boom) (EP.726)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for a week of news and deals. In this episode: The Tartan Army takes over Boston Europeans are shocked that American infrastructure works STRC falls into the low $80s STRC’s liquidation cascade mechanics What are Saylor’s options now? Is the US right to put the brakes on Fable? Will open weight models puncture the AI boom? Are we living in a vulnerable world? Kristin Gillebrand’s son raises $30m for a perps exchange Make sure your tokenized equity provider has the equity Why aren’t publishers doing pay per content Content mentioned: Nick Bostrom, ...
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Weekly Roundup 06/12/26 (Strategy survives, Zcash Orchard bug, the thin model hypothesis) (EP.725)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with a new week of news and deals. In this episode: Spanish soccer club Osasuna hedges their relegation on Kalshi Strategy shocks people by buying the dip Is Strategy sacrificing MSTR to save STRC? Saylor bolsters his cash position What factors are dragging on the BTC price? Zcash fixes a scary inflation bug SBF formally applies for a Presidential pardon The CFTC proposes banning a subset of prediction market contracts Polymarket thinks that Kalshi is spying on them European fans in America for the World Cup are discovering Buc-ees The DATs are struggling Hester...
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Omid Malekan (Columbia Business School) on Private Money, Financial Systems, and Crypto in Geopolitics (EP.724)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with Omid Malekan, a Professor at Columbia Business School, author of several books, and "Explainer-in-Chief" of blockchain technology. In this episode, Wyatt and Omid discuss: Why do stablecoins carry a persisent sense of being "dangerous" or "ungovernable? Are stablecoins truly private money? How do we define private money? Who owns our current banking and payment systems? Why do banks vocally oppose stablecoins? Who will own and control digital money networks? Are blockchains the right medium for digital finance over the long term? Is digital trust a problem?
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Weekly Roundup 06/05/26 (MSTR wobbles, Polymarket’s MSTR market, Andrew Left convicted) (EP.723)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: FIFA’s World Cup ticketing scandal Andrew Yang is now a crypto and telecoms entrepreneur Are Strategy’s woes responsible for the Bitcoin pullback? Will Saylor defend STRC or MSTR? What are Saylor’s options here? Polymarket has another market resolution SNAFU How UMA could be used to exploit Polymarket BitMine considers a perpetual preferred security Google’s quantum circuit is Galaxy launches OTC trading for prediction markets Treasury sanctions Iran’s largest digital asset exchanges Andrew Left of...
info_outlineAlexei Zamyatin, the cofounder of Build on Bitcoin (BOB), joins the show to talk about the state of the art in Bitcoin Rollups. In this episode:
- Can Bitcoin achieve parity with Ethereum rollups?
- How BitVM and BitVMv2 changed the game for Bitcoin rollups
- When will Bitcoin rollups be considered “Stage 1”
- Ethereum’s existential crisis
- Bitcoin fees in a rollup world
- The risk of L2s cannibalizing Bitcoin
- Will Bitcoin DeFi look different from Ethereum DeFi?
- Why Bitcoin deserves Rollups
- What soft forks is Alexei looking forward to?
- Does institutionalization ossify Bitcoin?
- BOB’s progress and roadmap for 2025
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