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 11/13/26 (Jensen exits NVIDIA, 21 banks back Project Faro stablecoin, Warren prepares her agenda, MEXC sanctions violations, Vitalik on ETH SoV) (EP.749)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Jensen Huang exits NVIDIA Did China hawks force Huang out? 21 banks commit $270m to Project Faro Warren prepares her Senate Banking agenda NYSE picks Avalanche for its planned tokenized stock venue ICE’s initiatives with OKX and Trade.xyz MSCI drops Strategy and Metaplanet Kalshi ends Donald Trump Jr.’s advisory contract Plume’s Kimber Digital Securities registers as a broker-dealer BNY adds institutional staking through Figment Visa adds Monad to stablecoin settlement This week’s raises...
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Weekly Roundup 11/06/26 (Binance hacked for $6.3bn, Sherrod Brown returns, Blue Wave dents AI buildout) (EP.748)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: North Korean hackers pull off the largest crypto theft on record at Binance Democrats sweep the midterms and promise to slow the AI buildout How a fake job interview and a compromised internal AI tool led to the breach What role did EIP-7702 play in the hack? Stablecoin issuers freeze billions as the attackers race to swap into ETH Is Binance’s SAFU fund enough? North Korea denies responsibility Mercado Bitcoin and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa also suffer attacks Sherrod Brown returns despite crypto’s...
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Weekly Roundup 10/30/26 (Prediction market election hiccups, Hyperliquid onshoring, pubcos push back at tokenization, agents are using stables) (EP.747)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Editor's note: this episode was recorded before the Binance hack. Matt and Nic are back with another week of news. In this episode: Prediction markets keep screwing up around major elections Quantum firm Alice and Bob devise a new lower estimate for an ECDLP break Google enters institutional crypto custody with Google MPC ICE and Trade.xyz plan to bring Hyperliquid perps to the US, pending CFTC approval DTCC’s tokenization service goes live on Canton and its private Besu chain Who is using Instinct? Who’s behind the anonymous WSJ ad warning companies against tokenized stocks? Should...
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Weekly Roundup 10/23/26 (Gold alchemy, rogue financial AI agents, GENIUS implements stablecoin yield) (EP.746)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news. In this episode: Marathon Fusion says it has turned mercury into stable gold What would commercially viable alchemy mean for Bitcoin’s scarcity argument? AI tools uncover a major vulnerability in PHP A certificate authority’s private keys turn out to be trivially guessable Railway warns developers to revoke their secrets after a cyberattack Banks are finding third-party AI agents inside customer accounts Who’s responsible when your AI agent acts without instructions? The OCC finalizes its GENIUS Act rules Stablecoin...
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Weekly Roundup 10/16/26 (OCC debanking report, Google’s quantum advance, Ledger spy chips, Richard Heart apprehended) (EP.745)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: The OCC publishes its debanking findings on America’s largest banks Will the banks’ fixes satisfy regulators? Google makes another advance in quantum error correction Coinbase lays out its requirements for Bitcoin’s post-quantum migration Can Bitcoin’s quantum transition accommodate institutional MPC wallets? OpenAI is reportedly in talks to buy Trail of Bits Patrick Witt leaves the White House — where does that leave Clarity? DWF Labs subsidiaries sue BitGo for $141m over allegedly premature...
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Weekly Roundup 10/09/26 (Going Bunker Mode, classical ECC breaks, AI’s math discoveries) (EP.744)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with more deals and news. In this episode: Is it appropriate to have AI manage your fantasy league? Quant firms are hiring “quals” Justin Drake scares everyone in crypto Did AI destroy math? Why a classical ECDSA break would be worse than a quantum one Why we lean forward hash-based signatures for post-quantum Why rotating your address doesn’t help now Is Bitcoin the “least of our concerns” if ECC breaks? Nic makes a new scientific discovery with Astra The NFL thinks that gambling should be state regulated What’s driving interest in Pokemon cards? ...
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Esther Wong (Cashi) on Making Stablecoins Spendable (EP.743)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Esther Wong, founder and CEO of joins the show. Cashi is a stablecoin spending app and cashback card with a global footprint. In this episode we discuss: Customer personas and use cases for stablecoin payments The future of tokenized equities on chain The landscape of layer one and two blockchains and how these platforms converge with global stablecoin applications Cashi’s roadmap and plans for the coming year To learn more about , visit their website and follow Esther Wong on .
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Weekly Roundup 10/02/26 (Fat Model Hypothesis, Agentic bank runs, Hester Peirce retires from the SEC, ETH 2030) (EP.742)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Are OpenAI and Anthropic reenacting the Fat Protocol Hypothesis Will AI agents cause bank runs optimizing bank balances for yield? If the AI complex bursts does it take down VC? Our tribute to Hester Peirce as she retires from the SEC The SEC and CFTC publish crypto FAQs Vitalik lays out his vision for Ethereum in 2030 Quantum progress is accelerating Illinois delays their crypto transaction tax Is San Francisco better than it was?
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Weekly Roundup 09/25/26 (Post Clarity rulemaking, Sherrod Brown is back, RIP BitMEX, Coldcard white hats, is EA a cult?) (EP.741)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: How loud are America’s largest data centers? What’s wrong with XAI’s data center in Mississippi? The Trump admin is reportedly trying to promote dollar stablecoins Binance invests in Circle We pick up the pieces after Clarity Fairshake plans to spend $30m opposing Sherrod Brown in Ohio How AI anxiety helps the Democrats Sherrod Brown is back to haunt crypto Coinbase is listing IPOs now Are prediction markets out of step with the original vision? BitMEX finally closes its doors 52 BTC were saved from the...
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Weekly Roundup 09/18/26 (Clarity fails to advance, Caroline Ellison’s new job, AI leaking MNPI, Poland’s oil snafu) (EP.740)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: How is SBF like Dario? The EAs are at it again Do we need new regulation to Pace the Frontier? Can Anthropic be regulated like a bank? Are baseball cards back? Clarity fails at the final hurdle Why did Clarity fail? Stablecoin yield is still in effect The SEC and CFTC are engaging in rulemaking Circle launches Arc, their new L1 Robinhood employees get caught insider trading on Hyperliquid Caroline Ellison is back and working for a former FTX portco Can AI models leak MNPI? A Polish oil company tried to buy...
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
Learn more about Build on Bitcoin
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