MEV Case, Private AI, Politics, Meme Stocks, and More!
This Week on Unchained: Don't miss the interviews about the $25M MEV case, Venice AI with Erik Voorhees, and more!
In this episode, Evan Zinaman, founder and principal at Trailbreak, delves into the first-of-its-kind case of the Bueno brothers, who face Department of Justice charges for exploiting Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) in a cryptocurrency scheme. Accused of manipulating transaction ordering to create an arbitrage opportunity, the brothers are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud as well as wire fraud itself.
Zinaman explores the broader implications of MEV exploitation, and addresses critics who say that the MEV exploiters just got a taste of their own medicine, and the need for block building participants to consider their legal and compliance responsibilities.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
The Chopping Block: Crypto in US Politics & Roaring Kitty Is Back!
In this episode, we touch on how Donald Trump’s pro-crypto statements influence voter behavior in the upcoming U.S. elections. We ask ourselves, is voting based solely on crypto policy a legitimate strategy? What are the implications of the Biden administration’s stance on crypto regulations for future electoral outcomes? Following the political discussion, we unpack the recent GameStop and AMC pump and dissect the viability of their business models. We bring to light the broader implications for memestocks and whether the increased capital really saves these companies.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Erik Voorhees, a crypto OG, has launched Venice, a private, uncensorable, open-source competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, powered by a decentralized crypto network.
In the episode, Erik and Venice’s COO Teana Baker-Taylor delve into the problems with censorship and data in current AI agents, including how they create honeypots of information about users’ search history for hackers, or that they can be absurdly politically correct, such as refusing to create images of Caucasian people. As they point out, there’s also the risk that the companies managing them could be censoring the models to please the Chinese government, in order to access the market in that country. They talk about their plan for Venice to gain market share, considering that DuckDuckGo, a privacy-preserving competitor to Google, has a much smaller market share. And they explain why they intend for Venice to eventually use the compute of Morpheus, or other decentralized crypto-powered compute networks.
They also critique the SEC’s current regulatory approach to crypto, calling it “a joke.” Additionally, they explore the concept of AI agents using cryptocurrencies as their primary currency.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Transcript Ep.645: Erik Voorhees’ New Venture: Why AI Desperately Needs Privacy and Uncensorability
In Case You Missed It 👀
Here are some articles you will probably want to read:
A Guide to ‘Roaring Kitty’s’ Many Movie References as He Returns to X
After disappearing from the scene in 2021, influential GameStop investor “Roaring Kitty” has resurfaced on X and posted multiple movie clips with no comment. Here’s our interpretation.
The Price of Ether Keeps Bleeding Against Bitcoin. Is the ‘Flippening’ Dream Over?
The ratio of ether’s market cap to that of bitcoin’s hit a multi-year low Wednesday and overall has been falling since The Merge. Will the trend continue?
Ethereum Scaling With L2s Has Damaged Its Tokenomics. Is It Possible to Fix It?
While Ethereum layer 2s are at an all-time high in terms of active addresses and transactions, the mainnet may not be doing as well.
Tron’s Justin Sun Has Become Quite the Airdrop Farmer of Late
Sun has received airdrop allocations from crypto projects such as EigenLayer and EtherFi, and is also earning points from his deposits into Swell and Puffer Finance.
8 Reasons Why LayerZero’s Upcoming Airdrop Could Be the Most Complex Ever
How will LayerZero manage its airdrop amid falling crypto prices, millions of users, and several stakeholders?
Opinion: What President Biden’s Crypto Politics Might Really Be About
by David Z. Morris
The Administration’s anti-crypto policies risk alienating voters of both parties. But the bigger, albeit also potentially misguided, picture may be about preserving America’s global economic power.
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