Transcript Ep. 335: Do Kwon Is Backing UST With Bitcoin – And Here’s What Else He Is Building

Laura Shin:

Hi, all. In recent press interviews or at book signings and speaking engagements, people have been asking what’s next for me, now that my book is out. Well, I’m happy that I’m finally able to announce what I’ll be working on. Today, Law & Crime, the leading live trial and true crime network, and I announce that we will be collaborating on an investigative podcast series that explores the case of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple who have been accused of attempting to launder 4.5 billion dollars worth of bitcoin. The series will be a deep dive into the story to understand the married couple at the center of it, how they allegedly attempted to launder the bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex and then to look more closely at the clues that led to their arrest. I’m thrilled to be partnering with Law & Crime to tell this tale about stolen bitcoin with the depth and level of detail it deserves. It will be a fascinating journey not only into the lives of this couple that has already captivated the internet, but into how blockchain sleuthing enabled the government to track them down. We have a press release out about it today, which you can read on Law & Crime, so if you’re interested in learning more, check out the Unchained daily newsletter today and tomorrow and/or my Twitter feed. 

Also, as usual, I have upcoming book events for my book tour, so you can also find these at laurashin.com on the book page, which is laurashin.com/book/#tour-dates, and I’m just going to give a quick rundown through all the events, so if you live in any of these cities, you might want to come check them out, and a few of these are also virtual events. Wednesday, March 30, I’ll be speaking remotely with Six Senses about The Cryptopians at 2 p.m. Eastern. If you want to save your spot, the signup is at laurashin.com/book. The same day, I will be speaking and moderating a panel at the National Security Institute called Crypto and National Security: How to Validate American Innovation and Verify US National Security with panelists Jerry Brito of Coin Center, Sheila Warren of the Crypto Council for Innovation, and Juan Zarate of K2 Integrity and NSI Advisory Board Member. On Thursday, March 31 at 1 p.m. Eastern or 10 a.m. Pacific, I am doing a Twitter Spaces with @FingerprintsDAO in which I will be interviewed by OG crypto artist, Mitchell Chan. Many of you tweeted at me about how much you loved Mitchell when he came on Unchained, so I would highly encourage you to check this out. He is a fascinating person, I’m sure he will ask great questions, and also, he knows quite a bit about journalism, and plans to dive into some issues involving covering crypto. Tuesday, April 5, if you’re going to be in Miami, I will be doing a reading and signing, hosted by the City of Miami Beach and Future Perfect Ventures. It will be at Sky Yard from 6 to 8 p.m. Jalak Jobanputra, CEO of Future Perfect Ventures, will be interviewing me. You need to RSVP by this Friday, April 1, to DianaFontani@MiamiBeachFL.gov, and then, on Saturday, April 9, I will be interviewed at the Annapolis Book Festival at 11 a.m. On Tuesday, April 12, I will be at StartupGrind’s global event in Redwood City, which is focused this year on Web3. The time is TBD, and May 4, I will be in conversation with author Jimmy Soni, at the PBS Seattle Crosscut Festival, which takes place from May 4 to 7. Again, details TBD. Finally, last, but not least, I will be at the Oslo Freedom Forum from May 23 to 25. Again, details TBD, and now, onto the show.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto. I’m your host Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians. I started covering crypto six years ago, and as a senior editor at Forbes, was the first mainstream media reporter to cover cryptocurrency full time. This is the March 29, 2022 episode of Unchained. This episode of Unchained is brought to you by Beefy Finance, the Multichain Yield Optimizer. Beefy is the easiest way to earn more from your crypto. Deposit funds into Beefy’s secure vaults to auto-compound yields across 12 blockchains. Got crypto? Choose Beefy.

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Today’s guest is Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs. Welcome, Do.

Do Kwon:

Hi, Laura. Thanks for having me.

Laura Shin: 

So, just a heads-up everyone that when I asked Do to come on a show, he requested that we focus on new applications he’s working on, because he was tired of answering the same questions all the time, and since I’m going so many press interviews for my book and I’m also being asked the same questions all the time, I actually agreed to that. We did however ... obviously, we would need to cover some basics on Terra and UST so that people wouldn't be lost, and they would understand, you know, what his project’s about and all that, but I just wanted to make it clear kind of like why this interview may not cover as much territory as I would typically cover in an interview. However, for those who want to hear more from Do, he did appear on The Chopping Block last week, so make sure to check out that episode.

Okay, so, I’m just going to start with some exposition so we can, you know, make sure everybody’s up to speed, but also, you know, minimize the amount of time that you spend talking about this stuff, so you can feel free to tweak anything that I say, but as I mentioned before, you’re the co-founder of Terraform Labs, and that has built the Terra ecosystem, and the Terra ecosystem is probably best known for its algorithmic stablecoins, such as UST, which is pegged to the US dollar, but now you have other protocols also built on top, such as Mirror, which offers synthetic assets on things like stocks, including US stocks, or there’s Anchor, which is, like, a savings platform, and it currently offers yields of almost 20%, but why don’t we start the discussion about your main stablecoin, UST, because you recently had big news about changes you were going to make about how it’s being backed, and it used to be that in order to mint, say, 10 UST, you would have to burn 10 dollars worth of LUNA, which is the staking token of Terra, but obviously, you changed how that works, so why don’t you explain what the new system is for people.