Episodes
We discuss Ethereum issuance, regulation, MEV, stable coins and more subscribe to news letter https://didierborel.substack.com/subscribe? visit website https://www.theswissroadtocrypto.com/ Timestamps: 02:10 Ethereum Issuance 06:53 Fidelity entering Ethereum, risk free rate and validators 14:56 Regulation and MEV 24:22 Stable coins Take a second to answer these questions Descript https://www.descript.com/?lmref=m0U0LA shift crypto affiliate...
Published 11/02/22
"In this episode we discover a new blockchain being developed partly in Switzerland. It combines technical elements of bitcoin (Utxo model and proof of work) with others from Ethereum, (smart contract expressiveness) and adds a twist with sharding to provide for many more transactions per seconds. subscribe to newsletter here https://didierborel.substack.com/subscribe? Time stamps 02:20 Basics: What is Alephium, and the political idea behind it 07:53 Why do we need another...
Published 11/01/22
We discuss the Ethereum merge, censorship resistance of Ethereum and stable coins and news from Switzerland. Timestamps: 01:31 Ethereum Merge 08:10 Censorship resistance on Ethereum 21:32 Stable coins, Dai and censorship  34:03 In Switzerland, Bitmex and CVA -------------------------------------------------- affiliate links Descript https://www.descript.com/?lmref=m0U0LA Shift Crypto affiliate...
Published 10/01/22
Julien Guitton is the founder of a Swiss fintech called Condensat. He hopes to later obtain a Swiss banking license. Julien comes from the cypherpunk mouvement so it seems paradoxical that he would want to create a swiss bank. We discuss why he wants to do this, why it is not contradictory to the cypherpunk mouvement, how it will work and the roadmap. Please take a few minutes to answer these short questions. Time stamps 01:52 Cypherpunk mouvement 06:58 Bringing a bank onto the...
Published 09/18/22
We discuss privacy, regulation, Tornado Cash, censurability of stable coins, crypto lobby groups and various other issues. Timestamps: 00:50 Privacy, regulation and Tornado Cash 16:23 Crypto lobby groups 10:15 Coinbase and Ethereum validation 27:17 Ethereum merge and various other subjects Take a second to answer these questions Descript https://www.descript.com/?lmref=m0U0LA shift crypto affiliate...
Published 09/01/22
Adam Wright is the CEO of Vespene Energy, they burn methane gas from landfills in order to eliminate this powerful greenhouse gas. The way to make this profitable is by mining bitcoin. We discuss how big a problem methane gas is, how long methane emissions from landfills will last, why bitcoin mining is the best way to solve this problem, why stranded energy is the cheapest form of energy and more. Please take a few minutes to answer these short questions. Time stamps 01:08 Vespene...
Published 08/18/22
Kevin Monahan is the CEO of a company called Noteworthy. Noteworthy makes physical bitcoin bills in paper. The bills have the private keys on them. This might seem contradictory to the notion of digital currency, but we will discover that, in fact, it is not and some properties might actually improve in the paper version. Furthermore, Kevin worked at MyEtherWallet. The importance of this is that he has quite a bit of experience educating people in crypto. Please take a few minutes to answer...
Published 08/11/22
We discuss SwissPost Finance and bitcoin, European regulation, Russia regulation, bitcoin hash ribbons and Coinbase withdrawals. Timestamps: 03:45 SwissPost Finance 07:11 EU regulation 11:41 Maker DAO, centralisation and DAOs 18:24 Utility of DAOs 21:34 Russia and Regulation 25:03 Hash rate ribbons and withdrawals from exchanges 31:01  Blockfi exposure and market not finished purging Descript https://www.descript.com/?lmref=m0U0LA shift crypto affiliate...
Published 08/02/22
The Data Union DAO is looking to empower people to earn revenues from their data. They want to help developers build apps that will let people sell their data in groups. They also want to set a new standard for best practices. I speak to the Data Union DAO co-founder, Marlene Ronstedt. We discuss how a data union works, the most successful ones, where you can sign up for them and more. Please take a few minutes to answer these short questions. Time stamps 04:05   What is a data union and...
Published 07/27/22
Today I speak to Kevin Rooke. He studies the Lightning network. We discuss how big the network already is, the new business models it will enable, how easy it will be for most people to earn sats and much more. A very enlightening episode indeed. Time stamps 04:51   How Kevin discovered bitcoin 07:29   New business models 22:11   Cash app vs organic wallets 27:02   Medium article 34:52   5-10% payments lost 37:25   Stable coins 43:20   Lightning and privacy 45:37...
Published 07/19/22
Tilmar Goos has worked at Seba Bank, the Cardano foundation and currently at the Crypto Valley Association. Today we will discuss his recent PHD thesis about Algorithmic Anthropometry. It sounds obscure, but as you will discover it is quite interesting. We will discuss -How Tilmar discovered crypto -What is algorithmic anthropometry -what  happens to all the data we create -surveillance and privacy and more Time stamps 03:31   Introduction 06:46  What is algorithmic...
Published 07/13/22
Today I am joined by Laurent Waisman. He is co-founder of Nodl. Nodl is easiest way for a newbie to start running a bitcoin node and get all the great features and applications associated with running a node. It is a plug and play solution. It makes running your own node about as easy as buying a computer for the first time. It is financial self-sovereignty in a box. We explain how to get one and set it up. Time stamps 04:37   Set up, plug and play 09:05   All the applications running on...
Published 07/06/22
We discuss the release of RGB, hacks, bitcoin’s price and miner capitulation Timestamps 00:34   RGB - really good for bitcoin 08:31   Hacks 16:30   Celsius and 3 Arrows 20:39   Bitcoin price and miner capitulation 27:41   Microstrategy and stable coins links Descript https://www.descript.com/?lmref=m0U0LA Shift crypto  link https://shiftcrypto.ch/bitbox02/?ref=W7XHHFMKYt braintrust https://app.usebraintrust.com/r/didier3/ If you enjoyed this episode, share this link on your...
Published 06/29/22
Romain Braud is director of digital assets at Arab Bank in Switzerland. Arab Bank offers services for crypto custody, trading, staking, and lending. They also offer classic banking services. We will discuss - how Romain convinced Arab bank to embrace crypto - what are the obstacles most banks still face when they want to start a crypto business such as reputational risk - what kind of clients they have and where is demand coming from - corporates looking to get involved in bitcoin -...
Published 06/10/22
I talk to Micheal Svoboda, he is the COO of Liquity. Liquity is a collateralized back stable coin. It is backed by Ether. It is therefore completely different from Terra-Luna. Its closest relative is the Dai stable coin. However Liquity has 2 major advantages over Dai. First, it is interest free and second the minimum over collateralization rate is much lower, 110% compared to 150%. Micheal Svoboda describes how it works, their great success in just 2 years, regulatory issues and more. Time...
Published 05/30/22
Jean-Philippe Aumasson is a cryptographer. He developed a hashing algorithm called Blake. It is trusted by Linux, Google and Ethereum. We will discuss Blake, what cryptography is, and what a cryptographer actually does. We also discuss MPC,NFT and more Time stamps 00:43 Backround 03:06 Working at Kudelski  05:07 Cryptography math and mountaineering 06:59 Cryptography and hacking  08:36 Cryptography and programing  10:31 Cryptography, audits and assements  12:15 MPC multiparty...
Published 05/06/22
We discuss stablecoins, defi, and the decentralisation of Ethereum Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:29 stablecoins 07:08 Liquity and crypto-backed stablecoins 10:33 Stablecoin trilemas 12:43 Defi, Institutional demand 16:07 How decentralised is Ethereum 16:20 POS leads to centralisation 21:24  Metamask and Infura 30:05 Vitalik's post on bitcoin maximalism If you enjoyed this episode, share this link on your favorite social networks https://anchor.fm/didier-borel or share the link you...
Published 05/04/22
The Bitcoin Policy Institute is an interdisciplinary cohort of economists, coders, lawyers, climate scientists, philosophers, and policy analysts, providing research, fact checking and commentary on Bitcoin. This is the second part of an interview I did with Mathew Pines. In this episode we discuss BPI's views on Bitcoin and energy consumption. He explains why it can be a very useful tool to build out renewable energy sources. Links https://www.btcpolicy.org/ twitter @mathew_pines shift...
Published 05/02/22
The Bitcoin Policy Institute is an interdisciplinary cohort of economists, coders, lawyers, climate scientists, philosophers, and policy analysts, providing research, fact checking and commentary on Bitcoin. We will discuss with Mathew Pines what they do, who their message is for, why there has been recent changes to the U S government's approach to crypto, whether crypto can help avoid sanctions and whether the U S makes the distinction between Bitcoin and other crypto.  Time...
Published 04/28/22
Braintrust is the world's first user owned talent market place for freelancers. In this episode, the co-founder, Adam Jackson tells us how it works and why freelancers make much more in this platform than on privately owned platforms and how it continues its explosive growth since our previous episode. We also discuss investments by venture capital firms and how you can profit either as a freelancer or by referring talent to the platform. Time stamps 00:00 Introduction and sponsors 06:32 Fee...
Published 04/11/22
We discuss crypto adoption in Lugano and their new law, regulatory issues in USA and Europe, Exxon mining bitcoin and Ukraine and crypto usage Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:04 Crypto adoption in Lugano 06:56 Regulatory issues in Europe 10:33 Biden's executive order 12:14 UK-unlicensed ATM machines and crypto advertising 16:34 Ethereum test to move to POS a success 18:35 Exxon and Conoco Philipps mine bitcoin with excess gas flares, reduces CO2 emissions 23:11  Russia and Ukraine,...
Published 04/04/22
We discuss financial censorship by the US government towards Afghanistan, financial censorship by the Canadian government towards their citizens, AOPP, the travel rule, the big four accounting firms adopting crypto and more. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:22 Censorship, Afghanistan Central Bank, Canada and Russia 12:54 Russia and Crypto 18:38 Trezor and AOPP 27:41 Travel Rule and the US compliance platform 34:39 Big 4 accounting firms adopt crypto 39:18 Binance and Faceboook If...
Published 02/28/22
Anita Posch is back from El Salvador. We discuss -her take aways of bitcoin in El Salvador -President Bukele’s human rights record -President Bukele's desire to be bigger than bitcoin -Chivo wallet and Algorand -Who holds the keys to El Salvador’s coins -The importance of censorship resistant money -The importance of bitcoin education -Anita’s book and initiative Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:48 Bukele and human rights 11:12 A way to get famous fast 13:20 Chivo wallet,...
Published 02/10/22
This episode is directed to angel investors and venture capitalists. If you are interested in getting an idea of the valuations of crypto firms, I ask the question; how much are Swiss crypto startups really worth? How do they compare to well known startups in the USA or elsewhere? What information is available and what is just guesswork. I had a look and put some numbers together and we will see what my guests Mauro Cappiello and Alex Poltorak have to say about these valuations. If you...
Published 02/03/22
We discuss the Swiss National Bank’s CBDC project called “Helvetia” and how Blockchain Innovation Group participated in a test phase of it. We also discuss, custody solutions, security of Defi, monitoring the Lightning network, bitcoin’s distribution and more. Timestamps: 01:03 Introduction 02:43 Helvetia phase 2 and Swiss CBDC 08:38 DLT, Blockchain and CBDC 18:26 Difference between DLT and Blockchain 19:40  Defi, custody solutions and Security 24:14 Bitcoin developer legal defense...
Published 01/27/22