The Chopping Block: SBF on a Crazy Week of Bitfinex, Wormhole and ENS Drama

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this week’s episode, Sam Bankman-Friend (SBF), CEO and founder of FTX, also dropped by. Show topics:

• Robert and SBF’s takeaways from previous experiences speaking to regulators
• what happened during the Wormhole hack and why building decentralized systems is difficult 
• whether AssangeDAO is a good use of money and how it showcases the power of DAOs + NFTs
• why GameStop dumping IMX tokens might have been Immutable X’s fault
• ENS drama, cancel culture, and whether or not the guys would have fired Brantly Millegan if it had been their company making the decision
• how the US was able to recover funds from the Bitfinex hack (and how Tarun knows one of the individuals arrested for allegedly using the stolen BTC via money laundering)
• Shape rotators versus wordcels: what is the meme, how does SBF identify, and Arthur Hayes? 

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
  • https://twitter.com/hosseeb
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
  • https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
  • https://twitter.com/tarunchitra 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound 
  • https://twitter.com/rleshner 

Guest

• Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX
  • https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda

Links

• Wormhole hack
  • https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/3/22916111/wormhole-hack-github-error-325-million-theft-ethereum-solana
• AssangeDAO raises ~$41M on Juicebox, larger than ConstitutionDAO
  • https://juicebox.money/#/p/assangedao
• ENS drama
  • https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/02/07/ethereum-name-service-removes-brantly-millegan-as-steward-over-2016-tweet/
  • https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-big-4-firm-added-btc-and-eth-to-its-balance-sheet/ 
• Gamestop and ImmutableX
  • https://twitter.com/polarply/status/1489572631649083394
  • https://unchainedpodcast.com/another-gamestop-pump-and-dump/ 
• Bitfinex Hack
  • https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-arrests-couple-allegedly-laundering-45-bln-crypto-tied-bitfinex-hack-2022-02-08/
  • https://twitter.com/tarunchitra/status/1491104365683552256?s=20&t=7KkfnSsGjDz-MxJjYWBB6A 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmahJCWJ8iM&t=1s 
  • https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/08/us-officials-seize-bitcoin-from-2016-bitfinex-hack/ 
• Wordcels vs. Shape Rotators
  • https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1489998900438077441