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Welcome back to the breakdown.

It is Friday, January 24th, and Davos has come to a close.

Yes, we started the week talking about whether crypto should even care about the conversations

at the World Economic Forum.

We're going to end the week starting off with three of the key Davos themes

and what we learned about the global establishment's thoughts about cryptocurrencies and

digital currencies and blockchains this year. Second, we're going to dive into one particular

issue, which just as we thought was right at the center of the Davos conversation, which is

central bank digital currencies.

This is going to be one of the most important themes for the year, as this week makes clear.

And then finally, we're going to end on a different type of note, something fun and interesting

for a Friday. I asked my friend Brecky von Bitcoin to talk a little bit about Bitcoin art and culture and even why it should

matter to folks who don't particularly care about the culture side of Bitcoin or even the

philosophical side, but just the finance side. So it should be an interesting episode. And let's

start with these three conclusions or themes from Davos. All right, let's start with these three conclusions or themes from

Davos. All right, let's start with the banner headline from Davos this year. As the CoinDesk

Confidential newsletter put it, crypto and Bitcoin are still dirty words, but blockchain, its

neutered cousin, has been fully assimilated. This was definitely a year where

there was conversation about blockchain frequented throughout, but it was subsumed in the context

of other issues. There were conversations about how blockchain might be able to help in the context

...