4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2022
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
First, Molly Wood quickly sums up crypto donations flowing to Ukraine (2:03). Then, Jason and Molly chat with Molly White, the creator of the website "Web 3 is Going Great." We discuss the problems she identified with Web 3, speculation vs. building, DAOs, decentralization and more (7:01).
(00:00) Molly intros today’s episode, crypto in Ukraine, Jason and Molly interview guest Molly White
(02:07) The ways crypto has been used to help Ukraine
(07:01) Molly and Jason interview guest Molly White
(10:32) Mercury - Banking built for startups. See more at https://mercury.com/twist
(12:02) Molly White talks about her website, web3isgoinggreat.com
(14:07) Molly White talks about newer technologies in web3 and their future
(17:06) Grifting in web3
(18:35) What it takes to truly understand web3
(20:38) RealGoodFoods - Go to https://realgoodfoods.com and use code TWIST for $15 off!
(22:06) Bitcoin toxicity, brigading, and wash trading
(25:34) Melania chimes in
(25:43) Categories of grift in NFT’s
(30:47) Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist
(32:03) Jason predicts NFT lawsuits in 2023
(33:06) Toxicity in the bitcoin cult
(35:00) What are good uses for blockchains and the web3 shift
(35:55) Jason’s defense of bitcoin
(36:42) Molly White’s counter to Jason’s defense of bitcoin
(38:17) Problems with energy consumption in bitcoin
(40:22) Can bitcoin help store monetary value in authoritarian countries?
(42:39) Are DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) a good idea?
(48:27) Questions companies need to be able to answer in the life of their product
(49:39) The downfall of Enron: “How does this company make money?”
(52:16) The caveats of being ok with true decentralization
(55:10) Doxxing in crypto
(01:04:03) Brigading in crypto and social media
Check out Web 3 is Going Great: https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. We have a great show for you today and it's kind of accidentally on trend with the way that things are going in the world. We have an amazing interview. Jason and I talked to Molly White, a long time Wikipedia editor, but most recently she's gotten pretty well known as the creator of the blog feed and the Twitter feed Web 3 is going great where she breaks down the scams and the hacks and the pump and dumps and some of the questionable claims around the value of Web 3 and crypto. |
| 0:29.6 | It was a really fun conversation. It's a great back and forth, a really pretty in depth. And frankly, I think fairly measured and analytical exploration of this whole like mix them up madness world around crypto, but just in the days since we talked to Molly White, lots of the things we talked about are starting to play out in some form on the global stage. |
| 0:51.4 | Obviously we have all been following the conflict in Ukraine. All I do is like a Twitter all day every day. And in the tech and Web 3 and crypto world, there have been all kinds of developments and donations and speculation about how Bitcoin and crypto could or could not help out the people of Ukraine. Now Molly White is a skeptic and yet with the situation in Ukraine, we seem to have found a couple of examples of crypto helping out. |
| 1:21.8 | It's going to be a great episode stick with us. |
| 1:24.6 | This week in startups is brought to you by Mercury question how much time have you wasted managing your company's money answer too much switched to Mercury at mercury dot com. |
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| 2:08.5 | All right, let's get to some of these developments in the crypto world with respect to Ukraine and where it might actually be providing value and not in the pump and dump way. |
| 2:17.7 | As of Monday morning, when I'm recording this, Ukraine had already received about $20 million in crypto donations. What does that actually mean and can they use it? Well, let's break it down on Saturday, Ukraine's official Twitter account and their vice prime minister tweeted the following basically soliciting crypto donations. |
| 2:35.6 | They said stand with the people of Ukraine now accepting cryptocurrency donations Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT and then gave wallet numbers so that you could do these donations coin desk publish an article earlier this morning tracking a bunch of these donations and withdrawal activity by Ukraine because remember all of this data is on chain. |
| 2:56.6 | And so we can see one of the big factors and conversations that we have with Molly White is like it's great if you get Bitcoin and you have some sort of cryptocurrency in a wallet, but if all hell is breaking loose and the powers out can you actually access it. |
| 3:11.5 | It looks like if we are able to get insights on whether or when Ukraine withdraws funds will find out and will also find out if it's potentially dangerous that Russia can track these transactions as well. |
| 3:24.5 | Data so far according to coin desk shows that Ukraine has received about $4.2 million worth of Bitcoin and have withdrawn about $3 million of that in cold hard cash one assumes about $6 million of various crypto in their theory and base wallet, including $1.1 million worth of tether, which they hopefully cashed in immediately. |
| 3:47.0 | And hopefully is not sketchy about a hundred thousand dollars in USDC which is circles stable coin. |
| 3:54.5 | There are different reports and differing reports on how much of this money has been able to be withdrawn so it's hard to say the actual amount but it does appear that these donations may actually be finding their way to the Ukrainian people, which is obviously what we hope is happening. |
| 4:11.9 | Also on Monday, Binance announced that it would donate $10 million in crypto to Ukraine and launched a crowdfunding portal to encourage users to donate as well. |
| 4:21.3 | Over the weekend, the Russian art collective riot helped form a decentralized autonomous organization, you know, a Dow that raised $3 million in ether for the war effort and humanitarian relief. |
| 4:31.8 | And a separate wallet for donations to the Ukraine army run by the charity come back alive has raised $6 million since its inception in mid 21. |
| 4:41.2 | So here's where things get a little interesting in terms of decentralization and control another big topic in the interview that you're going to hear after this donations are being distributed from the government's digital wallets, which is set up by the key based crypto exchange, Kuna to other digital wallets before being spent. |
| 5:03.7 | We don't know exactly why it could be a safety measure. It could also be the kind of thing that ensures that money is getting to where it's supposed to go instead of being intercepted, for example, in route or used for things other than what it's intended for. |
| 5:16.7 | According to Kuna's founder, the funds are being used to buy gas, food and water for the people who are evacuating. So listen, like if this is working. |
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