The Chopping Block: How to Improve DeFi and Cross-Chain Bridge Security - Ep.343

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Laura Shin, the host of Unchained and author of The Cryptopians, also joined the conversation. Show topics:

• how people have responded to The Cryptopians
• why traditional publishers were reticent to publish the story revealing the alleged DAO attacker’s identity
• what lessons can be learned from North Korea’s alleged involvement in the Ronin bridge exploit
• what zero-knowledge proofs work and how a miscalculation in a whitepaper almost caused major issues in the crypto world this week
• how math proofs and reporting specifications work in the crypto space
• why security engineers, like samczsun, are so hard to come by
• how an attacker was able to steal ~$80 million from Beanstalk in a governance attack 
• @hosseeb vs. @haseeb 
• the difference between being in crypto and covering it as a journalist – and why Laura sees herself as more a “referee” than a participant in the crypto space
• whether DeFi hackers can actually cash out of their positions
• why Tarun is worried about Ethereum’s security in the wake of the merge being delayed even further
• what staking derivatives are, and how traditional are using Lido to lever up
• why traditional funds getting into crypto has Tarun worried about Anchor 
• why the guys think Cosmos is more popular than Polkadot

Episode Links

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 
• Laura Shin, the crypto referee
• • https://twitter.com/laurashin 

Helpful Information

• North Korea’s interest in crypto: 
• • https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-north-korea-is-interested-in-cryptocurrency/ 
• The Merge delayed
• • https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-ethereums-merge-was-delayed-and-why-it-wont-reduce-gas-fees-much/ 
  • https://bitcoinist.com/ethereum-merge-headed-for-another-delay/
  • https://twitter.com/korpi87/status/1513459657381068812

• Beanstalk rekt for $180M
• • https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/142272/ethereum-based-stablecoin-protocol-beanstalk-loses-more-than-80-million-to-exploit
  • Crazy attack using flash loans to insta-ship governance proposals: https://rekt.news/beanstalk-rekt/

• https://twitter.com/kelvinfichter/status/1515735718840184835 

• The Cryptopians

• http://bit.ly/cryptopians 

• UST and Anchor worries

• https://unchainedpodcast.com/heres-why-usdn-de-pegged-from-the-dollar-and-why-ust-might-too/

• Lido and centralization

• https://www.suresats.com/post/ethereum-s-centralization-dilemma-through-lido-staking

• Cosmos vs. Polkadot

• https://medium.com/coinmonks/polkadot-vs-cosmos-which-one-is-the-best-246e67b25d6c 

• MakerDAO technical docs

• https://docs.makerdao.com/

• Zero-Knowledge explainer

• https://www.notboring.co/p/zero-knowledge

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