Nic Carter, partner at Castle Island Ventures, discusses the ways in which cryptocurrencies could weaken the state, how they’re already providing an alternative to central bank currencies for people in economies undergoing hyper-inflation. He describes why Bitcoin is inherently political, which other coins he views as legitimate and whether coins should always aim to be money or other types can exist. Plus, he explains why he isn’t optimistic about Libra and why Facebook should have pegged the value of it to the USD.

Thank you to our sponsor!

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unconfirmed

Episode links:

Castle Island Ventures: https://www.castleisland.vc/

Nic Carter: https://twitter.com/nic__carter

Nic Carter’s recent Medium post on Bitcoin as a revolutionary currency: https://medium.com/@nic__carter/a-most-peaceful-revolution-8b63b64c203e

LocalBitcoins interview on Unconfirmed: https://unchainedpodcast.com/localbitcoins-on-how-bitcoin-trading-compares-across-the-world/

Unconfirmed interview with Dante Disparte of the Libra Association: https://unchainedpodcast.com/libras-dante-disparte-on-why-we-should-trust-a-financial-system-designed-by-facebook/

Michael Casey on why it would be good if Libra rivaled the USD: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/

Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh on why the Congressional hearings on Facebook’s Libra were good for Bitcoin: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-congressional-hearings-on-facebooks-libra-were-good-for-bitcoin/

Unchained interview with the IMF on how to design central bank digital currencies: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-imf-on-how-to-design-central-bank-digital-currencies/