In this Best of 2019 episode, I selected the clips that seemed most representative of what crypto was about this year, which I call, The Year Things Got Geopolitical. My only regret is that none of the clips about DAOs lent themselves well to this episode. However, years from now, after we’ve got global stablecoins pinging around the world at a high transactions-per-second rate, the crypto community has made peace with U.S. regulators, and more of our lives seems to take place in the borderless digital world, perhaps we’ll find it ironic that DAOs were burbling up right around the same time.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com/

CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Episode links: 

Unchained Interview with Vitalik Buterin: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-whether-or-not-ethereum-is-blowing-it/

Unchained Interview with Hester Peirce: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-come-talk-to-the-sec/

Unchained Interview with Ted Livingston: https://unchainedpodcast.com/kin-sets-up-5-million-defendcrypto-org-to-take-on-the-sec/

Unchained Interview with Glen Weyl and Santiago Siri: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-blockchains-can-help-create-little-democracies-everywhere/

Unchained Interview with Christian Catalini: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/

Unchained Interview with Martin Chorzempa and Dovey Wan: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/

Unchained Interview with Emily Parker: https://unchainedpodcast.com/crypto-in-china-what-it-really-looks-like/

Unchained Interview with Sandra Ro: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sandra-ro-why-crypto-friendly-laws-are-coming-in-the-us/

Unchained Interview with Patrick McHenry: https://unchainedpodcast.com/congressman-patrick-mchenry-bitcoin-will-be-of-enormous-value/

Unchained Interview with David Andolfatto: https://unchainedpodcast.com/fed-economist-on-the-prospect-of-the-usd-losing-global-reserve-status-who-cares/

Unchained Interview with Yeonmi Park: https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/

Unchained Interview with Alex Gladstein: https://unchainedpodcast.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-3-reasons-bitcoin-matters/