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This is the first edition of ACJR’s Off the Record series, a peer-to-peer method for journalists to get up to speed on all things crypto. 

In this session, we’re going to look at how to cover the white-hot Coinbase listing, which happens next week. We’ll look at angles from crypto proxy-stocks to the history of centralised exchanges and Coinbase’s major global rivals.

Join colleagues from: Fortune, Forbes, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, the New York Times, CoinDesk, Quartz and more. 

, executive editor at Decrypt and author of the definitive book on Coinbase, ‘Kings of Crypto’ will give a talk on how he’s covered the company. 

Then we have 30-minute open Q&A with a panel of reporters and researchers who can answer your questions on how to cover Coinbase and crypto exchanges in general. 

This whole session really is off the record, so it’s not recorded and we ask attendees to abide by 

This event is open to journalists and researchers only. 

About the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers (ACJR)

 is a professional body that recognises the best journalism and research on cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Off the Record was put together by an ACJR working group comprising: Samantha Yap, Jason Brett, Sistla V. Abhishek, Zack Seward, Joon Ian Wong. 

Coinbase Goes Public: How to Cover It

 series, a peer-to-peer method for journalists to get up to speed on all things crypto. 

In this session, we’ll look at one of the major risk factors Coinbase named in its S-1: decentralised finance, or DeFi. The short and very accelerated history of DeFi; how to cover a space filled with pseudonymous and anonymous actors; tactics for keeping up with a sector that moves at light speed; understanding the financial and technical jargon behind it. 

Join attendees from: Cointelegraph, Zing News, CoinGecko, The Defiant, Blockworks, Freelance: Bain Consulting, Harvard Business Review Analytics Service, YAP, Bloomberg News, USA Today, freelance: business insider, Coindesk, TheStreet Crypto, Sifted BitPinas.com, 

Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, OmniFlix Network | Team ACJR

This event is underwritten by ACJR member 

YAP Global is a PR agency helping meaningful cryptocurrency, blockchain and fintech companies tell their stories. It's on a mission to build a bridge between quality journalism and emerging technology companies who are making a difference in the world

Coinbase’s Challengers: Decentralised Exchanges and DeFi

In this session, we’ll look at proof-of-work mining, the mechnism that Bitcoin and Ethereum use to secure their blockchains, and which also happen to consume vast amounts of electricity. What is the carbon impact of mining? How much renewable energy is used? This is a deeply ideological and partisan topic, so it’s extremely tricky territory for reporters who are not familiar with the contours of the argument. 

Fortune, CNBC, CoinDesk, Forbes, HFM Global, Blockworks, the Street, The Block, Business Post

), Paradigma and research affiliate at the Cambridge  Centre for Alternative Finance. 

Off the Record sessions really are off the record, and we abide by Chatham House rules. 

Off the Record sessions are only open to journalists and researchers.

*This session was originally the CBDC session, but we pivoted it due to popular demand. We’re also holding it earlier so that our Asian members can join us. 

Scorched Earth? Making Sense of Crypto Mining and Energy Use 

This is a sponsored session that’s part of Season One of ACJR’s 

, a peer-to-peer method for journalists to get up to speed on all things crypto. 

DeFi is more than just a buzzword and the best way to prove this is through data. In this session we’ll help you understand the scale and speed of DeFi development by actually showing you ways you can track it and write about it. The beauty of DeFi is that all transactions on Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs) and DeFi Protocols run by Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are on the public blockchain for all the world to see. We’ll answer questions about DAOs, what they are used for and where they fit in the future financial system. We’ll also describe the disruptive effect that the recent Cambrian explosion of DeFi protocols is set to have on finance as we know it.

10 minute presentation on “The Data Behind Defi”  by George Harrap (@

), Head of DeFi at YAP Global, Founder of Step Finance

This sponsored session is open to journalists, researchers and other communicators in the industry. 

🔔Sponsored Session by YAP Global: DeFi Deep Dive

Come relax and trade war stories at our first in-person happy hour for members of the crypto media. We’re co-hosting this with our friends and newly minted members, 

As the name implies, this is a happy hour, so come shoot the breeze, trade gossip and argue over style-guide conventions with each other. We all share your pain. 

We’re buying a few drinks and Decrypt is very kindly buying a round (or two!) of drinks—then you’re on your own. 

Space is limited, and we’ll tell you which bar to go to closer to the date. We’ll make sure the venue is taking precautions, making sure there’s plenty of fresh air and so on. 

Any fully paid up member of the ACJR can attend, space permitting. The rest of the guest list is determined by the co-hosts.  

Crypto Media Happy Hour

CRYPTO MEDIA HAPPY HOUR

Calling all crypto journalists and researchers in NYC!

Let's meet up over drinks this Thursday and discuss all the recent Litecoin/Walmart drama...or just anything else that grabs our fancy :)

NYC Covid restrictions apply — must bring proof of vax (at least one dose) for entry into this restaurant! We will be seated on their patio.

Crypto Media Happy Hour: NYC

Welcome to the second season of ACJR's Off the Record, a peer-to-peer way for journalists to get up to speed on all things crypto. 

In this session we're looking at how crypto broke onto the scene in DC as the horse-trading over the infrastructure bill intensified, and crypto became a part of the legislative conversation. As policy and regulation continue to remain critical factors for crypto adoption, the intersection of DC and crypto isn't going away any time soon. 

A 10-minute talk by Nikilesh De, regulatory reporter at CoinDesk,  author of its 

Half an hour for Q&A with Nik and other panelists including 

• Ephrat Livni, DealBook reporter, The New York Times

• Kellie Mejdrich, reporter, Politico's Pro Financial Services

 is a professional body that recognizes the best journalism and research on cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Off the Record was put together by an ACJR working group comprising: 

Joon Ian Wong, Renee McGivern, Molly Jane Zuckerman, Pete Rizzo, David Pan.

Crypto Goes to Washington: Covering the Infra Bill (and Policy in General)

🚨 Click the zoom link in 'event location' at the top of this page under the date, don't click the link in 'next up' which is outdated!

In this session we're looking at the white-hot NFT markets and going beyond the basic. How do NFT markets work? How should you interpret the data from marketplaces and market trackers? How much wash-trading is going on? What are price floors?

A 10-minute talk by Steve Stirling, The Street Crypto. His work has been featured in FiveThirtyEight, PBS FRONTLINE, USA TODAY and has been honored by IRE, ONA and the Scripps Howard Foundation.

Half an hour with Steve and other panelists including 

Beyond the Drop: How to Cover NFT markets, from Floor Prices to Wash-Trading.

, a peer-to-peer way for journalists to get up to speed on all things crypto. This is a sponsored session by 

, which means they select the topics and speakers. 

In this session, we’re delving into the crypto staking market: the quiet giant on track to soon comprise as much as a third of total market capitalization. With regulators turning their attention onto crypto yield products, this is an area of intense focus for the industry, and will only grow in prominence as companies, such as Kraken, continue to make this a core part of their business. 

(@MSantoriESQ), Chief Legal Officer at Kraken and 

(@teemuz), Senior Researcher at the London School of Economics. The session will be moderated by 

(@iamsandali), regulation and policy reporter at CoinDesk. There'll be time for Q&A, so bring your reg and staking questions. 

This event is open to journalists and researchers only.

 is a professional non-profit body that recognises the best journalism and research on cryptocurrencies and blockchains. You should join our community of 800 journalists, researchers and comms professionals in crypto 

 was put together by an ACJR working group comprising: 

Joon Ian Wong, Renee McGivern, Molly Jane Zuckerman, Pete Rizzo, Samantha Yap.

Do You Yield? The Future of Crypto Staking and Regulation, and Why It's Not a Checking Account 🔵Sponsored Session🔵

 is back for its third and final season of the year. More than 100 journalists and researchers registered for the last season, where we looked at how to cover crypto's arrival in Washington, reporting on the NFT markets, and we hosted Kraken's session on regs and staking. 

This time we're going to look at the red-hot topic of DAOs, and more. 

As decentralized autonomous organizations crack into the mainstream, journalists are grappling with the unique challenges of reporting on a new form of human organization.

What are DAOs and how should they be covered differently, if at all, by the press? We're going to start with some definitions around this jargon-heavy subject, and then proceed to a roundtable discussion centered on how to improve the general understanding of what DAOs are, what they do and what they might do next.

Is there a topic you want us to cover? Ping us in ACJR Telegram: 

https://t.me/joinchat/DF5FbFkPNRrz5TqdK3Dcig

Off the Record was put together by an ACJR working group comprising: Zack Seward, Leigh Cuen, Molly Jane Zuckerman, Joon Ian Wong.

ACJR Off the Record: How to Cover DAOs

 is back for its third and final season of the year. More than 100 journalists and researchers registered for the last season, where we looked at how to cover crypto's arrival in Washington, reporting on the NFT markets, and we hosted Kraken's session on regs and staking.

This session is all about the metaverse and how it intersects with both work and play. 

Our amazing speakers for this session include:

-Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou, Bloomberg News (@misyrlena)

-Zack Seward, deputy global news editor at CoinDesk (@zackseward)

ACJR off the Record: How to Cover the Metaverse, From Gaming to the Future of Work

This session is a sponsored session put together by Edge and Node. Speakers and agenda TBD.

Off the Record's third season is supported by Edge and Node.

ACJR Off the Record: Sponsored Session by Edge and Node

As crypto becomes an institutional asset, it's attracting more interest from regulators. The New York Attorney General, for instance, has taken a keen interest in Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin by market cap. 

This Off the Record webinar will focus on the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S Department of the Treasury. No other agencies are likely to pose the kind of existential threat to crypto that these agencies could. The SEC is the elephant in the room as far as investor protection is concerned. Treasury is in charge of anti-money laundering, sanctions and tax policies.

Guided by your questions, our experienced panelists likely will talk about 

• Specific crypto issues the agencies are working on

• How to keep track of what the agencies are working on

• What reporters should read and who should they follow, and

The panelists will also touch on what they know so far about Biden’s upcoming exec order on crypto. Our intention is that you walk away with useful information to start or improve your reporting on regulatory agencies.

De, one of the industry’s most prominent crypto regulatory reporters, and Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, a DC-based trade group for the digital assets industry. Our moderator is Elizabeth Coyne, a veteran tech journalist located in the Chicagoland area. She is published in Blockworks, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and other national and international publications.

How to report on regulatory agencies: SEC & Treasury

For our next Off the Record session, we are teaming up with Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, to dive into the NFT market and parse through the data to find out more. Nansen’s tools allow you to have a ‘God’s-eye view into the blockchain’, which is incredibly valuable for any journalist. 

The blockchain is an open and transparent ledger. But there’s also a mountain of on-chain data which makes it difficult for journalists covering the space to understand what’s going on. 

NFTs are the hottest digital asset class on the market right now. But are these $30,000 digital apes one big wash trading ploy to suck in retail traders? Or are they a legitimate asset class that’s only possible thanks to the underlying technology of the blockchain which creates digital scarcity? 

It’s tough to understand NFTs without understanding the data behind them. You might hear about accusations of NFTs being used for wash trading, but without the data to back it up these are just anecdotes.

Not to mention, NFT market data and typical crypto trading statistics don’t exactly square. How do you figure whether the NFT you’re reporting on is truly valuable, when prices vary so much even within a single collection and can supposedly be easily gamed?

• How to use Nansen to track the data behind NFTs

• How to parse this data into actionable intelligence for stories

• Quantitative insights into the NFT market, such as the number of unique buyers, and pricing data

All attendees will get a free seven-day trial of Nansen for use in their newsroom. 

Our speakers are Paul Harwood, product manager for NFT's at 

 and Martin Lee, a data journalist at Nansen. Our moderator is David Canellis of Protos.

A "God's-eye view" into the blockchain for journalists

Notice: This webinar has been cancelled. Registrants were notified via email on May 9 about this cancellation. Thanks for your interest.

Terra is one of the most dynamic and interesting protocols in the decentralized finance space. 

While there have been significant questions surrounding the makeup of some stablecoin’s reserves, Terra is transparent as to what backs its decentralized stablecoins (the most popular is TerraUSD)... Bitcoin. 

Behind the scenes there’s a complicated leviathan keeping TerraUSD pegged to the USD involving another coin called LUNA, arbitrage plays, and algorithms. 

To top it all off, Terraform Labs, the firm behind the protocol, is suing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to get it to drop a subpoena that seeks to compel Do Kwon — who is neither a US national nor resident — to provide testimony regarding if Terraform Labs (registered in Singapore) is issuing securities. 

So let’s unpack it during Off The Record: Reporting on Terra.

• Sam Kessler, a reporter at CoinDesk who covers technology, DeFi and DAOs

• Moderator: David Canellis, Blockworks editor

Many thanks to Nansen for its sponsorship. Nansen is a blockchain analytics platform that analyzes 100M+ labeled crypto wallets & their activities, so you can separate the signal from the noise.

Reporting on Terra

Reporting on the crash

ACJR is hosting a happy hour for journalists, researchers and other media muckrakers during Bitcoin Amsterdam.

The venue is a ~5 minute walk from Westerpark (where the conference is), just one or two streets away on Spaarndammerstraat.

There's a healthy bar tab and Cafe de Walvis (Whale Bar) has delicious food!

The Bitcoin Amsterdam conference agenda ends at around 4pm on Thursday, so after the final session mosey on over and meet up with other ACJR members.

ACJR Bitcoin Amsterdam Media Happy Hour

ACJR

Hi friends, 
Last week's Off the Record on how to cover DAOs was a banger. Many thanks to our excellent speakers for that. 
Coming up tomorrow, we have a session on how to cover the metaverse with colleagues at Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Decrypt and more. Sign up for that here: https://lu.ma/xwvr9wxj
Next week we have a sponsored session from Edge and Node, which is supporting this season of OTR. Stay tuned for their topic and speakers. Register here: https://lu.ma/bq7f7mwu

Network with and learn from dozens of your peers: journalists and researchers from Bloomberg, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Nikkei, The Block, Yahoo Finance, Insider and more at Off the Record by ACJR. 

And happy holidays to all. It's been a helluva year!
—Joon 
Co-president, ACJR

<div class="mirror-content" data-reactroot="">​Hi friends, ​Last week&#x27;s Off the Record on how to cover DAOs was a banger. Many thanks to our excellent speakers for that. ​Coming up tomorrow, we have a session on how to cover the metaverse with colleagues at Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Decrypt and more. Sign up for that here: <a href="https://lu.ma/xwvr9wxj" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://lu.ma/xwvr9wxj</a>​Next week we have a sponsored session from Edge and Node, which is supporting this season of OTR. Stay tuned for their topic and speakers. Register here: <a href="https://lu.ma/bq7f7mwu" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://lu.ma/bq7f7mwu</a> Network with and learn from dozens of your peers: journalists and researchers from Bloomberg, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Nikkei, The Block, Yahoo Finance, Insider and more at Off the Record by ACJR. And happy holidays to all. It&#x27;s been a helluva year!​—Joon ​Co-president, ACJR </div>

Last week's Off the Record on how to cover DAOs was a banger. Many thanks to our excellent speakers for that. 

Coming up tomorrow, we have a session on how to cover the metaverse with colleagues at Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Decrypt and more. Sign up for that here: 

Next week we have a sponsored session from Edge and Node, which is supporting this season of OTR. Stay tuned for their topic and speakers. Register here: 

Network with and learn from dozens of your peers: journalists and researchers from Bloomberg, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Nikkei, The Block, Yahoo Finance, Insider and more at Off the Record by ACJR. 

And happy holidays to all. It's been a helluva year!

🎟 How to Cover the Metaverse and more

Hi everyone,
You're getting this email because you registered for an ACJR event in the past. We're excited to kick off the third season of our popular Off the Record series on Wednesday. We'll be covering DAOs this week, and everyone's favourite topic, The Metaverse, next week. Then we have a sponsored session by Edge and Node, who help develop The Graph, the week after that. 

Speaking of The Metaverse, this might be the first time a tech buzzword has received more hype than The Blockchain. It's a slightly surreal feeling to be outside the hype vortex for once.  
Here's a quick appetizer to get you worked up for our DAO session:
- CoinDesk's ConstitutionDAO coverage
- Decrypt's ConstitutionDAO coverage
- CNBC on DAOs
- Decrypt on Gitcoin
- Paul Dylan-Ennis asks if DAOs are socialist

Sign up for everything here: https://lu.ma/ACJRnetwork
See you!
— Joon, co-president, ACJR

<div class="mirror-content" data-reactroot="">​Hi everyone,​You&#x27;re getting this email because you registered for an ACJR event in the past. We&#x27;re excited to kick off the third season of our popular Off the Record series on Wednesday. We&#x27;ll be covering DAOs this week, and everyone&#x27;s favourite topic, The Metaverse, next week. Then we have a sponsored session by Edge and Node, who help develop The Graph, the week after that. Speaking of The Metaverse, this might be the first time a tech buzzword has received more hype than The Blockchain. It&#x27;s a slightly surreal feeling to be outside the hype vortex for once. ​Here&#x27;s a quick appetizer to get you worked up for our DAO session: - <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/11/19/after-being-foiled-by-a-billionaire-constitutiondao-faces-lingering-questions/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">CoinDesk&#x27;s ConstitutionDAO coverage</a> - <a href="https://decrypt.co/86563/constitutiondao-considers-plans-for-future-after-failure-at-sothebys" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Decrypt&#x27;s ConstitutionDAO coverage</a> - <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/what-are-daos-what-to-know-about-the-next-big-trend-in-crypto.https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/what-are-daos-what-to-know-about-the-next-big-trend-in-crypto.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">CNBC on DAOs</a> - <a href="https://decrypt.co/66541/ethereum-gitcoin-raises-11-million-spins-out-consensys" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Decrypt on Gitcoin</a> - <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/09/02/are-daos-socialist/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Paul Dylan-Ennis asks if DAOs are socialist</a> Sign up for everything here: <a href="https://lu.ma/ACJRnetwork" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://lu.ma/ACJRnetwork</a>​See you!​— Joon, co-president, ACJR</div>

You're getting this email because you registered for an ACJR event in the past. We're excited to kick off the third season of our popular Off the Record series on Wednesday. We'll be covering 

 this week, and everyone's favourite topic, 

, next week. Then we have a sponsored session by 

, who help develop The Graph, the week after that. 

Speaking of The Metaverse, this might be the first time a tech buzzword has received more hype than The Blockchain. It's a slightly surreal feeling to be outside the hype vortex for once.  

Here's a quick appetizer to get you worked up for our DAO session:

Paul Dylan-Ennis asks if DAOs are socialist