In this episode of TO THE MOON, Max and Stacy rock into the year 2017, the year of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in the altcoin market and of the User Activated Soft Fork as a triumphant resolution to the ‘blocksize war’ in bitcoin. The year opened on a crazy altcoin note when $5.6 billion in capital was raised from suckers hoping to get rich quick via an ICO. The phenomenon saw the rise of the normalization of 10x, or 20x, or even 50x returns in a matter of days, as euphoria gripped the market. From archival material, Max talks to Charlie Shrem about the FOMO driving money into these token scams. As ICO hysteria captured the headlines, behind closed doors at the Consensus conference, there was one last-ditch effort by a wealthy group of bitcoiners to double the blocksize to 2mb. There was an immediate reaction –NO2X– which played out on baseball caps across the user base of bitcoin. Jameson Lopp and Trace Mayer offer their insights into what then followed with the emergence of the User Activated Soft Fork. After the UASF happened, the users declared victory, they were in control of bitcoin, and The Vortex discusses this event. With the end of the blocksize war comes the mega rally in bitcoin from under $3000 to $20,000 by the end of the year. Into this volatile euphoria comes the financial derivatives market as bitcoin futures contracts become available. To the Moon talks to Caitlin Long about what the Wall Street guys entering the space with derivatives means.

Guests and archival footage material include talks with: Charlie Shrem, Stephen Palley, Jameson Lopp, Trace Mayer, The Vortex, Caitlin Long.

Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/rttv/sets/to-the-moon