Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Max Hillebrand makes his 8th appearance on the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast in order to talk about his latest project: White Noise, a private messaging application for Nostr. We also talk about Core v30 vs Knots, Bitcoin layer 2s & other bull market topics. Time stamps: 00:01:07 - Max Hillebrand's Background 00:02:47 - Post-Wasabi Wallet Era and Privacy Challenges 00:04:28 - Nostr Protocol Overview 00:05:58 - Early Nostr Experiences and Key Loss 00:08:51 - Nostr Client Progress and Edge Cases 00:09:58 - Nostr's Relation to Bitcoin 00:13:53 - Hardware Wallets for Nostr Keys 00:18:06 - Nostr Key Backups and Security 00:21:53 - Nostr Search and Web of Trust 00:24:21 - Ads: Bitcoin.com News and NoOnes.com 00:26:12 - White Noise Protocol Introduction 00:27:52 - NIP 44 and Gift Wraps for Encryption 00:30:20 - Signal Protocol and MLS Evolution 00:32:16 - MLS Protocol Details 00:33:23 - Nostr Privacy Limitations 00:35:17 - Trusted Relays and Metadata 00:37:25 - Nostr as Data Delivery Layer 00:38:41 - Self-Authentication in MLS 00:40:02 - Group Creation and Key Packages 00:42:38 - MLS vs. Major League Soccer Joke 00:42:53 - Diffie-Hellman and Scaling to Millions 00:44:24 - MLS Key Tree Structure 00:46:59 - Scalability Benefits of MLS 01:18:00 - Marmot and Nostr Tools 01:25:30 - The Zcash Pump Dance 03:09:25 - Angor Protocol for Recurring Payments 03:14:02 - Bitcoin Script and Smart Contracts 03:15:32 - Great Script Restoration Proposal 03:21:03 - Builder Spirit in Bitcoin vs. Ethereum 03:25:19 - Bills of Exchange and Peer-to-Peer Credit 03:33:09 - Historical Finance and Farming 03:38:35 - Starting Bitcoin Meetups 03:41:43 - Localizing Bitcoin Content 03:44:17 - Recommended Podcasts 03:47:48 - Podcast Benefits and Guest Interactions 03:54:39 - Audience Quality and Impact 03:55:36 - White Noise Future and Building Freedom Tech 03:58:51 - AI Coding and Proof of Concepts 04:00:38 - Nym Mixnet Integration 04:01:54 - Closing Remarks and Future Sessions

Back in 2013, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Val Venis bought 24 bitcoins for $80 each. Today, he is a big advocate for freedom, privacy, and the right to benefit from the product of your own labor without extortion. In this episode, we talk about libertarianism, his love for private internet money, and his WWE stories. Time stamps: 00:00:00 - Intro: Val Venis Entrance & Attitude Era Reflections 00:01:51 - Hello Biological Ladies: Modern PC Culture & Twitter Feuds 00:02:46 - Wrestling Eras: From Attitude to Ruthless Aggression & PG Shift 00:03:30 - Political Outspokenness: Why No Hall of Fame Yet? 00:04:35 - Importance of Politics: Social & Financial Impacts on Society 00:05:13 - Val Venis Character: Porn Star Gimmick Ahead of Its Time 00:05:36 - Right to Censor Storyline: Mocking the PTC & Censorship Trends 00:09:51 - Libertarian Roots: Pro-Free Speech Evolution in Wrestling 00:10:03 - Early Political Views: From Socialist Leanings to Awakening 00:11:32 - Tax Trauma at 17: First Encounter with Government Overreach 00:15:13 - Taxation as Immoral: Due Process Failures & Slanted Courts 00:18:45 - Wikipedia Misrepresentation: Beyond Cannabis Advocacy 00:20:02 - Cannabis as Rebellion: Fighting Malum Prohibitum Laws 00:24:24 - Privacy Coins & Freedom: Using Cannabis to Push Liberty 00:30:05 - Slanted Courts & Tyranny: Presumptions Over Facts in Taxation 00:33:30 - Discovering Bitcoin: From Federal Reserve Critique to White Paper 00:35:12 - Money as Bankers' Tool: Inflation as Value Theft via Fiat 00:38:00 - Bitcoin's Appeal: Decentralized, Fixed Supply & Cryptography 00:41:47 - Pizza Purchase Milestone: Bootstrapping Bitcoin to Fiat 00:43:57 - First Bitcoin Buy: 24 BTC in 2013 at ~$80 Each 00:47:48 - Bitcoin as Speculation vs. Fiat Alternative 00:49:38 - Wrestling & Bitcoin Parallels: Value Creation & Sovereignty 01:20:00 - Monero & Privacy: Evading Surveillance in Transactions 01:45:00 - Roger Ver Case: Libertarian Views on Tax Evasion & Justice 02:10:00 - Wrestling Highlights: Val Venis in Video Games & Stats 02:48:00 - Mount Rushmore: Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, The Rock 03:00:00 - Chris Benoit's Legacy: Wrestling Prowess Despite Tragedy 03:15:00 - Shawn Michaels Character Shift: From Annoying to Faithful 03:30:00 - Undertaker's Success: Vince's Protection & Longevity 03:45:00 - Triple H: Business Savvy Over In-Ring Dominance 04:00:00 - Hall of Fame Hopes: Focus on Liberty Over Induction 04:10:00 - One Last Match: vs. Cody Rhodes for Cancel Culture Feud 04:18:07 - Induction Choice: Vince McMahon or Vince Russo 04:20:19 - Bridging Communities: Bitcoin in Wrestling & Fan Demands 04:25:40 - Storyline Ideas: Libertarian Manager & Bitcoin Matches 04:30:20 - Closing: Social Media, Zcash Wallet Setup & Privacy Push

Shai Wyborski is one of the three co-authors of the GHOSTDAG paper, and a man who takes pride in his independent thinking and divergent approach to research. As a PhD in quantum cryptography, he's got lots of knowledge to share. But by virtue of his involvement in Bitcoin and Kaspa, he's got stories to tell too. What does the future of Proof of Work look like? Let's find out! Time stamps: 00:01:09 - Welcoming Shai Wyborski 00:01:28 - Dig into GhostDAG; most interesting PoW scaling tech. 00:04:44 - Shai's BTC opinions over time 00:05:21 - How Shai spent BTC on "creativity fuel" (undisclosed). 00:06:31 - Disenchantment: Steam drops BTC (congestion/volatility); SegWit "tyranny" births BCH. 00:10:47 - Rejects SoV; BTC as "decentralized vault" for eternal data archiving. 00:15:44 - BTC probs: Low TPS; LN fails. 00:16:15 - Kaspa suite: Beyond TPS/confirmations. 00:16:59 - Tradeoff: High throughput → no audit; pruning for 10-30yr trust. 00:18:40 - GhostDAG multi-ledger: Parallel processing, flexible tx order. 00:19:45 - Miners: Partial info cuts selfish mining/MEV. 00:20:42 - Enables auctions/oracles (Elliot Mabe block-voting). 00:21:40 - Debunks PoW myths: BTC artifacts (congestion for fees). 00:22:15 - Kaspa: Paradigm shift proof; lessons from protocols. 00:23:24 - Flaw: Fast emission + fair launch = whale buyout. 00:23:49 - Fair ≠ community; coercion w/o social contract. 00:25:10 - Whales fund → control; monetary world nature. 00:27:46 - Balance: Incentives, explicit contracts. 00:30:31 - Mining phases: CPU/GPU/ASIC stages; ultra-ASIC decen lock. 00:32:22 - ASIC-friendly: Cheap/low-power scale. 00:32:47 - Emission: Heavy early; ASICs 80-90% pre-retail. 00:34:29 - Full supply lifetime; tail short?00:35:28 - BTC emission extend 2-4x for social good. 00:37:27 - Kaspa whales: 3 hold 6% ($100M), foundation collusion. 00:38:27 - Kaspa emission: 60% in 1.5yrs emulates BTC adjusted for fast adoption. 00:41:16 - Guitar jam & sponsors.SideShift.ai: KYC-free swaps. NoOnes.com: P2P global south, "lions" mission. Bitcoin.com News: global views. LayerTwo Labs: Drivechains, ETH/Zcash sides. 00:46:49 - Kaspa drivechain?; WBTC custody risks. 00:48:33 - Citrea: ZK-rollup BTC DeFi. 00:49:27 - Alts: Quai grant, Kadena parallels. 00:50:47 - Parallel sec dilution. 00:52:03 - Quai: Selfish mining fixes, Monero 28% vuln. 00:53:01 - Monero RandomX ASIC-hostility. 00:54:02 - PoW specialized non-wasteful. 01:00:00 - Myths: Scalable, non-congested, decentralization. 01:15:00 - Casino stifles ingenuity; hype vs depth (IOTA rush). 01:30:00 - Funding: Retail quick vs VC long (Mobileye 20yr $80B). 01:45:00 - Game theory: Mechanism design incentives. 02:00:00 - Kaspa risks: Whale control, docs issues. 07:00:00 - Music: Beatles Sgt. Pepper post-Pet Sounds. 07:15:00 - McCartney bass; prog Floyd/Crimson.07:30:00 - Pet Sounds "God Only Knows" acapella. 07:43:02 - Pop→exp; Helter Skelter metal. 07:45:36 - Metal thrash/extreme; stoner Pantheon I. 07:47:41 - HS Pantera/prog/funk.07:49:51 - Concerts: Aristocrats, AC/DC; Dylan regret. 07:52:39 - Misses: Jethro Tull/Motörhead; Bon Jovi meh. 07:55:16 - Grunge: Nirvana In Utero, Soundgarden. 07:58:11 - Smashing Pumpkins trilogy; Corgan drama. 08:00:00 - Timeless tees; Doors sloppy; Zep Moby Dick. 08:02:40 - Zappa Inca Roads/Stink-Foot. 08:07:19 - AI scans/drones; govt bans. 08:12:08 - Radical: Vault, SoV, ultra-ASIC. 08:14:02 - PoW scalable/non-wasteful.08:15:00 - Fair vs community; casino timing punish. 08:17:40 - Narratives over fundamentals; retail vs VC. 08:21:07 - Record 8h21m+; ramble praise. 08:21:50 - Q&A: Kaspa 10yr alive, adapt. 08:22:24 - Beatles Kaspa? Pruning no. 08:23:44 - Game theory mechanism design. 08:26:09 - Work: Consulting, patents, Tectonic quantum.08:29:23 - Quai edu grant, freelance. 08:31:17 - KAS +3% pump; past dumps. 08:31:58 - Quai minor pump; negative effects. 08:33:34 - First interview 0.15→0.5¢; 13 KAS dons. 08:34:21 - Jam: Theme rock, lag. 08:38:07 8h39m record! Sponsors recap. 08:40:00 - Next interview with Val Venis on Monero/WWF; banter.

Abdel is a Starkware engineer who, over the last 7 years, went from building EIP 1559 on Ethereum to becoming a Bitcoin maximalist who wants ZK STARKs to happen. In this episode, we talk about his journey & some of Bitcoin's cultural issues. Time stamps: 00:00:59 - Sponsors: Sideshift, Citrea, Bitcoin.com News, LayerTwo Labs, NoOnes.com 00:01:38 - Abdel's unique journey: From Ethereum core dev at ConsenSys to Bitcoin maximalism 00:02:17 - Early Bitcoin curiosity (2011-2012) vs Ethereum's "world computer" appeal 00:03:51 - Fintech background: Working for banks before fighting them 00:04:31 - Always a Bitcoin + Ethereum maxi: Building unstoppable systems 00:06:07 - North Star vs "Nostr": Unstoppable vs compromised systems 00:06:23 - Fintech to DeFi? Payments focus, not advanced trading 00:07:29 - First Ethereum contributions: Smart contracts 00:09:09 - Deep dive: Championing EIP-1559 (fee burn, ultrasound money) 00:11:03 - EIP-1559's governance risks: Changing monetary policy on the fly 00:11:16 - Ethereum's slippery slopes: DAO hard fork to fee burns 00:12:12 - Ethereum as anti-Bitcoin experiment: From colored coins to rollups 00:13:48 - Ethereum Classic hopes; market follows narratives, not fixed supply 00:14:28 - EIP-1559 process: 2+ years of debate vs Bitcoin's immutability 00:15:59 - Boiling frog with Vitalik: Accumulating compromises (trusted setups) 00:18:28 - Ethereum precedents: Premine, PoS migration, rushed upgrades 00:19:14 - Social layer strength: Protects core principles vs nation-states 00:19:41 - Non-tech users in governance: Better than dev-only control 00:22:32 - Educating the social layer: Privacy warnings in Bitcoin tools 00:24:26 - Risks: Bitcoin (tech obsolescence) vs Ethereum (social dilution) 00:26:49 - Bitcoin meetups: Ideology & tech vs Ethereum's builder focus 00:28:00 - Shocking anti-Bitcoin sentiment from Ethereum side 00:29:52 - PoW beauty: External entropy, fair distribution (not Ponzi) 00:31:44 - PoW vs PoS: Tolerating Ethereum's PoS for decentralization 00:34:20 - Bitcoin's privacy crisis: Needs scale + affordability 00:36:43 - Sponsor: Layer2 Labs (Drivechains for sidechains like Zcash fork) 00:38:02 - Sponsor: Citrea (ZK rollup on Bitcoin via BitVM2) 00:40:09 - Citrea drama: Unfair criticism amid filter wars 00:42:40 - Citrea vs Alpen: First-to-market wins (garbled circuits delay) 00:46:01 - Video game analogy: Duke Nukem Forever vs pragmatic launches 00:47:25 - Lesson from Ethereum: Optimistic rollups dominate despite ZK superiority 00:48:56 - Dev events vs mainstream: Bridging tech narratives to plebs 01:10:00 - Fragmentation in Bitcoin community, why plebs dismiss innovation 02:30:00 - Off-topic: Immigration in Europe (Romania/France parallels, economic pressures) 02:38:16 - Bitcoin as catalyst: Inflation from crises drives adoption 02:39:46 - Decentralization as development sign: Small-scale consensus 02:42:11 - New chains start centralized; trust incentives lacking in L2s 02:44:41 - Starkware as bridge to Bitcoin: Pre-existing interest 02:45:57 - Elevator pitch: STARK proofs for Bitcoin (open-source, battle-tested) 02:48:21 - Endgame: Verify STARKs on Bitcoin for programmability + privacy 02:49:52 - Meme magic: One STARK proof is smaller in size than a photo, costs less than a Big Mac, can be verified in a blink 02:52:29 - STARKs vs SNARKs: No trusted setup, quantum-secure, hash-based 02:54:31 - Experiments: Cashu with STARKs (private programmable e-cash) 02:58:37 - Nostr DVMS: Verifiable AI/services in permissionless marketplace 03:01:16 - Cashu origin story: Bar chat with Calle to Jack Dorsey endorsement 03:03:16 - Cashu honesty: Not scaling, but privacy bridge vs custodians 03:06:25 - Nihilism in Bitcoin: Mental gymnastics vs Ethereum's build-first ethos 03:07:48 - Permission culture: Asking nodes for ZK proofs/Lightning channels 03:08:27 - Event split: Dev confs (BTC++) vs narrative fests (BTC Prague) 03:10:29 - Why invest without understanding? Newbie wave acceleration 03:11:23 - Niche value: In-between content bridges extremes 03:13:48 - Who listens matters: Robin Linus' DM is more important than mass views 03:16:07 - Still early days: 16 years in, aim for 1B daily users 03:16:39 - Special word: "Grinta" (grit mindset) for full listeners 03:18:14 - Outro: Thanks & next: Shai on PoW improvements

Vikrant Sharma, better known as Vik, is the CEO and founder of Cake Wallet: the first Bitcoin wallet to support both Silent Payments and PayJoins. In this episode, we talk about the wallet's Monero roots & what is next in terms of features. Time stamps: 00:01:05 - Introducing Vik 00:01:24 - Cake Wallet Features for Bitcoin and Monero 00:03:08 - Background Sync Improvements 00:03:49 - Monero.com Wallet Discussion 00:04:41 - Monero Community Insights 00:05:01 - Privacy in Monero Transactions 00:06:33 - Funding and Revenue Model 00:08:29 - Vik's Background in Steel and Tech 00:10:34 - Discovering Bitcoin and Privacy Apps 00:13:22 - Launching Cakewallet for Monero 00:14:23 - Why Start with Monero Over Bitcoin 00:15:35 - Origin of the Name "Cake Wallet" 00:17:36 - Order of Coins Added to Cake Wallet 00:19:09 - PayJoins and Silent Payments 00:21:11 - Citrea 00:22:34 - Layer 2 Labs and Drivechains 00:24:32 - Silent Payments Address Drama 00:25:35 - Qubic Mining Drama in Monero 00:30:42 - Monero's Resilience to Attacks 00:32:53 - Monero as a Stablecoin 00:33:41 - Use It to Win: Spending vs Hodling 00:36:38 - Treasury Company Plans 00:39:28 - Future of Privacy Coins 00:42:58 - SideShift.ai 00:44:20 - NoOnes.com 00:45:29 - Bitcoin.com News 00:46:37 - Taxes and Privacy Coins 00:48:42 - Layers of Privacy 00:59:00 - Zcash and Privacy Experiments 01:00:36 - Growing the Crypto Space 01:02:44 - Supported Coins: Ethereum 01:06:17 - Litecoin and MWEB Integration 01:08:43 - Dogecoin Addition 01:10:37 - Wownero for Monero Community 01:11:17 - Bitcoin Cash Support in Cake Wallet 01:13:30 - Polygon and Tron for Low Fees 01:15:44 - Nano for Feeless Payments 01:17:00 - Decred and Community Overlap 01:18:14 - Zano and Confidential Assets 01:20:06 - Lightning Network Plans 01:21:46 - Zcash Future Integration 01:23:02 - Cupcake Airgapped Wallet 01:26:00 - Considering Kaspa 01:29:56 - Dash Privacy Debate 01:32:20 - Network Effects and Wallet Choices 01:34:57 - Raven Coin Experiment 01:35:43 - Hiring Developers 01:36:18 - Custom Wallpapers and UI Overhaul 01:37:12 - One Seed for All Wallets 01:38:31 - How Many of the Supported Coins Will Survive? 01:39:46 - Multi-Coin Payment Services 01:40:32 - Pay Invoice Feature 01:42:03 - User Data and Privacy Policy 01:45:49 - Node Data Handling 01:47:04 - Advice on Self-Custody 01:48:17 - Where to Follow Vik and Cake Wallet 01:48:51 - Closing Remarks

Michael Tidwell is the organizer of Tabconf, the longest running Bitcoin technical conference which takes place every year in Atlanta. In this episode, we talk about Bitcoin drama & use a fun roulette game to figure out who's guilty of it. Time stamps: 00:01:09 - Welcome and episode gimmick intro 00:01:30 - Sponsors shoutout 00:01:36 - Bitcoin drama discussion starts 00:03:38 - Bitcoin Core vs Knots debate 00:04:28 - Wheel spin: Blame the plebs 00:06:52 - Egg pick: Solution is "use tabs" 00:07:56 - Adam Back's "use tabs" context from 2017 00:09:09 - Paul Sztorc's role and personality 00:10:52 - Defining "pleb" in Bitcoin culture 00:13:42 - Hodlonaut story and Lightning Torch 00:16:32 - Roger Ver interview drama 00:18:43 - Hijacking Bitcoin book discussion 00:22:58 - Layer 2 Labs sponsor plug and drivechains 00:25:14 - Citrea ZK rollup explanation 00:27:48 - Liquid federation vs true sidechains 00:32:39 - Core vs Knots diffs and risks 00:33:52 - Peter Todd's OP_RETURN proposal 00:34:56 - CSAM fears and cultural debates 00:38:05 - Illicit content already on chain 00:40:54 - Multiple Bitcoin implementations history 00:44:03 - Libbitcoin rewrite and optimizations 00:44:37 - Bitcoin Cash fork and implementations 00:46:42 - Potential hard fork predictions 01:46:05 - MEV in Bitcoin via game example 01:47:57 - Drivechains delay: Blame the spooks 01:50:27 - Solution: Hard fork 01:51:59 - Drivechains on Litecoin pros/cons 01:55:01 - Litecoin as testbed for Bitcoin tech 01:57:59 - Stablecoins on Bitcoin layers 02:00:16 - Lightning Network limitations meme 02:01:35 - Lightning critique and distractions 02:04:49 - Lightning wheel spin: Blame Jack Dorsey 02:07:34 - Solution: Listen to Bitcoin Takeover 02:08:28 - Too many Bitcoin conferences issue 02:10:45 - Early Bitcoin conferences like San Jose 2013 02:13:00 - Craig Wright blame: Roger Ver 02:17:08 - Solution: Sell all your Bitcoin 02:18:24 - Reasons to sell all Bitcoin 02:19:47 - BSV community and Craig Wright claims 02:23:28 - Mental health in Bitcoin and seeking clarity 02:27:23 - Bitcoin's robustness to issues 02:31:26 - Advice for newcomers on understanding Bitcoin 02:32:41 - TabConf plug and history books 02:35:05 - Fortune-telling wrap-up and farewell

Yonatan Sompolinsky is an academic in the field of computer science, best known for his work on the GHOST protocol (Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree, which was cited in the Ethereum whitepaper) and the way he applied his research to create Kaspa. In this episode, we talk about scaling Proof of Work and why Kaspa might be a worthy contender to process global payments. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Time stamps: 00:01:22 - Debunking rumors: Why some think Yonatan is Satoshi Nakamoto 00:02:52 - Candidates for Satoshi: Charles Hoskinson, Charlie Lee, Zooko, and Alex Chepurnoy 00:03:41 - Alex Chepurnoy as a Satoshi-like figure 00:04:07 - Kaspa overview: DAG structure, no orphaned blocks, generalization of Bitcoin 00:04:55 - Similarities between Kaspa and Bitcoin fundamentals 00:06:12 - Why Kaspa couldn't be built directly on Bitcoin 00:08:05 - Kaspa as generalization of Nakamoto consensus 00:11:55 - Origins of GHOST protocol and early DAG concepts for Bitcoin scaling 00:13:16 - Academic motivation for GHOST and transitioning to computer science 00:13:50 - Turtle pet named Bitcoin 00:15:22 - Increasing block rate in Bitcoin and GHOST protocol 00:16:57 - Meeting Gregory Maxwell and discovering GHOST flaws 00:20:00 - Yonatan's views on drivechains and Bitcoin maximalism 00:20:36 - Defining Bitcoin maximalism: Capital B vs lowercase b 00:23:18 - Satoshi's support for Namecoin and merged mining 00:24:12 - Bitcoin culture in 2013-2018: Opposing other functionalities 00:26:01 - Vitalik's 2014 article on Bitcoin maximalism 00:26:13 - Andrew Poelstra's opposition to other assets on Bitcoin 00:26:38 - Bitcoin culture: Distaste for DeFi, criticism of Ethereum as a scam 00:28:03 - Bitcoin Cash developments: Cash tokens, cash fusion, contracts 00:28:39 - Rejection of Ethereum in Bitcoin circles 00:30:18 - Ethereum's successful PoS transition despite critics 00:35:04 - Ethereum's innovation: From Plasma to ZK rollups, nurturing development 00:37:04 - Stacks protocol and criticism from Luke Dashjr 00:39:02 - Bitcoin culture justifying technical limitations 00:41:01 - Declining Bitcoin adoption as money, rise of altcoins for payments 00:43:02 - Kaspa's aspirations: Merging sound money with DeFi, beyond just payments 00:43:56 - Possibility of tokenized Bitcoin on Kaspa 00:46:30 - Native currency advantage and friction in bridges 00:48:49 - WBTC on Ethereum scale vs Bitcoin L2s 00:53:33 - Quotes: Richard Dawkins on atheism, Milton Friedman on Yap Island money 00:55:44 - Story of Kaspa's messy fair launch in 2021 01:14:08 - Tech demo of Kaspa wallet experience 01:28:45 - Kaspa confirmation times & transaction fees 01:43:26 - GHOST DAG visualizer 01:44:10 - Mining Kaspa 01:55:48 - Data pruning in Kaspa, DAG vs MimbleWimble 02:01:40 - Grin & the fairest launch 02:12:21 - Zcash scaling & ZKP OP code in Kaspa 02:19:50 - Jameson Lopp, cold storage & self custody elitism 02:35:08 - Social recovery 02:41:00 - Amir Taaki, DarkFi & DAO 02:53:10 - Nick Szabo's God Protocols 03:00:00 - Layer twos on Kaspa for DeFi 03:13:09 - How Kaspa's DeFi will resemble Solana 03:24:03 - Centralized exchanges vs DeFi 03:32:05 - The importance of community projects 03:37:00 - DAG KNIGHT and its resilience 03:51:00 - DAG KNIGHT tradeoffs 03:58:18 - Blockchain vs DAG, the bottleneck for Kaspa 04:03:00 - 100 blocks per second? 04:11:43 - Question from Quai's Dr. K 04:17:03 - Doesn't Kaspa require super fast internet? 04:23:10 - Are ASIC miners desirable? 04:33:53 - Why Proof of Work matters 04:35:55 - A short history of Bitcoin mining 04:44:00 - DAG's sequencing 04:49:09 - Phantom GHOST DAG 04:52:47 - Why Kaspa had high inflation initially 04:55:10 - Selfish mining 05:03:00 - K Heavy Hash & other community questions 06:33:20 - Latency settings in DAG KNIGHT for security 06:36:52 - Aviv Zohar's involvement in Kaspa research 06:38:07 - World priced in Kaspa after hyperinflation 06:39:51 - Kaspa's fate intertwined with crypto 06:40:29 - Kaspa contracts vs Solana, why better for banks 06:42:53 - Cohesive developer experience in Kaspa like Solana 06:45:22 - Incorporating ZK design in Kaspa smart contracts 06:47:22 - Heroes: Garry Kasparov 06:48:12 - Shift in attitude from academics like Hoskinson, Buterin, Back 06:53:07 - Adam Back's criticism of Kaspa 06:55:57 - Michael Jordan and LeBron analogy for Bitcoiners' mindset 06:58:02 - Can Kaspa flip Bitcoin in market cap 07:00:34 - Gold and USD market cap comparison 07:06:06 - Collaboration with Kai team 07:10:37 - Community improvement: More context on crypto 07:13:43 - Theoretical maximum TPS for Kaspa 07:16:05 - Full ZK on L1 improvements 07:17:45 - Atomic composability and logic zones in Kaspa 07:23:12 - Sparkle and monolithic UX feel 07:26:00 - Wrapping up: Beating podcast length record, final thoughts on Bitcoin and Kaspa 07:27:31 - Why Yonatan called a scammer despite explanations 07:32:29 - Luke Dashjr's views and disconnect 07:33:01 - Hope for Bitcoin scaling and revolution

Cory Klippsten is the CEO of Swan Bitcoin and has a long history in both traditional finance and the Bitcoin space. In this two-part episode, he talks about why Bitcoin is winning and how the culture around it has changed.

Karl Kreder, better known as Dr. K, is best known in the space for researching the use of merged-mined subnets to scale Proof of Work in 2018 – a concept which led to the launch of the Quai Network, which introduced the Proof of Entropy Minima (PoEM) consensus for high transaction throughput within a decentralized environment. Today, we talk about his views on Bitcoin, why Proof of Work is still relevant in a world that's converging towards the more convenient Proof of Stake, and how the Quai Network works. Time stamps: 00:00 Intro & Welcome 00:03:00 Discussion Length Challenge 00:04:00 Dr. K's Bitcoin Background 00:06:00 Wallet Security & Lattice1 00:08:00 Scaling PoW Networks 00:11:00 PoW vs PoS Debate 00:13:00 Fair Launch & Distribution Issues 00:15:00 Quai Launch & Hash Rate 00:17:00 GPU Mining & ProgPow 00:20:00 ASIC Manufacturers 00:23:00 NiceHash & AI Integration 00:26:00 Quai Network Inspiration 00:29:00 Electronic Cash Necessity 00:32:00 Quai Scale to Replace Visa 00:34:00 Decentralization & No Roadmap 00:38:00 LayerTwo Labs Ad & DriveChains 00:40:00 Hierarchy for Validation 00:42:00 Payment Platforms Limits 00:44:00 Scale Beyond Current L1s 00:46:00 Monetary History & Gold 00:50:00 Self-Custody Challenges 00:52:00 Kaspa Differences & DAG 00:54:00 Bitcoin Love & Improvements 00:56:00 BSV Technical Limits 00:58:00 Consensus as Limit 01:00:00 Wolfram Physics Project 01:02:00 Scale Analogy & Consensus 01:04:00 Quai Node Hardware 01:06:00 Systemically Important Nodes 01:08:00 Bitcoin Privacy Issues 01:11:00 CoinJoin & Deniability 01:13:00 Good vs Bad Nodes 01:15:00 Economic Surplus Incentives 01:16:00 Bitcoin.com News Ad 01:19:00 Government as Enemy 01:21:00 Digital Paths & Freedom 01:23:00 Bitcoin as Linux & Tribalism 01:25:00 Legit Coins Assessment 01:26:00 EVM Compatibility Reasons 01:34:00 Why Choose EVM 01:35:00 Programming Languages 01:37:00 Simplicity Language 01:38:00 EVM as Standard 01:40:00 Bitcoin Changes Proposal 01:42:00 Quai Mainnet Visualization 01:45:00 Sharding Coordination 01:46:00 PoEM Consensus Mechanism 01:49:00 Chain Work & Withholding 01:52:00 Work Shares Explained 01:54:00 Miner Shard Choice & Balance 01:57:00 Privacy in Sharding 01:59:00 Settlement Time Trade-Off 02:00:00 Ethereum Usage Stats 02:03:00 Qi Token & Energy Dollar 02:12:00 Quai Deflationary Supply 02:16:00 Qi Privacy Properties 02:24:00 Node Incentives & Markets 02:27:00 Kipper Tipping App 02:31:00 Blip Pay Wallet Demo 02:40:00 EVM Big Deal 02:43:00 Quai Launch Reception 02:47:00 Industry Reviews 02:49:00 PoW Sampling Theory 03:02:00 Kipper Demo 03:07:00 Multiplatform Kipper 03:12:00 Qi Denominations & Pruning 03:14:00 Messaging via Qi 03:15:00 PWAs Advantages 03:19:00 Neo PoW Explained 03:21:00 Data Provider Agnostic 03:23:00 Transaction Propagation 03:26:00 Global TPS Demand 03:28:00 Interchange Integration 03:31:00 Direct Crypto POS 03:33:00 Node Requirements in Sharding 03:35:00 Kaspa Attention Reasons 03:38:00 ASIC Future in Quai 03:41:00 Trilemma & Tetralemma 03:43:00 Hierarchy Trade-Offs 03:47:00 Security Notes 03:50:00 Resource Markets 03:52:00 Quantum Resistance 03:57:00 Work Shares Uses 04:00:00 Decentralized Pools (Dools) 04:02:00 Quai Simplicity 04:07:00 Tree Chains Comparison 04:09:00 Homogeneous Security 04:10:00 Vitalik Story 04:18:00 Qi Details 04:24:00 Dool Mechanics 04:27:00 Work Shares Info 04:29:00 2000 Viewers Milestone 04:29:00 Magic Word 04:31:00 Monero Reorgs & Qubic 04:34:00 Transaction Censorship 04:37:00 Red Balloon Problem 04:38:00 Selfish Mining 04:42:00 Liquidity Arc 04:44:00 Culture Challenge 04:46:00 Regional Trends 04:48:00 State Bloat vs Consensus 04:51:00 Storage Scaling 04:54:00 Propagation Time 04:56:00 400ms Lower Bound 04:58:00 Interplanetary Transactions 05:00:00 Reference Resolution 05:05:00 Propagation & Consensus 05:07:00 Independent Samples 05:08:00 Price Pump 05:10:00 Ideology & Tech 05:11:00 Bitcoin Scaling Limits 05:12:00 Gold as PoW 05:14:00 Self-Custody 05:17:00 Yield & MSTR 05:20:00 Pandemic Inflation 05:22:00 Dollar Future 05:24:00 Bitcoin Heterodoxy 05:25:00 Maximalism 05:29:00 Cult Dynamics 05:30:00 Mises & Rothbard 05:32:00 Roger Ver 05:36:00 Saylor Infiltration 05:37:00 Memes & Philosophies 05:38:00 Leader Emergence 05:39:00 CIA Speculation 05:40:00 Who is Satoshi? 05:41:00 Code Quality 05:42:00 Burning Keys 05:43:00 Martti Malmi Insights 05:44:00 Satoshi Is Not NSA 05:45:00 21m Is Arbitrary 05:46:00 Early Changes 05:47:00 Block Size Temp 05:48:00 Economics Assumptions 05:49:00 Satoshi Scaling 05:52:00 Tech Optimism 05:53:00 Industry Honesty 05:56:00 Sharding Complexity 05:57:00 PoW Scalability 05:58:00 Consensus Efficiency 05:59:00 Sharding Compat 06:00:00 Memes as Rhetoric 06:02:00 Hoskinson Cult 06:03:00 Fake Engagement 06:04:00 Steam Adoption 06:07:00 Overstock & Patrick Byrne 06:10:00 Design Philosophy 06:11:00 Frustrated Devs 06:12:00 Talent Exodus 06:14:00 Follow Dr. K 06:15:00 Message to Yonatan 06:16:00 Quai vs Kaspa 06:17:00 Closing Remarks

Sergej Kotliar is the CEO of Bitrefill, while Matt Ahlborg recently created PPQ.AI to enable millions of users to experience LLMs without expensive subscriptions. But how are bitcoin payments doing? In this episode, they present their latest stats.

Simplicity, a scripting language so simple that it can fit on a t-shirt, has finally launched on Liquid after a decade of development. Andrew Poelstra, who works as director of research at Blockstream, explains how it works & why it's good for Bitcoin. Time stamps: (00:00:50) Introducing Andrew Poelstra (00:01:45) Simplicity: Now Live on Liquid (00:02:12) Elements and Liquid's Technical Evolution (00:03:09) Is Simplicity a Response to Solidity? (00:05:40) Simplicity's Programming Model & Rust Inspiration (00:08:04) Demo Applications and Simplicity Playground (00:10:03) Why Not Stick with Bitcoin Script? (00:11:48) Bitcoin Script's Limitations and Quirks (00:19:14) Simplicity's Capabilities: Computation & Covenants (00:22:26) Formal Verification and Multi-Language Implementations (00:25:21) Machine-Checkable Proofs and Contract Safety (00:29:07) Covenants, OP_CAT, and Script Extension Fears (00:33:26) Simplicity as a Future Script Extension Path (00:34:31) Ethereum's Design Mistakes & Simplicity's Approach (00:53:00) Simplicity's Lateness and Ethereum's Rise (01:01:12) Simplicity's Usability and Adoption Challenges (01:04:18) Potential Use Cases for Simplicity: Vaults, Business Logic, Quantum Signatures (01:08:06) Wallets and Simplicity Integration (01:16:30) Simplicity vs. Soft Forks for New Opcodes (01:19:01) Jets: Optimizing Simplicity with Native Code (01:22:44) Collider Script and High-Cost Emulation (01:24:44) Resource Limits and Transaction Size (01:29:34) Non-Scammy, Technologically Interesting Altcoins: Monero, Zcash, Grin, and Sia (01:33:14) Where to Learn More About Simplicity

Alephium is one of the most interesting Proof of Work projects, which aims to build secure smart contracts & fast DeFi on a mineable base layer which minimizes electricity consumption. Maud Bannwart & Cheng Wang explain how all of this works. Time stamps: 00:00:53 – Introducing Cheng & Maud 00:02:06 – Alephium's Origins & Motivation Cheng explains the technical challenge of blockchain scalability and the project's evolution from sharding to DeFi. 00:04:36 – Choosing UTXO vs. Account Model Why Alephium uses the UTXO model for assets and account model for application state, combining both for scalability. 00:09:50 – Privacy and UTXO Model Advantages of UTXO for privacy and scalability, and how it enables advanced privacy features. 00:11:03 – Blockchain Scalability & Parallelization Cheng details Alephium's approach to scaling via parallel blockchains, sharding, and optimizing block times. 00:14:41 – Decentralization vs. Shard Coordination Balancing decentralization and coordination in sharded blockchains, and how Alephium's block flow algorithm works. 00:17:31 – DAG Structure Explanation Explanation of DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) and its benefits for transaction management and scalability. 00:19:44 – Shard Synchronization & Security Handling shard failures, synchronization, and ensuring security with proof of work and honest hashrate. 00:21:09 – Block Time, Decentralization & Node Requirements Trade-offs of faster block times, decentralization, and hardware requirements for running Alephium nodes. 00:25:22 – Blockchain Pruning & Storage Current state of blockchain storage, pruning, and why further optimization is not a priority. 00:27:13 – ASICs and Mining History Arrival of ASIC miners, mining history, and the impact on the Alephium network. 00:29:33 – Taproot & Smart Contracting Why Alephium chose taproot, its use for scripting, and differences from Ethereum's approach. 00:33:05 – Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake Rationale for choosing proof of work, ASIC-friendliness, and the benefits for decentralization and security. 00:37:45 – Technical Advantages of Proof of Work How proof of work simplifies sharding, increases performance, and reduces network complexity. 00:39:56 – DeFi on Proof of Work Addressing claims that DeFi requires proof of stake, and Alephium's block time and throughput. 00:42:09 – Value of Proof of Work & Community Discussion on the value of proof of work, community importance, and Ethereum's transition to proof of stake. 00:44:56 – Pre-mine & Project Funding Explanation of Alephium's pre-mine, funding model, and transparency in initial allocations. 00:50:41 – Transparency & Genesis Block Details on public visibility of genesis allocations and proof of no hidden pre-mine. 00:54:11 – Proof of Less Work Mechanism Introduction and explanation of "proof of less work," reducing energy use by combining proof of work and proof of burn. 01:00:16 – Environmental Criticism & Value Proposition Addressing environmental concerns, mining's evolving perception, and the necessity of cost in money creation. 01:04:01 – Alephium's Unique Value & Comparison Alephium's unique features: smart contracts on proof of work, UTXO security, and differences from Cardano/Ethereum Classic. 01:07:39 – Developer Experience & EVM Compatibility Ease of transitioning from EVM, Alephium's developer-friendly environment, and challenges with industry standards. 01:14:11 – Alephium Virtual Machine & Language Alephium's programming language inspired by Rust, Scala, and Solidity, designed for security and ease of use. 01:19:04 – Ecosystem & DApps Overview of existing DApps, third-party development, and ecosystem growth on Alephium. 01:22:16 – Killer App & Platform Potential Discussion on the search for Alephium's killer app and its potential as a generic platform. 01:23:37 – Danube Hard Fork & Optimizations Faster blocks, better scalability, and user/developer experience improvements. 01:26:25 – Mining Accessibility & Hardware Mining requirements, ASIC recommendations, and the end of GPU mining profitability. 01:29:10 – Hashrate Growth & NiceHash 01:31:56 – Price & Market Position 01:35:19 – Lessons for Bitcoin & Future-Proofing 01:38:56 – Tokenized Bitcoin & UTXO Benefits 01:43:25 – Privacy, Rollups, and Future Features 01:51:11 – Getting Started with Alephium Wallets, documentation, and running a node. 01:53:08 – Upgrade Naming & Community 01:53:43 – Final Thoughts & Contact

Hunter Beast is the author of BIP 360: a proposal that seeks to provide quantum resistance to Bitcoin, to prevent powerful computer builders from brute forcing arbitrary addresses to steal the funds. But is the quantum threat real? Does the number of qubits really make a difference when the quantum computer is general purpose? Shouldn't other industries outside of Bitcoin, especially governments and banks, be worried about the fragility of elliptic curve cryptography? In this episode, we'll try to answer some of these questions and also refer to Hunter Beast's previous experience with building RGB for Bitcoin tokens. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Time stamps: 01:08 - Introducing Hunter Beast 01:27 - BIP 360 and Quantum Resistance Hunter Beast introduces BIP 360, aimed at making Bitcoin resistant to quantum computing threats, a hot topic due to predictions of advanced quantum computers potentially breaking ECDSA signatures. 02:19 - Defining Bitcoin's Quantum Threat Quantum computing is institutional, not accessible to average Bitcoiners, making verification difficult. The threat is existential but not immediate, though warnings suggest proximity. 03:58 - U.S. Government Warnings U.S. government and institutions are preparing for quantum resistance by 2030, urging upgrades to protect against potential cryptographic breaks. 05:53 - Consensus Challenges Hard forks ensure UTXO migration but face consensus issues; soft forks are preferred, but coins must move to quantum-resistant addresses to avoid vulnerabilities. 06:38 - Bitcoin's Quantum Vulnerabilities Taproot, reused addresses, mempool-published data, and exposed public keys are vulnerable. ~90% of reused address coins are active, reducing concern, but Taproot needs upgrades. 09:41 - BIP 360 Solution for Taproot BIP 360 focuses narrowly on fixing Taproot's vulnerability to long-exposure attacks, enabling wallets to commit to multiple scripts, including quantum-resistant ones like SLHDSA. 13:07 - Signature Schemes ECDSA is Bitcoin's weak point. Lamport and Winternitz signatures are flawed (one-time use), but SLHDSA (using a hypertree of Winternitz signatures) allows secure address reuse. 17:10 - User Experience Impact BIP 360 minimizes changes to user experience, offering opt-in quantum-resistant scripts. Wallets could include security dials, but defaults remain familiar. 20:14 - Transaction Size and Costs Post-quantum signatures are larger (4-8k bytes), but address commitments are minimal (~34 bytes). Block size increases aren't necessary; solutions like Bitzip could scale transactions. 22:27 – Sideshift.ai 23:17 - Drivechains and Layer Two Labs Drivechains offer secure sidechain solutions, decentralizing custody and scaling Bitcoin. Testing is available on Signet, with Litecoin considering implementation. 29:48 - Bitcoin Ossification Debate Ossification (resistance to change) vs. necessary upgrades debated. Quantum threats may force changes as Bitcoin secures more value, despite opposition. 36:36 - Conspiracy Theory Counter Concerns about government-driven fear dismissed; BIP 360 is opt-in, only used if quantum threats emerge, preserving user choice. 54:26 - Quantum Computing Progress IBM's Condor has 1,121 qubits; breaking ECDSA needs ~20M qubits. With quantum advancements outpacing Moore's Law, upgrades are prudent within a decade. 59:58 - Sponsor Plugs Citrea (ZK rollup for Bitcoin financial apps) and Edge Wallet (duress mode, multi-coin support) highlighted. 01:02:30 - BIP 360 Number Selection BIP 360 assigned by reviewers, not chosen by Hunterbeast, reserved for quantum-related proposals. 01:06:04 - BIP 360 Reception from Core Devs Mixed feedback from reviewers like Ava Chow (called it “stupid” but provided useful critique). Still in draft at bip360.org, open for review. 01:11:29 - Unintended Consequences BIP 360 is minimal, unlikely to cause surprises like Taproot's ordinal inscriptions, as it enhances existing functionality. 01:12:42 - Is Quantum Resistance Perishable and Needs Updates? BIP 360 isn't definitive; periodic updates may be needed as quantum computers advance, requiring a proactive Bitcoin culture. 01:19:12 - NoOnes, Bitcoin.com, 01:21:46 - Best Practices for Quantum Safety Avoid address reuse, use native SegWit (BC1Q) addresses, don't expose Xpubs, and consider private mempools like MARA Slipstream for large transactions. 01:24:27 - Closing Remarks Gratitude to Hunter Beast for discussing BIP 360 and quantum threats, wishing success for the proposal.

Prof. Richard Werner is best known for his book ”Princes of the Yen”, his paper on quantitative easing & his support for small local banks. In this interview, he talks about recent events in economics & the role he believes Bitcoin will play.

Liz Steininger is the CEO of Least Authority: a company which specializes in auditing open source software since 2014. Originally founded by Zooko Wilcox, Least Authority has conducted more than 100 security audits in the space. Some of the best known contractors who requested an expert review include the Ethereum Foundation, the Electric Coin Company, Metamask, the KeyStone hardware wallet, and Avalanche. Least Authority also builds products that make use of Zero Knowledge Proofs: PrivateStorage (a cloud storage system that's designed to make the host unaware of the files being stored), ZKAPs (Zero Knowledge Access Passes, an authorization system that separates the payer from the data on the items being bought), and Winden (a file-sharing service that's encrypted and requires no identity from the sender and receiver). In a space which often defers to "check the code, it's open source", companies such as Least Authority offer high quality verification which makes it easier for the average non-technical person to trust that something is safe. Also, it helps builder have the peace of mind that what they're working on will not bring any unforeseen consequences.

Diego Salazar & Luke Szramowski are working to build Cypher Space: a privacy & sovereignty company. In this episode, they compare + rate the privacy of Bitcoin, Monero, Zcash, Firo, Mimble Wimble (Litecoin, Grin), Zano & Beam. Time stamps: (00:00:59) Introducing Diego Salazar & Luke Szramowski (00:02:04) Tribalism and Privacy Protocols in Crypto (00:03:55) Why Privacy Matters & Personal Motivations (00:04:58) Diego's Background and Cypher Stack (00:06:58) Luke's Background and Mathematical Perspective (00:08:40) CoinJoin and the Limits of Bitcoin Privacy (00:09:10) Threat Models and Privacy Tool Selection (00:12:22) CoinJoin's Effectiveness and Metadata Attacks (00:14:18) Comparing CoinJoin to Tor/VPN Usage (00:17:26) Overconfidence and Under-Researched Privacy Claims (00:19:52) Levels of Privacy and User Education (00:24:31) Defining Adversaries in Privacy Research (00:26:10) CoinJoin's Real-World Threats and Research Gaps (00:27:17) Social Media, Nuance, and Privacy Debates (00:29:11) CoinJoin as “Add-On” Privacy and Side-Channel Attacks (00:31:46) Underestimating Adversaries and Attack Tools (00:38:37) Sponsor Plugs and Criteria for Privacy Evaluation (00:42:47) Scoring CoinJoin on Privacy Criteria (00:51:09) WabiSabi and Wasabi Wallet Improvements (00:59:29) Other Bitcoin Privacy Tools: BIP47 & Silent Payments (01:06:19) Human Error and Privacy Tool Usability (01:08:51) The Limits of Privacy Ratings and the Need for Nuance (01:12:19) Tribalism, Community Research, and Productive Debate (01:15:33) Non-Interactive Proofs and Security Assumptions (01:16:27) Bitcoin Maximalism and the Limits of Debate (01:17:34) Academic Rigor and the Need for More Research (01:20:01) Bitcoin's Privacy Risks if Mainstream Adoption Happens (01:21:44) The State of Bitcoin Privacy Research and Funding (01:34:03) Bitcoin's Missed Privacy Opportunities (01:37:14) Monero's History and Privacy Technologies (01:41:03) Monero's Anonymity Set and Privacy Trade-Offs (01:46:52) Monero's Current Weaknesses and Upcoming FCMP (01:55:24) Monero's Privacy Scores and Scalability (02:27:50) Zcash: History, Community, and Technology (03:00:29) Zcash's Privacy Model and Accumulator Approach (03:05:56) Zero-Knowledge Proofs Explained (03:20:08) Zcash's Privacy Scores and Tachyon Scalability (03:35:12) Firo (formerly Zcoin) and Spark Protocol (03:44:45) Firo's Privacy Scores and Future Upgrades (03:52:06) Litecoin MWEB and Mimblewimble (04:01:32) MWEB Privacy Scores and Limitations (04:07:03) Other Privacy Projects: Zano, Beam, Salvium (04:10:02) Toxicity, Community, and the Human Element (04:17:00) Philosophy of Privacy and Human Nature (04:24:28) Fungibility, Bitcoin, and Social Realities (04:44:15) Summary and Chart of Privacy Scores (04:57:52) Resources for Privacy Research and Final Thoughts

Andrew Camilleri, better known as Kukks, is one of the most prolific contributors to BTCPay Server & an advocate for using bitcoin as money. Recently, he started building Bitcoin Layer 2 applications for Ark Labs & believes in conservative improvements. Time stamps: (00:00:49) Introduction & Andrew's Background (00:01:46) Getting Into Bitcoin & Altcoin Integrations (00:03:02) Focusing on Bitcoin & Monero Plugin (00:04:04) BTCPay Plugins & Community (00:04:22) Bitcoin's Imperfections & Altcoin Use Cases (00:04:55) Pessimism & Stagnation in Bitcoin Development (00:05:16) Introduction to Ark & Its Evolution (00:06:10) Ark's Technical Evolution (00:07:31) Ark's Impact on Developer Morale (00:07:36) What is Ark? (00:09:08) Ark's Virtual Ledger & Dust Problem (00:09:59) Off-Chain Payments & User Experience (00:11:07) Lightning Network vs. Ark (00:13:21) Custodial Lightning & Ark's Broader Goals (00:15:13) Escrow & Multisig Use Cases (00:16:09) Bitcoin's Usability & Fee Volatility (00:16:51) Miners & Second Layer Economics (00:19:08) Drivechains & Network Fragmentation (00:21:38) Rollups, ZK Proofs, and Simplicity (00:25:53) CTV, Musig2, and Soft Forks (00:28:12) OP_CAT, Collider Script, and Efficiency (00:32:38) Cost, Privacy, and Coinjoin (00:36:12) Stablecoins, Payments, and Swapping (00:38:14) Privacy, TumbleBit, and Ark's Superiority (00:41:03) Expiry, Operators, and User Experience (00:44:14) Becoming an Ark Operator (00:47:31) Fedimints, Liquid, and Privacy (00:49:41) Security Against Operator Theft (00:51:31) HODLing, Expiry, and Automation (00:53:37) Payment Finality & Pre-Confirmation (00:57:49) Government Attacks & Decentralization (01:02:51) Ark's User Experience & Wallet Integration (01:05:11) Lightning Interoperability & Partnerships (01:07:48) Arkade OS & Arcade Script (01:13:06) Underrated Use Cases: Escrow & Synthetic Assets (01:18:29) BTCPay Server's Impact & Bitcoin Payment Adoption (01:22:23) Speculation, Regulation, and Medium of Exchange (01:24:20) Litecoin, Extension Blocks, and Privacy (01:26:01) Coinjoin, Amounts, and Privacy Pools (01:29:09) Bitcoin Upgrades, CTV, and Developer Frustration (01:34:27) Soft Fork Politics & Overselling Upgrades (01:41:53) Payments, Credit Cards, and Onboarding (01:44:11) Stablecoins, Speculation, and Fiat Mindset (01:48:48) Taproot Assets, Altcoins, and Control Tokens (01:52:17) Early Bitcoin Days & Escrow (01:54:53) Gaming, Digital Money, and Bitcoin Adoption (01:59:15) Speculative Attack & Fiat Demand (02:00:01) Supercycle Skepticism & Price Predictions (02:02:22) Hard Forks, Big Blockers, and Research Value (02:24:40) NFTs, Ordinals, and Free Market Transactions (02:36:28) BTCPay Plugins & Comparison to LNBits (02:43:14) Zero Conf, RBF, and Payment Risks (02:47:41) Ark's Future: Liquidity & Decentralization (02:49:25) Testing Ark & Reference Wallet (02:51:00) Browser Wars & Internet Evolution (02:56:26) Scaling Bitcoin Payments & Libra Comparison (02:58:10) Tipping, Custodial Wallets, and Ark's SDK (03:02:12) HODL Culture vs. Spending (03:06:07) Optimism, Pessimism, and User Adoption (03:08:13) Lightning's Complexity & Ark's Simplicity (03:11:18) Competition Among Layer 2s (03:14:13) Ark's Launch, Operators, and Liquidity (03:16:08) Ark Operator Incentives & Fee Structure (03:17:08) Testing, Following, and Final Thoughts

Peter Rizun is the chief scientist at Bitcoin Unlimited: a software client that aims to scale Bitcoin with big blocks, while also empowering regular users to run nodes. In this episode, we talk about what went wrong during the block size wars & his research in scaling hardware. Time stamps: 00:01:15 — Introducing Peter Rizun 00:03:32 — Early Block Size Debates and Satoshi's Vision 00:07:45 — Block Size Limit History and Miner Soft Limits 00:10:10 — Dan Kaminsky's 2011 Scaling Predictions 00:12:01 — Scaling Philosophy: Zero, One, Infinity and Earth-Scale 00:15:09 — Block Size Wars, Chain Splits, and Altcoin Proliferation 00:16:43 — Stablecoins, Lightning, and Bitcoin's Use Case 00:19:03 — Zcash, Ethereum, and Bitcoin's Missed Opportunities 00:22:11 — Bitcoin's Script Limitations and Smart Contract Innovation 00:25:10 — Scaling Limits: Hardware, Storage, and Bandwidth 00:35:31 — Node Software, Formal Specs, and Core's Dominance 00:44:00 — Censorship, Reddit, and the Block Size Debate 00:48:04 — SPV Nodes, Custodial Wallets, and Decentralization 00:51:30 — Block Size, Internet Speed, and Global Node Access 00:57:26 — UTXO Model, Dust, and State Management 01:01:37 — Ethereum, Zcash, and Node Benchmarking 01:03:26 — Hardware Acceleration and Specialized Chips 01:07:00 — Sponsorship Break and Bitcoin Adoption via Debit Cards 01:14:59 — History of Block Size Proposals and Client Forks 01:21:07 — Consensus, Forks, and the Role of Exchanges 01:25:40 — SegWit, SegWit2x, and Political Compromises 01:33:04 — Bitcoin Cash, Market Dynamics, and Altcoin Competition 01:39:34 — Stablecoin Fees, Global Demand, and El Salvador 01:46:52 — Decline of Bitcoin Payments and Missed Opportunities 02:10:56 — Lightning Network: Promise vs. Reality 02:22:12 — Shitcoin vs. Bitcoin Maximalism and Open Source Innovation 03:05:52 — Spam, Miner Policy, and Transaction Filtering 03:17:05 — Hardware Scaling: M.2 Accelerator and Node Commoditization 03:29:11 — Nexa: Experimenting with Proof-of-Work and Node Bottlenecks 03:37:44 — Craig Wright, Satoshi Identity, and Big Block Movement Damage 04:02:03 — Fork Proliferation, Community Division, and Stablecoins 04:04:31 — Bitcoin's Future, Experimentation, and Open Research

Zooko has been thinking about building decentralized Chaumian ecash since the mid 1990s. When Bitcoin came out, he was the first cypherpunk to write a blog post about it. And today, he's honoring Satoshi's last wish of researching ZK proofs with Zcash. Time stamps: Introducing Zooko (00:00:55) Early Cypherpunk and Digital Cash Days (00:03:18) Cypherpunk vs. Cryptography Mailing List (00:03:52) Discovering Digital Cash and Chaum's Blind Signing (00:04:44) The Internet, BBS, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (00:09:10) Growing Up with Technology in Eastern Europe (00:12:04) First Computers and Early Programming (00:13:02) Loading Games and Computer Limitations (00:14:05) Impact of Tariffs and Internet Access (00:16:47) Economies of Scale and Computer Conferences (00:18:28) Social Media, Privacy, and Information Overload (00:19:33) Twitter Blocking & Echo Chambers (00:21:06) Personal AI and Information Control (00:24:08) First Computer Memories and Speech Synthesis (00:28:55) Programming Languages: BASIC, Pascal, and C++ (00:31:15) Vocoder Technology and Privacy (00:32:27) Video Games and University Life (00:34:28) Science Fiction and Cypherpunk Literature (00:36:10) Working at DigiCash and Early Digital Currency (00:39:04) Nick Szabo, Social Scalability, and Economic Thought (00:46:27) AI-Generated Personas and Real-Life Community (00:52:42) Global Talent, Work Ethic, and Financial Management (00:55:51) David Chaum as a Boss and DigiCash's Downfall (01:00:06) Decentralizing Ecash and Early Bitcoin Attempts (01:04:50) Wei Dai, Crypto++ and Peer-to-Peer Innovation (01:06:19) Open Source Maintenance and Funding Challenges (01:10:00) Why Digital Cash Mattered in the 1990s (01:12:30) Cypherpunks, Remailers, and Privacy Motivation (01:13:46) Bitcoin's Early Days and Zooko's Initial Skepticism (01:19:55) Bitcoin Advocacy and Security Flaws (01:39:07) Zooko's Triangle and Naming Systems (01:43:31) Altcoins, Experimentation, and Maximalism (01:51:09) Bitcoin's 2013 Privacy Papers: ZeroCoin & ZeroCash (01:55:12) Funding Innovation and Open Source Economics (02:00:27) Zcash Launch, Sidechains, and Market Dynamics (02:03:40) Sponsors and Bitcoin Innovation Renaissance (02:09:01) Proof of Stake, Hybrid Models, and Cross Link (02:26:14) Network Sustainability and Burn Mechanisms (02:33:37) Quantum Resistance and Lost Coins (02:37:26) Peter Todd's Compute Node, Zcash Ceremony and Trusted Setup (02:42:19) Zero Knowledge Proofs and Counterfeiting Bug (03:05:35) Zcash Design Choices and Block Size (03:43:04) Bitcoin Blocksize War and Evolution (03:49:09) Zcash vs. Monero and Privacy Models (04:27:33) Tachyon: Sean Bowe's Scalable Privacy Breakthrough (04:08:22) Live Zcash Demo and Address Privacy (05:27:00) Zcash Mining, Liquidity, and DEX Integration (05:49:57) Decentralization, Transparency, and the Future (06:02:22) Closing Remarks and Podcast Wrap-Up (06:05:15)

In a predominantly Proof of Stake world, The Proof of Work Alliance emerges as a champion of research & education among Proof of Work miners. Fractal Bitcoin's Charles Chong & Spencer Yang, plus Bitmars' ASIC Queen Summer Meng tell us how it all works. Time stamps: Introducing Charles, Summer & Spencer (00:00:50) Overview of the PoW Alliance (00:01:43) Challenges in Launching PoW Projects (00:02:32) Formation of the PoW Alliance (00:04:19) Importance of Collaboration (00:05:21) Significance of the PoW Alliance (00:06:48) Members of the PoW Alliance (00:08:26) Addressing Environmental Concerns (00:09:24) Renewable Energy in Bitcoin Mining (00:10:29) Electricity Usage Comparisons (00:12:37) AI and Bitcoin Mining Competition (00:15:21) Centralization vs. Decentralization in Alliances (00:20:55) Discussion on Risk and Collaboration (00:22:50) Analogy with Polling (00:23:44) Social Coordination in Bitcoin (00:24:15) ASIC Manufacturing Oligopoly (00:25:04) Challenges for New ASIC Manufacturers (00:26:55) Emerging Competitors in Mining (00:28:43) Mining's Capital Intensity (00:29:39) ASIC Resistance Debate (00:30:42) Economic Incentives in Mining (00:31:16) Proof of Work Alliance Benefits (00:32:38) Historical Context of Mining Innovations (00:33:50) Decentralization vs. Large Mining Pools (00:35:10) Impact of Economic and Social Factors (00:36:34) Innovation in Proof of Work (00:38:05) Challenges in Mining Innovation (00:40:30) Broader Ecosystem Innovations (00:41:11) Micro Innovations in Mining (00:42:15) Merge Mining Popularity (00:43:17) Proof of Stake Popularity (00:45:03) Validator Business Models (00:45:29) Alignment Issues in Mining (00:47:10) Blind Merged Mining Discussion (00:48:34) Risks of Drivechains (00:49:20) Concerns Over Block Rewards (00:52:14) Debate on OP_Return Function (00:54:19) Passion in Bitcoin Debates (00:56:20) Concerns About Ossification (01:00:04) Impact of Inscriptions on Miners (01:03:26) The Importance of Cross-Chain Integration (01:05:30) Challenges of Bitcoin Adoption (01:06:05) Gas Fees Comparison (01:07:12) Stablecoins in the Bitcoin Ecosystem (01:08:05) Celebrating Pizza Day (01:10:53) Fractal Bitcoin's Pizza Challenge (01:14:30) Reflections on Market Volatility (01:16:14) Joining the PoW Alliance (01:18:22) How to Contact Charles, Summer & Spencer (01:19:12) Closing Remarks and Future Announcements (01:20:42)

David Seroy works at Alpen Labs: the company which aims to bring an extended suite of financial applications to Bitcoin via ZK (Zero Knowledge) rollups. In this episode, we talk about the ideological divide in Bitcoin between builders & moonbois.

Mark Edge is a libertarian radio veteran best known for co-hosting Free Talk Radio: a show that's responsible for helping lots of OGs discover Bitcoin. In this episode, he explains why his co-host Ian Freeman is unfairly imprisoned and needs our help.

Chandra Duggirala & George Burke are co-founders of Portal: an ambitious project which aims to replace centralized exchanges with atomic swaps across chains. By using technologies like BitScaler, Portal OS & RAFA AI, Portal is a serious contender. ------------- Time stamps: Introducing Chandra & George (00:01:02) Portal's Mission (00:02:26) Trust Minimization Explained (00:03:32) Evolution of Portal's Technology (00:04:55) Bit Scaler (00:06:08) Removing Trust in Exchanges (00:08:28) AI Integration in Financial Markets (00:09:44) Clarification on Lightning Network (00:11:39) Bit Scaler vs. Lightning Network (00:12:04) Channel Factories Explained (00:15:27) Automated Market Makers Overview (00:18:04) Centralized vs. Decentralized Exchanges (00:20:57) Challenges of Atomic Swaps (00:24:15) Critique of Cross-Chain Solutions (00:25:17) Understanding Cap Structure (00:26:22) Self-Custody in Bitcoin (00:26:57) Toxic Approach to Bitcoin Values (00:28:03) Drivechains Discussion (00:28:20) Does Portal Require Any Soft Forks? (00:29:29) Quantum Security in Bitcoin (00:30:43) Critique of zk Rollups (00:33:10) User Demand in Crypto (00:34:33) Bitcoin as a Settlement Layer (00:35:25) Free Option Problem Explained (00:39:33) Demo of the Product (00:44:45) Launch Timeline for Mainnet (00:51:11) Proprietary Technology Overview (00:52:26) Is the RAFA AI Open Source? (00:54:05) Value Proposition (00:55:22) User Experience and Trust (00:56:16) Market Dynamics (00:58:37) Incentives for Value (01:00:03) Funding Round Speculation (01:00:10) Development Timeline (01:00:37) Mainnet Deployment Expectations (01:01:04) Supported Assets for Portal Swaps (01:01:49) Does Portal Compete with Exchanges? (01:02:19) Investor Relations (01:02:37) Trust Minimization Limits (01:03:37) User Feedback Impact (01:07:45) Operating System Concept (01:09:08) Integration with Other Platforms (01:10:14) Bitcoin as Settlement Layer (01:12:25) Data Storage for Swaps (01:15:10) Independent Chain Functionality (01:15:57) Quantum Security Discussion (01:16:29) Beta Testing Invitation (01:17:38) Roger Ver's Legal Situation (01:18:02) Silicon Valley Meetup Insights (01:21:10) Bitcoin Adoption Trends (01:22:30) Market Strategies and Competition (01:24:00) Bitcoin's Original Purpose (01:24:40) USD on Chain Concept (01:26:40) Community Engagement (01:28:22) Security in Crypto Exchanges (01:29:56) Conference Attendance Strategy (01:30:20)

Vitalik Buterin is the creator of Ethereum, but he's also a true Bitcoin maximalist. In this episode, Vitalik tells his story as a bitcoiner, explains why he built Ethereum, and makes use of his knowledge to predict the future of the two networks. Time stamps: Introducing Vitalik (00:01:00) Vitalik's Early Involvement with Bitcoin (00:02:22) Writing for Bitcoin Weekly (00:03:01) Bitcoin's Early Fees and Transaction Model (00:06:45) Evolving Understanding of Bitcoin (00:09:15) Bitcoin Cash and the Scaling Debate (00:10:25) Dark Wallet Project (00:14:06) Coinjoin and Privacy Innovations (00:16:41) Colored Coins and Bitcoin 2.0 (00:21:05) Transition to Ethereum Development (00:21:58) Current Layer Two Innovations (00:24:11) Scaling and Privacy Innovations (00:25:55) Ethereum's Early Criticism (00:27:05) EVM's Role in Smart Contracts (00:28:11) Challenges of Parallelization (00:29:23) Sandboxing and Security (00:30:24) Future Scaling Ideas (00:34:49) Ethereum vs NXT vs Counterparty vs Omni/Mastercoin (00:35:37) Lessons from Ethereum's Success (00:37:07) The DAO Hack and Community Resilience (00:43:16) Ethereum's Network Effect (00:45:43) Ethereum's Ecosystem Resilience (00:49:35) Decentralization vs. Scalability (00:50:41) Critique of Ethereum Killers (00:51:21) Layer One and Layer Two Dynamics (00:52:53) SideShift (00:53:21) How Vitalik Cancelled Craig Wright (00:54:51) Current Characters in Bitcoin (00:58:03) Daniel Kravisz's Views on Craig Wright (00:59:04) Manipulative Tactics in Dating Advice (01:00:34) NoOnes: Marketplace for Global South (01:01:19) Bitcoin.com News Evolution (01:02:40) Bitcoin Magazine is Now Pro Trump (01:04:37) Libertarian Shifts in Crypto (01:05:03) Ethereum Domain Name Registrations (01:06:09) Layer Two Scaling Decision (01:08:08) Hardware Requirements for Ethereum Node (01:10:45) Philosophical Questions on Scaling (01:12:01) The Dystopia Scenario (01:13:03) Importance of Full Nodes (01:14:24) Technological Innovations (01:15:27) Running Full Nodes in Ethereum (01:16:30) Privacy and RPC Trust (01:17:28) Adapting Ethereum to New Cryptography (01:19:53) Scaling Debate in Ethereum (01:22:04) Respect for Ethereum's Approach (01:23:15) Zcash and Ethereum Collaboration (01:25:00) Challenges for Zcash (01:27:04) Impact of Developer Actions (01:28:01) Scaling Solutions in Bitcoin and Ethereum (01:30:43) Defining Rollups vs. Sidechains (01:31:40) Security Implications of Drivechains (01:34:03) Transition to Proof of Stake (01:36:19) ZK Coins and Shielded Client Side Validation (01:37:53) Thoughts on TheStandard.io (01:40:03) Backing Up Coins and Holding Keys (01:42:11) Evolution of Multi-Sig Technology (01:46:43) Privacy (01:48:14) Concerns About Centralized Data Collection (01:51:10) Impact of Snowden Revelations (01:53:35) Privacy as a Key Aspect of Decentralization (01:55:49) Ethereum's Cypherpunk Roots (01:57:07) Feedback from Cypherpunks on Ethereum (02:00:42) The Inspiration Behind DAOs (02:02:07) AI and DAOs (02:02:40) Vitalik's Public Image and Price Pressure (02:02:55) Media Attention and Its Impact (02:03:43) Decentralization and Attention (02:04:03) Price Influence and Market Dynamics (02:04:59) Focus on Ethereum's Values (02:06:01) Historical Use Cases of Ethereum (02:08:28) Next Bull Market Narrative (02:09:38) DeFi Ecosystem as a Proven Use Case (02:09:45) Political Instability and Financial Security (02:12:05) Polymarket, Prediction Markets and Mainstream Adoption (02:12:20) Zero Knowledge Proofs and Privacy (02:14:20) Roger Ver (02:15:23) Principles of Freedom and Privacy (02:22:57) Critique of Blockstream's Liquid (02:24:00) Bitcoin's Role in Decentralization (02:26:15) Transition to RISC-V (02:27:37) Adoption of RISC-V (02:28:36) Redesigning Ethereum in A Time Travel Scenario (02:31:30) Challenges in Ethereum's Development (02:32:45) Ethereum and Bitcoin Relationship (02:37:02) Complementarity of Bitcoin and Ethereum (02:38:40) Does Vitalik Still Use Bitcoin? (02:41:21) Lightning Network (02:42:06) Standardization of LN Invoies (02:43:20) Privacy Concerns with Bitcoin (02:45:42) Running Lightning Nodes (02:46:52) Home-Based Bitcoin Solutions (02:48:12) Tribalism in Crypto Communities (02:48:53) Ethereum's Evolution and Ideals (02:50:06) Collaboration Between Bitcoin and Ethereum (02:51:10) Diverse Blockchain Future (02:51:45) Is Vitalik a Bitcoin Maximalist? (02:52:59) Community Values and Challenges (02:53:45) Cultural Dynamics in Cryptocurrencies (02:56:05) Layer Two Solutions for Bitcoin (02:59:31) Vitalik's Online Presence (03:00:25) Closing Remarks and Future Guests (03:01:36)

James O'Beirne is a Bitcoin developer who's not afraid to support unpopular improvement proposals: recently, he spoke about increasing the block size on the stage of OP_NEXT. He also works on CTV & CSFS, and tends to favor technical data over clout. Time stamps: 00:00:52 - Introducing James O'Beirne 00:02:00 - James O'Beirne's Current Bitcoin Core Contributions (CTV/CSFS) 00:02:55 - Shared Motivations and Concerns About Bitcoin Scaling & Financialization 00:05:24 - Discussing New Opcodes (CTV, CSFS, CAT) and MEV Risk 00:06:45 - OP_CAT: Existing Implementations, Unknown Unknowns, and Layer 2 Scaling Needs 00:08:26 - Ordinals Controversy, Permissionless Transactions, and Miner Security Budget 00:11:11 - Security Budget Concerns and Potential Miner Manipulation Risks 00:13:48 - Fee Smoothing (CTV) and Doubts About MEV's Relevance to Bitcoin 00:15:13 - Exploring Citrea, ZK Rollups, and Trustless DeFi on Bitcoin 00:19:08 - Bitcoin's Disintermediation Goal vs. Custodial Layer 2 Solutions 00:20:50 - Starkware Airdrop, GitHub Censorship Claims, and Ordinals Filtering Debate 00:25:03 - Analyzing Luke Dash Jr., Ocean Pool, and Blockstream's Influence 00:29:57 - Blockstream's History, Funding, and Impact on Bitcoin Scaling Debate 00:33:37 - Evaluating SegWit/Taproot Complexity vs. Current Soft Fork Hurdles 00:37:23 - Discussing BIP 300 Drivechains: Concept, Implementation, and Potential 00:40:40 - Re-evaluating the Case for Bigger Bitcoin Blocks 00:44:20 - Block Size Increase Mechanisms (Soft Forks) and Future Demand Scenarios 00:48:05 - Privacy Solutions: MimbleWimble, ZK-SNARKs, and Learning from Other Chains 00:53:19 - Ignoring Real-World Usage: The Danger of Bitcoin Maximalist Echo Chambers 00:57:45 - Sponsor Message: Sideshift.ai 00:59:11 - Block Size War Fallout and the Risk of Institutional Capture 01:01:51 - Bitcoin's Future: Potential Capture vs. Seeding Future Alternatives 01:03:34 - Necessary Hard Forks vs. Closing Window for Desirable Soft Forks 01:07:35 - The Evolution of Covenant Proposals: From CTV to OP_Vault and Back 01:18:03 - Comparing Activation Prospects: CTV/CSFS vs. OP_CAT 01:20:40 - Sponsor Messages: Bitcoin.com News, NoOnes.com, Hodling.ch 01:24:27 - CTV Explained: Functionality, Use Cases (Vaults, L2s, DLCs), and Simplicity 01:27:47 - Layer 2 Unilateral Exit Problem and CTV's Congestion Control Solution 01:33:21 - CTV's Benefits for Lightning, Programmability, and Miner Revenue 01:37:30 - Will CTV/CSFS Bring Users Back? Bitcoin vs. Solana/Ethereum Niches 01:41:19 - The Security Budget Problem, On-Chain Culture, and Tail Emission Debate 01:45:40 - High Fees Fallacy, Ivory Tower Mentality, and Being Bought Off 01:49:37 - Self-Custody Challenges, Developer Frustration, and the Politics of Bitcoin Core 01:54:18 - Bitcoin as Religion/Politics, Core Developer Motivations, and Tail Emission Revisited 01:58:40 - BIP 42, Tail Emission as Inflation, and the 21 Million Cap Dilemma 02:02:21 - Analyzing the Roger Ver Case and Political Persecution in Crypto 02:10:31 - Deconstructing the "Never Sell Bitcoin" Meme and Collateralized Loans 02:13:32 - James O'Beirne's 10-Year Bitcoin Prediction (Post-CTV/CSFS) 02:17:34 - Reception to James's Big Blocks Talk at OP_Next 02:19:06 - Learning from Bitcoin Cash: Big Blocks and Covenant Implementations 02:22:33 - James O'Beirne's Current Work and Where to Follow Him 02:23:38 - Closing Remarks and Sponsor Plugs

J-Dog is the former maintainer of Bitcoin's Counterparty protocol – a role which he fulfilled for about 8 years. Under his stewardship, XCP witnessed the creation of legendary collections such as Spells of Genesis, Rare Pepes, and Fake Rares – even my Bitcoin Heads and Leftist Tears were created when he was the lead developer and he provided some useful advice. Today, J-Dog builds the FreeWallet.io Counterparty wallet and the TokenScan.io blockchain explorer (formerly Xchain.io). He maintains opinions which diverge from those of current maintainer Adam Krellenstein (who joined the show in S16 E14) and even claims that the Counterparty protocol was forked at block 866000. Time stamps: Introducing J-Dog (00:00:53) Counterparty's Founders (00:02:13) What is Counterparty? (00:03:19) History of Token Platforms (00:04:24) Creation of Dispensers (00:07:57) The Fork Controversy (00:09:50) User Reactions to Changes (00:12:42) Counterparty Classic (00:13:16) Current State of Dispensers (00:13:52) Ongoing FUD in the Community (00:14:41) Recent Developments (00:15:02) Control and Development (00:16:05) Token Scan and Exchange (00:17:25) Counterparty's Early Challenges (00:20:55) The use case for Bitcoin (00:23:16) Counterparty's missed opportunity (00:23:39) Community decision-making challenges (00:24:11) Smart contracts and security (00:25:27) Counterparty's innovative features (00:26:42) Evolution of Counterparty's focus (00:27:40) Concerns about asset transactions (00:28:19) The evolution of meme culture (00:29:26) Collecting Rare Pepes (00:31:03) Geolocation-based token distribution (00:32:04) Comparison to Pokémon Go (00:33:14) Current projects and developments (00:35:50) Citrea's zero-knowledge rollup (00:36:50) Counterparty's future on Layer Two (00:37:53) Current work and future vision (00:38:25) Community-driven development concerns (00:43:07) Consensus measurement in development (00:45:59) Consensus Gathering in Counterparty (00:46:39) Atomic Swaps Explained (00:49:42) Adoption of New Features (00:51:33) Counterparty vs Horizon Market (00:55:05) Impact of Ordinals on Counterparty (00:58:16) Integration of Ordinals with Counterparty (01:00:09) Fallout Among Developers (01:03:21) STAMPs vs Ordinals (01:04:34) Concerns About UTXO Set Bloat (01:07:45) Introduction to the UTXO Set Concerns (01:09:58) Turning Point on Stamps (01:10:48) Pixel Art and Compression Challenges (01:11:07) Nihilistic Moments in Bitcoin History (01:11:47) Innovations in Small Data Graphics (01:12:08) Future of Interoperability Among Protocols (01:13:38) Challenges in Ecosystem Integration (01:14:02) Islands of Unconnected Communities (01:15:35) Historical Significance of Bitcoin Artifacts (01:16:03) Hope for NFT Market Revival (01:17:38) Mixed Feelings on NFT Participation (01:18:37) Sponsor Plug for SideShift.ai (01:20:22) Counterparty Classic and Current Focus (01:22:55) Counterparty's Resilience (01:23:58) Future of Counterparty Protocol (01:24:59) Cultural Acceptance of On-Chain Data (01:27:42) Difference Between Counterparty Assets and Runes (01:28:18) Valuation of Vlad Head Cards (01:29:04) Scams in Low Liquidity Tokens (01:30:39) Concerns Over Domain Squatting (01:31:52) Counterparty Improvement Proposals (01:32:43) Creating an Asset Escrow Service (01:33:44) Resetting Asset Supply (01:34:42) Counterparty Wallet Quirks (01:35:21) Protocol Functionality Improvements (01:36:44) Funding Development through Donations (01:37:31) Betting System Revival (01:41:03) User Feedback on FreeWallet (01:44:24) Creating Exchange Markets (01:47:05) Transaction Fee Issues (01:48:19) Token Description Formatting (01:50:11) Multi-Send Transaction Challenges (01:51:14) User Interface Updates Needed (01:52:58) Mobile Wallet Development (01:53:34) Mobile Free Wallet Update (01:54:51) Free Wallet Confusion (01:55:01) Counterparty's Future (01:56:02) Investment Needs for Counterparty (01:57:18) Competing Visions for Counterparty (01:58:56) Message to Counterparty Team (01:59:46) Community Engagement (02:01:14) Running a Counterparty Node (02:03:37) Hardware Requirements (02:05:06) Importance of Running a Node (02:06:18) Closing Remarks (02:07:39)

Filip Baturan is the CEO of Tanari – a decentralized finance application suite that's built on top of Citrea. With it, bitcoiners can enjoy the features and user experience from banking applications such as Revolut... but within a self-custodial and sovereign environment, where the user sets the rules. The discussion centers around Tanari's vision to make Bitcoin more useful and replace the current financial system, contrasting it with projects that merely embed Bitcoin into existing structures. Baturan explains that Tanari aims to deliver on Bitcoin's promise of self-custody and financial system replacement, drawing inspiration from the ideal financial system rather than specific products like Revolut. We talk about Tanari's features: including secure Bitcoin storage, spending capabilities, and integration with the Bitcoin ecosystem (Citrea, Bitcoin mainnet, Lightning Network). The platform prioritizes ease of use, employing Face ID/fingerprint authentication and social recovery methods. The interview also covers the potential for financial primitives like lending, borrowing, and Bitcoin-backed stablecoins, all within a transparent framework. The discussion also addresses the challenges of balancing user-friendliness with privacy and security, particularly regarding usernames and potential transaction traceability. Filip Baturan emphasizes Tanari's commitment to open-source principles, sustainable business models, and integration with other Citrea applications. The interview concludes with Filip sharing his background in ZK rollups on Ethereum and his enthusiasm for building on Bitcoin with Citrea, highlighting the unique opportunities presented by this technology. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Time stamps: 00:00:53 - Introducing Filip Baturan 00:02:04 - Tanari's Origin and Citrea 00:05:30 - Ease of Use and Recovery Methods 00:08:20 - Tanari's Features 00:11:04 - Open Sourcing and Fees 00:12:19 - Citrea Integration and Usernames 00:15:24 - On-Chain Interoperability 00:17:19 - Lightning Network Integration 00:19:02 - Business Solutions and Competitive Advantages 00:21:22 - Custody and Decentralization 00:24:48 - Reputation and Social Media Integration 00:29:22 - Filip's Background 00:37:53 - Scalability and Settlement Time 00:41:44 - Trade-offs and Self-Ownership 00:48:00 - Swapping Services 00:51:46 - Future of Bitcoin and Tanari 01:02:10 - Tanari's Name and Meaning

Felix Billbert is the Chief Maximalist at Wave Space: a European company which specializes in making bitcoin easy to spend. They offer a Visa debit card, a swapping service for BTC/EUR pair, Lightning network support... all of which is wrapped inside a non-custodial environment. The conversation explores the challenges of building a Bitcoin business in Europe, particularly navigating regulations like MiCA. Felix explains how Wave Space partners with a licensed entity to handle KYC/AML compliance, including the complexities of verifying the source of funds for Lightning Network transactions. The discussion touches on the competitive landscape, comparing Wave Space to services like Relai, and highlighting its focus on enabling Bitcoin spending and future plans for Bitcoin-backed loans. The podcast delves into the philosophical aspects of Bitcoin adoption, addressing the "never sell" ethos and the role of fiat currency in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Felix emphasizes Wave Space's goal of bridging the gap between traditional finance and Bitcoin, providing users with the tools they need to participate in both worlds. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the importance of self-custody, the potential impact of a European CBDC, and the need for innovation and collaboration within the Bitcoin community. Time stamps: Introduction and Sponsors - [00:00:50] Wave Space Introduction - [00:01:42] Lightning Network Integration - [00:03:25] Regulatory Environment in Europe (MiCA) - [00:04:06] MiCA and Lightning Network Accounting - [00:05:02] Wave Space's Business Model - [00:09:50] Wave Space vs. Relai and Other Exchanges - [00:11:07] KYC Process on Wave Space - [00:14:34] Bitcoin Economy and Debit Cards - [00:21:10] SEPA Instant and CBDC - [00:26:46] Room 77 and Bitcoin ATMs - [00:34:12] Bitcoin and Politics - [00:35:58] Wave Space's Business Model and "Never Sell" Bitcoin - [00:41:12] Black Market vs. White Market - [00:50:01] Discussion on Sponsors - [00:52:12] Layer 2 Labs and Drivechains - [00:52:27] ZK Rollups and Citrea - [00:54:47] EUACC and European Startup Ecosystem - [01:05:35] NoOne's and Peer-to-Peer Marketplace - [01:08:31] Hodling and Self-Custody Consulting - [01:10:21] Euro Stablecoins - [01:11:23] Sideshift and Swapping - [01:14:23] In-Game Economies and NFTs - [01:17:24] Scams and Innovation in Crypto - [01:26:22] Trading vs. Investing - [01:31:12] Backup Plans if Bitcoin Fails - [01:32:18] Bitcoin.com News - [01:33:47] Conclusion and Contact Information - [01:35:12]

In 2014, Daniel Krawisz was one of the most prolific Bitcoin writers: he published some excellent articles with the Nakamoto Institute, and most of them are still relevant. Today, he prefers BSV and believes that Craig Wright is Satoshi. What changed? Time stamps: Time stamps: 00:00:50 - Introducing Daniel Krawisz 00:02:40 - Bitcoin Takeover 00:05:30 - Scaling Bitcoin 00:09:30 - Soft Forks vs. Hard Forks 00:14:10 - Running a Bitcoin Node and Privacy 00:18:10 - Verifying Transactions 00:20:00 - Miner Centralization 00:24:40 - Bitcoin Core Ideology 00:29:00 - Fungibility 00:30:30 - Ross Ulbricht 00:38:55 - Bitcoin's Competitive Advantage 00:44:00 - Bitcoin and Legality 00:48:50 - Sound Money and Friendship 00:50:40 - Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity 00:57:20 - Craig Wright's Teachings 01:00:40 - Leaving the Nakamoto Institute 01:03:40 - Investors vs. Entrepreneurs 01:06:00 - The Nature of Bitcoin 01:12:15 - Bitcoin's Value 01:14:40 - Market Efficiency 01:16:20 - Bitcoin vs. Gold 01:21:15 - BSV Adoption 01:24:00 - BSV's Success Metrics 01:28:20 - Hash Rate and Miner Incentives 01:30:30 - Market Efficiency and Truth 01:33:55 - BSV's Future 01:37:00 - BSV vs. BCH 01:40:10 - Mempool 01:42:40 - BSV Mining and Jurisdictions 01:46:45 - BSV vs. CBDC 01:52:35 - Privacy and Mixing in BSV 02:00:03 - Security and Probabilistic Thinking 02:01:21 - Capitalism, Monopoly, and BSV 02:05:01 - Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and BSV 02:07:28 - BSV's Role and Traceability 02:08:14 - Traceable vs. Non-Traceable Money 02:08:54 - Anarcho-Capitalism and Private Services 02:15:07 - Cypherpunk Literature and Privacy vs. Compliance 02:18:12 - Anonymity, Privacy, and Traceability in BSV 02:24:49 - Layer 2 Solutions and Scalability 02:32:35 - Narcissism 02:42:46 - Narcissism and Financial Scammers 02:48:14 - Avoiding Cults and Narcissistic Relationships 02:52:23 - Benefiting from Narcissistic Relationships 02:53:13 - Narcissists in Bitcoin/Crypto 02:54:37 - Relationship with Nakamoto Institute 03:00:14 - Appreciation and Book Recommendations 03:00:48 - Hayao Miyazaki and Narcissism 03:04:40 - Current Reading List 03:39:20 - Stance on 2017 Block Size Wars 03:40:45 - Book Project Idea 03:47:04 - Plato, Socrates, and Propaganda 03:53:07 - Diogenes and Libertarianism 03:55:15 - Final Book Recommendations 04:00:01 - Narcissism and Self-Awareness 04:00:40 - Denouncement of Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum 04:01:17 - Competition Between Monies 04:02:55 - Changes in the Bitcoin Space 04:04:40 - New Altcoins and Tokens 04:04:54 - Bitcoin Year One Manga 04:05:29 - Podcast Invitation and Appreciation 04:09:08 - Sponsors

Privacy has had a couple of rough years: companies & protocols shut down, developers got arrested, governments issued new regulations... regardless, Rockstar Dev & Max Hillebrand join the show to discuss privacy & open source tools for sovereignty.

Ben Arc is the creator of LNBits: a modular Lightning network wallet which, after 5 years of development, has just launched version 1. To celebrate this remarkable milestone, ”the CEO of Nostr” joins the show to talk about everything interesting in Bitcoin.

Andreas Brekken is best known for creating SideShift.ai and acting as the CEO of Shitcoin.com. In this episode, he talks about his views on Bitcoin development, the emergence of DeFi, and the reasons why he considers cryptocurrencies superior to fiat. Time stamps: Introducing Andreas Brekken (00:00:51) The Sam Bankman-Fried Interview on Shitcoin.com (00:01:50) Clustering Analysis and Customer Funds (00:02:44) Bybit's Technical Issues (00:05:18) Historical Context of Exchanges (00:09:26) Shapeshift's KYC Moment (00:11:13) Why Aren't Zcash and Monero on SideShift? (00:14:59) Bitcoin Cash Hard Forks (00:20:45) Lightning Network Integration (00:22:23) Vulnerabilities in the Lightning Protocol (00:26:17) Critique of Lightning Network's Design (00:28:29) Submarine Swaps (00:29:28) LNBits v1 Launch (00:29:44) Lightning Wallets (00:30:19) LNBits is like Start9? (00:30:40) Andreas Brekken's Lightning Network Experience (00:31:15) Even Martti Malmi Is Using Wallet of Satoshi (00:31:37) Zcash Protocol (00:32:11) Bitcoin Variants on SideShift (00:32:26) Decentralized Finance (DeFi) on Ethereum (00:34:00) Citrea Project (00:35:26) Multisig Solutions (00:36:30) Automation in Bitcoin (00:41:18) Political Dynamics in Bitcoin Development (00:47:15) News Coverage on Bitcoin.com (00:51:27) Bitcoin Volatility and Performance Against Stonks (00:53:14) Peter Schiff Appreciation Era (00:55:42) Peter Schiff's Debates with Erik Voorhees (00:56:23) Bitcoin's Growing Influence (00:58:15) Future of Bitcoin (00:59:15) Layer Two Labs and Drive Chains (01:00:34) Innovation in Bitcoin (01:02:05) Convenience of Layer Two Solutions (01:02:51) Decred Discussion (01:09:53) Favorite Shitcoins (01:11:49) Subscribe to the shitcoin.com Newsletter? (01:16:31)

Marko Tarman has been mining Bitcoin since 2012 – and today, he works as Lead Mining Manager at NiceHash. In this episode, we talk about the current trends in Proof of Work mining and the commodification of hash rate.

Adam Krellenstein is one of the co-founders of Counterparty and the current maintainer of the protocol. In this episode, he talks about his plan to improve Bitcoin native tokens and why you should consider giving XCP a chance. Time stamps: Introducing Adam Krellenstein (00:00:50) Counterparty's Unique Features (00:01:30) Historical Significance of Counterparty (00:02:09) Comparison with Mastercoin/Omni (00:03:19) The Birth of Bitcoin Maximalism (00:04:48) Vitalik's Influence and Ethereum (00:08:43) Pushback from Bitcoin Core Developers (00:09:16) Concerns about Data Storage on Bitcoin (00:10:36) Counterparty Software and Decentralization (00:12:51) Art and NFTs in Counterparty (00:14:51) Airdrop Announcement (00:14:24) Off-Chain Data Storage Challenges (00:16:00) Counterparty's Original Vision (00:18:19) The Popularity of Digital Art (00:18:51) The Role of Digitally Native Assets (00:19:32) Article about Counterparty on Bitcoin Takeover Website (00:21:08) The Role of Bitcoin in Counterparty (00:22:30) Decentralization of Counterparty Launch (00:23:12) XCP Token Creation and Burning Mechanism (00:24:27) Value Creation vs. Destruction (00:26:00) Onboarding Users with Dispensers (00:29:41) Counterparty's Development History (00:31:01) Challenges in Running Counterparty Nodes (00:35:30) Counterparty 2.0 and Ledger Fork? (00:39:17) Community Dynamics and Development (00:41:00) Future of Smart Contracts on Counterparty (00:42:58) Counterparty Ecosystem Health (00:43:46) Atomic Swaps Feature (00:44:18) Layer Two Proposals (00:45:18) Comparison with Ordinals & BRC20 (00:47:44) Counterparty's Functional Advantages (00:48:30) Sponsors (00:49:29) Expectations at Launch (00:52:31) Future of Counterparty (00:53:39) Cultural Shifts in Bitcoin (00:55:23) Collaboration with Ordinals (00:58:54) Differences Between Runes and Counterparty (01:00:09) Encoding Data in Bitcoin Transactions (01:01:07) Future Improvements for Counterparty (01:03:11) Community Dynamics (01:03:58) Counterparty Wallet Development (01:05:36) Bitcoin Head Cards (01:07:04) Community Engagement and Nostalgia (01:08:29) Bitcoin's Security Budget (01:09:21) Transaction Fees and Counterparty (01:10:33) Recommended Counterparty Wallets (01:11:30) Data Storage on Bitcoin (01:12:32) Ecosystem and Community Reception (01:15:08) Pepe Cash and Market Trends (01:16:45) Current Developments in Counterparty (01:18:10) Counterparty Roadmap (01:21:14) Use Cases of Counterparty (01:23:35) Stablecoin Possibilities (01:24:30) Can Bitcoin Privacy Kill Counterparty? (01:25:38) Counterparty's Resilience (01:26:26) Discussion on Counterparty's Usage (01:26:46) Closing Remarks and Where to Follow Adam Krellenstein (01:27:02) Counterparty Communication Channels (01:27:18) Airdrop Announcement (01:27:46) Shoutout to Chris Derose (01:28:25)

Corbin Fraser is the new CEO of Bitcoin.com. In this episode, he talks about the Scaling Wars, his perspective as a BCH advocate, and the lessons the market taught him over the years. Also, he explains why the news section of Bitcoin.com improved. Introducing Corbin Fraser (00:00:50) Bitcoin.com's Evolution (00:01:52) Support for Multiple Cryptocurrencies (00:03:05) Challenges of Tribalism in Crypto (00:06:51) Origins of Bitcoin Cash (00:09:07) The Scaling Wars (00:12:14) Misconceptions About BCH Leadership (00:15:23) The Meme Warfare (00:18:31) Promoting Token Swaps (00:20:09) Bitcoin.com News and Geopolitics (00:21:16) Respect for Peter Schiff (00:22:01) Occupy Wall Street Insights (00:22:12) Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin Debate (00:24:25) Vitalik's Perspective on Forks (00:25:04) Nomenclature and Propaganda (00:26:17) Cola Wars Analogy (00:28:31) Future of Bitcoin Block Size (00:29:56) Lightning Network Adoption Challenges (00:30:04) Alternative Layer 2 Solutions (00:31:27) Lightning Network's Technical Limits (00:32:33) Bitcoin SV and Centralization Concerns (00:33:42) Impact of Community Divisions (00:34:44) Chaos of Forks in 2017 (00:36:58) Bitcoin.com's Business Approach (00:40:04) Lightning Network Whitepaper Block Size (00:41:06) Discussion on AI and Block Size (00:42:39) Satoshi's Misjudgments (00:43:46) Censorship and Community Chaos (00:45:34) Personal Losses During the Block Size Wars (00:47:08) Bitcoin Cash's Price Surge to $3000 (00:47:38) Miner Hesitation (00:48:30) Current Features of BCH (00:51:55) Emergence of Cash Tokens & Failure of SLP (00:56:02) Building on UTXO (01:00:18) Ethereum's Rise Post-Scaling Wars (01:02:10) SushiSwap & DeFi Summer (01:03:53) Vampire Liquidity Attack (01:05:08) Speculation Around Chef Nomi (01:06:27) Development of Aave & Compound (01:07:30) Community Dynamics in BCH (01:08:32) Debate on Development Tax (01:09:43) Amaury Sechet's Influence and Community Split (01:10:14) Forking and Community Fragmentation (01:12:12) Transition to Ethereum and DeFi (01:14:39) The Role of Multi-Chain Strategies (01:19:12) Privacy and Zano (01:20:41) Operational Security and Privacy in Crypto (01:23:09) Government Regulation and Crypto Development (01:24:31) Zano's Hybrid PoW/PoS Consensus (01:25:56) Fact-Checking from Bitcoin Cash Podcast (01:27:13) Bitcoin Cash Upgrade Schedule (01:28:14) Twitter Spaces Collaboration (01:28:47) Privacy Solutions in BCH (01:29:29) Mike Hearn's Prediction on Forks (01:30:05) Misleading Media Influence (01:30:57) Dollar Cost Averaging Strategy (01:31:50) Self-Custody Solutions (01:32:02) Ownership of Bitcoin.com (01:33:54) Roger Ver's Contributions (01:34:22) Support for Roger Ver (01:36:25) Government's Stance on Crypto (01:38:47) Reading Roger's Defense (01:39:59) Misinterpretations of Roger's Position (01:41:08) Evolution of Roger Ver's Views (01:42:31) Market Humbling Experiences (01:42:54) Elon Musk's Influence (01:43:37) Current Crypto Market Sentiment (01:45:01) Celebrity Influence on Crypto (01:46:05) Kanye West's Coin Speculation (01:47:01) Kanye's Meme Coin Ventures (01:48:05) The Decline of Meme Coin Interest (01:49:16) Overvaluation in Crypto Projects (01:50:50) Block Size Wars Reflection (01:51:48) State Actors and Bitcoin's Challenges (01:52:51) Blockstream's Business Struggles (01:54:41) Developer Commitment and Innovation (01:56:34) Stablecoins vs. Bitcoin Adoption (02:00:05) Future of Stablecoins and CBDCs (02:01:33) Block Size Debate and Social Consensus (02:04:08) George Hotz's Perspective on Innovation (02:06:48) Ethereum's Rapid Development (02:09:07) Ethereum's Challenges (02:11:29) Bitcoin's Cautious Approach (02:12:05) Testing Protocols (02:13:15) User Education on Risks (02:15:35) Brock Pierce's Influence (02:16:21) Community Engagement (02:18:17) Listing Criteria for New Coin on Bitcoin dot com Wallet (02:20:34) Integration of Privacy Coins (02:22:58) Zano's Potential (02:24:01) User Confusion with Bitcoin Domains (02:28:21) BSV Integration Decision (02:30:36) Balanced News Coverage (02:32:04) Introduction to New Developments (02:33:07) Embracing a Broader Crypto Perspective (02:34:05) Closing Remarks (02:34:46) Final Thoughts and Future Plans (02:35:03)

Martti Malmi, aka Sirius, was Satoshi Nakamoto's closest collaborator between 2009 and 2010. In this episode, he reminisces about the early days of Bitcoin, but also describes his recent adventures with Nostr & the Lightning Network. Time stamps: Introducing Martti (00:00:48) Martti's Work on Nostr (00:02:03) Nostr's Origins and Purpose (00:03:31) Self-Custodial Nature of Nostr (00:04:13) Early Bitcoin Perceptions (00:05:25) Understanding Bitcoin's Value (00:07:21) How Martti Malmi Discovered Bitcoin (00:08:21) Contributions to Bitcoin (00:09:41) Development of Bitcoin Exchange (00:12:53) Pioneering Real Estate Transactions (00:14:45) Reflections on Selling Bitcoin (00:15:27) Celebrating Pizza Day (00:16:18) Market Demand for Bitcoin (00:17:14) Regrets About Bitcoin Spending (00:17:27) Privacy in Bitcoin (00:20:23) Lightning Network Integration (00:22:47) Concerns About Censorship (00:23:41) The Evolution of the Lightning Network (00:24:42) Challenges with Lightning Nodes (00:25:04) The Reliability of Payment Solutions (00:26:11) Early Bitcoin Purchases (00:27:22) Preferred Methods for Holding Bitcoin (00:28:16) Mt. Gox Lessons (00:28:41) Creditor Experiences with Mt. Gox (00:29:17) Future Value of Bitcoin (00:29:56) Technological Changes in Bitcoin (00:30:20) Concerns Over CBDCs (00:31:16) Project Hamilton CBDC and Bitcoin Technology (00:32:31) Tether's Role in the Financial System (00:33:01) Community Trust in Financial Systems (00:34:41) Concerns About Centralization (00:37:28) Sidechains and Their Implications (00:37:46) The Role of Law Enforcement (00:39:22) Historical Contributions to Bitcoin (00:42:03) Satoshi's Identity Speculation (00:43:02) Early Bitcoin Community Engagement (00:45:22) Transition from Developer to Observer (00:46:21) Ownership of Bitcoin.org Domain (00:47:31) Domain Names and Value (00:47:56) Namecoin and Early Altcoins (00:48:29) Web of Trust in Naming (00:49:05) Self-Custody Solutions (00:49:36) Rise of Hardware Wallets (00:51:03) Mining Pools and Centralization Risks (00:52:18) Gamers and Bitcoin Mining (00:52:57) Libertarianism and Bitcoin Miners (00:53:49) Cultural Perspectives on Welfare States (00:54:31) Corruption in Scandinavian Countries (00:56:15) Libertarian Media in Finland (00:57:04) The Pirate Party and Bitcoin (00:57:21) Optimism about Bitcoin's Future (00:58:21) Potential Changes to Bitcoin (00:59:26) Nostalgia for Early Bitcoin Days (01:01:13) Bridging Nostr and Bitcointalk (01:01:40) Emails with Satoshi Nakamoto (01:02:54) Keeping Up with Marty's Work (01:04:24)

Despite your bad memories from the Block Size war, you should support Roger Ver's campaign for clemency – or at least this is what Layer Two Labs CEO Paul Sztorc thinks you should do. In this episode, we discuss why Roger deserves to stay free. Time stamps: Introducing Paul Sztorc (00:00:54) The host welcomes listeners and introduces guest Paul Sztorc, discussing Roger Ver's situation. Paul's Connection with Roger Ver (00:01:42) Paul shares his connection to Roger Ver and his experiences in the Bitcoin community. Roger Ver's Contributions (00:02:54) Discussion on Roger's significant investments and efforts in early Bitcoin companies. Challenges at Mt. Gox (00:03:59) Paul recounts Roger's volunteer work during the Mt. Gox crisis, highlighting his dedication. Bitcoin's Early Days (00:05:05) Reflections on Bitcoin's obscurity before mainstream recognition, including the Financial Times article. The Evolution of Bitcoin Conferences (00:06:18) Paul reminisces about early Bitcoin conferences and their small scale compared to today. Tax Evasion Claims and Bitcoin's Value (00:08:23) Discussion on misconceptions about Bitcoin's value and Roger's tax situation during its early days. Roger's Generosity and Alliances (00:10:34) Highlighting Roger's contributions to various libertarian causes and his personal sacrifices. The Block Size War (00:11:39) Introduction to the block size debate and its impact on Roger's reputation in the Bitcoin community. Michael Saylor's Skepticism (00:12:29) The host references a tweet from Michael Saylor expressing doubts about Bitcoin in 2013. Roger's Early Bitcoin Investments (00:13:13) Paul shares a story about Roger's commitment to Bitcoin, selling his Lamborghini for more BTC. Roger's Influence and Marketing (00:14:26) Discussion on Roger's positive energy and efforts to promote Bitcoin to the public. The Role of BitPay (00:15:38) Explaining how BitPay helped businesses accept Bitcoin, making it more accessible. Roger's Vision for Bitcoin (00:18:48) Paul discusses Roger's motivations during the block size war and his vision for Bitcoin's future. Aftermath of the Block Size War (00:20:06) Reflections on the complacency of the Bitcoin community post-war and the resulting divisions. Playing the Villain (00:20:45) The host introduces a playful debate format, questioning Roger's promotion of Bitcoin Cash. The Scammer Accusation (00:21:18) Discussion about accusations against Roger Ver being labeled a scammer due to perceived financial losses. The Block Size Debate (00:21:35) Debate on the implications of hard forks and naming conventions in the context of Bitcoin's block size. Satoshi's Conflicted Views (00:22:22) Exploration of Satoshi Nakamoto's ambiguous stance on block sizes and their impact on Bitcoin. Mt. Gox Video Controversy (00:24:23) Reference to Roger Ver's video on Mount Gox and its perceived implications for Bitcoin's credibility. Self-Custody Awareness (00:25:03) Discussion on the understanding of self-custody in Bitcoin during the early days compared to now. Roger's Involvement with Mt. Gox (00:26:57) Analysis of Roger Ver's proactive attempts to assist Mount Gox during its crisis. Historical Context of Criticism (00:29:06) Reflection on how hindsight alters perceptions of Roger's actions during the Mt. Gox incident. Debate Dynamics (00:31:00) Insights into Roger Ver's debate style and the challenges faced by opponents like Jimmy Song. Roger's Support of Craig Wright (00:36:22) Discussion on Roger Ver's past support for Craig Wright and subsequent regrets regarding that decision. Legal Battles with Craig Wright (00:40:14) Mention of Roger Ver's successful lawsuit against Craig Wright as a potential redemption. Romance Scams and Reporting (00:40:53) Discussion on how victims of romance scams often feel ashamed and do not report incidents. Karmic Justice and Roger Ver (00:44:16) Exploration of public anger towards Roger Ver and perceptions of justice regarding his past actions. Chaos Climbers in the Bitcoin Community (00:45:03) Analysis of individuals rising in influence by criticizing opposing factions during the block size war. Debate Analysis: Samson vs. Roger (00:46:02) Reflection on the 2018 debate between Samson and Roger, highlighting performance over substance. Clipping and Public Perception (00:48:11) Discussion on how clipped statements can distort public perception and impact reputations. Economic Growth and Human Welfare (00:49:07) The importance of economic growth for human welfare and the misunderstanding surrounding its implications. Performativity in Bitcoin Discourse (00:50:26) Critique of the performative outrage in Bitcoin discussions and its effects on community dynamics. Debate Takeaways and Misrepresentation (00:51:08) Observations on how the narrative from the debate overshadowed substantive discussions about Bitcoin. Scaling Solutions: Lightning vs. Bitcoin Cash (00:52:13) Comparison of the Lightning Network and Bitcoin Cash as competing solutions to Bitcoin's scaling issues. Hard Forks and Community Splits (00:54:43) Discussion on the implications of hard forks on community cohesion and the future of Bitcoin. Victimless Crimes in Forks (00:57:54) Reflection on the benefits of Bitcoin forks and the perception of them as victimless crimes. Toxic Bitcoin Maximalism (00:58:41) Analysis of how toxic maximalism emerged as a reaction to the proliferation of altcoins and forks. Conception of Money and Community (00:59:03) Discussion on the importance of a unified currency and the challenges posed by multiple forks. Ethereum as the Opposition (01:00:28) Exploration of Ethereum's role as a competing force against Bitcoin and its community dynamics. Network Effects and Complacency (01:00:52) Discussion on how dominant networks can lead to complacency and hinder competition in the crypto space. Block Size War and Ethereum's Rise (01:01:40) Exploration of Ethereum's growth during the block size debate and its impact on the crypto landscape. Scaling Challenges in Bitcoin (01:02:52) Overview of scaling solutions and the failures that led to external developments outside Bitcoin. Layer Two Labs Promotion (01:04:00) Introduction of Layer Two Labs and its mission to scale Bitcoin through sidechains. Drive Chains vs. Tree Chains (01:05:15) Comparison of Drive Chains and Tree Chains, highlighting conceptual differences and critiques. Bitcoin.com News Collaboration (01:08:40) Discussion about Bitcoin.com News and its valuable coverage of cryptocurrency topics. Critique of Current Thought Leaders (01:09:46) Speaker expresses disappointment in the insights provided by prominent figures in the crypto community. Exit Tax Controversy (01:11:20) Debate on the legitimacy and implications of the U.S. exit tax in relation to Roger Ver. Berlin Wall Explanation (01:21:19) Description of the Berlin Wall's historical significance and its role in the Cold War. The Berlin Wall Discussion (01:23:06) The speakers discuss the historical significance and implications of the Berlin Wall and its impact on families. Roger Ver's Moral Responsibility (01:27:02) A conversation about Roger Ver's rejection of the social contract based on his moral beliefs regarding taxation. Exit Tax Controversy (01:27:30) Debate on the fairness of the exit tax and its implications for individuals like Roger Ver. Roger Ver's Legal Representation (01:28:09) Discussion on Roger Ver's legal situation and the role of his law firm in his tax issues. Greg Maxwell's Threats (01:29:33) Mention of Greg Maxwell's threats towards Roger Ver and the potential consequences of such actions. Birthday Surprise (01:30:18) A light-hearted moment as the host celebrates a birthday surprise during the podcast. Tax Law Complications (01:32:07) The complexity of tax law and its implications for Roger Ver's financial situation are explored. Jameson Lopp's Tweet (01:35:14) Analysis of a tweet discussing Roger Ver's tax issues and the IRS's claims against him. CoinFlex Bankruptcy Discussion (01:37:01) Exploration of Roger Ver's financial troubles related to CoinFlex and the implications of his legal battles. Roger's Video Explanation (01:39:14) Discussion about a video Roger Ver released explaining his situation with CoinFlex and legal constraints. Legal Challenges and Persecution (01:42:43) Reflections on Roger Ver's past legal challenges and the perception of him as a criminal in the Bitcoin community. Vindictiveness of the Blocksize War (01:43:46) Commentary on the negative attitudes and tactics used by some during the blocksize debate against Roger Ver. Discussion on Roger Ver's Bitcoin Contributions (01:44:56) We discuss Roger Ver's early contributions to Bitcoin and the controversies surrounding him. Twitter Controversies and Public Perception (01:46:00) The conversation touches on Twitter dynamics and public perceptions of Roger Ver's financial status. Taxation and IRS Issues (01:49:02) Concerns are raised about the lack of clarity from the IRS regarding tax obligations for Roger Ver. Critique of Tax System (01:50:05) A critique of the U.S. tax system and the complexities faced by taxpayers is presented. Roger Ver's Future and Clemency (01:52:39) Discussion on Roger Ver's potential return to the U.S. and the implications of his clemency. Plea Deals and Coercion in Legal System (02:01:29) The speakers examine the coercive nature of plea deals in the U.S. legal system. Justice System Inequities (02:03:59) A reflection on the inequities in the justice system and the challenges of sentencing. Introduction to Alexander Vinnik (02:05:07) Discussion about Vinnik's arrest and his connection to the Mount Gox hack. Comparison with Roger Ver (02:06:18) Contrasting Vinnik's criminal actions with the legal troubles faced by Roger Ver. Plea Deals and Legal System Issues (02:06:39) Exploring the coercive nature of plea deals in the justice system. Vinnik's Sentencing and Release (02:08:39) Details about Vinnik's sentencing and the circumstances of his release. Negotiations for Prisoner Exchange (02:09:50) Discussion about the political implications of Vinnik's negotiation for freedom. Details on the Trade (02:10:46) Information about the American teacher traded for Vinnik and her situation. Question from the Audience (02:12:54) Transition to audience questions regarding Bitcoin's scalability and potential forks. The Exodus Question (02:13:02) Audience inquiry about the potential migration to alternative cryptocurrencies. Forking Bitcoin Discussion (02:15:17) Analysis of the challenges and implications of forking Bitcoin. Cultural Apathy in Bitcoin Community (02:20:15) Reflection on the disconnection between miners and Bitcoin's philosophical discussions. Future of Bitcoin and Sidechains (02:22:33) Speculation on Bitcoin's ability to scale and the role of sidechains in its future. Discussion on Bitcoin Market Dynamics (02:27:41) Exploration of Bitcoin's market behavior and the implications of pricing strategies in a competitive landscape. Contention in Bitcoin Governance (02:28:31) Debate on the contentious nature of Bitcoin governance and the challenges of achieving consensus within the community. Concerns Over Bitcoin's Cultural Issues (02:30:31) Discussion on potential cultural problems within Bitcoin and the implications for its future success. Measuring Decentralization (02:31:58) Introduction to the concept of decentralization and its measurement within cryptocurrency contexts. Critique of Mining Centralization (02:32:08) Examination of the complexities and contradictions in defining mining centralization in Bitcoin. Transparency and Decentralization (02:34:03) Discussion on the importance of transparency and the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin versus traditional systems. State Rejection of Bitcoin Reserves (02:40:55) Insights into states rejecting Bitcoin reserve bills due to volatility concerns, reflecting on societal attitudes toward Bitcoin. Bitcoin's Role in Black Market Transactions (02:44:27) Analysis of Bitcoin's potential as a payment system in both legal and illegal markets, emphasizing its dual utility. Roleplay Request on BTC vs BCH (02:48:10) Engagement in a roleplay scenario discussing the market's preference for BTC over BCH and its implications. Orthodox Plan for Scaling (02:49:21) Discussion on the orthodox plan for Bitcoin scaling and competition with Ethereum and other altcoins. Competition and Market Share (02:50:39) Analysis of market competition and the declining market share of Bitcoin compared to Ethereum and Monero. Libertarian Party Dynamics (02:53:11) Exploration of the fragmentation within the Libertarian Party and its implications for political strategy. Libertarian Vote in Elections (02:54:52) Investigation into the percentage of votes received by the Libertarian Party in recent elections. Trump's Influence on Libertarians (02:56:40) Discussion on Trump's appeal to Libertarians and its impact on voting patterns. Free Ross Campaign Strategy (02:59:17) Strategy for political advocacy, focusing on the Free Ross campaign and leveraging support for major candidates. Comparing Cryptocurrency Market Positions (03:01:56) Examination of the market positions of various cryptocurrencies and their relative values. Bitcoin Cash Capabilities (03:02:50) Discussion on the capabilities of Bitcoin Cash and its potential for innovation in the crypto space. Historical Context of Bitcoin Development (03:04:12) Reflection on Bitcoin's development history and the missed opportunities for innovation. Language and Technological Change (03:06:27) Analogy between language evolution and cryptocurrency dominance, emphasizing technological impacts. Early Bitcoin Innovations (03:09:39) Revisiting early innovations in Bitcoin and their relevance to today's cryptocurrency landscape. Ossification and Innovation in Blockchain (03:11:36) Discussion on the ossification of blockchain and the need for innovation in Layer 2 solutions. Programming Languages Debate (03:12:43) Comparison of programming languages used in Bitcoin and Ethereum, referencing Steve Jobs' philosophy. Bitcoin's Imperfections (03:14:15) Discussion on Bitcoin's evolution and the ongoing need for improvements despite claims of perfection. Vulnerabilities in Bitcoin (03:15:21) Concerns over the delayed disclosure of vulnerabilities in Bitcoin's code and its implications. Power Dynamics in Bitcoin Development (03:16:41) Analysis of the influence of Bitcoin Core on development and the challenges faced by forks. John Dillon's Controversial Emails (03:18:00) Exploration of accusations against John Dillon and the implications for Bitcoin's governance. Coinjoin Bounty Scandal (03:20:19) Revelation of John Dillon's involvement with a bounty fund and its impact on project funding. The Role of Competition in Development (03:22:14) Importance of competition among software in driving innovation and user satisfaction. Roger Ver's Legal Troubles (03:25:28) Discussion about the potential consequences for those prosecuting Roger Ver and the nature of his accusations. Mail Fraud Charges Against Roger Ver (03:27:12) Overview of the legal accusations against Roger Ver, particularly concerning mail fraud. Hypothetical Perspective on Roger Ver (03:28:44) A thought experiment about how perceptions of Roger Ver would change based on exposure to propaganda. Thoughts on Taxation and Consent (03:32:32) Discussion on the ethics of taxation and Roger Ver's views on consent in financial matters. Tax Dollars and Freedom (03:33:53) Discussion on how American tax dollars fund IRS enforcement and the implications for those wanting to leave the country. Exit Tax Debate (03:35:06) Debate on the fairness of an exit tax and its implications for American citizens leaving the country. Roger Ver's Legal Battle (03:36:04) Analysis of Roger Ver's resources and challenges in his ongoing legal issues with tax authorities. Future Tax Laws and Risks (03:36:30) Concerns about potential future tax laws and their impact on individuals' financial situations. Legal Precedents and Justice (03:37:53) Discussion on how Roger Ver's case may set precedents for others facing similar legal challenges. Political Influence on Justice (03:38:58) Exploration of the arbitrary nature of legal sentences and political influences on the justice system. Dignity in Departure (03:39:29) Reflections on the emotional toll of leaving the U.S. while maintaining dignity and facing potential repercussions. Logistics of a Pardon (03:40:30) Speculation on the political motivations behind a potential pardon for Roger Ver. Tax Law Evolution (03:41:53) Discussion on how tax laws have changed over time, affecting the classification of Bitcoin. Legal Advice and Accountability (03:43:14) Questioning the responsibilities of tax attorneys in guiding clients through complex legal issues. Closing Remarks and Thanks (03:44:15)

In recent years, Bitcoin has undergone a major culture shift which promotes stagnation, complacency & simping to politicians over maximizing the utility of the money. Eric Voskuil & John Carvalho join the show to remind everyone what the mission really is. State of Bitcoin - [00:01:17] Bitcoin Maximalism - [00:01:32] Bitcoin as a Ponzi Scheme - [00:02:27] Transaction Fees - [00:04:57] History of Bitcoin Tokens (Omni, Counterparty, Mastercoin) Definition of Tokens - [00:08:01] Custodial Problems with Tokens - [00:09:12] Bitcoin and Fiat Money - [00:11:09] Why Bitcoiners Talk About Money - [00:15:49] Stateless Money - [00:17:44] Austrian Economics and Bitcoin - [00:21:01] Monetary Inflation vs. Price Inflation - [00:26:01] Cantillon Effect - [00:29:00] Dollar Inflation and Gold - [00:33:59] Misunderstandings in the Bitcoin Community - [00:41:42] Bitcoin Semantics - [00:43:21] Bitcoin Divisibility - [01:00:13] Bitcoin Deflation - [01:03:41] Maxi Price and One Coin Assumption - [01:07:43] Competition Between Monies - [01:13:42] Scaling Bitcoin - [01:22:41] Bitcoin for the Unbanked - [01:26:14] Maximizing Throughput - [01:36:11] Right to Fork - [01:45:45] Running Old Bitcoin Versions - [01:51:35] Bitcoin as Money vs. Credit - [01:56:26] Settlement in Bitcoin - [02:07:45] Peer-to-Peer Credit Systems - [02:14:47] Fractional Reserve Banking - [02:26:32] Bitkit Wallet and Spending vs. Saving - [02:36:13] Block size increases and Bitcoin adoption - [03:00:00] Scaling Bitcoin and transaction validation - [03:01:00] Bitcoin overflowing into Litecoin and quantum resistance - [03:02:00] Pruning historical data and exchange price - [03:03:00] Lightning system complexity and Bitcoin's value proposition - [03:05:00] Bitcoin as an investment and speculation - [03:07:00] Optimizing Bitcoin throughput and developer motivations - [03:09:00] Scaling Bitcoin and speculation - [03:11:00] Shitcoins, scams, and Bitcoin's security model - [03:13:00] Litecoin's extension blocks and Mimblewimble - [03:15:00] Bitcoin's security and the legitimacy of altcoins - [03:17:00] Shitcoins and Bitcoin's essential aspects - [03:19:00] Majority hash power censorship and attacks - [03:21:00] Bitcoin speculation and market dynamics - [03:23:00] Michael Saylor's Bitcoin strategy and MicroStrategy's history - [03:26:00] Saylor's Bitcoin investment and market manipulation - [03:29:00] Saylor's stock sales and Bitcoin's future - [03:31:00] Blockstream's accomplishments and the Chia project - [03:33:00] Blockstream's influence and SegWit - [03:35:00] Adam Back's influence and Blockstream's hype - [03:37:00] Bitcoin Core's power and the need for competition - [03:39:00] Initial block download performance and Bitcoin Core's architecture - [03:41:00] UTXO store and Bitcoin Core's performance - [03:43:00] Parallelism in Bitcoin Core and assumed UTXO - [03:45:00] Initial block download time and Bitcoin Core's scalability - [03:47:00] Monoculture in Bitcoin development and IBD performance - [03:49:00] UTXO cache and shutdown time - [03:51:00] Trust assumptions in Bitcoin Core and UTXO commitments - [03:53:00] Bitcoin Core's halting problem and theoretical download limits - [03:55:00] Sponsorships: Sideshift, LayerTwo Labs, Ciurea - [03:57:00] Drivechains and ZK rollups - [04:02:00] ZK rollups and liquidity on Ethereum - [04:04:00] Drivechains and altcoins - [04:06:00] Scaling Bitcoin and cultural taboos - [04:08:00] Engineer-driven change and Monero's approach - [04:10:00] Confidential transactionsL Zano & DarkFi - [04:12:00] Fungibility and Bitcoin's metadata - [04:14:00] Privacy, metadata, and state surveillance - [04:16:00] Privacy, taint, and Bitcoin mixing - [04:18:00] Bitcoin mixing and plausible deniability - [04:20:00] Mining and company registration - [04:22:00] Block reward and hash power - [04:24:00] Privacy and mixing - [04:26:00] Privacy in the Bitcoin whitepaper and zero-knowledge proofs - [04:28:00] Dark Wallet and John Dillon - [04:30:00] Dark Wallet and Li Bitcoin - [04:32:00] Amir Taaki's projects and software development - [04:34:00] Dark Wallet funding and developer costs - [04:36:00] Libbitcoin's code size and developer salaries - [04:38:00] John Dillon and Greg Maxwell - [04:40:00] Opportunistic encryption and BIPs 151/152 - [04:42:00] Dandelion and privacy - [04:44:00] BIP 37 and Bloom filters - [04:46:00] Consensus cleanup and the Time Warp bug - [04:48:00] Merkle tree malleability and 64-byte transactions - [04:50:00] 64-byte transactions and SPV wallets - [04:52:00] Coinbase transactions and malleability - [04:54:00] Invalid block hashes and DoS vectors - [04:56:00] Core bug and ban list overflow - [04:58:00] Storing hashes of invalid blocks - [05:00:00] DoS vectors and invalid blocks - [05:02:00] Malleated Merkle trees and 64-byte transactions - [05:04:00] 64-byte transactions and Merkle tree malleability - [05:06:00] Null points and malleated blocks - [05:08:00] Redundant checks and the inflation soft fork - [05:10:00] Op code separator and code complexity - [05:12:00] Transaction order in a block - [05:14:00] Forward references in blocks - [05:16:00] Coinbase transaction rules - [05:18:00] Time Warp bug and Litecoin support - [05:20:00] Quadratic op roll bug - [05:22:00] Stack implementation and op roll - [05:24:00] Templatized stack and op roll optimization - [05:26:00] Non-standard transactions and direct submission to miners - [05:28:00] Mempool policy and DoS - [05:30:00] Monoculture and competing implementations - [05:32:00] Consensus cleanup and Berkeley DB - [05:34:00] Code vs. consensus - [05:36:00] Bitcoin Knots and Luke-jr - [05:38:00] 300 kilobyte node and Luke-jr's views - [05:40:00] Bitcoin Knots and performance - [05:42:00] Bitcoin Knots and censorship - [05:44:00] Censorship and miner incentives - [05:46:00] Censorship and hash power - [05:48:00] Soft forks and censorship - [05:50:00] Ordinals and covenants - [05:52:00] RBF and zero-confirmation transactions - [05:54:00] Double spending and merchant risk - [05:56:00] First-seen mempool policy and RBF - [05:58:00] Low-value transactions and RBF - [06:00:00] Computational cost of actions - [06:00:15] Building infrastructure and system disruption - [06:00:20] Threat actors and economic disruption - [06:00:26] Double spending detection and system control - [06:00:29] Safety and manageability of zero comp transactions - [06:00:41] Security of zero comp transactions - [06:00:51] RBF (Replace-by-fee) and its relevance - [06:01:06] Bitcoin's mempool and transaction handling - [06:01:25] Mempool overflow and resource management - [06:02:08] Transaction storage and mining - [06:02:45] Miners' incentives and fee maximization - [06:03:07] Mempool policy and DOS protection - [06:03:41] Transaction validation and block context - [06:04:11] Fee limits and DOS protection - [06:05:13] Transaction sets, graph processing, and fee maximization - [06:06:24] Mining empty blocks and hash rate - [06:07:34] Replace-by-fee (RBF) and its purpose - [06:08:07] Infrastructure and RBF - [06:09:14] Transaction pool and conflict resolution - [06:09:44] Disk space, fees, and DOS protection - [06:11:06] Fee rates and DOS protection - [06:12:22] Opt-in RBF and mempool full RBF - [06:13:45] Intent flagging in transactions - [06:14:45] Miners obeying user intent and system value - [06:17:06] Socialized gain and individual expense - [06:18:17] Service reliability and profitability - [06:19:06] First-seen mempool policy - [06:19:37] Mempool policy and implementation - [06:20:06] User perspective on transaction priority - [06:21:14] Mempool conflicts and double spending - [06:22:10] CPFP (Child Pays for Parent) - [06:22:24] Mempool management and fee rates - [06:24:30] Mempool complexity and Peter Wuille's work - [06:25:54] Memory and disk resource management - [06:27:37] First-seen policy and miner profitability - [06:29:25] Miners' preference for first-seen - [06:30:04] Computational cost and fee optimization - [06:31:10] Security, Cypherpunk mentality, and the state - [06:35:25] Bitcoin's security model and censorship resistance - [06:41:02] State censorship and fee increases - [06:43:00] State's incentive to censor - [06:46:15] Lightning Network and regulation - [06:48:41] NGU (Number Go Up) and deference to the state - [06:51:10] Reasons for discussing Bitcoin's security model - [06:53:25] Bitcoin's potential subversion and resilience - [06:55:50] Lightning Network subsidies and scaling - [06:57:36] Mining protocols and security - [07:02:02] Braidpool and centralized mining - [07:04:44] Compact blocks and latency reduction - [07:07:23] Orphan rates and mining centralization - [07:08:16] Privacy and threat environments - [07:08:40] Social graphs, reputation, and identity - [07:10:23] Social scalability and Bitcoin - [07:12:36] Individual empowerment and anonymity - [07:16:48] Trust in society and the role of the state - [07:18:01] Payment methods and trust - [07:20:15] Credit reporting agencies and regulation - [07:22:17] Hardware wallets and self-custody - [07:23:46] Security vulnerabilities in Ledger - [07:27:14] Disclosure of secrets on Ledger devices - [07:36:27] Compromised machines and hardware wallets - [07:42:00] Methods for transferring signed transactions - [07:48:25] Threat scenarios and hardware wallet security - [07:50:47] Hardware wallet usage and personal comfort - [07:56:40] Coldcard wallets and user experience - [08:02:23] Security issues in the VX project - [08:03:25] Seed generation and hardware randomness - [08:12:05] Mastering Bitcoin and random number generation - [08:17:41]

Saunter is a designer and bitcoin advocate who works at Alby: one of the most popular Lightning network wallets. In this episode, he describes his experiences with onboarding new users and increasing adoption around the world. Time stamps: Introducing Saunter (00:00:51) Evolution of Alby Wallet (00:01:38) Functionalities of the Alby Wallet (00:02:26) Lightning Business Model Challenges (00:05:46) Bitcoin as a Medium of Exchange (00:07:45) Adoption in Central America (00:09:55) Degrees of Bitcoin Adoption (00:12:59) Integration with Local Payment Systems (00:18:07) Educational Initiatives in El Salvador (00:20:43) Current State of Adoption (00:22:43) Chivo Wallet (00:25:46) Top-Down Adoption Issues (00:28:10) Grassroots Initiatives (00:30:46) Alby Wallet Features (00:35:33) Nostr Integration (00:36:08) Programmability of Bitcoin Lightning (00:39:57) Self-Hosting and Lightning Network (00:43:49) Future of Alby and User Accounts (00:46:27) Exploring Alby Wallet Options (00:51:48) Popular Apps on Alby (00:52:25) Point of Sale App Development (00:53:44) Isolated Balance Feature (00:55:07) User Experience with Alby App (00:56:30) Recommendations for Implementations (00:57:00) App Store Insights (00:58:00) Connecting Alby with Accounts (00:59:51) Channel Management and Backups (01:01:29) User Data Privacy Concerns (01:02:35) Benefits of Adding Alby to Full Nodes (01:04:14) Enhancing Node Capabilities (01:08:26) Inspiration for UX Design (01:12:56) User Testing Insights (01:15:56) Evolution of Lightning Wallets (01:16:52) Branding and Design Philosophy (01:17:53) Concerns About Security Exploits (01:19:25) Adoption Challenges and Perspectives (01:22:47) Bitcoin vs. Stablecoins (01:26:41) Market Dynamics and Adoption Rates (01:29:08) Future of Bitcoin Security (01:30:39) Interconnectedness of Bitcoin Systems (01:33:43) Challenges with Stablecoins on Lightning (01:37:31) Future Changes to Bitcoin Protocol (01:39:21) Discussion on Block Size Increase (01:40:42) Data Compression in Blocks (01:41:24) Cost of Verification Concerns (01:42:04) Layer Two Experiments (01:42:25) Risks of Layer One Changes (01:44:07) Focus on Lightning Network Development (01:45:06) Introducing Alby Wallet (01:45:29) Onboarding New Users (01:45:45) Benefits of Alby Hub (01:46:32) User-Friendly Lightning Node Setup (01:47:46) Following Saunter's Work (01:48:27)

Launched on January 3rd 2019, a whole decade after Bitcoin, Beam is the first MimbleWimble implementation to hit the markets. Unlike its smiley cousin Grin, Beam is organized more like a start-up, was more efficient in raising VC funding, and appears to focus more on smart contracts and interoperability with other chains. In this episode, Beam CTO Alex Romanov explains everything about the network: what it is, how it works, and what it aims to accomplish with the MimbleWimble technology. Time stamps: Introducing Alex Romanov (00:00:24) Beam's Launch and MimbleWimble (00:00:50) Alex's Journey to Beam (00:03:01) Beam vs. Monero vs. Zcash (00:04:25) Technical Aspects of Mimblewimble (00:07:12) Unique Properties of Beam Transactions (00:09:31) Blockchain Analysis and Pruning (00:12:15) Misconceptions About Mimblewimble (00:13:12) Responding to Criticism (00:14:21) The Impact of the Ivan Bogatyy Incident (00:18:01) Discussion on UTXO Attacks (00:20:21) Dandelion Protocol and Transaction Origin Obfuscation (00:21:28) Decoy Inputs in Beam (00:22:42) Integration of Lelantus-based Solutions (00:23:46) Overview of Beam Wallet Features (00:24:42) Introduction to Beam's Smart Contracts (00:28:20) Confidential Stablecoin: Nephrite (00:30:59) Comparison of Privacy Protocols (00:33:35) User Experience and Usability in Privacy Coins (00:38:23) DAO Voting System (00:39:26) Staking and Layer 2 Development (00:40:00) Popularity of Privacy Coins (00:40:41) The Evolution of Privacy in Blockchain (00:43:24) Beam vs. Ethereum (00:46:20) User Need for Privacy (00:48:17) Social Shift Towards Privacy (00:50:13) Comparison of Beam and Grin (00:51:19) Decentralized GitHub on Beam (00:52:11) Beam's Smart Contracts vs. Ethereum (00:55:14) Beam Wallet Interface (00:55:46) Atomic Swaps & Asset Swaps Explained (00:56:22) Native Swapping with Bitcoin (00:57:51) Decentralization Concerns (00:59:01) Messaging Layer in Beam Wallet (01:00:50) Beam's Messaging System (01:03:53) Maximum Anonymity Set Feature (01:10:47) Exchange Withdrawal Addresses (01:13:33) Long Addresses in Beam (01:14:29) Roadmap Features (01:16:28) Confidential DeFi Article (01:18:33) Mining Beam with GPUs (01:22:01) Community and Mining Pools (01:23:01) Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake (01:24:10) Investment Pitch for Beam (01:25:12) Funding Challenges in Privacy Projects (01:26:11) Collaboration in Privacy Space (01:27:20) Confusion Over Beam Tickers (01:29:30) Final Thoughts on Beam's Development (01:33:36) The Importance of Feedback (01:36:44) Beam and Monero Bridge Collaboration (01:37:08) Why not Build on Bitcoin (01:38:06) Pruning the Blockchain (01:38:40) Mimblewimble's Harry Potter References (01:39:51) Marketing Challenges in Crypto (01:43:20) Price Action and Exchange Listings (01:44:10) Need for Deeper Analysis (01:46:27) The Scams Narrative (01:46:37) Innovation through Competition (01:50:08) Usability Challenges in Crypto (01:52:50) Positive Features of Beam Wallet (01:54:05) Local First Design in Beam (01:54:27) Ethereum Wallets and Features (01:55:21) Local Application Architecture (01:55:53) Hardware Wallet Integration (01:56:20) Decentralization Goals (01:56:56) Privacy vs. Usability Trade-off (01:57:08)

The life of Michael Parenti is truly extraordinary, as he witnessed two significant cultural movements that changed the word. Growing up in Malibu, he went to school with the likes of Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen, met a young Madonna before she was an international star, hung out in Bob Dylan's house, and saw live acts like Nirvana and Red Hot Chilli Peppers long before MTV made them famous. As an internet entrepreneur, he became involved with the Bitcoin Foundation and also saw the early days of Ethereum. He attended hundreds of events, spoke with some of the people who are completely unapproachable today, and found himself in the middle of something magical, naive, and revolutionary. In this episode, we talk about the backstage politics that Michael Parenti witnessed and what it was like to believe in the cyhpherpunk dream more than a decade ago. Time stamps: Intro (00:00:48) Why Michael Is Exiled (00:01:54) Mainstream Adoption (00:02:11) Price Manipulation? (00:07:02) Debate on Bitcoin's Future (00:10:03) Ethereum as a Layer for Bitcoin (00:11:22) Bitcoin's Limitations (00:14:30) Government Surveillance and Compliance (00:16:21) Michael's Personal Experience with the Government (00:19:22) Reality of Government Power (00:21:21) Citrea (00:22:44) Room Mates at Pizza Day (00:24:34) Networking at Paralelni Polis (00:26:02) Ethereum as a Sidechain with WBTC (00:28:16) Bitcoin Foundation Experiences (00:32:06) Concerns Over Bitcoin's Direction (00:35:17) New York Agreement (00:37:28) Lightning Network & Disappointment (00:41:10) Bitcoin's Value and Community (00:45:13) Layer Two Labs and Bitcoin Maximalism (00:47:23) Challenges of Rootstock (00:52:17) Blockstream & Fear of Change (00:54:23) Incentives and Bitcoin's Stagnation (00:57:31) Self-Custody Challenges (01:00:38) Satoshi's Naivety (01:05:19) Zcash Is Satoshi's Vision (01:07:28) Historical Context of Bitcoin (01:12:10) Mt. Gox and Early Exchanges (01:14:55) Vitalik Buterin's Contributions (01:16:36) Toxicity in Bitcoin Development (01:18:35) Legal Uncertainty in Bitcoin (01:22:00) Ethereum's Development Model (01:24:19) Bitcoin's Future and Upgrades (01:29:09) SideShift (01:30:35) NoOnes (01:32:28) Dysfunction of Bitcoin Communities (01:34:06) Bitcoin Foundation: The Good, The Bad, The Corruption (01:35:36) Social Media's Role in Bitcoin's Evolution (02:01:10) Wikileaks and Bitcoin Intersection (02:02:09) Early Bitcoin Community Dynamics (02:04:20) Cypherpunks Mailing List Involvement (02:05:03) Wikileaks and Decentralized Media (02:06:45) Bitcoin as a Response to Financial Blockades (02:12:34) Transition to Bitcoin Foundation (02:15:55) Reflections on Bitcoin's Growth (02:18:08) Community Dynamics Across Cryptocurrencies (02:20:42) Samson Mow (02:23:28) Inflation and Daily Costs (02:27:00) Crisis of Conscience (02:28:56) Leaving Paralelni Polis and Event Fatigue (02:29:49) Celebrity Encounters in Malibu (02:30:36) Transition from Bitcoin to Ethereum (02:39:02) Music Journalism, Television & Editing (02:43:24) Crypto's Emergence (02:48:54) The Evolution of Crypto Communities (02:52:27) Government and Capital Accumulation (02:53:28) Bitcoin's Role in the Future (02:56:58) Critique of Stablecoins (03:02:37) The Need for Multiple Cryptocurrencies (03:03:57) The Absurdity of Bitcoin Narratives (03:05:02) The Toxicity of Crypto Tribes (03:09:25) Disillusionment with Cryptocurrency (03:20:43) The Future of Bitcoin (03:24:05) The Death of the American Empire, Climate Change & Economic Realities (03:25:19) Disruption and Change (03:31:05) Discussion on Realpolitik (03:34:00) Julian Assange's Impact (03:34:56) Podconf (03:36:10) Future of Bitcoin Forks (03:38:10) Redistribution of Satoshi's Coins (03:39:53) Privacy Magazine (03:43:17) Is Peter Todd Satoshi Nakamoto? (03:43:50) Identifying Satoshi (03:46:22) Early Bitcoin Experience (04:03:09) MultiBit Wallet (04:04:41) Advice to Younger Self (04:05:25) Bitcoin Foundation Today (04:06:00) Memes and Education (04:12:24) Influence on Ethereum Community (04:15:50) Regrets About NFTs (04:18:09) Personal Aspirations vs. Wealth (04:23:18) Trust Fund Kids in Los Angeles (04:24:50) Nabila Yacht DJing (04:27:51) Classic Cars vs. Luxury Vehicles (04:28:49) Selling Family Heirlooms (04:34:07) Being Neighbors with Mick Fleetwood and Chris Carter (04:34:40) Disinterest in AI (04:36:43) Focus on Privacy Tech (04:39:39) Concerns About Universal Basic Income (04:41:55) Geopolitical Implications of Technology (04:44:23) Fascination with Physics (04:51:00) Optimism for the Future & Aging (04:54:00) Cultural Nostalgia (04:58:00) Opportunities in the Internet Age (05:05:05) Historical Perspective on Human Advancement & Optimism (05:10:20) Current State of Layer Two Solutions (05:16:30) Concerns about Bitcoin's Transaction Fees (05:19:27) Future of Decentralized Exchanges (05:22:39) Incentives for Bitcoin Holders (05:24:49) Bringing Use Cases to Bitcoin (05:27:17) Impact of Other Blockchains on Bitcoin (05:29:43) Gold vs. Bitcoin Narrative (05:31:16) Physical Gold Demand (05:34:00) Lexus or Supra? (05:36:37) Bitcoin Flipping Gold? (05:37:30) Privacy Conference Planning (05:44:02) Live Viewership Metrics (06:09:09) Bob Dylan (06:12:45) Tom Petty Anecdote (06:19:09) Nirvana in Vienna (06:26:37) Desert Sessions (06:28:17) Early ZZ Top Albums (06:29:06) Stevie Ray Vaughan (06:31:11) Chess Records and Iconic Artists (06:31:44) Meeting Little Richard (06:32:50) Video Production Beginnings (06:32:50) Gary Busey's Music (06:35:04) Malibu Music Scene (06:36:23) The Doors Film Project (06:37:42) Meeting Robin Williams in Acting Class (06:41:00) Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman (06:43:17) Decline of Western Civilization (06:45:52) Managing the Surf Punks (06:46:16) Fear and Punk Scene (06:47:09) Ramones Concert Experience (06:50:27) Talking Heads and Ramones (06:51:03) David Bowie's Influence (06:52:40) A Teenage Adventure with Led Zeppelin (06:54:07) David Lee Roth in Hollywood (07:04:39) Pink Floyd Tour Experience (07:10:47) Record-Breaking Podcast (07:12:02) First Big Concert Experience (07:14:47) Introduction to Hip Hop (07:17:08) Family's Music Background (07:22:21) Meeting Donald Fagen of Steely Dan (07:26:38) David Bowie Records (07:30:46) Critique of Modern Music (07:38:13) Music Journalism Experience (07:41:19) Bitcoin Takeover Podcast Theme Song (07:41:59) Girlfriend's Comment (07:43:11) Regret Over 1965 Fender Twin Reverb (07:43:28) Mesa Boogie Story (07:44:31) Promotions (07:49:24) Proof of Work Summit (07:50:05) Difficult Questions at Conferences (08:00:06) Experience in Music Journalism (08:01:29) Cultural Judgment and Values (08:02:00) Observations on Events (08:02:35) Podcast Purpose (08:03:02) American Exceptionalism (08:03:52) Interpersonal Interactions (08:04:06) Personal Growth and Change (08:04:40) Tribalism and Online Culture (08:05:04) Decentralization and Freedom (08:06:56) Critique of Monero Community (08:08:00) Record Podcast Duration (08:09:44)

Bitcoin developer Super Testnet argues that the Lightning Network is more private – and therefore better suited for darknet markets than Monero. In this episode, he breaks down all the nuances involved and defines good financial privacy. Time stamps: Introducing Super Testnet (00:00:48) Lightning on Dark Web Markets (00:01:08) Lightning Network Privacy Features (00:01:40) Analysis of Sender and Receiver Privacy (00:02:02) Onion Routing Explanation (00:03:07) Invoice Privacy Comparison (00:04:36) Transaction Visibility in Monero? (00:06:08) Information Storage in Lightning (00:07:12) Liquidity and Large Transactions (00:08:10) Amount Privacy in Lightning (00:09:34) Private Channels in Lightning (00:11:25) Routing Nodes and Privacy (00:13:59) How Monero Transactions Work (00:15:08) Encryption Standards in Monero (00:16:01) Recipient Privacy in Monero (00:17:54) Privacy Tech (00:18:52) Network Level Privacy (00:19:02) Tor Usage in Lightning Network (00:19:44) Routing Node Configuration (00:20:07) Dandelion++ (00:21:00) IP Address Association in Lightning (00:21:22) Encryption in Lightning Transactions (00:22:50) Monero's Network Privacy by Default (00:23:18) Chainalysis Video Reference (00:23:40) Remote Procedure Call Limitations (00:24:38) Custodial Solutions and Privacy (00:26:31) Privacy Advantages of Mints (00:28:08) Full Chain Membership Proofs (00:29:53) Encrypted Senders in Lightning (00:31:52) Comparison with Zcash (00:32:30) Barriers for Lightning Network Adoption (00:34:05) Exploring XMR Bazaar (00:35:02) SideShift (00:36:03) Paul Sztorc's Core Untouched Soft Work (00:37:14) Drivechains Activation (00:38:27) Ossification of Bitcoin (00:41:09) Concerns About Ossification (00:41:51) ZK Rollups Discussion (00:42:35) Citrea's Zero Knowledge Proof Rollup (00:45:05) Community Concerns on Lightning Network (00:48:34) Chainalysis and Dandelion Protocol (00:50:23) LSP and KYC Privacy Issues (00:52:39) Receiver Privacy in Lightning Network (00:53:28) Phoenix Wallet Setup (00:54:15) Sender Privacy Concerns (00:55:30) View Key and Monero (00:57:10) Chainalysis and Lightning Network (01:02:08) Monero Tracing Capabilities (01:06:01) User Input Error in Privacy (01:07:02) The Lightning Network vs. Monero Privacy (01:10:56) Conference Plans in Romania (01:12:00) Monero Payment Channel Network (01:14:36) Full Chain Membership Proofs (01:15:21) Lightning Network and Sender Encryption (01:15:32) Stablecoins and Lightning Network (01:16:22) Monero Transaction Validation (01:18:05) Zero Knowledge Proofs in Monero (01:18:56) Bitcoin's Zero Knowledge Rollups (01:20:31 Rollups and Bitcoin Scalability (01:21:04) Trojan Horse Concept in Bitcoin (01:23:46) Tornado Cash vs. Coinjoin (01:25:36) Coin Pool on Bitcoin (01:27:34) Darknet Market Listings (01:29:13) Nostr and Classified Ads (01:29:34) Privacy in Darknet Transactions (01:30:50) Risks of Direct Payments (01:31:54) Exploring Shopstr Listings (01:32:43) Comparing Shopstr and XMR Bazaar (01:35:00) Privacy Improvements in Shopstr (01:37:13) Lightning Network Developments (01:44:42) KYC and Banking Issues (01:48:24) Introduction to Bank Privacy Issues (01:48:59) Financial Regulations in Romania (01:49:48) Advice on Relocation for Financial Privacy (01:50:12) Intrusiveness of Banking Regulations (01:51:03) Personal Experience with Banking Scrutiny (01:51:34) Living Arrangements (01:52:13) Lightning Network Implementations Privacy (01:53:16) Privacy Implications of Lightning Wallets (01:54:03) User-Friendliness of Lightning Wallets (01:54:57) BOLT 12 and Privacy Claims (01:56:29) Improvements in BOLT 12 (01:57:09) Critique of BOLT 12's Privacy Features (01:59:30) Super Testnet's Current Projects and Work Focus (02:00:15) Development of Mint Market Cap Tool (02:01:30) Title Transfer App and State Chains (02:02:30) Ensuring Security in State Chains (02:03:32) Nostr Wallet Connect Protocol (02:04:26) Creation of Faucet Generator (02:05:40) Creating a Testnet (02:06:36) State Chains Discussion (02:07:12) Prediction Market Concept (02:08:14) Project Backlog Overview (02:10:14) Super Testnet's Music Career (02:12:29) Upcoming Conferences (02:14:39) Coin Pools Advantages (02:15:41) Planning Conference Attendance (02:17:25) Workshops and Commitments (02:17:56) Health and Fitness Journey (02:19:08) Should Bitcoin Increase the Block Size? (02:20:13) Soft Fork Proposal (02:21:04) Market Value of Transactions (02:22:47) Workshop Availability (02:24:02) Social Media Presence (02:25:14) Scams and Fake Accounts (02:26:02) Social Engineering Tactics (02:26:39) Money Requests Clarification (02:27:34) Social Links and Resources (02:27:58) Audience Engagement (02:28:28) Closing Remarks (02:29:01)

Reuben Yap is one of the co-founders of Firo (previously Zcoin): an implementation of the Zerocoin paper from 2013, which was first proposed as a Bitcoin soft fork to improve the network's privacy via Zero Knowledge proofs.

John Light is a researcher who specializes in bringing Zero Knowledge cryptography to supplement Bitcoin's limitations in scalability & privacy. With ZK rollups, Bitcoin stands a better chance to onboard 8 billion people onto trust-minimized layer 2s.

Bitcoin OG Charlie Shrem is now the chief evangelist of a project called Digital Gold (DGD). In this episode, I ask him and his business partner Digital Gold Yoda all the important questions about the legitimacy of their new cryptocurrency. Time stamps: Introducing Charlie Shrem & Digital Gold Jedi (00:00:48) Is Charlie Still Bullish on Bitcoin? (00:01:40) From Bitcoin to Digital Gold (00:02:05) Details of the Digital Gold Project (00:04:52) Stability and Value Preservation? (00:05:37) Community Engagement and User Growth (00:08:34) Comparison with BitTorrent (00:09:01) There Are Thousands of Digital Golds (00:14:28) Unique Features of the Digital Gold Project (00:15:08) Which Wallets and Exchanges Support Digital Gold? (00:17:05) Community Engagement and Validation (00:17:55) Initial Feedback and Expectations (00:18:50) Purchasing Process and Coin Distribution (00:19:26) Coin Withdrawal Mechanics (00:20:15) Network Growth and Distribution (00:21:02) Exchanges and Market Dynamics (00:22:57) Stablecoin vs. Price Speculation (00:23:25) Price Determination Mechanism (00:24:27) Infrastructure and Value Creation (00:25:09) Market Dynamics and Adoption (00:26:06) Mining vs. Market Factors (00:26:21) Coin Purchase Process Clarification (00:27:13) Community Participation and Evangelism (00:29:20) Address Reuse Concerns (00:31:16) Price Validation by Community (00:32:38) Selling Coins Among Users (00:34:31) Community Exchange Challenges (00:34:43) Decentralized Exchange Considerations (00:35:44) Arbitrage Opportunities (00:36:00) Side Shift (00:36:43) Treasury and Bitcoin Ownership (00:37:42) Concerns About Bitcoin Reserve Safety (00:38:00) Community Trust and Auditing (00:39:26) Charlie Shrem's Long-Term Vision for Digital Gold (00:40:28) Self-Custody and User Understanding (00:41:51) Value of DGB vs. Bitcoin (00:42:07) Name Change Story (00:44:01) Treasury Transparency and Auditing (00:45:24) Future of Auditing in Crypto (00:46:29) Bullish Prediction for Digital Gold (00:47:18) Understanding User Risks and Backup Solutions (00:51:51) Digital Gold Experiment (00:52:56) Challenges of User Adoption (00:54:10) Centralization Concerns (00:57:42) Node Operation Incentives (00:58:16) Concept of Proof of Participation (01:00:55) Contribution vs. Purchase (01:06:52) Intrinsic Value and Market Parity (01:09:07) Discussion on Gold and Currency Value (01:10:04) Clarifying Payment Terminology (01:10:35) Contributions, Not Investments (01:11:57) White Paper Availability (01:12:44) Smart Currency Concept (01:15:20) Comparison with Bitcoin Cash (01:15:49) Participation in the Network (01:16:40) Digital Gold vs Terra Luna (01:17:47) Claiming Coins Without Purchase (01:19:16) Distribution Model Fairness (01:21:04) Becoming a Staker (01:23:25) Node Connection and Validation (01:25:03) Impact of Node Outages (01:27:25) Core Staking Nodes Explained (01:28:09) Government Threats to Network (01:29:10) Initial Market Cap and Podcast Launch (01:30:25) Security Team: How Does It Get Paid? (01:32:44) Bug Bounty and Security Issues (01:36:00) Distribution of Coins and Participation (01:37:29) Peer-to-Peer Transactions (01:39:33) Transparency of Coin Holdings (01:41:51) Labeling The Team's Staking Wallets (01:42:23) First Dancers (01:45:31) Charlie Shrem's Role in Digital Gold (01:45:39) The Litmus Test (01:46:03) Importance of Charlie's Endorsement (01:46:31) Highlighting Charlie's Character (01:47:31) Addressing Potential Concerns (01:48:03) User-Friendly Exchange Integration (01:48:42) Future Selling of Coins (01:49:44) Saying Goodbye (01:50:13)

Time stamps: Introducing Liam (00:00:25) Shielded Client-Side Validation (00:01:53) Challenges in Bitcoin Development (00:05:36) The Soft Fork Independence of Shielded CSV (00:06:31) Introduction to OP_CAT (00:06:31) Opinions on Bitcoin Covenant Proposals (00:07:06) Integer Arithmetic in Bitcoin (00:09:26) Alpen Labs and Their Projects (00:12:23) Optimistic vs. Optimistically Verified zk Rollups (00:15:05) Data Availability Issues in Rollups (00:16:02) Zcash and Mobile Wallets (00:21:03) Philosophical Debate on Bitcoin's Future (00:22:21) Comparing Lightning Network and Shielded CSV (00:25:40) Layer Two Labs andDrive Chain (00:28:52) Sidechains vs. Rollups (00:29:55) Citrea and DeFi Potential (00:31:14) Rollups' Data Handling (00:32:50) Advantages of Sidechains (00:33:56) Drivechains Overview (00:35:10) Citrea vs. Alpen Labs (00:37:13) Collaboration in Bitcoin L2 Space (00:38:43) Existential Question on Bitcoin Privacy (00:40:02) Political Capital and Bitcoin's Future (00:42:52) Universal Truths in Bitcoin Community (00:44:04) Resistance to Change in Bitcoin (00:45:29) Testing Timeframes for Bitcoin Changes (00:50:11) Risks of Unknown Unknowns (00:51:59) Risks Beyond Bitcoin Changes (00:56:34) Indistinguishable Obfuscation (00:57:37) Challenges of Indistinguishable Obfuscation (00:58:49) Incentives for Bitcoin Development (00:59:42) Collaboration in Crypto Communities (01:01:44) Views on Monero, Zcash, Litecoin (01:03:27) Litecoin's Scalability Features (01:04:49) Centralization in Rollups (01:06:25) Bulletproofs and Membership Proofs (01:10:31) Bulletproofs++ Overview (01:13:26) Scalability of Bulletproofs++ (01:22:08) Full Chain Membership Proofs in Monero (01:24:54) Nullifier Mechanism (01:27:55) Challenges of Implementing Privacy (01:29:32) Concerns About Hidden Inflation (01:32:19) Inflation Bugs in Cryptocurrencies (01:33:32) Bitcoin Block Size Increase Debate (01:36:50) Decentralization vs. Block Size (01:39:03) Proof of Stake in Bitcoin? (01:43:35) Long-term Sustainability of Mining (01:46:33) Concerns About Bitcoin's Supply Cap (01:47:36) Is The Future Multi-chain? (01:51:30) Stablecoins Aren't Stable (01:54:20) Future of Bitcoin (01:55:19) Market Dynamics and Government Influence (01:57:07) Privacy and Scalability Concerns (01:57:44) Activation Challenges (01:58:34) Centralization Issues (01:59:36) Community Dynamics (02:00:27) Closing Remarks (02:02:02) Keeping Up with Liam (02:02:38)

Time stamps: Introducing Mike Belshe (00:00:42) Mike Belshe's Background (00:01:58) Self-Custody vs. Institutional Custody (00:02:05) Multi-Signature Technology (00:03:56) Understanding Multi-Party Computation (00:04:51) Advancements in Cryptography (00:05:53) BitGo's Role in Tokenizing Bitcoin (00:08:26) Defining DeFi's Importance (00:09:09) Mike's Technology Background (00:12:12) Inspiration from Tim Berners-Lee (00:14:57) Bitcoin's Zero Click Payments (00:17:11) Bitcoin Custodianship Issues (00:17:36) Challenges of Bitcoin Payments (00:18:25) Scaling Bitcoin and Lightning Network (00:19:20) Bitcoin's Role in Digital Money (00:20:13) Layer Two Solutions and Drivechains (00:21:15) Scaling Discussions in Bitcoin's History (00:22:31) Sidechains and Their Limitations (00:23:16) Innovation vs. Immutability (00:24:29) Importance of Real Applications (00:25:32) Privacy and Fungibility in Bitcoin (00:28:42) Lessons from TCP/IP and Blockchain Privacy (00:30:51) Regulatory Concerns and Privacy Solutions (00:32:53) Understanding the Static of Security (00:34:01) SideShift (00:34:59) Bitcoin's Civil War: Block Size Wars (00:35:54) Human Decisions in Bitcoin (00:36:16) Historical Proposals and Interpretations (00:37:10) Challenges of Block Space and Fees (00:37:58) Bitcoin Consensus (00:38:48) SegWit and Its Implications (00:39:41) Gavin Andresen's Role in Bitcoin (00:42:00) Bitcoin's Resilience Against Adversaries (00:42:13) Need for Enhanced Security (00:43:05) Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in the USA (00:44:30) El Salvador's Currency Strategy (00:45:19) Self-Custody Concerns (00:49:13) Security Measures for Self-Custody (00:50:17) Privacy as a Solution (00:50:43) Self-Custody Options (00:51:14) Family Legacy and Custody Challenges (00:52:24) Public Key Cryptography Innovation (00:52:28) HODLING.ch (00:53:29) Protecting Against Government Confiscation (00:54:15) Multi-Custodial Model Explanation (00:54:21) Hardware Wallets Discussion (00:56:03) Safety Deposit Box Concerns (00:58:03) Trade-offs in Security Solutions (00:58:56) Onboarding New Users (01:00:09) Edge Wallet Features (01:01:01) BitGo's Wallet Recovery Wizard (01:03:02) BitGo vs. Casa (01:05:08) Multi-Signature Security (01:05:46) Early Adoption of Multi-Sig (01:09:10) Building a New Monetary System (01:11:54) Regulatory Changes in the US (01:13:49) Impact of MiCA in Europe (01:15:32) War on Cash (01:16:17) Global Financial Systems (01:18:03) Zero Knowledge Proofs (01:19:48) Zcash Discussion (01:20:04) Privacy Technologies in Bitcoin (01:21:18) Challenges of On-chain Traceability (01:22:26) Philosophy on Transaction Privacy (01:23:19) Concerns About Privacy Adoption (01:24:51) Historical Context of TCP/IP Security (01:25:34) Bitcoin as Digital Gold (01:27:24) Ethereum's Role in DeFi (01:29:01) Benefits of Smart Contracts (01:32:01) Reflections on Bitcoin's Journey (01:33:25) Future of Bitcoin (01:34:30) Lightning Network Fees (01:36:12) Trade-offs in Payment Systems (01:38:01) Adoption of Bitcoin and Early Adoption Costs (01:42:01) Long-term Viability of Bitcoin Mining (01:44:38) The Future of Bitcoin and Layer Solutions (01:47:17) Community Response to Bitcoin Vulnerabilities (01:49:01) Satoshi's Vision for Mining (01:51:11) Satoshi's Intentions (01:52:35) Empathy for Satoshi (01:54:16) 0 to 1 Concept (01:54:24) Bitcoin's Anniversary (01:55:53) Centralization in Crisis (01:56:33) Zero Knowledge Proof Bug (01:57:45) Following Mike Belshe's Work (01:58:45)

In this record-breaking episode, whose running time exceeds 7 hours, Amir Taaki immerses us in his vast knowledge of arts & science. He covers everything from Bitcoin development to building DarkFi, plus his fascination with math & dinosaurs.

Time Stamps: Jeff Garzik's Contributions (00:00:47) Overview of Hemi (00:02:32) Scaling Bitcoin (00:03:11) Challenges with Current Solutions (00:04:17) Lightning Network Use Cases (00:05:04) Goals of Hemi (00:05:56) Integration with Bitcoin (00:07:19) History of Open Source Software (00:08:20) Security and Trust in Established Technologies (00:10:01) Satoshi's Approach to Building Bitcoin (00:12:58) Understanding Proof of Proof (00:14:11) Keystone Element in Hemi (00:16:15) Hi, Amir Taaki! (00:17:39) The Need for Privacy (00:18:31) Shift in Bitcoin's Narrative (00:20:13) Jeff Garzik's Optimism for Bitcoin (00:21:09) Building for the Future (00:23:00) Hemi and SideShift? (00:23:40) Hemi Token? (00:24:18) Practical Use Cases for Hemi (00:25:21) Decentralized Finance and Hemi (00:26:54) Composability in DeFi (00:28:23) Decentralization and Security (00:30:16) Maximalism vs. Moderation (00:33:03) Limitations of Bitcoin Script (00:35:31) Drivechains and Sidechains (00:40:16) Trade-offs of Using Hemi (00:43:17) Natural Scaling of Blockchain (00:44:51) Comparison with ZK Rollups (00:47:05) The Process of Innovation (00:47:56) Innovation in Scaling Blockchains (00:50:15) Hemi's Unique Approach (00:51:38) Self-Custody Risks and Best Practices (00:52:29) Medium of Exchange and Bitcoin's Volatility (00:56:17) Was Greg Maxwell Ever Wrong? (00:58:47) Jeff Garzik's Favorite Scaling and Privacy Solutions (01:01:52)

Just a few days before officially revealing the new Passport Prime hardware wallet, I challenged Foundation Devices CEO Zach Herbert to convince me to replace my faithful Trezor Model T with his company's new device. Did he succeed? Let's find out!

Time stamps: Introducing Paul… again! (00:00:46) Core Untouched Soft Work (00:01:56) Peter Todd's Criticism (00:02:19) Debate on Soft Forks (00:04:44) Luke Dash Jr.'s Perspective (00:05:00) SPV Wallets and Full Nodes (00:08:51) Data Availability Issues (00:12:10) Neutrino and Privacy (00:14:16) Dandelion++ Proposal (00:17:05) Quality of Bitcoin Core Development (00:18:45) Libbitcoin's Fast Sync (00:19:36) Bitcoin Core Limitations (00:20:01) Governance Challenges (00:20:55) 
Responsibility in Development (00:24:39) Mainstream Adoption Concerns (00:25:31) Risk of Centralization (00:26:54) Michael Saylor's Influence (00:27:55) Wrapped Bitcoin and Smart Contracts (00:33:19) Bitcoin Core's Innovation Stagnation (00:34:31) BIP 300 and Soft Forks (00:37:11) Redefining Bitcoin Maximalism (00:38:27) The Miners' Interests (00:40:46) 
Layer Two Labs (00:41:56) Explaining the Core Untouched Soft Work Proposal (00:43:53) Challenges with Soft Fork Activation (00:46:04) Slow Progress of Soft Forks (00:48:12) Competition Among Layer 1 Solutions (00:49:21) Critique of the Lightning Network (00:51:31) Concerns Over Custodial Solutions (00:53:06) Historical Perspective on Lightning Network (00:54:17) Cultural Issues in Criticizing the Lightning Network (00:55:22) Incompetence in Development (00:56:40) Potential for Improvement (00:58:57) BIP Activation Dynamics (01:00:22) Prediction Markets for Bitcoin Soft Forks? (01:01:22) Political Control in Bitcoin (01:02:49) Concerns About Full Nodes (01:04:18) Covenants and Activation Delays (01:05:38) Blockstream's Influence (01:06:56) Why Covenants Are a Mistake (01:08:01) The Role of Miners in Soft Forks (01:09:13) Misguided Investments in Technology (01:10:21) Competition in Bitcoin Development (01:11:23) Privacy Improvements in Bitcoin (01:14:46) The Search for Innovative Solutions (01:17:13) User Experience and Adoption (01:21:41) No Interest in User Experience (01:22:45) Changing the Culture (01:23:19) Technological Gaps (01:24:04) Network Effects and Competition (01:25:15) Bitcoin's Complacency (01:26:34) Decentralization Spectrum (01:28:13) Historical Context of Competition (01:29:05) Privacy Innovations (01:31:29) Politicians Praising Bitcoin (01:34:10) Mainstream Adoption (01:35:31) Innovation and Disruption (01:37:33) Sponsor Plug and Market Insights (01:38:16) Community Questions (01:42:52) Blocking on Twitter (01:43:20) Perceptions of Bitcoiners (01:45:40) Miners' Misunderstanding of Bitcoin (01:46:37) Future of Bitcoin Projects (01:49:07) Privacy Improvements in Bitcoin (01:50:15) Monero's Position in Privacy (01:51:57) Mempool Policy and CUSF (01:54:36) Conway's Law in Bitcoin (01:58:20) Criticism of Bitcoin's Direction (02:00:09) Responsibility in Bitcoin Core Development (02:01:59) Ad Hominem Attacks in Bitcoin Proposals (02:04:15) Closing Statement on CUSF (02:05:06) The Future of Consensus (02:05:16) Soft Forks and Innovation (02:06:08) Understanding Soft Forks (02:07:12) Prediction Markets in Bitcoin? (02:08:18)