Bitcoin Takeover tells the oral history of many OGs and builders such as Roger Ver, Martti Malmi, Vitalik Buterin, Charlie Shrem, as well as hundreds of developers, entrepreneurs, and troublemakers whose work shaped the world's first decentralized money. This is not a show about price predictions or recycled talking points. It is about the technology, the history, the scandals, and the ideas that will decide Bitcoin's future. Seven years and 350+ episodes, with one rule that never changed: the guest did something notable, and the host did the reading. Time to learn!
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October 24, 2026Episode 481 hr 19 min
S17 E48: Robin Linus in the 1000 BTC Car, Driving to BitDevs Atlanta
This episode was recorded while driving to BitDevs in Atlanta. The car belongs to Art (at least 1/3 of it) and is the first vehicle ever bought for bitcoin in 2013: a 2011 Toyota Prius, for which the Mycelium wallet founder paid 1000 BTC. We talk about cars, Bitcoin development, why the medium of exchange side of BTC matters, and how we can achieve privacy and scalability. Other people join too towards the end: Ekrem Bal from Citrea, Christian from Alpen Labs, Paul Sztorc from LayerTwo Labs, and Rob Hamilton from Anchor Watch. Time Stamps: 0:45 Riding to the BitDevs barbecue in the 1,000 BTC Prius 2:05 The first car ever bought with bitcoin 11:29 Robin's 1,000 BTC dream car: a VW Beetle? 16:01 BitPay, KYC and why BTCPay Server exists 29:50 Would you pay 1,000 BTC? Shielded CSV vs Visa 32:54 Roger Ver and the block size war revisited 38:01 TABConf highlights: Peter Todd, Paul Sztorc and a 2029 cleanup 45:27 LayerTwo Labs, BIP300 and drivechains 49:31 Cake Wallet, Wasabi and the Spark custody problem 57:30 Arriving at BitDevs: the Taproot annex PR 1:01:09 Ekrem of Citrea and the Bitcoin privacy wars 1:06:24 Bitcoin Spaces and one name for every address 1:10:15 Alpen vs Citrea, then Paul Sztorc joins 1:16:10 BitNames and the Truthcoin relaunch
October 17, 2026Episode 473 hr 40 min
S17 E47: Tabconf 8 Livestream with Kevin Loaec, Ekrem Bal, Spaces Protocol & The Bitcoin Pivot (Bonus: Peter Todd)
The second day of TABConf 8, live from Atlanta. Ekrem Bal talks Citrea privacy, Kevin Loaec explains Liana wallet, Spaces Protocol introduces BTC handles, Bitcoin credit unions enter the scene, Peter Todd unboxes his Zcash ceremony laptop 10 years later. Time stamps: 0:00 Stream warm-up 2:29 Ekrem Bal: Citrea pivots to privacy with Crest 7:22 Privacy and scalability on Citrea 11:30 Privacy as protection from physical attacks 16:00 Lessons from almost a year on mainnet 19:00 User feedback and the Clementine web app 20:13 Alpen, garbled circuits and Clementine v2 21:33 Next use cases: lending, vaults and agent spending limits 22:51 Making Citrea post-quantum 26:21 Great Script Restoration and trust assumptions 29:29 OP_CAT vs CTV vs template hash 31:26 How Crest differs from Tornado Cash 33:12 Railgun and proof of innocence 33:53 Why build on Bitcoin instead of Ethereum 36:23 Favorite fork: Taproot and Zcash envy 38:19 The eCash replay trick 41:24 Skiing and mountaineering 42:51 110 BTC on Citrea 43:34 Kevin Loaec joins 44:31 First and last TABConf and the unconference format 46:21 A bad year: Coldcard, Liquid and Liana 48:00 Stu joins 48:41 Vaults vs Liana’s timelocks 51:59 Most interesting guest and 10 hour episodes 54:02 Forks magazine 55:32 Script emulation on Bark 56:08 Liana videos and Revault 57:32 Favorite covenant and enforced amounts 59:40 Wrench attacks and Liana’s exposure 1:01:07 Ledger leaks and buying hardware online 1:03:41 Coldcard’s RNG bug, license and bounties 1:06:07 Andrew joins: Spaces Protocol 1:10:30 Buffer joins 1:10:55 3,700 spaces and @bitcoin handles 1:11:18 The TABConf name giveaway and delegation 1:14:39 Nacho and payment handles 1:15:39 Burning @tabconf forever 1:17:45 32 bytes on chain and cert relays 1:19:15 Client-side validation and censorship resistance 1:20:18 One click install on StartOS 1:21:14 How Spaces makes money 1:22:17 What stops an alt Spaces? 1:24:01 Namecoin, squatters and 10 auctions a day 1:27:25 Utility: Nacho and social proofs 1:29:37 Don’t reuse your name address: silent payments 1:32:19 Spaces and Bitcoin’s scalability 1:33:39 Do names expire? 1:35:43 One character names 1:37:10 Insight gateways, Nostr and Blossom 1:40:43 The Fabric resolver 1:41:23 Handle pricing 1:44:02 Where to learn more about Spaces 1:47:00 Spaces and the forks 1:53:44 Last call for @tabconf handles 1:55:42 Goodbye Andrew and Buffer 1:57:34 Hallway break 2:00:00 Kevin Loaec returns: Paris, Sparrow and Miniscript 2:05:26 Funding open source without begging users 2:12:33 A horrible year: hacks and forks 2:13:47 Bitcoin follows the crowd 2:28:55 New guest and matching watches 2:29:57 What makes you bullish about Bitcoin? 2:31:05 Closing hallway chatter 2:43:10 Part 2: Back online: The Bitcoin Pivot and the three C’s 2:47:39 How credit unions will custody bitcoin 2:49:28 An advisory firm with vendor-agnostic partners 2:51:47 Why TABConf is welcoming 2:52:26 Feedback and the wave of credit union mergers 2:56:32 Credit unions vs banks: the not-for-profit mission 2:58:32 Lightning and paying with Bitcoin 2:59:10 Credit unions as Lightning service providers 3:00:22 Rehypothecation risk and Aave 3:01:39 NCUA, not FDIC 3:02:07 Where to learn more about The Bitcoin Pivot 3:02:52 Peter Todd arrives and the stream pauses
October 15, 2026Episode 462 hr 39 min
S17 E46: Livestream from Tabconf 8, Part 1 (feat. Paul Sztorc, Andre Beganski, Alex Lewin, Janusz, Christopher Allen, Will & Michael Tidwell)
Live from TABConf 8 in Atlanta: Paul Sztorc demos a quantum-resistant soft fork, Christopher Allen on Blockchain Commons, Michael Tidwell on TABConf, plus Andre Beganski, Alex Lewin, Janusz and Will on their work in the space. Recorded on Wednesday, October 14th 2026. Time stamps: 0:00 Stream warm-up 1:55 Welcome to Bitcoin Takeover at TABConf 8 with Paul Sztorc 2:30 CUSF 2 demo: quantum-resistant signatures, OP_VAULT, OP_CTV & OP_CAT 4:30 Sweeping coins into a quantum-resistant UTXO with BitWindow 5:05 Why miners will never run it 5:52 Is quantum FUD? Pascal's Wager & Saylor 7:50 Bitcoin's overconfidence & the competition 8:41 How altcoins took Bitcoin's use cases 10:17 Greg Maxwell & the belief in Bitcoin's infallibility 11:39 Camera dies, webcam to the rescue 12:30 eCash hard fork: free coins later this month 13:08 Soft forks are opt-in, ignorable & reversible 14:35 Kafkaesque: will soft forks become mandatory? 16:01 Live questions: claiming eCash & does Saylor self-custody? 16:46 Mike Belshe, BitGo & custodians 17:48 The war on crypto, PGP & Enigma 18:44 How to claim your eCash coins 19:13 Liquidity pools instead of paying for exchange listings 21:37 Shinobi walks by & the Coldcard trophy 21:50 Paul leaves for the Town Hall 22:34 Spotting Christopher Allen & sponsor thanks 24:14 André Beganski joins: from Decrypt to MARA Foundation 25:25 Decrypt, The Block & trade publications 25:57 DL News & DeFi Llama 26:49 Blockworks' offer & Supply Shock 27:43 BTCTKVR: Forks! magazine 28:10 The Ledger magazine & sourdough bakers 29:43 Going independent: Bitcoin Magazine vs Bitcoin Takeover 30:30 Storytellers vs AI 32:13 Original reporting & journalism as a public good 33:54 Sponsors & transparency 34:36 Camera battery woes & how to follow André 35:50 Orange Rock sponsor break 37:55 Alex Lewin joins: Finite & private AI 38:47 Fedi, Blockspaces & NCR 39:28 Atlanta, BitDevs & Capture the Bitcoin 40:14 Janusz joins: Zark = Zcash + Spark 41:38 Private AI meets private money 43:35 Privacy as an ingredient for liberty 44:03 Fungibility & a universal currency 45:21 Why Zcash-style privacy and not Monero? 47:05 Shielded pools vs ring signatures 49:44 Scaling privacy: Tachyon vs FCMP++ 51:18 The first inning of privacy research 53:56 A bearish year: what still makes you bullish? 56:23 AI will make Bitcoin better, not worse 57:46 Why aren't you at the TABConf funeral? 58:50 The hallway track & why showing up matters 1:00:48 AI psychosis & conferences 1:01:36 Coffee, tobacco & AI as a productivity drug 1:03:08 Forks magazine handout 1:03:46 Atlanta's BeltLine 1:04:52 Favorite conferences: Bitcoin++ & Nashville 1:06:12 The Town Hall & the Tabbies 1:06:47 Paul has spoken at all eight TABConfs 1:07:43 Favorite fork? Bitcoin vs Zcash 1:09:22 The Orchard bug & a coordinated soft fork 1:11:29 Only Bitcoin is stubborn enough to invent witness encryption 1:11:59 Two hard forks this year: Luke's coin & eCash 1:12:40 Fork strategy: don't touch cold storage 1:13:43 Zcash as a BIP 300 drivechain 1:14:52 If Bitcoin goes to zero 1:16:13 Christopher Allen joins 1:17:40 Randomness warnings & VeriSign security reviews 1:19:32 LetheKit & dice entropy 1:20:00 Don't rely on any single key: multisig, MuSig & FROST 1:21:00 Wallet companies & the Coldcard victims 1:22:34 Coinkite, open source & closing the code 1:24:15 No single points of failure, compromise or denial 1:25:08 How Coldcard treated security researchers 1:26:36 Bug bounties in the age of LLMs 1:27:51 Cypherpunks who embraced Bitcoin 1:28:45 Netscape, SSL 2 & the RSAREF license 1:30:18 Writing the SSL 3 reference implementation & TLS 1.0 1:30:47 DigiCash & David Chaum 1:31:29 Certicom, micro-currencies & the Merkle patent 1:32:03 Schnorr patents & ECDSA 1:33:10 secp256r1 suspicions vs secp256k1 1:35:44 Discovering Bitcoin in 2013 1:36:08 UTXOs to revoke X.509 certificates 1:37:08 Decentralized identifiers & DPKI 1:37:37 Paul Sztorc returns: Rebooting the Web of Trust 1:38:32 Namecoin 1:38:59 Christopher's beef: key reuse in Ethereum & Nostr 1:40:30 BIP 32 & one key pair per identity 1:41:19 Christopher promises a part two 1:42:46 Paul introduces Will: 21 days before the midterms 1:43:35 Will on six privacy prisoners 1:43:59 Larry Harmon & Ian Freeman 1:44:45 Roman Sterlingov & Bitcoin Fog 1:47:32 Roman Storm & Tornado Cash 1:48:19 Samourai: Keonne Rodriguez & William Hill 1:50:59 The judge switch & the plea deals 1:54:25 The pardon campaign 1:55:42 Aaron Day's StarkFreedom PAC 1:58:52 Michael Tidwell joins 1:59:42 The Tabbies 2:01:29 Why TABConf 8 is the last one 2:02:01 Death by a thousand cuts 2:03:51 My first TABConf & thanking the sponsors 2:05:27 eCash: the calmest hard fork in memory 2:07:16 Will miners steal from drivechains? 2:08:15 TABConf debates: BTC vs BCH vs BSV 2:09:06 Monero, Dash & bringing people into the fold 2:09:51 Amanda B. Johnson & DarkCoin at the monthly meetup 2:11:55 No-shill policy during the ICO craze 2:12:50 Paul Sztorc's TABConf debates & Peter Todd 2:14:08 How TABConf got scammed in 2019 2:17:58 Greg Maxwell, Nick Szabo & who never came 2:19:45 Why the obituary happened a day early 2:20:31 Forks magazine 2:21:20 Top highlights: hardcore trivia & the standing ovation 2:23:40 What will Michael do with his eCash? 2:24:00 Kill Tidwell: Bitcoin comedy 2:25:12 Matt Odell never came 2:26:13 The first Bitcoin car & Rassah's plane 2:27:36 Atlanta lore: Jeff Garzik, Stephen Pair & BitPay 2:29:42 Bitcoin is not my religion 2:31:01 Favorite fork: Taproot 2:32:45 I like all the hard forks 2:35:24 Diversifying into airdrops: the most irrational VC 2:38:47 Goodbye Michael & wrap-up
September 30, 2026Episode 172 hr 56 min
S17 E45: Talking Tari with Naveen Jain, Fox & Marguerite de Courcelle
After seven years of being in development, Tari finally launched in 2025. Why did it take so long and how many of the initial promises were delivered? Naveen Jain, Mr. Fox & Marguerite de Courcelle join the show to offer their best answers. 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - Welcome to S17 E45: Naveen, Mr. Fox & Marguerite 3:02 - What Is Tari? Mimblewimble, Four Mining Lanes & the Oodle 5:21 - Can Tari Compete With Solana? 6:32 - Meme Coins vs. Real Businesses 8:22 - The Ticketmaster Killer That Wasn't 9:18 - Big Neon, the Pandemic & the Spotify Exit 11:20 - How Dependent Is Tari on Monero's Hashrate? 12:26 - Why Four Mining Lanes and Two Tokens? 14:48 - The One-Way Peg: Burning XTM for the L2 15:43 - Tari Script on L1, Full Programmability on L2 16:13 - Sponsors: Layer 2 Labs & Braiins Hashpower 19:24 - The C29 Consensus Bug & How the Lanes Held Up 23:02 - The Beam Question: Great Tech Is Not Enough 26:18 - What Is Tari's Killer Use Case? 29:21 - Programmable Confidentiality: Securities, Escrow & Stigma Markets 30:15 - Fox's Cat Shirt & the $100 Monero Giveaway 31:36 - Sharing Security With Monero: The Underappreciated Part 34:09 - Did the Monero Community Stick Around? 36:52 - From White Papers to Tickers: The Decline of Ideas 39:14 - Naveen's Linkin Park Lesson: The Lowest Common Denominator 43:11 - Build Contests, Encrypted Messengers & Private Voting 44:48 - Learning English From Linkin Park 47:31 - The Meteora Bank Vault Listening Party 49:27 - Mining Q&A: Pool Censorship & RandomX Changes 53:19 - The Pool That Kept the XTM 53:38 - Will Other Privacy Chains Copy the Model? 54:52 - Sponsors: SideShift & Orange Rock 56:31 - Marguerite (Coin Artist) Joins 57:45 - From the Ethereum ICO to MaidSafe to Decred 1:00:45 - The First Crypto Puzzle Ever: Dark Wallet, Amir Taaki & Cody Wilson 1:02:12 - There Is Treasure Hidden in Tari's Blockspace 1:02:55 - What Marguerite Does on the Tari Council 1:05:52 - Building for Humans or for AI Agents? 1:09:09 - Giveaway Mechanics: Three Numbers, One Winner 1:10:00 - Attracting Normies: Blink, Browser Agents & Small Beginnings 1:13:00 - Tari Universe: Mining Without the UX Nightmare 1:14:28 - Where to Buy XTM (Or Just Mine It) 1:16:15 - Mining Monero and Tari at the Same Time 1:17:41 - Satoshi's Email to Laszlo 1:18:11 - Naveen's Number Is 43 & He Has to Go 1:18:31 - Does Gaming Belong on a Blockchain? 1:19:29 - Neon District, Axie & the PFP Ceiling 1:21:40 - Vibe Coding Three Games in One Weekend 1:25:01 - Online Poker, Frozen Accounts & the First Bitcoin Gamblers 1:27:42 - The Winning Number: 40 1:30:00 - If Monero and Tari Were Roommates 1:31:31 - Privacy-First Games: Fog of War & Front-Running 1:39:21 - Skybox, Modding Communities & Creator Royalties 1:43:39 - Mr. Fox Is a Furry (the Third One on This Podcast) 1:45:46 - The Real Use Case: Commissioning Art Without Bank Permission 1:47:46 - The Manicure Question 1:48:37 - Lessons From Neon District & Loot Boxes 1:50:56 - Vlad's Brother, the CS:GO Knife & the Rome Vacation 1:53:40 - Top Three Games of All Time 2:01:45 - John Carmack & the Open Source Doom Engine 2:03:11 - Tim Sweeney: The Cypherpunk Behind Unreal 2:06:59 - Amir Taaki's Lara Croft Origin Story 2:08:01 - Vitalik Rage-Quitting WoW & Colored Coins 2:11:06 - Bringing the Soul Back to Open Source 2:12:55 - What Fox Wants Built First: Payments Without Permission 2:14:55 - The Community Takeover & the Core Contributor Program 2:18:09 - Councils, Leaders & the Decentralization Paradox 2:22:16 - Andreas Antonopoulos, Vitalik & the Need for Faces 2:25:42 - The NATO Problem: Organizations Without a Purpose 2:28:49 - Steemit, Twitter Tip Bots & Make It Rain Doge 2:31:22 - Counterparty, Rare Pepes & NFT Archaeology 2:34:41 - When VCs Discovered OpenSea 2:36:30 - Infinite Fleet & the Game That Never Shipped 2:39:37 - John Romero: Why Play-for-Money Kills Fun 2:43:05 - Cats: Hunter & Salieri 2:46:43 - A Mini-Game for Vlad's Website 2:47:24 - The Trojan Horse Thesis Revisited 2:48:24 - The Builders Never Left 2:49:02 - Different Leaders for Different Eras 2:52:08 - Why Seven Years? And How Long Until the L2 Matters? 2:54:41 - How to Start Mining Tari Today 2:55:41 - Outro
September 25, 2026Episode 444 hr 27 min
S17 E44: Marc De Mesel on Early Bitcoin Investing & Polygamy
Marc De Mesel talks about on selling BTC for Bitcoin Cash in 2017, funding BCH devs for years, why BCH failed despite being the best big block version of Bitcoin, what's in his privacy coin basket, his Tesla investment & having multiple girlfriends. 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - Welcome: Marc De Mesel, the Guardian Angel of Bitcoin Cash 2:01 - The Trade: Selling BTC for BCH in August 2017 5:00 - $300 Then vs. $300 Now: The Inflation Math 7:39 - From Investor to Benefactor: Funding BCH Development 8:49 - Amaury's IFP: Treasury Model or Dev Tax? 11:54 - Mike Hearn's Prophecy & the Flipstarter Model 14:21 - Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic & the Article That Scared Vlad 16:00 - Sponsors: SideShift & Layer 2 Labs 18:36 - Why Bitcoin Cash Failed: Death by a Thousand Splits 23:03 - Miner Voting vs. Forking Off 25:54 - The Merchant Adoption Mistake 27:39 - Vlad's SegWit Argument: BCH Launched as Only 2x 31:58 - The Spam Attack Theories 34:25 - "Hijacking Bitcoin": The Store of Value Narrative Shift 36:37 - Never Sell, Borrow Against It: The Saylor Doctrine 40:08 - Stablecoins as the Free Market CBDC 41:59 - Saylor's Leverage & the Dot-Com Track Record 45:12 - Weak Hands and Strong Hands 47:30 - Marc's Altcoin Origin: Litecoin, Peercoin & 2012 50:34 - Network Effects: From 90% to 50% Dominance 55:09 - The Bear Market Liquidation Scenario 56:31 - Sponsors: Braiins Hash Power, Orange Rock & Cake Wallet 59:23 - Q&A: If Satoshi Returned and Disowned BCH 1:01:23 - Q&A: A Contrarian Opinion Too Far 1:05:24 - Q&A: Why Hold Tesla Through Five Flat Years 1:09:35 - Giveaway Reveal: The Number Is 69 1:10:55 - CME Bitcoin Cash Futures & the Thesis Update 1:12:22 - Privacy as Crypto's Last USP 1:13:52 - Vlad's Pushback: Transparent Ledgers vs. Bank Privacy 1:20:18 - What BTC Maximalists Missed in 2017 1:25:13 - Marc's First Bitcoin at $13 on Bitcoin-24 1:29:88 - Selling Too Early & Roger's Slower Hand 1:34:21 - Privacy Coins as Today's Bitcoin-at-$1 1:40:06 - The Zcash 40x 1:45:00 - The Privacy Basket: XMR, ZEC, Zano, Firo, ARRR, Dash 1:46:57 - Visiting Roger Ver Under House Arrest in Mayotte 1:51:46 - Zcoin, Firo & the Week Before Zcash 1:54:56 - Cryptonote, Bytecoin & the Monero Lineage 2:03:31 - The Biggest Wrong Assumption: Adoption Speed 2:06:21 - USDT in the Global South 2:10:17 - Conviction vs. Stubbornness 2:16:00 - NFTs on Zcash 2:20:52 - Shielded Zcash Adoption: Vlad Corrects the Record 2:27:03 - Selling Strength: Marc's Zcash Dilemma 2:33:56 - Rebuilding the Portfolio From Zero 2:39:16 - The Holy Grail Portfolio & the 2022 Wipeout 2:44:52 - Bitcoin, Tesla or BCH: Which Taught the Most? 2:47:36 - The Guardian Angel Costume Question 2:50:10 - The Dating Profile Question 2:58:18 - From Dating Sites to Cold Approach 3:07:58 - From Monogamy to Polygamy 3:16:45 - Does Polygamy Go Both Ways? 3:19:00 - Seven Children and Counting 3:20:27 - The Kenya Years & the Court Cases 3:25:42 - What It Costs 3:29:14 - Living Arrangements & Family Structure 3:37:00 - Old-School Fatherhood 3:51:28 - Trust Across Cultures 3:56:02 - The Tesla Model X in Amsterdam 3:58:00 - Buying Tesla in 2019: Sentiment at Rock Bottom 4:02:50 - Robotaxis, Humanoids & Chinese EVs 4:04:30 - Vlad's Toyota Supra Dream 4:08:07 - Eastern European Honesty 4:20:14 - Plan B If Alt Season Never Comes 4:19:37 - The 20% Target & Where to Follow Marc 4:20:00 - Closing Advice: HODL & Spotting the Top 4:24:42 - The Flip Scenario: What If BCH Wins? 4:26:01 - "I Was a Real Whale Once" 4:26:45 - Outro
September 24, 2026Episode 41 hr 58 min
S1 E4 Remastered: Omar Faridi on Bitcoin in Pakistan, Brain Drain & the Case for Moderate Thinking
The 2019 conversation with fellow crypto journalist colleague Omar Faridi is now remastered: featuring Bitcoin in Pakistan, the Petro scam, brain drain economics, and why nothing is absolutely good or bad. Time stamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:46 - Remaster Notes: The Crypto Insider Colleague 2:29 - Somewhat Jealous of the Five-Article Days 4:01 - Sponsor Shoutout: Helen's Pizza in Jersey City 5:25 - The Original Recording: January 2019 6:12 - Omar Faridi: Crypto Journalist in Pakistan 7:47 - The State of Bitcoin in Pakistan 9:02 - Misinformation, Education & the $400 Salary 10:05 - The Exchange the State Bank Shut Down 11:08 - Potcoin: Pakistan's Own Cryptocurrency ($34,000 Market Cap) 11:53 - The School Owner Who Had Never Heard of Crypto 13:17 - How Free Is Pakistan? A Parliamentary Republic 15:33 - Voting for Parties, Not Presidents 18:06 - Freedom vs. Quality of Life 19:09 - LocalBitcoins & the Day Trader Who Bought From Omar 21:29 - How Free Are You on a Scale of 1 to 10? 23:32 - Freedom House Says "Not Free." Omar Disagrees 25:11 - Telegram Is Blocked, VPNs Work Fine 26:39 - Would They Block Bitcoin Mining? 28:42 - The Enforcement Problem: Corruption as a Feature 30:05 - People Are Stealing Electricity 31:32 - Could Bitcoin Give Pakistan a Kickstart in World Capitalism? 33:20 - The Stability Argument: Why Volatility Kills Merchant Adoption 35:40 - Alena Vranova's Embargo Bypass Thesis 38:04 - The Petro: Venezuela's Dishonest Cryptocurrency 41:30 - The Reuters Investigation: No Evidence of Use 43:14 - Sanctions, Desperation & Who Really Suffers 45:05 - Why Venezuelans Prefer Bitcoin to Bolivars and Dollars 46:50 - ICOs, Central Points of Failure & the Network Effect 48:29 - Putin's Cryptocurrency Speech & Digital Resources 50:02 - McDonald's as Political Ambassador: The Big Mac Theory 52:04 - Is the Big Mac Actually Better? 54:39 - Ethereum Classic's 51% Attack & Network Security 56:00 - Constantinople: The Hard Fork That Almost Happened 59:01 - Why Omar Trusts Ethereum Developers 1:00:36 - Vlad's Critique: Premine, DAO Fork & Arbitrary Changes 1:03:46 - Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: Different Use Cases 1:06:24 - The Austrian Economics Friend & the Broken System 1:08:46 - Rubini, Stiglitz & the Ponzi Narrative 1:10:03 - SegWit, Schnorr, Lightning & Blockstream Satellites 1:12:20 - Time Magazine: "Bitcoin Is a Guarantee of Liberty" 1:13:36 - Omar's Rebuttal: Nobody Cares About Schnorr Signatures 1:15:15 - Roger Ver, Bitcoin Cash & the Simplicity Argument 1:17:21 - DigiByte, Dogecoin & the Gateway Drug Theory 1:19:18 - The 50% Supply Problem: Worse Than a Central Bank 1:21:20 - The Gym Analogy: Altcoins as Training Wheels 1:22:46 - Omar's Moderate Manifesto: Nothing Is Absolutely Good or Bad 1:25:02 - Rubini Is Not Always Right: Use Your Own Brain 1:26:31 - Brain Drain Omar: The Name Explained 1:28:56 - Romania's Brain Drain: Second Only to Syria 1:31:35 - The Chinese Neighborhood Outside Bucharest 1:34:28 - The Internet Changed Everything 1:37:25 - Jobs That Didn't Exist: The New Economy 1:39:19 - Why Vlad Recommended Omar for Crypto Insider 1:42:54 - The First Email: Bulky Equipment & "It's So Easy" 1:44:56 - Stuart Haber Invented Blockchain Before Satoshi 1:46:41 - Coming Full Circle: From Local to Global 1:49:10 - The Orwellian Alternative 1:51:42 - Privacy Coins Will Have a Market 1:54:06 - Decentralized Exchanges & IP Tracking 1:55:04 - Where to Find Omar Faridi 1:56:44 - Closing: The Bitcoin Takeover Continues
September 16, 2026Episode 432 hr 38 min
S17 E43: Mike Belshe on BitGo, Quantum & Clarity
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe returns after 20 months to discuss the Clarity Act, BitGo's IPO and retail launch, quantum-resistant wallets, AI code auditing, and what changed since we last spoke in S16 E1. Time stamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:54 - Welcome to S17 E43: Mike Belshe Returns 1:26 - The White House Visit & the Clarity Act Vote 2:35 - Why Wall Street Needs the Clarity Act 4:43 - Martin Gruenberg, Operation Chokepoint & the Vulnerability Window 7:00 - Does Clarity Affect Bitcoin Payments? 7:18 - The Three Camps Inside Every Bank 09:12 - Will the Next Administration Rug Pull Crypto? 10:15 - Executive Orders vs. Legislation 11:08 - Larry Fink: "Everything Is Going to Be Tokenized" 13:30 - Market Structure as Infrastructure Robustness 15:42 - MiCA, the War on Cash & the Bitcoin ATM Ban 18:48 - The Cake Wallet Contest 20:17 - BitGo Today: Custody AND Self-Custody 22:00 - The Marble Pillars Lesson: How Banks Earned Trust 23:58 - Why BitGo Is Free for Individuals 25:13 - Coldcard & the Single Point of Failure Problem 26:19 - Two-of-Three Multi-Sig vs. Single-Key Cold Storage 27:38 - Bybit's Blind Signing Hack 29:47 - Random Number Generators & Why Every AI Says 17 32:42 - AI Code Auditing at BitGo 34:11 - The Frontier Model Business Model Is Broken 36:16 - AI Vlad & Seasons 18-21 in Parallel 39:18 - Regulators vs. Borderless Money 42:38 - The $3 Random Number Experiment 47:21 - Sponsors: Layer 2 Labs & Braiins Hash Power 54:27 - BitGo's Fork Policy: Replay Protection & the Three Criteria 58:41 - Why Two Bitcoin Forks in 2025? 1:00:53 - Belshe on Forks: Technical Merit vs. Politics 1:04:47 - Satoshi's Blueprint or Final Solution? 1:08:00 - Forks as Scaling the Idea of Bitcoin 1:10:03 - Satoshi's Unanticipated Centralization Vectors 1:13:16 - Clearing the Record: BitGo & the New York Agreement 1:17:46 - The Block Size Counterfactual 1:19:34 - Tether on Omni: A Technical Correction 1:23:56 - Liquid's Hack as Sidechain Vindication 1:27:11 - The Fee Subsidy Problem & Tail Emission 1:32:01 - Fixed Supply as Bitcoin's Fundamental Promise 1:37:03 - Miner Subscriptions & Marathon's Slipstream 1:38:48 - Fungibility, Privacy & the Regulatory Threat 1:41:34 - Zcash Shielded Adoption: 4.5 Million ZEC 1:43:12 - BitGo's Shielded Zcash Implementation 1:45:00 - Executive Order 6102 & California's Wealth Tax 1:48:16 - The K-Shaped Economy & Borrowing Against Assets 1:53:41 - Do Forks Inflate the Coin Supply? 1:58:28 - The Payments Expectation vs. Protocol Reality 2:04:24 - Stablecoins, Iran & Tether's Freeze Function 2:08:00 - Jameson Lopp, Casa & the New York Agreement Myth 2:12:15 - Ethereum, Solana & the Trade-off Landscape 2:14:30 - The BIP 39 Seed Phrase Experiment: Quen's Answer 2:15:19 - The Winning Number: 91 2:15:31 - The Religion Question 2:17:13 - SideShift Ad Read 2:18:10 - Quantum: The Perception Threat 2:21:38 - BitGo's Quantum-Resistant Wallet Architecture 2:24:07 - The Unspent Selection Mechanism Explained 2:27:03 - Satoshi's Coins & the Freeze Debate 2:28:11 - WBTC as Bitcoin's Largest Scaling Layer 2:28:25 - The Anthropic 100 BTC Bounty 2:32:06 - Open Source AI & the Arms Race 2:34:05 - Will Clarity Pass Today? 2:36:51 - BitGo Wants Competition 2:37:18 - Satoshi vs. Hamilton & Goodbye
September 12, 2026Episode 424 hr 0 min
S17 E42: Bob Summerwill on Ethereum Classic & Bitcoin's Fork Season
Ethereum Classic veteran Bob Summerwill retells the DAO hack from inside the Foundation, explains why forks are features, and shares advice for Paul Sztorc's ecash launch, plus FIFA stories and lost ETH. Time stamps: 00:47 - Welcome to S17 E42: Fork Season Begins 01:26 - Bob Summerwill & the DAO Hack Origin Story 03:11 - Slock.it, Smart Locks & the First DAO 07:03 - Child DAOs and the "Risk-Free" Pitch 10:04 - Bob's Reservations: Legal Liability & Randos Voting With Money 13:27 - The Reentrancy Bug: 14% of the Supply Drained 16:14 - Code Is Law vs. Bailout: The Great Schism 19:42 - Hoskinson's "Two Ethereums From the Start" 26:25 - "Can You Guys Please Stop Trading?" 26:44 - The Irregular State Transition (It Was Not a Rollback) 30:10 - The Hacker Threatens Legal Action 34:08 - The Vote & Activation Day 37:22 - Ethereum Classic: The First Minority Chain to Survive 41:34 - Forking Is Part of Nakamoto Consensus 42:19 - Sal, Donald McIntyre & the Cypherpunks of ETC 43:22 - Barry Silbert, Grayscale & the ETC Cooperative 46:26 - The Weird Roommate Theory of Forks 50:00 - Why Ethereum Classic Didn't Win 56:17 - Bitcoin Cash, Dormant Coins & Grassroots Adoption 57:35 - Vlad's "Many Bitcoins" Theory & the Accidental 21 Million 01:00:13 - Voluntary Consensus & the Little Dictators 01:04:37 - The Blake Fork (BIP 110) & the Node Democracy LARP 01:07:01 - Paul Sztorc's Ecash: The Maximalist Hard Fork 01:09:47 - BitVM, Rollups & Bitcoin's Missing Layer Twos 01:13:17 - Connection Trouble & the Speed of Light 01:14:03 - Sponsors: SideShift, Ecash, Orange Rock, Braiins, Cake Wallet 01:18:18 - Giveaway Reveal: The Number Is 96 01:19:28 - Why the Best Technology Doesn't Win 01:22:50 - Tether on Tron: The Joke That Worked 01:26:07 - Tron's Plagiarized Whitepaper & the Web 4 Roadmap 01:29:04 - NEO, EOS, NEM & the $4 Billion ICO 01:33:41 - Ultrasound Money & the EIP-1559 Burn 01:37:18 - The Prague Photographer's Lament 01:40:08 - Bob's Origin Story: Gold Bugs & the Alex Jones Phase 01:44:53 - El Salvador's Quiet Bitcoin Regression 01:48:07 - Meeting Bitcoin in a Pub (February 2014) 01:54:44 - Bitcoin 2.0: BitShares, Counterparty, Mastercoin, NXT 01:57:48 - Toronto, TD Securities & Joining the Ethereum Foundation 02:02:06 - Michael Ruppert's Collapse & Choosing to Build 02:06:24 - Self-Driving Cars & Assassination Markets 02:10:02 - Does Ecash Feel Like Early Ethereum? 02:13:53 - Will Bitcoin Ever Fork Again? 02:19:24 - WBTC: Ethereum Is Bitcoin's Biggest Sidechain 02:21:48 - The Self-Custody Industrial Complex 02:23:52 - Zcash, Monero & Tachyon 02:27:38 - "Everything Is an Experiment" 02:30:46 - The Block Size Wars Counterfactual 02:35:52 - Ethereum PoW: Anatomy of a Cash Grab 02:41:26 - ETC Labs, DFG & the Sabotage of ETC Dev 02:45:27 - Could ETC Have Flipped ETH? 02:49:07 - Bob's Advice for Paul Sztorc 02:55:50 - The EA Years: Psygnosis, Wipeout & Harry Potter 03:01:56 - "None of Us Play FIFA": Confronting the Chairman 03:12:22 - Fixing FIFA: The Seven-Year Turnaround 03:21:02 - FIFA Nostalgia & Vlad's Prodigy Brother 03:24:12 - The Notorious Wii U Tweet 03:26:37 - Professional Chaos Agent? Proof of Work Summit Stories 03:32:24 - Charlie Shrem's Time Zone & Nick Spanos Ghosting 03:35:51 - Advice to 2015 Bob: The Lost ETH Fortune 03:38:00 - Remembering Donald McIntyre 03:41:06 - The Nick Szabo Interview That Almost Happened 03:43:38 - Vitalik, Autism & Genius 03:47:08 - Early Days of Ethereum & the Ethereum Time Machine 03:58:36 - "You Got to Try" & Where to Follow Bob 03:59:22 - Outro & Sponsors
September 7, 2026Episode 31 hr 35 min
S1 E3 Remastered: Zack Voell on Bitcoin & Politics
The January 2019 Zack Voell crossover (he was hosting The Coin Pod) is now remastered: featuring opt-in money, gridlock as a feature, FDR's gold grab, Russia rumors & dating as a Bitcoiner in NYC. The audio has been enhanced too! Time stamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:46 - Remaster Notes: This Show Was Almost Called "Bitcoin & Politics" 2:12 - Sponsor Shoutout: Helen's Pizza in Jersey City 3:30 - The Crossover Episode Zack Never Published 4:41 - The Original Recording: January 2019 5:42 - Bitcoin as a Tool of International Affairs 7:49 - Bitcoin Obituaries, Silk Road Curiosity & Getting Rekt 11:39 - The Opt-In Economy: Voting With Your Money 13:26 - "You Only Ever Experience One Bear Market: Your First" 16:54 - The US Dollar's Outlaw Origins 17:55 - Colonial Currency Disasters & Tobacco Money 20:27 - Thirty Years of Failed Internet Money 21:51 - Gridlock Is a Feature: Congress & Nakamoto Consensus 22:37 - Bitcoin: A Very American Invention 24:47 - Why Americans Seem to Own the Narrative 27:18 - The White Paper's American Pedigree 30:44 - Could Bitcoin Have Come Out of China or Russia? 31:35 - Liberty Arbitrage & the Two Foundational Freedoms 35:15 - FDR's Gold Confiscation 37:43 - Jefferson, Madison & the Hard Money Founders 39:10 - Voltaire's Zero & the Fiat Inertia 43:08 - Rousseau, Property & Money as a Token of Trust 48:02 - Rational Ignorance: The Questions We Never Ask 50:55 - The Bitcoin Crash Course & Why Money Creates Community 55:36 - The Bitcoin Noob Moniker 58:52 - Dating as a Bitcoiner in New York City 1:02:58 - "But That's Not Real Money" 1:04:15 - Paying Your Half of the Date in Bitcoin (2017 Edition) 1:09:48 - The Russia Bitcoin Reserve Rumor 1:13:48 - Bernie Madoff Is Not Satoshi Nakamoto 1:17:19 - Who Adopts First: The Unbanked or the Privileged? 1:20:18 - Deplatforming, Gab, Patreon & Money as Speech 1:23:07 - The Four Freedoms of Money 1:26:05 - The Inconvenience of Freedom 1:29:20 - Your Own Single Point of Failure 1:31:09 - If You're Glad, Then I'm Vlad
September 1, 2026Episode 411 hr 23 min
S17 E41: Vik Sharma on Radar, Arbiter & Vibe Coding the Future of Cake Wallet
Vik Sharma is best known as the CEO of Cake Wallet. But lately, he's built two new projects: a Signal fork with BTC tipping called Radar, and a perpetual trading app named Arbiter. In this episode, he explains how the AI revolution speeds up development. Time stamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Vik Sharma Returns: Two New Products in Seven Months 1:41 - Radar: A Signal Fork with Bitcoin Lightning Built In 3:18 - How Radar Works: Signal Servers, Monthly Donations & Linked Devices 5:21 - Why Signal Over Telegram 6:36 - Why Lightning Over Monero 8:19 - Stablecoins for Normies: The Venmo-ification of Bitcoin 10:33 - Spark, Breez SDK & the Stablecoin Question 11:55 - The Nvidia Spark Cluster: Going All In on Local AI 15:25 - Why Local Models Beat Cloud Subscriptions for Security Work 17:03 - Guardrails: When Claude Refuses to Audit Your Own App 18:33 - Dinner with the Trump Administration: America's AI Regulation Mistake 20:45 - Italy's ChatGPT Ban & the Fear of Falling Behind 22:44 - The $100 Cake Wallet Contest 23:15 - Does Cake Wallet Use AI for Coding? 25:16 - Arbiter: A Vibe-Coded Hyperliquid Trading App 27:44 - $5 Million Traded, TestFlight & the Mac Desktop Build 30:13 - Linux Requests & the Orange Rock Comparison 31:17 - Gasless USDC: Circle CCTP & Frictionless Onboarding 35:10 - Can This UX Work on Private Chains? Zano, Aztec, Tari & Beam 37:44 - The $10,000 Red Team Donation & Cake's Audit Results 39:34 - The Coldcard RNG Flaw & the "Someone Is Looking at the Code" Fallacy 43:14 - Passphrases: The Simplest Security Upgrade 43:58 - The Bitcoin Forks: Luke Dash Jr's Blake2 & the Ecash Hard Fork 44:51 - Open-Mindedness: The Original Bitcoiner Virtue 46:44 - Wownero, MoneroV & Why Cake Dropped It 49:22 - The Winning Number Is 27 (and Nobody Picked It) 51:04 - The Privacy Narrative: Why Monero & Zcash Are Pumping 55:07 - "Bitcoin Maximalism Is Almost Anti-Bitcoin" 57:52 - NEAR Intents, Maya & Spending Shielded Zcash 59:53 - How to Try Arbiter Today 1:01:45 - What's Next: Desktop Apps, Multisig & Back to Self-Custody Basics 1:04:26 - Still Bullish on Lightning 1:04:39 - The Gatekeeper Question: How Cake Decides Which Coins to List 1:09:07 - Dash Adopting Orchard While Zcash Moves to Ironwood 1:10:56 - The Maintenance Burden: Why Exodus Dropped Monero 1:12:25 - Zcash Voting, Sapling Addresses & Passphrase Support 1:16:03 - Seth's Role & the Foundation Devices Connection 1:17:01 - Two Million Downloads & the Privacy Tipping Point 1:19:08 - Bitcoin Amsterdam & Conference Plans 1:21:14 - Sponsors & Goodbye
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