Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly Let's Talk Bitcoin!)
By Adam B. Levine
Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly known as Let's Talk Bitcoin!) is the longest-running English language talk show on the ideas, people and projects surrounding the Bitcoin movement and Cryptocurrency phenomenon.
Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly Let's Talk Bitcoin!)Aug 20, 2022
A Final Discussion
In this final discussion with Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine, the hosts discuss the present moment and look towards the future.
This episode was recorded several months before release.
Update 6/19/2022
Adam provides an update on what's happening now and what's still to come.
SOB #502 When the Referees Play Favorites (Part 1)
Join "Speaking of Bitcoin" hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy for a look at a recent move by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to "clarify" the responsibilities of publicly traded crypto companies.
This episode tackles the new custody rules that aim to solve market volatility. The hosts share their thoughts on how superficial and abetting conversation of custody rules can be used to mask adverse decisions and therefore create conditions for enhanced market volatility. They state their concerns that the hypocritical nature of embellished rules may be bypassed without an explanation if regulators do not favor the results.
CreditsThis episode featured Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. It featured music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas. Art for this episode was provided by Helen Cramer/Unsplash and was modified by Speaking of Bitcoin.
SOB #501 When More Is Less
Sometimes, more is less, better is worse, and blatantly superior products fail to overcome their competitors. On this episode of “Dare to Be Stupid,” correspondent George Frankly explores right answers to wrong questions.
Credits
This episode was written, edited and performed by George Frankly
SOB #500 Three Rules to Remember After Mailchimp Breach
As crypto holdings grow in value, criminals are becoming ever-more creative and audacious in their attempts to steal coins.
Join "Speaking of Bitcoin" hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy for a look at a recent insider compromise at Mailchimp that put crypto holders in the crosshairs. In this episode, we discuss what happened, what the scam was and three simple rules that, if followed, will help protect you from similar breaches.
CreditsThis episode featured Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. It featured music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas. Art for this episode was provided by Brett Jordan/Unsplash and was modified by "Speaking of Bitcoin."
SOB #503 The Check Engine Light and the Space Shuttle
The most shocking and surprising tragedies of the modern era were actually the predictable consequences of obviously bad decisions. There are far fewer surprises and unforeseen twists than we would like to believe, and most disasters stem from known issues and small, obviously terrible choices.
CreditsThis episode was written by George Ettinger with editorial assistance by Adam B. Levine and Adrian Blust. The music is by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Album art for the episode uses an image by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash, while the front page artwork is in the public domain.
SOB #499 New Lessons From the Island of Stone Bitcoins
In examining one of the earliest pre-bitcoin examples of a very bitcoin-like technology, "Speaking of Bitcoin" correspondent George Frankly learns some valuable lessons about where convenience, belief and control collide.
CreditsThis episode was written by George Frankly with editorial assistance by Adam B. Levine and music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
SOB #498 Rights Versus Privileges in a Global Financial System
This episode was recorded earlier in 2022...
Two critical questions about financial freedom and responsibility
As the second week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine begins, questions continue to arise surrounding crypto’s complexities in a wartime environment alongside broader questions about the future of money.
On this episode of “Speaking of Bitcoin,” hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan dive into two critical questions about financial freedom and responsibility.
The first question surrounds an emerging narrative of sanction evasion. Could bitcoin (BTC) even be an effective tool for a nation-state to use to evade sanctions, given crypto’s relative market size to a nation’s reserves? Even further, how effective are these sanctions at all?
The second question lies in the distinction between rights versus privileges for financial freedom. Do nation-states or individuals have a right to transact, or is interacting with larger financial systems a privilege that can be revoked by whoever operates the system?”
Quick SOB Update (More frequent episodes coming... now)
Hey folks,
Adam B Levine here,
sorry for the lack of recent updates, we've got a backlog of episodes to bring you which we'll be releasing every two days until we're caught up. Things are once again shifting in the background, I'll have a larger update on that later. Until then, we appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy these shows.
Thanks for listening!
SOB #496 The Ups and Downs of Crypto Loans
On this episode of "Speaking of Bitcoin", join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for a discussion about loans in the world of crypto.
HODL. It's crypto-land philosophy for not selling your preferred token even when things look their most bleak. But where philosophy intersects with real-world concerns like shelter, food and the niceties of life, tactics have emerged offering both opportunities and risks. From smart contracts to bitcoin collateralized mortgages, the hosts discuss their experiences with loans in the world of crypto.
CreditsToday’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Adam B. Levine and music by Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art is a picture provided by The New York Public Library, modified by "Speaking of Bitcoin."
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #497 A Brief Look at Bitcoin Maximalism
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for a discussion about the origins and evolution of Bitcoin maximalism.
Bitcoin maximalists – the self-described pro-Bitcoin, anti-altcoin faithful – have been around for longer than most modern crypto projects. The term was coined by Vitalik Buterin prior to Ethereum's release. Buterin intended the term to be a direct criticism of individuals with an unwavering view that Bitcoin was the only true option for cryptographic token use-cases.
In this episode as we explore the phenomenon's' motivation and roots, we also draw from Speaking of Bitcoin's extensive library. It features the very first recorded explanation of why there should only be one cryptocurrency and why should be bitcoin as explained by Hashcash inventor and bitcoin developer Adam Back . That clip is excerpted from episode 77 (December 2013) before Adam became personally involved. It's a fascinating journey and one you won't want to miss.
CreditsToday’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas and Adam B. Levine. Music for this episode was provided by Jared Rubens and Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art was created by Adam B. Levine/pixelmind.ai
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB # 495 First Practices Aren’t Best Practices
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for a discussion about crypto cycles and consequences.
As 2022 kicks into gear many of us are wondering what's in store for bitcoin and the broader crypto markets. Our lives, although our own, are driven by cycles which are often outside of our control. These cycles create the environment in which we each try to find happiness and success. But we can't see the cycles, at least not until they've come to pass and so we can't tell if this time is different until it's too late.
Credits:Today’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas, with music by Gurtybeats.com and Jared Rubens. Our episode art was created by Adam B. Levine with Pixelmind.ai
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #494 Bitcoin Security and a Rogue Power Plant
Bitcoin's energy usage has long been controversial but this time it's not what you'd expect, a story about a rogue power plant kicks off a wide ranging discussion between the hosts, touching on key issues like game theory, network security and more.
Links from this episode: Bitcoin Miner Facing $5.6M Fine for Starting Rogue Power Plant Issue #1138: The network is very secure Bitcoin network graphs Billionaire Investor Bill Miller Now Has 50% of His Personal Wealth in Bitcoin CreditsToday’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Adam B. Levine and music by Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art was created by Adam B. Levine with Pixelmind.ai
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #493 The Endowment Effect, HODLing and the Impossible Self-Appraisal
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, correspondent George Frankly shares another surprising look at glitches in human behavior and what we can learn from them.
In this episode we explore the endowment effect, the phenomenon of collectible cryptocurrency wallets and more.
This episode was written, edited and performed by George Frankly with additional production assistance from Adam B. Levine. Music for this episode was provided by Gurty Beats and Jared Rubens. Art for this episode was created by Adam B. Levine/Pixelmind.ai
SOB #492 Can Stablecoins Survive?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine and Stephanie Murphy along with special guest Josh Scigala, CEO of Vaultoro, for a wide-ranging exploration of the growing asset class of "Stablecoins."
On this episode we discuss:
The possibility of central banks or regulators banning private 1:1 stablecoins. The challenges faced by early, decentralized, overcollateralized stablecoins. How negative interest rates will drive 1:1 stablecoins into fractional reserve. The potential weaponization of unlimited money printing to take control of limited resources. The scenario where governments freeze bank accounts connected to 1:1 backed coins in an attempt to destroy the wider crypto economy. The Potential for mismanagement of funds by 1:1 companies and threat of a Lehman brothers 2.0 The shrinking but still dangerous dearth of transparency within the biggest stablecoin balance sheets Why regulators can't seem to keep up with real solutions Why Josh believes decentralised stablecoins present a better set of tradeoffs.Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.showToday’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Adam B. Levine and music by Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art was created by Adam B. Levine using pixelmind.ai
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #491 The Jokes Wear Thin as Inflation Becomes Normal
“We’re in the upside-down world. The time value of money is negative. Debts are assets and revenue streams are liabilities.”
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos for a wide-ranging conversation about the current realities of inflation. They discuss the challenge inflation presents to policymakers, the growing likelihood of major disruption and what you can do to prepare.
CreditsToday’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas. Music for this episode was provided by Jared Rubens and Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art is a CC0 public domain photograph taken of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons, modified by Speaking Of Bitcoin using Pixelmind.ai
Any questions or comments? Send an email to adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #490 Checking in on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is arguably the most anticipated scaling solution for Bitcoin to date. Why isn’t everyone using it?
“Speaking of Bitcoin” hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy are joined by Rene Pickhardt, Bitcoin and Lightning Network Developer. The four lead a conversation on the still in development yet rapidly growing Lightning Network. It’s a second-layer network that enables fast, secure, private and inexpensive payments that don’t make sense to store on bitcoin’s base layer. But while that might sound ideal, it’s not simple in practice. A scrappy community of companies and developers have been pushing the tech consistently forward as the number of hard problems still to solve ticks down.
Even as early as we are, Lightning has proven to be a radical improvement on the user experience of bitcoin. On the bitcoin network, fees vary but typically range from $1–5 and complete with confirmation in an average of ten minutes. With Lightning, fees and transaction times drop dramatically: the transaction fees are generally 1/100th or 1/10th of a penny and take just seconds.
If the improvements of Lightning are clear, why isn’t everyone using it today? Listen to hear more about the challenges and solutions coming to this rapidly-evolving aspect of bitcoin.
Additional reading: Mastering the Lightning Network Security and Privacy of Lightning Network Payments with Uncertain Channel Balances Optimally Reliable & Cheap Payment Flows on the Lightning Network Include the Uncertainty Network into the Payment Session and potentially acrosse payment sessions Rene’s lightning test tweets Zero Base Fee graph Support Rene in his workAlbum art created using AI by Adam Levine/Pixelmind.ai
SOB #489 Big Gaming Signals NFTS Are Closer to Mainstream
With NFTs continuing their rapid advance into mainstream cultural awareness, how much is FOMO (fear of missing out) and how much is real? This time Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine discuss the evolving battle lines in the nascent world of triple-A gaming NFTs and whether these early announcements are a signal or just noise.
Electronic Arts Ubisoft Epic Games Steam XboxLater, the hosts explore the still-to-come moment when the behemoths of game publishing select which blockchain or blockchains will be their native NFT layer. Are we in for a repeat of the corporate adoption story? Or will big-budget games become a new differentiating factor, elevating their chosen partners to de-facto “incumbent” status?
Photo by Igor Karimov on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #488 How Far We've Come (And How Much Stayed the Same)
Today’s show is from a time before the trillion (or even billion) dollar market cap; Before Vitalik had ever spoken the word Ethereum; Before taproot, segwit, stock-to-flow and the institutional investing thesis. In the early days, Bitcoin was the absolute state of the art and the basis for an entirely new and utterly revolutionary form of technology. This time you’ll get a peek at how we discussed it before everything that would happen had happened.
Original show notes for episode 14 (6/7/2013): ‘In Search of Goldilocks’
Listener mail: “Microtransaction powered social networks” Constance Choi, legal council at Payward brings us up to speed on Washington, DC, FinCEN & Treasury The retroactive bitcoin paywall Counterintuitive: Smaller amounts equal larger transactions? 1 Megabyte blocks, good or bad? Who needs banks? Zach Harvey of the Lamassu bitcoin vending machine Full node clients vs. lite clients: Are federated servers the future?
SOB #487 If Facebook Can't Run A Global Currency, Who Could?
A recent letter addressed to the social media giant from five democratic senators laid it out clearly; There's simply no way Meta (formerly Facebook) will be allowed, much less trusted, to run a supra-national stablecoin. It's a stance many agree with but it brings up a larger and much more controversial question. If one of the biggest, most successful consumer-facing companies in the world can't do it, who could?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos for this wide-ranging conversation as they dig into the thorny issues of power, currency, trust and monetary policy.
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Adam B. Levine and music by Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art is a photograph by Annie Spratt/Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #486.5 Why Cryptoization Scares the IMF (Part II)
This is part two (a bonus episode) of last weeks discussion of "cryptoization" and why the IMF is utterly terrified of it going mainstream.
SOB #486 Why Is the IMF Afraid of Cryptozation?
The IMF has outlined yet another set of concerns it holds about crypto. Is crypto really the problem, or is the IMF just afraid of the things it cannot control?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they dissect the October global financial stability report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) subtitled “COVID-19, Crypto and Climate: Navigating Challenging Transitions.” An entire chapter of the report is dedicated to destabilization factors crypto poses, at least as identified by the IMF. It even coined a new term, “cryptoization,” to refer to the introduction and/or substitution of crypto in emerging markets.
Although worries of supply shocks, supply chain inflation and stagflation fill headlines, the IMF placed crypto in the top three stability concerns. Is the organization gearing up to poise crypto as the scapegoat in case of an oncoming financial crisis?
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine, with music by Gurtybeats.com. Our episode art is a photograph by Giorgio Trovato/Unsplash recreated by Speaking of Bitcoin
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #485 The Sure Thing, the Force Multiplier, and the Underdoge
Why did a joke cryptocurrency with zero ambition find massive success, yet a calculated military campaign with plenty of ambition turned into a massive failure? With the right leverage, ten men can fight like one hundred, and one coin can spend like a million.
(Was planning to do a bonus episode on Sunday but ran out of time, sorry!)
Today’s show was written, performed and edited by George Frankly with additional production support from Adam B. Levine. Our episode art was created by Speaking of Bitcoin
Any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #484 A Brief History of Bitcoin Tipping (and Where Twitter Fits in it)
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for a look at bitcoin tipping through the ages. From the dogecoin-like fun and fervor of the early days to the game-changing bridges that first brought it to twitter, the hosts dig into Youtube, Changetip, TechCrunch and more.
But what happened to tipping? What was once the raison d'être of the early cryptocurrency experience faded away, as what was thought of as money turned out to be gold: Too precious to just toss around... Or was it?
In this episode we dig into the thought, experience and philosophy behind bitcoin tipping, how it changed and finally whether it's on the uptrend yet again.
Links from this episode:
Youtube is Broken - Rethinking Content Monetization with Bitcoin (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4tgNi5gle0
Kickstarter Coins - TechCrunch (2014)
https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/15/kickstarter-coins-2/
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today's show featured Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our episode art is from a photo by Keszthelyi Timi/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin.
SOB #483 Exit, Voice & Bitcoin
Blockchain technology presents opportunities for dissonant opinions, fractionalization and internal reform unmatched in the fiat world.
Join hosts Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they dissect “Voice and Exit,” or the power and necessity of being able to impact a system, whether financial, social or governmental, and if necessary, leave altogether. “Voice and Exit” was popularized by Balaji Srinivasan in 2013, where Srinivasan outlined how voice is attempting to change a system from within, while exit is leaving to create a new one.
Crypto has provided new methods to exercise voice and exit. Forks, software or protocol changes that users can choose to upgrade to, are an example of exit inherent to blockchain technology. Forks give the community a chance to decide whether to continue with the upgrade or remain in the old rules; forks have created spin-off currencies like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.
As opportunities for voice and exit seem to be gradually disappearing, can crypto help those who need them most?
Image credit: Wesley Tingey/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #482 Life on Bitcoin (2021 Edition)
In the early days of Bitcoin, a few idealistic individuals attempted to live entirely on the bitcoin currency. Nine years and an abundance of technological developments later, is an entirely closed-loop bitcoin economy possible, or even useful?
Join hosts Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they reflect on bitcoin’s evolution as a currency and commodity. In the early days, an era of retail adoption as merchants began to accept bitcoin from their customers seemed to point to a bright future for daily bitcoin use. The 2013 IRS addendum treating bitcoin as a commodity, rather than as a foreign currency, quickly made transactions a burden with onerous tax reporting requirements, dimming that retail bitcoin future.
In the time since, the crypto community has adopted a HODL mindset. Why spend bitcoin if it’s disinflationary in nature and will bring you more value in the future? Those idealistic individuals' dreams of bitcoin as a daily currency may no longer align with bitcoin's maturation.
Developments in layer 2 technology, like the Lightning Network, have allowed experiments in bitcoin as legal tender to be not only a possibility, but a pragmatic choice for governments like El Salvador’s. With news of Ukraine considering following in El Salvador’s footsteps, will clusters of closed-loop bitcoin life bloom around the world?
Do you have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Our album art is based off a photo by Ishan_@seefromthesky on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
Upcoming Episodes
No episode again today but we've got two in editing now for next week.
Have a good weekend!
SOB #481 On National Adoption of Bitcoin
El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender shocked the world. Earlier this week the rapidly-developed and adopted bitcoin law went live, kicking off what seems primed to be an era of accelerated change unlike anything seen in our lifetimes.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy for a quick three part discussion on the launch challenges, implications and listener comments from our previous show on the topic.
First, the launch: It was messy, but it happened. Alex Gladstein had an insightful twitter thread in the days leading up to it (https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1434636006632747009). Matt Ahlborg dug into the day-1 government issued wallet and found a mixed bag, extra controls on the money given out at launch but a fairly robust technological package including native SegWit support and a functional lightning network integration (https://twitter.com/MattAhlborg/status/1435307724774989829)
Second, the implications: This path towards adoption was not what we expected. What El Salvador's move to use bitcoin directly suggests is that dollarized nations, or those who use another countries currency and in doing so become subject to their monetary policy decisions, may prefer bitcoin's non-monetary policy to either domestic or imported control. That's in sharp contrast to nations like India, China and the US who use their currencies and controls over it to accomplish policy goals. These powerful players see central bank digital currencies as a way to supercharge their monetary policy compared to their influence today over physical banknotes.
And finally, the local perspective: We had two listeners write in with corrections to our prior episode (We were incorrect about the reason why El Salvador "dollarized" their economy in 2000, it was billed as a move to lower the cost of borrowing, not because of elevated inflation) along with the many concerns and questions which are still unanswered. You'll find both listeners comments in full linked below.
Links from the episode:
Federeco's El Salvador Perspective Rafael's El Salvador PerspectiveHave any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
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Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art is based off a photo by Photo by Wilson Edilberto Santana Suarez on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #480 Is Axie Infinity's Play-to-Earn Economic Empowerment or Exploitation?
Has decentralized gaming just created virtual menial labor?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they dive into the world of Axie Infinity and the growing global meta economy. Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-esc play-to-earn game on the Ethereum blockchain, has exploded in popularity around the world. The primary user-base has remained grounded in the Philippines as Filipinos from all walks of life buy, borrow, breed, trade and fight in-game NFT characters called “Axies.”
These fighting cartoon pets have earned players legitimate money – in some cases, enough to sway workers to quit their jobs to pursue Axie full-time. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, especially in places like the Philippines, only make Axie that much more enticing. Individuals and groups with more capital have also snapped on the Axie opportunity in the forms of “scholarships” and lending schemes.
Axie Infinity, and in particular, the lending schemes, prompt a larger conversation about the ethical implications of exporting work and the geographic inequality of opportunities. In the best light, lending within play-to-earn can be seen as providing opportunities with profits orders of magnitudes higher than the local economies could provide. Yet, viewing the practice from a different angle, it can be seen as richer countries farming out low-paying work to individuals who have no better options locally.
Is Axie Infinity a solution or scam? Will the platform maintain its relevance or fizzle out?
See also: Some Filipino Merchants Prefer Payment in Axie’s SLP
This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Jonathan Mohan. It was edited by Jonas, our theme song comes courtesy of Jared Rubens and today's music during the break was Delta by Gurty Beats. Today's album art features a photo by Karen Fedida/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin.
No Episode Today, Sorry!
Next week we'll share with you our preliminary exploration and implications of the growing Play-to-Earn movement. But no episode today, enjoy your weekend!
SOB #479 Ethereum, Bitcoin; Hard Fork, Soft Fork: How Decentralized Change Is Made
Ethereum’s London hard fork, also known as EIP 1559, took place on Aug. 5. The backwards-incompatible upgrade reignited community debate over hard forks, soft forks and the best methods – most foolproof, least polarizing – to bring about change to a network.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they explore the various ways in which consensus has been reached recently across the two largest protocols. The differences in technology and underlying philosophy means some solutions are more enticing to Ethereum and others to Bitcoin.
Ethereum maintains a so-called “difficulty bomb,” whose fuse is lengthened with every upgrade. If it ever goes off, miners would face exponentially harder work and proportionally diminished rewards, forcing them to switch from the pre-fork chain to the upgraded one. Bitcoin’s equivalent to the difficulty bomb, the User Activated Soft Fork (UASF), accomplishes the same thing by other means. Are these mechanisms the proverbial ‘Chekhov’s Gun,’ inevitably to be used in some later act, or simply empty threats to coerce miners into compliance?
Listen to this episode of “Speaking of Bitcoin” for an in-depth explainer of how wide-spread change occurs across decentralized networks and what changes might be in store for the future.
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This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Jonathan Mohan. It was edited by Jonas, our theme song comes courtesy of Jared Rubens and todays music during the break was Sloth Beats by Gurty Beats. Today's album art features a photo by Anita Jankovic/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin.
Have any questions or comments? Send Adam an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #478 The Expert Incentive, or ‘God Save the King of Kong'
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, correspondent George Frankly explores the expertise paradox through the lens of two very different historical figures.
What do 18th century physician Ignaz Semmelweis and professional Donkey Kong player Billy J. Mitchell have in common? The experts were wrong.
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This episode was written, performed and edited by George Frankly with additional production support by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song comes courtesy of Jared Rubens and this episodes album art features a photograph provided by Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin. Have any questions or comments? Send Adam an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
SOB #477 Stoner Cats Chaos and the Mainstreaming of NFTs
NFTs are emerging as the path from insular crypto community to a breakthrough in mainstream culture. Blockchain technology and pop culture collide to produce new possibilities for the future of art and beyond.
The question is, will NFTs prove to be valuable enough to endure beyond the hype?
“Stoner Cats,” a new animated series featuring top Hollywood talent (and Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin) successfully used a non-fungible token (NFT) sale to leapfrog the financial gatekeepers in Hollywood. With a cast list including Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock and Seth MacFarlane, it is no wonder the campaign raised over $9 million in just a few hours.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan as they pick apart the ”Stoner Cat” ambitious and novel approach to the production of an independent animated series. This project is one example of many in NFTs proving their worth beyond just the art: They are now status symbols, pop culture phenomena and a viable financial tool.
The “Stoner Cats” NFT launch, though eventually fruitful, began with a set of stumbles. As prospective buyers lined up to the launch, Ethereum gas fees quickly skyrocketed and some paid more than five times the price in fees. While the implementation of this kick-starter style of on-chain fundraiser could be improved, “Stoner Cats” proved it was possible.
This episode features Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan. This episode was edited by Jonas, features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl.
Image credit: StonerCats.com, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #476 - Digging Into El Salvador's Bitcoin Bill
El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender shocked the world. Soon, the dust will settle and catchy headlines will become real, lived experiences for Salvadorans.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy for a read-through and thoughtful conversation of El Salvador’s bitcoin legislation in full. The hosts discuss the highs and lows of the bill and potential risks to the country, its citizens and bitcoin globally.
Though many had predicted governmental adoption of bitcoin would come, none had predicted it would happen so soon. The rest of the world has watched attentively as El Salvador embarks on a nation-scale trial run of bitcoin as legal tender. This unprecedented circumstance brings an abundance of technical and social challenges.
What will the great successes be with this experiment? Where can it go wrong? And how will the Lightning Network factor in? Most worryingly, will El Salvadore’s trust fund be the world’s biggest honeypot?
The bitcoin bill is set to go in effect in about two months. Will El Salvador be able to address these concerns in time?
Links from the episode:
Bitcoin as Legal Tender? Why El Salvador’s Plan Isn’t as Crazy as You Think (Adam's Opinion piece) Bitcoin Neutrality (Andreas's original 2013 talk)Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
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Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art is based off a photo by Photo by Wilson Edilberto Santana Suarez on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #475 Emergent Complexity and Building Systems We Don’t Understand
If you landed in medieval times, could you build a phone? Or something even simpler, a pencil?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for a deep dive into the wildly empowering, complex and terrifyingly automated world we live in. This wide ranging, philosophical discussion touches on such topics as the Suez Canal, Douglas Adams, combat drones, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and more.
The world’s complexity exponentially increases by the decade. A gradual systemization has led to the automation of specialized tasks, affording people free time to perform other, even more complex tasks. For example, consider navigation apps reducing the decision-making process from driving, or the rise of autonomous cars that will eventually remove human interaction altogether.
As the world depends more on an unimaginable web of logistics, what happens when something breaks? The evolution of automation from simple, rules-based systems to incredibly complex machine learning algorithms has diminished the ability to understand or predict these structures.
As much as we love decentralization and technological advancement, where do these aims fail us? Are we creating more problems than solving them?
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art a photo by Luca Carrà on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #474 - Bitcoin Neutrality
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, we're zipping back even further to the Spring of 2013, where Andreas M. Antonopoulos, fresh off his Let's Talk Bitcoin! debut episodes gave a pivotal talk entitled "Bitcoin Neutrality" before a tiny audience at the Bitcoin 2013 conference.
Next week we'll be back with a new philosophical discussion entitled "No One's Driving" on automation and technology, the good and the bad.
The following week we'll bring you our deep-dive into El Salvador, which is in editing now and has been a long time coming.
SOB #473 - The New Renaissance
Six years ago Adam B. Levine and Arthur S. Falls started a discussion on what they called The New Renaissance. It's a conversation about disruption, open source and the individual.
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, we're flashing back to 2015 for a look at where we're going through understanding where we've come from.
SOB #472 Wisdom of Crowds and the Information Disease
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, George Frankly is back with the fifth installment in his Dare To Be Stupid series with a look at UFO sightings, jelly beans and the lurking information disease.4
Photo credit: Michael Herren/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #471 How and Why Governments Lie About Inflation
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, the hosts are joined by John Williams, rogue economist and long-time Editor of ShadowStats.com, a data source that tracks everything from inflation to GDP, money supply to unemployment using the original government defined methodologies. Over time, the government has changed how they measure all of these things and Johns work reveals that these changes all result in better looking statistics from the same, often terrifying numbers.
In this wide ranging conversation we talk about how and why this happened, plus what we can do about it. If this is a new topic to you, expect to come away with a different perspective in this epic episode.
Today's show featured John Williams (shadowstats.com), Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art is a composite work by Adam B. Levine using the current inflation chart from ShadowStats.com along with an excellent imposter-dog image from Brayden Anderson on Unsplash.
Have any questions or comments? Send me an email at adam@speakingof.bitcoin.show
SOB #470 Challenges Towards a Post-Scarcity World (and the Bullshit Economics of Star Trek)
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin: George Frankly is back for the fourth installment of his Dare To Be Stupid Series.
SOB #469 - Precursors to a Mainstream Moment in El Salvador?
This week on Speaking of Bitcoin, Adam B. Levine presents three perspectives on El Salvador as a bitcoin-as-legal-tender bill was announced, introduced and quickly passed into law.
In segment one, Adam presents his opinion piece written for CoinDesk early in the week.
(https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-el-salvadors-legal-tender)
In segment two, we read the full text of the bill as passed into law in El Salvador
(https://www.scribd.com/document/511099248/El-Salvador-Bitcoin-Bill-Draft)
In segment three, a local, skeptical perspective on the government potential ulterior motives and intentions around the bill courtesy of on of friend-of-the-show Alex Gladstein's on-the-ground contacts in El Salvador.
(https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1403479559555543040)
Album art credit: Rodrigo Flores/Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #468 - Leapfrogging to Bitcoin's Third Layer
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Stephanie Murphy as they explore the idea of users jumping straight into bitcoin's third layer (That's Bitcoin - Layer 1, Lightning Network - Layer 2, Applications built on top of Lightning Network that go beyond payments - Layer 3). We also get into the very cool and growing trend of using the Lightning Network to stream messages and money to podcasts that are streaming content back to you.
Join our Sphinx.Chat tribe
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Also check out LNBits.com
Today's episode break featured music from GurtyBeats (https://www.gurtybeats.com/)
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SOB #468 - Official Cowards, Financial Scatology & Precursors to Hyperinflation
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Stephanie Murphy as they dive into the growing topic of inflation. Our modern world is increasingly divided; The currently dominant narrative asserts that Modern Monetary Theory (MMT, or "Financial Scatology" as Jonathan likes to call it) is a free ticket to a better tomorrow... On the other hand, there are those who believe that money is just one of many measurements of reality. And increasingly those metrics have been corrupted to keep the party going and avoid at all costs blame falling on those responsible. In this episode, the hosts dig in deep for a sobering yet real conversation about what's going on and where all of this is headed.
Today's episode break featured music from GurtyBeats (https://www.gurtybeats.com/)
Podcast subscription links:
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SOB #467 Familiarity Breeds Contemplation
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, correspondent George Frankly presents his third installment in the Dare to be Stupid series.
SOB #466 Modern Mania 2: Musk Madness and Derivative Memes
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine as we dive into two new stories perfectly illustrating the oppressive, silly, modern mania that surrounds us all. First we dig into the intense fervor surrounding recent comments by the always controversial Elon Musk. After the break we dig into the recent explosion of Dogeclones and how Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin probably picked the least-worst option available.
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Image Credit: Tengyart/Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #465 - Power Dynamics & Taproot Revisited
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, hosts Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine revisit Bitcoin's upcoming multi-part "taproot" upgrade. We discuss the speedy trial required for activation, the power dynamics making change challenging for the seemingly popular upgrade.
Gavel Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash
SOB #464 - How Numbers Learn to Lie
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, correspondent George Frankly presents his second installment in the Dare to be Stupid series.
SOB #463 - Dogecoin, Crack-up Booms and the Modern Mania
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin we’re digging into the growing sense of mania. Across all asset and social classes money is on everybody’s mind: Whether you’ve got a lot of it and don’t know where to put it or you need a lot of it and can’t get access to it, times are strange and it’s no accident.
This time hosts Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine discuss the modern manias and what they could mean for our future.
Prefer to listen as a Podcast? Subscribe to Speaking of Bitcoin:
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SOB #462 The Past, Present & Potential of Blockchain Collectibles
This is both the first and the last episode in our series on NFTs - Recorded on March 11th, the day of the Beeple sale (which we learned was a 'signaling event' during our conversation with MetaKovan,) you'll hear the hosts react and explore recent events in real time.
Link to the story Adam mentioned:
https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/tokens-and-the-family-car
This episode features Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine.
SOB #461 - Infinite NFTs and What Comes Next
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, NFT early adopter MetaKovan (Vignesh Sundaresan) joins the hosts for the final of our three part exploration. This time we discuss how the NFT market is developing in the aftermath of the Christie's $69.7M Beeple auction.
SOB #460 - Fractionalizing Ownership & Perspectives on India with MetaKovan (Part 2)
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, NFT early adopter MetaKovan (Vignesh Sundaresan) joins the hosts for part two of our three part exploration. This time we discuss the B.20 token project, plus the ongoing challenges and opportunities of India.
Find us on your favorite podcast player:
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Image Credit: Isaac Quesada/Unsplash, Milad B. Fakurian/Unsplash and Vignesh Sundaresan, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #459 - The NFT Moment with MetaKovan (Part 1)
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, NFT early adopter MetaKovan joins the hosts for part one of our three part exploration.
Join me (Adam) for our early experiment on SphinxChat -
Get it: https://sphinx.chat/
Join the tribe: sphinx.chat://?action=tribe&uuid=YFU37SAILLdLjy-boicIo4IShtRLuy5h88P3lqoMf-l1xhTy1AQTQLWLYvO6nsM-v9xCCK9UXuwghaCgpspwFEYJG-1M&host=tribes.sphinx.chat
BitTalk, with Atom & Atlas #1 - Humble Beginnings
In this episode we're taking a break from the craziness of 2021 and traveling back to a simpler time, the summer of 2011...
Original episode text:
Join Atom & Atlas as they begin their journey into the world of BitCoin!
SOB #458 - Would Voting Be Better On A Blockchain?
Special Note: Our second collectible episode NFT is now up for bid. It’s another no-reserve auction format which will end sometime between March 20th and 21st.
Check it out: https://rarible.com/token/0x60f80121c31a0d46b5279700f9df786054aa5ee5:437241:0x86ce5d50015a54c9d7fd044212ed6f243f73802b
---
This week on Speaking of Bitcoin, we’re digging into voting - and how could, or would putting voting on a blockchain help? How would it even work? We discuss.
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Image Credits: Photos by Arnaud Jaegers on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #457 I Can’t Afford One Bitcoin! What Can I Do?
Special Note: Check out Speaking of Bitcoin’s very first collectible NFT.
https://app.rarible.com/token/0x60f80121c31a0d46b5279700f9df786054aa5ee5:308859:0x86ce5d50015a54c9d7fd044212ed6f243f73802b
For this first one, only a single token is available in a no-reserve auction format which will end sometime between March 13th and 14th.
This week on Speaking of Bitcoin, we’re digging into a good question you’ll often hear from new users. In this wide ranging discussion, hosts Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine discuss concepts like price anchoring, the milibit question, why a thousand Dogecoin isn’t better, finding financial comfort zones and more.
Prefer to listen as a Podcast? Subscribe to Speaking of Bitcoin:
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Image Credits: Photos by Olga DeLawrence and Micheile Henderson on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #456 Bitcoin Is Power and Power Is Everything
Simply by existing, Bitcoin provides an unstoppable alternative to regional currency monopolies.
In this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for a look at the most important aspects of bitcoin, it’s relationship to power and how that power has influenced every corner of our lives.
Image credit: James Adamsl/Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #455 Privacy & Scale - Everything You Need To Know About Bitcoin’s Taproot
In this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin (originally recorded in early January, 2021), join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan as they dig into the much discussed but often poorly understood ‘Taproot’ improvement.
This long-in-the-works, multi-part bitcoin improvement proposal is nearing deployment but will likely take years to fully manifest in the wallets and applications we use. Even so, taproot is set to impact the protocol significantly in the areas of scale, privacy and the ability to create and execute more complex ‘smart contracts’ on bitcoins’ native layer.
In this episode, we dig into the meaning and implications of the upgrades major componants in an easy to understand way and then go into the technical explanation to provide you with all the technical details as well.
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Image credit: Ricardo Gomez Angel/Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #454 - Dishwashers, Baseball & The Way We've Always Done It
In this special episode, tune in to Speaking of Bitcoin's first correspondent segment with George Frankly. We'll be back with full length episodes next week and segments from George and a growing roster of topic specific correspondents will start popping up in the middle or end of our shows in the near future.
Let us know what you think! adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
SOB #453 - Washington, Regulation & Bitcoin Custody with Peter Van Valkenburgh
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, CoinCenter’s Research Director, Peter Van Valkenburgh, joins the hosts for a discussion about FinCEN’s “Self Custodied Wallet” rule. The recently proposed, much commented attempt to extend rules which govern how banks must report on their customers would apply to companies like CoinBase plus a whole lot more. It’s a bit of a wonky topic, but one that’s critically important as bitcoin continues its march towards the mainstream and governments seek to grapple with the implications.
Interested in sponsoring Speaking of Bitcoin? Send an email to Sponsors@SpeakingofBitcoin.show
CoinCenter is a 504c not-for-profit technology advocacy and lobbying group, for the month of February, they’ve got a sponsor (Grayscale Investments) who are 1:1 matching donations up to a million dollars. To learn more, donate or otherwise support their work, visit CoinCenter.org
Image Credits:
Photo by Caleb Perez on Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
Photo by Kyle Mills on Unsplash modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
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SOB #452 Gamestop, Wall Street and the Avocado Toast Revolution
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, passions run hot as the hosts dig into the events and significance surrounding Gamestop, Wall Street Bets and the growing sense of outrage as perceptions of lawlessness go mainstream.
“Every market tends to have these effects where the rich gets richer, where wealth accumulates, that’s something that occurs in social systems… it’s a natural outcome of other inequalities that exist, and bitcoin doesn’t fix that,” said educator, author and host Andreas M. Antonopoulos. “But there’s something especially galling about the idea that once wealth inequality has started, that wealth can be used to buy power, that power can be used to buy access, and that power and access can be used to buy impunity. And when the rules can be changed, not just before or after the fact, but during the trade… When teh rules of the market can be changed even against participants who were, in good faith, assuming that the same rules applied to them, that’s particularly galling. What bitcoin fixes, what decentralized finance fixes is not inequality, what it fixes is that wealth and access and power do not give you the ability to change the rules in the middle of the game. And that, on its own, is revolutionary.”
“I genuinely believe that this is the most transformative financial event of the past decade, since 2009,” opined host and Themys.io CEO Jonathan Mohan, “In 2009 everyone learned that America is the country where if you’re too big, you will not be allowed to fail. Too big to fail means once you’re rich enough, everyone else will suffer so you don’t fail. There’s a coordinated cabal of people coming together and telling retail “You’re too small to succeed, we’re going to do something, it’s going to be blatant. We’re going to stick our neck 50 paces past the edge of the cliff…. But if you call us out on it because you’re not part of the club, and we lose money because of it… Who are you? We’re everything. You’re nothing. You’re too small to succeed. You don’t get to do that.’
And the way the government and these companies respond will let us know if America will go from being a country that said ‘if you’re too big we won’t let you fail’, to being the country that says ‘If you’re too small, we goddamn sure won’t let you succeed.”
Links for Jonathan's anecdote:
* https://www.vocativ.com/326039/how-one-4chan-board-is-trying-to-fight-isis-in-syria/index.html
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbwUdmHd5MA&feature=youtu.be
* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/5/19/anonymous-and-the-arab-uprisings
Photo by Haley Truong on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
SOB #451 - Is This The AOL Moment?
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for a new take on an old conversation: Is this the AOL moment (where Bitcoin goes "mainstream" and begins to succeed in popular culture while at the same time losing most of it's early principles) we've been talking about for the last 8 years?
This episode was recorded on January 9th, 2021 and features music by Jared Rubens with editing by Jonas.
SOB #450 - Let's Talk About Transaction Fees!
In this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin (originally recorded in October, 2020 before our hiatus), join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan as they dig into the critically important topic of transaction fees, the game theory that makes them work, eccentricities from one chain to another and more.
Update 12/6/2020
A quick but comprehensive update on what's going on and what's changing with the show as we get closer to resuming full production in 2021
SOB Update Nov 14
A quick update from Adam B. Levine on what's causing delays and when to expect new episodes.
SOB #449 Scary Stories of Cryptoween Live Special
On this special live episode of Speaking of Bitcoin Adam, Stephanie and Jonathan join Andreas on his youtube channel for an extended episode plus Q&A.
You can watch the video version and see the hosts in all their costumed glory here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoirqYveaOs
This episode is uncut and uncensored with a very small amount of exclamatory language plus a little awkwardness that we'd usually cut is present. Happy Halloween!
Halloween Livestream Today 10am P/ 1pm E
Adam B. Levine invites listeners to sit-in on our Halloween livestream taking place today (October 31st, 2020
Tune in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoirqYveaOs
Upcoming Halloween Livestream Show
Adam B. Levine provides a brief update on our upcoming halloween livestream episode and how you can participate or watch live.
SOB #448 Where Does Bitcoin Fit in the Global Reserve Currency Game?
On this “Speaking of Bitcoin” episode, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan for a look at the past, present and future of global reserve currencies
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Nexo.io and Elliptic
In the beginning (way back in 2009) there was the global reserve currency (U.S. dollars,) national currencies like the Japanese Yen, alternative currencies like Ithaca hours and just one cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
But what a difference a decade can make, today there are thousands of cryptocurrencies, many created by enthusiasts who have ideas on how to make something even better than bitcoin, but also currencies that use some of the technology that makes Bitcoin so powerful, but which pairs it with the authority of a national government, like the Digital Yuan in China, the Digital Euro out of Brussels, or even a globe-spanning corporation with billions of customers like the Libra, backed by Facebook.
In this emerging picture, is bitcoin still interesting? First attempts at new technologies, even when successful at introducing a powerful new idea, are often not the ones which eventually succeeds in changing everything. And importantly, as the world changes and we get closer to something other than the dollar standard, where does bitcoin fit?
SOB #447 Signal, Noise and the Coming Era of AI Curation
On this “Speaking of Bitcoin” episode, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and special guest Martin Rerak, creator of AllYourFeeds.com, for a look at how “AI curation” is being used to figure out what’s useful information and what’s just fluff.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Nexo.io and Elliptic
Hundreds of tabs
In the early days of Bitcoin, there were just a few places you might go to read news and stay informed, but over the years things have changed dramatically. Today there are thousands of projects and hundreds of articles written each day. And that’s assuming you ignore the wilds of YouTube or the depths of crypto Twitter.
There were days I was waking up to a hundred tabs that I was basically just reloading from the prior day... You know, looking at Slack, Telegram, Twitter accounts, Discord, Reddit and dozens of publications online [...] It was very easy to point somebody in the [right] direction if they're saying, "Where can I buy cryptocurrency?" But if they were saying, "Is there a use case here for traceability?" or "What do you think I should invest in?" or "How is this project developing?" that becomes a lot more loaded and challenging... - Martin Rerak
See also: What Is GPT-3 and Should We Be Terrified?
In this episode, we discuss the crypto-media landscape, AI training, the challenges around bias and un-biasing practices, potential impacts of the natural-language-generating algorithm known as GPT-3 and more.
Biased AI
While unsettling on the surface, the idea of bias within an AI is not as controversial as you might imagine – it’s almost required. As humans, we each have our own experiences and preferences which shape our viewpoint and our biases. Modern artificial intelligence consumes “training material” curated by humans to learn what’s right or wrong for its particular task. Once trained, AI can help us with those tasks and is at its most useful when it’s “instincts” match whomever it is working on behalf of.
Of course whether bias is good or bad depends a lot of your priorities. When Google trained an AI to help with hiring, the data around past and current employees led it to believe that an ideal “Google engineer” wouldn’t have a woman’s college on their academic transcript. For Google, their past records did not match their future ambitions and so bias was a problem.
But personally, I’ve developed patent-pending AI technology that assists with audio editing, and here the idea of bias is critical. There is no objective standard of what sounds best, only personal preferences. For an AI to assist an audio editor, it must be in tune with those preferences and be able to make decisions that are objectively correct for the person it is assisting.
This is much the same with AI assisted news curation. We all have our own preferences, interests and biases which help us decide what we do or don’t care about. On today’s show we dig into this fascinating topic where one size rarely fits all and the future is wide open.
2 Minute Update from The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show
Adam provides an update on an upcoming series of retrospective episodes on The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show
SOB #446 The 51% Attack Nightmare Scenario (Isn't That Bad)
On this Speaking of Bitcoin episode, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for an in-depth discussion about what’s really at risk when blockchains suffer the dreaded 51% attack.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.
On today’s show we’re talking 51% attacks, the much discussed, infrequently seen and fairly misunderstood doomsday scenarios. It’s recently re-emerged as a topic of discussion as Ethereum plans its transition to Proof-of-Stake and fork Ethereum Classic is hit by its third in less than a month.
Although the numbers may change, basically any blockchain you can imagine is vulnerable to some form of the so-called 51% attack. By distributing the power within a protocol, say to miners instead of a corporate board, blockchains and other decentralized systems create and maintain a “Consensus Reality”, where what most of the network believes to be true is true, or becomes true for the entirety of the network.
See also: How Does Kraken’s New Crypto Bank Work?
If you think about it, this makes sense. Each blockchain creates a game with a distinct set of rules that need to be followed for the thing to work. It requires lots of people who don’t know each other to individually follow those rules and get rewarded by the system for doing so. The assumption underlying all of these systems is that most of the people are going to be compelled by the offered rewards to follow the rules. Even if a lot of people aren’t following the rules, they’re probably breaking them in different ways rather than working together.
In a 51% attack, that assumption is broken as most, or at least enough of the network is overcome by bad actors who aim to rewrite reality in their favor.
It’s a real problem, one of the biggest blockchains face, especially less popular ones… But even if you could pull one off, the outcome might not be as bad as many fear.
But what is actually at risk? What’s possible and what’s safe? Tune in to find out.
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
SoB #445 How Does Kraken's New Crypto Bank Work?
This week Kraken Financial became the first crypto company to receive a banking charter under Wyoming's Special Purpose Depository Institution statute. Join CEO David Kinitsky for a look at what it all means and how it'll work with hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.
In the early days of Bitcoin, there were no rules, or at least none that people understood. The first batch of companies were focused entirely on functionality; Simply making things possible that before crypto had been impossible.
In the aftermath of the collapse of first MTGox and then later TheDAO, it became obvious that rules did apply, or at least would moving forward. But what wasn't very clear was how they'd apply as different regulatory bodies claimed authority in confusing and often conflicting ways.
As law, if not order, came to the industry, much of crypto's first wave of US based exchanges were crushed as they struggled to get legal, a challenging task with different rules and unique compliance burdens for each state and territory they'd operate in. New York famously introduced the Bitlicense, which in the five years since it's introduction has approved just 25 companies to operate in the U.S. financial hub.
On today's show Kraken Financial CEO David Kinitsky joins the discussion of just how much things have changed as Kraken becomes the first crypto company to receive a banking charter under Wyoming's Special Purpose Depository Institution statute. And more importantly, what happens next.
Episode Art by Doran Erickson on Unsplash
New Episodes Releasing as "Speaking of Bitcoin" for a while
Adam B. Levine provides an update on why the show is temporarily changing its name while sorting out trademark confusion.
OLTB #444 - The Remedy to ICOs w/ Kevin Owocki
In this episode of the Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show, open source developer and Gitcoin creator Kevin Owocki joins Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for an in-depth discussion on modern fundraising.
Find Kevin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/owocki
GitCoin project page: https://gitcoin.co/
(This episode was recorded in late July)
OLTB #444 features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.
OLTB 443 Improving Privacy on the Bitcoin Blockchain
On today's episode of The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show, we're talking privacy on the bitcoin blockchain with special guest developer Chris Belcher, inventor of JoinMarket and Electrum Personal Server.
You can find Chris Belcher...
at twitter.com/chris_belcher_
and github.com/chris-belcher
Today's episode featured Chris Belcher, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine with music by Jared Rubens and FromEther. This episode was edited by Jonas and if you have any questions or comments, email adam@ltbshow.com
OLTB 442 Lessons From Zimbabwe's Latest Hyperinflation
On today's episode of The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show, hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan sit down for another wide-ranging discussion.
In this episode we'll discuss the philosophical differences behind recent turmoil over the supply of ETH, lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe's most recent bout of Hyperinflation and how the prevalence of Mobile Money impacts things this time around and more.
This episode is running without sponsors and features a special update for long time listeners about the show's new name (The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show) and how you can help us orient for our next 8 years.
Bitcoin In Zimbabwe Series
https://bitcoinundco.com/en/bitcoin-zimbabwe/
Today's episode features Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. This episode is edited by Jonas and the album art features modified images from Jeremy Pagden and Alex Steyn, both of whom can be found on Unsplash.com
If you have any questions or comments, send us an email at adam@ltbshow.com
And we'll be back next week with more episodes of The Original Let's Talk Bitcoin Show
LTB E441 Paypal, Banks and Real Life Infrastructure Inversion
Join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for another wide-ranging discussion on the messy reality in which bitcoin and blockchains intersect real life.
For those of you who haven't already taken the time, please subscribe to the new show feed at ltbshow.com.
We're changing up our distribution as the show gets ready for our next marathon of growth and we want to make sure you don't miss any episodes.
On this episode we discuss the significance of a recent, seemingly innocuous letter released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency... The now-completed cycle of corporate adoption as a differentiator to the biggest countries and companies in the world getting involved out of fear their competitors will steal a march on them and more.
Shownotes:
Caitlin's twitter thread
twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status…1286226852244160512
Preston's twitter thread
twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/statu…1285984029154648064
Andreas's talk on Infrastructure Inversion
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ca70mCCf2M
Original PayPal article
www.coindesk.com/paypal-venmo-to-…ying-and-selling
Now-Deleted Twitter Thread on PayPal internal decisionmaking re: Bitcoin buy/sell
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=…lnk&gl=us
Credits:
This episode featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine with editing by Jonas and music by Jared Rubens.
LTB! E440 Bitcoin, Decentralization and the Twitpocolypse
In the aftermath of a major Twitter compromise that impacted a broad swathe of the largest, most influential accounts, join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine for a dive into the crazy series of events, what impact it has on bitcoin, decentralization and more.
This episode is sponsored by eToro.com and The Internet of Money Volume 3.
Subscribe to Let's Talk Bitcoin! at www.LTBSHOW.com to make sure you never miss an episode.
Email adam@ltbshow.com with questions or comments
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Let's Talk Bitcoin! Update July 2020
We've been recording new episodes, but you haven't seen them yet. In this special update, Let's Talk Bitcoin! creator Adam B. Levine reveals what's up and when to expect new episodes.
LTB #439 Bitcoin Only Matters Because Money Is Rigged
On today’s show we’re going back to basics. While bitcoin and digital bearer assets in general are an incredibly important technology, the reason they’re likely to be important to the future has little to do with the token and everything to do with the context surrounding them: The world we live in every day, where government-controlled money is abused for the benefit of the few and to the detriment of the many.
Topics:
For whom is the economy still working, and who is not being served? What’s wrong with money that makes alternatives attractive? Why and how is Bitcoin disconnected from the current system? What’s the value in the U.S .and western Europe compared to the value in less developed parts of the world? What role does speculation play in the story of bitcoin? Bitcoin’s been around now for more than 20 years. Are we on track to make a difference? What’s the normal adoption curve for disruptive or revolutionary technologies? What IS a disruptive or revolutionary technology? Who or what is bitcoin potentially disrupting? Does being part of the bitcoin community make you politically affiliated, or represent a distinct political viewpoint?LTB #438 Bootstrapping Mobile Mesh Networks with Bitcoin Lightning
On today’s episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! you’re invited to join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murpy and special guest Richard Myers for an in-depth look at the past, present and future of ‘Mobile Mesh Networking’ technology and the open source LOT49 protocol built on top of lightning.
Just as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin don’t rely on static infrastructure and professional providers, mobile mesh networking allows the creation of inexpensive, high range, low bandwidth and power consumption ad-hoc networks that’ll let your phone send text messages or even bitcoin lightning network micro-transactions, even in areas with no coverage.
According to Richard, Bitcoin’s Lightning is a what’s needed to make mobile mesh networks catch on by bootstrapping on top of the payment routing infrastructure.
“…the Lightning network currently sends payments from A to B to C and then all those intermediate nodes can connect a small fee if the payment is delivered at the end. All we’re doing is saying ‘Not only [can you send] a payment, but [you can send] a small message. In our case it’d be a SMS message. So you’re sending an SMS message along with a Lightning payment from A to B to C to D, and when D receives that message they return proof that it was delivered and that’s what flows back through the network. In the Lightning sense, that’s your pre-image. It’s computed from the message, that’s how the nodes are able to collect payment even if they lose touch with the original person who sent it.”
But the way the Lightning network uses data natively isn’t ideal for mobile mesh. The open source Lot49 protocol is another layer on top of lightning that Richard says is necessary to make it work at scale while using mesh devices as an extremely low-bandwidth TOR-like privacy layer.
“In many ways we’re not making a new protocol, we’re literally using lightning. Lot49 is custom communication protocol that’s optimized for mesh. For example, right now there’s a 1300 byte onion that’s used to route messages over the internet and that’s very important because you lose a lot of privacy… you lose all your privacy… if you were to just send messages over the internet without onion routing.
We’re sending over more or less a physical TOR network since it’s going from node to node, not through a central ISP who can associate who you’re trying to pay. We’re also doing it over a low bandwidth network, so if you were sending 1300 bytes it may not sound like much in the age of the internet but we’re talking about devices that [have a maximum data transmission capacity of] about a kilobyte a minute so that’s a significant amount of the bandwidth that you have [tied up just in the web’s onion routing]
So for example with LOT49, we take out the onion and we use the native routing at the mesh device [level] which is optimized for mesh communications. And there’s a few other little changes we make like that in order to reduce the bandwidth by chunking up messages… the ultimate goal is to minimize the lightning protocol overhead so that there is more bandwidth available for data… For things like sending an SMS and as bandwidth increases there may be things like internet protocol…”
Credits
This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine and Richard Myers. Music provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.
Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash
Let's talk Bitcoin! #437 Be Your Own Bank and the Luxury of Apathy
The episode is sponsored by eToro.com and The Internet of Money Vol. 3
On today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! you're invited to join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Stephanie Murpy for an in-depth discussion about the ups and downs, the good and the bad about being your own bank in the modern world of Bitcoin.
The powerful idea and meme at the core of Bitcoin self-sovereignty is incredibly empowering but has an unspoken element that requires persistent competence and at least for some makes it more trouble than it's worth.
As the world reels from the response to COVID-19 and disorder seems the trend on the rise, we discuss how although Bitcoin makes it possible for anyone to be their own bank, who actually wants the constant vigilance and anxiety that goes along with it? And what happens when things go wrong and there's no-one to blame but ourselves?
"...There is tremendous luxury in having institutions that at least appear to be stable over some period of time where you don't need to worry about the details of how they work and what happens under failure conditions. That luxury is pretty concentrated in just a few places in the world and at some point you can't afford that luxury of apathy. - Andreas M. Antonopoulos, LTB! #437
Credits
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. Music provided by Jared Rubens, FromEther and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.
Photo by Pathdoc on Shutterstock
LTB #436 'We Need 30 Different Words for Different Kinds of Censorship'
The rallying cry of the totalitarian is "He farted first", but if both systems have produced similar outcomes, is there much of a difference? Inspired by a recent article in the Atlantic, in today's wide-ranging discussion the hosts of Let's Talk Bitcoin! dig deeply into the questions of censorship, propaganda and how things are both better and worse than in years past.
The episode is sponsored by eToro.com and The Internet of Money Vol. 3
Shownotes:
Who are they censoring from and how do we unpack this manipulation? The rallying cry of the totalitarian is always “He farted first” Who gets to decide what is censored? The squeaky wheel of child pornography gets the attention, the much more insidious problem of silencing certain voices, or giving preference to other voices. Propaganda goes hand-in-hand with censorship Propaganda is harder to detect ‘reverse censorship’ Private platform curation have the right to moderate which can be interpreted as censorship. You have to choose if you’re a publisher or a platform What if AT&T listened to your phone calls, sold ads against them and disconnected you whenever you say something that would trouble sponsors? Common carriers vs. publishers FOSTA, SESTA and turning platforms into publishers Crony capitalism will always co-opt government The only way to win is not to play The only way to not be coopted as a protocol is to have it not be owned by anyone. It may be impossible to be a platform if you’re not a protocol Information overload and compartmentalization Are the solutions that are being proposed the solution that we need to solve this problem? What kind of side effects does the solution have? It’s one thing to say “there are idiots out there who have not developed critical thinking and are easily swayed and we need to fix this” and a whole other thing to say “And that’s why only the landed gentry should vote” Do tech companies think they’re helping? Benevolent fascism is still fascism The public school system was never meant for the average person to be able to form their own opinion, “it is for factory men not philosophers” Manufacturing consent with the power to control, censor, frame, set up the base assumptions of belief and then seek to nail them down. A dictatorship of the mind is far more effective than a dictatorship of violence. If Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Were on Youtube, we wouldn’t be able to say the word Covid-19. Avoiding totalitarian controls means missing opportunities presented by big would-be platforms. Government surveillance vs. private surveillance provided to the government What we learned from Edward Snowden Does China commercialize surveillance? And a lot more (Only room for 4,000 Characters on Anchor.fm, see https://www.coindesk.com/we-need-30-different-words-for-censorship-feat-andreas-m-antonopoulos for full shownotes)Credits
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. Music provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.
Photo by Sebastiaan Stam on Unsplash
LTB! #345: Bitcoin Miners, US Energy Producers and Moores Law
Although some believe bitcoin mining is a wasteful activity, on today's show we dig into the relative world of constant fuel production, lumpy demand and bitcoin based load balancing.
After years of bitcoin mining domination by china-based miners, some US power producers, both professional and incidental, are beginning to get into the game as a way to be more green. It's a narrative reversal if ever we've seen one and if proven successful by the early players could change the bitcoin mining landscape as we know it.
But even without a "Green Bitcoin" narrative in the US, one of China's two major mining advantages has evaporated as Moores Law stretches out the useful lifespan of modern bitcoin miners hardware.
Correction: Before installing miners, Greenidge Generation previously shut down during off-peak season, during the episode Adam incorrectly stated that it previously shut down during off-peak hours.
Today's episode features Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine
This episode features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Today's show is edited by Jonas, and sponsored by eToro.com
Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash
LTB #434: Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed
On today's show we've got a pair of interviews for you. First we speak with John Cantrell, the author of Juggernaut, a new messaging layer 3 application being built on top of layer 2 lightning network, which is itself built on top of layer one bitcoin. It's a lot of layers, but as a technological concept currently in beta it's a fascinating project, and we talk about it. (Juggernaut on Github)
After the break we're joined again by Alex Gladstein of HRF.org for a discussion on political expediency in the age of pandemic and what crisis has revealed about various governments, and different types of governments around the world. Alex is one of my favorite returning guests, with his global human rights focused work taking him to some of the most interesting and most oppressed places around the world
"What's interesting is that citizen journalists I know in Taiwan have pressed the government on this and they've gone to parliament and it's all on record, and they've said 'Have these (...) digital contact tracing or cell phone surveillance things been useful?' And the governments said "Only in one case.... Only in one case was this sort of mass surveillance approach been useful', so they've actually been honest with the people... But at the end of the day it does teach us that even the most progressive governments are going to be lured by the sirens call of using surveillance to tackle problems." - Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer HRF.org
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin is sponsored by eToro.com and features content from John Cantrell, Alex Gladstein and Adam B. Levine. Todays show features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats with editing by Jonas. Album Art original photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash
Let's Talk Bitcoin! #433 Coronavirus Second Order Effects and Improving on Bitcoin With BitTorrent Creator Bram Cohen
In Today's discussion we'll briefly talk about some of the knock-on, or second order affects which the coronavirus disruption is having on our world today, and which may continue into the future. Then for the meat of the show we'll dig into specific areas where bitcoin could, or perhaps is being improved with the creator of one of the most impactful peer to peer technologies in the world today.
This episode was sponsored by eToro.com, with music by Jared Rubens, Gurty Beats and Adam B. Levine. Today's show featured Bram Cohen, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine with editing by Jonas.
Let's Talk Bitcoin! #432 How MakerDAO’s Stablecoin Survived the Crash, Smart Contract Bugs and Full Decentralization
In the aftermath of the so-called "Black Thursday" crash from several weeks ago, MakerDAO's "DAI" ethereum backed dollar pegged stablecoin came untethered and was, for a time at least, functionally insolvent. In the aftermath, holders of the MKR token which allows holders to participate in governance decisions opted to do a couple of things, including adding the centralized stablecoin USDC to the list of acceptable collateral, which drew both condemnations mostly around centralized risk being added to the system and praise for making the system more robust against sudden ETH collateral price crashes.
And now most recently, the Maker Foundation which had held some centralized control over the protocol completed their long-planned exit with all authorities now transferred to the holders of MKR tokens, removing both a point of control which had been used as a safety check and a point of risk in that centralized control can be co-opted and used to disrupt a system as we've seen in other examples.
On today's show we're digging into:
What is Decentralized Finance (DeFi)?
How does decentralized finance differ from traditional banking?
Fractional reserve vs over-collateralized loans
Liberty Dollars’s missing collateral and USDC’s risky name
MakerDAO, DAI dollar-pegged stablecoins and how this DeFi stablecoin actually works
SDAI (Single Collateral DAI) vs. DAI (Multi Collateral DAI)
Smart contract ‘vaults’
Lending money to yourself: 150%, 300%, insurance and auctions
What happened on ‘Black Thursday’ as the price of Ether dropped more than 50%
What happened when transaction fees went through the roof
A bug in the collateral auction smart contract
A surprising crash: as the system became functionally insolvent the price of the dollar pegged stablecoin actually went up.
Oasis.app vaults are transparent and pretty interesting, take a look!
Loaning yourself money using your ether (at interest)
How MakerDAO’s approach differs from SALT Lending
The other half of the DAI system: saving vault smart contracts
DAI Saving Rate (DSR) and the new certificate of deposit
The reward for using MKR tokens to administer a good system
Can savings vaults be liquidated?
Smart contract risks, consensus risks, systemic risks and response time risks
Sponsors: eToro.com and Purse.io
What specifically went wrong with the auction smart contracts?
Recapitalizing the system by diluting MKR governance stakeholders
Even with bugs, market mechanisms to fill the solvency hole seemed to work better than government bailout equivalents.
Completing the transition from foundation-overseen to full tokenized governance.
Decentralization transition - A necessary step or a natural one?
Single collateral vs. Multi-collateral stablecoins
Why would a decentralized stablecoin want to allow a centralized stablecoin for collateral?
External political risks vs. internal technological risks
“Life finds a way” and DeFi’s natural circuit breakers (also Mt.GOX)
Whats the point of putting USDC in to get DAI out?
How does DeFi stablecoin insurance work?
A modular ecosystem
How DeFi and traditional finance are similar
DeFi vs. 2nd layer protocols
Credits
Hosts: Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan & Stephanie Murphy
Sponsors: eToro.com and Purse.io
Music: Jared Rubens and GurtyBeats
Editing: Jonas
LTB #431 Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope
From Boeing to bitcoin in this week's discussion we're talking about our disrupted reality, the politically expedient path forward, why it almost certainly won't work, the alternatives to it, what this means for bitcoin and what you can do to help.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin is sponsored by eToro.com. If you're a skilled audio editor with deep crypto knowledge consider applying for CoinDesk's Deputy Podcasts Editor role
This week on Let's Talk Bitcoin we're discussing the coming bailout-everything regime in a topic that's both extremely timely but is also what originally forced many long-term bitcoin enthusiasts to learn about money and become interested in cryptocurrency in the first place.
As much of the world on an almost uniform and bipartisan basis shuts down to slow the spread of COVID19 and prepares to bail out first financial markets and now basically everything that can't work on a fully remote basis, we're talking about crisis, bailouts, the limits of monetary policy and the real possibility that it's not a straw that breaks the back of our money but rather the whole world suddenly jumping on.
On today's show we'll discuss:
The growing bipartisan and global shutdown then bailout everything movement The alternative to the bailout path we're on The inability of even extraordinary monetary policy to resolve these issues and the markets growing cognitive dissonance The revival of the "system is breaking and when it does we'll need something new that doesn't share the same problems of being vulnerable to politically expedient over-reactions" narrative that, frankly, drove my initial interest in bitcoin in the first place. Some of the #CoronaEfforts we've heard about so far and how you can help And much more in this wide-ranging discussion...Today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine.
This episode was sponsored by eToro.com and featured music by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.
Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash
LTB #430 ‘Anything That Can Be Decentralized Will Be Decentralized’ 6 Years Later
On today's podcast we're joined by early investor and entrepreneur David Johnston to discuss:
A new "consensus based" alternative to "reserve based", "game theory based", or trusted oracle based Stablecoins The growing relevance of DeFi even for those who aren't using it Johnston's Law six years later, how far we've come and real reasons for optimism on the decentralized evolution of everything.Further listening: The original panel where Johnston's Law was introduced in 2014
Credits for LTB#430 - Anything that can be decentralized will be decentralized 6 years later
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Purse.io and eToro.com.
This episode featured Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, David Johnston and Adam B. Levine
Today's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Jonas with music provided by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #429 Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS's Dumb Singularity)
Earlier this week the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss Coronavirus and its potential impacts or disruptions to the decentralized world of bitcoin.
On today's podcast we discuss Coronavirus and:
The bitcoin mining industry and the slowing rate of hash-rate increases in the run-up to the 2020 halving Safe haven, uncorrelated and risk asset narratives as the price of bitcoin bounces defies expectations The potential for shifts in how society thinks about money in the wake of a highly transmissible global disease Plus a brief primer on virus families (skip to 13 minutes for blockchain only content if you're already up to speed)Later, we hear from correspondent George Ettinger about the indications of a "Dumb Currency Singularity" taking place at the IRS right now (also presented in full text below).
Credits for LTB#429 - Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS's Dumb Singularity)This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Purse.io and eToro.com.
This episode featured Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, George Ettinger and Adam B. Levine
Today's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Adam B. Levine with music provided by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB # 428 Decentralization Philosophy – Does Crypto Still Need Catalysts?
The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss catalysts and CEOS in the world of blockchain projects, the organizational and organic structures of decentralization and to wonder whether crypto even needs Satoshi-like catalysts now that the fire of blockchain burns bright.
Episode Sponsors: Brave.com and eToro.com
On today's podcast we continue the discussion, applying concepts and stories from "The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000's, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins and ambitions.
Want more? Catch up on 7 years of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Credits for LTB#428This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com.
This episode featured Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for a hot minute.
Today's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Jonas with music provided by Jared Rubens, From Ether Music and general fuzz.
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #427 Mainstream Moments and the CompuServe of Crypto
With the price of bitcoin headed up again, the idea of blockchains and digital currencies has never been more palatable to the mainstream. We've seen this cycle before, but could this time be different?
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com.
Today's discussion features:
Andreas M. Antonopoulos Stephanie Murphy Adam B. LevineMusic for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Today's episode features audio clips from CNBC, C-SPAN and Figure.com
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #426 Bitcoin Taxes and Real World Scams!
This week the hosts of LTB! discuss the US tax treatment of "Virtual Currencies" and how scams find a home wherever opportunity exists, at least for a while.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.io.
During our first segment, we'll discuss:
Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2020: The proposed legislation would exempt capital gains taxes if any individual transaction results in a capital gain of $200 or less. Previous versions of the bill proposed a $600 cap. If passed, it would take effect in the 2020 tax year. Link - H.R. 5635
The IRS has a question for you: Tax filers in the U.S. are being asked if At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? Link -IRS Form 1040
Yang proposes "Digital Asset Regulation": U.S. Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang wants to Clarify the tax implications of owning, selling, and trading digital assets. Yang says clear policy will allow businesses to invest and innovate in the area without fear of a regulatory shift. Link - Yang 2020
Later on, we'll dig into the "why" of scams as we begin a longer conversation on the topic.
Three main points on scams:
Ponzi schemes thrive in disrupted spaces with uncertainty, poor credentialing, and poorly understood complexity The crypto currency space has these attributes The underlying appeal of ponzi scams (and bitcoin) comes from the mythology of redemption, getting something from nothing, the genie in the bottle, etcLinks:
How MLMs Use the Psychology of Influence The Cult Psychology Behind MLMsThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.io.
Photo by Fernando Venzano on Unsplash
This episode was produced by AP's Don and Ned. It featured discussion by Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan.
Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, From Ether and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #425 Libre Not Libra – Thinking Critically About Facebook’s Blockchain Project
In “Libre Not Libra: Facebook’s Blockchain Project,” Andreas answers the burning question… Has he tried haggis? Just kidding… He shares his thoughts on the recently released Libra whitepaper, as part of a permissioned blockchain project spearheaded by Facebook.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com
Years of jokes about “FaceCoin” and “ZuckBucks” have finally come to life – sort of. In a previous episode, he talked about how some venture capitalists are monkeying around by downplaying the killer applications of open blockchains in favor of… bananas. Now he makes us wonder whether Libra will even survive to become a production network. Is Silicon Valley coming for banking? Will Libra’s challenges have any impact on open public blockchains?
This talk took place on June 19th, 2019 at the Scottish Blockchain Meetup in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Follow Andreas on Twitter: @aantonop
Andreas's website: https://aantonop.com/
Andreas's live talks released in podcast form
Episode Credits:
Today’s show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, with a little narration by Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, as well as the live crowd and that guy with the great laugh about three quarters through.
Photo by Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist on Unsplash
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com
This episode featured music by Jared Rubens, Orfan and general fuzz. Production support was provided by Erica and Jessica, with sound editing by Dimitris of Sampi Media.
Want to hear more of Andreas’s Live talks? Check out new episodes every week on Unscrypted, or just head over to aantonop.com .
Have any questions or comments? Email me at adam@ltbshow.com.
LTB #424 What Are Lightning Wallets Doing to Help Onboard New Users?
The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss Lightning Network technology and two innovative approaches at the wallet level which simplify the new-user experience at a tangible, but seemingly minimal cost.
In today's podcast we zero in on the challenge of "Channel Management", an until-recently-mandatory and manually-managed part of connecting to and utilizing the still-nascent Lightning Network.
A little context: The way Andreas (someone already using Lightning) sends a payment to Stephanie through Lightning is either through a direct channel to her or through a route of hops that can eventually reach Stephanie.
But if a user is brand new to the Lightning network, how do they go about receiving their first payment? - This question has been answered by both ZAP wallet and Phoenix wallet, using different techniques.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.io.
Lightning Topic Notes:
Phoenix wallet is made by ACINQ, the makers of Eclair wallet. Eclair offers more advanced/technical users a deeper look behind the hood of the inner workings with channel management being a manual operation.
With Phoenix, ACINQ has taken this away, with the aim of it being a more user friendly wallet for the end user - A more Mom and Pop style wallet.
When Stephanie, a new user of Phoenix wants to be paid by Andreas, she will create an invoice on her phone, just like any other wallet. Andreas will then scan that QR code, send the payment, and it will look just like any other Lightning transaction to Andreas.
If Stephanie currently has channels open with enough inbound capacity - Then it will complete successfully. But what happens when there is not enough inbound capacity, or no channels at all?
This is where Phoenix differs. Phoenix wallet offers no channel management to the end user, it is all done under the hood. The wallet ONLY connects to the ACINQ node, initially through a ‘fake channel’ and when an incoming payment is detected by ACINQ, the ‘routing hint’ that was contained in the QR code points to Stephanie’s wallet through this fake channel.
[Andreas → Node X → Node Y → ACINQ Node -*-*-> Stephanie]
Stephanie will then get notified that she has an incoming payment and be asked if she would like ACINQ to open a channel with her and push her the balance due (Turbo Channel). This comes at a cost though, 0.5% of the amount received. [Phoenix state that this is to cover the cost of opening the channel and allocating additional liquidity on their side]
LTB #423 Decentralization Philosophy Part 1 – From Buddha to the Conquistadors
The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss decentralization in blockchain projects, the historical context of decentralized organizations, the robustness it conveys but also the difficulties it engenders.
On today's podcast we apply concepts and stories from "The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000's, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins and ambitions.
Later, we discuss the similarities between decentralized organizations and the Buddha's concept of self.
Want more? Catch up on 7 years of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Credits for LTB#423This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com.
Original Photo by Ubaidhulla Adam on Unsplash
This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan
Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas.
Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #422 ‘The Internet Was Illegal’ and Other Early Stories With Zooko Wilcox
Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show enlisted CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen and early cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox for a conversation on the history, challenges and long term development path of early, formative technologies. which we often hear modern blockchain movements compared against.
From the pre-internet days, through the free/open-source movement, Linux successes, and challenges on the desktop, the peer-to-peer movement, cypherpunks, Linux maximalism, fundamentalism as a concept as well as some brief excursions through some history and politics of the time... Later, we'll discuss how AI and lawyers have more in common than you'd think, and what kind of protections we may need as autonomous agents become ubiquitous.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com, and Purse.io
Original Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash.
This episode featured CoinDesk Reporter Leigh Cuen and Zooko Wilcox.
Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas.
Have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB 2020 Update (Looking for Jr. Producers!)
Hey folks,
Adam B. Levine here with a brief update on LTB!. With 2020 dawning, we're coming up on year 8 of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show, and, frankly, we've done a lot of talking in that time. In the early days we did a lot of interviews, but with the commercialization of the space, then ICOs, and now a world where there are literally thousands of blockchain projects hoping to strike it rich, we quickly became uncomfortable as the original nerd-money with its idealists became the world of pitches and marketers.
Without many interviews, as the years passed the show has become more inward-looking, as we explored our personal passions and perspectives. Perspective and personal context are arguably the thing I think is most important about what the show is, and what it's good at doing, and we'd like to build on that this year.
So in 2020, we want to do something a little different, and add more perspectives to the show without adding more permanent hosts.
We're looking for up to four listeners to join the Let's Talk Bitcoin! team as junior producers, you don't have to be a long-time listener to participate, all that's required of a good candidate is that you are knowledgable about the space, paying attention to events as they happen, and have an opinion, a perspective, on what it all means or might mean. Junior producers will be asked to write up and send in a monthly report of the most important, most under-appreciated, most misunderstood, or other such personal judgments about the world of crypto. You'll also be asked to join me on a monthly call to discuss your report, and make sure I understand your perspectives correctly. All told, for the right candidate, this work and follow-up meeting should take no longer than five hours per month. And this is a paid role. To apply, send an email to Adam@ltbshow.com
Let's Talk Bitcoin! is back with new episodes next week, thanks for listening.
LTB #421 Stone Money and Echoes of the Past
On Today's episode of let's talk bitcoin, we're listening to echoes of the past. In the midst of the biggest bubble yet, finding ourselves in the "then they laugh at you" phase, and with the china narrative rising for the first time as trade volumes overtook the rest of the world, I was joined by Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos in early 2014 for a conversation that is very different, yet somehow the same as we reacted in real-time to all-time high prices of $220,
But first, In the nearly seven years since we started talking Bitcoin, my favorite segment from my favorite writer is without question, the island of stone bitcoins by then-LTB managing editor George Ettinger. Bitingly funny and still one of the easiest ways to accurately explain how blockchains and tokens work without the need for technology at all, even if you know this story you'll learn a thing or two, at least I did.
This episode is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com, and is distributed in partnership with CoinDesk.com
How can public blockchains have privacy? | LTB #420 Dec 8, 2019
On today's show, we discuss the idea of true privacy on public, transparent blockchains and some of the ways it's working (or not) in Bitcoin or related projects right now.
Select Shownotes:
How can public blockchains have privacy? The decreasing cost of passive surveillance MimbleWimble research Attack, Developer Response, and Alternative Implementation Response Gossip Protocols and The Stasi Model Skin in the game with Proof of Work The moving target and the arms race Obscuring origins and game theory security Breaking links with lightning and other layer-2s Adversarial relationships are economic in nature Attacks in theory vs. practice Security through obscurity? Researchers, cryptographers and state level actors and more...Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is a long-running independent podcast on the ideas, people and projects powering the cryptocurrency narrative. On this show, we basically talk about everything other than the price.
Since we started this conversation in early 2013, a whole world of blockchains and tokens has sprung up alongside bitcoin, and we talk about those too as real-world events help us see what’s real and what’s just clever marketing.
Visit LTBShow.com for all 419 of our past episodes or to subscribe directly to the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show.
Episode 420 (How can public blockchains have privacy) Credits:
Sponsors - Brave.com & eToro.com
Hosts:
Adam B. Levine (http://ltbshow.com)
Andreas M. Antonopoulos (https://aantonop.com/)
Stephanie Murphy (https://www.stephaniemurphyvoice.com/)
Jonathan Mohan ( https://twitter.com/JonathanMohan)
Other Staff
Producer - Adam B. Levine
Editor - Jonas
Music (Theme) - Jared Rubens
Music (Other) - General Fuzz
LTB #419 Altcoins and Ancient History with Charlie Lee
On this week's episode….
The hosts are talking “Altcoins and Ancient History" with Early Bitcoin Developer and Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee
Selected Topics:
Token Age and Network Effect Testnet game theory Founder Anonymity, then and now Ad-hoc audits in the wake of MtGox's Collapse Schnorr signatures, Tapscript and Taproot intentions at Litecoin A "Coinbase mafia?" and more...Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is a long-running independent podcast on the ideas, people and projects powering the cryptocurrency narrative. On this show, we basically talk about everything other than the price.
Since we started this conversation in early 2013, a whole world of blockchains and tokens has sprung up alongside bitcoin, and we talk about those too as real-world events help us see what’s real and what’s just clever marketing.
Episode 419 Credits:
Sponsors - Edge.app, Brave.com & eToro.com
Guest - Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite)
Hosts - Adam B. Levine (http://ltbshow.com)
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos (https://aantonop.com/)
- Stephanie Murphy (https://www.stephaniemurphyvoice.com/)
- Jonathan Mohan ( https://twitter.com/JonathanMohan)
Producer - Adam B. Levine
Editors - Jonas
Music - Jared Rubens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-a-rubens-099349135)
- General Fuzz (https://www.generalfuzz.net/)
LTB#418 Statechains, and Trading the Panopticon for Magical Internet Money
On this week's episode….
Segment 1
“Long Bitcoin, Short the World? Trading the Panopticon for Magical Internet Money”
CoinDesks’ Nolan hosts a fascinating Discussion with Eric Weinstein at Invest2019(https://www.coindesk.com/events/invest-2019)They talk about embedded growth obligations and the sociopathic companies they engender…
...and Tuur Demeester’s (https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester) Reformation of Bitcoin (https://docsend.com/view/ijd8qrs)
Is everything fine, or are we already experiencing a low grade revolution?
The big value of blockchains is that they replicate real world “It just works”, if imperfectly.
Much more in this wide-ranging “fireside chat”
Segment 2
“New Tools, Layers, and Tradeoffs for scaling Blockchains”
In Segment 2, the hosts of Let’s Talk Bitcoin are joined by Ruben Somsen to dig into his proposal for blockchain agnostic “Statechains”A low-trust, low knowledge, high accessibility approach to side chains
Pairing Statechains with Lightning Networks
Ruben’s journey from podcasting enthusiast (https://www.unhashedpodcast.com/) to scaling innovator
https://twitter.com/SomsenRuben/status/1145738783192600576
Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is a long-running independent podcast on the ideas, people and projects powering the cryptocurrency narrative. On this show, we basically talk about everything other than the price.
Since we started this conversation in early 2013, a whole world of blockchains and tokens has sprung up alongside bitcoin, and we talk about those too as real-world events help us see what’s real and what’s just clever marketing.
Episode 418 Credits:
Sponsors - Edge.app, Brave.com & eToro.com
Hosts - Adam B. Levine (http://ltbshow.com)
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos (https://aantonop.com/)
- Stephanie Murphy (https://www.stephaniemurphyvoice.com/)
- Ruben Somsen ( https://twitter.com/somsenruben?lang=en)
https://twitter.com/SomsenRuben/status/1145738783192600576)
Special thanks to Invest2019, Nolan and Eric Weinstein
Producer - Adam B. Levine
Editors - Jonas
- Adam B. Levine
Music - Jared Rubens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-a-rubens-099349135)
- General Fuzz (https://www.generalfuzz.net/)
LTB #417 Adoption and Mimicry on the Blockchain
In today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!, we’re jumping back into the deep end with a wide-ranging conversation about Mass Adoption, Cargo Cults, Synthetic Shorts and more.
LTB! Update (Season 2 Coming Soon!)
LTB! editor-in-chief Adam B. Levine provides a brief update.
LTB#416 Why?
“It just keeps getting kicked up to the next level and at some point it'll be the dollar. That's the last thing that got us out of the last emergency and then people will finally realize they got nothing left.” Dr. Robert Murphy, LTB#416
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan are joined by Dr. Robert Murphy for an in-depth conversation about reserve currency transitions, statistics, economics, and why things are the way they are.
Credits
Image Credits:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Earth_Western_Hemisphere_transparent_background.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Question_mark_grey.svg/585px-Question_mark_grey.svg.png
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! Today's episode featured Robert Murphy, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine, with music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz. This episode was sponsored by Edge.app
Any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #415 A Domino Effect
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Adam B. Levine sits down with William K. Santiago to discuss Blockchains, Reserve Assets, Regional Central Banks and more.
Credits
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! Today's episode featured William K. Santiago and Adam B. Levine, with music by Jared Rubens. This episode was too short for me to want to add sponsor time, but a big thanks to Purse.io and Edge.app for generally sponsoring the show. Any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com
Tune in next week for our conversation about reserve currency transitions with a special guest.
LTB #414 Let's Talk Bitcoin! Live Q&A
On Today's Episode, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine are back with part two of our recent live show recorded at BTC2019 in front of a live studio audience. This time, we've got nearly an hour of audience Q&A. Enjoy the show!
This episode was sponsored by https://edge.app
Curated Excerpts by ProfessorMeo_w
Stephanie Murphy: “Do you think Bitcoin will be able to shift from block rewards to transaction fees to maintain security as the block reward approaches zero?”
Andreas M. Antonopoulos: “This is one of the fundamental misunderstandings and dynamics of mining for most people, which is the idea that something suddenly happens sometime at an undescribed future, either at the next halving or in 2141. The truth is on a daily basis, every single miner in the industry looks at six or seven different factors: the efficiency of their mining equipment, the price of electricity in their local fiat, the cost of their operation system, the current price of Bitcoin in fiat, the reward that's available as a block subsidy, the average amount of fees they can get, and the relative proportion of hashing power. They decide based on all of these factors. Do I leave this specific machine on at its current efficiency, or do I turn it off, or do I point it to another coin? That happens every single day. Every single day that decision continues, it’s rebalancing all of these dynamic factors. So the shift between block subsidy and fees happened every single day since January 3rd 2009 and it continues to happen today.
Sometimes, the capacity of the blockchain, the number of transactions that are in there, the value of the fees mean that it really attracts miners because there's a lot of fees to take. Other times, the fees decrease, the number of transactions decreases, so they're now more reliant on block subsidy and then it swings back and forth and back and forth. It's gonna oscillate in that way all the way to 2141.
Stephanie Murphy: “What does everybody's view on Rootstock (RSK)?”
Andreas M. Antonopoulos: I don't think Rootstock is putting smart contracts on Bitcoin. Rootstock is allowing you to use Bitcoin to pay for smart contracts on the Rootstock Drivechain, which you could theoretically do by shifting money into Ethereum. In fact, recently I saw someone who had built a gateway that allowed you to make a Lightning payment that terminated in an Ethereum contract. So there's many ways to bridge different blockchains together. Quite honestly, I don't think we should be doing smart contracts on Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn't do smart contracts, and it doesn't do smart contracts because it does security. That's not a trade-off I think is worth doing. It's much better to leave that to a chain that has a much more experimental culture and can take bigger risks.
As to whether we can do smart contracts, that's not a binary question; it's a question of value. So can we do smart contracts that can keep $1,000,000 secure? Yes. $10,000,000? Maybe. $100,000,000? No, the DAO proved that. How about now? DAI is doing more, so maybe yes. So it's basically a moving front. As the maturity of the smart contract ecosystem expands, we can do bigger and bigger stakes (no pun intended) within the smart contract ecosystem. Every now and then there's gonna be a fairly catastrophic failure that's gonna cause a regression in the amounts of money that's put in them. But essentially it's growing. We're proving this every day, and it's the same thing with Bitcoin. The way you measure security in a smart contract or you measure security in a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is how secure is Bitcoin? X billion dollars. That's the stake that is sitting on it right now, unhacked so far.
LTB #413 Origin Stories and Earned Experience
###On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
We'll meet Jason, Chris, and Nicholas, all relatively new bitcoin users for a look at the value proposition and paths in for more recent converts.
After the break, Edge.app's Paul Puey and I sit down to discuss what's changed with time in Cryptocurrency, what we've learned or at least think we have...
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This episode is sponsored by [www.purse.io](https://purse.io)
##Credits
Original Album Art: https://pixabay.com/photos/iceberg-ice-cold-sea-winter-sky-4089866/
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! This episode was sponsored by Purse.io, and featured Nicholas, Jason, Chris, Paul and Adam. Special thanks to the Blockchain Training Conference for putting on such a great event.
This episode featured music by Jared Rubens, General Fuzz and Gurty Beats. Today's show was produced by Krystal and edited by Adam. Incidentally, are you a reliable, capable audio editor? I'm looking to expand the team I work with on Let's Talk Bitcoin! and would love to hear from you at adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #412 Let's Talk Bitcoin Live!
On today's episode we're jumping into a mostly un-edited live show, which we recorded live, on-stage in Aurora Colorado during the Blockchain Training Conference a few weeks ago...
Big thanks for Purse.io for sponsoring today's episode of the show.
After the break, we go boldly towards a conversation about the intersection, if there is one, of cryptocurrency and star trek money with an on-stage conversation between Jonathan Mohan and Davi Barker, moderated by Stephanie Murphy.
LTB #411c Growing to Fit
We recently returned from the Blockchain Training Conference, where aside from teaching classes and doing a couple of live shows, we set up a Let's Talk Bitcoin! Recording Booth! Over three days, we interviewed about a dozen people, some new to Cryptocurrency and some who have been around longer in a hunt for "What's Interesting" to those newer users and "What's Changed" for those who have been around for multiple cycles.
This episode is sponsored by www.edge.app
Segment 1: Trixie - Newer User (http://www.trishatrixie.com/)
Segment 2: Jameson Lopp - Long Time Bitcoin Developer - Casa CTO (https://keys.casa/)
Segment 3: Darrin - Long Time Bitcoin Miner
Segment 4: Davi Barker - Long Time Bitcoin User - Bitcoins Not Bombs & Pirates Without Borders (https://pirateswithoutborders.com/)
Original Album Art: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Krzywy_Las_-_Nowe_Czarnowo_2.JPG
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! This episode was sponsored by Edge.app, and featured Adam, Trixie, Jameson Lopp, Darrin, and Davi Barker. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz.
Today's show was produced by Krystal and edited by Steven. Incidentally, are you a reliable, capable audio editor? I'm looking to expand the team I work with on Let's Talk Bitcoin! and would love to hear from you.
LTB #410 Before the Flood
Hey folks,
Adam B. Levine here, just returned from the Blockchain Training Conference in Aurora Colorado. For the first time since spring of last year, the other hosts and I found ourselves face to face for three days of classes, shows and interviews which we'll be sharing with you over the month of September as segments on the LTB show or as bonus content on the new, free subscriber feed at LTBshow.com
You can expect the flood to start with the release of next weeks episode, But today, I've just got a taste for you as I sit down live, and in-person with Jonathan Mohan to discuss our time.
LTB #409 Another Perspective on India
This week Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan are joined by Vignesh for a more local perspective on the realities in India and the recently proposed Indian Cryptocurrency Ban. This is a follow-up episode to our India's Catch-22 segment from LTB#407
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LTB #409 was sponsored by Purse.io and featured Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Vignesh and Adam B. Levine. Music for this episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz. This episode was edited by Steven Aram. Any questions or comments? email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #408 Bitcoin Game Theory for Countries
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for a discussion on China, and recent signs of official sentiments thawing towards Bitcoin. We talk incentives, possible end-games and coffee.
This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Edge.app
Content for LTB#408 was provided by Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Steven and featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz
Any questions or comments? email adam@ltbshow.com
LTB #407 India's Catch-22 & How to Work With Money when Money Doesn't Work
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Adam B. Levine, Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for a first-look at a particularly draconian law that's been proposed in India.
Later, HRF.org director Alex Gladstein joins Adam B. Levine for the latest in the Global Voices series. This week we're talking practical applications in Venezuela with returning guest Alejandro Machado.
Thanks to Purse.io for sponsoring this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
Join the Let's Talk Bitcoin! team for a live recording at the Blockchain Training conference (https://blockchaintraining.org)
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This episode was sponsored by Purse.io and BlockchainTraining.org
Music for this episode was provided by Jared Rubens and general Fuzz, with editing by Steven.
Any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com.
Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alyssablack/12185839253/
Thailand, FATF and the US Treasury's Concerns - Token Rumors Pilot Episode
This is the pilot episode of Token Rumors, a daily, 5-minute-show concept from the creator of Let's Talk Bitcoin! focused on demystifying and connecting the dots between the best and most interesting journalism in cryptocurrency.
This is NOT a daily show yet, if you'd like it to be please let us know via email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
Episode Links:
https://www.coindesk.com/thailand-to-bring-cryptocurrency-under-anti-money-laundering-rules
https://www.coindesk.com/fatf-crypto-travel-rule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDmhT9UZPIk
https://static.coindesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Embargo-Virtual-Asset-Guidance.pdf
LTB#406 Hyperinflation, Official, and HODL Currencies (or, "Incentives are Destiny")
"If ever those two facts diverge, where the agreement is still that it's a reserve currency but the market truth is that it's no longer a good HODL currency... If those diverge... it doesn't matter if you keep calling it a reserve currency, people aren't willing to HODL it. " - Andreas Antonopoulos - LTB E406
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!...
One of the early stories we discussed, at great length, was the sort of long-term play that Bitcoin and related technologies are making as unstoppable competition for global, regional and national currencies.
On today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!, we'll join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan for an in-depth discussion on Hyperinflation, Reserve Currencies, Incentives, Bitcoin, and more...
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Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!
This episode was sponsored by Edge.app and Blockchaintraining.org.
This episode featured content by Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Steven, with music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz.
Any questions or comments? Email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com See you next time.
LTB #405 It's All Bitcoin
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin!...
Adam B. Levine and LTB Global Voices segment host Alex Gladstein are talking Bitcoin in the Philippines with Luis Buenaventura.
Later, having now heard perspectives from bitcoin users in Iran, India, Shanghai, Nigeria, the Philippines and with Venezuela still to air Adam and Alex take a measured look back at the interview series so far.
This episode is sponsored by Purse.io and BlockchainTraining.org
Today's show featured content by Alex Gladstein, Luis Buenaventura, and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Steven Aram and featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz. Have any questions or comments? Email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com. Have a good week!
LTB #404 Crypto Plastic & Bitcoin's 90/10 in India
On Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
In our first segment, we'll join Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, and Adam B. Levine for a look at the varied approaches being used to connect your Bitcoin to credit card style ease-of-use.
After the break, guest host Alex Gladstein and Adam B. Levine sit down once again for another installment of LTB Global Voices. This time we talk with Aparna Krishnan about the unique situation brewing in India today.
Today's episode was sponsored by Edge.app and BlockchainTraining.org
---
Highlights:
“It's almost as if the entire mechanism is designed to put you into debt, hopefully to get you to a point where you end up racking up fees to enrich some group of bankers..as if the entire system is designed to not only make you a debt slave, but make sure that you work for a wage salaried position to a giant corporation.” - Andreas Antonopoulos
“..if anyone represents themselves as insured, you have to really look into what they mean. I feel like a lot of people are conflating one type of insurance with the other when they're making financial decisions about where they put their money. So when it comes to collateralized lending and engaging in margin, that's the whole point that crypto was trying to escape is that type of understanding of finance” - Jonathan Mohan
“..when you say something like “banking the unbanked,” it's important to understand why people are unbanked in the first place. One thing that I found really interesting in India was that a large number of these people who are unbanked don't know how to use the existing financial system. It's not that they don't have access to financial systems.” - Aparna Krishnan
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Episode 404 featured content from Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Adam B. Levine, Alex Gladstein, and Aparna Krishnan. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz, with editing by Steven and Adam. Any questions or comments? You can either email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com, or now leave a voice message directly through your anchor.fm app, or on the new show page at ltbshow.com
Image credit: CC-SA http://www.picpedia.org/credit-cards/credit-cards09.html
LTB #403 Efficiency and Timing
On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for an early look at the newly proposed "Erlay" and "Dandelion" transaction relay protocols.
Later, Adam and HRF.org's Alex Gladstein sit down with Hong Kong Bitcoin Users Christina and Leo, in the third of our interview series focused on international perspectives.
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Bitcoin Hong Kong Meetup Group
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Support the Show!
Sponsored by: www.edge.app
Tip LTB: 1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
---
Image Credit: Wikipedia's Hong Kong entry
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie, Adam, Jonathan, Andreas, Alex, Christina, and Leo.
This episode was edited by Steven and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz.
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
LTB #402 The Whole Crypto Game Just Changed
On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for an in-depth discussion on the realities, implications and possible speculative motive behind Facebook's recently revealed Libra Protocol.
Shownotes:
High Level (Lightpaper) : https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#introduction
Stablecoin Reserve Whitepaper: https://libra.org/en-US/about-currency-reserve/#the_reserve
Libra Association Whitepaper:https://libra.org/en-US/association-council-principles/#overview
Libra Blockchain Whitepaper:https://libra.org/en-US/association-council-principles/#overview
Move Language Whitepaper: https://developers.libra.org/docs/move-paper
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Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the LTB Shirts project, we've put it on hold for the time being but may revisit it in the future. If you are interested in purchasing a LTB shirt, email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
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Image Credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5857197577
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine
This episode was edited by Steven and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
How Will Facebook's Libra Blockchain Really Work? An Expert Guide to the Social Media Company's Foray Into Cryptocurrency by Jameson Lopp, Read by Stephanie Murphy & Adam B. Levine
As part of our prep for discussing the new Libra project from Facebook, we read and really enjoyed a line-by-line call early analysis of the Libra Protocol Technical Paper by Jameson Lopp and with his permission are pleased to provide it to you today in audio format.
Stephanie Murphy reads from the Libra Protocol technical document and Adam B. Levine reads Jameson’s commentary or analysis or each perceived point.
Read the Original Article:
https://onezero.medium.com/thoughts-on-libra-blockchain-49b8f6c26372
LTB#401 The Tools and the Work (Part 2)
On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine for part two of our two-part discussion ([listen to part 1 here](https://anchor.fm/letstalkbitcoin/episodes/LTB400-The-Tools-and-the-Work-e49o42)) with bitcoin developers Sipa (Dr. Pieter Wuille) and Jonas Nick on Tapscript, batch verifiability, signature aggregation, OPSUCCESS, and more.
Later, Adam and HRF.org's Alex Gladstein sit down with Nigerian Bitcoin User Timi in the first of a new interview series focused on international perspectives, and what really matters.
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Support the Show!
Sponsored by: www.Edge.app
Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
Thanks to everyone who participated in the LTB Shirts project, we've put it on hold for the time being but may revisit it in the future. If you are interested in purchasing a LTB shirt, email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
---
Image Credit:
https://pixabay.com/photos/tools-construct-craft-repair-864983/
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie , Adam , Jonathan, Andreas, Sipa, Jonas, Alex and Timi.
This episode was edited by Steven and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and General Fuzz.
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
LTB#400 The Tools and the Work
On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy & Andreas M. Antonopoulos for part one of our two-part discussion with bitcoin developers Sipa (Dr. Pieter Wuille) and Jonas Nick on Schnorr Signatures, Tapscript, Taproot and more.
Later, Adam and HRF.org's Alex Gladstein sit down with Iranian Bitcoin User Ziya in the first of a new interview series focused on international perspectives, and what really matters.
---
Support the Show!
Sponsored by: www.Purse.io
Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
LTB Episode T-shirts now available at http://LTBSHOW.COM
---
Image Credit:
https://pixabay.com/photos/tools-construct-craft-repair-864983/
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie , Adam , Jonathan, Andreas, Sipa, Jonas, Alex and Ziya.
This episode was edited by Dave and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
LTB #399 A Few Billion Bitcoins
Join Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy & Andreas M. Antonopoulos for a deep dive into what it would take, both in theory and in practice, adversarially or with full community consensus, to pull off a bitcoin blockchain rollback.
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Support the Show!
Sponsored by: www.Purse.io
Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
LTB Episode T-shirts now available at http://LTBSHOW.COM
---
Image Credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/697043922
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie Murphy, Adam B. Levine, and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.
This episode was edited by Oscar Hamilton and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens.
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
Bitcoin Taxes! You Can't Cram For It.
Join Stephanie Murphy & Adam B. Levine for an in-depth discussion on Cryptocurrency & Taxes with CPA, Author and long-time friend of the show Kirk Phillips
The Ultimate Bitcoin Business Guide (Kirk's Book) is available in all formats on his website, linked below.
https://www.thebitcoincpa.com/pages/TUBBG
This episode sponsored by: www.Edge.app
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Support the Show!
Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
LTB Episode T-shirts now available at http://LTBSHOW.COM
---
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie Murphy, Adam B. Levine, and Kirk Phillips.
This episode was edited by Dave and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens.
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com
Let's Talk Bitcoin! #397 Money is Funny
On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...
Join Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine for a discussion on the realities of base-layer-bitcoin fungibility.
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Support the Show!
Sponsored by: www.Edge.app
Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K
or Via the Lightning Network at https://tipltb.tokenly.com/
LTB Episode T-shirts now available at http://LTBSHOW.COM
---
Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Stephanie Murphy, Adam B. Levine, and Andreas Antonopoulos.
This episode was edited by Dave and Adam. This episode featured music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Album Art Image Credit:
By Colin Brown from Silver Lake, CA, U.S.A - IMG_5096.JPG, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4322776
Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com