"Besides the advantage of near-instant payments, there can be privacy improvements to Lightning as well. Unfortunately, there are scenarios where Lightning is not great for privacy. I’d like to unearth some of these. Not as FUD about the network, but to keep people as informed as possible so they may privately use Lightning. Everything in this article is public knowledge and known to the industry to some degree. This is my attempt at aggregating the topic of Lightning privacy from a higher level...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 31 min
This episode is because the previous read by Steve Barbour deserved a Guy's Take. Before we change topics to privacy in the episode coming later this week, "The State vs Bitcoin" deserves a solid shake down. A Guy's Take episode on Read 615. Link to the original article by Steve Barbour: https://sgbarbour.medium.com/the-state-vs-bitcoin-dbc044f23ea6 You can earn Bitcoin by Donating Plasma in a new pilot program. I've put the details for you at the link below: guyswann.com/blood Check out the Fou...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 29 min
"As with freedom and oppression, Bitcoin and State money may exist in a perpetual tug of war between ideals. Where State money relies on compulsory participation, Bitcoin offers completely voluntary entry and exit and thus represents the antithesis of State money. In this essay I will explore the mechanisms in which Bitcoin may resist State attack." - SGBarbour Today we explore the feasibility and the correcting mechanisms in the Bitcoin system for resisting sustained censorship of the network. ...
Mar 26, 2022•55 min
"Much more to say. This is just a starting point, but I'm interested in Bitcoin for its potential to reorient civilization to an existence rooted in truth. If adoption comes at the cost of that, all the NGU euphoria means nothing and most of what gives Bitcoin value will be lost." - SovrynMindset Michael brings us an excellent thread on the attack vectors likely to come in the not-too-distant future as we have clearly entered the "then they fight you" stage. Now is not the time to rest on our la...
Mar 23, 2022•47 min
"...This purpose flounders, however, if their own evangelists and the community at large fails to lay the groundwork and impetus to push ever deeper. As a community, we fail when, in chasing the mainstream, we lose sight of the original spirit in which Bitcoin was created and bootstrapped." - Ariel Deschapell To kick off adversarial week, we are covering a great piece that brings us back down to earth so we can see where we are, the reality of our situation, & the true challenges that lay be...
Mar 22, 2022•1 hr 18 min
"On a medium-term basis, it is time to back up the John Deere excavator and scoop up as much gold and Bitcoin as you can afford. This is it, the start of a monetary regime change. Nothing lasts forever, and the days of Petro / Eurodollar supremacy are over. The phase shift will be chaotic, it will be volatile, it will morph, but it will 100% be MASSIVELY inflationary in fiat currency terms. There is no government, ever, that resisted the temptation to print money in order to pay its bills and pl...
Mar 19, 2022•1 hr 54 min
"Thus, given enough time and popularity, every movie, every song, and every document will be available to the general public for free. The nature of information does not allow for another outcome. Hence the saying: information wants to be free. Although trying to create something that can't exist—information that can't be copied—is paradoxical in itself, this isn't what I mean by the DRM paradox. What I mean is something more hilarious. It is again psychological, not technical in nature. The par...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 7 min
"In sum, the U.S. government has shown that — through the GFC, repo spike crisis in 2019 and pandemic crisis in 2020 — it is willing to do anything to keep interest rates down: start an experimental QE program to buy long-dated treasuries and subprime mortgages; nationalize the repo markets; and even nationalize the corporate debt markets." - Alex Gladstein Today we conclude Alex Gladstein's incredible new article on the invisible costs of war, and how our monetary policy disconnects the unbelie...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 21 min
"As detailed in Saifedean Ammous’s “The Fiat Standard,” in November 1914 the British government “issued the first war bond, aiming to raise 350 million pounds from private investors at an interest rate of 4.1% and a maturity of ten years. Surprisingly, the bond issue was undersubscribed, and the British public purchased less than a third of the targeted sum. To avoid publicizing this failure, the Bank of England granted funds to its chief cashier and his deputy to purchase the bonds under their ...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 15 min
"Aspiring Republican politicians and conservative opinionators love talking in darkened tones about the malevolence of elites. And yet, for all the fingers wagged and pixels rendered, conservatives have largely ignored the most economically significant way in which elites actually _have_ rigged the game in their favor. The widening gap between elites and the rest of us comes down in large part to the highly abnormal way in which the United States has defined money for the last 50 years." - Avik ...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr
"If having 12 words in your head is illegal, something is terribly wrong with the law. If the police storm your building because you are finding or creating a random number in the privacy of your own home, something is terribly wrong with the police. If the peaceful exchange of messages is seen as dangerous or immoral by society, something is terribly wrong with society. If speaking or knowing numbers becomes a criminal act, I don’t want to be a law-abiding citizen in the first place." - Dergigi...
Mar 01, 2022•54 min
"Only liquid, flowing capital generates a return. Unlike a bank account, capital on Lightning is productive when it is mobile, not at rest. That’s why flow is so essential. The more capital flows, the more liquid it is, the more incremental returns it generates." - Roy Sheinfeld Roy Sheinfeld of Breez Technology does some of the best conceptualizing of the Lightning network, its direction, & its challenges. He brings us another article today attempting to reconceptualize Lightning around the...
Feb 24, 2022•49 min
"People tend to favor proposals that would benefit themselves and reject proposals that, at their own expense, would benefit others. If you were wealthy, you’d probably reject calls for higher taxes and more welfare programs. If you were poor, you’d probably call for higher taxes and more welfare programs. I don’t just mean that the currently wealthy tend to endorse proposals thought to benefit the wealthy and that the currently poor tend to endorse proposals thought to benefit the poor. I mean ...
Feb 23, 2022•57 min
"Now what's that saying again. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you. It's starting to smell like that. Just because Bitcoin's most virtuous argument was presented – in if not bad-faith then in fig-leaf-faith – by get-rich-quick boosters, doesn't mean it isn't true! Enter the trucker protests in Canada. In just three weeks of honking, blocked streets and bridges, bouncy castles and flag waving, this peaceful protest movement managed to provoke the most shockingly author...
Feb 22, 2022•51 min
"The U.S. and its allies are now effectively backed into a series of corners. Can the U.S. attempt to ban Bitcoin and its transactions? It can try, but will fail. China has already tried to do so, multiple times, and the same goes for India. Not to mention, the U.S. now has a multitude of politicians advocating for Bitcoin adoption, like U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis and state governors showing political support for the asset and network." - Mike Hobart Bitcoin has suddenly and aggressively entere...
Feb 18, 2022•38 min
"By taking away their printing presses, Bitcoin stops the creeping totalitarianism that weaponizes our own blood, sweat and tears against us. It stops governments’ escalating ability to control all person-to-person exchange, their efforts to build a financial panopticon of Big Brother control. And, finally, by getting governments out of the business of manipulating money, Bitcoin brings us a world without permanent crisis, without the boom- bust business cycles, without the inflation that ravage...
Feb 14, 2022•52 min
“Bitcoin as a superior monetary good is more valuable than a better payment network . This leads us to another point as to why we believe bitcoin should be considered primarily as a monetary good rather than a payment network. The fact the market has shown a preference towards bitcoin, which is slower as a payment system compared to other digital assets and blockchains, signals the market currently values a highly secure and decentralized store of value rather than another payment network. As we...
Feb 11, 2022•2 hr 22 min
"That is not to say that Bitcoin will lead us to a pacifist utopia in which any attempt at violence suffers metaphysical intervention by the spirit of Satoshi. That money can grant power is clear enough as there will always be a clearing price for violent thuggery. But what will distinguish a Bitcoin standard is that power will not grant money." - Allen Farrington Today we dig into another great piece from The Bitcoin Times Ed 4. What are the characteristics of Bitcoin, that truly make the separ...
Feb 08, 2022•55 min
Today we have an incredible chat as a followup to the recent piece Read_596 - Bitcoin is a Pioneer Species. We have author Brandon Quittem joining us today to dive deeper into the concept he lays out in the article, further into the consequences of what it means for energy production, and ultimately, where our species is likely to spread out and inhabit on the planet with such a powerful new set of incentives. You can either read or listen to the article at the links below, and don't forget to c...
Feb 04, 2022•1 hr 24 min
“And finally, given its asymmetric return distribution I believe It is more risky to have zero exposure to bitcoin than it is to have a 5% portfolio weight. If you are not long bitcoin, you are irresponsibly short. Don’t overthink this. Lower your time preference. Bitcoin is the purest form of monetary energy and is portfolio insurance for all fixed-income investors.” - Greg Foss Concluding today with some insane bullishness on price evaluations & a model for Bitcoin attempting to account fo...
Feb 02, 2022•59 min
“General Motors, Ford, AT&T and GE have cumulative debt that is larger than the entire HY market. Downgrades of any one of these names likely imply a downgrade of the others. The forced selling would rock the HY market, which would start a domino effect and a negative feedback loop that would reach to all credit and equity markets globally. Pretty scary stuff. Follow inefficient investment guidelines, win stupid prizes.” - Greg Foss Today we hit Parts 1 & 2 of Greg Foss’s incredible 4 pa...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 33 min
With Twitter up in arms about a potentially invasive privacy measure and compliance for an invasive regulatory requirement, it's time to break down exactly what is going on, and what we should or should not be concerned about. What is the Travel Rule, what is AOPP, and what should I do with my hardware wallets? That's what this episode is about. There will be no ads on this show as I just want to talk about this issue and share my own conclusions after digging into what the reality of this situa...
Jan 30, 2022•55 min
"What is money? Why is it used? Which type of money is best? And why?" - Eric Yakes Today we are diving into the foundational chapter of Eric Yakes' book The 7th Property. What are the characteristics of money, and how can we use them to understand the security and comparative value of competing monetary goods? The full book as well as the audiobook (by yours truly) can be found at amazon if you want to dig in further: Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/7th-Property-Bitcoin-Monetary-Revolution/dp...
Jan 28, 2022•35 min
“This makes Bitcoin miners uniquely symbiotic with energy grids serving as “demand response” partners. If energy is ever in short supply, people get priority over Bitcoin miners. However whenever there is excess energy, it gets monetized. This symbiotic relationship leads to more energy abundance generally.” - Brandon Quittem Another great piece coming at you today from The Bitcoin Times Ed 4, and by returning author Brandon Quittem, who did the incredible Mycelium Series for understanding Bitco...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 57 min
"Money, in the ideal (which we’ll likely always only ever strive for, and not achieve), turns a portion of ‘our work, here and now’, into a portion of ‘everyone’s work, anywhere and forever’." - John Vallis Continuing the incredible piece from yesterday by John Vallis around how the human consciousness even creates value and meaning, and how deeply tied to that process and our ability to peacefully coexist is to the nature of our money. And through that lens, what is Bitcoin? Check out the origi...
Jan 19, 2022•1 hr 39 min
“Sacrifice is thus a critical component of value, as it is the use of one’s own limited resources, as that against which all action is measured and justified.” - John Vallis Why does it always seem that the Bitcoin rabbit hole inevitably leads to the questions of "what is money" & "what is value?" How do we always find ourselves at such fundamental question when exploring Bitcoin? Today we dive into Vallis's "Money Messiah" on the very nature of value and meaning, how it relates to our relig...
Jan 18, 2022•2 hr 11 min
"This confluence of Fed hikes and investor naivety “presents the setup for a severe washout” as the “pernicious effects of rising interest rates on future cash flows will likely prompt speculators and investors at the margin to dump or severely reduce their crypto holdings.” - Nik Bhatia We take a little break to discuss the crazy state of the markets right now, and how this could affect the Bitcoin price in the short term. Nik Bhatia summarizes the bearish warning from Arthur Hayes and digs int...
Jan 14, 2022•45 min
“The people at the end of the line who are flipping NFTs do not fundamentally care about distributed trust models or payment mechanics, but they care about where the money is.” - Moxie Marlinspike As a follow up to the model and concept of web3 built on top of Bitcoin and Lightning, it seems prudent to have an exploration of web3 built on top of crypto. Moxie Marlinspike brings us an excellent piece with a bit of experimentation of his own to get at the core of what NFTs, Dapps, and the “Crypto”...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 26 min
"Our goal is basically to realize this concept we have created called the atomic economy. This is just my way to create a narrative and mental model to represent hyperbitcoinization, or a future world where we actually broke free from having government regulations control the economy, having big tech control our data, and having big banks control our assets. If we actually ended up in that world, what would it actually look like?" - John Carvalho Today we dive into an amazing conversation with J...
Jan 11, 2022•2 hr 12 min
In a follow up to the State of Lightning Report from Arcane Research and OpenNode, we dive into the possibilities for how Lightning will change the global market, the potential for truly on-demand services, streaming money, the access it could bring to billions with no banking, & why I think it will change how we interact with the web itself. Lightning is the beginnings of a new frontier and we take time in today's show to talk about where that frontier will take us. Don't forget to check ou...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 35 min
