We have very special episode this week featuring some of the godfathers of Bitcoin: Nick Szabo, Adam Back and David Chaum. This was recorded as a live panel from Seoul at Korea Blockchain Week and is laid out as a history of the ideas and events that led to Bitcoin from their first person accounts, plus their current thoughts on the experiment and what excites them about the future. From the cryptography and cypherpunk movements to David’s DigiCash, Adam’s Hashcash proof-of-work, Nick’s Bit Gold...
Nov 16, 2020•45 min
In this episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Aaron and Sjors discuss Eclipse attacks. More specifically, they discuss the 2015 paper “Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin’s Peer-to-Peer Network,” written by Ethan Heilman, Alison Kendler, Aviv Zohar and Sharon Goldberg, from Boston University and Hebrew University/MSR Israel. Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW Follow Sjors Provoost @provoost Music: Song Title: Segwit Sounds By: The Nakam...
Nov 13, 2020•21 min
In this episode of the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast, Bitcoin Magazine's Peter Chawaga interviewed Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation about this dynamic between governments and encryption backdoors. The pair covered the recent draft resolution, the obstacles that those attempting to circumvent encryption will face, the importance of leveraging tools like Signal and Bitcoin and more.
Nov 12, 2020•23 min
Bitcoin has an unyielding apolitical nature, which oddly enough, makes it a political statement in today’s rampantly politicized world. In this episode of Fed Watch, Christian and Ansel discuss the recent US election and what it means for bitcoin. Their discussion is wide-ranging from election irregularities, to the rebound in mining hash power, to bitcoin price predictions for the near term. Topics: Politics in the US was front page news Speculate Biden and the Fed The Dollar and the Yuan price...
Nov 11, 2020•38 min
CK sits down with founder of the Amber App and The Bitcoin Times Aleks Svetski to discuss his recent Bitcoin Magazine Article "Because Bitcoin Is A Necessity, Its Economy Will Be Circular." This was a wide ranging conversation covering many of the first principle arguments for Bitcoin and sound money. This is a great podcast to share with bitcoin beginners. Link to the Article: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/because-bitcoin-is-a-necessity-its-economy-will-be-circular Topics: *Bitcoin is th...
Nov 10, 2020•45 min
This week on the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast, ck sits down with Simon Chamorro to discuss Valiu his amazing dollar platform. We dive deep into how he talks to regulators and how the Valiu team thinks about user experience.Finally we go deep into the financial issues in South America and how bitcoin and synthetic dollars are helping. You can find us @BitcoinMagazine on Twitter. Christian Keroles on Twitter @ck_SNARKs Simon Chamorro on Twitter @simonvaliu
Nov 09, 2020•44 min
In this episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Aaron and Sjors discuss Open Timestamps, a Bitcoin-based time stamping project by applied cryptography consultant and former Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd. Open Timestamps leverages the security of the Bitcoin blockchain to timestamp any type of data, allowing for irrefutable proof that that data existed at a particular point in time. Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW Follow ...
Nov 06, 2020•31 min
Fed Watch Podcast Discussions on Base Money and Bitcoin Our discussion on this episode of Fed Watch centers around “what is base money” and Matthew’s thoughts on some of the edge cases in the definition. We also attack the inflation/deflation debate from a whole different angle, a data driven angle thanks to Matthew’s research and knowledge on the subject. We don’t ask simple questions and expand the topic past the common hyperinflationary troupes of the end of the dollar. The listener will hear...
Nov 04, 2020•1 hr 1 min
In this episode of the Bitcoin Magazine podcast, Bitcoin Magazine Technical Editor Aaron van Wirdum speaks with Jim Epstein, Executive Editor at Reason TV. Epstein recently produced a documentary mini series on the Cypherpunks, called Cypherpunks Write Code. The four-part series chronicles the origins and short history of the group of hackers, cryptographers and activists that in the 1990s coalesced around a shared goal to offer and secure privacy in the digital age. In this podcast, Aaron and J...
Nov 02, 2020•53 min
On this episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Aaron and Sjors are once again joined by Ruben Somsen. This time, the trio doesn’t discuss one of Somsen’s own proposals, but they dive into a concept by Tadge Dryja called Utreexo. Helpful links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y6n88DmkjU https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoins-growing-utxo-problem-and-how-utreexo-can-help-solve-it Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW Follow S...
Oct 30, 2020•32 min
Printing is the plague and Bitcoin is the cure! In this episode of the Bitcoin Magazine podcast, ck sits with Thib Maréchal to discuss the hsitory of money printing and how Bitcoin offers humanity a solution to the great plague of money printing. The original article: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/the-great-plague-of-shitcoinery Topic: Defining Seniorage. bitcoin as a decentralized monetary mint. The Fight to control the money printer. Tech narrative v monetary Narrative Sound money and t...
Oct 26, 2020•44 min
Ck sits down with Max Hillebrand (@HillebrandMax), prolific Bitcoin educator and member of ZK Snacks. We dive into updates on Wasabi Wallet (ZK Snack’s primary product) As well as discuss higher level intros to topics that are essential for all Bitcoiners And liberty advocates. Topics: Wasabi Wallet updates Chaincase creating a mobile client for Wasabi coinjoins. Explaining Crypto Anarchy Explaining property rights.
Oct 25, 2020•38 min
On this episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Aaron and Sjors discuss “Assume UTXO”, a proposal and project by Chaincode Labs alumni James O’Beirne. One of the biggest bottlenecks for scaling Bitcoin — if not the biggest one — is initial block download: the time it takes for a Bitcoin node to synchronize with the Bitcoin network, as it needs to process all historic transactions and blocks in order to construct the latest UTXO-set: the current state of bitcoin-ownership. Aaron and Sjors explain so...
Oct 23, 2020•23 min
The last three months in Bitcoin have been marked by large corporate entities transitioning significant portions of their treasury holdings into bitcoin, most notably MicroStrategy and Square. To compile this trend into a single, easily-digestible database, Coinkite’s Rodolfo Novak (@NVK) launched bitcointreasuries.org , listing companies that have made the transition to hold bitcoin as a treasury asset. In this interview with Bitcoin Magazine's Peter Chawaga (@PeterChawaga), Novak explains why ...
Oct 22, 2020•15 min
In this episode, CK and I try to describe the scene, including a video message from Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, Washington, DC, on October 15th, titled A New Bretton Woods Moment and this IMF panel with Chairman Powell. Topics: Brettonwoods 2.0 Effect of Libra on the CBDC conversation? USA not moving quickly on CBDC what is a CBDC Feds view of CBDCs Bitcoin Momentum globally Useful Links: IMF “Bretton Woods moment video https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/10/15/sp101520-a-...
Oct 21, 2020•34 min
Our guest this week is Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of India based Bitcoin exchange Unocoin. A tech entrepreneur who got into Bitcoin in 2013, starting a Bitcoin meetup group in Bangalore out of which came the founding team of Unocoin, Sathvik as CEO is now leading the company through a new Series A funding round led by Draper Associates. We discus how Unocoin became the market leader in India initially, what the exchange ecosystem in India looks like now, why it is a market playing catchup, and why ...
Oct 19, 2020•55 min
Bitcoin Core 0.21 will support Tor v3 addresses. Aaron and Sjors explain what this means and why it matters, and also discuss how new Bitcoin nodes find existing Bitcoin nodes when they bootstrap to the network. Helpful Links: * Tor V3 (onion) address support in Bitcoin Core: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/19954 * the ADDRv2 message added in BIP155 that allows nodes to gossip those new Tor addresses: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0155.mediawiki#Specification * DNS seed...
Oct 16, 2020•19 min
Our guest this week is Nishant Sharma, a long time bitcoin mining industry insider in China who is now a founder and partner of BlocksBridge Consulting, a communications strategy and advisory firm focused on the Bitcoin mining sector and serving some of its largest companies. Nishant has been in the mining space since 2014, including 4 years at Bitmain in Beijing. We discuss his time at Bitmain, seeing it grow from a two digit employee company to a dominant player in the industry, trends in the ...
Oct 13, 2020•46 min
Ck sits down with one of the most inspiring and impressive entrepreneurs in the Bitcoin industry. Ray Youssef is the head of Paxful, the leading p2p Bitcoin trading. Ray is on a mission to spread financial freedom to the world. We cover recent news pertaining to Paxful as well as make predictions on where bitcoin is going. Timestamps: 0:00-0:58 Intro 0:59 - 1:56 What is happening in the world of P2P finance 5:13 - 7:14 Discussing Bitcoin and Tether as global clearing layers. 7:14 - 8:34 Tether v...
Oct 11, 2020•31 min
In this episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Ruben Somsen returns to explain his proposal to combine blind merged mining and perpetual one-way pegs in order to create a new type of sidechain. The bad news: it won't make you rich but it could help scale Bitcoin! Helpful Links: https://medium.com/@RubenSomsen/21-million-bitcoins-to-rule-all-sidechains-the-perpetual-one-way-peg-96cb2f8ac302 Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW Foll...
Oct 09, 2020•40 min
This week, CK and Ansel recap prior guests, discuss recent Federal Reserve quiet, the ECB digital Euro study and trademarking of the term, and dive in deeply into the Bitmex, Bitcoin, and Tether. One of the big topics is the way in which Tether and now Bitmex are fighting the most powerful regulator in the world, the US government, and they seem to be at least winning right now. Links: Fed CBDC research https://cointelegraph.com/news/federal-reserve-bank-reveals-details-of-digital-dollar-researc...
Oct 07, 2020•34 min
Our guest this week is Ciara Sun, Head of Global Business and Markets at Huobi Group. Ciara joined Huobi in 2019 first focusing on growth of its institutional business and in her role now now overseeing its growth and product strategy around the world, she gives a great look into what goes into running and growing a global bitcoin company with a diverse range of products. And one that is continuously rolling out new products in very cutthroat markets, including rollouts this year in the futures ...
Oct 05, 2020•56 min
As part of our Bitcoin in Venezuela double header, @ck_SNARKs and Venezuelan Bitcoin entrepreneur Alessandro Cecere ,@elsultanbitcoin, sit down to talk Bitcoin and how it is being implemented and used in Venezuela. Find Alessandra @Elsultanbitcoin and @coinspree Find CK @ck_SNARKs Find the Show at Bitcoin Magazine Podcast and Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-fCCUuvmzg https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-magazine/id1459884105
Oct 03, 2020•40 min
In this episode Sjors and Aaron discuss Jose Femenias' Easypaysy proposal, an account system for Bitcoin, on Bitcoin. They also announce groundbreaking news: The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado now has its own RSS-feed! Aaron's article covering Easypaysy on Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-need-accounts-one-developer-thinks-figured The BIP in Github https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0047.mediawiki Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazi...
Oct 02, 2020•33 min
One of the great macro pundits of the last few years, Lyn Alden joins us, for one of the most important episodes of Fedwatch. Lyn has a fantastic grasp of history and macro economics. In this interview, we wanted to focus on placing our current time into a historical context comparing it to previous cycles which we can learn from. We also continue our search for a definition of money today, and agreement on a definition of money, inflation, and deflation. Find Lyn: https://www.lynalden.com/ Twit...
Sep 30, 2020•52 min
We are actually in South Africa this week after some newsworthy M&A there involving the Luno exchange and DCG. Our guest is Chris Becker, Blockchain Technologies Lead at Investec based out of Johannesburg. Investec is a commercial and investment bank with a significant presence in South Africa, and Chris started their blockchain practice in 2016 - he talks about Bitcoin in South Africa in that time frame, DCG’s acquisition of Luno, the landscape of Bitcoin companies in SA and trends he sees ...
Sep 28, 2020•43 min
Sjors and Aaron discuss Signet, a new type of testnet for Bitcoin that was merged into Bitcoin Core last week. They also discuss the original version of testnet and its problems, as well as alternative testing environment regtest. Support the Show! Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW Follow Sjors Provoost @provoost Music: Song Title: Segwit Sounds By: The NakamoTones Album: Citadel Music Produced by: Bitcoin Audio...
Sep 25, 2020•15 min
This week on Bitcoin Magazine's Fed Watch, Ck and Ansel sit down with a Bitcoin OG and listener of the show, Kenny Rowe to answer his basic questions about the Fed and Macro. Kenny is currently at Urbit and has been working on Bitcoin and Crypto projects for many years now. Kenny and Urbit are pioneers in the sovereign server movement. Find Kenny at: https://twitter.com/kennyrowe Find us: Bitcoin Magazine: https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine Bitcoin Magazine YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/chan...
Sep 23, 2020•46 min
This week CK and the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein sit down to discuss the current state of human rights, Bitcoin's role in the fight for human rights, and the upcoming virtual Oslo Freedom Forum. Find Alex on Twitter @Gladstein Find the Human Rights Foundation @HRF The 2020 Virtual Oslo Freedom Forum is this week on September 24th and 25th . Learn more about the virtual Oslo Freedom Forum and get your ticket below: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2020-oslo-f...
Sep 22, 2020•36 min
Our guest this week is Australian Hongkonger and Bitcoin entrepreneur Dave Chapman. Dave is the Executive Director of the publicly listed BC Group and its subsidiary OSL (osl.com), one of Asia's leading digital asset platforms. OSL recently became the first recipient of approval in principle for Type 1 and Type 7 licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, allowing them to operate a virtual asset trading platform and deal in securities. It is a significant step from Hong Ko...
Sep 21, 2020•46 min
