Here are some short interviews I did while at Lugano Plan B on a range of topics, from bitcoin ossification to block size, government regulation, the latest state of wallets, and mining decentralization with: Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:01) - Jimmy Song, Bitcoin Expert (07:30) - John Carvalho, CEO at Synonym (12:51) - Sponsors (15:05) - Dennis Porter, CEO & Co-Founder Satoshi Action Fund (24:58) - Ben, Host of BTCsessions (31:54) - Sponsor (32:50) - Luke Dashjr, CTO OCEAN Mining (37:53) ...
Oct 29, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 612
Fabian Jahr and Gloria Zhao rejoin me to discuss whether big projects can be done inside Bitcoin core. We delve into AssumeUTXO, ASMap, developer funding, and meritocracy in the developer community. Summary In this episode, Stephan discusses the upcoming Bitcoin Core version 28, its new features, and the ongoing development efforts with Fabian and Gloria. They delve into the pace of change within Bitcoin Core, the importance of communication and collaboration in software development, and the cha...
Oct 26, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 607
Summary In this conversation, Keith Gardner from Branta, discusses the importance of security in Bitcoin transactions. Keith shares his background in engineering and how he became involved in Bitcoin after recognizing the complexities and risks associated with traditional finance. The discussion covers common phishing and address replacement attacks, the innovative solutions offered by Branta to enhance transaction security, and the future of Bitcoin in relation to mobile integration and privacy...
Oct 23, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 611
Harris Irfan, CEO Cordoba Capital Markets & Advisor at @OnrampMENA joins me to discuss challenges and opportunities within Islamic finance, ethics of finance in business and the intersection of Islamic finance and Bitcoin. Harris highlights building a financial system focused on real economy transactions, sharing insights on finance, custody, and Bitcoin investment. Summary In this conversation, Harris Irfan discusses his journey from conventional finance to Islamic finance and Bitcoin. He e...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 610
Summary In this episode, Kenji Tateiwa, CEO of Agile Energy X, discusses his extensive background in nuclear engineering and the impact of the Fukushima disaster on public perception of nuclear energy. He explains the innovative concept behind Agile Energy X, which leverages wasted renewable energy through Bitcoin mining to address curtailment and grid congestion issues in Japan. Kenji elaborates on the unique flexibility of Bitcoin mining as an energy buyer and its potential role in the future ...
Oct 14, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 609
Lawrence Lepard, Managing Partner, Equity Management Associates, joins me to discuss the national debt crisis, inflation, possible price suppression of hard assets and the contrasting roles of gold and Bitcoin as sound money. Summary In this conversation, Stephan Livera and Lawrence Lepard delve into pressing economic issues, including the national debt crisis, inflation, and the contrasting roles of gold and Bitcoin as sound money. They discuss the implications of the upcoming US election on ec...
Oct 05, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 608
After a long and choppy bull-crab market, Dr. Ross notes that the bull market is here! Dr. Jeff Ross, founder, Vailshire Capital Management, joins me to discuss the ongoing sentiment in the markets, global liquidity, pitfalls and opportunities of this bull cycle, holistic living and more! Summary In this conversation, Dr. Jeff Ross discusses his transition from a bearish to a bullish outlook on Bitcoin and the broader market, emphasizing the importance of liquidity and central bank policies. He ...
Sep 29, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 606
Andy Edstrom, Head of Managed Wealth at Onramp Bitcoin rejoins me to discuss the govt. debt levels, retirement planning on Bitcoin, price modeling, risks of leverage yield on Bitcoin and more! Summary In this episode, Andy Edstrom returns to discuss the evolution of Bitcoin since their last conversation, touching on price modeling, the risks of leverage, and the future of Bitcoin loans. They explore the implications of government debt, the role of gold, and the potential for yield in a Bitcoin s...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 605
With growing institutional adoption of Bitcoin through custodians, investors will demand transparency through ‘Proof of Reserves’. Alexander Leishman, CEO & CTO, River joins me to discuss more of the institutional adoption of Bitcoin, Coinbase’s hesitation towards Proof of Reserves, US Govt. debt and more. Summary In this episode of the Stephan Livera podcast, host Stephan speaks with Alex Leishman, CEO and CTO of River, about various topics surrounding Bitcoin, including the current state o...
Sep 19, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 604
Secession may seem like a dirty word, but it has happened many times in history and it’s worth understanding the political and economic benefits it can yield. Ryan McMaken, Executive Editor and Economist at the Mises Institute joins me to discuss his book, Breaking Away. Summary In this conversation, Stephan and Ryan McMaken discuss the topic of secession and its advantages. They explore the historical and theoretical context of secession, highlighting the benefits of radical decentralization an...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 603
My friend Pierre Rochard (VP Research at Riot Platforms) rejoins me on the show to discuss some of his latest views. Summary In this conversation, Stephan and Pierre discuss the concept of long-term savings in Bitcoin and its product-market fit. Pierre introduces a metric for measuring long-term savings by looking at the age of UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs). They also explore the idea of rebalancing and the importance of aligning financial decisions with personal goals. The conversation th...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 602
Tankred Hase has experience working with various Bitcoin and Lightning companies such as Lightning Labs and Swan previously. He joins me to talk about Bitcoin, Lightning and Liquid. We discuss some of the real world challenges and trade offs that builders and developers face, as well as the likely path forward from here. Summary Tankred discusses the current state of Bitcoin, Lightning, and Liquid development. He highlights the progress made in terms of user experience and liquidity. However, he...
Sep 09, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 601
Philipp Bagus rejoins me to discuss his newest book, ‘Full Reserve Banking versus The Real Bills Doctrine’. This is his response to Juan Ramón Rallo, and in it we discuss: 🔸 The currency school and the banking school 🔸The problem of ‘double availability’ 🔸Why the creation of fiduciary media is a problem 🔸The correct categorization of goods and money 🔸Full Reserve in a Bitcoin world? 🔸Milei’s work in Argentina Summary: In this conversation, Stephan interviews Dr. Philipp Bagus about the ful...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 600
Bitcoin security, especially during the upcoming bull run, is extremely important. In this high powered hardware security panel episode featuring NVK, Craig Raw, Rearden, Salvatoshi, AddBTC, we discuss the key trade offs of bitcoin hardware security. 🔸What are the implications of Dark Skippy? 🔸What are some of the most common ways people lose their coins? 🔸Risks of USB in hardware wallets 🔸Standardization & inspection of wallets Summary The panel discusses the recent Dark Skippy attack a...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 599
Sahil Chaturvedi, Designer at Foundry joins me to share his experience of getting on zero fiat and fully embracing Bitcoin as a unit of account. We discuss: 🔸#GetOnZero fiat 🔸Tools required to crossover 🔸Tax implications 🔸Weathering volatility 🔸Using intermediaries to live on a Bitcoin Standard Summary Sahil discusses the concept of 'Get On Zero' and the reasons behind it. The conversation explores the concept of 'get on zero,' which means minimizing fiat currency holdings and maximizing Bi...
Aug 18, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 598
Dark Skippy is a new attack that in theory, makes it much easier for a malicious person to steal your coins. Listen in to learn about some of the ins and outs here, as well as mitigation and the path forward for the industry from @utxoclub , @LLFOURN & @robin_linus . Why air gapping is not the be all end all Dark Skippy in context with other attacks Security while signing transactions, and security while generating keys RFC6979 Deterministic nonce generation Updating PSBT to help mitigate th...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 597
Just like how English is the international language of business, Bitcoin’s lightning network is how various layers and apps and products will ‘talk’ to each other. Roy Sheinfeld, founder and CEO of Breez (@Breez_Tech) rejoins me to talk about updates in lightning and what’s new with Breez SDK. We discuss the various layers and ways of interacting with Bitcoin and lightning, using Liquid (@Liquid_BTC) with swaps, and Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. Summary: In this conversation, Stephan and Roy ...
Aug 09, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 596
Thunder Funder is a new funding portal by Mike Jarmuz (CEO) and Rockstar Dev (CTO). This will be a new way to allow retail investors to participate in bitcoin company equity rounds. Muzz and I discuss the ins and outs of what this means, as well as what it could mean for bitcoin and open source companies. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:55) - Overview of Lightning Ventures & Thunder Funder (12:15) - Sponsor (13:50) - Pros and cons of investing in Bitcoin startups (19:28) - Liquidity, seconda...
Aug 06, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 595
Joining me is Antoine (@darosior), to discuss the latest developments around Liana and the growing importance of inheritance planning. We also delve into The Great Consensus clean up, important bug fixes and disclosure of Bitcoin core vulnerabilities. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:40) - The latest developments with Liana (02:16) - Inheritance planning with Liana (05:59) - What is The Great Consensus Clean up? (07:30) - What is the Timewarp bug? (15:51) - What would it take to fix the bug? (19:...
Jul 29, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 594
Can you retire on Bitcoin savings? What do the numbers look like? Morgen Rochard, Founder and Lead Financial Planner of Origin Wealth Advisers joins me to explain: The 4% rule and how to modify it Being conservative in your planning CPI inflation being hard to predict Do you rebalance? Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:03) - 4% rule, Bitcoin & FIRE (04:41) - HODLers vs TradFi allocation (12:34) - Why you should be conservative with Bitcoin retirement (20:16) - What if you retire during a Bitco...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 593
The global fertility crisis is on with many western and developed nations below replacement fertility. Joining me to discuss this problem is Daniel Hess (aka @MoreBirths on X). Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:54) - How bad is the global fertility crisis? (04:50) - Implications of low birth rate for future generations (09:54) - Causes for declining global rate of fertility (11:53) - Marriages affecting birth rate (15:38) - Religion affecting birth rate (17:36) - Fertility rate in the East (21:28)...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 592
Even as bitcoiners, we can’t deny that there is demand for ‘stablecoins’ or some kind of stable value feature. Tony Klausing, bitcoin and lightning developer joins me to talk about Stable Channels. This approach to stable value is self custodial, P2P, and bitcoin-native. We talk about the benefits, trade offs and who this would be suitable for. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:51) - Tony’s background (03:28) - Opportunity of Stable Channels (05:46) - Fiat-backed stablecoins Vs. Crypto-backed stab...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 591
Aleksandar Svetski (@SvetskiWrites) rejoins me to talk about his newest book, The Bushido of Bitcoin. We get into a discussion about: Anti-egalitarianism Virtues Why Bitcoiners should ‘stop being plebs’ The ascend & descend of civilisations Imbibing warrior culture in Bitcoin The masses and the remnant Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:41) - Who is ‘The Bushido of Bitcoin’ for? (11:13) - The role of legitimate hierarchy (18:14) - The cyclical nature of civilisations (22:21) - Sponsors (25:20) ...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 590
Jörg Guido Hülsmann is a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute, and he rejoins me to discuss his latest book on Abundance, Generosity and the State. Bitcoiners like to spell out a lot of the social and cultural problems in the world today, and Dr Hülsmann is one of the leading lights in showing how fiat currency and government intervention have caused negative outcomes. We discuss the way gratuitous benefits come to us in a free market capitalist society, and the many ways government intervention...
Jul 07, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 589
Why are some bitcoin blocks empty? Orange Surf from the mempool.space team joins me to explain his recent research report on this topic. We discuss: Why do empty blocks happen? Comparing empty block rates across mining pools Firmware and config differences Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:44) - Orange Surf’s research report on empty blocks (02:02) - Block interval data sets (06:25) - What is an empty block? (08:09) - What causes an empty block to occur? (11:35) - Nuances of a working of a miner; ...
Jul 03, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 588
Art Finch is a South African-American Entrepreneur. Art has experience across South Asia and is interested in setting up Free Private Cities or Charter Cities. In this episode he shares his experiences in Bhutan and shares his theories on how Bitcoin and Free Private Cities can work together. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:28) - Art’s background & his interest in building a Free Private City (FPC) (10:50) - The need for a Free Private City (13:11) - A look at Shenzhen as an SEZ (16:20) - Ed...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 587
While many debate the pros and cons of Bitcoin ETFs, joining us for this episode is Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome, doing a directly held Bitcoin ETF in Australia. We chat about the fees, the custody, the ethos, being able to contribute bitcoin or redeem bitcoin, institutional adoption and Bitcoin in Australia. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:53) - Monochrome’s role in bringing Bitcoin ETFs to Australia (02:48) - Timeline of different Bitcoin ETFs in Australia (03:58) - Influence of US Spot Bitcoin...
Jun 27, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 580
You might have seen my earlier episode with Erick Brimen, CEO of Prospera, here’s the CFO of Prospera discussing the ability to use Bitcoin as a unit of account. We discuss: Life on Roatan Setting up a business Choose your own regulatory environment ZEDE law situation Bitcoin as unit of account Leaving Canada Timestamps: Links: https://prospera.hn/ https://stephanlivera.com/episode/464/ Sponsors: Swan.com (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Livera links: Follow me on X...
Jun 22, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 585
Tiero of Ark Labs joins me on the show to discuss the latest with Ark. We get into: How Ark has changed since initial proposal clARK - covenant-less ARK Trade offs to make clARK happen Which covenants would help vs what is ideal for Ark Ark on Liquid Capital requirements and costs Fiatcoins Nostr Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:37) - What is Ark? ELI5 version (05:42) - Tradeoffs of scaling payments (07:41) - Interchangeably using LN & Ark under the hood (10:52) - Updates on Ark (13:57) - Wha...
Jun 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 584
The bitcoin ‘ossification’ debate continues with a discussion on the key considerations. What makes Bitcoin special? What improvements are necessary to retain sufficient decentralisation, if any? Vijay Boyapati and Brandon Black (aka reardencode) rejoin me for a special episode to discuss: What makes Bitcoin special? Defining ‘ossification’ How many users is ‘enough’? Unknown unknowns Addressing centralising MEV concerns Soft forks and hard forks Economic nodes and who holds the power Where to f...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 583
