Stephan Livera Podcast

There are various Bitcoin ‘circular economies’ but we talk with Fernando Motolese about how he started Bitcoin Beach Brazil, as well as his efforts in creating a new merchant POS terminal device, Bitcoinize. We discuss: How Bitcoin Beach Brazil started Onboarding merchants Bolt card Tech stack Tourists and Locals experience Bitcoinize device HODL vs Spend Fundraising Links: Fernando Motolese X: @M...

Free Private Cities are an exciting attempt at a new model for private governance. I’ve previously spoken with leaders in this movement such as Titus Gebel and Peter Young. Today I’m speaking with the founder of Ciudad Morazan, another free private city in Honduras. This one is a little different to the others you may have heard of, as this one is more focused on ‘blue collar’ workers, families, a...

Has Bitcoin’s Mining ecosystem become centralised? What can be done about it? Bitcoin Mechanic from Ocean joins me to talk: Hashers vs Miners Different pool payout methods Stratum v2 Block withholding attacks What Ocean is doing about it Fees Lightning payouts Links: X: @GrassFedBitcoin Site: ocean.xyz/event X: @ocean_mining Article: Are Mining Pools Becoming a Problem?   Sponsors: Swan.com (code...

Many Bitcoiners have seen or shared around the images that show Labour Compensation (wages and other benefits) diverging from Labour Productivity since 1971, particularly from sites such as wtfhappenedin1971.com. Rejoining me today is Gene Epstein to break down why this chart is flawed! We also talk about broader issues around CPI, whether inflation is over or undercounted, and cost of living pres...

How do you prevent loss of your coins? What are some critical steps that are commonly missed? NVK and I discuss a recent case of a HODLer losing 25 BTC, as well as talk about updates in  Bitcoin security. Links: X: @ NVK Nostr: npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 Site: Coinkite.com Sponsors: Swan.com (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Livera...

When you need to send a Bitcoin transaction, you need Bitcoin blockspace. But blockspace is scarce! CEO of Barefoot Mining, Bob Burnett and I chat about this, and what you can do about it.  Blockspace scarcity and explanation What you can do about it UTXO management Different types of miner Miner’s Trilemma Arguments against public company mining Mining NOT being a leverage play on Bitcoin Public...

Is there a demographic collapse coming? What could or should be done about it? Is there any connection with Bitcoiner culture? Malcolm Collins has a background in VC and Private Equity, and he is a co-founder of The Pronatalist Foundation. He has spent a lot of time speaking about this problem and has some great insights to share: Population Projections The Urban Monoculture Pronatalist aims Child...

Are we entering a new Bitcoin bull cycle? Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, rejoins me on the show to talk about a variety of things:  SBF found guilty Bitcoin bull cycle Block size wars Blockstream Greenlight Blockstream BASIC note Blockstream Green Links: Site: Blockstream.com Blockstream BASIC Note X: @adam3us   Sponsors: Swan.com (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Live...

Have you wondered about the challenges of managing a large publicly listed Bitcoin mining company? Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms joins me to talk: His poker background Why hashrate expands even when price is down Riot’s competitive advantages Should miners use debt financing?  HODLing Bitcoin as a miner Bitcoin ETF impact?  How can miners outperform bitcoin?  Dodging knives Educating government...

Are you interested in building support for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network into your product or service? Check out this discussion of Greenlight with Blockstream’s Christian Decker. We talk: Improvements in lightning experience over the years No. of payments, reliability Greenlight experiences Mobile nodes Comparison with other providers Shared infrastructure Core Lightning features What features will...

BitVM is a new paradigm for Turing-complete bitcoin contracts. In this episode I speak with the creator, Robin Linus and another developer working on the idea, Super Testnet. We discuss: What is BitVM?  What are some of the trade offs?  What could BitVM enable?  Set up time and interactivity Can it enable sidechains or covenants?  Links: Paper: bitvm.pdf X: @robin_linus X: @super_testnet Super Tes...

Matthew Black, co-founder and CTO of Atomic Finance joins me to talk about earning yield in a self custodial way with DLCs. We get into all the questions and criticisms people might have: How does it work without being custodial? Where is the yield coming from?  HODL only Different strategies available DLC security over time The future of Bitcoin Finance Links: X: @matthewjablack Website: Atomic....

Lyn Alden, macro analyst rejoins me on the show to talk about her new book, Broken Money. We discuss Lyn’s thoughts on: Ledger money and who controls it Different theories of money Speed of transaction vs. settlement Warfare funding under fiat Base money and Broad money GFC and the response to it Fiat standard incentives What kind of debt makes sense under a Bitcoin standard Links: X: @LynAldenCon...

Will Cole of Zaprite rejoins me to talk about:  Merchant adoption and why it’s different this time Improved custody How Zaprite works Accounting and integration How adoption will be driven this time Circular economy The lie of 2% inflation Links: X: @willcole Zaprite: https://zaprite.com/ Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA ) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Livera link...

Do you have debt? Are you wondering about the case for why you shouldn’t? Check out this episode with my friend and Bitcoin developer and advocate, Jimmy Song. We talk about his newest book, Fiat Ruins Everything:  Why he wrote this book Why you should have zero debt Cultural issues  Fiat morality Links: X: @jimmysong Site: https://fiatruinseverything.com/ Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code...

Have you wondered what it takes to be a long-term HODLer? American HODL rejoins me on the show to talk about HODLer psychology, bitcoin culture, and what to expect going forward: Adoption waves Living on Bitcoin Overconfidence Mainstream culture Bitcoin Fixes This Jurisdictions Thoughts on next cycle Links: X: americanhodl8 Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA ) CoinKite.com (code LIVER...

Are you interested in spending 16,000 more hours with your children? Consider homeschooling! We discuss this and many other insights in this chat about homeschooling: Their own journey of homeschooling Escaping hivemind thinking Criticism of ‘school vouchers’ Building up your child’s agency Do you need curricula?   Modelling behaviour “Socialisation” The culture war Links: X: https://twitter.com/H...

The next generation of Bitcoin Lightning wallets is here with Phoenix from ACINQ. Rejoining me is CTO of ACINQ, Bastien Teinturier to talk about how the team is innovating a great self custodial experience for bitcoin and lightning users: High Fee environment New Phoenix fee structure Splicing and what it enables Dual Funding Liquidity Ads Building on a smartphone app Can ACINQ steal from users? ...

Drivechain is a proposed soft fork that has faced a lot of criticism in the community, and Shinobi (Technical Editor of Bitcoin Magazine) joins me to discuss his critiques of the idea. We discuss: What is Drivechain How it works Miner centralisation Re orgs on sidechains T-shirt sales argument Stratum v2 “Miners can steal” Other soft fork ideas (e.g. APO, CTV) Multi Party Channels “First Develop w...

Glozow rejoins me to talk about updates coming to Bitcoin’s transactions and mempool policy. We talk about how these will be essential to keep bitcoin use efficient and safe, especially for layer 2 protocols such as Lightning. We chat: Current state with transacting RBF and CPFP Problems right now L2 security Pinning vectors What is package relay?  What is v3 transactions?  What are ephemeral anch...

A common question amongst bitcoin investors is whether bitcoin on-chain analytics is legitimate or whether it is snake oil. Joining me to explore this as well as talk about some new research, is James Check, Lead Analyst of Glassnode. We talk about how the field progressed, and some insights to share on analyzing the bitcoin market: History of on-chain analytics Is it snake oil?  Liveliness Impact...

Lisa Neigut of base58 and btcplusplus rejoins me on the show to talk about Bitcoin layer 2’s, where bitcoin’s lightning network is going, BTC++ and teaching Bitcoin developers at base58.We talk: Views on other L2 protocols LN technology How important is APO for LN?  BTC++ nix and reproducibility Base58 Links: niftynei base58.school https://btcplusplus.dev/   Prior and relevant episodes: SLP168 Lis...

Are Bitcoin’s 4 year cycles over? Vijay Boyapati rejoins me on the show to talk about his view of where things are in the economy. We chat: Recession? 18 month lag Risk on or risk off?  Bitcoin as a macro asset 4 year cycles Is an ETF good for Bitcoin? Pacific Bitcoin   Links X: @real_vijay   Prior episodes: SLP332 Vijay Boyapati – The Bearish Case for Bitcoin SLP233 Vijay Boyapati – Bitcoin Valua...

Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream) has been around Bitcoin research and development for a long time, and has a lot of insight to share on Bitcoin research in this episode. For part 2 of my discussion with Andrew we focus more on bitcoin and cryptography research that the team are working on, and what it means for the future of Bitcoin: Cryptography Bulletproofs++  MuSig2 FROST Bit...

A ‘paper computer’ for Bitcoin checksums and Shamir Secret Sharing may seem absurd, but that’s what we’re talking about in this episode! This project is a scheme to generate, encode, checksum, split and recover Bitcoin secret keys, using pencil, paper and lookup tables (alternately, volvelles). We discuss codex32 and the motivation behind it with Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream)...