The Block Reward | Real Stories. Real Impact. All Powered by Real Money - Bitcoin

What if your “simple” tap-to-pay purchase hides fourteen different payments? This episode features Allen Farrington, an author and investor who is the co-founder and general partner at a venture firm focused on companies building on Bitcoin. He is also the co-founder and CEO of an asset management business deploying in Bitcoin, and he recently gave a conference talk debunking the idea that fiat pa...

What if your neighbourhood cafe quietly turned itself into a Bitcoin miner? In this episode, I'm kicking off a new series with Bitcoin entrepreneurs and executives who are actually weaving this asset into the way they work and save. Today I'm joined by Kurtis Warren, a longtime Bitcoiner and owner of a downtown Vancouver coffee bar that's evolved into a community hub. He shares how his path collid...

Nobody told me that a video game could teach me everything I needed to know about money. In this episode, I sit down with Ted Carr, the creator of the Bitcoin community on the online learning platform School. Ted’s been in Bitcoin since 2017, through all the chaos and crashes, and now teaches thousands of people how to navigate it with confidence. His story goes from losing coins on hacked exchang...

What happens when the people safeguarding Bitcoin can’t agree on what they’re actually safeguarding? In this episode, I sit down with Tomer Strolight, writer, educator, and long-time Bitcoin thinker, to explore the cracks forming in Bitcoin’s governance. From the origins of Core development to the recent rifts over protocol changes, Tomer explains why these debates aren’t just technical, they’re p...

Bitcoin hit $125,000 this week, and it felt like nobody cared. In this episode, I’m joined by three-time guest Michael Dunworth. He’s a longtime Bitcoiner and builder who helped roll licensing, on-ramps, off-ramps, and banking partners into an API for others to use. We dig into how Bitcoin treasury companies turned a smart idea into a dangerous illusion. Big promises, confusing language, and off-c...

India’s Bitcoin story might be the most important one you haven’t heard yet In this episode, I’m joined by Sunny Ray, a longtime Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur. He started meetups in Bangalore and often ran them weekly. He launched a Bitcoin company in India and helped challenge the central bank in a case that was won in 2020.  Most people can’t define money, even as it runs their lives. Aft...

👉 Engage top talent and empower your team with Bitcoin saving: https://blockrewards.ca Bitcoin solves a critical problem that touches everyone. What happens when Canada faces that head-on? In this episode, I sit down with Daniel Carlin, founder of the Canadian Bitcoin Conference, just a week before it returns to Montreal. This is the third run of the event, which started in Toronto in 2023 before...

👉 Engage top talent and empower your team with Bitcoin saving: https://blockrewards.ca What if the single biggest mistake people make about Bitcoin is assuming it has to pay a yield to be real? Welcome to episode 100 where I sit down with the one and only Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard . We strip Bitcoin back to its core: money that holds value because it can’t be easily made. W...

👉 Engage top talent and empower your team with Bitcoin saving: https://blockrewards.ca What if the real theft isn’t of your money, but of your time? This episode was sparked by George Woodcock’s 1944 essay The Tyranny of the Clock. Woodcock, an economist, argued that the invention of the mechanical clock in 1657 fundamentally changed how humans related to time, making it possible to measure, sche...

👉 Engage top talent and empower your team with Bitcoin saving: https://blockrewards.ca What if the smartest move your company could make right now isn’t launching a new product, but changing what sits on your balance sheet? In this episode, I’m joined by Joe Burnett, Director of Bitcoin Strategy at Semler Scientific , the second American public company to adopt a Bitcoin standard. We get into wha...

What happens when cheap money builds entire industries on debt? In this episode I sit down with Dave Bradley. He was very early to Bitcoin and ran the first brick‑and‑mortar Bitcoin store in Canada.   We start with his “Bitcoin fixes things” lens on the car industry, financing bubbles, add‑on features, regulations, and union dynamics, and why he says Bitcoin would change those incentives....

How safe is your Bitcoin, really?  In this episode, I sit down with George Bordianu, co-founder and CEO of Balance, Canada’s oldest and largest digital asset custodian. Balance has been operating since 2017, holds roughly $3 billion in client assets (depending on market prices), and is regulated under a trust charter from Alberta Treasury Board and Finance. We talk about why self-custody isn’t a...

What if money doesn’t just buy things but actually changes how we think?  In this episode, I talk with Helena Andrejko, an Australian psychotherapist who works with individuals and couples, as well as a psychedelic-assisted therapist trained to use psilocybin and MDMA for trauma and depression treatment in regulated medical settings. She splits her time between her therapy practice and her work i...

What if Bitcoin didn’t come to disrupt the system… but to save it? In this episode, I’m joined by Cedric Youngelman, the host of the Bitcoin Matrix podcast. Cedric’s been immersed in the Bitcoin space since 2017, and over the years he’s built a reputation for digging into the deeper philosophical and political implications of money, sovereignty, and how we organize society. We get into Cedric’s pe...

What happens when AI agents get paid in Bitcoin? In this episode, I sit down with John Ely, our Chief Innovation Officer at Block Rewards, for his second appearance on the podcast. John is a technologist with a sharp eye for where Bitcoin, AI, and the future of work intersect. We get into the explosion of AI agents and what it means to embed reasoning, logic, and even payments into software. John...

“You thought you were free—until your bank froze your money.”  This week on The Block Reward, Scott sits down with Jordi Llonch, a former airline pilot turned Bitcoin advocate and digital freedom strategist. Jordi’s not just talking tech—he’s living the life of a global citizen, traveling the world as a true digital nomad and helping others do the same. With a sharp eye for how broken financial...

"Bitcoin isn’t digital gold—it’s something far more powerful." In this episode, Scott is joined by two of the most respected names in on-chain analytics and Bitcoin macro strategy: Willy Woo , legendary data analyst and market commentator, and Yann Alleman , co-founder of Swissblock and architect of institutional-grade Bitcoin strategy. Together, they break down why Bitcoin’s trajectory isn’t just...

Why the Ultra-Wealthy Never Sell—and What Bitcoin Has to Do with It  This episode features Hunter Albright, systems engineer, AI expert, and traditional finance veteran turned Bitcoin educator and executive at Salt Lending. With decades of experience managing credit portfolios and building financial models, Hunter brings a rare combination of institutional insight and future-focused innovation t...

If you want a competitive edge, stop trying to out-AI everyone—and start doing things only humans can. This week on The Block Reward, Scott sits down with returning guest Aleks Svetski—entrepreneur, author of The Bushido of Bitcoin , and the visionary founder behind Satlantis, a decentralized, Nostr-powered travel and social app reshaping how sovereign individuals connect in the real world. With a...

I didn’t lose faith in crypto—I lost faith in lies.  This week on The Block Reward, Scott sits down with author and sociologist Suman Kumar, whose new book Reclaiming Sovereignty explores the gritty personal journey from crypto disillusionment to Bitcoin conviction. With no background in finance or tech, Suman brings a rare lens: one rooted in global stories, community resilience, and a fierce...

The Fed Wants to Be a Hedge Fund—Here’s What That Means for Bitcoin  James Lavish—managing partner of the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and author of The Informationist —returns for a sharp, high-stakes conversation about markets, monetary policy, and the future of Bitcoin. With a background in hedge funds and Wall Street, James brings deep insight into how liquidity, debt, and geopolitical shifts ar...

Bitcoin is replacing real estate—and it’s happening faster than you think.  In this episode, Leon Wankum, financial economist and real estate developer breaks down why Bitcoin is rapidly outcompeting real estate as a store of value, investment vehicle, and source of cashflow. With over 15 years in real estate and a background in financial economics, Leon brings unmatched insight into how the r...

You won’t change the system by shouting at it—try writing a book instead.  What happens when two Bitcoiners become authors—and decide to peel back the curtain on the writing, publishing, and marketing grind behind their books? In this refreshingly honest and unexpectedly hilarious episode, Roger Wang (Senior Marketing Director at Block Rewards and author of Would Mao Hold Bitcoin? ) and Seb Bunne...

Peruvian Bull is a macro analyst, author of Dollar End Game , and creator focused on the long-term consequences of fiat monetary policy and Bitcoin's role in the global economy.  In this episode, you're going to learn how the U.S. dollar became the dominant global reserve currency and why that system is now under strain, what the Triffin dilemma is and how it forces the U.S. to make impossible...

Scott and Seb Bunny are long-time friends and thinkers in the Bitcoin space who focus on the philosophical, societal, and spiritual implications of sound money. In this episode, you're going to learn how fiat money distorts our perception of time and value, why Bitcoin could be the antidote to rising anxiety and survival-driven living, how inflation and state-controlled money affect everything fro...