The Kevin Rooke Show

Ry Sterling is the VP of North America at IBEX Mercado. There are two parts to the IBEX business, it is a tool enabling merchants to accept Bitcoin payments, and an infrastructure platform for enabling entirely new Lightning use cases. In our discussion, Ry explained the vision for IBEX Mercado, we explored a bunch of emerging Lightning use cases, and we discussed the adoption of Bitcoin in El Sal...

Ray Marceau is the CEO of Purse, a marketplace enabling anyone to spend Bitcoin to buy products on Amazon, or sell Amazon gift cards to buy Bitcoin. In our discussion, Ray explained how the Purse platform works, the ups and downs of their 8-year journey in the Bitcoin space, why Purse decided to integrate Lightning payments this summer, and why they’re considering focusing exclusively on Bitcoin o...

Lyle Pratt is the founder and CEO of Vida, a platform for letting anyone monetize their time with paid messages, calls, and livestreams. In our discussion, Lyle explained how Vida works, the role Lightning payments might play across social media, his experience building on Lightning to date, and how Vida could help more people earn more Bitcoin. → Vida: https://vida.page/?ref=kr Sponsor → Voltage:...

Egge is the co-founder of Starbackr and an advertising industry veteran who has fallen down the Bitcoin and Lightning rabbit hole. Egge explained how the world of advertising works, how Lightning could offer improvements for advertisers and consumers, and how the creator economy might evolve on a Bitcoin standard. → Starbackr: https://starbackr.com/ Sponsor → Voltage: https://voltage.cloud?utm_sou...

Danny Diekroeger is a Bitcoin software engineer at Cash App, and the operator of one of the world’s largest Lightning nodes. In our conversation, Danny explained how Cash App thinks about building Bitcoin and Lightning features, and the challenges of operating a Bitcoin business at scale. we also discussed Spiral’s Lightning Development Kit and Danny’s strategy for becoming a top Lightning node op...

Fiatjaf is a pseudonymous programmer who has worked on a handful of really impactful projects in and adjacent to the Lightning Network ecosystem. In our discussion, we discussed the work Fiatjaf has done on LNURL, LNTXBot, Nostr, and Pancho, as well as the P2P internet movement and the concept of Value 4 Value. → Fiatjaf’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/fiatjaf Sponsors → Voltage: https://voltage.cl...

Joe Consorti is a Bitcoin market analyst who recently wrote a great article called The Time Value of the Lightning Network. In our discussion, we got into the time value of money and how it applies to the Lightning Network, we discussed Lightning banks, and we explored the idea of generating yield on Lightning today, and using things like Taro in the future. → The Time Value of the Lightning Netwo...

Christopher David is the CEO and Founder of Arcade City, a peer-to-peer platform that aims to decentralize ride-sharing and enable a circular Bitcoin economy. In our talk, we spoke about Arcade City’s vision, the issues facing gig economy workers, and why Arcade City decided use Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr to bring their platform to life. → Arcade City: https://arcade.city/ Sponsors → Voltage: h...

John is the CEO and Founder of Zaprite, an invoicing platform that helps anyone get paid in Bitcoin. In our talk, we spoke about how Zaprite’s product works, the challenges keeping people from getting paid in Bitcoin, and the things people really care about when accepting payments: fees, speed, and stability. → Zaprite: https://zaprite.com/ Sponsors → Voltage: https://voltage.cloud?utm_source=kevi...

Nicolas Burtey is the CEO and co-founder of Galoy, an open source banking platform helping communities of any size adopt Bitcoin. In our talk, we spoke about Galoy’s latest release called Stablesats, we talked about the future of stablecoins and Bitcoin banks, and Nicolas shared some updates on the latest in El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption. → Galoy: https://galoy.io/ → Adopting Bitcoin Conference:...

Randy Naar is a software engineer at Blockstream, working on getting assets on the Liquid side chain. In our talk, we spoke about what Liquid is, how it works, Liquid Network usage today, and the applications that asset issuers might want to use Liquid for in the future. → Liquid: https://blockstream.com/liquid/ Sponsors → Voltage: https://voltage.cloud?utm_source=kevinrooke&utm_medium=Youtube...

Paolo Ardoino and Mathias Buus are the co-founders of Holepunch, a fully encrypted platform for building peer-to-peer applications. Matthias is the CEO, who has been building P2P products for a decade, and Paolo is CSO, along with being the CTO at Tether. In our talk, we spoke about what Holepunch is and how it works, how P2P apps can eliminate the costs and risks of relying on cloud data storage,...

Alan Plus is the founder and CEO of Lightning Network+, a marketplace for getting inbound and outbound liquidity by participating in channel swaps. In our talk, Alan and I spoke about why he built LN+, how the platform works, and their business model, competition, and network effects on Lightning more broadly. → LN+: https://lightningnetwork.plus/ Sponsors → Voltage: https://voltage.cloud?utm_sour...

Christian Decker is a researcher at Blockstream who has been involved in Bitcoin since 2009, and even did his Ph. D dissertation on Bitcoin. In our talk, Christian and I spoke about Blockstream and their Lightning project called Greenlight, we discussed Lightning scalability, and we even got into things like channel factories, liquidity ads, peerswap, and more. → Blockstream: https://blockstream.c...

Gigi is a pseudonymous Bitcoin developer and author and is full of compelling ideas about Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. In our talk, Gigi explained how ad-funded business models on the internet are broken, how value for value can offer a solution, and his views on paywalls, micro-payments, and freedom in the information age. → Gigi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dergigi → The Freedom of Valu...

Udi Wertheimer is a developer by trade, and one of the most thought-provoking and controversial figures on Bitcoin Twitter. We’ve had a few back-and-forths on Lightning adoption on Twitter, so I wanted to do a full episode. In our talk, Udi explained his views on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, the value of stablecoins, as well as the Metaverse, Web3, Web5, and tribalism in crypto. → Udi’s Twit...

William Casarin is a Bitcoin and Lightning developer working on a new project called Damus, built on the Nostr protocol. We had a technical discussion where William explained why he sees the Lightning Network as a communications layer for the Bitcoin economy, the ways the internet may evolve over time, and William’s work on LNLink, Nostr, and Damus. → Damus: https://damus.io/ Sponsors → Voltage: h...

Max Webster is the founder of Hivemind Ventures, an early stage fund investing in Bitcoin startups building on the Lightning Network. In our conversation, Max explained why he’s investing in Lightning Network startups today, we explored the business opportunities for Lightning nodes, liquidity marketplaces, and emerging payment apps, and we got into startup valuations, identifying strong founders,...

Jared Nusinoff is the founder and CEO of Mash, a Lightning powered platform helping anyone on the internet earn more for the content they create. In our conversation, Jared explained how Mash works, how independent creators can benefit from Mash in the same way independent retailers benefit from Shopify or Etsy, and the ways the internet will change when native payments are ubiquitous. → Mash: htt...

Roy Sheinfeld is the co-founder and CEO of Breez, a self-custodial platform for streaming sats to podcasters, accepting payments as a merchant, and sending Bitcoin all on the Lightning Network. In our conversation, Roy shared insight into Breez adoption and the types of users on the app, and we explored the business of supplying liquidity on the Lightning Network. → Breez: https://breez.technology...

Alex Leishman is the founder and CEO of River, a platform for buying Bitcoin that also happens to be one of the largest players on the Lightning Network. In our conversation, Alex explained why River launched their Lightning integration way back in 2019, we explored some of the new use cases Taro could unlock on Lightning, and examined the risk-reward tradeoffs of earning yield on Lightning vs. ot...

Paul Itoi has built two of the most popular Lightning applications to date, Sphinx Chat and Stakwork. These platforms already enable people to chat and earn over the Lightning Network, and Paul’s vision for where these platforms will go next is incredible. In our wide-ranging conversation, Paul and I discussed the concept of earning Bitcoin, how AIs and humans can work together to truly build a wo...

Michael Levin is a Product Manager at Lightning Labs, a company building tools to bring Bitcoin to billions. In our conversation, Michael and I discussed the dual adoption curves of Bitcoin, we explored the entire suite of Lightning Labs products, and we discussed Taro and the future of the Lightning Network. → Lightning Labs: https://lightning.engineering/ → The Dual Adoption Curves of Bitcoin (P...

Henrik Skogstrøm is the founder of LN Capital, a company building capital management software for routing nodes. In our conversation, Henrik and I discussed LN Capital’s first product Torq, the challenges routing operators face today, the addressable market for Lightning Network payments, and the skill and capital requirements for being a successful Lightning node operator. → LN Capital: https://l...

Rene Pickhardt is an independent researcher working on improving payments on the Lightning Network. In our talk, Rene explained his experience doing independent Bitcoin research, how multi-part payments and zero base fees can improve Lightning payments, and some of the limitations of the Lightning Network today. → Rene’s Website: https://ln.rene-pickhardt.de/ Sponsors → Voltage: https://voltage.cl...