WBD Live in Sydney Pt 1 with Checkmate, Daniel Roberts & Rusty Russell - WBD710

On September 9th What Bitcoin Did hosted a live show in Sydney.
In this first of two podcasts, the guests were the Co-Founder
& Co-CEO of Iris Energy Daniel Roberts, Glassnode’s Lead
On-chain Analyst Checkmate, & the Open Software &
Lightning Network developer Rusty Russell. Across these
interviews, we discussed various topics related to Bitcoin,
including its meaning, its impact on people's thinking, and its
potential to reshape the financial system.


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What Bitcoin Did’s live events are a growing part of our work.
We’ve been incredibly fortunate to host shows across the US and
in the UK. Now, we’ve had the huge honour of hosting a show in
Sydney Australia. It is important to extend our reach into new
geographies, as the number of talented people working in Bitcoin
obviously extends to all corners of the world. But importantly,
each geography has invaluable perspectives.


This show, as with all the live shows, covered a huge amount of
ground. The conversation commenced with Checkmate providing his
views on the meaning of Bitcoin. He described money as time and
saw Bitcoin as a source of hope and an opportunity to think
differently. Further, Checkmate believes that Bitcoin can reshape
our understanding of money and its role in society.


Rusty Russell, a civil engineer turned Bitcoin advocate, shared
his journey from scepticism about finance to working in the
field. He explained that as an engineer, he views the world from
a problem-solving perspective, which differs from the traditional
economic viewpoint. He believes that Bitcoin defies logic for
traditional economists because it is too simple and elegant for
them to understand.


Daniel Roberts and I talked about Iris Energy, a Bitcoin mining
company that supports What Bitcoin Did. Daniel explained Bitcoin
mining’s opportunity in the context of the energy market, and how
Bitcoin mining acts as a demand-side battery allowing miners to
adjust their energy consumption based on market pricing. We
addressed the misconception that Bitcoin miners are exploiting
the energy grid, emphasising that they are part of a functioning
market and contribute to grid stability.


The show also covered many other important topics, including the
value of data to trading Bitcoin, patterns of behaviour in the
Bitcoin market, the Potential of next-generation computing and AI
for Bitcoin mining, the different stages of Bitcoin's
development, and the potential risks and uncertainties associated
with stablecoins. Watch out for the second show which has the
discussion with the equally awesome pairing of Nik Bhatia and
Willy Woo.


Show notes:
https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/wbd-live-in-sydney-pt-1


This episode’s sponsors:
Iris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably
Bitcasino - The Future of Gaming is here
Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet
Wasabi Wallet - Privacy by default
Unchained - Secure your bitcoin with confidence
Orange Pill App - Stack Friends Who Stack Sats