Stephan Livera Podcast Archiv

I recently spoke at Bitcoin Seoul 2024 and here are some interviews with some of the speakers:

Calvin Kim on utreexo

Gloria Zhao on Bitcoin Core and mempool

Laolu on Taproot Assets and covenants

Saifedean on Central Banking and tax cattle

Obi Nwosu on Fedi

Jimmy Song on Bitcoin in Korea

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Calvin Kim on importance of Bitcoin conferences

(01:51) - Simplifying Utreexo

(03:31) - What is Utreexod?

(04:51) - Will node providers support Utreexo?

(06:38) - Gloria Zhao on BIP431 (Truc)

(08:15) - Implications of Truc

(12:26) - What is mempool cluster?

(14:08) - P2P encryption on Bitcoin core V27.0

(15:22) - Upcoming developments on Bitcoin core

(18:04) - Sponsors(20:13) - Laolu (Roasbeef) on Taproot assets

(25:29) - LSP Challenges on issuing stablecoins

(28:21) - Views on covenants

(31:51) - Ensuring protocol safety while enabling Opcodes

(34:33) - Saifedean’s views on Bitcoin Seoul 2024

(34:44) - Central Bank behaving like a private organisation

(40:21) - ‘The Keynesian Voodoo’ 

(46:35) - All roads lead to Bitcoin

(48:26) - Sponsors

(50:45) - Latest developments at Fedi with Obi Nwosu

(52:23) - Role of the Fedimint Guardians

(54:40) - Fees on Fedi

(56:18) - Fedi’s Social backup and recovery model

(58:26) - Risks of getting rugged

(1:01:23) - Fedi is trust-reduced

(1:03:11) - Jimmy Song’s views on Bitcoin Seoul 2024

(1:04:18) - Views on Bitcoin’s Technical developments

(1:05:46) - Savings culture among Koreans & role of Bitcoin

(1:09:16) - Outro

Links:

X: x.com/saifedean

Saifedean episode: https://saifedean.com/podcast/222-central-banking-works

X: x.com/glozow

Bitcoin review club:  https://bitcoincore.reviews/

BIP 431: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0431.mediawiki

X: x.com/obi 

Fedi: https://www.fedi.xyz/

X: x.com/roasbeef

Lightning Labs: https://lightning.engineering/

X: https://x.com/kcalvinalvinn

Utreexod beta release: https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev/c/5GyV9af9lv4?pli=1 

X: x.com/jimmysong

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Nomadcapitalist.com/apply

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Walt Smith of cyber.fund joins me to discuss thoughts on MEV and where it may be going on Bitcoin. 

We discuss:

Defining MEV

10 minute block time?

Does it centralise Bitcoin?

Suffering from success

The approach on shitcoins and spam

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro 

(02:02) - Defining MEV

(06:02) - Replace-by-fee (RBF)

(11:01) - Concern regarding miner centralisation 

(18:56) - Growth of private mempool flow & MEV potential?

(24:55) - Are mining pools transparent with fee payouts?

(27:01) - Expressivity on Bitcoin 

(31:21) - Sponsors

(35:24) - Does the 10 minute block time mitigate MEV?

(40:27) - Is Bitcoin more than ‘money’?

(46:05) - Fake L2's on Bitcoin

(51:24) - Does MEV lead to miner centralisation? 

(56:15) - Closing thoughts on MEV

Links:

X: @waltjsmith

X: @cyberFund_

Site: cyber.fund

Article: The Spectre of MEV on Bitcoin

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Silent Payments is a new approach to improving privacy and useability of Bitcoin. Imagine not needing to manually create new addresses? Josibake and Ruben Somsen join me to discuss some of the ins and outs of Silent Payments. We discuss:

Silent Payments overview

Contrast with other techniques such as BIP47 

Light client support

Stopping address re use

Base layer privacy discussion

Links:

X: @josibake

X: @SomsenRuben

BIP: Silent Payments

Tracking progress in Bitcoin Core/libsecp256k1

Informational website from sethforprivacy : Privacy-preserving static addresses for Bitcoin

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:01) - Overview of Silent Payments (SP)

(03:15) - History of the SP idea & contrast with other methods

Add more

(14:36) - Current status of SP development & adoption

(17:49) - Testing light clients for SP

(21:50) - The Silent Payment Experience

(26:31) - Light client support

(31:20) - What is a light client?

(38:05) - Sponsors

(41:16) - Spend Key & Scan Key 

(42:37) - XPUB vs. Silent Payments

(44:42) - Reducing address re-use with SP

(49:29) - Labeling with Silent Payments

(53:14) - Ease of use and compatibility with Lightning 

(57:03) - Overcoming the ‘silver bullet’ mindset

(01:10:50) - Composability with Silent Payments

(01:12:46) - Silent Payments summary

(01:14:06) - Closing Thoughts

Skot joins me to talk about his project to bring affordable, energy efficient, open source mining to home miners. We discuss:

The current state of open source in bitcoin mining

Bitaxe overview

Why do people do this?

Price and how to set one up

Mining pools

Decentralisation

Links:

X: @skot9000

Site: Bitaxe.org

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Nomadcapitalist.com/apply

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Rusty Russell rejoins me on the show to talk about a new idea for a bitcoin soft fork that hopefully avoids some of the ‘horse trading’ dynamic that existed amongst other proposals. Listen in to learn more about the different paradigm that Rusty introduces here, so that developers can build more functionality and efficiency in, hopefully so that more people can use Bitcoin in self-custody. 

Bitcoin Script background

GSR overview

GSR benefits 

What is varops 

Contrast with APO or LNHANCE?

Will it enable shitcoins and spam?

Relevant previous episodes:

SLP565 Great Consensus Clean up, MEVil and LN isn’t dead – Steve Lee and Matt Corallo

SLP573 A Shift in Bitcoin Developer Thought? with Brandon Black (aka reardencode)

Links:

Rusty’s BTC plus plus talk on GSR

https://x.com/rusty_twit 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Dan Gould of the PayJoin Dev Kit (sponsored by Spiral and Opensats) joins me to discuss how Bitcoin privacy could be improved with more PayJoin adoption. What’s more, it might also benefit users in consolidating their wallets or potentially even fee savings. We discuss how this could be integrated into more bitcoin wallets. 

What is a PayJoin?

How it helps privacy

Other benefits in efficiency

Downsides and trade offs

Changes with the v2 PayJoin protocol

PayJoin Directory

Payjoin Dev Kit

Links:

X: @bitgould 

X: @payjoindevkit

Site: PayjoinDevKit.org 

Site: Payjoin.org 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Adam Sullivan, CEO of Core Scientific joins me today as we chat about:

Going through bankruptcy as a Bitcoin miner

Debt financing

Role of capital structure in mining

What makes Core Scientific different?

Centralisation of mining pools

Fee dynamics going forward

2025 outlook on Mining

Links:

X: @_Adam_Sullivan1

Core Scientific: Corescientific.com

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Rapha Zagury, CIO of Swan and Head of Swan Mining rejoins me on the show to talk about a range of topics, from Brazil’s flooding, Bitcoin Mining, Capital Structure, as well as share some insights on speaking to TradFi professionals about Bitcoin. 

Links:

X: @alphaazeta 

Site: Swan.com

Site: Nakamotoportfolio.com

Nakamoto Gauntlet: The Nakamoto Portfolio Gauntlet 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

As you may know, at the recent Bitcoin++ conference, there was a ‘meeting of the minds’ and Brandon Black aka reardencode rejoins me on the show to discuss. We talk about: 

The state of various covenant proposals

What has shifted now in thinking

The promise of Great Script Restoration

Could it have bad side effects? 

Doing good engineering

Links:

X: @reardencode 

Bitcoin++: btcplusplus.dev 

Rusty’s talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSp8918HLnA

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Miljan from Primal joins me to talk about why Bitcoiners should not sleep on Nostr. We chat:

Why he’s bullish on nostr

What the experience is like nowadays

Network effects for creators and devs

Dealing with spam and sybil

Why Openness is the killer feature

Links:

X: @mbraticevic

Site: Primal.net

Miljan’s Nostr npub: npub16c0nh3dnadzqpm76uctf5hqhe2lny344zsmpm6feee9p5rdxaa9q586nvr

Miljan’s Nostr: miljan@primal.net 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Nomadcapitalist.com/apply

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Peruvian Bull, a macro writer and commentator joins me to explain what’s happening with the Japanese economy and how it all ties in with the dollar end game. We discuss: 

The impossible trinity for Japan

Japanese government debt

The global JPY carry trade

The impact on the US financial system

Links:

X: @peruvian_bull

Nostr: npub1xwmyzp64xx03kw9ecd7fzsj3e9dgwah6an0rdng0cc6ux4dswwjs28pyyc

Newsletter: https://substack.com/@peruvianbull

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Parker Lewis of Zaprite rejoins me on the show to discuss recent updates in the space and what’s happening with Zaprite and merchant adoption. 

“Then they fight you” ?

Chilling Effect

Zaprite

Getting Bitcoin Payment Rails Ready

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Why hope should not be lost

Links:

X: @parkeralewis

Site: Zaprite.com 

Get Parker’s Book: thesifhouse.com 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

A lot of people talk about Bitcoin Ossification. Today Steve Lee, Lead @ Spiral rejoins me to expand on why this is the wrong idea. We also talk about the recent situation with bitcoin mining  pool centralisation and what is driving it. 

Links:

X: @moneyball 

AJ Town’s ‘Slow and Steady’ post mentioned: 

Earlier episode also mentioned: SLP433 : v2 P2P Transport Protocol for Bitcoin (BIP324) 

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack

Jeff Booth, author, entrepreneur and founding partner of Ego Death Capital rejoins me on the show to talk about his bitcoin advocacy at various levels: 

Speaking to politicians about bitcoin

The system you give energy to

“Staying and fighting” in Canada vs supporting alternatives e.g. Madeira

‘Coincidental’ attack on Bitcoin? 

Links:

X: @JeffBooth

nostr: npub1s05p3ha7en49dv8429tkk07nnfa9pcwczkf5x5qrdraqshxdje9sq6eyhe

Site: Ego Death Capital

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)

CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Mempool.space

Nomadcapitalist.com/live

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe to Substack