Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Cory Klippsten is the CEO of Swan Bitcoin, the promoter and former adviser of the Sequans BTC treasury, and also a big advocate for bitcoin-only maximalism. In this episode, we catch up on what's been going on over the last year in Bitcoin.

Time stamps:

00:01:59 – The challenges and failures of leveraged Bitcoin equity strategies in the U.S., referencing companies like Sequans, Strike, and Strategy.

00:04:48 – Swan and the relaunch of "Bitcoin Cafe," a daily show that started on Clubhouse and later moved to Twitter.

00:05:48 – Cory introduces his new framework for understanding Bitcoin adoption, inspired by recent government actions, and frames it as a generational fight for monetary independence and freedom.

00:10:41 – Cory outlines Swan’s mission to promote Bitcoin adoption and self-custody, highlighting their "50 Days for Freedom" campaign with reduced fees to encourage participation.

00:14:39 – Cory shares stories from his grandfather’s WWII journal, drawing parallels between maintaining calm and responsibility during wartime and navigating challenging times in Bitcoin.

00:18:56 – Cory responds to a viewer’s question about his compensation for advising Sequans, disclosing that he received stock options and a small cash retainer.

00:22:09 – August 2026 Bitcoin hard forks & their economic impact.

00:29:25 – Cory explains his perspective on Bitcoin’s adoption, describing it as progressing through three sequential S-curves: store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account.

00:30:33 – Cory voices skepticism about the new Bitcoin Development Consortium, particularly regarding the proposal to freeze Satoshi’s coins as part of their funding approach.

00:35:51 – The conversation addresses the increasing corporate and crypto-focused sponsorship of Bitcoin conferences, using the Las Vegas event as an example of this shift.

00:43:21 – Cory reflects on the evolution of Bitcoin content creation, contrasting the high-signal era of 2018 with today’s prevalence of AI-generated, lower-quality material.

01:02:51 – Cory explains Swan’s business model, emphasizing the separation of brokerage and custody to promote self-custody and ensure alignment with user interests.

01:09:26 – Cory discusses Swan’s ongoing educational initiatives, including the Swan Canon learning modules and the release of the "Bitcoin Season" documentary.

Ever since he first received his first bitcoin in 2013, Joël Valenzuela has been on a quest to use free market electronic cash to pay for everything. Today, he is still unbanked and looking for ways to make instant payments without a bank account. He is best known for working for the DASH cryptocurrency project. But over the years, he's collaborated with plenty of other projects (mostly those related with private payments) and he possesses a wealth of knowledge in terms of adoption, everyday use as money, and user experience.

Since Joël practices what he preaches and lives without fiat or banks, he is a bona fide advocate of inconvenience: using ATMs, purchasing gift cards, and trying every workaround that helps him accomplish the mission of never using fiat currencies.

00:00:00 Intro & sponsors: living without banks with Joël Valenzuela
00:02:18 The Vlad Costea handle saga & paying X to keep your name
00:04:20 Where the "Desert Lynx" name actually comes from
00:09:04 Joël's origin story: how Peter Schiff led him to Bitcoin
00:10:16 Growing up on the border & the Mexican peso crisis
00:12:16 First Bitcoin: the Chicago pizza payback of 2013
00:14:27 Silk Road's shutdown & the chaos of the Mt. Gox era
00:18:11 Digital cash vs. hoarding: the sound money mindset
00:20:54 Earning only Bitcoin: barn work, airport rides & Porkfest
00:22:47 Declining a dream political job to go all-in on crypto
00:24:39 The bank drain that made him unbanked for good
00:26:45 Centralization risk & the tyranny of the algorithm
00:31:38 TikTok's eerily accurate (and creepy) surveillance
00:33:32 Sponsor reads & the Cake Wallet Zcash giveaway
00:37:10 Bitcoin to Dash: exploring the whole crypto space
00:41:12 Mike Hearn's "Bitcoin is a failed project" rage quit
00:42:19 Bitcoin's usability failures: the pants & coffee stories
00:46:48 Picking Dash off CoinMarketCap as usable money
00:50:44 Dash founders: Evan Duffield & Amanda B. Johnson
00:55:20 Fluffy Pony, "Dash is trash" & the Miami strip-club drama
00:59:54 Reading the hate comments: the "premine cabal"
01:01:11 Litecoin's alleged inflation bug & Charlie Lee
01:04:07 Did Dash have a premine? The actual definition
01:13:09 Xcoin to Darkcoin to Dash: the name evolution
01:15:32 Master nodes, InstantSend & deterministic finality
01:18:18 The self-funding DAO treasury explained
01:22:01 Max Kaiser, John McAfee & the paid-shill era
01:29:43 What made Satoshi different & the genesis block message
01:33:57 Roger Ver, linear thinking & money as a tool
01:37:39 The 6.15 BTC "generational wealth" meme
01:41:47 BCH Bliss & why small conferences beat the corporate ones
01:46:00 Bitcoin forks: are all these coins really "bitcoins"?
01:50:54 Dash tech history: proof of service & chain locks
01:53:22 Evolution: the enshrined sidechain & DAPI
02:00:24 Adding Zcash-level privacy: the Orchard shielded pool
02:05:17 Orchard vs. Ironwood & the inflation-bug question
02:09:50 Turnstiles: why an inflation bug can't kill Dash
02:11:50 Monero's FCMP++ & why its privacy is "perishable"
02:16:56 Privacy UX, MiCA rules & unshielding to exchanges
02:23:22 Which wallets will support shielded Dash
02:27:34 Umbrel, Lightning & the pain of self-hosting
02:28:44 The for-profit ecosystem & the $15M dev "consortium"
02:34:53 Zcash's comeback: from industry joke to spotlight
02:37:23 Routing around fiat: Thorchain, Maya & DEXes
02:46:59 The number reveal & socializing the giveaway
02:50:02 Privacy as consent, not secrecy
02:51:49 The real challenges of living unbanked
02:58:35 Local AI models & maxing out privacy you don't need
03:04:31 Getting cancelled & how Zooko unblocked Vlad
03:13:03 Demaximizing & the toxic privacy-coin wars
03:21:35 When Zcash nearly built on Monero
03:25:45 Quai Network & transparent "cash-like" privacy
03:32:38 Why Dash focused on payments, not smart contracts
03:36:31 Crypto's consolidation: projects quietly going to zero
03:42:12 XEC, Amaury & bootstrapping off a fork
03:57:47 Monero vs. Zcash: marketing, memes & narratives
04:02:46 Why Joel really lives on crypto: getting real data
04:04:58 "Use it or die": the end of the narrative cycle
04:06:41 The private-equity playbook for buying dying coins
04:11:27 Why Dash is too decentralized to acquire
04:15:49 Which chains get acquired and shut down next
04:24:01 Neptune Cash, Neptune Dash & the first-ever DAT
04:36:57 The Charlie Shrem Dash debit card saga
04:38:46 Tone Vays & other Bitcoiners who dabbled in Dash
04:43:15 Cypherpunk Week Amsterdam & DashCon
04:50:56 Secret Word

S17 E32: Perry E. Metzger on Bitcoin in 2008, Cypherpunk Culture & AI Optimism

Time stamps:

00:00:50 - Introducing Perry E. Metzger

00:03:06 - Perry Metzger's Background

00:06:04 - The Cryptography Mailing List's Origins

00:07:36 - "The Code Breakers" & Early Influences in Cryptography

00:11:19 - The Cypherpunks Era and PGP

00:22:08 - The State of Cryptography in 2008

00:24:20 - Satoshi's Bitcoin Announcement on Metzdowd

00:28:52 - Bitcoin's Key Innovations

00:32:39 - Critique of Proof of Work

00:36:21 - Sponsors

00:40:10 - Scalability and Future Challenges

00:48:41 - Initial Reactions to Bitcoin

00:51:21 - Early Criticisms of Bitcoin from James A. Donald & Ray Dillinger

01:05:16 - Perry's Moderation of the Bitcoin Discussion

01:08:16 - Satoshi's Anonymity and Mailing List Logs

01:11:19 - Perry's Comic Book on Computer Science

01:16:13 - The Metzger Dowdeswell Mailing List Today

01:23:04 - Perry's Interest in AI

01:47:03 - AI Advocacy and Combating "Doomers"

01:49:19 - The Extropy Mailing List

01:51:01 - Conclusion and How to Follow Perry Metzger

Alex Waltz is a prominent Bitcoin historian and film maker, who specializes in digging up information from the first months of Bitcoin's existence. Recently, he launched the ”First Bitcoin Miner” project in order to question whether or not Hal Finney truly was the second mining node on the Bitcoin network.

In this episode, we talk about his work and some geeky facts about Bitcoin's history.

Read Bitcoin: Year One (free download): https://bitcoin-takeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Bitcoin-Year-One-Vlad-Costea-Ani-Comic-Book-Demo.pdf

Read Alex's research: https://1stbitcoinminer.com

Sponsors:

Proudly sponsored by Orangerock.com: Trade Without Limits
Orangerock is the pro trading terminal that fits in your pocket. Perps and spot, instant cross-chain swaps, and a self-custodial wallet. Trade crypto, stocks, and commodities with up to 40x leverage. Your keys, no surveillance.
Get app: https://go.orangerock.com/bitcoin-takeover

Sideshift, the place where you can exchange your stablecoins for unconfiscatable, free market money: https://sideshift.ai

LayerTwo Labs, creators of BIP300 and builders of the Drivechain. Now they're hard forking Bitcoin to create Ecash too: https://ecash.com

Cake Wallet, your privacy-friendly self-custody companion. Enables silent payments, PayJoins & Lightning for Bitcoin. Also supports Monero, Zcash, Zano & more. Available on desktop & mobile: https://cakewallet.com

Time stamps:

00:00:41 Introducing Alex Waltz & His Projects

00:03:34 The Philosophy of Art and Filmmaking

00:05:18 Alex's Research for "First Bitcoin Miner"

00:09:28 The First Bitcoin Miners: Hal Finney vs. Dustin Trammell

00:14:37 Early Bitcoin History and Cypherpunk Involvement

00:21:28 Debating Sergio Lerner's "Patoshi" Research

00:25:39 The Technicals of the Patoshi Pattern

00:37:30 Zcash Giveaway Announcement

00:40:10 The Research Process and Dedication

00:43:11 Analyzing Early Bitcoin Block Times

00:50:35 Explaining the Extra Nonce and Network Halts

01:10:18 Satoshi Was in California?

01:25:49 Why This Research Matters

01:36:18 Feedback and Cinematography

01:49:25 The "Satoshi's Don't Exist" Movie Saga

02:00:41 The Bitcoin Community: Then and Now

02:18:43 The "Knots" Fork Controversy & Moral Panic

02:30:39 The Future of Bitcoin Development

02:34:38 Bitcoin's Use Case: Payments vs. Store of Value

02:46:33 What Is The Point of Bitcoin?

02:56:38 Alex's First Bitcoin Purchase

03:00:38 Early Bitcoin Wallets

03:16:20 Mircea Popescu: A Bitcoin Legend

03:48:07 Growing Up in 90s Romania

04:00:48 Final Message: Take Risks and Build

Martin Matejka is the CEO of Firefish, a company which offers a platform where BTC holders can connect with fiat borrowers in order to achieve the ”never sell your bitcoin” status.

In this episode, we talk about how these BTC-backed loans work, and also pursue a more philosophical conversation about the purpose of Bitcoin and whether or not it's currently achieving it.

Sponsors:

Proudly sponsored by Orangerock.com: Trade Without Limits
Orangerock is the pro trading terminal that fits in your pocket. Perps and spot, instant cross-chain swaps, and a self-custodial wallet. Trade crypto, stocks, and commodities with up to 40x leverage. Your keys, no surveillance.
Get app: https://go.orangerock.com/bitcoin-takeover

Sideshift, the place where you can exchange your stablecoins for unconfiscatable, free market money: https://sideshift.ai

LayerTwo Labs, creators of BIP300 and builders of the Drivechain. Now they're hard forking Bitcoin to create Ecash too: https://ecash.com

Cake Wallet, your privacy-friendly self-custody companion. Enables silent payments, PayJoins & Lightning for Bitcoin. Also supports Monero, Zcash, Zano & more. Available on desktop & mobile: https://cakewallet.com

Time stamps:

00:01:14 Intro & sponsors: meet Martin Matejka of Firefish
00:02:11 "Making Bitcoin lending right this time": BlockFi & Celsius PTSD
00:02:53 How the loan marketplace works in a nutshell
00:03:36 The book: "Bitcoin, the Ultimate Collateral"
00:04:31 Why Bitcoin as collateral vs. digital cash
00:05:17 The Elon Musk playbook: borrow, don't sell
00:06:55 "Once I stopped seeing Bitcoin as an investment, life got better"
00:07:24 Being short fiat: the mortgage mindset
00:08:24 Vlad's pushback: spending fuels the system & miner fees
00:09:35 Liquidation risk & timing loans to the market cycle
00:12:14 Staying safe: 50% LTV and "a machine gun in your hands"
00:13:35 Coming soon: loans with no liquidation mechanism
00:15:17 Why Bitcoin-backed loans are still too expensive
00:16:00 Scaling up: 27,000 users, $160M loans, 4,500 BTC
00:17:05 "Almost as much Bitcoin as the Lightning Network"
00:20:22 Why he founded Firefish: a finance guy's contribution
00:21:38 Firefish explained simply: the marketplace model
00:23:12 The tech: escrow, presigned transactions & DLC-like logic
00:24:41 The "zombie apocalypse" recovery transaction
00:26:06 What's the catch? Avoiding the "trust me bro" mandate
00:28:11 Preventing rehypothecation via Bitcoin itself
00:28:45 How Firefish makes money: the origination fee
00:29:33 Promo code BTCTKVR for 30% lower fees on Firefish
00:30:50 Bitcoin-native DeFi vs. bridging & wrapping
00:32:07 Stablecoins, currencies & US availability
00:34:09 Cypherpunk loan settlement & the dispute mechanism
00:37:37 Why 3-of-3 multisig instead of 2-of-3
00:38:31 Oracles, ephemeral borrower keys & how signing works
00:40:01 Lenders need no keys: "my parents can fund loans"
00:40:32 Beating bonds: outperforming bank deposits & tax-free loans
00:42:37 Zcash giveaway & a seed-phrase security lesson
00:45:30 Sponsors: Bitcoin.com News & Layer 2 Labs drivechains
00:48:01 Debate: is Bitcoin just software that should improve?
00:50:58 Austrian economics & "crashing the central banks"
00:51:32 The paper Bitcoin debate: gold's financialization
00:53:29 Trust minimization, Nick Szabo & God protocols
00:55:10 Covenants & understanding both sides of Bitcoin's civil war
01:00:42 The spam/filtering debate & permissionless transactions
01:02:33 Satoshi's Genesis block message & arbitrary data history
01:06:09 "We're stuck debating spam" — limited supply as core value
01:08:15 The underrated educational value of Bitcoin
01:09:21 Where did the newcomers go? ETFs vs. real adoption
01:10:12 How to make Bitcoin cool again & the FTX taint
01:11:46 Eulogy for Paralelni Polis / Institute of Cryptoanarchy
01:15:44 Grandma's savings destroyed by inflation
01:17:05 The wedding money & the car that never came
01:18:03 Inflation is a much deeper problem than the CPI
01:20:24 The worst thing for Bitcoin: losing its identity
01:21:42 "Do you know what Zcash is?" Privacy vs. fixed supply
01:22:42 Competition & shitcoins: the jealousy analogy
01:23:28 Losing dominance & the Bitcoin Cash profitability metric
01:25:11 Sponsor: SideShift.ai for stablecoin swaps
01:26:11 Why try Firefish today? Rates as low as 5%
01:28:38 Closing thoughts & farewell