Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Andrey Sabelnikov and Valeriy Pisarkov are the core devs of Zano: a privacy network which enables users to create tokens with privacy. The project's mix of Cryptonote and Zarcanum protocols can also enable private transfers of bridged BTC.

In this episode, we talk about how this system works and we inquire about the tradeoffs involved.

Time stamps:
00:01:51 – Introduction & Setting the Record Straight
00:02:51 – Val & Andre’s Backgrounds, CryptoNote Origins
00:03:53 – Problems with Bytecoin & Monero’s Launch
00:05:28 – Zano’s Strategic Directions & AI Security Challenges
00:08:51 – Val’s Role in Zano & Technical Evolution
00:13:45 – Network-Level Privacy Incident
00:19:15 – Proof-of-Work vs. Proof-of-Stake Privacy
00:24:11 – Zano vs. Monero: Not a Fork
00:29:22 – Monero Community Criticism & Scam Allegations
00:40:44 – Boolberry Project & Coin Swap
00:43:36 – Premine & Staking Controversy
00:48:29 – Tribalism & Ideology in Privacy Coins
00:53:21 – Differences Between Boolberry and Zano
00:57:32 – Wallet Support vs. Exchange Listings
01:01:03 – Exchange Listing Challenges & Gateway Addresses
01:04:20 – Gateway Addresses & Hard Fork 6
01:11:52 – Upcoming Roadmap: Proof-of-Stake & Full Chain Membership Proofs
01:17:40 – Bridging Bitcoin & Confidential Assets
01:27:52 – Asset Whitelisting & Stablecoin Risks
01:41:01 – Confidential Layer Bridge & Multi-Party Computation
01:51:21 – Zano’s Scalability, Throughput, and Future Vision
01:59:08 – Full Chain Membership Proofs & Quantum Resistance
02:09:17 – Tech Stack Choices & Adaptability
02:27:07 – Why Be Bullish on Zano?
02:54:48 – DeFi Listings, Gateway Addresses, and Privacy Trade-offs
03:19:59 – Network-Level Privacy, Dandelion, and Mixnets
03:26:46 – VPNs, Network Privacy Tools, and Community Integration
03:44:03 – Personal Stories, Early Computing, and Closing Remarks

Tyler Spalding is a 2011 bitcoiner whose main focus is payments. As the co-founder and former CEO of Flexa, he has a very unique insight on the cryptocurrency industry. This episode was recorded on the road after visiting the Bear Sanctuary in Romania.

00:00:47 – Introduction & Tyler’s Visit to Romania
Tyler discusses his trip to Romania, the bear sanctuary, and his passion for supporting bears globally.

00:04:11 – Background: NASA, Payments, and Early Tech Career
Tyler shares his background in aerospace engineering, work at NASA, and transition into software and payments.

00:10:09 – Discovering Bitcoin & Early Involvement
Tyler recounts learning about Bitcoin in 2011, reading the white paper, and early mining experiences.

00:12:26 – Bitcoin as Payments vs. Store of Value
Tyler explains his initial focus on Bitcoin as a payment system and how his views evolved over time.

00:17:26 – Money, Debt, and the Nature of Currency
Discussion on the historical relationship between money and debt, and how Bitcoin fits into this context.

00:20:44 – Bitcoin as Commodity, Not Money
Tyler argues Bitcoin is more like digital gold than money, and discusses synthetic assets and stablecoins.

00:22:59 – The One Token Dilemma & Use Cases
Exploration of Bitcoin’s dual role as payment and store of value, and the resulting community debates.

00:28:46 – Spending Bitcoin: Early Purchases & Experiences
Tyler shares stories about spending Bitcoin, including buying Cubs World Series tickets and other goods.

00:35:38 – Freedom of Choice & Critique of Maximalism
Tyler advocates for utility maximalism and criticizes toxic Bitcoin maximalism and intolerance toward altcoins.

00:39:25 – Bitcoin’s Usefulness & 21 Million Narrative
Debate on what makes Bitcoin useful, the 21 million supply, and the impact of other crypto projects.

00:41:59 – Altcoins’ Positive Impact on Bitcoin
Tyler explains how Ethereum and other projects have benefited Bitcoin’s growth and adoption.

00:45:38 – Digital Gold Narrative & Custodianship
Discussion on the digital gold narrative, Bitcoin’s slow/expensive transactions, and the rise of custodians.

00:47:42 – Podcast Sponsors & Wallets
Host and Tyler discuss various sponsors, wallets, and services in the crypto ecosystem.

00:55:26 – Use Case Magazine & Documenting Crypto Adoption
Tyler introduces his magazine “Use Case,” which documents real-world crypto use cases and includes a hardware wallet.

01:00:48 – Blocksize Wars: Big Blocks vs. Store of Value
Tyler reflects on the blocksize wars, his initial support for big blocks, and how his views have changed.

01:09:47 – Forked Coins & Handling BCH
Tyler discusses his approach to Bitcoin Cash after the fork and the uncertainty at the time.

01:17:33 – Bitcoin Cash, Scaling, and Miner Dynamics
Analysis of Bitcoin Cash’s technical progress, miner incentives, and its ongoing relevance.

01:23:10 – Multiple Currencies & Historical Parallels
Comparison of today’s crypto landscape to historical periods with many local currencies.

01:27:47 – Bitcoin’s Uniqueness & Market Realities
Debate on whether Bitcoin is truly unique and the challenges of paper Bitcoin and institutional adoption.

01:30:03 – Network Usage vs. Price Focus
Tyler emphasizes the importance of real network usage and adoption over price speculation.

01:31:59 – Crypto Celebrities & Community Engagement
Stories about working with celebrities and community members in crypto promotional campaigns.

01:46:08 – Five Legitimate Altcoins & Decentralization
Tyler lists Ethereum, Zcash, Solana, and others as legitimate projects, and discusses what makes a project a scam.

02:11:55 – Monero, Zano, and Privacy Coins
Discussion of Monero, Zano, and the technical and community differences among privacy coins.

02:20:58 – Current Projects: Flexa, AMP, and Anvil
Tyler describes his ongoing work with Flexa, AMP, and the Anvil DeFi protocol for collateral management.

02:26:05 – Proof of Stake vs. Proof of Work
Tyler explains his preference for proof of stake, its security model, and critiques of Bitcoin’s mining centralization.

02:36:08 – Bitcoin Fork Thought Experiment: Privacy & Quantum Resistance
Speculation on forking Zcash with Bitcoin’s UTXO set for privacy and quantum resistance.

02:43:19 – Quantum Threats & Migration Challenges
Discussion on quantum computing risks, migration strategies, and contentious issues around lost coins.

02:51:55 – Lightning Network, Fees, and Network Security
Critique of Lightning Network’s usability, fee model, and long-term security challenges for Bitcoin.

03:03:00 – If Tyler Could Change One Thing: Privacy
Tyler would add privacy to Bitcoin, arguing it’s essential for real-world payments.

03:05:05 – Bitcoin’s Future & Open Source Innovation
Tyler’s outlook on Bitcoin’s next 15 years, open source growth, and the importance of real-world utility.

03:09:48 – How to Use Flexa Today
Practical advice on using Flexa for payments, wallet integrations, and the importance of merchant acceptance.

03:16:36 – Conclusion & Code Word
Wrap-up, thanks, and the code word “urs” (Romanian for bear) for listeners who made it to the end.

Lately, Bruce Fenton has been on fire with his characterization of Bitcoin sellouts who put on suits in order to appeal to institutional investors. Cordially, these people are referred to as ”suitcoiners” -- and in this episode we're roasting them.

Time stamps:

00:01:16 Introducing Bruce Fenton, the Wall Street guy who's turned into a cypherpunk

00:02:04 Bruce Fenton's Journey from Wall Street to Cypherpunk

00:02:36 Tokenization, Ravencoin & Bitcoin Maximalism

00:03:26 Early Bitcoin Ethos of Self-Sovereignty

00:09:53 Hal Finney’s Vision for Bitcoin-Backed Banking

00:11:25 Bruce Fenton's Senate Campaign & Political Disillusionment

00:12:19 Limits of Political Change & The Swamp

00:16:25 Generational Shifts & Aging OGs

00:18:06 Campaign Funding with Bitcoin

00:21:14 Bruce Fenton's Filibuster Record

00:23:06 Video Games & Economics

00:28:42 Bitcoin as MMORPG

00:32:20 Maximalism & Community Schisms

00:40:09 5 Altcoins That Aren't Scams

00:45:51 Attack Vectors & Centralization

00:55:17 Legal Risks & Suppression

01:06:01 Libertarian Martyrs: A Tribute to Irwin Schiff, conviction, and cost of principles

01:09:05 Bitcoin Treasury Companies Critique

01:11:33 ETF Hype & Alienation

01:13:46 Store of Value vs Sound Money

01:28:21 Lightning Network Issues

01:31:31 Decline in Payments

01:32:20 Block Size Wars. Lost Innovation & Brain Drain

01:51:16 Satoshi’s Roundtable History

02:02:45 Satoshi's Roundtable Impact

02:03:50 Moving to Dubai

02:27:07 Libertarianism and UAE

02:38:49 Cypherpunk Revival

02:42:00 Early Bitcoin Resources

02:47:37 Tribalism & Open Source

03:00:11 Closing Thoughts

Moonsettler is a bitconer who adheres to the old school cypherpunk values and believes that the best way ahead is to enable OP_CTV (BIP119) or LNHANCE.

However, the biggest problem is the generalized loss of focus. If last year there seemed to be consensus that Bitcoin needs covenants to improve scalability and bring new use cases, now the landscape is rather gloomy. Even Moonsettler changed his Twitter screen name to Doomsettler, as a reflection on this status quo.

00:01:16 Welcome Moonsettler (Doomsettler)
00:02:40 Delayed Interview and Original eCash Debate
00:03:14 Why eCash (Chaumian Cash) Never Took Off
00:04:00 Criticism of Custodial Scaling Solutions
00:05:14 Bitcoin as Decentralized Chaumian eCash
00:06:13 Fake Austrian Economics and Full Reserve Myths
00:08:32 Loss of "No Trusted Third Parties" Culture
00:09:52 Verifiable Supply vs Historical Fraud
00:13:40 Proof of Liabilities in eCash Mints
00:15:42 Cashu Fraud Proofs and Bug Bounty
00:18:20 Chaumian Blind Signatures Explained
00:24:48 Non-Custodial Credit eCash Ideas
00:30:39 Why Debit eCash Won't Scale Bitcoin
00:36:34 Bitcoin Like Linux – Oppose Custodial Layers
00:37:13 Unlimited Paper Bitcoin vs 21M Cap
00:41:25 Loss of Proof of Keys Culture
00:46:26 Doomsettler Mindset on Bitcoin's Future
01:09:30 Early Exchange Compliance Issues
01:11:37 Satoshi's Peer-to-Peer Vision
01:15:13 Satoshi's OPSEC and Disappearance
01:19:13 Craig Wright Not Satoshi
01:26:05 Libertaria and Frontier Culture
01:28:31 No More Frontiers for Freedom
01:39:21 App Delistings and PWA Debate
01:49:16 Twitter Worse Under Elon Musk
01:55:35 AI Ruining Internet Trust
01:56:33 Introduction to Covenants
01:57:04 Covenant = Unbreakable Promise
02:00:55 History of Covenant Discussions
02:01:29 Permanent Encumbrance FUD Debunked
02:03:38 Control Today via Multisig (No Covenants)
02:07:26 Covenants Don't Break Fungibility
02:08:35 Covenants Reduce Trust in L2
02:11:46 Post-Quantum Covenant Advantages
02:13:46 OP_CTV Explained
02:15:42 Non-Interactive L2 Settlements
02:20:23 Congestion Control with Covenants
02:29:08 Ordinals Drama & OP_CAT Risks
02:31:43 Jeremy Rubin Context
02:33:49 LNHANCE Package (CTV + More)
02:36:51 Why LNHANCE is Conservative
02:44:26 2022 CTV Activation Drama
02:47:27 Curiosity vs Annoyance Motivation
02:49:04 Andreas Antonopoulos FUD Clip
02:51:15 Need for Covenant FUD FAQ
02:53:47 Persistent CTV Critics
03:55:27 Covenant FUD Knowledge Base Need
03:56:26 Steven Roose Support
03:57:40 Covenant Table on Wiki
03:58:56 Isolated Op Code Comparisons Issues
04:00:34 OPCAT vs CTV Preferences
04:01:48 Table Inconsistencies
04:02:19 Ordinals Devs Pushing OPCAT
04:03:26 CTV Strengths and Risks
04:10:22 Ideal Packages (Great Script Restoration)
04:43:24 Pink Floyd "The Wall" Analogy
04:45:49 Citadel Critique
04:49:49 Need for New Frontiers
04:51:56 Disagreeable Societies Preserve Freedom
04:54:56 Special Economic Zones for Renewal
04:57:50 Altcoins as Competition/Experiments
04:59:20 Privacy Coins Driving Response
06:00:34 Monero Privacy & Community
06:04:42 FCMP++ Upgrade
06:05:37 Monero Quantum Roadmap
06:07:16 Quantum Risks to Monero
06:09:47 Zcash Preference & Compatibility
06:11:34 ZK Privacy Advantages
06:13:16 Drivechains & Peg Risks
06:17:45 Spacechains
06:20:31 Quantum Threats to ECDSA
06:26:49 PQ Soft/Hard Fork Debate
06:34:57 Covenants for PQ Vaults
06:38:14 Ark Protocol
06:42:33 Lightning Custodial Risks
06:50:19 BitVM & Optimistic Rollups
06:55:44 Bitcoin Dev Culture Disappointment
07:49:05 Austrian vs Cypherpunk Values
07:53:20 Austrians Dislike Data
07:54:39 Full Reserve Myth
07:55:56 Core Dev Covenant Silence
07:57:32 Core Ignoring Covenants
07:58:22 Floppy's Drunk Posting
08:00:38 Calle's Cashu Story
08:02:02 Privacy Respect & Avoiding Doxing
08:02:29 Floppy's Drunk Tweets
08:03:48 Tolerance for Abusive Behavior
08:04:15 Understanding Non-Engagement with Floppy
08:04:32 Floppy as Builder (Joinstr Plugin)
08:04:57 Luke Dashjr Funding Complaints
08:05:23 Luke's Likability & Hack
08:06:36 Ocean Mining Business Model
08:08:36 Reducing Antpool Hash Dominance
08:08:56 Miner Template Building Debate
08:09:02 Mining Centralization Concerns
09:38:04 9+ Hour Marathon Reflection
09:38:45 Girlfriend & Cat Interruptions
09:39:12 How to Follow Moonsettler
09:39:45 Moonsettler's Twitter Content Focus
09:40:38 Shoutout to SimulXXX (CTV Advocate)
09:41:29 Moonsettler as Crypto Hobbyist
09:42:37 Major Contributions Discussion
09:43:38 Non-Interactive Hardware Wallet Proofs
09:44:36 Sharing Personal Bitcoin Vision
09:45:14 Coldcard Experimental Implementation
10:03:18 Seed Backup Durability & Preference for Burnable Paper Backups
10:04:22 Manual Entropy & Seed Splitting
10:05:01 Early Self-Custody Cheat Sheets
10:05:25 Hardware Wallet Entropy Risks
10:06:30 Dice-Rolled Seeds vs Hardware
10:07:27 2-of-3 Backup Scheme
10:07:59 Crypto Steel Promo
10:08:24 10-Hour Mark, No Bathroom Break
10:08:49 Thanks & Merry Christmas
10:09:41 Next Episode Tease

Alex Chepurnoy is a cryptographer & researcher who famously wrote a Bitcoin client in Haskell in only 3600 lines of code. He is currently working on Ergo, a proof of work blockchain which improves upon Bitcoin's design in order to achieve smart contracts and DeFi. How does it work? Let's find out!

Time stamps:

00:01:11 Introducing Alex Chepurnoy
00:01:51 Alex’s Bitcoin Discovery & Early Development
00:02:37 Namecoin, SmartContract.com, and Cardano Involvement
00:05:15 Satoshi Theories & Code Analysis
00:07:00 Rewriting Bitcoin & Distributed Systems Perspective
00:08:39 Consensus Protocols & Altcoin Proliferation
00:10:20 Bitcoin’s Early Appeal & Peer-to-Peer Motivation
00:14:08 Bitcoin’s Revolutionary Monetary Model
00:15:45 Staying in Crypto: Problems to Solve
00:17:19 Bitcoin as Digital Gold & Smart Contracts
00:21:29 Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Contractual Capabilities
00:23:02 Ergo’s Approach: Contracts & Protocol Upgrades
00:26:56 Namecoin’s History & Technical Innovations
00:31:10 Merged Mining & Sidechain Politics
00:34:35 Early Bitcoin Contributions & BTC Scala Client
00:38:49 Conference Presentations & ZeroJoin
00:41:49 Demurrage, Storage Rent, and Bitcoin Upgrades
00:45:01 NFTs, Inscriptions, and Bitcoin Community Divisions
00:50:10 Hard Forks, Immutability, and Ethereum Classic
00:55:17 Markets, Transaction Fees, and Bitcoin’s Security Budget
00:57:59 Lightning Network Limitations & Off-Chain Cash
01:01:58 Challenging Bitcoin’s Scaling & Off-Chain Solutions
01:06:38 Ergo’s Protocol Design & Civil War Lessons
01:08:25 Ergo’s Innovations for Bitcoin
01:15:38 Quantum Resistance & Hard Fork Challenges
01:19:51 Consensus Cleanup & Upgrade Difficulties
01:23:10 Community Proposals & Development Gridlock
01:25:07 Alex’s Tech Stack & Personal Devices
01:31:07 Satoshi’s Identity & Coding Style
01:38:34 NXT, Bitcoin 2.0, and Ethereum’s Success
01:45:35 Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake
01:50:44 Philosophy of Proof of Work & Fair Distribution
01:53:09 VCs, Token Dumps, and Proof of Work Revival
01:54:16 Proof of Stake Attacks & Network Resilience
01:59:20 Ergo’s Network Parameters & Smart Contracts
02:21:17 Privacy Features: Mixers & Stealth Addresses
02:28:40 Monetary Policy, Emission, and Pre-mine
02:34:09 Monero vs. Zcash: Community & Funding
02:48:03 Bridging Blockchains & Rosen Bridge
02:51:04 Peer-to-Peer Finance & Smart Contract Design
02:53:57 Future Vision: Interconnected PoW Blockchains
02:56:41 Double Merged Mining Sidechains
03:17:45 Community Resources & Getting Involved
03:20:11 Conclusion & Final Thoughts