The Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show

Join Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan for another wide-ranging discussion on the messy reality in which bitcoin and blockchains intersect real life. Note: We're changing up our distribution as we get ready for our next marathon of growth! subscribe to the show-only subscriber feed today to make sure you don't miss any episodes.On this episode we discuss the significance of a recent, seemingly innocuous letter released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency... The now-completed cycle of corporate adoption as a differentiator to the biggest countries and companies in the world getting involved out of fear their competitors will steal a march on them and more.Shownotes:Caitlin's twitter threadhttps://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1286226852244160512Preston's twitter threadhttps://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1285984029154648064Andreas's talk on Infrastructure Inversionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ca70mCCf2MOriginal PayPal articlehttps://www.coindesk.com/paypal-venmo-to-roll-out-crypto-buying-and-sellingNow-Deleted Twitter Thread on PayPal internal decisionmaking re: Bitcoin buy/sellhttps://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7Cd6geXrYHcJ:https://twitter.com/hodl_american/status/1275231405790728193+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=usCredits:This episode featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine with editing by Jonas and music by Jared Rubens.

In the aftermath of a major Twitter compromise that impacted a broad swathe of the largest, most influential accounts, join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine for a dive into the crazy series of events, what impact it has on bitcoin, decentralization and more.This episode is sponsored by eToro.com and The Internet of Money Volume 3.Email adam@ltbshow.com with questions or commentsPhoto bySara KurfeŸonUnsplash

The episode is sponsored byeToro.comandThe Internet of Money Vol. 3On today's show we're going back to basics.While bitcoin and digital bearer assets in general are an incredibly important technology, the reason they're likely to be important to the future has little to do with the token and everything to do with the context surrounding them: The world we live in every day, where government controlled money is abused for the benefit of the few and to the detriment of the many.* * *"Bitcoin is a way of achieving consensus. And consensus is a way for a bunch of people who may disagree on things to agree to a singular fact that they then execute, so imagine if Congress actually had bipartisan support to unilaterally pass a bill every ten minutes... That's basically what's occurring in Bitcoin.There's nothing more political than money because money affects everything else, and yet Bitcoin works. I think there's a lot of people looking at trying to reform the governance structures of the places that they're in, what they really should be doing is looking at things like Bitcoin and frameworks using blockchains to say "OK, how can we come to consensus over this or that governance issue of which money would be one... But I think the most transformative and phenomenal thing it'll do is, Nakamoto Consensus and then just blockchain governance writ large is a phenomenal way to have self governance.We see these breakdowns and these desires to federate cities and the way decisions are made, [but] maybe rather than turning to a government based political solution, a community based solution using something like a blockchain would be something with a lot greater staying power and impact."- Jonathan MohanTopics:Who is the economy still working for, and who is it not serving?What's wrong with money that makes alternatives attractive?Why and how is Bitcoin disconnected from the current system?What's the value in the US and western Europe compared to the value in less developed parts of the world?What role does speculation play in the story of bitcoin?Bitcoin's been around now for more than ten years.Are we on track to make a difference?What's the normal adoption curve for disruptive or revolutionary technologies?What IS a disruptive or revolutionary technology? Who is bitcoin potentially disrupting?Does being part of the bitcoin community make you politically affiliated, or represent a distinct political viewpoint?Selected excerpts from this week's discussion:"Money, because it's central to markets, which are central to the ways we organize societies is on of the most powerful technological tools that exists. If you then put the control of that technological tool in the hands of a monopolistic entity of any kind, whether that's facebook libra or the US dollar under the federal reserve or whatever else it is, what happens is that that tool can be used to exert power on the way society is governed and on the way resources are allocated in a non-transparent way that is not subject to political correction or adjustment by democratic means.And when you take a tool that's that powerful and take it out of the oversight and control of democratic institutions, then it attracts the kinds of sociopaths who want to control that lever of power and they use it to distort the market in their favor. And that's the really dangerous aspect of money, because it's not simply neutral fuel for an economy or some forms of it are not neutral fuel for the economy. I've talked about this in the past as 'Money is a system of control in addition to its function of medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value.And when it can be used more effectively as a system of control, then it starts losing it's utility as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value because it's power as a system of control is so intoxicating and so overpowering that it erases all other uses of it.And that's exactly what we see. Centralized money is no longer offering useful signaling of value, no longe offering using unit of account measurement, it's not serving as a good store of value and increasingly not as an open, free, highly liquid medium of exchange because it's use as a system of control has overridden all those considerations." -Andreas M. Antonopoulos* * *It seems like the past hundred years and the statements made publicly now and in perpetuity is that dollars will always go down and stocks will always go up. So there are fundamentally two types of Americans, those who have their life savings in dollars and those who have it in stocks. And the crazy thing with stocks, unless you're part of the racket every now and then they completely collapse. So even that's a rigged game.What I like about Bitcoin is it's a way to be a part of neither game. I don't get to insider trade like a congressman, and I also don't have all of my life savings stolen from me because that 3% raise I get every year is completely wiped out by money manipulation.- Jonathan Mohan* * *"This entire experiment and civilization [was] founded on the idea that we have a ladder with rungs on it and a reset button. So you fall down the ladder, you hit the reset button and you can start climbing back up it. And every time the government massively overcorrects or disproportionately gives money out into the ecosystem, they're pulling out a rung from the ladder..."- Jonathan Mohan* * *"Capitalism without the risk of failure, isn't..."- Andreas M. Antonopoulos* * *"One of the most phenomenal things that America did was the idea of bankruptcy. This idea that you could fail and that your family wouldn't be debt slaves to try to repay it. This idea of a serial entrepreneur was kind of invented here because the economic concept of a reset button existed here, and what we're seeing is the death of the reset button and the way they're accomplishing that is by pulling up the rungs of the ladder. So it's a failure on two sides at the same time..."- Jonathan MohanCreditsThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine and Jonathan Mohan. Music provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.Photo byMacau Photo AgencyonUnsplash

On today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! you're invited to join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murpy and special guest Richard Myers for an in-depth look at the past, present and future of 'Mobile Mesh Networking' technology and the open source LOT49 protocol built on top of lightning.Just as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin don't rely on static infrastructure and professional providers, mobile mesh networking allows the creation of inexpensive, high range, low bandwidth and power consumption ad-hoc networks that'll let your phone send text messages or even bitcoin lightning network micro-transactions, even in areas with no coverage.According to Richard, Bitcoin's Lightning is a what's needed to make mobile mesh networks catch on by bootstrapping on top of the payment routing infrastructure."'the Lightning network currently sends payments from A to B to C and then all those intermediate nodes can connect a small fee if the payment is delivered at the end. All we're doing is saying 'Not only [can you send] a payment, but [you can send] a small message. In our case it'd be a SMS message. So you're sending an SMS message along with a Lightning payment from A to B to C to D, and when D receives that message they return proof that it was delivered and that's what flows back through the network. In the Lightning sense, that's your pre-image. It's computed from the message, that's how the nodes are able to collect payment even if they lose touch with the original person who sent it."But the way the Lightning network uses data natively isn't ideal for mobile mesh. The open sourceLot49 protocolis another layer on top of lightning that Richard says is necessary to make it work at scale while using mesh devices as an extremely low-bandwidth TOR-like privacy layer."In many ways we're not making a new protocol, we're literally using lightning.Lot49is custom communication protocol that's optimized for mesh. For example, right now there's a 1300 byte onion that's used to route messages over the internet and that's very important because you lose a lot of privacy' you lose all your privacy' if you were to just send messages over the internet without onion routing.We're sending over more or less a physical TOR network since it's going from node to node, not through a central ISP who can associate who you're trying to pay. We're also doing it over a low bandwidth network, so if you were sending 1300 bytes it may not sound like much in the age of the internet but we're talking about devices that [have a maximum data transmission capacity of] about a kilobyte a minute so that's a significant amount of the bandwidth that you have [tied up just in the web's onion routing]So for example with LOT49, we take out the onion and we use the native routing at the mesh device [level] which is optimized for mesh communications. And there's a few other little changes we make like that in order to reduce the bandwidth by chunking up messages' the ultimate goal is to minimize the lightning protocol overhead so that there is more bandwidth available for data' For things like sending an SMS and as bandwidth increases there may be things like internet protocol'"CreditsThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine and Richard Myers. Music provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash

On today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! you're invited to join Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Stephanie Murpy for an in-depth discussion about the ups and downs, the good and the bad about being your own bank in the modern world of Bitcoin.The episode is sponsored byeToro.comandThe Internet of Money Vol. 3The powerful idea and meme at the core of Bitcoin self-sovereignty is incredibly empowering but has an unspoken element that requires persistent competence and at least for some makes it more trouble than it's worth.As the world reels from the response to COVID-19 and disorder seems the trend on the rise, we discuss how although Bitcoin makes it possible for anyone to be their own bank, who actuallywantsthe constant vigilance and anxiety that goes along with it? And what happens when things go wrong and there's no-one to blame but ourselves?"...There is tremendous luxury in having institutions that at least appear to be stable over some period of time where you don't need to worry about the details of how they work and what happens under failure conditions. That luxury is pretty concentrated in just a few places in the world and at some point you can't afford that luxury of apathy. - Andreas M. Antonopoulos, LTB! #437CreditsThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. Music provided by Jared Rubens, FromEther and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.Photo by Pathdoc on Shutterstock

The rallying cry of the totalitarian is "He farted first", but if both systems have produced similar outcomes, is there much of a difference? Inspired by a recent article inthe Atlantic, in today's wide-ranging discussion the hosts of Let's Talk Bitcoin! dig deeply into the questions of censorship, propaganda and how things are both better and worse than in years past.The episode is sponsored byeToro.comandThe Internet of Money Vol. 3Shownotes:Who are they censoring from and how do we unpack this manipulation?The rallying cry of the totalitarian is always "He farted first"Who gets to decide what is censored?The squeaky wheel of child pornography gets the attention, the much more insidious problem of silencing certain voices, or giving preference to other voices.Propaganda goes hand-in-hand with censorshipPropaganda is harder to detect 'reverse censorship'Private platform curation have the right to moderate which can be interpreted as censorship.You have to choose if you're a publisher or a platformWhat if AT&T listened to your phone calls, sold ads against them and disconnected you whenever you say something that would trouble sponsors?Common carriers vs. publishersFOSTA, SESTA and turning platforms into publishersCrony capitalism will always co-opt governmentThe only way to win is not to playThe only way to not be coopted as a protocol is to have it not be owned by anyone.It may be impossible to be a platform if you're not a protocolInformation overload and compartmentalizationAre the solutions that are being proposed the solution that we need to solve this problem?What kind of side effects does the solution have?It's one thing to say "there are idiots out there who have not developed critical thinking and are easily swayed and we need to fix this" and a whole other thing to say "And that's why only the landed gentry should vote"Do tech companies think they're helping?Benevolent fascism is still fascismThe public school system was never meant for the average person to be able to form their own opinion, "it is for factory men not philosophers"Manufacturing consent with the power to control, censor, frame, set up the base assumptions of belief and then seek to nail them down.A dictatorship of the mind is far more effective than a dictatorship of violence.If Let's Talk Bitcoin! Were on Youtube, we wouldn't be able to say the word Covid-19.Avoiding totalitarian controlsmeans missing opportunities presented by big would-be platforms.Government surveillance vs. private surveillance provided to the governmentWhat we learned from Edward SnowdenDoes China commercialize surveillance?If both systems have produced the same outcome, is there much of a difference between them?A virtual prison campSuppression of information does not translate to changing realityBiblical verses in the blockchain and"A platform puts data out but search is editorialism"Phone numbers, the yellow pages, cocaine and liabilityPrivacy, anonymity and another form of censorshipWe need 30 different words for different kinds of censorshipIs it censorship when private companies do it?Where did the word censorship come from and what words should we be using?"The problem with censorship is not the content, it's the person in which the control is vested"Is this worse because of growing polarization and partisanship?Was the internet free-er when nobody used it?Letters to the editor and platforms that amplifyEven more insidious than censorship are the algorithms choosing what is seen and by who.Geographic boundaries vs. idealogical boundaries and the demise of newspaper monopolies on local discourse5G and Coronavirus: Niche ideas wouldn't propagate if censorship workedThe Streisand effect, reach and survivor biasThe influence that Google's page-rank has on congressional primariesA generational divide in social media management skills and critical thinkingMasks, conspiracy theories and narrative controlManipulating the wisdom of the crowds as manipulating the wisdom of societyCensorship by private forces for profit and by government for state control, and the coalition of the two.Censorship as controlling access to the publishing of information vs. controlling what is amplified vs. how much reach it has.A big difference is visible in implementation of severe consequences for speechThe chilling effect of harsh penalties and being "disappeared" for speechOstracism, state punishment or private corporate consequencesWhat are your favorite words or terms for specific kinds of censorship?Send us an email atadam@ltbshow.comIf you light your brainfarts on fire, is that flaring?CreditsThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin features Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Adam B. Levine. Music provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.Photo by Sebastiaan Stam on Unsplash

Although some believe bitcoin mining is a wasteful activity, on today's show we dig into the relative world of constant fuel production, lumpy demand and bitcoin based load balancing.After years of bitcoin mining domination by china-based miners, some US power producers, both professional and incidental, are beginning to get into the game as a way to be more green. It's a narrative reversal if ever we've seen one and if proven successful by the early players could change the bitcoin mining landscape as we know it.But even without a "Green Bitcoin" narrative in the US, one of China's two major mining advantages has evaporated as Moores Law stretches out the useful lifespan of modern bitcoin miners hardware.Correction: Before installing miners,Greenidge Generationpreviously shut down during off-peak season, during the episode Adam incorrectly stated that it previously shut down during off-peak hours.Today's episode features Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. LevineThis episode features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Today's show is edited by Jonas, and sponsored by eToro.comPhoto byThomas KelleyonUnsplash

On today's show we've got a pair of interviews for you. First we speak withJohn Cantrell, the author ofJuggernaut, a new messaging layer 3 application being built on top of layer 2 lightning network, which is itself built on top of layer one bitcoin.It's a lot of layers, but as a technological concept currently in beta it's a fascinating project, and we talk about it.(Juggernaut on Github)After the break we're joined again byAlex GladsteinofHRF.orgfor a discussion on political expediency in the age of pandemic and what crisis has revealed about various governments, and different types of governments around the world.Alex is one of my favorite returning guests, with his global human rights focused work taking him to some of the most interesting and most oppressed places around the world"What's interesting is that citizen journalists I know in Taiwan have pressed the government on this and they've gone to parliament and it's all on record, and they've said 'Have these (...) digital contact tracing or cell phone surveillance things been useful?' And the governments said "Only in one case.... Only in one case was this sort of mass surveillance approach been useful', so they've actually been honest with the people... But at the end of the day it does teach us that even the most progressive governments are going to be lured by the sirens call of using surveillance to tackle problems." -Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer HRF.orgThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin is sponsored byeToro.comand features content from John Cantrell, Alex Gladstein and Adam B. Levine. Todays show features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats with editing by Jonas. Album Art original photo byGoh Rhy YanonUnsplash

In Today's discussion we'll briefly talk about some of the knock-on, or second order affects which the coronavirus disruption is having on our world today, and which may continue into the future. Then for the meat of the show we'll dig into specific areas where bitcoin could, or perhaps is being improved with the creator of one of the most impactful peer to peer technologies in the world today.Shownotes for LTB! #433Topic 1 - Second Order Impacts of Coronavirus LockdownsSocial distancing and the revenge of the HikikomoriCoronavirus second order effectsIt's an extroverts world but we're all introverts this monthThe AOL moment for Zoom meetings and arguing the potatoInterpersonal compression, zoomers and enforced quality timeWill overall deaths go down because of pandemic lockdowns?The end of "Bus Mode" for Lyft and UberAutonomous vehicles, grocery deliveries and the last mile problemTampons, cocktail sausages and a very weird monthThis episode is sponsored by eToroA friendly government delivery service?Opportunities in sterilization and social changes that'll lastAutomated cleansing cycles and Far-UVCInternet infrastructure, Netflix social signaling and the recycling dilemmaMasks, headphones and the changing standard of social isolationTOPIC 2 - How the creator of BitTorrent thinks he's created a less wasteful, more distributed, more secure approach to Nakamoto ConsensusDecentralized systems and the critical success of BitTorrentNaming projects, vegetables and a list of grainsProof of Space and TimeWarehouses of computers, competitive money burning and Keynesian stimulusProof of Work works and that's a huge accomplishment, but could be betterCentralization, Nakamoto consensus and Proof of StakeMoats and losing the battle with ASIC-hard consensus algorithms"Grinding attacks" as the competitive strategyFundamental economics, storage capacity and the loopholeAirdrops for something over-resourced and under-provisionedLosing money on buying "farming" hardwareThe early days of bitcoin mining with CPUsPower and CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICsHard Drives ,hard drives, hard drives and hard drivesStoring data as proof, but not people's data is like Proof of Work; the work isn't useful, it's just a measuring stick that doesn't need your name or a long term commitmentPrinting lottery tickets with ASICs vs. a hard drive full of bingo cardsProofs of Space need Proofs of TimeLess wasteful by using an underutilized resourceMore distributed because excess hard drive capacity is already distributed and there is no "ASIC" equivalent possible for hard drives. Just better or faster hard drivesMore secure because less wasteful and more distributed equal better security in distributed consensusBreaking, tweaking and proving proofs of time and spaceMiners don't run data centersUTXOs, message passing on-chain programming environments and walking a fine line between Bitcoin and EthereumRate limiting wallets and reversible paper walletsImproving colored coinsDecentralized exchange doesn't need decentralized exchangesFarming, pre-farming, farming rewards and trailing emissionsWhy pre-farm?Is it viable to farm with AWS?Carrying hundred dollar bills and Chia's business model involves loaning Tokens To Large International CompaniesCovenants replicate many banking system benefits without requiring banks or centralizationComplexity, Bitcoin Script and Protocol Level ImprovementsThis episode was sponsored by eToro.com, with music by Jared Rubens, Gurty Beats and Adam B. Levine. Today's show featured Bram Cohen, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine with editing by Jonas.

In the aftermath of the so-called "Black Thursday" crash from several weeks ago, MakerDAO's"DAI" ethereum backed dollar pegged stablecoin came untethered and was, for a time at least, functionally insolvent. In the aftermath, holders of the MKR token which allows holders to participate in governance decisions opted to do a couple of things, including adding the centralized stablecoin USDC to the list of acceptable collateral, which drew both condemnations mostly around centralized risk being added to the system and praise for making the system more robust against sudden ETH collateral price crashes.And now most recently, the Maker Foundation which had held some centralized control over the protocol completed their long-planned exit with all authorities now transferred to the holders of MKR tokens, removing both a point of control which had been used as a safety check and a point of risk in that centralized control can be co-opted and used to disrupt a system as we've seen in other examples.On today's show we're digging into:What is Decentralized Finance (DeFi)?How does decentralized finance differ from traditional banking?Fractional reserve vs over-collateralized loansLiberty Dollars's missing collateral and USDC's risky nameMakerDAO, DAI dollar-pegged stablecoins and how this DeFi stablecoin actually worksSDAI (Single Collateral DAI) vs. DAI (Multi Collateral DAI)Smart contract 'vaults'Lending money to yourself: 150%, 300%, insurance and auctionsWhat happened on 'Black Thursday' as the price of Ether dropped more than 50%What happened when transaction fees went through the roofA bug in the collateral auction smart contractA surprising crash: as the system became functionally insolvent the price of the dollar pegged stablecoin actually went up.Oasis.app vaults are transparent and pretty interesting,take a look!Loaning yourself money using your ether (at interest)How MakerDAO's approach differs from SALT LendingThe other half of the DAI system: saving vault smart contractsDAI Saving Rate (DSR) and the new certificate of depositThe reward for using MKR tokens to administer a good systemCan savings vaults be liquidated?Smart contract risks, consensus risks, systemic risks and response time risksSponsors:eToro.comandPurse.ioWhat specifically went wrong with the auction smart contracts?Recapitalizing the system by diluting MKR governance stakeholdersEven with bugs, market mechanisms to fill the solvency hole seemed to work better than government bailout equivalents.Completing the transition from foundation-overseen to full tokenized governance.Decentralization transition - A necessary step or a natural one?Single collateral vs. Multi-collateral stablecoinsWhy would a decentralized stablecoin want to allow a centralized stablecoin for collateral?External political risks vs. internal technological risks"Life finds a way" and DeFi's natural circuit breakers (also Mt.GOX)Whats the point of putting USDC in to get DAI out?How does DeFi stablecoin insurance work?A modular ecosystemHow DeFi and traditional finance are similarDeFi vs. 2nd layer protocolsCreditsHosts: Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan & Stephanie MurphySponsors:eToro.comandPurse.ioMusic: Jared Rubens andGurtyBeatsEditing: Jonas

On today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin we're discussing the coming bailout-everything regime in a topicthat's both extremely timely but is also what originally forced many long-term bitcoin enthusiasts to learn about money and become interested in cryptocurrency originally.As much of the world on an almost uniform and bipartisan basis shuts down to slow the spread of COVID19 and prepares to bail out first financial markets and now basically everything that can't work on a fully remote basis, we're talking about crisis, bailouts, the limits of monetary policy and the real possibility that it's not a straw that breaks the back of our money but rather the whole world suddenly jumping on.This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin is sponsored byeToro.comIf you're a skilled audio editor with deep crypto knowledge consider applying for CoinDesk's Deputy Podcasts Editor roleOn this episode we'll discuss:The growing bipartisan and global shutdown then bailout everything movementThe alternative to the bailout path we're onThe inability of even extraordinary monetary policy to resolve these issues and the markets growing cognitive dissonanceThe revival of the "system is breaking and when it does we'll need something new that doesn't share the same problems of being vulnerable to politically expedient over-reactions" narrative that, frankly, drove my initial interest in bitcoin in the first place.And more...Today's episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine.This episode was sponsored by eToro.com and featured music by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

On today's episode we're joined by early investor and entrepreneur David Johnston to discuss:A new "consensus based" alternative to "reserve based", "game theory based", or trusted oracle based StablecoinsThe growing relevance of DeFi even for those who aren't using itJohnston's Law six years later, how far we've come and real reasons for optimism on the decentralized evolution of everything.Further listening:The original panel where Johnston's Law was introduced in 2014Credits for LTB#430- Anything that can be decentralized will be decentralized 6 years laterThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored byPurse.ioandeToro.com.This episode featuredStephanie Murphy,Jonathan Mohan,David Johnstonand Adam B. LevineToday's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Jonas with music provided byJared Rubensand Adam B. LevineWould you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Emailadam@ltbshow.com

Earlier this week theLet's Talk Bitcoin! Showgathered to discuss Coronavirus and its potential impacts or disruptions to the decentralized world of bitcoin.On today's podcast we discussCoronavirusand:The bitcoin mining industry and the slowing rate of hash-rate increases in the run-up to the 2020 halvingSafe haven, uncorrelated and risk asset narratives as the price of bitcoin bounces defies expectationsThe potential for shifts in how society thinks about money in the wake of a highly transmissible global diseasePlus a brief primer on virus families(skip to 13 minutes for blockchain only content if you're already up to speed)Later, we hear from correspondent George Ettinger about the indications of a "Dumb Currency Singularity" taking place at the IRS right now (also presented in full text below).Credits for LTB#429- Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS's Dumb Singularity)This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored byPurse.ioandeToro.com.This episode featuredStephanie Murphy,Andreas M. Antonopoulos, George Ettinger and Adam B. LevineToday's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Adam B. Levine with music provided byJared Rubensand Adam B. LevineWould you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Emailadam@ltbshow.com

The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week theLet's Talk Bitcoin! Showgathered to discuss catalysts and CEOS in the world of blockchain projects, the organizational and organic structures of decentralization and to wonder whether crypto even needs Satoshi-like catalysts now that the fire of blockchain burns bright.Episode Sponsors:Brave.comandeToro.comOn today's podcast we continue the discussion, applying concepts and stories from"The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000's, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins and ambitions.Want more?Catch up on 7 years of Let's Talk Bitcoin!Credits for LTB#428This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored byBrave.comandeToro.com.This episode featuredStephanie Murphy,Andreas M. Antonopoulos,Jonathan Mohanand Adam B. Levine for a hot minute.Today's episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Jonas with music provided byJared Rubens,From Ether Musicandgeneral fuzz.Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Emailadam@ltbshow.com

On Today's Show...With the price of bitcoin headed up again, the idea of blockchains and digital currencies has never been more palatable to the mainstream. We've seen this cycle before, but could this time be different?Episode Credits:This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.ioThis episode featured discussion by Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas. Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.comHave any questions or comments? Email me at adam@ltbshow.com.

On Today's Show...Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss the US tax treatment of "Virtual Currencies" and how scams find a home wherever opportunity exists, at least for a while.This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.ioDuring our first segment, we'll discuss:Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2020: The proposed legislation would exempt capital gains taxes if any individual transaction results in a capital gain of $200 or less. Previous versions of the bill proposed a $600 cap. If passed, it would take effect in the 2020 tax year. Link - H.R. 5635The IRS has a question for you: Tax filers in the U.S. are being asked if At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? Link -IRS Form 1040Yang proposes "Digital Asset Regulation": U.S. Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang wants to Clarify the tax implications of owning, selling, and trading digital assets. Yang says clear policy will allow businesses to invest and innovate in the area without fear of a regulatory shift. Link - Yang 2020Later on, we'll dig into the "why" of scams as we begin a longer conversation on the topic.Three main points on scams:Ponzi schemes thrive in disrupted spaces with uncertainty, poor credentialing, and poorly understood complexityThe crypto currency space has these attributesThe underlying appeal of ponzi scams (and bitcoin) comes from the mythology of redemption, getting something from nothing, the genie in the bottle, etcEpisode Credits:This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.ioPhoto by Fernando Venzano on UnsplashThis episode was produced by AP's Don and Ned. It featured discussion by Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan.Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, From Ether and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas. Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.comHave any questions or comments? Email me at adam@ltbshow.com.

On Today's Show...Andreas answers the burning question' Has he tried haggis? Just kidding' He shares his thoughts on the recently released Libra whitepaper, as part of a permissioned blockchain project spearheaded by Facebook.This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by http://Brave.com/ltb and http://eToro.ltbshow.comYears of jokes about 'œFaceCoin' and 'œZuckBucks' have finally come to life '" sort of. In a previous episode, he talked about how some venture capitalists are monkeying around by downplaying the killer applications of open blockchains in favor of' bananas. Now he makes us wonder whether Libra will even survive to become a production network. Is Silicon Valley coming for banking? Will Libra's challenges have any impact on open public blockchains?This talk took place on June 19th 2019 at the Scottish Blockchain Meetup in Edinburgh, Scotland.Follow Andreas on Twitter: @aantonopAndreas's website: aantonop.com/Andreas's live talks released in podcast formEpisode Credits:Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, with a little narration by Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine, as well as the live crowd and that guy with the great laugh about three quarters through.Original Photo by Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist on UnsplashThis episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by http://Brave.com/ltb and http://eToro.ltbshow.comThis episode featured music by Jared Rubens, Orfan and general fuzz. Production support was provided by Erica and Jessica, with sound editing by Dimitris of Sampi Media.Want to hear more of Andreas's Live talks? Check out new episodes every week on Unscrypted, or just head over to https://aantonop.com .Have any questions or comments? Email me at adam@ltbshow.com.

‚The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show (Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan and Stephanie Murphy) gathered to discuss Lightning Network technology and two innovative approaches at the wallet level which simplify the new-user experience at a tangible, but seemingly minimal cost.This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com and Purse.io.In today's podcast we zero in on the challenge of "Channel Management", an until-recently-mandatory and manually-managed part of connecting to and utilizing the still-nascent Lightning Network.A little context: The way Andreas (someone already using Lightning) sends a payment to Stephanie through Lightning is either through a direct channel to her or through a route of hops that can eventually reach Stephanie.But if a user is brand new to the Lightning network, how do they go about receiving their first payment? - This question has been answered by both ZAP wallet and Phoenix wallet, using different techniques.Mountain Stairs Photo by Joshua Earle on UnsplashLightning Photo by Dominik QN on UnsplashThis episode was produced by James and featured Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan MohanMusic for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and Gurty Beats, with editing by Jonas.Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com

The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, theLet's Talk Bitcoin! Showgathered to discuss decentralization in blockchain projects, the historical context of decentralized organizations, the robustness it conveys but also the difficulties it engenders.Episode Sponsors:Brave.comandeToro.comIn today's episode, we apply concepts and stories from"The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000s, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins, and ambitions.Later, we discuss the similarities betweendecentralized organizations and Buddha's concept of self.Want more?Catch up on 7 years of Let's Talk Bitcoin!Credits for LTB#423This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored byBrave.comandeToro.com.Original Photo byUbaidhulla AdamonUnsplashThis episode featured Adam B. Levine,Stephanie Murphy, andJonathan MohanMusic for today's episode was provided byJared Rubens, andgeneral fuzz, with editing by Jonas.Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Emailadam@ltbshow.com

On Today's Episode...The Let's Talk Bitcoin! show enlisted CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen and early cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox for a conversation on the history, challenges and long term development path of early, formative technologies. which we often hear modern blockchain movements compared against.From the pre-internet days, through the free/open-source movement, Linux successes, and challenges on the desktop, the peer-to-peer movement, cypherpunks, Linux maximalism, fundamentalism as a concept as well as some brief excursions through some history and politics of the time... Later, we'll discuss how AI and lawyers have more in common than you'd think, and what kind of protections we may need as autonomous agents become ubiquitous.Subscribe to the LTB Show Only feed using your favorite serviceiTunes | Google Podcasts | Breaker | PocketCasts | Podbean | RadioPublicCreditsThis episode was sponsored by Purse.io, Brave.com and eToro.comOriginal Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash.This episode featured CoinDesk Reporter Leigh Cuen and Zooko Wilcox.Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas.Have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com