Stephan Livera Podcast

Can you retire on Bitcoin savings? What do the numbers look like? Morgen Rochard, Founder and Lead Financial Planner of Origin Wealth Advisers joins me to explain:  The 4% rule and how to modify it Being conservative in your planning CPI inflation being hard to predict Do you rebalance?  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:03) - 4% rule, Bitcoin & FIRE (04:41) - HODLers vs TradFi allocation (12:34) - Why you should be conservative with Bitcoin retirement (20:16) - What if you retire during a Bitcoin bull run? (22:24) - Sponsors (24:55) - Should you borrow against your Bitcoin stack? (31:41) - Where are the fiat financial planners going wrong? (37:34) - Separating Bitcoin from ‘Crypto’ (40:55) - The shift in sentiment about HODLing Bitcoin (42:39) - Sponsors (44:51) - Should you rebalance your Bitcoin allocation? (49:40) - Estimating currency debasement  (56:12) - Bitcoin’s CAGR Links:  https://bitcoinfinancialadvisorsnetwork.com/does-bitcoin-make-retirement-planning-obsolete/  https://x.com/MorgenRochard  https://www.originwa.com/  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

The global fertility crisis is on with many western and developed nations below replacement fertility. Joining me to discuss this problem is Daniel Hess (aka @MoreBirths on X).  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro  (00:54) - How bad is the global fertility crisis? (04:50) - Implications of low birth rate for future generations (09:54) - Causes for declining global rate of fertility (11:53) - Marriages affecting birth rate (15:38) - Religion affecting birth rate (17:36) - Fertility rate in the East (21:28) - The impact of government policies on fertility rate (25:47) - Sponsors (27:43) - Urban planning & fertility rates (32:40) - The impact of welfare state on fertility rates (36:00) - Taking cues from the fall of Roman empire (41:16) - Insights from the population curve of South Korea (45:05) - Sponsors (47:30) - The ‘3 Child Norm’ (52:57) - The lessons from ‘Baby Boomers’ (55:38) - Recalibrating expectations (59:13) - The importance of low time preference  (1:04:00) - Deregulating childcare (1:14:20) - Outro Links: X.com/@morebirths  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

Even as bitcoiners, we can’t deny that there is demand for ‘stablecoins’ or some kind of stable value feature. Tony Klausing, bitcoin and lightning developer joins me to talk about Stable Channels. This approach to stable value is self custodial, P2P, and bitcoin-native. We talk about the benefits, trade offs and who this would be suitable for.  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro  (00:51) - Tony’s background  (03:28) - Opportunity of Stable Channels (05:46) - Fiat-backed stablecoins Vs. Crypto-backed stablecoins(10:23) - Overview of Stable Channels (14:17) - Difference between DLCs & Stable Channels (18:02) - Stable Channels during varying BTC price scenarios (21:34) - Sponsors (23:49) - Who are Stable Channels for? (30:50) - Dual funding & splicing on Stable Channels (32:24) - How do participants of Stable Channels find each other? (38:22) - Addressing concerns around Stable Channels  (41:12) - Sponsors (42:33) - Possible challenges for Stable Channels (46:43) - Payments on Stable Channels (52:07) - Is Stable Channels a ‘Quasi-decentralized exchange’? (53:57) - Lightning payment vs legacy financial payment (58:03) - Usability challenges (1:00:09) - Outro Links: https://x.com/tonklaus  https://stablechannels.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

Aleksandar Svetski (@SvetskiWrites) rejoins me to talk about his newest book, The Bushido of Bitcoin. We get into a discussion about: Anti-egalitarianism Virtues Why Bitcoiners should ‘stop being plebs’ The ascend & descend of civilisations Imbibing warrior culture in Bitcoin The masses and the remnant Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:41) - Who is ‘The Bushido of Bitcoin’ for? (11:13) - The role of legitimate hierarchy (18:14) - The cyclical nature of civilisations (22:21) - Sponsors (25:20) - Choosing to opt out of a nation (30:29) - The pleb culture of Bitcoin (39:00) - Upholding virtues on a Bitcoin standard (42:53) - Sponsors (45:05) - Shaming as a morality check (49:17) - Retaining customs & norms in a new world on Bitcoin (53:17) - The masses and the remnant (59:35) - Natural elites in a free market (1:03:00) - Satlantis - travel & community social network (1:05:54) - Outro Links: https://x.com/SvetskiWrites https://www.bushidoofbitcoin.com/ Sponsors: Swan.com (code LIVERA) http://swan.com/livera CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) http://coinkite.com/ Mempool.space https://mempool.space/ Nomadcapitalist.com/apply https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply Stephan Livera links: Follow me on X: @stephanlivera https://x.com/stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1415720320 Subscribe to Substack: https://stephanlivera.substack.com/

Jörg Guido Hülsmann is a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute, and he rejoins me to discuss his latest book on Abundance, Generosity and the State. Bitcoiners like to spell out a lot of the social and cultural problems in the world today, and Dr Hülsmann is one of the leading lights in showing how fiat currency and government intervention have caused negative outcomes.  We discuss the way gratuitous benefits come to us in a free market capitalist society, and the many ways government intervention can interrupt this process. Instead of having strong families, communities and private clubs that assist in making our lives better, the state disrupts this process and makes society poorer.  Links: https://mises.org/library/book/abundance-generosity-and-state-inquiry-economic-principles  Site: https://guidohulsmann.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

Why are some bitcoin blocks empty? Orange Surf from the mempool.space team joins me to explain his recent research report on this topic. We discuss: Why do empty blocks happen?  Comparing empty block rates across mining pools Firmware and config differences Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:44) - Orange Surf’s research report on empty blocks (02:02) - Block interval data sets  (06:25) - What is an empty block? (08:09) - What causes an empty block to occur? (11:35) - Nuances of a working of a miner; switching from empty to full block templates (14:05) - Differences in the empty block performance (19:01) - Antpool’s internal miner firmware   (21:30) - Sponsors (25:00) - Effective management of block templates by mining pools (34:54) - Ocean's empty blocks (36:08) - Mining decentralisation and proxy pools (41:07) - Sponsors (42:14) - Mining templates & pool payouts (44:57) - Upcoming mempool features (49:06) - Outro Links: Empty Block Report: https://research.mempool.space/empty-block-report/  Pool Reserve: https://orange.surf/pool-reserves/ Enterprise: mempool.space/enterprise Community Sponsors: mempool.space/sponsor  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

Art Finch is a South African-American Entrepreneur. Art has experience across South Asia and is interested in setting up Free Private Cities or Charter Cities. In this episode he shares his experiences in Bhutan and shares his theories on how Bitcoin and Free Private Cities can work together.  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:28) - Art’s background & his interest in building a Free Private City (FPC) (10:50) - The need for a Free Private City (13:11) - A look at Shenzhen as an SEZ (16:20) - Education in an FPC context (20:08) - Sponsors (22:22) - Education in an FPC context (contd.) (26:11) - Setting up an FPC in Bhutan (33:56) - Bhutan’s leadership views on the FPC  (41:41) - Sponsors (44:00) - Art’s insights on Bhutan & Bitcoin mining (46:08) - Potential FPCs in the future X clips: 07:18 - biggest risk to FPC 08:47 - 10:01 - Bhutan FPC in a nutshell 10:57 - 12:40 - need for FPC 18:08 - 20:08 -  learning/self education, role of schools, start with one node and grow from there - similar to bitcoin 44:08 - 45:59 - Bitcoin progress in Bhutan - mining ops,   Links: Article mentioned: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2023/12/15/bhutan-futuristic-city-dragon-king/ Site: https://yungdrung.city/ Free Citadels profile: https://freecitadels.com/profile/art-finch/  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

While many debate the pros and cons of Bitcoin ETFs, joining us for this episode is Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome, doing a directly held Bitcoin ETF in Australia. We chat about the fees, the custody, the ethos, being able to contribute bitcoin or redeem bitcoin, institutional adoption and Bitcoin in Australia.  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (00:53) - Monochrome’s role in bringing Bitcoin ETFs to Australia (02:48) - Timeline of different Bitcoin ETFs in Australia (03:58) - Influence of US Spot Bitcoin ETFs on the Australian Bitcoin ETFs (06:15) - Different types of Australian Bitcoin ETFs and implications for investors (13:32) - Fee structure of Monochrome (IBTC) Bitcoin ETF  (19:00) - In-kind vs. Cash-create  (24:55) - Loans against Bitcoin ETFs in the future? (29:05) - Buying Bitcoin on an exchange vs buying Bitcoin ETFs (31:48) - How does Monochrome store its Bitcoin? (33:37) - Sponsors (36:49) - Are institutions good for Bitcoin? (43:07) - Safety in numbers (46:53) - Bitcoin adoption in Australia compared to USA Links: https://x.com/jeffyew_  https://x.com/Monochromeasset  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

You might have seen my earlier episode with Erick Brimen, CEO of Prospera, here’s the CFO of Prospera discussing the ability to use Bitcoin as a unit of account. We discuss:  Life on Roatan Setting up a business Choose your own regulatory environment ZEDE law situation Bitcoin as unit of account Leaving Canada Timestamps: Links: https://prospera.hn/ https://stephanlivera.com/episode/464/  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

Tiero of Ark Labs joins me on the show to discuss the latest with Ark. We get into:  How Ark has changed since initial proposal clARK - covenant-less ARK Trade offs to make clARK happen Which covenants would help vs what is ideal for Ark Ark on Liquid  Capital requirements and costs Fiatcoins Nostr Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:37) - What is Ark? ELI5 version (05:42) - Tradeoffs of scaling payments (07:41) - Interchangeably using LN & Ark under the hood (10:52) - Updates on Ark  (13:57) - What are out-of-round payments? (17:48) - Trade Offs of out-of-round payments (19:45) - The fee structure in Ark (21:39) - Sponsors (24:15) - Who runs the ASPs? (28:55) - ‘Congestion control’ with Ark (33:06) - The role of covenants with Ark (39:44) - Ark on Liquid (41:20) - Sponsors (43:49) - The ideal covenant & its impact on Ark (48:00) - Thoughts on extreme conservatism on Bitcoin (52:55) - Way forward with Ark Labs (56:18) - Opportunities & threats of stablecoins on Ark? (1:02:39) - NIP46 & building Nostr Connect (1:06:40) - Summary & closing thoughts  Links: https://twitter.com/tierotiero https://arklabs.to/ 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

The bitcoin ‘ossification’ debate continues with a discussion on the key considerations. What makes Bitcoin special? What improvements are necessary to retain sufficient decentralisation, if any?  Vijay Boyapati and Brandon Black (aka reardencode) rejoin me for a special episode to discuss:  What makes Bitcoin special?  Defining ‘ossification’ How many users is ‘enough’?  Unknown unknowns Addressing centralising MEV concerns Soft forks and hard forks Economic nodes and who holds the power Where to from here Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:54) - What makes Bitcoin Special? ft. Vijay (09:37) - Verifiability & decentralisation of Bitcoin ft. Brandon (14:31) - When do we stop ‘changing’ bitcoin? (15:17) - Revisiting the blocksize wars & importance of self sovereignty (20:45) - Libertarian principles of Bitcoin (23:48) - ‘Sufficiently decentralised’ Bitcoin (26:42) - Defining ‘Ossification’ of Bitcoin (30:56) - Sponsors (34:11) - Economic interests in upgrading Bitcoin nodes (43:40) - Bitcoin is a Trojan horse (47:15) - Can we rule out ‘Unknown unknowns'? (50:49) - Concerns over centralising MEV (1:00:17) - Whose chain is it anyway? (1:05:14) - Resisting soft forks and hard forks (1:16:49) - Closing Thoughts Links: X: @real_vijay Bullish Case for Bitcoin: Swan.com/bullish X: @reardencode Prior episodes: Rusty - Great Script Restoration Brandon Black - Are Covenants necessary for Bitcoin TXHASH Steven Roose Matt Corallo and Steve Lee Great Consensus Cleanup 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

NVK of Coinkite rejoins me to talk about attitudes on Bitcoin development and consensus changes. We discuss how “ossification” is commonly thrown around as a term, but maybe there is a better term. “Extreme conservatism”? We talk: What is ossification?  What about bug fixes?  What changes would NVK be interested in?  How many people will use Bitcoin?  What the market is focused on It’s not your chain Links: X: @nvk Bitcoinsecurity.guide coinkite.com Unleashed.chat  Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro  (00:52) - Ossification and gardening  (06:06) - Where are the ossifiers?  (09:03) - Fixing bugs on the Bitcoin protocol  (17:13) - Assessing BIPs & change proposals (23:53) - NVK on Bitcoin as SOV and/or MOE (31:47) - Sponsors (34:58) - “USD is the best shitcoin” (37:32) - The fate of other blockchains (45:41) - Putting Bitcoin on a pedestal? (49:32) - Gresham’s Law in context of Bitcoin (51:34) - Future path for Bitcoin (57:27) - Outro 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

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