Episode 240 is a wide-ranging catch-up that turns into a love letter to “running Bitcoin.” McIntosh and Kenshin swap life updates (including Kenshin’s push to launch a new project and McIntosh’s experiments with ChatGPT/Codex), then McIntosh shares a big workflow win: an automated script that pulls episode data straight from the RSS feed to generate the show’s episode pages—turning a manual, repetitive task into a quick, repeatable process.

From there, the conversation pivots into Bitcoin history and self-sovereignty, using Hal Finney’s famous “Running Bitcoin” post as the jumping-off point. They break down why nodes matter, what it means to run one (including Bitcoin Core vs. Knots, Electrum indexing, and Tor vs. clearnet), and compare their own setups—StartOS, DIY server setups, and newer projects like Nirvati/Yantra. They close with news and notes on Europe’s push toward a digital euro and tightening “travel rule” compliance, plus examples of Bitcoin and decentralized communication tools being used amid censorship and unrest—reinforcing the episode’s core theme: running your own infrastructure is how you reclaim privacy, resilience, and freedom.

Bitcoin Price at Time of Recording

Dec 10th, 2025: $94,180 USD | 80,800 Euro

Block Height at Time of Recording

932,159

News and Resources

Nirvati

Nirvati Gitlab

Music Credits

Joe Martin

Empty Passenger Seat

Website

https://satoshis-plebs.com

Podcasting 2.0 Apps available at http://podcastapps.com and Value4Value information page available here: https://value4value.info

McIntosh can be reached by email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @McIntoshFinTech. His mastodon handle is @[email protected] and his Nostr.  Kenshin can be reached on Twitter at @kenshin_ninja or on Nostr. Kenshin’s email is [email protected]. You can also follow the Satoshi’s Plebs podcast account on Nostr. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

We are looking forward to hearing from you!