Blockstream Talk

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today, we're speaking with Adam Bilican, CTO, and co-founder of Relai, a platform that enables anyone in Europe to buy and sell Bitcoin within minutes. No need for registration, verification, or deposits. Relai recently began supporting Lightning Network payments via an integration with Blockstream's Greenlight solution. Meaning that Relai didn't need to build or maintain bespoke lightning infrastructure to offer non-custodial Lightning Network services to its hundreds of thousands of users. We talked quite a bit about the process and the benefits as well as the challenges, and what's in the pipeline for Relai in the coming months. As usual, if you found the conversation useful, don't forget to subscribe, and share.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. This week, we're speaking to Andrew Howard and Raúl Velasquez from JAN3. JAN3’s Aqua wallet has received quite a bit of attention. In this conversation, we talked a bit about what sets it apart and why they decided to focus on Tether and Bitcoin, as well as how they managed to streamline layer-2 payments with Liquid and Lightning. We also discussed how Tether in places like Latin America can act as a feeder, introducing more people to Bitcoin. We also covered JAN3 Financial, which helps larger investors make their first foray into Bitcoin and how current market dynamics are providing a tailwind for their conversations with mainstream institutional investors and policymakers from across the globe. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and share this conversation with your network

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk, today we're speaking with Byron Hambly, a developer at Blockstream working on all things Liquid. We talked to Byron about the importance of layer-2s to scaling Bitcoin across the global south. Byron is based in South Africa, so we also checked with him on the current state of Bitcoin adoption in Africa. And what the El Salvador model could mean as a proof of concept across the region. We also discussed trade-offs amongst major layer-2s like Liquid, Fedimint, and Lightning, and the limitations imposed by the blockchain trilemma. As usual, if you found the conversation useful, don't forget to subscribe, and share.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today, we're speaking with long-time Liquid contributor and founder of Vulpem Ventures, Marco Argentieri. Marco is a prolific software engineer and entrepreneur, and is behind a number of Liquid tools and projects, including Marina wallet, T-dex, Fuji Money, and Liquid Taxi. In this episode, we touched on the importance of covenants, and discussed various lBitcoin ayer-2 solutions, like Liquid, Lightning, and Ark. We also discussed what the future holds for Bitcoin and Liquid and how the current Bitcoin narrative of digital gold could evolve going forward. If you found the conversation useful, don't forget to subscribe, and share this conversation with your network.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today's conversation is with the CEO and founder of JAN3, Samson Mow. 2024 is off to a really good start for both of Bitcoin's major layer-2s. Lightning network capacity continues to hover around an all-time high, but Liquid had also really accelerated over the last couple of weeks and months. It looks like it could be on pace to even surpass the Lightning Network in the not too distant future. Samson has been busy meeting with policymakers and central banks from across Latin America, Asia, and Europe. And he's also just released a really slick new wallet called AQUA, a Bitcoin and Tether focused wallet that integrates both of Bitcoin's major layer-2s. We also touched on the new American ETFs and the near-term outlook for mainstream institutional adoption. And as usual, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with your network.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today we're speaking with Lisa Neigut, a Core Lightning developer who also manages a number of Bitcoin educational projects, including Base 58 a Bitcoin protocol school and Bitcoin Plus Plus, a developer focused conference series. This is the third part of a recent Lightning series, following up on conversations with Rusty Russell and Christian Decker. This series is helpful and understanding Greenlight, how Blockstream is working to drive Lightning network adoption on both the user side and the retailer side, but also how Bitcoin's major layer-2s Liquid and Lightning can be used together for an even more powerful product. Enjoy the conversation let us know what you think in the comments below.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk today's conversation is with Christian Decker, a Bitcoin enthusiast, researcher, and developer working on the Lightning Network. Christian is well known for writing one of the world's first PhD thesis is on Bitcoin. Christian runs through a history of Core Lightning, Blockstream's Lightning implementation and Greenlight, Blockstream’s non-custodial solution to lower the Lightning Network entry barrier. Greenlight lets developers outsource node management while still maintaining control of keys, making Lightning more accessible to businesses and apps that are Lightning curious. Enjoy the episode and if you have any questions or thoughts on the Lightning Network reach out with the links below.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today, we're speaking with Rusty Russell about the Lightning Network. Rusty is the lead developer of the open-source Core Lightning project. We covered a lot of ground, including how the Lightning Network is being used on the ground in San Salvador as well as updates on Greenlight and Blockstream Green wallet's recent Lightning integration. As always, if you found the conversation useful, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share.

Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today, we're speaking with Pavlenex and Andrew from BTCPay Server, a self hosted open-source payment processor, that supports free, private, and censorship resistant payments for online and real world Bitcoin transactions.

Recently, BTCPay server was used at the Baltic Honeybadger conference to facilitate Bitcoin payments with merchants at the event. Interestingly, many of these merchants were relatively new to Bitcoin.

In this conversation, we talked about how BTCPay Server offsets Bitcoin's volatility, a key consideration for retail payment applications, how they managed to get merchants comfortable with accepting Bitcoin, the feedback they received, and how projects like this put us a step closer to establishing a circular Bitcoin economy.

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Welcome back to Blockstream Talk. Today we’re speaking to Max Keidun who is building off his experience with Hodl Hodl, a non-custodial trading and lending platform and being one of the main organizers of the Baltic Honeybadger conference to launch his latest project, Debifi.

Like Hodl Hodl, Debifi supports non-custodial Bitcoin lending, but this time with a more institutional focus. This could be big for Bitcoin peer to peer lending market which have historically been long on demand, but kind of skinny on liquidity. We talked about how the higher, cleaner yields in peer to peer markets are starting to catch the eye of mainstream institutional money, why we need to bring back Bitcoin's honey badger branding and how Liquid and Lightning can support growth in Bitcoin lending market.

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