Changing the Tide

Cory Klippsten is CEO and Founder of Swan Bitcoin, a service that allows you to purchase Bitcoin with your bank account. He is also Founder of Bitcoiner Ventures and Bitcoiner Jobs.

Cory and Swan are Changing the Tide by offering educational services that teach people foundational Bitcoiner concepts, from a user interface and experience that encourages buys only and withdrawal to self-custody, all the way to video and audio content via YouTube, Twitter Spaces, and Clubhouse.

He is also connecting like-minded investors through Bitcoiner Ventures and like-minded people to work in the industry via Bitcoiner Jobs.

Links: ​
Cory's Twitter handle: @coryklippsten
Cory's email: [email protected]
Swan's Twitter handle: @SwanBitcoin
Swan's website: https://www.swan.com
Swan Private's website: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/private/
Jon's Swan Force link:
https://www.swanbitcoin.com/joncrabtree

*Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Oscar Merry is a co-founder of Fountain, an app that allows you to create clips of your favorite podcasts and view clips from those you follow.

Oscar and Fountain are Changing the Tide by taking advantage of Podcasting 2.0's value block standard. This allows podcast listeners to stream sats by the minute to their favorite podcasters, or send a one-time sats boost with a message. Check out podcastindex.org for more on Podcasting 2.0.

Thanks to Oscar, Changing the Tide is now available in Fountain, Breez, and other podcasting apps that support value for value!

Links:
Oscar's Twitter handle: @MerryOscar
Fountain's Twitter handle: @fountain_app
Fountain's website: https://fountain.fm

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, medical or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Alejandro de la Torre has an extensive background in Bitcoin mining. He co-founded the mining pool BTC.com, which was later acquired by Bitmain, the maker of the Antminer. For the past 2+ years, he was VP at Poolin, a large Bitcoin mining pool.

Alejandro is Changing the Tide with Proofofwork.energy. He founded this new business just two weeks ago and is committed to decentralizing Bitcoin mining by making it happen in places where it has not yet proliferated. As the remaining supply of Bitcoin to be mined continues to decrease, this is going to help bring greater freedom and prosperity to those areas. It will also help better secure the network by combatting moves by governments that could significantly decrease hashrate, like the recent ban in the summer of 2021 by the People's Republic of China (PRC).

We talk about:
*the mission of Proofofwork.energy
*stories from his time in the PRC at BTC.com, Bitmain, and Poolin
*Alejandro's work coordinating communication with mining pools and Bitcoin Core developers in the lead up to Taproot activation, and how this stemmed from "PTSD" caused by the 2017 blocksize wars
*the benefits of Proof of Work (PoW) versus Proof of Stake (PoS)
*how the PRC came to dominate Bitcoin mining, and how he assisted the "great miner migration" after the mining ban there earlier this year

Links:
Alejandro's Twitter handle: @bitentrepreneur
Proofofwork.energy Twitter handle: @proofofwork_e
Proofofwork.energy website: https://proofofwork.energy/

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, medical or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Fellow Class of 2017 Bitcoiner Conor Okus is part of the founding team that is building out Hello Bitcoin, a series dedicated to being "Your friendly place to learn about Bitcoin." He is also host of Advancing Bitcoin, a podcast related to the 2-day Advancing Bitcoin event in London, featuring developers and designers who are making it easier to onboard new Bitcoiners. His day job is Product Manager at Square Crypto, where he and his team focus specifically on improving the developer experience in Bitcoin via the Lightning Development Kit.

Conor is Changing the Tide by helping guide the building out of ways for developers to choose Lightning features they want to integrate into their Bitcoin wallets. His team is also funding BTCPayServer, Bitcoin Core developers, designers working in the Bitcoin Design Community, and Lightning infrastructure projects. Outside of his 9-5, he is working tirelessly with others to build out educational material (like "Hello Bitcoin") to onboard new people, as well as help decentralize the funding of Bitcoin's and Lightning's open-source development.

We talk about:
*what drew him into Bitcoin
*the ethos of Square Crypto, and Jack Dorsey's desire to build "the native digital currency of the Internet"
*the first three episodes of "Hello Bitcoin," as well as what is coming in the next two
*what he's most excited about over the next couple of years
*how to onboard others to Bitcoin in a way that helps them "get it"

Links:
Conor's Twitter handle: @ConorOkus
Hello Bitcoin Twitter handle: @hello_bitcoin
Hello Bitcoin website: https://hellobitco.in/
Advancing Bitcoin podcast website: https://podcast.advancingbitcoin.com/
Advancing Bitcoin Twitter handle: @advbitcoin
Square Crypto Twitter handle: @sqcrypto
Adopting Bitcoin website: https://adoptingbitcoin.org/

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, medical or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Natalie Brunell (Twitter: @natbrunell) is a former news reporter and anchor, and now the host of Coin Stories Podcast (www.youtube.com/channel/UCru3nlhzHrbgK21x0MdB_eg). Launched just this year, she has interviewed many of the leading voices in Bitcoin. Most of these interviews are regularly seeing tens of thousands of views via YouTube, and good engagement on the podcast platforms. She also launched a course this month with Anthony Pompliano called Bitcoin for Women (btcforwomen.com).

Natalie is Changing the Tide by capturing the origin stories of some of the most influential thinkers and builders in Bitcoin. And spreading the word about Bitcoin with her Emmy-award-winning energy and work ethic, from network news interviews to her very own virtual classroom.

We talk about:
*her recent appearances on local Los Angeles news shows to talk about inflation and money printing, and why that foundational understanding is so important for people to understand Bitcoin
*how she landed interviews with Michael Saylor and Saifedean Ammous as a result of Bitcoin 2021
*her course with Pomp, Bitcoin for Women, and how that came about
*some of the most interesting stories she's learned from her interviews
*and more

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

NVK (Twitter: @nvk) is CEO and Co-Founder of Coinkite (website: www.coinkite.com). The company created COLDCARD Wallet (website: www.coldcard.com), an air-gapped hardware wallet to securely store Bitcoin. It also created OPENDIME (website: www.opendime.com), the first physical bearer instrument to allow you to hold and transfer Bitcoin. Coinkite released the original limited-edition BLOCKCLOCK for Bitcoin's 10-year anniversary, and now offers BLOCKCLOCK mini (www.blockclockmini.com) for sale.

NVK is Changing the Tide by building secure storage and transactional devices for users worldwide. And doing so in the spirit of Bitcoin: transparently, in the open, and making the process of learning about Bitcoin into fun games.

We talk about:
*his early days learning about Bitcoin
*starting Coinkite, including a block explorer and an early version of a Bitcoin bank
*the murky early days: "am I legally allowed to build on this technology?"
*why Mark Cuban and other Cantillionaires don't get it
*Coinkite's design aesthetic and principles, including for OPENDIME and COLDCARD
*launching products into the market as the perfect testing environment
*NVK's sauna maximalism

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, medical or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Mike Jarmuz (Twitter: @MikeJarmuz) is a co-founder of Lightning Ventures (website: https://ltng.ventures/). Its aim is to invest in Bitcoin companies with an emphasis on Lightning Network technology. There is both a fund (website: https://angel.co/i/ArCtj) and a syndicate (website: https://angel.co/s/lightningventures/ld5f4) that accredited investors can join.

Along with Tone Vays, he also also helps run Unconfiscatable, an annual "bitcoin not blockchain" conference in Las Vegas.

Mike is Changing the Tide by supporting entrepreneurs building Bitcoin companies on the rails of the Lightning Network. He is stoked on being a champion of Bitcoin companies bringing freedom and prosperity across the world.

You won't want to miss this show. We talk about:
*Mike's start in the music industry and how it got him interested in investing in private companies
*Mike's big break with two exits in the healthcare industry, and getting into BTC at the same time
*Who were his BTC influences?
*How angel investing can change your life
*How investing in BTC companies whose business models are decoupled from price movement can complement your HODL
*How to get started in angel investing, and with Lightning Ventures
*and more

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Ian Gaines (Twitter @NatureofG) is Media Director at Black Bitcoin Billionaires (Twitter: @BlkBTCBillions). He runs an interview series called Nature of Sovereignty on BBB's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF8ghwxt1DJsh-Z3Opp4InQ.

Some guests he has hosted include:
*Olaoluwa Osuntokun of Lightning Labs
*Former FRB regulator turned Bitcoin educator Charlene Fadirepo
*Paxful CEO Ray Youssef
*Togolese Human Rights Activist Farida Nabourema
*Chief Visionary Officer of Crypto Blockchain Plug Najah Roberts, and
*Robert Breedlove

Ian is Changing the Tide when it comes to highlighting Bitcoin's most innovative game-changers from the Black community. He also wrote a powerful essay called "The Black Case for Bitcoin," which you can read here: https://natureofg.medium.com/the-black-case-for-bitcoin-9e3d75646f4c

We also talked about:
*the recent Black Blockchain Summit in DC, and Najah Roberts's 30-city digital financial revolution tour
*his discovery of Bitcoin as a tool to liberate billions from centralized control
*his compelling thesis on how Black American culture influences world culture, and how mass adoption within the Black community will lead to truly mass adoption worldwide
*the CFA Franc system in West Africa
*where he sees BBB in 2-5 years
*how he would pitch Congresspeople on the fence about Bitcoin

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Kal Kassa (Twitter @KalKassa) runs BitcoinBirr.org, an open-source Bitcoin educational initiative for Ethiopia. He also runs DIDIBold (DIDIBold.com), a branding/tech/marketing company. To strengthen the Bitcoin circular economy, I collaborated with Kal and DIDIBold for this podcast's logo and branding assets.

Kal is Changing the Tide when it comes to onboarding Ethiopians to Bitcoin. He has a goal to onboard 10,000 Ethiopians to a Lightning wallet by September 2022 and is currently at 12% of the goal. He is set to speak on "Bitcoin in the Developing World" at the upcoming Oslo Freedom Forum. Next year, he will also host a Bitcoin conference in Addis Ababa next year.

We also talked about:
*his family's migration to California, moving back to Ethiopia after college, and landing in Austin
*what laid the groundwork for him to become a Bitcoiner
*inflation as Ethiopia's biggest burden, and what Ethiopians are doing to beat it
*Bitcoin as the answer to the inflation problem in Ethiopia
*what people like Neel Kashkari of the Minneapolis Fed misunderstand about how Bitcoin can create new opportunities in places like Ethiopia
*meeting Lightning developers at PlebFi and BitDevs in Austin, including a cool realization about how much sense it makes for @roasbeef to be working on the network
*my Bitcoin journey, which Kal was kind enough to ask about

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**

Jack Everitt (Twitter: @jackeveritt) founded and heads up THNDR Games (Twitter: @THNDRGAMES), a mobile gaming company. Currently, they have two different games in the app stores that allow people in jurisdictions where Bitcoin is legal to play for free, win Bitcoin, and withdraw to a Lightning wallet.

Jack and his company are Changing the Tide when it comes to onboarding people to Bitcoin. Like a Bitcoin faucet, you can win Bitcoin for "free" through his games. And the only investment you make is the time you spend within them. Unlike a Bitcoin faucet, the games are a fun challenge. And they cleverly incorporate current events to educate players on the latest happenings in the space.

We also talked about:
*the two current THNDR Games in the app stores, and the differences between Apple and Google Play in terms of what you can win
*his early start in mobile games + how he got into Bitcoin/Lightning Network
*his focus on branding and why it is important
*being an entrepreneur in the Bitcoin industry, and working with others on Lightning (like the ZEBEDEE crew)
*the growth he's seen in the number of players downloading his games, and where growth has been hottest
*THNDR's upcoming merch drop in the Lightning Store
*what's coming next for THNDR Games

**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**