Today's guest is Whit Gibbs, co-founder, and CEO of Compass Mining.

According to their website, "Compass is a Bitcoin-first company, on a mission to support the decentralized growth of hashrate and strengthen network security, by helping more people learn, explore and mine Bitcoin."

In the last couple of years, interest in bitcoin mining has seemingly exploded as the industry has developed and as more and more people begin to understand just how diverse its impact will be and the opportunity that it therefore represents.

Additionally, many individuals are beginning to get involved, not just because of the financial incentives but also because of a desire to contribute to the further decentralization and security of the bitcoin network.

Whit and his team have obviously struck a nerve with the market, and you really get the sense that they are developing a platform that will create many more opportunities in the not-so-distant future.

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Today's guest on Closing the Loop is Roy Sheinfeld. Roy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Breez, a mobile app that aspires to be 'The interface of the peer to peer lightning economy.'

Roy and his team have taken a nascent, though still largely intimidating technology and abstracted away much of the complexity so that the average user can begin to interact with it and leverage the tremendous value which the lightning network increasingly represents.

Podcasting 2.0, and the value for value model, are important focuses for us here at Closing the Loop, and Breez has been instrumental at making it easy for users to engage this emerging method of content consumption, and for that, we're very grateful.

For full disclosure, Seetee has been so impressed by what Roy and his team are doing that we've recently made an investment in Breez to facilitate the continuation of their amazing work.

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Today's guest on Closing the Loop is Daniel Buchner. Daniel is the Senior Product Manager for Decentralized Identity at Microsoft, which in March of 2021 culminated in the launch of ION.

ION is an open, public, permissionless Layer 2 Decentralized Identifier network that runs atop the Bitcoin timechain.

As life becomes increasingly digital and concerns around privacy and control of personal data become increasingly important, we thought it would be interesting to speak with Daniel to see how he and the team at ION are leveraging bitcoin's unique attributes to build solutions that put control of data back where it belongs - in the hands of each individual.

If you're listening to this show on a podcasting 2.0 app, thank you for supporting the emerging value for value publishing model. By using one of these apps, you'll be donating to the Human Rights Foundation, as Daniel has graciously directed his streaming sats to the HRF.

If you have any feedback on the show or have any suggestions for future guests, please feel free to reach out and let us know.

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Today's guest is Harry Sudock, VP of Strategy at GRIID, a company that procures low-cost, renewable energy to build, manage, and operate a growing portfolio of vertically-integrated bitcoin mining facilities.

Harry is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about the bitcoin mining industry and extremely dedicated to the cause of Bitcoin generally.

John and Harry discuss the mining ecosystem, the impact he believes it will have on energy companies and markets, and what the implications may be for humanity more broadly.

We would like to invite you to listen to this episode on one of the many Podcasting 2.0 apps that are currently available. Closing the Loop is dedicated to advancing technologies that promote individual sovereignty, and building means of censorship-resistant communications and publishing is a critical component of that. By using a podcasting 2.0 app like Breez Wallet or Sphinx Chat, you stream sats directly to the contributors of this show, in amounts you determine, with no middle man.

For this show, Harry has chosen to opt for a kind of 'reverse sponsorship' by directing his stream of sats to the Human Rights Foundation. As a result, by listening to this podcast in a podcasting 2.0 app, you'll not only be learning about the transformational potential of bitcoin mining, but you'll also be supporting an organization that engages in the tireless work of championing the cause of freedom around the world.

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Paul Itoi is the founder and CEO of Stakwork and has been a tech entrepreneur since the mid-nineties. In his spare time, Paul is also one of the driving forces behind the open-source, lightning-powered chat-app, called Sphinx. As Paul puts it, Stakwork pays the bills, but Sphinx just needed to exist, so they built it.

Unlike most people, Paul's entry into bitcoin was not out of an interest in the investment case or really anything to do with the 'base layer.' Instead, Paul was drawn in by his interest in the Lightning Network, a 2nd layer solution devised to enhance bitcoin's scalability. As you'll hear in this discussion, the Lightning Network greatly expands the utility of bitcoin, and in Paul's view, it will be the impetus for an explosion of innovation that will lead to bitcoin's adoption by billions of people.

One such innovation is the so-called Podcasting 2.0 model, where you can stream sats to the content creators you are listening to. You determine how much you stream, and you only pay for as long as you listen. It's known as the 'value 4 value' model, and it is one method currently being explored to develop a more direct relationship between creator and consumer, mitigating the influence of platform censorship and hopefully diminishing the reliance on the strictly ad-based models that dominate today.

If you'd like to give it a try and stream sats to Paul and John while listening to this episode, you can do so using the Sphinx Chat app, available for download on the App Store and on Desktop. Another great option for doing so is the Breez Wallet, which can be found in the App Store and on Google Play.

For a full list of other apps to explore, visit NewPodcastingApps.com. Thanks in advance for the support, and enjoy the show!

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For the inaugural episode of Closing the Loop, it is a genuine honor to introduce you to a highly respected bitcoiner and dear friend of mine, who goes by the name of Gigi.

Gigi is a father, educator, meme artist, author, philosopher, and someone who is fully committed to serving the bitcoin project and seeing it succeed.

He curates the website bitcoin-resources.com, where much of the top bitcoin content can be found for anyone seeking to get up to speed.

His first book, 21 Lessons, is a fascinating and rich exploration of the many things he has learned from falling down the proverbial 'bitcoin rabbit hole.'

His forthcoming book, 21 Ways, is a highly anticipated work from someone who has come to be considered amongst the most appreciated thinkers in the bitcoin space for the incredible depth of his understanding of the subject and his ability to articulate it in such a digestible yet profound way.

Gigi has committed his mind, body, and soul to bitcoin. As one of my closest friends, I couldn't be happier for the success his dedication and passion have manifested, culminating most recently in his position as lead developer at Seetee.

In this conversation, we discuss what makes Bitcoin so special and some of the motivations behind and plans for this podcast series.

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