Andrew Camilleri, better known as Kukks, is one of the most prolific contributors to BTCPay Server & an advocate for using bitcoin as money. Recently, he started building Bitcoin Layer 2 applications for Ark Labs & believes in conservative improvements.

Time stamps:

(00:00:49) Introduction & Andrew’s Background

(00:01:46) Getting Into Bitcoin & Altcoin Integrations

(00:03:02) Focusing on Bitcoin & Monero Plugin

(00:04:04) BTCPay Plugins & Community

(00:04:22) Bitcoin’s Imperfections & Altcoin Use Cases

(00:04:55) Pessimism & Stagnation in Bitcoin Development

(00:05:16) Introduction to Ark & Its Evolution

(00:06:10) Ark’s Technical Evolution

(00:07:31) Ark’s Impact on Developer Morale

(00:07:36) What is Ark?

(00:09:08) Ark’s Virtual Ledger & Dust Problem

(00:09:59) Off-Chain Payments & User Experience

(00:11:07) Lightning Network vs. Ark

(00:13:21) Custodial Lightning & Ark’s Broader Goals

(00:15:13) Escrow & Multisig Use Cases

(00:16:09) Bitcoin’s Usability & Fee Volatility

(00:16:51) Miners & Second Layer Economics

(00:19:08) Drivechains & Network Fragmentation

(00:21:38) Rollups, ZK Proofs, and Simplicity

(00:25:53) CTV, Musig2, and Soft Forks

(00:28:12) OP_CAT, Collider Script, and Efficiency

(00:32:38) Cost, Privacy, and Coinjoin

(00:36:12) Stablecoins, Payments, and Swapping

(00:38:14) Privacy, TumbleBit, and Ark’s Superiority

(00:41:03) Expiry, Operators, and User Experience

(00:44:14) Becoming an Ark Operator

(00:47:31) Fedimints, Liquid, and Privacy

(00:49:41) Security Against Operator Theft

(00:51:31) HODLing, Expiry, and Automation

(00:53:37) Payment Finality & Pre-Confirmation

(00:57:49) Government Attacks & Decentralization

(01:02:51) Ark’s User Experience & Wallet Integration

(01:05:11) Lightning Interoperability & Partnerships

(01:07:48) Arkade OS & Arcade Script

(01:13:06) Underrated Use Cases: Escrow & Synthetic Assets

(01:18:29) BTCPay Server’s Impact & Bitcoin Payment Adoption

(01:22:23) Speculation, Regulation, and Medium of Exchange

(01:24:20) Litecoin, Extension Blocks, and Privacy

(01:26:01) Coinjoin, Amounts, and Privacy Pools

(01:29:09) Bitcoin Upgrades, CTV, and Developer Frustration

(01:34:27) Soft Fork Politics & Overselling Upgrades

(01:41:53) Payments, Credit Cards, and Onboarding

(01:44:11) Stablecoins, Speculation, and Fiat Mindset

(01:48:48) Taproot Assets, Altcoins, and Control Tokens

(01:52:17) Early Bitcoin Days & Escrow

(01:54:53) Gaming, Digital Money, and Bitcoin Adoption

(01:59:15) Speculative Attack & Fiat Demand

(02:00:01) Supercycle Skepticism & Price Predictions

(02:02:22) Hard Forks, Big Blockers, and Research Value

(02:24:40) NFTs, Ordinals, and Free Market Transactions

(02:36:28) BTCPay Plugins & Comparison to LNBits

(02:43:14) Zero Conf, RBF, and Payment Risks

(02:47:41) Ark’s Future: Liquidity & Decentralization

(02:49:25) Testing Ark & Reference Wallet

(02:51:00) Browser Wars & Internet Evolution

(02:56:26) Scaling Bitcoin Payments & Libra Comparison

(02:58:10) Tipping, Custodial Wallets, and Ark’s SDK

(03:02:12) HODL Culture vs. Spending

(03:06:07) Optimism, Pessimism, and User Adoption

(03:08:13) Lightning’s Complexity & Ark’s Simplicity

(03:11:18) Competition Among Layer 2s

(03:14:13) Ark’s Launch, Operators, and Liquidity

(03:16:08) Ark Operator Incentives & Fee Structure

(03:17:08) Testing, Following, and Final Thoughts