Stephan Livera Podcast

Can you retire on Bitcoin savings? What do the numbers look like? Morgen Rochard, Founder and Lead Financial Planner of Origin Wealth Advisers joins me to explain: 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:03) - 4% rule, Bitcoin & FIRE

(04:41) - HODLers vs TradFi allocation

(12:34) - Why you should be conservative with Bitcoin retirement

(20:16) - What if you retire during a Bitcoin bull run?

(22:24) - Sponsors

(24:55) - Should you borrow against your Bitcoin stack?

(31:41) - Where are the fiat financial planners going wrong?

(37:34) - Separating Bitcoin from ‘Crypto’

(40:55) - The shift in sentiment about HODLing Bitcoin

(42:39) - Sponsors

(44:51) - Should you rebalance your Bitcoin allocation?

(49:40) - Estimating currency debasement 

(56:12) - Bitcoin’s CAGR

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The global fertility crisis is on with many western and developed nations below replacement fertility. Joining me to discuss this problem is Daniel Hess (aka @MoreBirths on X). 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro 

(00:54) - How bad is the global fertility crisis?

(04:50) - Implications of low birth rate for future generations

(09:54) - Causes for declining global rate of fertility

(11:53) - Marriages affecting birth rate

(15:38) - Religion affecting birth rate

(17:36) - Fertility rate in the East

(21:28) - The impact of government policies on fertility rate

(25:47) - Sponsors

(27:43) - Urban planning & fertility rates

(32:40) - The impact of welfare state on fertility rates

(36:00) - Taking cues from the fall of Roman empire

(41:16) - Insights from the population curve of South Korea

(45:05) - Sponsors

(47:30) - The ‘3 Child Norm’

(52:57) - The lessons from ‘Baby Boomers’

(55:38) - Recalibrating expectations

(59:13) - The importance of low time preference 

(1:04:00) - Deregulating childcare

(1:14:20) - Outro

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Even as bitcoiners, we can’t deny that there is demand for ‘stablecoins’ or some kind of stable value feature. Tony Klausing, bitcoin and lightning developer joins me to talk about Stable Channels. This approach to stable value is self custodial, P2P, and bitcoin-native. We talk about the benefits, trade offs and who this would be suitable for. 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro 

(00:51) - Tony’s background 

(03:28) - Opportunity of Stable Channels

(05:46) - Fiat-backed stablecoins Vs. Crypto-backed stablecoins(10:23) - Overview of Stable Channels

(14:17) - Difference between DLCs & Stable Channels

(18:02) - Stable Channels during varying BTC price scenarios

(21:34) - Sponsors

(23:49) - Who are Stable Channels for?

(30:50) - Dual funding & splicing on Stable Channels

(32:24) - How do participants of Stable Channels find each other?

(38:22) - Addressing concerns around Stable Channels 

(41:12) - Sponsors

(42:33) - Possible challenges for Stable Channels

(46:43) - Payments on Stable Channels

(52:07) - Is Stable Channels a ‘Quasi-decentralized exchange’?

(53:57) - Lightning payment vs legacy financial payment

(58:03) - Usability challenges

(1:00:09) - Outro

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Aleksandar Svetski (@SvetskiWrites) rejoins me to talk about his newest book, The Bushido of Bitcoin. We get into a discussion about:

Jörg Guido Hülsmann is a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute, and he rejoins me to discuss his latest book on Abundance, Generosity and the State. Bitcoiners like to spell out a lot of the social and cultural problems in the world today, and Dr Hülsmann is one of the leading lights in showing how fiat currency and government intervention have caused negative outcomes. 

We discuss the way gratuitous benefits come to us in a free market capitalist society, and the many ways government intervention can interrupt this process. Instead of having strong families, communities and private clubs that assist in making our lives better, the state disrupts this process and makes society poorer. 

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Why are some bitcoin blocks empty? Orange Surf from the mempool.space team joins me to explain his recent research report on this topic. We discuss:

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(00:44) - Orange Surf’s research report on empty blocks

(02:02) - Block interval data sets 

(06:25) - What is an empty block?

(08:09) - What causes an empty block to occur?

(11:35) - Nuances of a working of a miner; switching from empty to full block templates

(14:05) - Differences in the empty block performance

(19:01) - Antpool’s internal miner firmware  

(21:30) - Sponsors

(25:00) - Effective management of block templates by mining pools

(34:54) - Ocean's empty blocks

(36:08) - Mining decentralisation and proxy pools

(41:07) - Sponsors

(42:14) - Mining templates & pool payouts

(44:57) - Upcoming mempool features

(49:06) - Outro

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Art Finch is a South African-American Entrepreneur. Art has experience across South Asia and is interested in setting up Free Private Cities or Charter Cities. In this episode he shares his experiences in Bhutan and shares his theories on how Bitcoin and Free Private Cities can work together. 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:28) - Art’s background & his interest in building a Free Private City (FPC)

(10:50) - The need for a Free Private City

(13:11) - A look at Shenzhen as an SEZ

(16:20) - Education in an FPC context

(20:08) - Sponsors

(22:22) - Education in an FPC context (contd.)

(26:11) - Setting up an FPC in Bhutan

(33:56) - Bhutan’s leadership views on the FPC 

(41:41) - Sponsors

(44:00) - Art’s insights on Bhutan & Bitcoin mining

(46:08) - Potential FPCs in the future

X clips:

07:18 - biggest risk to FPC

08:47 - 10:01 - Bhutan FPC in a nutshell

10:57 - 12:40 - need for FPC

18:08 - 20:08 -  learning/self education, role of schools, start with one node and grow from there - similar to bitcoin

44:08 - 45:59 - Bitcoin progress in Bhutan - mining ops,  

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While many debate the pros and cons of Bitcoin ETFs, joining us for this episode is Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome, doing a directly held Bitcoin ETF in Australia. We chat about the fees, the custody, the ethos, being able to contribute bitcoin or redeem bitcoin, institutional adoption and Bitcoin in Australia. 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(00:53) - Monochrome’s role in bringing Bitcoin ETFs to Australia

(02:48) - Timeline of different Bitcoin ETFs in Australia

(03:58) - Influence of US Spot Bitcoin ETFs on the Australian Bitcoin ETFs

(06:15) - Different types of Australian Bitcoin ETFs and implications for investors

(13:32) - Fee structure of Monochrome (IBTC) Bitcoin ETF 

(19:00) - In-kind vs. Cash-create 

(24:55) - Loans against Bitcoin ETFs in the future?

(29:05) - Buying Bitcoin on an exchange vs buying Bitcoin ETFs

(31:48) - How does Monochrome store its Bitcoin?

(33:37) - Sponsors

(36:49) - Are institutions good for Bitcoin?

(43:07) - Safety in numbers

(46:53) - Bitcoin adoption in Australia compared to USA

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You might have seen my earlier episode with Erick Brimen, CEO of Prospera, here’s the CFO of Prospera discussing the ability to use Bitcoin as a unit of account. We discuss: 

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Tiero of Ark Labs joins me on the show to discuss the latest with Ark. We get into: 

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:37) - What is Ark? ELI5 version

(05:42) - Tradeoffs of scaling payments

(07:41) - Interchangeably using LN & Ark under the hood

(10:52) - Updates on Ark 

(13:57) - What are out-of-round payments?

(17:48) - Trade Offs of out-of-round payments

(19:45) - The fee structure in Ark

(21:39) - Sponsors

(24:15) - Who runs the ASPs?

(28:55) - ‘Congestion control’ with Ark

(33:06) - The role of covenants with Ark

(39:44) - Ark on Liquid

(41:20) - Sponsors

(43:49) - The ideal covenant & its impact on Ark

(48:00) - Thoughts on extreme conservatism on Bitcoin

(52:55) - Way forward with Ark Labs

(56:18) - Opportunities & threats of stablecoins on Ark?

(1:02:39) - NIP46 & building Nostr Connect

(1:06:40) - Summary & closing thoughts 

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