The Bitcoin Standard Podcast

Are the world's most common illnesses caused by insulin resistance? In this episode, Dr Benjamin Bikman joins us to discuss his best-selling book “Why We Get Sick”. He argues that insulin resistance is at the heart of the world's most prevalent diseases and that poor economic incentives have caused scientists to neglect this phenomenon to pursue unproductive avenues of research. Dr Bikman explains how insulin resistance impacts conditions ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer’s and offers practical advice for listeners looking to improve their health. He also shares his views on broader issues such as the health impact of seed oils and sun exposure.

References

• Dr Bikman on Twitter.
• Why We Get Sick on Amazon.
• Alan D. Sokal's hoax submission to journal Social Text: "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity."
• Ontario Premier Doug Ford teaches people how to make cheesecake during Canada's lockdowns.
• Article showing that data supporting the most commonly held theory of Alzheimer’s disease is fabricated.
• The Bitcoin Standard Podcast episode with Nina Teicholz.
• The Bitcoin Standard Podcast episode with P.D. Mangan.
• Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin & Free by Susan Thompson.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

Visit saifedean.com/meat to find out more about Saifedean’s experience following the carnivore diet. 

BTC veteran Matt Odell joins us to share his thoughts on the best ways to use bitcoin. We discuss different bitcoin custody options such as trusting third parties, hardware wallets, multisig, and paper wallets, and the advantages and trade-offs involved. What is the case for staying private on bitcoin, and what are the best tools available? What are the most common risks facing bitcoin holders? Will yield products on bitcoin go away or are they coming back? How do you plan for bitcoin inheritance? And much more!

Resources

• Matt Odell on Twitter
• Matt’s official website with links to his social media and resources.
• Matt discusses Lightning and bitcoin privacy on Episode #21 of Citadel Dispatch.
• Samourai Wallet website. Information about the Whirlpool here.
• Wasabi Wallet website.
• The Bitcoin Standard Podcast episode on bitcoin as “dark money” with Giacomo Zucco.
• Saifedean and Tone Vays call out problems with Celsius’ business model in 2019.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

Should you learn to code? Is coding for everyone? Can learning to code make you more employable? Does the value of coding decline in a world of artificial intelligence? Do intellectual property laws help advance computer engineering or hold it back? In this episode, Saifedean talks to Amjad Masad: CEO of leading coding platform Replit. They discuss how Amjad’s upbringing in Jordan led him into the world of programming, how he started Replit, how it grew from an open source project to a company valued over $1b, teaching millions to code and build powerful products, and why he turned down a $1b acquisition offer in 2019. Amjad also shares the story of how he discovered bitcoin, how he is integrating it into Replit, and why he thinks programmable money is so important.

References

• Amjad on Twitter.
• Replit official website.
• Amjad tweet on turning down $1bn Replit acquisition offer. 
• Lightning Developers Kit referenced by Amjad during conversation.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

How did the CFA franc come to be the common currency of 14 West and Central African nations? Who controls it and why did it suddenly lose half of its value in 1994? In this episode, we are joined by software engineer and founder of Bitcoin Developers Academy, Fodé Diop, for a discussion on the fascinating monetary history of West Africa. Fodé explains how the CFA franc has allowed France to maintain economic dominance in West Africa, how the 1994 devaluation affected his family, and why he is supporting bitcoin adoption as means of empowering Africans and increasing financial inclusion. Fodé also explains the work his is doing to support the development of Lightning applications and his plans for the Africa Bitcoin Conference: the first ever bitcoin and Lightning conference in West Africa.

References

• Fodé on Twitter.
• Bitcoin Developers Academy website.
• The Fodé Diop Radio Show.
• Fighting Monetary Colonialism with Open-Source Code by Alex Gladstein.
• Data on broad money supply growth in Senegal.
• The Mobile Wave by Michael Saylor.
• Open-source Lightning Dev Kit and Bitcoin Dev Kit.
• Africa Bitcoin Conference website (Accra, Dec 7-9).
• Shortbits blog
• Ben Arc Lightning point of sale page on Github.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

In this seminar, learners at saifedean.com discuss the current state of the fiat monetary system as the world experiences the dollar strengthening and other fiat currencies weakening. Regular seminar attendee Nasr El-Hadi discusses the history and the current state of the Libyan monetary system, where the central bank has split into two central banks each issuing the same currency with a different signature, with hilarious and disastrous consequences. Find out what happens when fiat 'hard forks', and how bitcoin and stablecoins are serving as a lifeline for Libyans who have no functioning monetary or banking system in this incredible adventure in Late Stage Fiat! Nasr El-Hadi is a Libyan bitcoiner living in London, and his twitter is @NasrElhadi.

In this episode, CEO of bitcoin mining company Iris Energy Dan Roberts joins us to discuss whether bitcoin can (and should) help fix renewable energy. Dan explains the problems that intermittent wind and solar energy create for power grids, and how his company works to solve them through bitcoin mining. He and Saifedean discuss whether grids would be better off only using reliable energy sources, how bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment forces miners to become more efficient, and why Iris Energy has chosen to mine bitcoin only. Dan also shares his views on why bitcoin’s game theoretic nature means it is set up to survive and why 51% attacks don’t represent a credible threat to the network’s security.


Resources

• Iris Energy website.
• Iris Energy on Twitter
• Iris Energy on LinkedIn
• Article on recent blackouts with Texas and link to intermittent energy.
• Related episode on the future of bitcoin mining and hydropower with Ben Gagnon.
• Climate-related episodes with Tom Nelson, Alex Epstein and Patrick Moore.
• Article by Jimmy Song explaining why the threat of a 51% attack on bitcoin is overblown.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

Bitcoin educator and investor Giacomo Zucco joins us to explain why he thinks bitcoin cannot be hard money unless it is dark money. We discuss: How dark is bitcoin given that its ledger of transactions is public, and given the recent identification of several hackers through chain analysis? Is bitcoin’s privacy overestimated by bitcoiners? What chance does the average user have at remaining anonymous? Does bitcoin need to be anonymous to remain secure? Can bitcoin survive government attack if most coins’ owners are known to governments?

Resources

• Giacomo on Twitter
• Giacomo’s article on the history of bitcoin as a privacy-focussed project.
• Giacomo’s article on common misconceptions about bitcoin privacy, and why privacy matters.
• For further discussion of the relationship between hard and dark money, see Giacomo’s conversation with Stephan Livera.
• Interview where Giacomo rates the top 20 cryptocurrencies and makes the case that every project that isn’t bitcoin is a scam. 
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Has Saifedean changed his mind on stablecoins? After handling $7b of redemptions in 48 hours, has USDT proven its resilience? Could regulated fiat banks handle this level of redemption? What happens to stablecoins if their adoption continues to grow? Can they replace foreign central banks as dollar providers to the world? Will they become major holders of US Treasuries? How will central banks deal with stablecoins? Are stablecoins a gateway to bitcoin? Can USDT be built on top of bitcoin's lightning network? This seminar hosts one of the leaders in the industry: Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex and Tether to discuss these questions and a lot more on why Bitfinex positions itself as a "bitcoin first" exchange, its goals in Latin America, their work shaping El Salvador's new securities law, and their bitcoin education efforts.

References

• Paolo on Twitter.
• Bitfinex official website.
• Blog post announcing Bitfinex's role in designing a El Salvador securities law.
• Paolo discussion of Bitfinex hack on YouTube.
• Plan ₿ summer school in Lugano.
• Bitfinex Pay
• Article on launch of Tether Mexican Peso.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his new course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

In this episode Saifedean joins Isabel Oakeshott and James Melville for an interview at the Speakeasy Podcast. They discuss why Saifedean decided to write The Bitcoin Standard, his views on the recent bitcoin price dip and the impact of the fiat “magic money tree” on society.

Resources

• The Speakeasy podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard available in 20 languages.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard available in English, Turkish, Spanish and French.
• All of Saifedean’s podcast episodes are available at saifedean.com/podcast
• Saifedean on Twitter.

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his new course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

In this interview with the Practical Islamic Finance podcast, Saifedean discusses Bitcoin from an Islamic perspective, and makes the case for why it is more compatible with Islamic Sharia law than government money. Whereas the creation of government money happens through the creation of interest-bearing debt which is forbidden in Islam, the creation of bitcoin is no different than the creation of a market commodity, with a competitive market for its production. Bitcoin's decentralization makes it uniquely different from all other digital currencies because it makes it a free market commodity, and not a tool that allows its issuer control over its users.

Resources

• Visit saifedean.com/arabic to download The Bitcoin Standard and Arabic language bitcoin materials for free.
• Podcast episode The Problem with Interest with Tarek El Diwany for discussion of riba and decentralization in publishing the Koran.
• Tarek El Diwany’s book The Problem with Interest.
• Podcast episode Islamic Finance and Bitcoin with Safdar Alam for discussion of how modern Islamic Finance “mimics” the fiat system, and is in need for reform.
• Safdar Alam’s Twitter thread on why Islamic banking needs to reform.
• Safdar Alam’s textbook Islamic Banking in Practice.
• Podcast episode Bitcoin: The Most Islamic Form of Money? with Harris Irfan for discussion of why bitcoin could be the most sharia-compliant form of money.
• Harris Irfan’s book Heaven’s Bankers for an exportation of the hidden world of modern Islamic Finance, and blog drawing on its contents.
• Harris Irfan’s article Cryptocurrency and the Future of the Islamic Economy.
• The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier for discussion of failed attempts to change the consensus parameters of bitcoin.
• Keynes: The Man by Murray Rothbard for discussion of the lifestyle and motivations of John Maynard Keynes.
• See chapter “Bitcoin is Halal” of Bitcoin is Venice for discussion of how bitcoin dramatically reduces the need for debt and encourages a financial system strongly aligned to Islamic principles. Also available as standalone article.
• The Practical Islamic Finance Podcast.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard available in 20 languages.
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard available in English, Turkish, Spanish and French.
• All of Saifedean's podcast episodes are available at saifedean.com/podcast
• Saifedean on Twitter.