Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Thursday 6th Dec, 2018
Company: Human Rights Foundation
Role: Chief Strategy Officer

All too often price dominates the discussion with Bitcoin: an ETF approval will be great for the price, we need institutions, when is the next bull run? Also, naysayers criticise Bitcoin when the price crashes, calling it a speculative asset with no utility. Is price a distraction from the potential for Bitcoin?

Right now the use case for Bitcoin is limited for those in the developed world. Sure it is fun to send Bitcoin, perhaps it is easier than using a bank for sending value to someone in another country, but price volatility limits the use case for payments. In the developed world, holding Bitcoin will benefit most if it does become a globally recognised, accepted and used as a form for money. Right now, some would argue the most significant opportunity is in the developed world or with those living in either authoritarian countries or under governments with poor fiscal policies.

A regular criticism of fiat is the ability for governments to print money on demand, leading to inflation and a reduction in the value of the local currency. This has been seen most evidently with the failed socialist policies of two successive Venezuelan presidents.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are an opportunity for people living under these regimes to create and protect value, and trade while reducing their exposure to the risks of their domestic currency.

Other use cases exist, from Bitcoin being used to pay women unable to get bank accounts in Afghanistan to companies using Bitcoin to transact outside of capital controls. The common theme is that cryptocurrencies offer freedom from rules, whether those are state or legacy processes.

In this interview, I talk about why Bitcoin matters for Freedom with Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. We discuss what fundamental human rights are lost under authoritarian regimes, how Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies increase freedom and how Dem Tech (Democracy Tech) could lead to a wave of investment in cryptocurrencies.

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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Tuesday 4th Dec, 2018
Project: Bitcoin :)

Bitcoin is a survivor. In the 10 years of the protocol, Bitcoin has survived the collapse of Mt. Gox, the closing of the Silk Road, the banning of Bitcoin by the Chinese government and relentless attacks from politicians, economists and journalists.

With each attack, the Bitcoin immune system gets stronger, and with each market cycle, the infrastructure grows. In the last two years the network market cap peaked at nearly $300bn, futures have arrived, custody solutions have improved, and Lightning Network is in beta with a rapidly growing capacity.

The potential of the Bitcoin network is enormous, and the Lightning Network offers scale which the base layer has been unable to provide. Together, Bitcoin can be both a global settlement layer for digital gold and a payment network better than the current fiat system.

Vijay Boyapati highlighted the potential with his article The Bullish Case for Bitcoin, making a case for why it is the hardest form of money and the best store of value. In this interview, we discuss the originals of the article, why Bitcoin is so important and why we should be bullish about its future.

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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Sunday 2nd Dec, 2018
Project: VanEck/MVIS
Role: Director, Digital Assets Strategy

The crypto bear market has been felt across the market. From traders to miners, the fall in prices has led many to lose a significant amount of money. The fall in prices has also impacted companies and projects: GigaWatt has filed for bankruptcy, ETCDEV - an Ethereum Classic team has shut down, and many others are facing challenges times.

Institutions have regularly been cited as a potential end to the bear market, yet ICE’s Bakkt has delayed the launch of their Bitcoin settled futures until January 24th ‘19 and the SEC continues to either delay their decision or deny every application for an ETF. Only yesterday, the VanEck application, the remaining open application was delayed until February, the deadline for deciding on the application.

Jay Clayton, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, recently spoke at Consensus: Invest about ETFs, highlighting his and the concerns of others within the SEC. All do not share these concerns, Commissioner Peirce dissented in response to the rejection of the Winklevoss denied application and spoke to The What Bitcoin Did Podcast about her concerns that the SEC is overstepping their mandate, stating “By precluding approval of cryptocurrency-based ETPs for the foreseeable future, the Commission is engaging in merit regulation.”

Gabor Gurbacs, Director, Digital Assets Strategy at VanEck/MVIS shares Hester’s frustration, telling me that America wants a Bitcoin ETF and that A Bitcoin ETF faces a higher bar than other markets. In this interview, we discuss the VanEck application, why market manipulation is not unique to Bitcoin and the unfair standards by which the SEC treats Bitcoin.

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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Friday 30th Nov, 2018
Project: Grin
Role: Developer

Outside of the most hardcore Bitcoin maximalists, there are some who respect a minimal number of alternative cryptocurrency projects. My experience in creating this podcast is that you find some who say they are maximalists, but Monero is cool, or that Decred is interesting.

The ability to command respect is usually steeped in a currencies foundation sharing characteristics of Bitcoin:
- An anonymous founder
- A focus on decentralisation
- A monetary policy which does not enrich the founders and developers
- No premine

One such project which has sparked interest is Grin’s implementation of Mimblewimble, a new coin which attempts to solve some of the privacy and scaling issues of Bitcoin.

On August 2nd, 2016, Tom Elvis Jedusor, a contributor to the Bitcoin Wizards IRC channel dropped his whitepaper, describing a blockchain with a radically different approach to transaction construction from Bitcoin. In October 2016, Andrew Poelstra from Blockstream completed his analysis of the whitepaper and dropped a position paper filling in some of the gaps from the original paper to make precise the idea.

In the middle of November, Ignotus Peverell, another anonymous developer, appeared on the same IRC channel with a link to GitHub with an implementation of Mimblewimble, and this is how Grin was born.

Fast forward to today and Grin has launched its fourth testnet and is preparing to launch its mainnet in January of next year.

In this interview I talk with Michael Cordner, aka Yeastplumer, a developer working on the Grin implementation of Mumblewimble, we discuss why Grin is acceptable for some Bitcoiners, their approach to monetary policy and governance, and how to mine Grin.

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute

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If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you

Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneIn | RSS Feed

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