Stay ConnectedFeaturing analysis and discourse by hosts Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Dr. Stephanie Murphy, Adam B. Levine, and Jonathan Mohan, episodes feature friendly, in-depth discussions and even-handed interviews.
Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly known as Let’s Talk Bitcoin!) is the longest-running English language talk show on the ideas, people and projects surrounding the Bitcoin movement and Cryptocurrency phenomenon.
Copyright: © Adam B. Levine
Ethereum’s London hard fork, also known as EIP 1559, took place on Aug. 5. The backwards-incompatible upgrade reignited community debate over hard forks, soft forks and the best methods – most foolproof, least polarizing – to bring about change to a network.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Jonathan Mohan and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they explore the various ways in which consensus has been reached recently across the two largest protocols. The differences in technology and underlying philosophy means some solutions are more enticing to Ethereum and others to Bitcoin.
Ethereum maintains a so-called “difficulty bomb,” whose fuse is lengthened with every upgrade. If it ever goes off, miners would face exponentially harder work and proportionally diminished rewards, forcing them to switch from the pre-fork chain to the upgraded one. Bitcoin’s equivalent to the difficulty bomb, the User Activated Soft Fork (UASF), accomplishes the same thing by other means. Are these mechanisms the proverbial ‘Chekhov’s Gun,’ inevitably to be used in some later act, or simply empty threats to coerce miners into compliance?
Listen to this episode of “Speaking of Bitcoin” for an in-depth explainer of how wide-spread change occurs across decentralized networks and what changes might be in store for the future.
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This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Jonathan Mohan. It was edited by Jonas, our theme song comes courtesy of Jared Rubens and todays music during the break was Sloth Beats by Gurty Beats. Today's album art features a photo by Anita Jankovic/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin.
Have any questions or comments? Send Adam an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, correspondent George Frankly explores the expertise paradox through the lens of two very different historical figures.
What do 18th century physician Ignaz Semmelweis and professional Donkey Kong player Billy J. Mitchell have in common? The experts were wrong.
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This episode was written, performed and edited by George Frankly with additional production support by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song comes courtesy of Jared Rubens and this episodes album art features a photograph provided by Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin. Have any questions or comments? Send Adam an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
NFTs are emerging as the path from insular crypto community to a breakthrough in mainstream culture. Blockchain technology and pop culture collide to produce new possibilities for the future of art and beyond.
The question is, will NFTs prove to be valuable enough to endure beyond the hype?
“Stoner Cats,” a new animated series featuring top Hollywood talent (and Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin) successfully used a non-fungible token (NFT) sale to leapfrog the financial gatekeepers in Hollywood. With a cast list including Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock and Seth MacFarlane, it is no wonder the campaign raised over $9 million in just a few hours.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan as they pick apart the ”Stoner Cat” ambitious and novel approach to the production of an independent animated series. This project is one example of many in NFTs proving their worth beyond just the art: They are now status symbols, pop culture phenomena and a viable financial tool.
The “Stoner Cats” NFT launch, though eventually fruitful, began with a set of stumbles. As prospective buyers lined up to the launch, Ethereum gas fees quickly skyrocketed and some paid more than five times the price in fees. While the implementation of this kick-starter style of on-chain fundraiser could be improved, “Stoner Cats” proved it was possible.
This episode features Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan. This episode was edited by Jonas, features music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl.
Image credit: StonerCats.com, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender shocked the world. Soon, the dust will settle and catchy headlines will become real, lived experiences for Salvadorans.
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy for a read-through and thoughtful conversation of El Salvador’s bitcoin legislation in full. The hosts discuss the highs and lows of the bill and potential risks to the country, its citizens and bitcoin globally.
Though many had predicted governmental adoption of bitcoin would come, none had predicted it would happen so soon. The rest of the world has watched attentively as El Salvador embarks on a nation-scale trial run of bitcoin as legal tender. This unprecedented circumstance brings an abundance of technical and social challenges.
What will the great successes be with this experiment? Where can it go wrong? And how will the Lightning Network factor in? Most worryingly, will El Salvadore’s trust fund be the world’s biggest honeypot?
The bitcoin bill is set to go in effect in about two months. Will El Salvador be able to address these concerns in time?
Links from the episode:
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
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Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art is based off a photo by Photo by Wilson Edilberto Santana Suarez on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
If you landed in medieval times, could you build a phone? Or something even simpler, a pencil?
Join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for a deep dive into the wildly empowering, complex and terrifyingly automated world we live in. This wide ranging, philosophical discussion touches on such topics as the Suez Canal, Douglas Adams, combat drones, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and more.
The world’s complexity exponentially increases by the decade. A gradual systemization has led to the automation of specialized tasks, affording people free time to perform other, even more complex tasks. For example, consider navigation apps reducing the decision-making process from driving, or the rise of autonomous cars that will eventually remove human interaction altogether.
As the world depends more on an unimaginable web of logistics, what happens when something breaks? The evolution of automation from simple, rules-based systems to incredibly complex machine learning algorithms has diminished the ability to understand or predict these structures.
As much as we love decentralization and technological advancement, where do these aims fail us? Are we creating more problems than solving them?
Have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art a photo by Luca Carrà on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
On this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, we're zipping back even further to the Spring of 2013, where Andreas M. Antonopoulos, fresh off his Let's Talk Bitcoin! debut episodes gave a pivotal talk entitled "Bitcoin Neutrality" before a tiny audience at the Bitcoin 2013 conference.
Next week we'll be back with a new philosophical discussion entitled "No One's Driving" on automation and technology, the good and the bad.
The following week we'll bring you our deep-dive into El Salvador, which is in editing now and has been a long time coming.
Six years ago Adam B. Levine and Arthur S. Falls started a discussion on what they called The New Renaissance. It's a conversation about disruption, open source and the individual.
On today's episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, we're flashing back to 2015 for a look at where we're going through understanding where we've come from.
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, George Frankly is back with the fifth installment in his Dare To Be Stupid series with a look at UFO sightings, jelly beans and the lurking information disease.4
Photo credit: Michael Herren/Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin, the hosts are joined by John Williams, rogue economist and long-time Editor of ShadowStats.com, a data source that tracks everything from inflation to GDP, money supply to unemployment using the original government defined methodologies. Over time, the government has changed how they measure all of these things and Johns work reveals that these changes all result in better looking statistics from the same, often terrifying numbers.
In this wide ranging conversation we talk about how and why this happened, plus what we can do about it. If this is a new topic to you, expect to come away with a different perspective in this epic episode.
Today's show featured John Williams (shadowstats.com), Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats.
Our album art is a composite work by Adam B. Levine using the current inflation chart from ShadowStats.com along with an excellent imposter-dog image from Brayden Anderson on Unsplash.
Have any questions or comments? Send me an email at adam@speakingof.bitcoin.show
This time on Speaking of Bitcoin: George Frankly is back for the fourth installment of his Dare To Be Stupid Series.
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