Stephan Livera Podcast

Latest Episodes:

v3 Transactions and Package Relay with glozow SLP511 Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

Glozow rejoins me to talk about updates coming to Bitcoin’s transactions and mempool policy. We talk about how these will be essential to keep bitcoin use efficient and safe, especially for layer 2 protocols such as Lightning. We chat:

Current state with transacting
RBF and CPFP
Problems right now
L2 security
Pinning vectors
What is package relay?
What is v3 transactions?
What are ephemeral anchors?
Policy vs consensus

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SLP510 Is On-Chain Analytics Legit? Cointime Economics with James Check Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

A common question amongst bitcoin investors is whether bitcoin on-chain analytics is legitimate or whether it is snake oil. Joining me to explore this as well as talk about some new research, is James Check, Lead Analyst of Glassnode. We talk about how the field progressed, and some insights to share on analyzing the bitcoin market:

History of on-chain analytics
Is it snake oil?
Liveliness
Impact of the ‘DCA Army’
Lost coins
Vaulted supply vs active supply
What does a bull market look like on chain?
Where are we now?

Links:

James Check on X
Glassnode cointime economics paper https://get.glassnode.com/cointime-economics/
Ark https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/cointime-economics

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Bitcoin L2’s, LN, BTC++, Base58 - Lisa Neigut (SLP509) Sep 03, 2023

Show notes

Lisa Neigut of base58 and btcplusplus rejoins me on the show to talk about Bitcoin layer 2’s, where bitcoin’s lightning network is going, BTC++ and teaching Bitcoin developers at base58.We talk:

Views on other L2 protocols
LN technology
How important is APO for LN?
BTC++
nix and reproducibility
Base58

Links:

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Are Bitcoin’s 4 year cycles over? with Vijay Boyapati (SLP508) Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

Are Bitcoin’s 4 year cycles over? Vijay Boyapati rejoins me on the show to talk about his view of where things are in the economy. We chat:

Recession?
18 month lag
Risk on or risk off?
Bitcoin as a macro asset
4 year cycles
Is an ETF good for Bitcoin?
Pacific Bitcoin

Links

X: @real_vijay

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Stephan Livera

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Bitcoin Cryptography and Scripting with Andrew Poelstra SLP507 Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream) has been around Bitcoin research and development for a long time, and has a lot of insight to share on Bitcoin research in this episode. For part 2 of my discussion with Andrew we focus more on bitcoin and cryptography research that the team are working on, and what it means for the future of Bitcoin:

Cryptography
Bulletproofs++
MuSig2
FROST
Bitcoin Scripting
Miniscript
Simplicity
CTV and APO
Covenants: are they risky for Bitcoin?
Transaction Introspection on Liquid

Links:

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A Paper Computer for Bitcoin? Codex32 with Andrew Poelstra (SLP506) Aug 27, 2023

Show notes

A ‘paper computer’ for Bitcoin checksums and Shamir Secret Sharing may seem absurd, but that’s what we’re talking about in this episode! This project is a scheme to generate, encode, checksum, split and recover Bitcoin secret keys, using pencil, paper and lookup tables (alternately, volvelles). We discuss codex32 and the motivation behind it with Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream). Note this is the first of a two part episode. In this first part we discuss:

Bitcoin private keys today
Multi signature and Shamir Secret Sharing contrasted
Where to keep shards or keys
Error correction
Risks with Hardware wallets (even though you should still use them)
BIP39 vs codex32
Limitations of the paper computer (Volvelles)

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MuSig2 in Practice, APO, CTV & Bitcoin Soft Forks with Brandon Black (SLP505) Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

Brandon Black (aka Rearden Code) joins me on the show to talk about his experience implementing MuSig2 at BitGo, and also his thoughts on the future Bitcoin soft fork discussion re: APO (ANYPREVOUT), CTV (Check Template Verify), and his proposal on moving forward:

MuSig2 benefits
Implementing MuSig2
MPC vs Script
What are APO and CTV?
Brandon’s combo proposal
Upgrade hooks

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SLP504 Design Your Life With Jurisdictional Arbitrage - Coinsurenz Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

Have you been wondering about how to design your lifestyle overseas? Rigel (aka coinsurenz) rejoins me on the show to talk about jurisdictional arbitrage in Latin America. We talk about some of his recent moves and his experiences as a bitcoin sovereign individual:

Voice vs Exit - what about ‘staying and fighting’?
Recent residency acquisition in Paraguay
How the Latam residency market has shifted
Common mistakes that digital nomads make
Owning vs Renting homes and storage lockers
Designing your life

Links:

Twitter: @CoinsureNZ
SLP328 The Rise of Bitcoin Nomadism with CoinsureNZ

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SLP503 Things Are Breaking - Lawrence Lepard Aug 20, 2023

Show notes

Lawrence Lepard of Equity Management Associates rejoins me to talk about all the things that are breaking:

Cost of living crisis
Are we going into recession and what timing?
Boomer hate
US government debt
Policy responses
Social responses
The waiting game

Site:

Site: Ema2.com
Twitter: @LawrenceLepard

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SLP502 Validating Lightning Signer - Ken Sedgwick Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

How can lightning users secure themselves even further? Just like how hardware wallets and secure elements can help secure your cold storage coins, Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) is a project aiming to help improve the way lightning security works. In this conversation with project co-founder Ken Sedgwick, we chat: