Stephan Livera Podcast

Latest Episodes:

SLP301 Bitcoin Mining Pools Decentralised? A Discussion with Pavel Moravec of SlushPool & Ryan Ellis of Laurentia Pool Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

How should Bitcoin mining be structured? Pavel Moravec of SlushPool (Braiins) and Ryan Ellis of Laurentia Pool join me to chat. We discuss:

Why pools exist
How to structure mining pools
Trade offs around decentralisation of pools
Coinbase payouts vs other ways
Lightning payouts
Scalability for mining pools
Stratum v2

Links:

Pavel Moravec: @mor_pav
Braiins Twitter: @braiins_systems
Braiins site: Braiins.com | Bitcoin Mining Company
Laurentia Pool Twitter: @laurentiapool
Site: LaurentiaPool.org
Laurentia pool post: Laurentia Pool: Pooled “Decentralization”
Braiins twitter thread on decentralisation: https://twitter.com/braiins_systems/status/1423291322128011264

Sponsors:

Hodl Hodl Lend
Compass Mining
Unchained Capital (code LIVERA)
CypherSafe (code LIVERA)
CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Stephan Livera links:

SLP300 Adam Back Bitcoin, Privacy & Censorship Resistance Aug 13, 2021

Show notes

Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, cryptographer and privacy advocate, inventor of Hashcash and cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper rejoins me on the show. We chat:

Regulatory environment for Bitcoin vs building
‘Crypto wars’ in the 90s
Proof of Work
Bitcoin privacy
Confidential Transactions in Liquid and for Bitcoin
Trade offs involved
Blockstream satellite base station
Bitcoin development

Previous episode:

SLP 42 Adam Back, CEO Of Blockstream - Blockstream Satellite, Tim May, Bitcoin Privacy

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP299 Adam O - Bitcoin Optionality for Oil & Gas Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

Adam O of Upstream Data joins me to talk about the massive opportunity for energy producers and Bitcoin mining. We chat about:

The opportunity for Oil & Gas with Bitcoin
Optionality
The necessity of fossil fuels
ESG
Bitcoin Mining Council
Bitcoin lobbying

Adam links:

Twitter: @denverbitcoin
Site: Upstream Data

Prior/relevant episode:

SLP284 Steve Barbour – Bitcoin & Fossil Fuels vs Fiat Maxis

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP298 Rusty Russell - Lightning Offers / BOLT12: The next big thing in Lightning? Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

Offers might be the next big idea for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Rusty Russell of Blockstream, working on the lightning spec and on c-lightning rejoins me to chat:

Current invoices today vs Offers
New use cases enabled e.g. static QR donation
Refunds
Recurring payments
‘Speaking lightning’
Offers vs LN URL
What’s next

Links:

Twitter: @Rusty_twit
Site: Bolt12.org
Site: Blockstream.com

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP297 Ergo - Chain Surveil Yourself! Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

Have you wondered about Bitcoin privacy or chain surveillance and how it’s done? Or how to defend against it? This is the episode for you, as Ergo of OXT Research (Part of Samourai Wallet) rejoins me on the show to talk:

Background on bitcoin transactions
How Bitcoin surveillance works
Peel chains and wallet clustering
How to counter it in practice

Ergo links:

Twitter: @ErgoBTC
Telegram: @ErgoBTC
Guide: Understanding Bitcoin Privacy with OXT — Part 1/4

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP296 Saifedean Ammous - The Biggest Fiat Malinvestment Aug 03, 2021

Show notes

Saifedean Ammous, author of the Bitcoin Standard and the upcoming book, The Fiat standard rejoins me on the show for an illuminating episode where we explore various ideas:

What bitcoin really replaces
Thinking about inflationary costs
infinity/21M - is it wrong?
Cultural impacts of fiat money
Malinvestments and where the biggest ones lie
The hyperbitcoinized world

Saifedean Links:

Twitter: @saifedean
Site: Saifedean.com

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP295 John Lee Quigley Why Bitcoin Mining Is Shifting to North America Jul 27, 2021

Show notes

Historically, Bitcoin Mining as an industry was dominated by China. John Lee Quigley (formerly of Compass Mining, and now independently consulting and writing) rejoins me on the show to talk about his recent report on the state of Bitcoin mining. We talk about the various factors going into this generational shift. Listen to this episode to understand some of the dynamics, gleaned from John’s in depth research and interviews on the subject. We chat:

Historical reasons for China’s dominance
Why its changing now
Mining equipment upgrade cycle
Capital market access
Regulatory certainty
Downsides of this shift

John Links:

Twitter: @bitcoinnomadic
Substack: Adaptive Analysis - Substack

Prior episodes:

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP294 Lyn Alden - Inflation, Debt, and Energy Markets Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

Lyn Alden of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy rejoins me on the show to talk about macro updates and Bitcoin. We chat:

CPI rises to 5.4% and inflation
Govt debt and the likely govt responses
Why and how they keep the party going
Oil & Gas Bull case
Energy and the need for baseload power
Stablecoins & why Bitcoin is different
People are sleeping on the Lightning Network

Links:

Twitter: @LynAldenContact
Article: The Case for a Longer-Term Oil and Gas Bull Market

Other episodes:

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP293 Greg Foss The Debt Problem You Can’t Ignore Jul 19, 2021

Show notes

Greg Foss, a 3 decade veteran of fixed income securities specialising in HY (High Yield) joins me to talk about debt, bonds, government debt and why Bitcoin is the answer.

Primer on debt instruments
Interest rates and bond bull market over decades
Craziness of debt markets
Interaction between debt and equity
Could govt repudiate the debt?
Could we outgrow it?
Why Bitcoin is the best asymmetric trade

Links:

Twitter: @FossGregfoss
Paper: https://t.co/OK4dDj27Io?amp=1

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

SLP292 Andrew Chow Output Script Descriptors for Bitcoin Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

Andrew Chow, Bitcoin Core contributor and creator of the PSBT standard rejoins me on the show to talk about the creation of a series of BIPs (Bitcoin Improvement Proposals) for Output Script Descriptors. We break down and explore the key concepts to make it accessible for bitcoiners.

Seeds
BIP39 vs Electrum seeds vs aezeed
Derivation paths
How Output Script Descriptors improve things
New functionality
Backups and recovery
Lightning
Miniscript
Advanced scripting

Links:

Twitter: @achow101
Output Script Descriptors BIP: [New BIPs] Output Script Descriptors - GitHub
Taproot PSBT BIP: [New BIP] Taproot Fields for PSBT - GitHub
Mailing list post

Sponsors:

Stephan Livera links:

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