WTF is Bitcoin?! The Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Guide for Dinner Parties

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Chapter 9 | The Altcoin Boom Dec 08, 2021

Show notes

Friedrich Hayek theorised about the idea of creating competing currencies in order to facilitate the evolution of more sound money. After Bitcoin, alternative coins, "altcoins" have been launched, each with different tweaks and eccentricities that differentiate them from other cryptocurrencies. It is not yet certain which cryptocurrency will dominate and survive, so much like Excite vs. Google or MySpace vs. Facebook, the field is still open for innovation. But how do you differentiate genuine projects from scams?

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Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/a_u5zMcJT7s Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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This work contains the music track RW Smith - Dig Deep that is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license | Source: https://directory.audio/free-music/hip-hop-rap/5933-rw-smith-dig-deep | Author: RW Smith

Chapter 8 | Blockchain vs. Government Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

Cryptocurrency has legions of fans in the libertarian community, who admire its ability to circumvent government's traditional, regulatory control of financial markets and transactions. This has far-reaching consequences for government tax departments, who must adapt now that the blockchain genie is out of the bottle. It also has the potential to clean up corruption, as it facilitates a more transparent view of governmental finances. How do we adapt to this brave new world?

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Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/7cGPDbsTPS4 Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 7 | The Ethereum Asset Revolution Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

In early 2015 at a cryptocurrency Meetup at a local Starbucks in Manila, the Philippines, a bedraggled, moped-riding Englishman tried to convince me that the blockchain project he and his online friends were working on was the next evolution of Bitcoin that would completely revolutionise and decentralise all asset markets, from shares to real estate, in the future.. A distributed blockchain smart contract computer, that I could buy into for 30 cents a coin if I was interested. That project, Ethereum, is now worth more than $500 trillion and forms the backbone of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) economy! In blockchain, don't judge a book by its cover.

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Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/7fLz2xbfMr4 Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 6 | Who's Who? Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

Since its early days as a mere curiosity, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have attracted a colourful collection of personalities enthusiastically championing the technology and promoting it to the wider world, as well as passionately arguing amongst themselves regarding its future. To begin with, the legal status of cryptocurrency was also uncertain meaning that some even naively ended up in prison after overstepping existing financial regulations.

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Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/jyUT5FYIayI Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 5 | The Bitcoin Civil War Nov 10, 2021

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In 2017, Bitcoin's popularity had become a problem. Effectively unable to process more than 400,000 transactions per day (Visa claims to process 150 million transactions per day), how to scale the technology became a bone of contention, that would eventually split the community and lead to the code fork that resulted in the creation of Bitcoin Cash. Find out the technical limitations of the technology and the pros and cons of the respective cryptocurrency scaling strategies.

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Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/5wqjJWYeyy4 Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 4 | The Market Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

Why is cryptocurrency valuable? What is driving the stratospheric valuations? Could cryptocurrency really be a Pandora's Box that recalibrates the global economy for better or worse? We also dive into the fundamental qualities that makes blockchain technology a completely new paradigm.

Buy the actual book on Amazon paperback & Kindle. https://amzn.to/2WRHRGg

Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/LaI1yuFSVf8 Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 3 | The Anatomy of Bitcoin Oct 28, 2021

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The genius of Bitcoin is how Satoshi Nakamoto managed to put together the different technological pieces of the puzzle to create a truly decentralised currency. This episode we cover the intricacies of Proof of Work, what mining actually is (as opposed to how the media describes it), and we look into how a transaction actually works. It's one of the more jargon-heavy chapters (including some long numbers that you can skip forward through lol - bare with me.. I promise there is method to my madness), so don't be afraid to pause and replay if you fall behind.

Note the completely different SHA256 hashing function outputs mentioned in the episode are:

Hello: 185F8DB32271FE25F561A6FC938B2E264306EC304EDA518007D1764826381969

Happy: 725ACCB5A8E46D19BC3F3A7636D0860A85470FA450BE7F0F6A8C7572756765FD

Helo: 375738319E86099FE081FABEE238C40D6F038959DA383C99CA3FE146E5CC8B7E

The difficulty target expressed as a decimal is: 16307.420938523983 or as a hex58 number: 0x00000000000404CB000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Buy the actual book on Amazon paperback & Kindle. https://amzn.to/2WRHRGg

Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/ny5l3__qOys Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

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Chapter 2 | The Foundation: Encryption & P2P File Sharing Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

This episode, we delve into the technological breakthroughs that had to happen in order for Bitcoin to be invented.

Apologies for the absurdly long numbers read out, but it is even in the audiobook version, it is necessary to comprehend the magnitude of the number space the Bitcoin code utilises as it influences that security of the private key system. Note, the alphanumeric hex 58 format private key mentioned in the chapter is: 5KPNAazE2GdkCBqDFKk2S2z2ku94ZvUy67yJXPN2A6DLfZgstVh which converted to a decimal becomes: 93,541,061,888,926,601,153,304,018,818,724,990,844,048,985,859,940,779,646,536,561,528,000,476,090,772.

Buy the actual book on Amazon paperback & Kindle. https://amzn.to/2WRHRGg

Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/jUyVbxZfgQs Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

Disclaimer | https://pod.wtfisbitcoin.net/disclaimer.html

Introduction / Chapter 1 | What is Money? Oct 09, 2021

Show notes

Understanding the functions and history of money forms the foundation for understanding cryptocurrency. This episode looks at the economic fundamentals that that led to the creation of blockchain currencies.

Buy the actual book on Amazon paperback & Kindle | https://amzn.to/2WRHRGg

Listen to this episode on Youtube | https://youtu.be/DyGi--_N2aM Audiobook Podcast Youtube Playlist | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cj8Q_B0xWFybnr3Z_DZlYzSy_hBDgbo

Disclaimer | https://pod.wtfisbitcoin.net/disclaimer.html

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