From the Front Page - What Bitcoin Did
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Silvergate's Alan Lane on Banking the Corporate Unbanked - WBD131
August 2nd, 2019 by
DSholla Since Satoshi’s left the message, "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" in the genesis block, Bitcoin has been the antithesis of banks. “Be your own bank”, perhaps an overused phrase from Bitcoin proponents certainly comes under question for companies building Bitcoin-based businesses. Businesses need Fiat for operating costs: rent, wages etc. and for now, at least that is a gap that Bitcoin can't fill. Read More -
Bitcoin is More Than a Financial System with Zac Prince & Jeremy Welch - WBD130
July 31st, 2019 by DSholla In this interview, I speak with Casa Founder Jeremy Welch and BlockFi Founder Zac Prince, we discuss Bitcoin utility, non-financial and sometimes unexpected applications and why Bitcoin is more than a financial system. Read More -
Nicholas Percoco on Defending the Crypto Honeypot - WBD129
July 26th, 2019 by DSholla Exchange hacks have been a constant thorn in the side of the industry. Where a physical bank robbery of $millions will make headline news, a +$100m exchange hack will barely break out of the crypto news media. Exchange hacks are now so commonplace that a recent report from Ledger’s CEO Eric Larcheveque found that the equivalent of $2.7 million a day was stolen from exchanges last year. Read More -
Juthica Chou on The First Physically Settled Bitcoin Futures - WBD128
July 23rd, 2019 by DSholla The growth in Bitcoin derivatives has led to an increase in interest from Wall Street and institutional investors. The market is clouded by regulatory uncertainty and all current Bitcoin futures are cash-settled, which brings additional problems. The market took a significant step forward when LedgerX announced that they had received regulatory approval to launch the first regulated physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts. LedgerX also announced the launch of a new trading platform called Omni, which, for the first time, will give US retail investors access to regulated derivatives markets. Read More -
Saifedean Ammous on Understanding Bitcoin Economics - WBD127
July 22nd, 2019 by DSholla **“That is what really drew me to Bitcoin, because it had this property that means that, no matter how many people want to use Bitcoin we’re not going to make more than 21 million. Deal with it.” — Saifedean Ammous** Read More -
The Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index with Michel Rauchs - WBD126
July 21st, 2019 by DSholla Is Bitcoin power consumption something Bitcoiners should be worried about and can the criticism be written off as a way for Bitcoin naysayers to ignore it for a little longer? Read More -
Bitcoin Security and Ethics with Neha Narula - WBD125
July 16th, 2019 by DSholla The security of Bitcoin is one of the factors which gives it so much value, and after ten years there still hasn’t been a single counterfeit Bitcoin created, there has never been a successful 51% attack, and the few potentially catastrophic bugs have been fixed without any negative consequences. But how secure is Bitcoin? Is Proof of Work too risky? Can we trust those that are developing Bitcoin to do so with the right ethical judgement? Read More -
Bitcoin and Cannabis With Bitcoin Mom, Bill and Jack Mallers - WBD124
July 12th, 2019 by DSholla The Cannabis industry shares a lot with Bitcoin. It is growing fast under a clouded regulatory position. While at a state level Bitcoin has been legalised either for recreational or medicinal purposes across the majority of the country, it is still illegal at a federal level which has led to problems acquiring banking services for those operating in the industry. Read More -
Tadge Dryja on Scaling Bitcoin With Utreexo - WBD123
July 9th, 2019 by DSholla Scaling has been a constant thorn in the side of Bitcoin. Solutions for scaling has led to a civil war, multiple forks and is the centre of many arguments on Reddit and Twitter. The Bitcoin blockchain is currently around 230GB and syncing the blockchain can take multiple days. This is just one of the barriers which may put people off running the software, but what if you could run it on your phone? That is exactly what Tadge is trying to achieve with Utreexo. By not worrying about the full history of the blockchain and only concentrating on data that is relevant to you this may be the solution for the ever increasing size of the data. Read More -
Brad Stephens & Spencer Bogart on How Venture Capital Thinks About Bitcoin Investing - WBD122
July 5th, 2019 by DSholla “If Libra takes off we get a billion new crypto users that will eventually migrate somewhat into Bitcoin and grow the whole ecosystem. If Libra gets shut down… boom! Now we know why Bitcoin is so powerful as a global reserve currency.” — Brad Stephens Read More -
Charlie Shrem's Untold Prison Stories - WBD121
July 2nd, 2019 by DSholla Bitcoin has a rich history, and there are many stories about the space first developed and who the key people were pulling the strings. One of those characters is Charlie Shrem, one of the founders of BitInstant and who also had a close relationship with the Winklevoss twins when they first entered the space. Charlie Shrem’s story is well known, from being a founder of BitInstant to his arrest, subsequent conviction and imprisonment. I spent a couple of days with Charlie and his wife Courtney to discuss his story and how his imprisonment affected both of them. Read More -
How The CFTC Regulates Bitcoin with Brian Quintenz - WBD120
June 29th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview Location:** Washington **Date:** Friday 21st Jun, 2019 **Organisation:** CFTC **Role:** Commissioner While Bitcoin is a way out of big government, a fight against ill-disciplined fiscal policies, it is to be expected that departments such as the CFTC and SEC will regulate the space. While China has taken the draconian decision to largely ban cryptocurrencies, the US has taken a more pro-innovation approach, aware that over-regulation will push the technology into othe... Read More -
Udi Wertheimer on Navigating Bitcoin - WBD119
June 25th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** Skype **Interview date:** Friday 24th May, 2019 **Company:** Independent **Role:** Developer and Consultant, Bitcoin Activist, Blockchain Skeptic Bitcoin is hard! For new people discovering Bitcoin the rabbit hole is deep, from tech to security to economics, there are many topics to understand. Further, the long and volatile history of Bitcoin is also relevant, from how the tech has evolved to the personalities to critical events such as the scaling war... Read More -
Caitlin Long on Why Facebook's Libra Coin is Good for Bitcoin - WBD118
June 21st, 2019 by DSholla Facebooks venture into cryptocurrencies raises many questions. Will Libra coin lead to mass financial surveillance? Will Facebook share our data with governments? Will Libra be a net benefit for Bitcoin. Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #117 - Bitcoin Changes Everything with Jeremy Welch
June 18th, 2019 by DSholla One of the hardest things to define is what Bitcoin is. Is it digital gold, a medium of exchange or an entirely new financial system? As people continue to fight on Reddit about whether Satoshi built Bitcoin as a store of value or a medium of exchange, would he have envisaged Microsoft would create decentralised IDs using the protocol? Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #116 - The Quantum Threat to Bitcoin with Dr. Stepan Snigirev
June 14th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** Munich **Interview date:** Saturday 1st Jun, 2019 **Company:** Crypto Advance **Role:** CTO & co-founder Cryptography is the art of writing or solving codes, and there are several technologies which enable Bitcoin to function. When choosing to send Bitcoin to someone, a transaction is broadcast using the new owners public key and signed with the senders private key, and it is the senders private key which confirms to the network that the transaction is aut... Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #115 - LIVE: Bitcoin Around the World Panel at The Oslo Freedom Forum
June 10th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** Oslo **Interview date:** Monday 27th May, 2019 **Panel:** * Peter McCormack - Moderator * Timi Ajiboye - Nigeria * Aparna Krishnan - India * Leo Weese - Hong Kong/China * Luis Buenaventura - The Philippines * Mahsa Alimardani - Iran Hosted by The Human Rights Foundation at The Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway, this special live episode of What Bitcoin Did discusses the issues and use cases for Bitcoin Around the World. The panel includes people... Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #114 - Why Brexit Is Good for the UK (and Bitcoin) with Giacomo Zucco
June 7th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** Munich **Interview date:** Monday 3rd Jun, 2019 **Company:** BHB Network **Role:** Director Brexit has genuinely divided the UK, and the hard negotiations for exit have only furthered the divide. Many feel disconnected from Europe, disconnected from the political process or feel left behind by globalisation. Others think that we are stronger as part of the EU and celebrate the benefits of the free market and the free movement of people. There is no midd... Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #113 - The Blockchain Revolution Myth with Jimmy Song
June 5th, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** Oslo **Interview date:** Wednesday 29th May, 2019 **Company:** Jimmy Song Consulting **Role:** Bitcoin Expert Witness The Blockchain Revolution: decentralising the world and taking power away from the elite. Five years on, there is not a single, notable example of a successful breakthrough application of a blockchain outside of money. Arguably, there is not a single breakthrough application of a blockchain outside of Bitcoin. While some may point to Eth... Read More -
What Bitcoin Did #112 - Bitfinex and Tether with Phil Potter
May 31st, 2019 by DSholla **Interview location:** New York **Interview date:** Saturday 11th May, 2019 **Company:** Bitfinex & Tether **Role:** Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfinex | Co-Founder at Tether Creating a Bitcoin business is hard, especially one processing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in value. For exchanges, these challenges are especially difficult, from defending against relentless hack attempts to securing banking services. Starting a Bitcoin business today is undoubtedl... Read More
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