Aaron van Wirdum rejoins me to talk about his exploration of how Bitcoin came to be. We talk about his new book, The Genesis Book. In this book, Aaron explores some of the technologies, and philosophies that led to the creation of Bitcoin. We discuss:
- What he learned in making this book
- Hayek and the Austrians
- Extropians
- Cryptography and the Cypherpunks
- Libertarians
- Precursor tech to Bitcoin
Links:
Sponsors:
Stephan Livera links:
Timestamp/Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Motivation for Writing the Book
04:05 - Bitcoin's Origins and Evolution
08:21 - The Influence of Hayek and Austrian Economics
18:54 - The Connection Between FOSS and Bitcoin
25:49 - The Extropians and Their Vision
30:47 - The Cypherpunks and Their Ideology
32:28 - Swan.com
33:52 - Mempool.space
35:00 - Coinkite.com
39:30 - The Rise and Fall of DigiCash
51:20 - The Crypto Wars and Government Regulation
56:26 - Pre-cursor Electronic Cash Projects
01:01:20 - Satoshi's Clever Insight
01:03:00 - Closing thoughts
