The Involvement of Cypherpunks in the Development of Public Key Cryptography

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:

• X: @AaronvanW
• Site: http://thegenesisbook.com/
• Nostr #npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5

Sponsors:

• Swan.com (code LIVERA)
• CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)
• Mempool.space
• https://nomadcapitalist.com/live/

Stephan Livera links:

• Follow me on X: @stephanlivera
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Subscribe to Stephan Livera Substack newsletter

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