S15 E40: Rijndael on Taproot Wizards & BIP420

Rijndael is the CTO of Taproot Wizards – a group of bitcoiners who want to make Bitcoin magical. In this interview, he talks about why OP_CAT matters and what kind of features we should expect to see in Bitcoin once a covenant soft fork gets activated. Taproot Wizards and Bitcoin Magic (00:01:53) Memes as Tools for Bitcoin Advancement (00:03:20) Discussion on Taproot Wizards' Intentions (00:03:47) Rijndael's Background and Work (00:06:38) Discussion on BitKey Hardware Wallet (00:09:12) Statechains and Drivechains (00:20:06) Layer Two Labs and Paul Sztorc’s Message (00:26:03) Taproot Wizards Funding Accusations (00:28:16) Cryptography and Scaling (00:31:53) Stark Proofs and Scalability (00:33:06) Layer Two Solutions (00:36:33) Bitcoin's Evolution (00:38:51) Lightning Network (00:42:21) Is Stacks a Layer Two? (00:47:39) Future of Liquid and Lightning (00:49:41) Lightning Network and Liquid (00:50:35) Ordinals and Flywheel Effect (00:52:13) Non-Custodial Lending and Trading (00:53:17) Covenant Proposals and Bitcoin Upgrades (00:57:54) CAT Opcode and Bitcoin Development (00:59:32) OP_CAT Activation and Community Perception (01:03:25) Ocean Mining and Network Control (01:09:25) Bitcoin Purifier and Transaction Rejection (01:12:55) Bitcoin Development and Narrative Control (01:15:36) Casey and Runes (01:16:19) Simplicity and Protocol Design (01:17:19) User-Friendly Implementation of Runes (01:20:11) Use Cases and Challenges of Ordinals (01:22:34) Great Script Restoration and Controversy (01:24:26) Ordinal Inscriptions and Scarcity (01:27:21) Future Projects and Layer Twos (01:30:25) Taproot Wizards' Presence and Conference Participation (01:36:55) Addressing Critics of Taproot and SegWit (01:38:04) Data Embedding in Bitcoin Transactions (01:38:42) The Cat Chain vs. Dog Chain (01:41:10) Setting Up a Live Stream (01:43:00) Following Taproot Wizards on Twitter (01:44:25) I International Travel and Visa Issues (01:45:07) “Reagan Dial” (01:46:20) Final Remarks and Invitation to Follow Taproot Wizards (01:46:48)