Adam Krellenstein Returns: Counterparty’s Comeback & Bitcoin’s Soul Search

In this episode of the Hell Money Podcast, we sit down with Adam Krellenstein — Counterparty’s co‑founder and longtime lead maintainer — for a tour of Bitcoin’s formative years and the ideas shaping its future. Adam revisits the birth of XCP, explains why he walked away a decade ago, and describes what dragged him back into the codebase. Along the way we tackle the perennial question: What is Bitcoin for? Is embedding data on‑chain an evolutionary feature or a contagion best off‑loaded to sidechains? And if you aren't buying your daily coffee with BTC, has Satoshi’s dream failed, or merely evolved?We explore:- Counterparty’s origin story- Early Bitcoin dev culture- OP_RETURN drama, Blockstream’s sidechain vision & the data‑bloat dilemma- Whether Bitcoin is prepared for sophisticated political actors- Counterparty culture & NFTs- Adam’s decade‑long hiatus: burnout, philosophy of nature & why he’s back- What's next for BitcoinFOLLOW ADAM: https://x.com/agkrellensteinGet bonus content by subscribing to @hellmoneypod on X: https://x.com/hellmoneypod/creator-subscriptions/subscribeOr support the podcast by sending a BTC donation: bc1qztncp7lmcxdgude4px2vzh72p2yu2aud0eyzys ORDINALS PROTOCOL SHIRT: https://shop.inscribing.com/products/ordinals-protocol-shirtTIMESTAMPS0:00 The beginning of Counterparty17:30 Worse is better development24:15 Early Bitcoin dev culture32:05 OP_RETURN & Bitcoin core devs38:05 Blockstream & sidechains, storing data on Bitcoin45:15 Bitcoin is unprepared for sophisticated political actors54:55 Counterparty culture & NFTs1:00:30 Adam's departure from Counterparty1:08:00 Philosophy of Nature1:19:00 Returning to open source development1:36:00 What's next for Bitcoin?