We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network BTC238: Bitcoin 101 w/ Michael Schmid (Bitcoin Podcast)
92 snips
Jun 11, 2025 
Michael Schmid, a Bitcoin expert who focuses on innovative mining solutions and advises firms in the industry, dives into the essentials of Bitcoin. He discusses digital scarcity and its role in combating government currency manipulation. The conversation highlights the mechanics of block creation, the importance of mining incentives, and the advantages of self-custody. Schmid also explains the security model against hacks and the distinctions between running a node and mining, alongside innovations from the 256 Foundation that promote open-source mining solutions.
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Bitcoin Solves Digital Scarcity
- Bitcoin solves the problem of digital scarcity by enabling secure, decentralized digital money transfer.
- It prevents double spending without a central authority by synchronizing transactions in blocks every 10 minutes.
How Blockchain Resolves Forks
- Blockchain forks happen when two miners find blocks at the same time creating competing chains.
- The network resolves this by miners choosing which chain to build on, favoring the longest chain.
Bitcoin's Proof of Work Mechanism
- Bitcoin uses proof of work with hashing puzzles requiring high computational energy to secure the network.
- The network self-adjusts difficulty every ~2 weeks to maintain average block times of about 10 minutes.
