Closing the Loop

Today's guest is Lyn Alden, founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, board director of Swan Bitcoin, and advisor to ego death capital. Lyn is one of the most highly regarded voices in finance today, both for her excellent commentary on the macroeconomic landscape as well as for her sober, analytical approach to understanding bitcoin. Lyn's ability to distill complex, multi-disciplinary topics into insights that anyone can comprehend has made her a favorite amongst expert investors and humble savers alike. With all the recent developments in the bitcoin world, as well as the volatility and uncertainty in all financial markets, we thought it was a perfect time to have a chat with Lyn and get her perspective on what's going on. --- Follow Lyn: Twitter: @LynAldenContact Website: lynalden.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastApps.com Value4Value.io

Welcome to Season 3 of Closing the Loop! As has become tradition, Gigi, our friend and colleague here at Seetee, software engineer, and prolific writer in the bitcoin space, has joined us once again, to get this season kicked off. In our conversation, we reflect on some of the guests and topics of Season 2, discuss our experiences at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway recently, and delve into some of the current events, developments, misunderstandings, and musings going on in 'bitcoin land' today. --- Follow Gigi: Twitter: @dergigi Website: dergigi.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastApps.com Value4Value.io

Our guest today is Leopoldo López, a democracy activist, former political prisoner of the Maduro government, and national coordinator of the 'Voluntad Popular' political party in Venezuela. We recently met Leopoldo at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway and subsequently had the chance to spend some time with him and hear the harrowing story of his life-long fight for freedom in Venezuela. We also spoke to him about Bitcoin, the ways in which it can and does support the cause of freedom, and the critical distinctions between it and all other 'cryptocurrencies.' In our discussions, we came to greatly admire Leopoldo's character and found his genuine curiosity, humility, and questions about Bitcoin—something which was fairly new to him—to be very endearing. As a result, we thought it would be interesting to invite him on the show, to continue our discussion, and delve further into his fascinating and inspiring story. "If we figure out ways in which more people have access to financial freedom, that will, in turn, increase the probabilities to have a free society." --- Follow Leopoldo: Twitter: @leopoldolopez Website: leopoldolopez.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastApps.com Value4Value.io

For this episode, our guest is Bernard Parah. He is the founder and CEO of Bitnob, a Nigerian bitcoin exchange & financial services platform. We met Bernard recently at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway, where we had the chance to hear his story firsthand. His unique perspective on bitcoin, the experience he has gathered when launching Bitnob, and the many fascinating stories he has to share about the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Nigeria make him a unique voice in the ecosystem. Bernard's passion, purpose, and dedication to Bitcoin are as contagious as they are impressive, which is why we invited him to share his story on Closing the Loop. We hope that putting a spotlight on Bernard's work and his part of the world shows how empowering and essential Bitcoin truly is, especially in those parts of the world that do not share our financial privilege. "Bitcoin treats everyone as equal," to quote Bernard. "It won't fix everything, but it helps tilt the scale." --- Follow Bernard: Twitter: @bernard_parah Website: bitnob.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastApps.com Value4Value.io

This episode's guest is Shaun Connell, Executive Vice President of Power at Lancium. Lancium develops technologies and builds infrastructure to improve the economic efficiency of power production, balance and stabilize the power grid, and improve the viability of renewable energy resources. Shaun has a wealth of experience in energy markets, in particular in energy trading and risk management, and through his work at Lancium, he is becoming a leading expert in the rapidly occurring integration of bitcoin mining and traditional energy infrastructure. We cover a lot of ground in this discussion, and as usual, we could've talked with Shaun for another two hours about all the incredibly fascinating implications of these converging industries. For now, we'll have to save that for part two—sometime in the future. --- Follow Shaun: Twitter: @ShaunEnergy Website: lancium.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io

This episode's guest is Farida Nabourema, a social activist and writer, who since being a teenager, has been a fearless advocate for democracy and human rights in her native Togo. We met Farida recently at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway and were intrigued by her story, her work, and the ways in which she's been educating her followers and community about the benefits of Bitcoin. This conversation was not only illuminating with regards to the nature and degree of oppression in Togo (and elsewhere), but it also left us incredibly impressed by the courage, conviction, and wisdom of this young woman, and grateful for her work in the cause for freedom. --- Follow Farida: Twitter: @Farida_N Website: nabourema.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io

This episode's guest is Bob Burnett, chairman and CEO at Barefoot mining. Barefoot focuses primarily on what they call 'wild mining,' or small-to-mid scale bitcoin mining operations, using independent or off-grid energy sources. Their approach is not only contributing to the monetization of remote or stranded energy resources, which otherwise likely would have remained unproductive, but it's also helping to diversify and decentralize the bitcoin mining ecosystem, making it more resilient to various potential risks and attacks. Bob is another great example of someone who was reinvigorated with purpose as a result of learning about bitcoin, and I'm grateful for the work he and the team are doing to protect the network and contribute to the innovation taking place in the rapidly co-evolving bitcoin mining and energy industries. --- Follow Bob: Twitter: @boomer_btc Website: barefootmining.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io

This episode's guest is Alex Leishman, founder & CEO of River Financial. River is a bitcoin-native financial services firm that offers bitcoin acquisition and management products for individuals, as well as a variety of institutions and high-net-worth investors, through their private client services division. They've also recently begun offering a bitcoin-mining product, which allows their clients to own their own mining hardware and establish regular bitcoin-denominated income, or what's become known as "sats flow," while River takes care of all the work to make it happen. In this show, Alex and John have a wide-ranging discussion about the growth of River, the details of their new mining offering, their approach to the lightning network and possible future applications, the notion of social progress, and how we should be thinking about it, becoming a Kardashev Type 2 civilization, and much more. River represents what is still a very small initial cohort of new financial services companies, which are focussing exclusively on bitcoin, and building out a suite of products and services that allow people to unlock more of its enormous potential. In my opinion, Alex and the team at River have built a brand imbued with the bitcoin ethos, which is likely why they are so well respected in the industry, and why it was such a pleasure and an honor for me to have a discussion with him today. --- Follow Alex: Twitter: @Leishman Website: River.com Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io

This episode's guest is Grant Gilliam, co-founder and managing partner of Ten 31. Ten31 is a venture capital firm that invests in leading bitcoin-native companies. In addition to that, Ten31 supports and invests in various free and open-source software projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem to help build out the infrastructure necessary for a hyperbitcoinized future. Grant comes from a traditional private equity background and has brought a ton of high-level experience with him to this new endeavor. While Grant and the team at Ten31 recognize the enormous opportunity that investing in early-stage bitcoin-only companies represents, they're also aware of the necessity to think differently about investing when doing so in a bitcoin-denominated world. In our opinion, it is their willingness to accelerate the flywheel while aligning deeply with the bitcoin ethos that will lead to their continued long-term success. We are looking forward to supporting the bitcoin-only ecosystem along with Ten31. --- Follow Grant: Twitter: @GRANTGILLIAMBTC Website: Ten31 Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology Fountain.FM NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io

Our guest today is Alex Gladstein. Alex is the Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum, and the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally. In recent years, Alex has placed particular focus and emphasis on speaking, writing, and educating about bitcoin. In particular, the powerful potential it has to serve as a means for people the world over to protect themselves from various forms of oppression, and establish greater freedom in their lives. His efforts, and in particular his prolific and popular writing, has helped many to appreciate the faults in the current global monetary system, the broad yet under-recognized consequences of them, and the salutary role which bitcoin may play in their resolution. --- Follow Alex: Twitter: @gladstein Website: HRF / OFF Articles Book Follow John & Seetee: Twitter: @johnkvallis & @Seetee_io Website: seetee.io Use Podcasting 2.0: Breez.Technology fountain.fm NewPodcastingApps.com Value4Value.io