Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Full RBF is one of the most controversial topics in Bitcoin. On one side, RBF creator Peter Todd lobbies for the feature to become a standard. On the other side, Bitrefill CEO Sergej Kotliar thinks RBF is bad for business. This is the RBF debate. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Peter Todd is the creator of RBF and the biggest advocate for making every transaction enable the feature by default. He wrote this article to explain his point of view: https://petertodd.org/2023/why-you-should-run-mempoolfullrbf Sergej Korliar is the CEO of Bitrefill and an advocate for 0-confirmation transactions, as long as the receiver is willing to take the risk. He considers that full RBF effectively destroys the 0-confirmation use case, potentially slows down Bitcoin adoption and makes users migrate towards altcoins for commerce. This episode is a debate between the two perspectives. It also marks the first time in a while when the two of them sat down to talk and this fact is reflected on how tense the interaction became towards the end. Both participants agreed to record a second part of this debate, after gathering more information to either back up their claims or debunk their adversary's statements with data. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Full RBF Debate [00:01:59] Peter Todd and Sergej Kotliar present their opposing views on RBF. Understanding Full RBF [00:03:00] Sergej explains the concept of full RBF and its impact on transaction replaceability and user experience. Reliability and Usefulness of RBF [00:06:26] Peter Todd counters Sergej's arguments, discussing the reliability and usefulness of full RBF in real-world scenarios. Full RBF and multiparty transactions [00:11:27] Discussion on the trade-offs of full RBF for multiparty transactions and the impact on transactions like Wasabi's CoinJoins. Benefits and inconveniences of on-chain payments [00:14:15] Debate on the trade-offs of using zero conf and the advantages and disadvantages of on-chain payments. The use of RBF for power users [00:19:35] Discussion on the usefulness of RBF for power users, programmatic transactions, and multi-party scenarios. [00:21:16] Discussion on the frequency of using RBF (Replace-By-Fee) in transactions and assumptions about exchange users. [00:23:06] The unpredictability of the bitcoin mempool and blocks, in relation to the need to bump fees. [00:26:37] Debate on the usage of zero-conf (zero confirmation) transactions and examples of merchants accepting them. [00:30:00] Discussion on the percentage of blockchain space used by low fees and the impact on usage. [00:30:59] Importance of rough consensus and the difficulty of making changes in the Bitcoin network. [00:38:48] Discussion about the reliability of zero-conf transactions and the real-world data supporting its usage. [00:39:13] Debate on the risk involved in accepting zero-conf transactions and the potential vulnerabilities. [00:45:14] Plans for a potential continuation of the discussion on the topic of zero-conf transactions in a future episode.

Matej Zak is the new CEO of Trezor. In his first English podcast appearance as CEO, he talks about Trezor's upcoming hardware wallets, the status of Tropic Square chips, controversies concerning the Wasabi CoinJoin integration & his views on adoption. [00:01:50] Discussion about the new CEO of Trezor and the continuity of the company with the previous management. Trezor's growth and market trends [00:02:44] Discussion about the increase in sales, growth of the company, and the market trend towards self-custody with hardware wallets. Trezor's upcoming product announcement [00:07:17] Discussion about an upcoming product announcement from Trezor that will be a breakthrough for the company and the market, expected to be released in 2023. The new hardware wallet [00:11:08] Discussion about the upcoming hardware wallet, its design, accessibility, and software features. Price and features of the new wallet [00:12:59] Comparison of the new wallet's price and features with the Trezor One and Trezor Model T. Physical buttons vs touch screen [00:15:21] Debate on the advantages of physical buttons for user experience and the announcement of a future model with a touch display. The choice of Wasabi for CoinJoin [00:21:03] Discussion on why Trezor chose Wasabi as a partner for CoinJoin, highlighting the importance of usability and user liquidity. The privacy concerns with Trezor's backend servers [00:22:10] Explanation of how Trezor's use of backend servers can affect privacy and the misconception surrounding it. The rejection of certain transactions by Wasabi [00:24:25] Explanation of Wasabi's rejection of certain transactions for CoinJoin and the misunderstanding surrounding it as collaboration with the government. The recent launch and community support [00:31:35] Discussion about the recent launch and community support for open source solutions. Durability testing of Trezor devices [00:32:13] Conversation about durability testing for Trezor devices, including a durability test involving Slush, a Trezor One and his BMW's wheel. Future plans for Trezor and self-custody [00:38:21] Discussion about the company's plans for the next ten years, including the goal of educating users on self-custody and reaching millions of users globally. More shitcoins [00:42:08] Discussion about Trezor's support for altcoins and how people always seem to end up in Bitcoin. Outsourcing coin integration and Bitcoin-only version [00:42:55] Conversation about how Trezor outsources the development of integrating new coins and the availability of a Bitcoin-only version. Efforts in implementing new coins and outsourcing [00:44:21] Discussion about the effort spent on implementing new coins, outsourcing development, and upcoming announcements of new networks.

MercuryWallet mastermind Nicholas Gregory & former Paxful CEO Ray Youssef have joined forces to create Civ Kit: a peer to peer marketplace framework which is built on top of Nostr & enables anyone to do commerce with great scalability & advanced relaying.

While trying to improve on some of the Lightning Network's shortcomings, Burak Keceli created Ark: a Bitcoin second layer which offers privacy, speed & a user experience which resembles that of the main chain. In this episode, he explains how Ark works.

Hero of Bitcoin aims to create and launch a Bitcoin-themed video game for the Gameboy. In this episode, the game's creator talks about the development process and all the hidden Easter eggs which relate to Bitcoin culture. Support the game on Geyser!

Michele Morucci (also known as MetaMick) is the CEO and co-founder of Geyser: a fundraising platform which empowers creators in the Bitcoin space to crowdfund their projects via Lightning Network. In this episode, Michele tells us everything about Geyser.

Aljaz Ceru is the CEO and co-founder of Bolt.Observer: a service which helps Lightning network node runners with management and monitoring tools. In this episode, he offers some advice on what mistakes you should avoid when managing your home node.

Opening Lightning Network channels with WBTC and DeFi money from Ethereum? Creating a DAO to pay participants who make the Lightning Network more reliable? This sounds blasphemous, but it's what the Stroom Network aims to do. Slava & Nick explain it all.

Ever heard of the Polish-made BiFury USB ASIC miners? That's only one of Filip Pawczyński's OG contributions to Bitcoin mining. In this episode, Filip reminisces about the early days of Bitcoin mining and comments on the industrialization of mining.

During Bitcoin FilmFest in Warsaw, I had the pleasure to interview three members of LOLA (Ladies of Liberty Alliance) Poland. In this episode, you can hear Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska, Agnieszka Plonka & Tania Rak talk about freedom, Ayn Rand & Bitcoin.