In our first live Monero Monthly, Max and Seth are joined by Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni for a candid tour through Monero’s origin story and culture. Riccardo dives into the chaotic Bytecoin days, how a secret fork birthed Monero after a contentious merge-mining push, and why missing comments, odd code obfuscations, and a deliberately crippled miner set off everyone’s spidey senses.

Riccardo shares the serendipitous formation of the Monero Research Lab—hiring Sarang and Surae via a Reddit post—and a hilarious Utah road-trip mishap that bonded early contributors. They also explore how Monero’s antifragile culture emerged from a strict no-price-talk ethos, pseudonymous contribution, and a relentless focus on usable privacy that’s helped real people in difficult situations.

They close with reflections on delistings, decentralised access, level-headed responses to network “attacks,” and how Tari aims to provide privacy-first smart contracts without compromising Monero’s design. Listener Q&A covers delistings pushing P2P adoption, cultural decisions that made Monero durable, handling selfish-mining FUD, practical privacy in tightening EU regs, and what Tari brings to the table.

Context posts

HELP GET SAMOURAI A PARDON

SIGN THE PETITION ----> https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools
DONATE TO THE FAMILIES ----> https://www.givesendgo.com/billandkeonne
SUPPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA ---> https://billandkeonne.org/

VALUE FOR VALUE

Thanks for listening you Ungovernable Misfits, we appreciate your continued support and hope you enjoy the shows.

You can support this episode using your time, talent or treasure.

TIME:

- create fountain clips for the show
- create a meetup
- help boost the signal on social media

TALENT:

- create ungovernable misfit inspired art, animation or music
- design or implement some software that can make the podcast better
- use whatever talents you have to make a contribution to the show!

TREASURE:

- BOOST IT OR STREAM SATS on the Podcasting 2.0 apps @ https://podcastapps.com
- DONATE via Monero @ https://xmrchat.com/ugmf
- BUY SOME STICKERS @ https://www.ungovernablemisfits.com/shop/

CAKE WALLET

https://cakewallet.com

Cake Wallet is an open-source, non-custodial wallet available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux.

Features:
- Built-in Exchange: Swap easily between Bitcoin and Monero.
- User-Friendly: Simple interface for all users.

Monero Users:
- Batch Transactions: Send multiple payments at once.
- Faster Syncing: Optimized syncing via specified restore heights
- Proxy Support: Enhance privacy with proxy node options.

Bitcoin Users:
- Coin Control: Manage your transactions effectively.
- Silent Payments: Static bitcoin addresses
- Batch Transactions: Streamline your payment process.

Thank you Cake Wallet for sponsoring the show!

FOUNDATION

https://foundation.xyz/ungovernable

Foundation builds Bitcoin-centric tools that empower you to reclaim your digital sovereignty.

As a sovereign computing company, Foundation is the antithesis of today’s tech conglomerates. Returning to cypherpunk principles, they build open source technology that “can’t be evil”.

Thank you Foundation Devices for sponsoring the show!

Use code: Ungovernable for $10 off of your purchase

(00:00:01) INTRO

(00:04:35) First Impressions of Bytecoin

(00:08:49) The Birth of Monero Research Lab

(00:12:54) The Trip to Utah

(00:18:21) Forking BitMonero

(00:24:18) Mining in the Early Days

(00:32:07) State of the Project

(00:39:44) Are Delistings a Net Positive?

(00:43:30) Design Decisions and Cultural Norms

(00:49:08) WIll You Contribute as a Dev in the Future?

(00:49:39) Handling Network Attacks

(00:53:14) EU Dystopia Arbitrage

(00:58:15) Why the Monero Pump?

(01:01:06) The Goals of Tari

(01:04:08) FreeSamourai Cap Winner

(01:04:53) OUTRO

No Price, Just Privacy | MONERO MONTHLY 13: Riccardo Spagni

Ungovernable Misfits

Outro

The AI-powered Podcast Player