Stephan Livera Podcast Is Your Bitcoin Transaction Safe? with Keith Gardner | SLP723
Feb 19, 2026
Keith Gardner, founder of Branta, builds zero-knowledge address verification to stop address-replacement and man-in-the-middle attacks. The conversation covers Branta’s integrations with BTC Pay Server, Lightning and Layer 2s. They explore mobile and QR verification, business-focused rollout, open-source tools and how AI could create new scamming vectors.
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Finality Means Upstream Verification Matters
- Bitcoin settles with finality, so verifying recipient addresses before sending is critical.
- Branta enables zero-knowledge preflight verification to avoid upstream address-poisoning attacks.
Don't Trust A Single Channel Check
- Do not rely solely on comparing the address shown in your wallet to a potentially compromised UI.
- Use independent verification channels because you might already be matching a bad address to a bad address.
Zero-Knowledge Mirroring Protects Privacy
- Branta uses a zero-knowledge design so it never sees plaintext addresses while verifying them.
- The counterparty encrypts and duplicates the genuine address into Branta, keeping keys private.