Stephan Livera Podcast

CTO of ACINQ, Bastien Teinturier, joins the podcast to discuss the next generation Lightning experience for Bitcoin and Lightning users, including the Phoenix splicing update, fee structure, dual funding, liquidity ads, securing coins, running a secure Lightning node, and the challenges of creating non-custodial Lightning wallets with a good user experience.

Shinobi, Technical Editor of Bitcoin Magazine, joins Stephan Livera to discuss the criticisms of Drivechain. They cover topics such as miner centralisation, re orgs on sidechains, Stratum v2, and other soft fork ideas. They also explore multi party channels and the importance of developing with what we've got.

Glozow rejoins me to talk about updates coming to Bitcoin’s transactions and mempool policy. We talk about how these will be essential to keep bitcoin use efficient and safe, especially for layer 2 protocols such as Lightning. We chat: Current state with transacting RBF and CPFP Problems right now L2 security Pinning vectors What is package relay?  What is v3 transactions?  What are ephemeral anchors?  Policy vs consensus Glozow links: Glozow on X Waiting for confirmation - blog series on Bitcoin Optech v3 and Package RBF Bitcoin Core Review club Bitcoin Optech v3 transaction relay  Glozow slides for BTC++ talk: v3 and ephemeral anchors Prior episodes: SLP404 Gloria Zhao – What Do Bitcoin Core Maintainers Do? SLP216 Gloria Zhao Learning Bitcoin Core Contribution & Hosting PR Review Club Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Livera: Follow me on Twitter @stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast

A common question amongst bitcoin investors is whether bitcoin on-chain analytics is legitimate or whether it is snake oil. Joining me to explore this as well as talk about some new research, is James Check, Lead Analyst of Glassnode. We talk about how the field progressed, and some insights to share on analyzing the bitcoin market: History of on-chain analytics Is it snake oil?  Liveliness Impact of the ‘DCA Army’ Lost coins Vaulted supply vs active supply What does a bull market look like on chain? Where are we now?  Links: James Check on X Glassnode cointime economics paper https://get.glassnode.com/cointime-economics/ Ark https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/cointime-economics Previous episodes: SLP73 Tamas Blummer – Rust-Bitcoin, Threats to Bitcoin & Bitcoin Data Science SLP258 Rafael Schultze-Kraft Bitcoin Supply Crunch SLP190 Rafael Schultze-Kraft – How Many Bitcoins Are Being HODLed? Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Stephan Livera links: Follow me on Twitter @stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast

Lisa Neigut, Bitcoin developer and educator, talks about Bitcoin layer 2's, the Lightning Network, BTC++, and teaching Bitcoin developers at Base58. They discuss the challenges and trajectory of alternative layer 2 solutions like Arc, the importance of running a Lightning node, risks of using Lightning Network, Bitcoin Layer 2 (L2), Nix Bitcoin, and the advantages of using Nix OS and Base58 for teaching Bitcoin transactions.

Vijay Boyapati joins the host and discusses the economy's impact on Bitcoin's 4-year cycles, the contrast between monetary and fiscal stimulus during the COVID crisis, and the potential future of Bitcoin as a macro asset. They also explore the concept of trust in Bitcoin versus gold, the importance of improving Bitcoin technology and onboarding more people into the ecosystem, and the potential risks associated with an ETF.

Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream) has been around Bitcoin research and development for a long time, and has a lot of insight to share on Bitcoin research in this episode. For part 2 of my discussion with Andrew we focus more on bitcoin and cryptography research that the team are working on, and what it means for the future of Bitcoin: Cryptography Bulletproofs++  MuSig2 FROST Bitcoin Scripting Miniscript Simplicity CTV and APO Covenants: are they risky for Bitcoin?  Transaction Introspection on Liquid Links: Blockstream Research on X Blockstream Research site Other relevant episodes: SLP476 What is FROST? Is it the future of Bitcoin Multi Sig? with Nick Farrow SLP222 Jonas Nick and Tim Ruffing What’s MuSig2? What Does it Mean for Bitcoin Multisig? SLP452 Bitcoin Miniscript and what it enables – with Antoine Poinsot & Salvatore Ingala SLP339 Jeremy Rubin – What is Check Template Verify? SLP505 MuSig2 in Practice, APO, CTV & Bitcoin Soft Forks with Brandon Black Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Base58  Stephan Livera links: Follow me on Twitter @stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast

A ‘paper computer’ for Bitcoin checksums and Shamir Secret Sharing may seem absurd, but that’s what we’re talking about in this episode! This project is a scheme to generate, encode, checksum, split and recover Bitcoin secret keys, using pencil, paper and lookup tables (alternately, volvelles). We discuss codex32 and the motivation behind it with Andrew Poelstra (Director of Research, Blockstream). Note this is the first of a two part episode. In this first part we discuss: Bitcoin private keys today Multi signature and Shamir Secret Sharing contrasted Where to keep shards or keys Error correction Risks with Hardware wallets (even though you should still use them) BIP39 vs codex32 Limitations of the paper computer (Volvelles) Links: codex32 website codex32 github Blockstream store Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Base58  SL links: Follow me on Twitter @stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast

Brandon Black, Bitcoin developer, discusses implementing MuSig2 at BitGo, future Bitcoin soft forks, APO, and CTV. They explore the benefits and implementation of MuSig2, the difference between MPC and script, and the NPC plus script approach for on-chain Bitcoin holders. They also discuss the Bitcoin Protocol School, Taproot Intensive class, and Cold Card Mark 4, as well as critiques of APO and the alternative covenant proposal. Lastly, they touch on transaction introspection and its relationship to the liquid network.

Have you been wondering about how to design your lifestyle overseas? Rigel (aka coinsurenz) rejoins me on the show to talk about jurisdictional arbitrage in Latin America. We talk about some of his recent moves and his experiences as a bitcoin sovereign individual:  Voice vs Exit - what about ‘staying and fighting’?  Recent residency acquisition in Paraguay How the Latam residency market has shifted Common mistakes that digital nomads make Owning vs Renting homes and storage lockers Designing your life Links: Twitter: @CoinsureNZ SLP328 The Rise of Bitcoin Nomadism with CoinsureNZ Sponsors: Pacific Bitcoin Festival (code LIVERA) CoinKite.com (code LIVERA) Mempool.space Base58  Stephan Livera links: Follow me on Twitter @stephanlivera Subscribe to the podcast