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)

Stephan Livera

SLP506 A Paper Computer for Bitcoin? Codex32 with Andrew Poelstra

A ‘paper computer’ for Bitcoin checksums and Shamir Secret Sharing may seem absurd, but that’s what we’re talking about in this episode!

SLP505 MuSig2 in Practice, APO, CTV & Bitcoin Soft Forks with @Rearden 🥪🤖🍴🛩 Brandon and I chat: - MuSig2 benefits - MPC gang vs script boys - CTV - APO - New proposal offering features of both

Stephan Livera

SLP505 MuSig2 in Practice, APO, CTV & Bitcoin Soft Forks with Brandon Black

Brandon Black (aka Rearden Code) joins me on the show to talk about his experience implementing MuSig2 at BitGo and soft fork ideas for Bitcoin ran...

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

Stephan Livera

SLP504 Design Your Life With Jurisdictional Arbitrage – Coinsurenz

Have you been wondering about how to design your lifestyle overseas? Rigel (aka coinsurenz) rejoins me on the show to talk about jurisdictional arb...

CBDCs are a few years off, but govts are researching it now. An Australian CBDC Pilot report was released today, done by the RBA and DFCRC. Here are some things I noted from a quick look through it: - They're looking at functions like 'smart payments' e.g. to automate GST collection - They did explore 'direct control' with the pilot CBDC where the holder performs the tx in a non-custodial fashion. They also had other structures such as custodial and pooled ownership models for CBDC tokens. - Legal, regulatory, technical and operational issues were explored that they'd need to resolve before any kind of broader roll out. They acknowledge that serious exploration of this is years off. - They seem focused on tokenising things and trading them around atomically, even mentioning HTLCs (a concept used in Lightning network today). This also included some typical statist causes such as tokenised carbon credits, NSW 'biodiversity' credits. But also more general ideas like supplier invoices. As a Bitcoiner some reflections I have are that they're very focused on payments. Whereas the big shift I see with Bitcoin is that it's a new savings asset outside the state's control. Of course, with Bitcoin you can do payments, and the Bitcoin ecoystem will build out advanced functionality on lightning and payments, Discreet Log Contracts, and smarter scripting - but the mere fact that it's all based on a new unit of account is what makes Bitcoin unique. This is Bitcoin's unique selling point. So while TradFi can replicate faster payments and try to tokenise assets, the real story with Bitcoin is it is an alternative monetary system. Bitcoin is a monetary system that more and more people will want to be part of, because it offers an unrivaled level of freedom.

"The democratic age can hardly be "the end of history," as the neoconservatives want us to believe, for there is also an economic side to the process. Market interventions will inevitably cause more of the problems they are supposed to cure, which leads to more and more controls and regulations until we finally reach full-blown socialism. If the current trend continues, it can safely be predicted that the democratic welfare state of the West will eventually collapse as did the "people's republics" of the East in the late 1980s. For decades, real incomes in the West have stagnated or even fallen. Government debt and the cost of the "social insurance" schemes have brought on the prospect of an economic meltdown. At the same time, social conflict has risen to dangerous heights." - Hans Hermann Hoppe in Natural Elites, Intellectuals and the State, from 2006 https://mises.org/library/natural-elites-intellectuals-and-state

SLP502 VLSProject - Ken Sedgwick Ken joins me to chat: - Lightning security with VLS - How VLS works - What rules and implementations are covered? - Lightning protocol changes - how you can help

Stephan Livera

SLP502 Validating Lightning Signer – Ken Sedgwick

How can lightning users secure themselves even further? Just like how hardware wallets and secure elements can help secure your cold storage coins,...

SLP501 RGB Walkthrough with Dr Maxim Orlovsky We talk: - history and reason behind RGB - Client side validation - RGB ecosystem - what it can be used for - MyCitadel Wallet - What's next for RGB

Jonathan Chester, Founder/CEO of Bitwage joins me to talk about his experience setting up the company and enabling more people to earn Bitcoin: The story of growing Bitwage The market size for payroll Exploring Lightning payouts Remote working as a trend HODLing as the use

Stephan Livera

SLP499 Earning Bitcoin & Remote Working – Jonathan Chester, Bitwage

How can you earn bitcoin even if your employer doesn’t directly pay with bitcoin? Jonathan Chester of Bitwage joins me to explain

Mara joins me to talk about his adventures in Argentina, and his thoughts on: Geo arbitrage Rules in theory, rules in practice FX in Argentina Bitcoin use in Argentina Argentina’s property market Where things are going with CBDCs

Stephan Livera

SLP498 BowTiedMara – Bitcoin and Geoarbitrage in Argentina

Mara is a bitcoiner living in Argentina who joins me to talk about where things are going and share insights from his life on the ground in Argentina.

Author, digital nomad and web entrepreneur Olivier Roland joins me to talk about his issues with AML and his very interesting views on where the world is going in the age of remote working and internet communications. The problem with KYC / AML FATCA Taxes and the Sovereign Individual thesis Digital Nomadism disrupting nation states

Stephan Livera

SLP497 Olivier Roland KYC and AML are Destroying the World

What’s wrong with AML and KYC? We also chat about how the nation state may be disrupted by an increasingly mobile group of digital nomads and...

“Politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organizing nothing better than legalized mass murder”. Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier of World War I, 2007

"I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers do care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic—it has no conscience." - John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down

Joe Carlasare (Partner at Amundsen Davis LLC) and Bitcoiner joins me to share his legal expertise and opinions on: Why you shouldn’t expect the Bitcoin spot ETF soon The SEC Ripple decision SEC Binance and Coinbase Bitcoin and stablecoins Macro thoughts

Stephan Livera

SLP495 Joe Carlasare – Bitcoin ETF? Lawsuits and Bitcoin

Wondering what happens with the Bitcoin Spot ETF? Joe Carlasare joins us to explain why it’s not so likely soon, as well as share his thought...

Mercola was critical of the COVID-regime and jabs, and now his business bank accounts are being shut down. If you hold non-regime approved views, your fiat accounts will be shut down. Bitcoin adoption is guaranteed at this point.

Reminder FATF and AML laws are a scam

Stephan Livera

SLP424 Simon Lelieveldt The Problem With FATF and AML Laws

Simon Lelieveldt, a business engineer with extensive experience in banking, central banking and acting as supervisor joins me on the show. We’re ...

I'm a fan of homeschooling as a way to give kids a better chance at a fruitful and productive life, and play the long game. For so long, the state and the kinds of people who rise up in those systems have had too much power over the education system. They rig it in favour of themselves, and the education bureaucrats couldn't care less about your child. They will teach all kinds of nonsense statist propaganda, and not teach useful life skills to your kid anyway. Your child in statist school has a chance of facing bullying by other kids, and anti social behaviour generally in public schooling systems. 'Private schooling' doesn't even seem that much better because the curriculum and style still has to follow a lot of the public schooling methods. Also remember with public schooling, your kid won't get the time to focus and properly learn things. Instead it's 50 minute classes where they don't want to be there, and the bell rings and it's time for the next class. The teachers have to teach at the pace of the slowest kid in class. No time to build up a deep focus on things. No time to really become creatively engaged in a project, and be a real self starter who sees a project to fruition. I believe homeschooling and unschooling can change this dynamic. It's a perfect match for bitcoiners who are generally more freedom minded. This became a lot more real to me recently, as I had a son this year and I intend to homeschool him + future kids our family has.

"How often do you hear the excuse that bitcoiners make when they onboard a user to a custodial Lightning wallet but say they will "come back later and inform the user about self-custody"? That's the biggest lie bitcoiners tell themselves when it is called out. No, you don't return to that coffee shop you visited once on vacation to educate them about self-custody. Sorry but nobody is buying that." - great post by @Deleted Account

Tony Giorgio

Lightning Everywhere

Lightning usage is growing, and while it may be far from perfect, the superior payment technology will win out. If we can work around some of today...

Hannah Frankman of Rebel Educator joins me to talk about homeschooling and the problems of Public School: Failures of public schooling vs homeschooling Infantilization of people nowadays Homeschooling vs unschooling Social skills of homeschooled kids Single income trade offs Results of homeschooling

Stephan Livera

SLP494 Hannah Frankman – Intro to Homeschooling

Have you wondered about the failures of public schooling? Homeschooling might be an option for you

As Elon attempts a misguided rebranding of Twitter to X, I'm reminded of a saying, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake".

FATF are a bunch of criminals. Remember: - They are not even so open about exactly what kind of entity they are - AML rules are horribly ineffective, extremely costly, and unjust - FATF gang up together with regulators and govts around the world to pressure other govts, banks and FI's to do more AML all in the name of "stopping money laundering" when it's been proven extremely ineffective.