Bitcoin Vs Altcoins 2 with Alex Gladstein & Erik Voorhees

 
 

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“What I care about isn’t that Bitcoin succeeds, or that Ethereum succeeds, or that any specific project succeeds. What I care about is separating money from state; the entire financial system being built on market principles instead of coercion.”
— Erik Voorhees

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Remotely
Date: Tuesday 16th November
Project: Human Rights Foundation & ShapeShift
Role: Chief Strategy Officer & CEO, Founder

The schism between Bitcoin maximalists, and those who champion altcoins, is a feature of the ecosystem. The arguments are well worn. However, the history of the debate has largely been regarded as toxic. 

Maximalists tend to believe that, at best, ‘altcoins’ are inferior iterations of Bitcoin that involve a compromise, usually greater centralization in favour of larger transaction capacity. The compounding issue is that the majority of these tokens are scams, efforts to rug pull ignorant retail investors. Either way, altcoins are neither aligned to, nor on a trajectory to align with, Bitcoin.

Altcoin advocates point to the rapid innovation happening in the space, where the TradFi is being disrupted in real-time. This is whilst the promise of Bitcoin being a foundational layer for DeFi remains just that, a promise. 

In this interview, I discuss the ideological differences between Bitcoin and altcoins with Erik Voorhees & Alex Gladstein. We discuss the importance of Bitcoin, monetary policies, the political science of blockchains, and consensus & coercion.

TIMESTAMPS

00:03:31: Introductions
00:04:48: Alex's introductory remarks
00:06:28: Erik's introductory remarks
00:13:40: ShapeShift's coin selection criteria
00:15:33: Bitcoin and human rights
00:21:48: Ethereum and the move to proof of stake
00:29:15: Defining coercion within protocols
00:32:33: The future of the mining infrastructure
00:36:51: Ethereum's flexible monetary policy
00:41:07: DeFi and the threat of a future systemic shock
00:55:38: Autonomy vs centralisation
01:06:37: The spectrum of decentralisation
01:12:19: Political decisions vs market decisions
01:19:47: Bitcoin vs Ethereum cultural differences
01:28:00: The long-term future of altcoins
01:31:40: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

Connect with Alex:

Connect with Erik:

Mentioned in the interview:

Other Relevant WBD Podcasts:

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