Does Bitcoin Have Gatekeepers? With Andreas M. Antonopoulos

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“If this system only works if everybody adopts it at the highest level of financial sovereignty and highest level of technical skill and highest level of ideological purity… it’s not going to work.”
— Andreas M. Antonopoulos

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Squadcast
Date: Thursday 3rd September
Company: aantonop.com
Role: Speaker, Author & Educator

Some of the most vocal people in the Bitcoin community are highly technical, anarcho-capitalist libertarians, drawn to Bitcoin for its sound money properties. Some have a vision that Bitcoin will change many aspects of the modern world by reducing the role of the state and leading to a more open and free society, but is this vision shared by all?

While it has been essential to protect the Bitcoin protocol from attacks by nefarious parties, has this immune system evolved into ideas beyond Bitcoin which become counter-productive to Bitcoin adoption?

In a space with more than its fair share of scams and people with questionable intentions, some people play an important role in calling these out and protecting investors. However, some Bitcoiners hold others to a very high standard on other political and ideological issues which can create an intimidating environment.

Is Bitcoin an apolitical tool for the censorship-resistant transfer of wealth, or is it a weapon for a political revolution?

Recently, I asked the question on Twitter “What is an xPub”? As someone who is not very technical, this seemed to be a reasonable question, however, I received a lot of backlash from the more technical Bitcoiners. Are there a set of core principles that Bitcoiners should hold and if so, how are these defined, or are these principles just representative of one sub-community within Bitcoin?

In this interview, I talk to Bitcoin Speaker, Author & Educator; Andreas M. Antonopoulos. We discuss toxicity in the Bitcoin community, the steps to better Bitcoin privacy and what an xPub is.

TIMESTAMPS

00:06:54: Introductions
00:07:12: The "What is xPub?" question
00:11:47: Protecting the Bitcoin protocol
00:17:59: How to present Bitcoin to a wider audience
00:20:44: Peter's own Bitcoin use case
00:22:42: Stephanie Murphy's staircase of financial sovereignty
00:27:17: The importance of security and privacy
00:28:55: When to take the next step
00:34:58: Building fail-safe systems into security
00:38:47: Why adopt Bitcoin?
00:47:01: Creating tiers for security and privacy
00:54:04: Address reuse and "taint" explained
01:00:20: xPubs: the what, why and how
01:17:32: Final Comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

PodcastPeter McCormack