WBD Live in Sydney Pt 1 with Checkmate, Daniel Roberts & Rusty Russell

 
 

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“People understand what they own now, why they own it; you don’t step in front of the FTX train without knowing why the hell you’re here, that takes serious guts and serious conviction.”
— Checkmate

SHOW DESCRIPTION

On September 9th What Bitcoin Did hosted a live show in Sydney. In this first of two podcasts, the guests were the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Iris Energy Daniel Roberts, Glassnode’s Lead On-chain Analyst Checkmate, & the Open Software & Lightning Network developer Rusty Russell. Across these interviews, we discussed various topics related to Bitcoin, including its meaning, its impact on people's thinking, and its potential to reshape the financial system.

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What Bitcoin Did’s live events are a growing part of our work. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to host shows across the US and in the UK. Now, we’ve had the huge honour of hosting a show in Sydney Australia. It is important to extend our reach into new geographies, as the number of talented people working in Bitcoin obviously extends to all corners of the world. But importantly, each geography has invaluable perspectives.

This show, as with all the live shows, covered a huge amount of ground. The conversation commenced with Checkmate providing his views on the meaning of Bitcoin. He described money as time and saw Bitcoin as a source of hope and an opportunity to think differently. Further, Checkmate believes that Bitcoin can reshape our understanding of money and its role in society.

Rusty Russell, a civil engineer turned Bitcoin advocate, shared his journey from scepticism about finance to working in the field. He explained that as an engineer, he views the world from a problem-solving perspective, which differs from the traditional economic viewpoint. He believes that Bitcoin defies logic for traditional economists because it is too simple and elegant for them to understand.

Daniel Roberts and I talked about Iris Energy, a Bitcoin mining company that supports What Bitcoin Did. Daniel explained Bitcoin mining’s opportunity in the context of the energy market, and how Bitcoin mining acts as a demand-side battery allowing miners to adjust their energy consumption based on market pricing. We addressed the misconception that Bitcoin miners are exploiting the energy grid, emphasising that they are part of a functioning market and contribute to grid stability.

The show also covered many other important topics, including the value of data to trading Bitcoin, patterns of behaviour in the Bitcoin market, the Potential of next-generation computing and AI for Bitcoin mining, the different stages of Bitcoin's development, and the potential risks and uncertainties associated with stablecoins. Watch out for the second show which has the discussion with the equally awesome pairing of Nik Bhatia and Willy Woo.

TIMESTAMPS

00:02:17: Introductions
00:03:32: Checkmate on how Bitcoin changes you
00:08:05: The Cantillon effect, and time preference
00:13:48: On-chain analysis, and bear market cycles
00:31:19: Dan Roberts on mining and grid stabilisation
00:39:56: ASICs, AI, and the next halving
00:59:33: Rusty Russell on The Whitepaper
01:02:54: The three ages of Bitcoin
01:07:43: Scars of the Blocksize Wars
01:19:27: Tether
01:30:08: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

PodcastPeter McCormack