Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Vlad Costea
  • 4.8 (28)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

On the Bitcoin Takeover podcast you're going to hear the builders and innovators who make the Bitcoin project valuable. It's thanks to their work that the BTC price goes up, and it's their efforts that convince large investors that Bitcoin is the future of money. Here you will find the projects and ideas that will radically improve Bitcoin in the future, presented by the creators and innovators themselves. Time to learn!

  1. 6d ago

    S17 E29: Grafton Clark on Vibe Coding, Privacy & Bitcoin Culture

    Grafton Clark is best known in the Bitcoin space for his work at SatoshiLabs and Vexl. But more recently, he discovered vibe coding and completely fell in love with it. In this episode, we talk about all the cool stuff you can just build with help from AI... and where Bitcoin fits into this equation. Hopefully, this dialogue will inspire you to create something cool, that reignites your love for computers. Time stamps: 00:00:36 Intro: Grafton on freedom of transactions & cash 00:01:45 Breaking FUD: onboarding a friend through gaming 00:03:13 Writing for humans or for AI to summarize? 00:05:40 The internet's resurgence & discovering Nostr 00:07:42 Digital ID & age verification fears 00:08:03 Gem: the "Cool For Free" iPod scheme story 00:09:30 Cake Wallet Zcash giveaway setup 00:10:14 "I don't want hardware anymore" — build your own tools 00:12:04 Building an Apple Watch live-music app in 3 days 00:13:28 Roadstr, mesh networks & freedom tech 00:16:27 The vibe coding debate 00:20:18 Grafton's setup: Mac Mini, OpenClaw & self-hosting 00:23:25 Taming a giant live-music library with AI 00:25:35 Learning vs regurgitating: AI and education 00:26:38 Two sides of everything: Bitcoiners love to argue 00:28:28 Why a Zcash giveaway? Zerocash history explained 00:30:03 "That was the whole idea of maximalism" 00:30:48 The Monero address troll 00:32:20 Sending Zcash via Cake Wallet 00:33:22 No CEO, no HR: why Satoshi disappearing matters 00:35:08 Zcash vs Monero: comparing the privacy tech 00:36:46 The culture problem: HODLing vs spending 00:40:03 Hot take: "If you don't use Bitcoin as money, it's a Ponzi" 00:40:47 Michael Saylor, pizza day & the Manhattan quote 00:41:57 Pokemon cards & what makes a "real" Bitcoiner 00:43:21 Buying a Nintendo Switch with Bitcoin 00:44:35 Find "digital gold" in the white paper 00:46:36 Satoshi never envisioned KYC 00:48:14 Gem: privacy means "dance like no one's watching" 00:51:08 The Hawk Tuah girl & normalizing overexposure 00:54:25 Brands as verbs & Gen Z's "ask chat" 00:57:05 Millennials, analog cravings & LLM imperfections 00:59:01 Futurama, AI dependence & moving to a farm 01:01:09 Impostor syndrome & the meaning of work 01:02:46 UBI, Idiocracy & doomscrolling 01:04:31 Gem: the Super Bowl's most powerful ad 01:06:35 Is today's propaganda any different? 01:07:44 AI voice-cloning scams & protecting your parents 01:10:24 Data leaks, KYC & living life in public 01:12:08 Building forts, kids' dreams & role models today 01:17:26 Building an empire from the bedroom: EA & N64 01:18:47 Grafton's mom, the video game champion 01:21:18 Community, church & Hurricane Katrina 01:24:58 Work from home vs real socialization 01:26:46 "Is this still a Bitcoin podcast?" Does Bitcoin fix it? 01:30:01 Spend it, earn it: value for value & Juraj Bednar 01:33:31 Why onboarding friends so often fails (& Dentacoin) 01:37:08 Bitcoin is the revenge of the nerds 01:39:16 Mississippi roots & cowboy boots in Europe 01:45:04 Bitcoin.com news 01:46:26 Layer Two Labs & drivechains 01:47:17 SideShift.ai for stablecoin payments 01:48:33 Vexl: peer-to-peer, face-to-face Bitcoin trading 01:50:37 KYC kills: kidnappings & "kill your customer" 01:53:35 Coinbase & Binance KYC leaks 01:54:19 Why Saylor doesn't represent every Bitcoiner 01:56:02 Why base-layer privacy ends the Knots debate 01:57:05 AI eating Bitcoin mining & US hash rate 02:01:27 MiCA is killing European Bitcoin adoption 02:05:33 Gem: grandpa's secret $20 & why cash matters 02:07:07 Switzerland, Alexis Roussel & the right to a human 02:10:05 Privacy as the major concern with AI 02:11:18 Where to find Grafton's open source projects

    2h 13m
  2. S16 E28: Josh Swihart on Zcash & ZODL

    Jun 13

    S16 E28: Josh Swihart on Zcash & ZODL

    Josh Swihart is the founder of ZODL: the Zcash Open Development Lab. Basically a for profit reincarnation of the old Electric Coin Company, which inherited the dev teams and projects. During his previous Bitcoin Takeover podcast appearance in November 2024 (S15 E62), Zcash was a struggling privacy project with very little support and a rather disappointing price action. In June 2026, Zcash is the rising star of the cryptocurrency market, with plans to scale to billions of users and ever-improving shielding technology. In this episode, we talk about the good, the bad, and the controversial moments in the recent history of Zcash... and why Bitcoin didn't activate Zerocash yet. Time stamps: 00:01:14 Intro: Josh Swihart returns after 20 months 00:02:07 Why Zcash is "in a class of its own" (and self-defeating) 00:03:28 Shielded note Q: the run on the Orchard pool before Iron Wood 00:05:22 What are shielded pools? Sprout, Sapling, Orchard explained 00:06:26 The Orchard vulnerability found by Taylor Hornby 00:06:48 Why Zcash matters to Bitcoin: Zerocoin, Zerocash, Halo 2 00:09:06 The secret: from near-delisting at $30 to near top 10 00:11:03 Governance battles, killing the dev fund, refocusing ECC 00:13:03 Peacemonger research and focusing on the first 100 users 00:14:09 Keystone, NEAR intents swaps, and shielded pool growth 00:15:23 Reflexivity and the macro case (Canadian truckers, seizures) 00:16:32 Cake Wallet, Vic Sharma, and the ZEC integration recognition problem 00:17:57 The Monero rivalry and the privacy renaissance 00:19:35 "Cypherpunk does not mean criminal": Samourai vs Wasabi 00:23:04 Railgun comparison and why fungibility matters 00:25:02 Zmap, Flexa, and spending shielded ZEC in stores 00:26:21 Buying lunch at Chipotle and a Ford F150 truck with Zcash 00:27:33 Giveaway setup + sponsors 00:30:32 Why is Zcash "lied about a ton"? 00:34:03 Debunking the low anonymity-set myth and DeFi integrations 00:35:48 "Main character syndrome," paid FUD, and the influencer claim 00:38:50 Uncorrelated price + maximalist FUD around the Orchard bug 00:40:40 The ethics of disclosure and Taylor Hornby's character 00:45:03 The security budget problem and Network Sustainability Module 00:46:56 Scaling Zcash: Tachyon, recursion, and off-chain services 00:49:35 Do shielded memos bloat the chain? 00:51:32 The shielded stablecoins / shielded assets debate 00:58:31 Last giveaway call + ZODL phone overheating 00:59:12 New user Q: where's the privacy when you spend? 01:01:02 Shielded vs transparent transactions explained 01:03:22 Number reveal and winners 01:06:39 Crypto Visa/Mastercard debit cards: winning or losing? 01:09:56 Has Bitcoin been co-opted? Adam Back and incentives 01:15:20 What stops Zcash from being co-opted like Bitcoin? 01:19:52 Decentralization and killing the trademark agreement 01:21:31 Many orgs now: Foundation, Shielded Labs, Tachyon, Valor 01:23:21 No funding from exchanges or mining pools 01:26:04 ZODL origin: Balaji, fundraising, and the ECC split 01:29:17 ZODL's business model: 50 bps on swaps 01:30:01 Hardware wallets: Keystone, Passport, Trezor Safe 7 01:34:07 How Slush discovered Bitcoin through Zooko 01:35:37 Zcash ASIC demand and decentralizing mining 01:38:51 ECC wind-down, the Bootstrap settlement, and dev funds 01:42:38 Thoughts on ZNS (Zcash Naming Service) 01:44:47 Living with the FUD and "Zionist coin" conspiracies 01:46:31 Why disclose the bug publicly? Transparency vs trust 01:48:18 Inside the emergency coordination with pools and exchanges 01:49:52 Echoes of Bitcoin's 2013 hard fork 01:51:49 Iron Wood and Tachyon upgrade timelines 01:53:31 Closing: the Zcash dance and where to follow Josh

    1h 55m
  3. S17 E27: Kieran Mesquka on Railgun & Building Privacy

    Jun 1

    S17 E27: Kieran Mesquka on Railgun & Building Privacy

    Kieran Mesquka is a contributor to privacy projects, best known for his work on Railgun for Ethereum. He is also an advocate for freedom-maximizing technologies and a connoisseur of Zero Knowledge privacy. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to build shielded pools and anonymization tools in a political landscape that actively fights against it. Time stamps: 00:01:10 - Introducing Kieran Mesquka 00:02:21 - Kieran's Early Crypto Involvement, GPU Mining 00:03:54 - Discovering Bitcoin 00:06:31 - Transition to Ethereum Smart Contracts 00:10:24 - Motivation for Working on Privacy 00:20:33 - Comparing Tornado Cash and Railgun 00:26:30 - Why Tornado Cash Developers Got in Trouble 00:29:10 - The "Kieran is Satoshi" Joke 00:31:07 - General Online Privacy and Naomi Brockwell 00:33:25 - The Surveillance of Smart Devices 00:43:43 - The Problem with Subscriptions for Hardware 00:46:35 - Building Privacy for Mainstream Adoption 00:51:04 - Podcast Sponsors: Orange Rock, Cake Wallet, SideShift.AI, Layer Two Labs 00:54:49 - Technical Similarities Between Railgun and Zcash 01:00:26 - Opt-in vs. Default Privacy 01:02:37 - Why Bitcoin Lacks Advanced Privacy 01:10:32 - Railgun's Multi-Chain Presence 01:15:05 - The State of Ethereum and Privacy Demand 01:19:13 - Railgun's Elevator Pitch 01:20:47 - Railgun's Transaction Filtering System 01:29:20 - Trusting Zero-Knowledge Proofs 01:36:18 - Future of Privacy Technology 01:40:37 - How to Follow Kieran's Work

    1h 43m
  4. S17 E26: Steve Thurmond, Calin Culianu & The Phenomenal Big Blockers

    May 27

    S17 E26: Steve Thurmond, Calin Culianu & The Phenomenal Big Blockers

    Almost 9 years since the big split of the Bitcoin community, it's time to learn more about how the Bitcoin Cash chain developed. Calin Culianu is the creator of Fulcrum, an efficient privacy-preserving SPV client. Steve Thurmond is the most ardent advocate for Cash Stamps: a convenient paper wallet system that's used for gifting. Throughout the episode, more BCH community members will join to have the conversation that you will never hear on any other Bitcoin podcast. Time stamps: 00:01:09 Introducing Calin Culianu & Steve Thurmond 00:02:37 The Evolution of Bitcoin Cash 00:03:59 Who is Behind Bitcoin Cash Now? 00:06:34 Narratives and Misconceptions 00:07:53 Vlad's Perspective on the Fork 00:09:44 Bitcoin's Capture and Speculative Nature 00:11:48 Vlad's Journey with Lightning Network 00:16:07 Blockstream and the "Banker" Conspiracy 00:18:33 The Security Budget Debate 00:22:12 The Problem with IOU Systems like Lightning 00:24:02 Vlad's Disappointment with Onboarding 00:24:58 Ethereum's Rise Amidst Bitcoin's Infighting 00:27:52 The Bankers Won, But Crypto Still Exists 00:32:16 The Future of Bitcoin and Firing Core Devs 00:33:08 The Wall of Consensus in BTC 00:39:19 The Multi-Coin Future 00:42:48 Bitcoin Cash's Development Philosophy 00:49:08 Craig Wright's Controversial Involvement 00:55:16 The Impact of Contentious Forks 00:58:55 The Resilience of Bitcoin Cash 01:02:32 The Value of Open Source Competition 01:08:51 Greg Maxwell's Influence 01:12:00 The Ecash fork 01:25:02 Introducing New BCH Community Members 01:26:38 Building Smart Contracts on Bitcoin Cash 01:34:06 Why UTXO is Better than EVM 01:40:07 Can You Run a BCH Node? 01:41:07 The Flawed "Run a Node" Narrative 01:53:27 The Dangers of RBF and the Importance of 0-Conf 02:05:07 One-Minute Blocks Proposal 02:08:02 Finality and User Experience in Wallets 02:12:13 The "It's Just Money, Bro" Philosophy 02:41:39 What Can You Buy with BCH? 02:48:28 The Permissionless Nature of BCH 02:52:12 The Paradox of Layer Twos 02:57:18 The Stigma of Building on BCH 02:58:21 The Changing Culture of Bitcoin Cash 03:11:35 Ordinals and the "Spam" Debate 03:17:07 Would BCH Still Have a Nice Dev Culture If Michael Saylor Started Buying? 03:28:14 Quantum Computing and Satoshi's Coins 03:42:59 The Tail Emission Debate 03:50:11 The Culture is the Ultimate Defense 03:53:16 The Politicization of Bitcoin Development 03:59:26 Privacy and Fungibility 04:02:21 The Future of Privacy on BCH 04:36:12 Fulcrum: An Electrum Server Implementation 04:38:54 The Litecoin Question 04:49:13 The Difficulty of Recreating Bitcoin's Genesis 04:51:38 The Long-Term Bet on SHA-256 04:54:12 A Break and Introduction to Rosco 05:48:33 CashScript and Smart Contracts on BCH 05:55:22 BCH vs. Ethereum Smart Contracts 06:03:05 The UTXO Stack and Abstraction Layers 06:43:30 The Avalanche Pre-Consensus Question 06:45:51 The "Tax" Fork 07:04:06 The Failed Attack on Bitcoin Cash 07:08:58 The 2018 Inflation Bug Disclosure 07:22:46 The Michael Saylor Phenomenon 07:28:41 The Arrest of Roger Ver 07:39:28 Spending Crypto in the Real World 07:44:22 The End of Crypto-Friendly Spaces in Europe 07:52:05 Prediction Markets and Community Sponsorship 08:08:17 Robin Linus is Jealous of BCH Opcodes 08:09:50 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

  5. S17 E25: Milan De Reede on Nano GPT, AI & Vibe Coding

    May 19

    S17 E25: Milan De Reede on Nano GPT, AI & Vibe Coding

    Milan De Reede is the co-founder of Nano GPT: a service that allows you to access all the premium (as well as free) AI models from the same interface, as you pay with bitcoin (and a bunch of other supported coins) for every query and prompt. It successfully allows users to experiment, save money on otherwise expensive subscriptions, and build without any limits (outside of the tokens budget). In this episode, we talk about the origins of Nano GPT, why it's so useful, and how you can get started with vibe coding your dream project. Essentially, my conversation with Milan De Reede finds itself at the intersection between cryptocurrencies and AI: a concept that may become increasingly popular in the future. Try Nano GPT today with my referral code, get some bonuses: https://nano-gpt.com/r/Qx83bnwz Time stamps: 00:01:07 Introducing Milan & Nano GPT 00:03:03 The Origins of Nano GPT 00:04:31 How Nano Cryptocurrency Works 00:05:25 Nano vs. Sharding 00:08:08 Validator Incentives in Nano 00:10:44 Nano's Proof-of-Stake-like System 00:11:57 Critique of Bitcoin Mining Centralization 00:16:30 The Impact of AI on Bitcoin Mining 00:18:11 Proof-of-Work vs. Proof-of-Stake Security 00:22:18 The Monero 51% Attack Risk 00:23:41 Nano GPT's Most Used Cryptocurrencies (Monero, Zcash, Bitcoin, and Nano) 00:27:16 Upcoming Bitcoin Hard Fork: ECash 00:30:15 The Quantum Computing Threat to Bitcoin 00:33:15 The Blurring Lines at Bitcoin Conferences 00:36:41 Online vs. In-Person Crypto Debates 00:39:47 Sponsor Mentions 00:42:40 How Nano GPT Selects and Hosts AI Models 00:45:06 The "Auto Model" Feature 00:46:33 Privacy and Anonymity on Nano GPT 00:54:14 The Business Model of Nano GPT 00:55:23 User Growth and Community 00:57:15 Incentivizing Crypto Payments on Nano GPT 01:07:02 The Impact of AI on Society 01:09:44 AI's Role in Education and Plagiarism 01:13:16 The Future of AI and Human Creativity 01:18:20 The Vision Behind Nano GPT

    1h 24m

  6. May 15

    S17 E24: Zach Herbert on AI & Hardware Wallets

    Zach Herbert is the CEO of Foundation, a company which specializes in building hardware wallets that offer extra security features. The latest model, the Passport Prime, aims to also replace YubiKey for Two Factor Authentication and other more expensive encrypted storage devices. But now thanks to AI and the open source app store, new possibilities have opened up. Buy your Passport Prime using promo code ”BTCTKVR” and get a free bumper case, worth $19! Time stamps: 00:01:07 Introducing Zach Herbert, CEO of Foundation 00:03:11 Live Unboxing of Passport Prime 00:04:14 Foundation's Sci-Fi Inspiration 00:05:32 Passport Prime First Impressions 00:08:40 Factory Reset and Resale 00:09:49 Quantum Link and Bluetooth Setup 00:15:24 Firmware Update Process 00:17:43 Haptic Feedback and User Experience 00:20:05 Magic Backup with NFC Key Cards 00:25:50 Restoring from a Magic Backup 00:26:45 User Interface and Upcoming Changes 00:29:02 KeyOS: The Custom Operating System 00:32:36 Active Tamper-Proofing 00:35:49 Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Feature 00:37:13 The Vault App 00:43:39 Live Device Wipe and Restore 00:48:57 Troubleshooting the Restore Process 00:50:18 Market Position and Competition 00:52:29 How Magic Backup Works 00:56:21 Foundation's Open-Source App Store 01:01:46 Solving Digital Life Security 01:18:07 Giveaway Winner Announcement 01:31:01 Manufacturing Passport Prime in the USA 01:46:06 Thoughts on Duress Mode 01:56:26 AI Integration and Vibe Coding 02:07:29 Business Model and Subscription Service 02:30:39 The Future is Not Air-Gapped

    2h 36m

  7. May 10

    S17 E23: Hunter Beast & Mark Karpelès on Bitcoin's Quantum Upgrade

    Hunter Beast is the author of BIP360, the most popular proposal to add quantum resistant signatures to Bitcoin. Mark Karpelès is the former CEO of Mt. Gox and the creator of Tiban wallet. In this episode, they talk about the looming quantum threat. Time stamps: 00:00:56 Introducing Hunter Beast 00:02:38 Hunter Beast's New Role at Surmount Systems and Quantum Urgency 00:05:28 The Timeline for a Quantum Upgrade 00:07:07 The Need for a Concrete Technical Process 00:09:36 Surmount Systems' Fundraising and Mission 00:12:30 What is Surmount Systems? 00:15:09 Mark Karpeles Joins the Conversation 00:16:31 Lessons Learned from Mt. Gox 00:19:18 Quantum Resistance and BIP32 HD Wallets 00:25:22 The Debate on Satoshi's Coins 00:29:09 Timelines for Phasing Out Old Signatures 00:32:24 Long vs. Short Exposure Quantum Attacks 00:33:36 The US Government and Quantum Computing 00:36:59 Quantum Resistance in Other Blockchains 00:42:05 Bundling Upgrades with Quantum Resistance 00:48:26 Bitcoin's Role in Separating Money and State 00:50:06 The Upcoming Ecash Fork 00:53:47 Mark Karpeles at the Conference: a Magic: The Gathering tournament 00:57:07 Mark's New Wallet Project: Tiban, Using Threshold Signatures 01:02:03 Mark's First Time in the USA

    1h 4m
  8. S17 E22: Jeremy Rubin on CTV, Char & Building on Bitcoin

    May 6

    S17 E22: Jeremy Rubin on CTV, Char & Building on Bitcoin

    Jeremy Rubin is the author of BIP 119 (OP_CTV, Check Template Verify) and co-author of BIP 348 (CSFS, Check Sig From Stack). More recently, he started working on Char: a decentralized shared sequencer for Bitcoin layer 2s. In this episode, which we recorded at the LayerTwo Labs booth during the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, we talk about the challenges involved in improving Bitcoin and why Jeremy chooses to be a relentless builder even in an adversarial environment. Time stamps: 00:00:48 Podcast Introduction and Sponsors 00:03:02 Jeremy Rubin's Bitcoin Journey 00:03:24 Introduction to Check Template Verify (CTV) 00:04:44 The Philosophy Behind CTV 00:06:40 CTV for Congestion Control 00:07:57 CTV for Self-Custody Vaults 00:09:35 The Failed Activation of CTV 00:11:25 The "Technical Consensus" Debate 00:13:45 FUD and Misinformation Campaign 00:17:45 Blockstream's Role in Bitcoin Development 00:21:44 The Inevitability of CTV 00:26:04 The State of the Bitcoin Ecosystem 00:28:20 Bitcoin Maximalism and Cypherpunk Spirit 00:29:34 Learning from Other Projects 00:31:52 Bitcoin Cash's Technical Progress 00:35:39 The "Small Blocker" Paradox 00:37:34 Cultural Barriers to Building 00:39:24 The Future of Bitcoin and Freedom 00:43:08 Paul Sztorc's Ecash Fork 00:49:06 Confiscating Satoshi's Coins 00:58:51 The Problem with OP_CAT 01:01:56 Security Practices at Conferences 01:06:01 What Excites Jeremy About Bitcoin Today 01:09:01 On Being a "Difficult" Personality 01:12:20 Introduction to Char 01:15:04 Why Use Proof of Stake? 01:18:38 Final Thoughts on Agency and Freedom

    1h 23m
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4.8
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About

On the Bitcoin Takeover podcast you're going to hear the builders and innovators who make the Bitcoin project valuable. It's thanks to their work that the BTC price goes up, and it's their efforts that convince large investors that Bitcoin is the future of money. Here you will find the projects and ideas that will radically improve Bitcoin in the future, presented by the creators and innovators themselves. Time to learn!

Information

  • Creator
    Vlad Costea
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    348
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2019-2026, Vlad Costea, Bitcoin Takeover
  • Show Website
    Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

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