The Conor Chepenik Podcast

Conor Chepenik
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Technology

Bitcoiner doing his part to get the world on a global reserve currency backed by open source software and math instead of violence.

  1. Sep 7

    Bitcoin, AI, Energy & Fixing Venture Capital | Israel Muñoz

    Israel Muñoz has been in Bitcoin since 2013/2014, when he and a business partner began experimenting with using Bitcoin as the back-end rail for international remittances. The first time he moved value across a border without a bank, permission slip, or intermediary was the moment the rabbit hole really opened.More than a decade later, Israel is the co-host of Build With Bitcoin and spends a lot of his time thinking about the businesses, capital, and infrastructure being built around Bitcoin.In this conversation, we get into how much Bitcoin has changed over the last decade, why actually using Bitcoin is so different from merely reading about it, and why better UX may matter more for adoption than making major changes to the base protocol. Then we get into one of my favorite parts of the conversation: incentives.Israel explains why he believes venture capital has drifted away from some of its original purpose, how easy money helped create a culture of raising capital, burning it, growing at all costs, and worrying about profitability later, and why Bitcoin-native founders may approach company building very differently.We discuss lean companies, profitability, Bitcoin on corporate balance sheets, reduced dependence on future equity rounds, and what happens when capital once again has a meaningful opportunity cost.From there, we explore what Israel sees as a powerful convergence between three technologies and resources that could define the next decade: Bitcoin, artificial intelligence, and energy.We also talk about Mita TechTalks, why getting Bitcoiners together in person still matters in an increasingly digital world, self-custody, collaborative custody, security tradeoffs, avoiding ideological dogma when protecting your Bitcoin, and the responsibility that comes with truly owning your money.Finally, I ask Israel the question I like asking every guest:If you could ask Satoshi Nakamoto one question, what would it be?His answer: Why 21 million?Stick around after the conversation for an original song inspired by the episode.Israel:X: https://x.com/isramunozpBuild With Bitcoin: https://buildwithbitcoin.xyzMita TechTalks X: https://x.com/MitaTechTalksSwan Vault:https://swan.com/vaultTIMESTAMPS0:00 Intro0:22 Israel’s Bitcoin rabbit hole4:02 How Bitcoin has changed in 10+ years6:42 Seeing Bitcoin’s value under capital controls9:19 Signal vs. noise in Bitcoin13:10 Bitcoin’s UX problem17:54 Can Bitcoin fix venture capital?20:08 How easy money changed VC23:01 Building profitable Bitcoin companies26:45 Bitcoin, AI & energy28:09 Energy creates abundance30:43 Why meeting Bitcoiners in person matters32:20 Mita TechTalks36:31 Self-custody and responsibility38:37 Collaborative custody40:18 Avoiding Bitcoin security dogma43:06 “It’s your money”43:58 What would you ask Satoshi?44:38 Why 21 million?45:59 Where to find Israel46:54 Original song inspired by the conversation

  2. May 12

    GMONEY: Bitcoin, Soft War, Nostr, AI, and Digital 1776

    GMONEY joins The Conor Chepenik Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on Bitcoin, soft war, self-custody, Nostr, AI, memes, tokenization, and why he believes humanity is living through a global Digital 1776.We discuss GMONEY’s path from Ron Paul, gold, and questioning the Federal Reserve into Bitcoin, his experience at the Las Vegas shooting, why he views Bitcoin as a peaceful power projection technology, and how self-custody gives individuals a new kind of authority in cyberspace. From there, we get into fiat incentives, the spiritual and moral dimensions of money, the role of memes in information warfare, Nostr and zaps as proof-of-real social media, AI as a deflationary force, stablecoins, Counterparty, tokenization, capital markets, Satoshi, and the peaceful opt-out path Bitcoin opens for the world.The episode ends with Digital 1776, a song inspired by the conversation.Follow GMONEY:X: https://x.com/GMONEYPEPETelegram: https://t.me/bullionbitcoinbsNostr: https://primal.net/p/nprofile1qqsqh73r2f3q9x7axf0my6pkv7v9ph3fgetm33dtxtlaccxlw862g2cjllrg6Rugpull Radio on Rumble: https://rumble.com/playlists/N6IFHf2pPm81776.love: https://oplanbtc.com/1776Follow Conor:X: https://x.com/ConorChepenikWebsite: https://www.binmucker.com/Time Codes:00:00:00 Intro00:00:12 Who is GMONEY? Ron Paul, gold, Bitcoin, and Rugpull Radio00:04:19 The Las Vegas shooting and GMONEY’s search for truth00:06:39 Bitcoin as a global Digital 177600:09:51 Why peaceful opt-out beats kinetic revolution00:13:44 Bitcoin, zero-sum fiat games, and win-win incentives00:23:47 Memes, media, and Bitcoin as the truth machine00:30:34 Nostr, zaps, proof-of-work social media, and the dead internet00:37:17 AI, open source, Bitcoin, and the coming deflationary bomb00:50:41 Trump, numerology, 1111, and Bitcoin’s strange coincidences01:00:33 Stablecoins, tokenization, Counterparty, and capital markets01:08:01 What would GMONEY ask Satoshi?01:10:43 Where to find GMONEY01:12:29 Digital 1776 song outro

  3. Apr 20

    Putting a Paywall on Your Inbox with Rythm.xyz

    Sean is my boy from Boston and a great fellow Bitcoiner. He's building Rythm.xyz, a last line of defense for Gmail and Outlook that whitelists known senders and lets strangers pay a Lightning micro-payment to land in your inbox marked as paid. No custody, no money transmitter risk, just LNURL and Cashu tokens doing God's work to bring sound money to the masses.We spend real time on the two filters missing from the internet: identity and cost. Without them, you get an infinite cat-and-mouse game with spammers, AI slop, and eventually a government ID attached to every click. With them, you get something closer to how physical mail works. Intent and honesty, because sending something costs something.From there we go into open-source AI versus proprietary frontier labs, why metered intelligence is the real dystopia, and Sean's ecosystem analogy for what fiat did to civilization. We close on agency. Jeff Booth, Ayn Rand, Satoshi, and why nobody is coming to save you.I hope you enjoy listening to this rip, as much as I enjoyed engaging in it. Timecodes: 00:00:00 Intro and Sean's Bitcoin origin story 00:03:01 Unlearning broken money 00:05:56 Trojan horse for freedom 00:09:00 Rhythm.xyz and the last line of defense for email 00:17:28 Identity and cost, the two missing filters 00:22:25 Panopticon, deepfakes, and paywalling attention 00:35:54 Open source versus proprietary AI 00:47:04 Metered intelligence and the Tesla JP Morgan parallel 00:53:13 Diluting the calorie, the ecosystem analogy 01:00:09 Agency, Ayn Rand, and the question for SatoshiCheck out Rhythm: https://rythm.xyz

  4. Apr 11

    Alex B on Ark, Arkade, Bitcoin Credit Markets, and Layer 2s

    Conor sits down with Alex B, Head of Ecosystem at Ark Labs, to talk about how Ark and Arkade are rethinking Bitcoin's off-chain architecture, why the term "layer two" is going to fade from the conversation, and where Bitcoin credit markets are headed.They get into the technical weeds on how Arkade uses a client-server model with co-signed spending conditions to move Bitcoin off chain without the liquidity and routing headaches that Lightning deals with. Alex explains how Arkade's scripting environment goes beyond simple payment channels, opening up more complex contracts, lending products, and multi-asset swaps, all while keeping unilateral exit to the base chain as a guarantee.The conversation shifts to stablecoins on Bitcoin, specifically why having USD liquidity native to Bitcoin infrastructure is the missing piece for a real credit market. Alex breaks down the difference between how USDC has found traction in international business settlements versus the organic ground-floor adoption Tether has seen in developing economies, and why Ark Labs is talking to smaller stablecoin issuers in different countries to plug into Arkade's platform.They also cover AI and developer tooling: how Alex's team is using agents internally for massive productivity gains, how their CEO vibe-coded an agent-to-agent payment platform running on Arkade, and why the developer experience for crypto integration needs to stop requiring engineers to become blockchain experts. Alex makes the case that agents are downstream of humans, not sentient, and that the real near-term use case is compute purchasing, not autonomous trading.The back half gets into Nostr's potential beyond social media, specifically as a communication and coordination layer for Arkade servers, distributed order books, and trading applications. Alex is honest that the social media use case hasn't pulled him in, but he sees Nostr's simplicity as a natural fit if a new generation of Bitcoin application companies actually materializes.They close on Satoshi, open source, and why Bitcoin is much bigger than any one person.Time codes:00:00:00 - Intro00:02:17 - How Ark and Arkade work technically, client-server model, co-signed spending conditions, comparison to Lightning's hub-and-spoke evolution00:05:49 - Off-chain contracts with operators, unilateral exit, reactive security model00:09:18 - Trade-offs: finality, batch settlement, mempool congestion risk for low-balance users00:13:19 - Ark as protocol vs. Arkade as implementation, why servers don't natively interoperate (Lightning bridges the gap)00:17:16 - Layer two abstraction, Muun Wallet UX as the gold standard00:18:34 - Tether investment, growing the team, Bitcoin credit markets as the underestimated narrative of the cycle00:22:55 - Why stablecoins on Bitcoin matter: USD liquidity for lending, onboarding asset providers, connecting siloed OTC desks into shared on-chain order books00:27:34 - Stablecoin nuance, on-ramp to Bitcoin, permissioned vs. sovereign trade-offs00:30:05 - AI and agents: downstream of humans, not sentient. 00:35:47 - Bitcoin's UTXO model as inherently more secure than Ethereum's account model, ByBit hack as case study00:38:13 - Model degradation during peak usage, deterministic vs. probabilistic code, context management pain00:44:59 - Bitcoin and AI both grounded in proof of work and energy consumption00:48:32 - Deterministic code is dead, the creativity explosion and productivity sink trade-off, ADHD and shiny object syndrome with LLMs00:53:39 - Nostr: not the social media clone, but distributed order books, coordination layers, bounty systems, censorship-resistant infrastructure01:00:38 - The Satoshi question: "Where does he store his private keys?"Where to find Alex and Ark Labs:https://arklabs.xyz https://arkadeos.com https://x.com/BergeAlex4 https://x.com/ArkLabsHQFollow Conor:https://x.com/ConorChepenik  / conorchepenik

  5. Apr 3

    Jan3 CTO Alex Bragin: Bitcoin, AI Agents & The End of Jobs?

    Alex Bragin, CTO of Jan3, joins The Conor Chepenik Podcast to break down the evolution of Bitcoin from its earliest days to today’s AI-driven future.Alex shares what it was like discovering Bitcoin in 2011, building early infrastructure and creating Bitcoin futures, as well as watching it grow from $1 to a global asset. The conversation explores how Bitcoin UX improved over time, why most people still misunderstand it, and how AI is reshaping development, companies, and even the concept of work itself.They also dive into real-world implications of AI agents transacting value, security risks with wallets and bots, quantum computing fears, and how nation-states are thinking about Bitcoin adoption.Key themes include:Why long-term Bitcoin holders stop worrying about tradingHow AI is compressing teams and redefining companiesThe risks of AI handling money and private keysWhether quantum computing is a real threat to BitcoinWhy creativity remains a human advantageHow Bitcoin could reshape global incentives toward cooperationThis episode connects two of the most powerful forces of this decade: Bitcoin and AI.Check out: https://www.jan3.com/Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/BraginRightsFollow Alex on LinkedIn:   / alekseybragin  Follow Conor on X: https://x.com/BraginRightsFollow Conor on LinkedIn:   / conorchepenik  Time Codes:00:00:00 – Intro: Alex Bragin joins the podcast00:00:23 – How Alex discovered Bitcoin in 201100:03:29 – Why holding Bitcoin beats trying to trade it00:05:24 – How Bitcoin wallets evolved from early complexity to better UX00:08:14 – AI excitement, neural networks, and why Alex doesn't trust AI with wallets00:11:03 – AI agents sending sats and betting in group chats00:12:39 – People who hate AI, the creativity debate, and job loss fears00:17:14 – Why Jan3 restructured into smaller AI-first teams00:21:01 – Voice cloning, scams, and security risks00:24:39 – Skill atrophy, the meaning crisis, and what abundance actually looks like00:27:08 – Factory jobs to AI: why this has happened before00:30:49 – Nation states, Bitcoin strategy, and the quantum computing debate00:35:54 – Altcoins vs Bitcoin: why most crypto is fiat 2.000:38:13 – The Sovereign Individual, fleeing with your wealth, and Bitcoin reducing violence00:41:43 – Hot wallets, multi-sig, time locks, and the $5 wrench attack00:46:17 – Privacy, cloud AI surveillance, and why local models matter00:52:01 – Deepfakes, video evidence, and the collapse of trust00:55:21 – Em dashes, AI slop, and keeping your writing voice00:57:06 – If you could ask Satoshi one question00:59:34 – Outro

  6. Mar 19

    Bobby Shell (Voltage): Lightning, Stablecoins on Bitcoin, & Raising Kids in the age of AI

    In this episode of the Conor Chepenik podcast, Bobby Shell, VP of Marketing at Voltage, joins Conor to break down where the Lightning Network actually stands in 2026, enterprise adoption, Cash App's quiet dominance, stablecoins coming to Lightning, and why the next 24 months will define Bitcoin's institutional story.They get into the real trade-offs of self-custody Lightning vs. outsourcing it, how Nostr needs go-to-market people more than engineers, and why Bobby thinks sales is the single most important skill anyone can build heading into an AI-automated economy.Plus: homeschooling, screen time, recess, and what it actually means to raise kids with conviction in 2026.Time Codes:00:00:00 - Intro & guest background00:01:58 - Cash App: 8% of onchain, 25% of txns over Lightning00:02:46 - Stablecoins coming to Lightning & why Tether moved to Bitcoin00:03:45 - Voltage's dollar-settled product for enterprises00:04:47 - Lightning as the payment layer for AI agents00:09:47 - Why some exchanges actively refuse to add Lightning00:11:34 - Self-custody Lightning vs. outsourcing: honest trade-offs00:27:16 - The SMB silver tsunami: 10,000 boomers retiring daily00:32:26 - Sales is the most important skill for the AI era00:39:48 - What would you ask Satoshi if you got one question?00:42:21 - Outro musicConnect:My X: https://x.com/ConorChepenikMy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorchepenik/Voltage website: https://voltage.cloudBobby on X: https://x.com/iBobbyShellBobby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-shell-iv/

  7. Feb 1

    Lightning Turns Money Into a Data Network | Jesse Shrader, CEO of Amboss

    Jesse Shrader built Amboss after paying $60 in Bitcoin transaction fees and watching his payment fail to arrive. Now Amboss is launching Rails X: full peer-to-peer trading directly on Lightning, self-custodial, near-instant, with the network itself acting as a decentralized exchange. In this episode of the Conor Chepenik Podcast we get into Lightning doing 40 million TPS vs Solana's 17,000, why stable coins at the edges actually serve Bitcoiners, AI agents streaming sats for compute, the newspaper-page-size tax story, why the four-year cycle is dead, and Jesse's quote that still floats around Twitter: "Never before has greed tempted me to live a very simple life." Plus my kid closes it out, and if a 3-year-old knows what the best money is, well, you should too. Timecodes below: 00:00:00 — Intro & Jesse's origin story 00:05:46 — Rails X: peer-to-peer trading on Lightning 00:09:27 — Stable coins at the edges & Taproot Assets 00:11:28 — AI tools for building & the "vibe coded app" problem 00:20:41 — Self-custody flips finance on its head 00:29:17 — Lightning for AI agents & micropayments 00:36:04 — Arc, eCash, and symbiotic L2s 00:43:03 — "Never before has greed tempted me to live a simple life" 00:51:38 — 100 years from now: Bitcoin as humanity's record 00:57:01 — If you could ask Satoshi one question 00:58:33 — Sloan's verdict: Bitcoin or fiat?

  8. Jan 29

    Preserving 17 Years of Bitcoin History Before It Disappears

    The world's first dedicated Bitcoin miner was found at a Swedish yard sale for $10. Now it's worth many multiples of that.In this episode of the Conor Chepenik Podcast I sit down with Tobias Barbir (A.K.A The Coin Dad). Tobias has spent half a decade hunting down the rarest Bitcoin mining hardware on Earth: prototypes, one-of-ones, machines people threw away because they "sucked." His collection is now valued at ~$2.2 million and he's building something that's never existed: a 30,000 sq ft Bitcoin Discovery Center in Dallas, Texas.This conversation covers:→ The 10-month FPGA mining era nobody talks about→ How Tobias orange-pilled a stranger in Sweden over Telegram to complete a transaction→ Why his street hustle background made Bitcoin click faster than finance degrees→ The $100K donation that kickstarted the brick-and-mortar facility→ Plans for the "Orange Pill Crash Course" for high schoolers and politicians→ Bitcoin Trading Cards, signed Michael Saylor rookie cards, and Ross Ulbricht's 21 Club cardTobias's goal: build an endowment fund so the museum runs forever off interest alone, which if successful means they won't need to charge admission for people to see a slice of Bitcoin's incredible history.🔗 Donate to the Bitcoin Discovery Center: https://www.bitcoindiscoverycenter.com/📧 Contact: info@bitcoindiscoverycenter.com🐦 Follow: https://x.com/DiscoverBDCSupport the mission. Even $20 buys three rollers and two brushes.Time Codes:00:00:00 - Intro/How abandoned miners became a museum00:09:41 — Tobias holds up the FPGA Quad Miner, explains 1 gigahash mined 50 blocks/day. 00:21:00 — Phone number digits add to 21. "SHA-256" in the number. 00:26:01–Full Avalon 1 discovery story: April Fools skepticism, 360 video demand, Swedish vintage Apple repair guy. 00:36:45 — "I learned hodling and scarcity on the streets of Houston." 00:57:00 — "I feel like I'm the future walking through the present waiting for the past to catch up."

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About

Bitcoiner doing his part to get the world on a global reserve currency backed by open source software and math instead of violence.

Information

  • Creator
    Conor Chepenik
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Conor Chepenik
  • Show Website
    The Conor Chepenik Podcast