Brandon Bucher is an engineer and the co-founder of LightningPay.nz. Brandon and I talk about the recent indictments against the Samourai founders whose wallet was operating a bitcoin mixing service. They are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business which echo with the privacy battles in the 90s over encryption. We get into lightning network adoption, privacy, and the future outlook of your UTXO.

Timestamps:

00:00 Samourai indictment 08:22 moving the goal posts 16:26 privacy as choice 21:37 privacy long game 26:11 cypherpunks and the battle 32:26 lightning network 38:04 public info on lightning 41:09 adoption in lighting 49:12 UTXO scarcity 54:25 LightningPay.nz 1:02:25 rapid fire 1:05:24 fin

Some notes from the show:

• Samourai indictment
• coin-join/whirlpool
• Bitcoin fog
• Tornado Cash founder sentenced to prison
• Coin Centre post by Peter Van Valkenburgh
• unannounced lightning channels
• Lighting charts
• River Reports
• eCash
• Lightning Pay

Contact Brandon:

• X
• LinkedIn

Find Jeff:

• X
• LinkedIn

The BCNZ Pod:

• Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• iHeartRadio

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

• team@blockchain.org.nz

Recorded at blockheight 842607. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Ian Woolford has made a career working at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and presently he's the director of money and cash which is overseeing the CBDC or Digital Cash program. The RBNZ is partway through a series of consultations to get public feedback and opinion on a Reserve Bank issued digital currency.

In this conversation Ian makes it very clear that the Reserve Bank wants cash to remain as close to regular cash as possible meaning that anonymity is preserved, and activity is not tracked. Ian also highlights that innovation in banking by banks has been woeful and they hope to encourage non-bank players to innovate here to provide more options for Kiwis.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro 03:05 rural access to cash & services 08:24 balancing physical and digital cash 10:56 is this a CBDC? 12:21 blockchain? 15:14 benefits of digital cash 19:36 innovation in cash 24:54 privacy 28:40 banking access for startups 30:22 rapidfire 33:02 fin

Some notes from the show:

• rural cash trial program
• cyclone Gabrielle cash shortage
• ESAS settlement
• Northern Rock's trouble
• Nigeria's CBDC failure
• Sweden's e-krona
• Ecuador's Dinero Electronico
• RBNZ privacy support paper
• RBNZ Digital Cash Feedback

Contact Ian:

• LinkedIn
• RBNZ

Find Jeff:

• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn

The BCNZ Pod:

• Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• iHeartRadio

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

• team@blockchain.org.nz

Recorded at blockheight 842510. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Brooke Howard-Smith is the founder of Otterfish that is at the heart of the creator economy and influencer marketing. He's also a cofounder of Non-Fungible Labs which is now a part of Futureverse. Brooke and I broadly cover what's happening with AI and how its affecting everything digital and where Web3 fits in. We jump right in Brooke is talking about everyone leveraging what they love, being commercial and non commercial at the same time in the creator economy.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro 00:56 monetizing & creator economy 05:15 web3 12:26 spotify, superapps, & AI 18:15 instagram & influence marketing 23:08 client AI tools in the creator economy 28:40 personal AI use 38:46 non fungible labs 41:55 fluf launch & futureverse 46:22 gemini's mis-launch 51:58 rapidfire 1:02:31 fin

Some notes from the show:

• Gino the Ghost on music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb2NG6NWyhjisymBWg8aSXQ
• Kurzweil's singularity https://www.singularity.com/
• Otterfish https://otterfish.com/
• Brian Armstrong AI use https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1779946210226577913
• Futureverse https://www.futureverse.com/
• unstoppable art machine https://www.instagram.com/unstoppableartmachine/?hl=en
• fluf launch https://nfts.wtf/what-the-fluf-3d-bunnies-break-the-blockchain/
• Gemini's mis-launch https://www.wired.com/story/google-gemini-woke-ai-image-generation/
• Asian shopping https://youtu.be/p3RhRB3YJks?si=M-y5cZab34sQ3Q5G
• Ready Player One announcement https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/ready-player-one-metaverse-warner-bros-discovery-1235862190/
• Golden https://heresgolden.com/

Contact Brooke:

• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn

Find Jeff:

• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn

The BCNZ Pod:

• Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• iHeartRadio

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

• team@blockchain.org.nz

Recorded at blockheight 839555. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.