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.

Leo Clark is a documentary filmmaker that is presently working with the Nouns DAO community. His latest film, NON-FUNGIBLE AOTEAROA, is debuting at the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs with the tagline: See how NFTs and Nouns DAO are transforming people’s lives in New Zealand.

In this conversation Leo and I talk about the Nouns project and what the community is doing with NFTs and funding artists, we get into Farcaster and decentralised social media and touch on CC-zero (CC0) licensing and how it aligns with web3.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro & doco 12:13 NFT art 14:46 Nouns 20:58 community funding 26:06 Farcaster 31:46 Warpcast 35:50 incentives 39:59 mint everything 42:41 nouns cafe 46:42 CC0 no copyright 50:43 rapid-fire 52:13 fin

Some notes from the show:

• The Doco
• The Festival
• Nouns
• Prophouse
• Nouns names a new species of frog
• Farcaster
• Warpcast
• Frames
• CC0 No Copyright

Contact Leo:

• X/Twitter
• Warpcast

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 834418. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Sam Kamani has lots of experience in tech, from being a founder to a VC, an advisor, and an author. We talk about 3 important aspects to entrepreneurship: talent, ability to raise capital, and access to market. In the back third we get into trends in Web 3 including decentralised physical infrastructure (DePIn) and ETFs.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro 01:12 realestate/density/Dubai 05:22 web3 in Dubai 09:29 capital & market access 15:57 New Zealand's rating 17:18 Sam's background 22:47 Kiwi access to capital 27:28 no-code tools 31:52 the 30 day startup 37:22 post covid 37:40 trends in web3 - stablecoins 46:52 DePIn 50:13 ETFs 56:45 rapid fire 1:00:20 fin

Some notes from the show:

• Norway's Oil Fund
• autowhale
• Cookbook.dev
• Remix IDE
• The 30 Day Startup
• PayPal stablecoin
• Chris Rothfuss in Wyoming

Contact Sam:

• 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 832462. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Will Remor is a former quantitative risk analysist from traditional banking that got into stablecoins via the maker DAI project. He's consulted on a number of finance, stablecoin, and defi protocols, including New Zealand's newest stablecoin the NZDD, and has been involved with asset tokenization (or RWAs) from the early days. In this conversation Will takes us through some of the key differences between USDC, Tether, and DAI. We talk about some of the prominent depegging events affecting USDC when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and who remembers 20% yield in Anchor and the Terra-Luna death spiral.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro 01:15 background in finance 03:19 open banking 06:00 2017-era crypto 11:49 what's a stablecoin? 16:55 circle 19:07 tether 21:50 DAI & maker 27:30 NZDD 35:36 mechanics 39:49 stay pegged 44:11 USDC depegs 53:23 UST Terra/Luna 58:46 tokenizing real world assets 1:14:10 opening markets 1:17:20 rapid fire 1:26:20 fin Some notes from the show:

• tZero
• ETHLend history
• Paul Salisbury from Everlasting
• Janine Grainger from EasyCrypto
• Stables by marketcap
• Circle winds down consortium
• USDC SVB depeg
• TrueUSD arbitrage

Contact Will:

• 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 828304. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Aditya Das is a crypto analyst and writer with a background in applied economics working with Brave New Coin and the Techemy Group analysing macro trends in the crypto and wider markets. In this conversation Aditya and I cover the Bitcoin ETF and it acting as a gateway for an Ethereum ETF, broader Ethereum scaling solutions such as proto danksharding and layer 2 mechanisms. We touch on the halving, US elections, and the tokenisation of real world assets including stablecoins.

---------------- Timestamps:

00:00 intro 01:07 background & Silk Road 06:40 applied economics 09:03 Bitcoin ETF 16:16 GBTC outflows 19:41 Ethereum ETF 24:31 scaling Ethereum 33:33 halving 40:37 US election 44:20 new projects 47:41 stabull.finance 51:51 tokenised realworld assets 56:00 rapidfire 59:03 fin ---------------- Some notes from the show:

• Brave New Coin https://bravenewcoin.com/
• American Kingpin by Nick Bolton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31920777-american-kingpin
• Ross Ulbricht https://freeross.org/
• Aaron Schwartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
• Bitcoin ETF tracker https://www.tradingview.com/markets/etfs/funds-bitcoin/
• Grayscale GBTC https://decrypt.co/resources/gbtc-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-grayscale-bitcoin-trust
• XRP not a security https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-says-sec-lawsuit-vs-ripple-labs-can-proceed-trial-some-claims-2023-07-13/
• ETH ETF tracker https://blockworks.co/ethereum-etf
• BTC-ETH correlation https://www.blockchaincenter.net/en/crypto-correlation-tool/
• Danksharding https://cointelegraph.com/explained/danksharding-and-proto-danksharding-explained
• halving countdown https://www.nicehash.com/countdown/btc-halving-2024-05-10-12-00
• Powell on 60 Minutes https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-transcript-fed-chair-jerome-powell-60-minutes-interview-economy/
• Ramblocks https://www.ramblocks.com/
• Stabull Stablecoin AMM https://stabull.finance/

Contact Aditya:

• 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 829267. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Darcy Ungaro is the host of the Everyday Investor podcast, and he advises clients in a range of financial matters from mortgages all the way to Bitcoin. In this conversation Darcy and I broadly cover financial advice in the age of digital assets such as the Bitcoin ETF and strategies to modernize that dusty portfolio.

---------------- Timestamps:

00:00 intro 01:00 finite supply & property 07:37 trad-fi advice 13:08 responsibility for other's money 15:38 not financial advice 20:26 60/40 portfolio 27:00 update your models 30:00 zombie apocalypse 32:15 bitcoin curious 35:46 crypto portfolio 43:18 bitcoin ETF 50:52 diversification 54:32 property 59:29 rapid fire 1:05:50 fin ---------------- Some notes from the show:

• Bitcoin ETF news
• BITO
• Fred Kruger
• record NZ immigration
• Peter Schiff on The Everyday Investor

Contact Darcy:

• 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 828315. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.