104. Augmenting Bitcoin w/ Samson Mow

In this episode, Saifedean talks to Samson Mow, outgoing CSO of Blockstream and CEO of Pixelmatic, about why we should be “augmenting” rather than trying to change the bitcoin network. They begin by discussing Blockstream projects such as the Liquid Network that extend the range of options available to bitcoin users, while accepting the network’s fundamental protocol rules. They also discuss Samson’s role as a prominent “small blocker” in the 2015-2017 “Blocksize War” and whether – in retrospect – the victory of the small blockers was inevitable. Samson then shares his views on bitcoin adoption in Latin America, including El Salvador’s issuance of bitcoin-backed “volcano bonds” as a means of evading the debt-fuelled development model encouraged by the IMF. In the Q&A, Samson answers questions about bitcoin privacy, proof-of-stake and the issuance of securities on the Liquid Network.

#Samson #Bitcoin #elsalvador

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00:00 Sponsors
02:16 Podcast Starts Here
03:00 How Samson Got Into The Bitcoin Industry
04:20 What Is Blockstream’s Mission?
05:20 What Is The Liquid Network?
08:00 Altcoins Are Securities
10:15 Smart Contracts On Bitcoin
12:00 Blockchain Is Only Good For Bitcoin
16:00 Stable Coins On The Blockchain
23:40 Will Online Surveillance Replace KYC?
26:00 Governments Controlling Gold
29:00 Asset Migration And Growth Liquid or Lightning
32:50 Bitcoin Infrastructure Business Areas at Blockstream
35:00 Samson Focusing On Countries Adoption
36:30 The El Salvador Vulcano Bonds
39:00 How the Fiat System Makes Use of Debt to Suppress
45:40 Money Is Control
48:40 Borrowing From The IMF Is Irresponsible
53:30 Citizenship In El Salvador
54:30 The Blocksize War
59:00 Bitcoin Proving Its Immutability
01:07:00 The Slippery Slope Of Changing The Consensus Mechanism
01:08:50 Attacking Bitcoin During The Blocksize War
01:12:40 Privacy On The Bitcoin Blockchain
01:16:20 Buying Non KYC Coins
01:08:00 Proof Of Stake Bitcoin
01:20:00 What Are The Advantages Of Issuing Securities On A Blockchain?

Samson on Twitter:

Official website of Pixelmatic:

Blockstream explainer outlining differences between Liquid and Lightning as Layer 2 scaling solutions for bitcoin:

Blockstream announcement on Baillie Gifford Series B investment:

Blockstream blog post announcing that El Salvador will issue $1bn in volcano bonds:

The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier:

Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard:

Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard:

[channelbitcoinM]

Samson is a visionary. Thanks for your work in the space gentlemen.

[johnnymidas]

GREETINGS FROM PALM DESERT CALIFORNIA SAIF!!... LOVE YOUR WORK BROTHER. 😃👍🔥

[mikejuwan]

Mrs Clarissa is legit and her method works like magic I keep on earning every single week with her new strategy

[aloyagangi]

Hello what's the best way to get started with trade cos I've been making my personal research for a while now

[antez]

I really appreciate the efforts you have been through for me during this hard time, I’m forever grateful.

[maunokoivisto]

Would be easier for the eye if the screen didnt switch from fullscreen to fullscreen. Its more natural to be able to see both faces all the time while talking. Just like in real life. Seeing reactions from other people is part of normal natural communication.

[oldfashionedbitcoin]

This mustache is meat and freedom induced. Cheers and keep up the good work.

[mohammedbuhari]

Investing in bitcoin is the best investment anyone can do this, because it has made a lot of people millionaire. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..

[Waldek]

The Transformers Jetfire in the back is great :)

[michaelsuttree]

I was sad to see that I accidentally hit dislike. I LIKE THIS VERY MUCH.

[franky]

I would think the reason why the US government did not shutdown stable coin, is because some stable coin companies like Circle is buying US Treasury, while foreign countries have been buying less, also having US dollar being widely use on the internet give US dollar more value. Currently USD is the most adopted fiat on most DeFi or CEX.

[ivanhernandez]

Joe Rogan needs to have you in his podcast. I ppl

[sandymilne]

Safe, I’m a big fan of BTC. That has to be said. So, I’m leaning toward Saylor’s view that BTC is a better asset than a currency. BECAUSE… a nation’s currency has to be elastic at the population grows. Of course that can’t be done with BTC. Please comment on that.

[jireh]

my dear Saifedean, might i recommend a better camera? Toasters really arent the best

[nmbusmusic]

we need orbital rings, fusion power, bitcoin, asteroid defense and mining and free space settlement.

[TheRabbitHoledfk]

These guys sound like 5 year olds calling digital assets shit coins, the smartest engineers and largest corporations in the world are building a new financial system but that's nothing, don't look over there because we live in a dream world where everything will be backed by bitcoin

[canokmene]

After several winnings with Rowe Edward, I can boldly say investing in crypto is profitable if you have the winning trading strategy

[nmbusmusic]

we need stables and monero WITH bitcoin ro it wont work Nic Carter has the most mature perspective in my opinion. hilarious considering hes like the youngest in the space.

[vikramrihal]

This is the most scripted interview with biases For small blocks I’ve seen. Both are so deceiving it’s scary. You say bitcoin is immutable and can’t be changed but don’t realise Segwit, CLTV, Replace by Fee, Op_return screw up and more. These are all Fundamental changes to the Bitcoin protocol that these guys are misleading you on. Satoshi literally wrote code for the block size increase and not for any of the others BTC devs are fucked upped on. Go deeper people.

[dustinfusco]

Anything govt or govt related is a self licking ice cream cone