Our conversation today is with Blockstream’s CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Adam Back.

Dr. Back is not only the inventor of Proof of Work, but is also probably one of the few people in the industry that has really a deep understanding of the multiple disciplines that we now group together as Bitcoin: trading, economics, game theory, mining, and the technical nuts and bolts behind BTC itself.

For this conversation, though, I wanted to focus both on the early days of Bitcoin - because I think there’s a lot of context there that is important to people that have found BTC in the last couple of years - and also where BTC is going.

What, historically, were the big threats to Bitcoin? Will Wall Street co-opt Bitcoin? Is BTC just an inflation hedge or is global, permissionless, digital cash still an achievable goal? And why did Dr. Back choose to build on Bitcoin rather than taking the more profitable Altcoin route?

Time Stamps

1:50 An introduction to the evolutionary history of BTC
11:00 Is BTC an incremental improvement or a quantum leap?
17:00 Can BTC be improved without breaking it?
20:00 How has BTC evolved technically over time?
21:44 When did you realize BTC was revolutionary technology?
25:17 Why did you choose to build on BTC rather than forking it, issuing Adam Back Coin, and becoming hideously wealthy?
28:30 Altcoins never die, dominance is a silly metric
31:00 What have been the biggest threats to BTC? What are the main threats going forward?
35:40 Will dirty bankers and Wall Street co-opt BTC?
37:00 Were the scaling wars the biggest existential threat to BTC?
40:20 How do you see the Blockstream Mining Note supporting decentralization?
42:51 Will BTC become digital cash, or will SoV and inflation hedge remain the dominant narrative?
48:58 Looking forward, what gets you excited?