THE Bitcoin Podcast with Walker America | BASED BITCOIN VETERANS, DECENTRALIZING MINING, & BUILDING FREEDOM TECH | AVERAGE GARY
August 15, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Walker America welcomes Average Gary, a U.S. Navy veteran, software engineer, and active member of the Bitcoin Veterans organization, for a wide-ranging discussion. The conversation touches on the ongoing efforts to educate the “warrior class” on Bitcoin, hands-on disaster relief, the frontiers of decentralizing and democratizing mining (including the use of Stratum V2, eCash, and Bitaxe miners), Bitcoin’s role in local and global freedom tech initiatives, and how open-source innovation is fueling new paradigms in both money and communications.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Veterans in Bitcoin: Motivations & Community Building

• Gary’s Path from Navy ‘Spook’ to Bitcoiner (10:08–15:44)

  • Served 11+ years as a Chinese linguist and tactical intelligence specialist, then worked in military R&D.
  • Left after Navy bureaucracy blocked his transition into cyber roles.
  • Becoming a Bitcoiner coincided with disillusionment about the U.S. military–industrial complex.

• On Veterans Bridging Liberty & Bitcoin (18:24, 23:42)

  • “We’re educating the warrior class on bitcoin… once you realize you have a tool to spread these actual ideals of, like, individualism and liberty and you don’t have to hurt anyone, that is, like, immensely [freeing].” (Gary, 18:24)
  • Veterans’ discipline, organizational skills, and credibility uniquely position them to organize meetups, spread Bitcoin adoption, and undertake direct community action.
  • The Bitcoin Veterans group has organized meetups, built Signal groups, and focused on both hyperlocal and national engagement.

• Addressing Veterans’ Struggles and New Missions

  • High rates of veteran suicide and difficult post-military adjustment—many find a positive outlet in the Bitcoin movement.
  • Emphasis on local community projects, plugging into local businesses, volunteering, and educating the public about Bitcoin.

2. Government Advocacy, Bureaucratic Challenges & Bitcoin Politics

• On “A Day on the Hill”: Advocating for Bitcoin in D.C. (02:45–09:20)

  • Veterans and Bitcoiners met with U.S. senators and staffers to clarify misconceptions about Bitcoin versus “crypto,” conduct live Lightning transactions, and provide educational materials.
  • Many staffers had no basic understanding of Bitcoin, confusing it with scams or “Trump Coin.”
  • Some encountered direct hostility and conflation with high-profile crypto frauds (e.g., SBF/Fried), while others at least showed willingness to stay informed.

• Disillusionment with Political Advocacy (04:52–09:20)

  • Frustration with both very young, inexperienced staff writing policy for very old, retiring lawmakers.

  • General conclusion: Lasting change might hinge more on generational turnover and bottom-up education rather than legislative outreach.

    “What is this system that we have? … This explains why it’s so broken like, my God, this is insane.” (Walker, 06:31)

3. Disaster Relief: Veterans "Fill the Gaps" Where the State Fails

• After Hurricane Helene: Direct Action in Western North Carolina (24:11–30:18)

  • Bitcoin Veterans (alongside other groups of former military) responded within days with supplies, mesh radios, and on-the-ground organization, outperforming slow and inefficient government/FEMA responses.

  • Use of Meshtastic radios allowed off-grid comms—including deploying a node on a National Guard helicopter.

    “We were handing out like mesh tastic radios, and then we had a mesh tastic radio on a National Guard helicopter... People were able to actually have communications before the cell phone network.” (Gary, 25:09)

  • Raised and deployed funds in bitcoin, set up logistics centers, brought aid, and enabled ongoing community self-sufficiency.

  • Stressed how veteran training (austere logistics, physical networking, recon, comms) directly translates to real-world aid: "Providing aid and support to the local populace ... was a no shit real world operation where we could put all these skills we had developed to use for the betterment of a community." (Gary, 29:05)

4. Mining Deep Dive: Centralization, Stratum V2, & the Bitaxe Revolution

• Decentralizing Mining: The Tech and the Ethos

  • Gary works full-time as a software engineer for a major mining operation, focusing on mining pool software (Stratum V2).

  • Mining as its own deep “rabbit hole,” encompassing power generation, load balancing, data transmission, and risk management.

    “There's all these rabbit holes in bitcoin... and now I'm like in talks about power generation, load balancing ... what is the pool doing? What does a mining pool do? ... I had no idea what I was getting into.” (Gary, 34:28)

• The Need for New Mining Paradigms

  • Explains how energy infrastructure and load balancing interlock with Bitcoin mining.

  • Notes the promise of using mining to revitalize or bootstrap infrastructure in both developed and developing countries.

    "You can heat your house with a bitcoin miner… mining pursues the cheapest energy available, it pushes it to the edges and also to energy dense locations… it's like this battery that just prints money for you." (Gary, 34:30–39:42)

  • Centralization Concerns (44:05):

    • Pool centralization isn't only about block template creation, but about accounting and payout mechanisms (FPPs – Full Pay Per Share).
    • FPPs incentivize miners to centralize with large, well-capitalized pools, creating risk.

• eCash Tokens for Mining Shares: "eHash" (47:08)

  • Collaboration with developer VNPRC to launch "ehash" — mining share denominated eCash tokens issued for valid mining shares.

  • Grants privacy, eliminates the need for mining pool accounts, and enables market-based pricing of hashrate, lowering economic barriers to entry for small miners.

    "Now you don’t have accounts for a mining pool. You can simply say, hey, this share is valid, let me give you an ecash token for it ... as long as you bring them back to me ... it’s a valid signature that I can check with cryptographic irrefutability." (Gary, 47:08–53:41)

• Bitaxe and Hardware Decentralization (55:23–58:13)

  • Democratizing mining via open-source hardware (Bitaxe, PCIe mining cards).

  • Smaller, modular mining rigs enable home and local solo mining, countering tendencies toward mining centralization.

    “There is a trend toward centralization… but we do have all this, this kind of grassroots bottom up counter movement that is enabling plebs to be able to mine at whatever skill.” (Walker, 56:49)

• Mining as Local/Global Empowerment (58:36–62:01)

  • Stories from the field: military surplus generators in the U.S., and hydro-powered rural electrification/mining projects in Africa.
  • “I'm making money by doing a good thing, right? Bringing electricity to a village in the middle of Africa is a noble thing to do, I believe.” (Gary, 60:20)

5. Bitcoin as Freedom Tech: Privacy, Open Source, and Cypherpunk Legacies

• On Privacy, Peer-to-Peer Comms, & Open Source

  • Advocates fiercely for direct, encrypted communication (“peer-to-peer is the norm we must reclaim”).

  • Expansion on the limitations imposed by proprietary chips and telecoms; the importance of unlocking hardware and networks for true digital sovereignty.

    “The technology that we're at, like, our phones are capable of so much more except they are locked down at the hardware chip level… If we could liberate that… Imagine what’s possible.” (Gary, 79:31)

  • Jack Dorsey's "bitchat" as a microcosm of what's possible with open mesh communication across Wi-Fi or other radio protocols; the state and industry are invested in maintaining surveillance/intermediation.

  • Powerful closing analogy:

    “We've been kind of psyoped into thinking that—why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide? ... ask them if they [poop] with the door open.” (Gary, 84:42)

• Cryptography as Empowerment for All Individuals

  • Stresses the foundational, accelerating role of open-source cryptography in digital defense, financial autonomy, and freedom.

    "Cryptography enables not just bitcoin, right? Bitcoin’s just the best money that we found to use with cryptography. But cryptography underpins everything we do... Enabling the average person to... protect themselves from people that would wish them harm is a powerful concept." (Gary, 86:02)

6. Bitcoin in Daily Life: Stacking Sats, Home Prices, & the Broken Fiat Paradigm

• Everyday Deflation: Measuring Life in Sats (69:30–71:25)

  • Personal story: “I just paid my rancher today for another head and a half of cattle. The head into the half of cattle was cheaper than the full head of cattle last time in bitcoin terms... everything’s getting cheaper for me. It’s so wonderful.” (Gary, 69:58)

• Comparisons with Real Estate and the ‘Number Go Up’ Repricing

  • Critique of the illusion that houses are good stores of value, versus fundamentally unbreakable monetary properties of Bitcoin.

• Closing the Loop: Bitcoin Enables Radical Agency

  • Encouragement for veterans and plebs alike to take action—locally, globally, technically.

Notable Quotes

• On why so many veterans become passionate Bitcoiners:

  "The veterans that I've talked to through bitcoin, to a man ... their hearts could not have been in more of a right place. And now you guys are all the most hardcore ... you have seen how the sausage is made and are outside of that machine doing incredible work still." —Walker (15:45)

• On mining and decentralization:

  "We need smaller scale, more modular [hardware]... The democratizing mining via open-source hardware is fantastic." —Gary (55:56)

• On cryptography and freedom:

  "Enabling the average person to use cryptography to protect themselves from people that would wish them harm to their way of life is a powerful concept." —Gary (86:02)

• On privacy:

  "People that say [privacy doesn’t matter], ask them if they take a dump with the door open." —Gary (84:42)

Key Timestamps

• Early cypherpunk & cryptography’s role: 00:00–01:04, revisited 86:02
• Veteran experience and transition to Bitcoin: 10:08–15:44
• Bitcoin advocacy in Congress: 02:45–09:20
• Disaster relief with mesh radios & bitcoin: 24:11–30:18
• Mining: Stratum V2, centralization, eHash: 34:16–55:23
• Bitaxe & hardware democratization: 55:23–58:36
• Bitcoin as freedom tech, hardware, P2P communications: 79:13–86:02
• Measuring deflation and pricing in bitcoin terms: 69:30–71:25

Resources & CTA

• Bitcoin Veterans Initiative & Summit: bitcoinveterans.org, Veteran Summit Nov 10–11, 2025 at Bitcoin Park, Nashville.
• DC BitDevs, local meetups, and products: dcbitdev.com, VA Freedom Tech
• **Follow Gary and Walker on Nostr for ongoing discussions and updates on open-source Bitcoin tools.

Tone & Style

The conversation is high-energy, irreverent, exploratory, and deeply informed by both technical and lived experience. It carries a strong ethos of personal and collective responsibility, bottom-up change, technological optimism, and a sense of mission. Both host and guest blend technical details and practical wisdom with humor and clear-eyed realism about current institutional failures.

Conclusion

This episode serves as a primer on how freedom tech, motivated community action, and open-source innovation—fueled by the decentralized, censorship-resistant incentives of Bitcoin—are shaping a resilient counter-culture that is as capable in disaster zones as it is on Capitol Hill. Whether you’re a builder, advocate, or curious newcomer, this is an inspiring window into the many-layered movement pushing the Bitcoin signal forward.