Podcast
What Bitcoin Did
Hosted by Danny Knowles · EN
What Bitcoin Did unpacks Bitcoin’s role in reshaping money, freedom, and the future of finance.
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How The State Makes Us Poorer | Max Hillebrand
2d ago01:31:45Summary ready"We are taught that the state builds our economy, but the reality is that every act of intervention is an act of wealth destruction." Max Hillebrand joins the show to tear down the Keynesian fallacies that keep us in a cycle of manufactured poverty and systemic theft. We go deep into the Austrian framework to explain why privacy isn't just a tech feature, it is the bedrock of a free economy. We discuss:\ The Theft Trap: Why taxation and inflation are definitionally coercion, and how they silently redistribute wealth from the productive to the state. \ The Broken Window Fallacy: Why building things we don’t need and destroying wealth through war is the ultimate economic delusion. \ The Consumption Trap: How state-manipulated metrics like GDP force us to prioritise over-consumption over the savings required for actual prosperity. \ The Minimum Wage Fallacy: A practical breakdown of why state interventions inevitably price the most vulnerable workers out of the market. \ The Cypherpunk Solution: Why increasing the cost of state attack and decreasing the cost of private defense is our only path to an unstoppable, parallel economy. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/\_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Max Hillebrand: https://towardsliberty.com/ The Praxeology of Privacy: https://towardsliberty.com/pop
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Why BIP110 Won’t Change Bitcoin | Mr Hodl & Wicked
1w ago01:11:50Summary ready“In the end, it’s the economic majority of users who decide what Bitcoin is.” Wicked and MrHodl join the show to break down why BIP110 won’t change Bitcoin. We get into the fight over arbitrary data on Bitcoin, why they believe BIP110 fails to solve the problem it claims to address, and why miner signalling alone does not define consensus. The conversation covers Bitcoin Core, Knots, the blocksize war, SegWit, BIP148, spam, soft forks, hard forks, nodes, miners, exchanges, and the role of the economic majority in defending Bitcoin’s rules. Is BIP110 a serious proposal, a virtue signal, or an attempted replay of old battles? And if Bitcoin can be changed without broad consensus, what does that mean for decentralisation? THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny MrHodl: https://x.com/MrHodl Wicked: https://x.com/w_s_bitcoin
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The Bitcoin Credit Gold Rush | Jeff Walton
2w ago01:41:41Summary ready“We are in the digital gold rush to acquire as much Bitcoin as humanly possible.” Jeff Walton joins the show to break down the rise of Bitcoin-backed credit, Strive’s SATA instrument, and why perpetual preferred equity could become one of the most important capital market innovations in Bitcoin. We discuss why SATA is now paying daily dividends, how Strive thinks about risk, reserves, leverage, and Bitcoin coverage, and why these new credit instruments may become a structural buyer of Bitcoin through both bull and bear markets. We also get into Strategy’s role as the market leader, the shift away from convertible debt, the future of Bitcoin treasury companies, proof of reserves, custody risk, institutional adoption, and whether Bitcoin credit could eventually reprice the entire credit market. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Jeff Walton: https://x.com/PunterJeff
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Who Really Controls Bitcoin? | Bitcoin Mechanic
2w ago01:32:20Summary ready“Whoever blinks first wins.” Mechanic joins me to discuss the controversial BIP110 proposal, the fight over spam and inscriptions, and whether Bitcoin users can force a consensus change without support from the major mining pools. We get into miner power, node enforcement, UASF game theory, soft forks, and whether Bitcoin is drifting away from its original purpose as money. Mechanic argues that Bitcoin’s strength comes from ordinary users enforcing the rules, not corporations, exchanges, or miners. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Bitcoin Mechanic: https://x.com/GrassFedBitcoin
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Arthur Hayes: The Bitcoin Liquidity Wave Is Here
3w ago00:56:38Summary ready“Trust the process. The money will be printed.” Arthur Hayes returns to the show to explain why he believes the Bitcoin bull market is back on, and why the next move higher will once again be driven by global liquidity. In this episode, we discuss why war, AI, supply chain fragility, rising bond market stress, and political incentives all point in the same direction: more spending, more debt, and more money printing. Arthur explains why governments are not going to choose austerity, why the inflationary tax is the path of least resistance, and why Bitcoin remains the trade in a world where fiat liquidity keeps expanding. We also get into the risks ahead: AI-driven job losses, social unrest, energy and commodity shocks, the fragility of the Treasury market, and the possibility of another policy panic. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Arthur Hayes: https://x.com/CryptoHayes
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Bitcoin’s Bull Market Is Back | Checkmate
3w ago01:27:16Summary ready“We’re in an era where the monetary system is changing. The world is going to look very different on the other side of this thing.” Checkmate is back on the show to explain why Bitcoin may already be back in a bull market and why the bigger story is not just the price, but the system beginning to crack. We get into his case that the bottom is likely in, why the $60k flush looked like a real capitulation event, and the levels that matter now. Checkmate breaks down the on-chain data behind his 80% bull-market thesis, why bears may be running out of road, and what happens when sentiment flips from selling rips to buying dips. We also get into rising bond yields, broken fiscal systems, the end of trust in government debt, Bitcoin vs gold, ETF flows, Strategy/MSTR risk, Coinbase custody risk, and why the world is moving towards assets that sit outside the system. We then get into Australia’s proposed capital gains tax changes, why Checkmate sees them as a direct attack on savers, builders and young people, and why tax policy may become one of the next major battlegrounds for Bitcoiners. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Checkmate: https://x.com/_Checkmatey_
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Bitcoin’s Parallel Economy Is Starting | Brian De Mint
4w ago01:02:26Summary ready“The alpha is still in Bitcoin. But it’s just by treating Bitcoin as money.” Brian De Mint is the head of marketing for Club Orange, a real-world social network for Bitcoiners. In this episode, we discuss why Bitcoin’s next phase may not just be holding the asset, but building a real economy around it: Bitcoin meetups, IRL community, the case for spending sats, merchant adoption, Lightning payments, Bitcoin mining as a free-market energy solution, and why treating Bitcoin as money can create stronger economic relationships between Bitcoiners. We also get into food and health to medicine, nutrition and the incentives behind the institutions we’re told to trust. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Brian De Mint: https://x.com/BrianDeMint
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The Bitcoin Treasury Machine | Harry Sudock & Rory Murray
May 1301:09:22Summary readyHarry Sudock and Rory Murray from CleanSpark join the show to explain how Bitcoin miners are building entirely new treasury strategy around Bitcoin. Instead of simply mining Bitcoin and selling it for cash, companies like CleanSpark are now borrowing against it, generating yield from it, using it as collateral, and turning their Bitcoin balance sheet into a tool for expansion. We get into why Bitcoin may become the best collateral in global markets, how miners are using treasury strategies like covered calls and basis trades to increase returns, why Bitcoin backed lending markets are rapidly maturing, and how these strategies could completely reshape the way companies manage capital. We also discuss the AI data centre boom, why Bitcoin miners are expanding into AI infrastructure, how Bitcoin and AI are competing for energy, and why the future of Bitcoin mining may actually become more decentralised as AI grows. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Harry Sudock: https://x.com/harry_sudock Rory Murray: https://x.com/sprainhill
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The Future of Owning Bitcoin | Jonathan Pollock
May 1100:57:19Summary readyJonathan Pollock is Product Lead for Bitkey. In this episode, we get into wrench attacks, why physical coercion is a structural weakness of private key ownership, why seed phrases may be creating more risk than they solve, and why most self custody setups rely too heavily on users never making a mistake. We talk about the trade offs between security, privacy, recovery, inheritance, and ease of use, alongside BitKey’s new hardware update and the company’s plans to build time delayed vaults designed to protect users during violent attacks. We also get into collaborative custody, covenants, insurance, ETFs versus self custody and why permissionless money still matters. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/\_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Bitkey: https://x.com/Bitkey
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Jack Mallers | Wall Street Is Rebuilding Around Bitcoin
May 601:48:20Summary ready“Bitcoin can change the world because the world can’t change Bitcoin.” Jack Mallers is back on the show to break down his vision for 21, Strike, and the next phase of Bitcoin’s monetisation. Jack explains why he doesn’t want to build another pure Bitcoin treasury company or another crypto casino, but a full-stack Bitcoin business: financial services, lending, custody, infrastructure, mining, capital markets, and a balance sheet built around Bitcoin. We get into the proposed acquisition of Strike, Bitcoin-backed lending, proof of reserves, why profitability matters, and why he thinks the best Bitcoin company won’t simply be the one that owns the most Bitcoin. We also discuss where Bitcoin fits in a world moving towards war, inflation, energy shocks, multipolarity, and whether fiat can survive another crisis. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY SWAN CAPE FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Jack Mallers: https://x.com/jackmallers
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