In this episode Jesse interviews Dr. Adam Back, CEO and Co-founder of Blockstream and also inventor of Hashcash, the mechanism behind Bitcoin's proof of work algorithm. In the first part of this episode, Adam talks about the evolutionary history of Bitcoin and goes over previous attempts at creating electronic cash. Then Adam explains what could have been Satoshi's thought process when designing Bitcoin. After this he explains why bitcoin is not old tech and anti-innovation. In the second part, Adam talks about his early days in Bitcoin and what he thought were the biggest existential threats for this new technology. In the last part Adam talks about proper ways to add decentralization to financial products using Bitcoin and finally he discusses Bitcoin's value proposition and what things he is most excited about for the future of Bitcoin.
Blockstream
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01:20 Evolutionary History of Bitcoin and early attempts at creating electronic cash
11:38 What could have been Satoshi's thought process when designing Bitcoin
16:40 Bitcoin is not a prototype, it simply has a narrow pocket of design space
20:20 Bitcoin is not old technology, it is one of the most active open source projects in existence
22:22 Adam's early days in Bitcoin
31:44 What were the biggest threats for Bitcoin in the early days? What are potential threats going forward?
38:42 Proper ways to decentralize financial instruments using Bitcoin: Blockstream Mining Note
43:31 What is Bitcoin's value proposition? Bitcoin appeals to different people for different reasons
49:36 What are the most exciting things to look forward in the Bitcoin space?