BITCOIN SEASON 2: Bitcoin Isn’t Changing And That’s A Bad Thing

CoinDesk Podcast Network

CoinDesk

News, Tech News, Daily News, Business News

4.7 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James O'Beirne discusses Bitcoin development challenges, the CTV soft fork controversy, and why protocol upgrades have stalled. He explains the community response to his developer letter and Bitcoin's ossification risks. You're listening to Bitcoin Season 2. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 7,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne joins us to talk about the current state of Bitcoin development, the controversial CTV (OP_CheckTemplateVerify) soft fork proposal, and why he organized a letter signed by 66+ prominent Bitcoin developers requesting Bitcoin Core focus on protocol upgrades. We dive deep into Bitcoin's development culture, the post-SegWit era challenges, and the growing concern about Bitcoin's ossification. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com **Notes:** • 66 developers signed CTV support letter • 96% of Bitcoin value uses non-taproot outputs • 19% of global hashrate supports CTV proposal • 5+ years of CTV development and testing • 5 Bitcoin bounty offered for CTV bugs found • 16.5 years since Bitcoin's initial release Timestamps: 00:00 Start 01:55 Jame's work 08:33 History of BTC development 12:37 Culture & the block size war 16:34 Code change process 24:29 The CTV letter origin 33:53 Reception of the letter 38:33 Why is there resistance? 40:53 Alternative proposal 48:20 Upgrade Hooks 50:36 Future outlooks for changes 54:49 Reasons for optimism - 👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech! Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	At Matalan, the one you've been waiting for is here. The big sale is now even bigger, with up to 70% off in the final reductions. It's your chance to save big across women's men's kids and home. Shopping store now or online at matelan.com.uk. Seasonse apply.
0:20.9	Hey everyone. Charlie here.
0:22.9	We're running a quick survey.
0:24.5	We want to better understand who our listeners are.
0:27.4	Do me a huge favor and fill out that survey.
0:29.9	It takes under a minute and the link is in the show description.
0:33.2	This helps us make better content for you.
0:35.5	Thanks a ton for listening.
0:36.8	Link in the show notes.
0:38.6	You may have heard that Bitcoin is complete, but did you know that Bitcoin has
0:42.9	tons of developers currently working on trying to improve it?
0:47.1	I spoke to one of these developers, James O'Burn today.
0:50.5	He takes us through the history and the how-toes of how Bitcoin development has looked.
0:55.4	And then we get into some of the thornyer, more challenging discussion topics,
0:59.9	such as the latest Bitcoin software.
1:02.4	Surprise, Bitcoin developers are always arguing about something.
1:07.3	We get into it on Bitcoin Season 2.
1:15.9	Thank you. thing. We get into it on Bitcoin Season 2. Welcome back to Bitcoin Season 2. I've got James O'Burn, a well-known voice in Bitcoin
1:22.0	development. He is a self-described Bitcoin developer who has contributed to Bitcoin
1:27.3	Core. James, welcome to Bitcoin Season 2. contributed to Bitcoin Core.
1:28.7	James, welcome to Bitcoin Season 2.
1:31.0	Hey, Charlie, it's nice to be here.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CoinDesk, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CoinDesk and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.