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We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

BTC145: Adam Back on Drivechains, Mining Hardware, & L1 scaling w/ James Macedonio (Bitcoin Podcast)

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

Stig Brodersen

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Preston Pysh brings Blockstream's Adam Back and James Macedonio to the show. They talk about Blockstream’s efforts to develop their very own ASIC miner and what it takes to take something like that to market and all the challenges that are associated with it. 


IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

00:00 - Intro

01:23 - Why is building an ASIC like building a high-performance race car?

10:02 - How do you think through production and reliability when building an ASIC?

10:02 - How can one test the reliability of an ASIC when its actual performance is always on?

15:05 - Why is there so much inventory of ASICs on the market right now?

24:29 - What is the Blockstream BASIC note?

24:29 - What was the performance of the previous Blockstream Mining Note and how is it different than the BASIC?

41:35 - Some people say layer 1 bitcoin might become too costly and layer 2 can't scale, what are your thoughts?

46:19 - What is Adam's thoughts on drivechains?

56:49 - Are there other blockchains that have experimented with OP CATs that were originally coded into Bitcoin but now are turned-off for safety reasons?

01:06:51 - Do we even need more scripting on layer 1 for Bitcoin to solve "clown world"?

01:08:02 - Are engineers being reasonable with the speed at which they want to roll-out updates?


BOOKS AND RESOURCES


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to TIP.

0:03.0

Hey everyone, welcome to this Wednesday's release of the Bitcoin Fundamentals podcast.

0:07.2

On today's show, I have CEO and founder Adam Beck, who's a Bitcoin OG and cryptographic

0:12.7

expert.

0:13.7

He's the inventor of proof of work and also referenced in the Bitcoin white paper.

0:18.4

He's joined by fellow blockstream employee James Macedonio, and we cover a very wide range

0:23.7

of topics during this interview.

0:25.5

First, we start off talking about blockstream's efforts to develop their very own ASIC

0:29.6

minor and what it takes to take something like that to market and all the challenges

0:33.8

that are associated with it.

0:35.6

Next, we talk about the abundance of minors that are currently on the market and how

0:39.5

infrastructure lag is actually causing this abundance of supply that we're currently seeing.

0:44.9

Finally, we talk about the hotly debated potential Bitcoin upgrade called drive chains,

0:50.2

um personally not a big fan of drive chains, and Adam is a little bit more open to the

0:54.0

idea.

0:55.0

So this was a good opportunity to present the various arguments around the topic.

0:59.4

So with that, here's my interview with the ever thoughtful Adam Beck and James Macedonio.

1:07.0

You're listening to Bitcoin Fundamentals by the Investors Podcast Network.

1:13.6

Now for your host Preston Pish.

1:26.6

Hey, everyone.

1:27.6

Welcome to the show.

1:28.6

Excited to have Adam back back on the show.

...

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