Innovating on Bitcoin with Steve Lee - WBD483
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2022
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steve Lee is Lead at Spiral, a subsidiary of Block. In this interview, we discuss how Spiral is enabling lightning integration, Block's aim to create an open Bitcoin mining ecosystem, a vision of zero cost decentralized Bitcoin mining, and inspiring open-source Bitcoin projects.
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The orange pilling of Jack Dorsey was a hugely consequential event, affecting the evolution of his business plans and Bitcoin. Jack and his team believe Bitcoin is the best money, and they want to help it spread. As a result, Block has developed a symbiotic mission: it seeks to nurture Bitcoin, strengthen its development, and enable its wider adoption.
This is where Spiral comes in. It is a non-profit subsidiary of Block that builds and funds free, open-source projects. Amongst other important enterprises, Spiral has developed the Lightning Development Kit, which enables Lightning integration with Bitcoin wallets.
Block's ethos is rooted in an appreciation of how unique this situation is: the creation of a new version of money that is free from centralized control may never be repeated. Protecting and enhancing Bitcoins decentralization and privacy are therefore core objectives.
That is why, for example, Block is developing a hardware wallet that combines security that doesn't depend on trusted servers; decentralized user-friendly custody for the masses.
That is also why Block is planning to develop and make available for sale ASIC chips (with data sheets). Whilst Block is also developing Bitcoin mining rigs, the provision of dedicated chips opens up the whole mining rig industry for innovation and competition.
These efforts are crucial and enable all of the exciting expansions of Bitcoins utility to continue. This includes Steve Lee's vision of zero cost decentralized Bitcoin mining. This is surely the most inspiring industry in the world.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If it's too hard to manage your own keys, which even today it is too hard for people, |
| 0:08.0 | that we wind up in a world in which just a few global custodians hold all the keys, and that's unlikely to result in the |
| 0:14.4 | Bitcoin that we know and love and want to see it for the world. So it's very important |
| 0:18.9 | that a sizable percentage of Bitcoin users are controlling your own keys. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello there, how are you doing? |
| 0:26.0 | Welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast, |
| 0:28.0 | which is brought to you by Gemini, the only place I am using for buying Bitcoin. |
| 0:32.0 | I'm your host, Peter Peter McCormack and before we get |
| 0:34.7 | into the interview today I have a quick message from my show sponsors. This show is |
| 0:39.6 | brought to you by B.C.B. group provide online business banking for companies in the |
| 0:45.1 | Bitcoin industry and yes of course I am a BCB customer too now. Now they heard |
| 0:50.2 | about the difficulty I was having finding a new bank and they understand |
| 0:53.6 | Bitcoin. So when they reached out to me and said Pete you should move your account |
| 0:57.2 | over to BCB group I was like sure sounds absolutely perfect for me and I could not |
| 1:01.8 | be happier with the service they have provided me. |
| 1:04.0 | Now BCB clients include major exchanges, market makers, funds, and miners active in the UK |
| 1:10.2 | and Europe but they are now expanding globally. |
| 1:13.4 | They also have this amazing network called Blink, which facilitates instant free payments between |
| 1:18.6 | BCB clients for all supported currencies. |
| 1:22.0 | Now listen, I know some of you have also had trouble with your banking. |
| 1:24.8 | And if you are looking for a banking provider who understands and supports |
| 1:28.2 | Bitcoin companies rather than creating hurdles, |
... |
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