Bitcoin Audible

I walk through the global push for Central Bank Digital Currencies, why voluntary rollouts have mostly flopped, and what governments really gain from programmable, fully surveilled money.

I dig into the upcoming digital euro, the U.S. Senate’s move against a federal CBDC, and the rise of OpenUSD as an open stablecoin standard.

Ultimately I argue that while CBDCs are about control, the infrastructure they create may unintentionally supercharge a global Bitcoin exit ramp. I break down why this surveillance trap might give us our ultimate exit.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - CBDCs are inevitable

(00:01:19) - Sales pitch vs reality

(00:01:54) - The quiet part aloud

(00:02:30) - Programmable control layer

(00:03:26) - The inclusion myth

(00:06:04) - Global pilots are flopping

(00:08:53) - CBDCs and privacy

(00:10:16) - OpenUSD and surveillance

(00:11:21) - Stablecoins as a backdoor

(00:12:56) - Bitcoin literacy barrier

(00:13:21) - CBDCs will backfire

Affiliate Links

Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/guy/)

Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy's Takes on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@GuysTake)

Guy Swann on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

References from the episode

CoinDesk.com: https://tinyurl.com/2a3zkokc

ICMAgroup.org: https://tinyurl.com/2cyxvsnc

Congress.gov: https://tinyurl.com/24qxpmm8

TheStreet.com: https://tinyurl.com/2ac54w2a

CoinDesk.com: https://tinyurl.com/2dm2kajl

Wiley.com: https://tinyurl.com/27ydh5q6

CentralBanking.com: https://tinyurl.com/2amemcsv

Reuters.com: https://tinyurl.com/yrpt6cug

CBDC Tracker: https://tinyurl.com/2xn6qxyj

CBDC Tracker: https://tinyurl.com/2dmtppbe

HRF.org: https://tinyurl.com/27ojcx72

Cato.org: https://tinyurl.com/23nltch2

EFF.org: https://tinyurl.com/2bx3dyhu

X.com: https://tinyurl.com/22yq2ftx

JoinOpenStandard.com: https://tinyurl.com/2399fw43

TFTC.io: https://tinyurl.com/28n9b2e8

CoinDesk.com: https://tinyurl.com/25mnrnjk

Europa.eu: https://tinyurl.com/24xvdqan

***"I'm almost 99% certain that [BIP] 110 will activate. And not only that, I think there will be a capitulation after October, where if the month of October passes and [BIP] 110 is still not merged by Core devs, it essentially reflects that they are no longer relevant because they failed to be good stewards of the protocol."

~ Hunter Beast***

In this episode I sit down with Hunter Beast for a sprawling, high-signal exploration of how to prepare Bitcoin for an unknowable future. We cover formal verification and Lean 4, AI-accelerated proofs, surveillance and BIP39 risks, faith and natural law, and why he thinks governance must shift toward provable safety over new features. We finish with his confident prediction that BIP 110 will activate, and what it would mean for Core’s relevance if it doesn’t.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Intro and Hunter's prediction

(00:06:33) - Researching critical vulnerabilities

(00:19:40) - Hilbert's questions and the limits of mathematics

(00:28:46) - Faith, personal struggles, and identity

(00:37:32) - BIP39 and surveillance

(00:43:28) - AI, false idols, and religious history

(00:49:26) - Natural law and nation states

(00:56:43) - Nodes, and decentralized storage markets

(01:24:56) - BIP 110, crisis and shift

(02:09:52) - Predictions around BIP 110 activation

(02:12:10) - Defending Bitcoin against economic populism

Guest Links

Hunter on X (Link: https://twitter.com/cryptoquick)

Hunter's Website (Link: https://cryptoquick.com/)

Hunter's GitHub (Link: https://github.com/cryptoquick)

Affiliate Links

Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)

Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

Host Links

⁠⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy's Takes on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@GuysTake)

Guy Swann on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

What is the most important project in Bitcoin? It isn't BIP 110 or some shiny new payment protocol. We actually have a massive security vulnerability sitting at the base layer: Bitcoin mining isn't really mining anymore.

Right now, we have millions of hashers but barely a handful of real miners deciding what transactions make it into a block. And that means a few centralized pool operators could easily censor the network.

In this Take, I explain why the critical distinction between a hasher and a miner matters. But more importantly, I outline how newer protocols are finally fixing a decade-long mistake.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - The most important project

(00:00:29) - Hashers vs miners

(00:01:35) - Pools choose transactions

(00:03:06) - The few pools who can censor

(00:04:21) - Nodes and block templates

(00:06:15) - Holding your own keys

(00:06:55) - Datum and Stratum V2

(00:08:50) - The single giant pool risk

(00:11:31) - Spam, Slipstream, BIP110

(00:13:22) - Ocean, DMND, and what's next

Affiliate Links

Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/guy/)

Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy's Takes on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@GuysTake)

Guy Swann on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

References from the episode

Bitcoin StackExchange #1: https://tinyurl.com/279wnyjg

D-CentralTech: https://tinyurl.com/284e3gdh

Stratum v2: https://tinyurl.com/26wn5kps

Pavlenex's X post: https://tinyurl.com/23w828ac

LNhance: https://tinyurl.com/2c9k4ogm

DMND: https://tinyurl.com/2yfurts9

BitcoinTalk: https://tinyurl.com/234qlqgb

Bitcoin StackExchange #2: https://tinyurl.com/279wnyjg

Mempool.space: https://tinyurl.com/245ahvdq

Minoa.com: https://tinyurl.com/24qmfn4d

The Defiant: https://tinyurl.com/28vsgv7z

***"I think I got kind of orange-pilled and privacy-pilled in this way when Snowden exposed all this surveillance that was happening by default through every system you've ever touched.

That's when I started treating all digital infrastructure as inherently recording devices. They're trying to take information and, even if someone doesn't really want or intend to store the information, it's possible that it gets leaked through a hack. And when it comes to money, that reveals all the relationships someone has. And without privacy, there's no way for that to be free. For Bitcoin to kind of live up in my mind to what it was meant to do, be censorship resistant, you need to have privacy."

~ Dan Gould***

We've all heard that Bitcoin needs privacy to function as real money. But most current solutions force you to jump through ridiculous hoops. Dan Gould has been obsessing over this exact problem for years, and he came on the show to explain why we might finally have a viable fix.

Dan and I talked through the history of Bitcoin privacy tools. We looked back at the early days of TumbleBit and Wasabi, and got into why past attempts failed to gain significant adoption. But the core of our conversation was about Payjoin V3.

If you care about protecting your stack and keeping your identity safe from on-chain surveillance firms, you need to hear this one. Dan breaks down exactly how the new Payjoin protocol strips out the heavy infrastructure and simply hides your transactions in plain sight. It completely shifted my perspective on how we actually achieve basic on-chain privacy.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Guest intro

(00:04:42) - Fixing base layer anonymity

(00:10:29) - The physical risks of public ledgers

(00:14:58) - Lessons from early privacy protocols

(00:21:44) - FinCEN and the downfall of Stratus

(00:26:20) - The technical flaws of synchronous mobile coinjoins

(00:30:37) - Developer assumptions versus actual user behavior

(00:32:40) - Understanding Payjoin and interactive transaction batching

(00:39:19) - Overcoming complex connection barriers in p2p privacy

(00:42:07) - Async Payjoin directories

(00:49:20) - Output substitution and routing interactive payments

(01:00:28) - Achieving non-interactive additions without covenants

(01:12:34) - The push for widespread adoption

Guest Links

Dan on X (Link: https://twitter.com/bitgould)

Payjoin's Website (Link: https://payjoin.org)

Payjoin's GitHub (Link: https://github.com/payjoin)

Edward Snowden's X post (Link: https://x.com/Snowden/status/1391040522433830912?s=20)

Affiliate Links

Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)

Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

Host Links

⁠⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy's Takes on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@GuysTake)

Guy Swann on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

The extreme left often claims to follow logic and "the science". But I've noticed a glaring pattern that contradicts this. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.

In this Take, I share my thoughts on the "holy trinity" the woke left actually worships. It starts with treating other people's money like magic. But seizing wealth is just the beginning. I break down the dangerous obsession with political authority and blind submission driving this hostile new religion.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Woke left claims logic

(00:00:55) - Other people’s money

(00:01:38) - Money as magic wand

(00:02:17) - Money isn’t enough

(00:03:04) - Gov waste vs billionaires

(00:05:14) - Power as second god

(00:07:31) - “Trust the science” dogma

(00:09:24) - The holy trinity

(00:11:23) - Saving their own world

Affiliate Links

Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/guy/)

Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy's Takes on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@GuysTake)

Guy Swann on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

References from the episode

Demand Sage: https://tinyurl.com/2blh4j3x

CNBC: https://tinyurl.com/y86nqau8

Fox News: https://tinyurl.com/25tpbxjz

NewsBreak: https://tinyurl.com/29wlamev

GAO.Gov: https://tinyurl.com/24szjfr5

NPR: https://tinyurl.com/2yfms6k7

Yahoo News: https://tinyurl.com/2cfvzxuy

Fox News: https://tinyurl.com/2xmslvkp

We Forum: https://tinyurl.com/26ltmt5r

The Hill: https://tinyurl.com/23wqhj5d

NewsWeek: https://tinyurl.com/28apgpqt

BBC: https://tinyurl.com/2y8zhvs4

BBC: https://tinyurl.com/23b522tn