Bitcoin Audible

I bet you’ve noticed it too. Everything we buy just seems cheaper, flimsier, and worse than it used to be. Some call it the "enshittification" of everything.

And almost everyone blames the exact same thing: corporate greed and the failures of capitalism.

In this episode, I’m sharing my take on the real reason our world feels like it's falling apart. I use a simple story about two winemakers to show how this broken fiat system actually punishes honest businesses and heavily rewards the ones cutting corners.

We aren't in a race to t...

***"There's a lot of emphasis on the moment at how AI is making everything less secure, and that is a part of the story. Of course, any tool, any powerful tool has its advantages and disadvantages or has the thing bad guys can use it, good guys can use it. But the power that I think this actually gives the individual for doing stuff like recovery, I think that in the long run, there's going to be way more people who use this to recover their funds than people who use it and manage to steal someone else's funds...

"This isn't one bad week. It's the start of something we all need to be prepared for.

***Just look at the numbers. Security firm CrowdStrike says the attacks it sees that likely involve AI agents more than doubled in August, then doubled again in September. And if this week is any indication, it's only speeding up."

~ Matt Shumer***

In this Read, I walk through why this new wave of AI-driven hacks isn’t just another bad week for cybersecurity but the beginning of a structural shift in how we protect ourselves on the in...

I break down four of the biggest lies we’re told about inflation, from the idea that prices must always rise to the fantasy that GDP growth means we’re getting richer. I show how money printing, cheap debt, and fake economic metrics quietly transfer real wealth from workers and savers to the already powerful. If you’ve ever wondered why everything feels more expensive and more fragile, this is a quick demolition of the stories we’ve been sold.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:21) - Everything should always get more affordable

(00:01:16) - Corporat...

"The cost of intelligence keeps falling toward the cost of electricity, and everyone will share in what that intelligence can do.

Bitcoin captures the gains directly, while in dollar terms they are inflated away."

~ Early RIders

In this episode I read and unpack “The Singularity Stack” by Early Riders, a framework that follows energy as it becomes compute, intelligence, agent work, and finally settles in money. I connect that thesis to Bitcoin, arguing that only a fixed-supply asset can actually capture the deflationary gains of AI-driven productivity instead of inflating them away. Along the...

In this breakdown of the Ledger supply chain hack, I walk through how a tiny hardware implant turned legitimate hardware wallets into seed-stealing spy devices. I cover who’s actually at risk, why buying from resellers is a ticking time bomb, and what self-custody conditions are now non‑negotiable for serious bitcoiners. This isn’t the end of self-custody but a painful step we have to take to make it robust enough for the world we’re heading into.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - The Great Hackening continues

(00:02:05) - Resellers and attack surfaces

(00:02:38) - Timeline...

I break down the biggest lie we've all deeply internalized about the economy: that prices are just supposed to go up. In a productive and advancing society, almost everything should actually be getting more affordable over time.

Using a very simple analogy, I show exactly how the creation of new money quietly robs us of the prosperity our hard work should be delivering.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Everything should get cheaper

(00:01:06) - The apple economy

(00:01:58) - Counterfeit money

(00:02:20) - Lost productivity gains

(00:02:43) - Printing as silent theft <...

We finally stopped being lazy and brought a guest onto the Roundtable. Max Hillebrand joins Steve, Jeff, and I to talk about the absolute madness happening in the freedom tech space right now.

Max has been using AI agents to solve challenging computer science problems for White Noise and the Marmot protocol. We talk about the possibility that we are moving toward a future where the average user base for a custom piece of software is exactly one person. I share how I sent my AI agents after a spam caller company to track down the CEO's...

In this Take, I break down why the biggest AI labs, while deeply unprofitable sitting on massive future compute obligations, are racing toward trillion-dollar valuations. I explore how open-source competition, especially from China, is crushing their moat, and why that pushes them toward lobbying for fear-driven regulation, immunity, and government partnerships. Ultimately, I argue that the AI panic is about preserving a failing business model and building a centralized surveillance infrastructure, and why we shouldn’t be the ones paying their bill.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:27) - OpenAI’s insane obligations

(00:01:51) - Anth...

***"The dollar is going to continue to lose purchasing power. Bitcoin is going to continue to gain purchasing power. It's going to keep on happening over the rest of the century. We will at some point have enough people that have most of their wealth in bitcoin that they don't have anything else to spend and they will start to spend their bitcoin. And when they start to encounter more people like them on the other side of the transaction, they will no longer convert to some other currency on the merchant side for that transaction."

~ Cory...

In this Take episode, I break down the “Great Hackening” ripping through Bitcoin right now – from Coldcard’s catastrophic entropy bug to Liquid’s recent 4,000 BTC exploit, Lightning implementation issues, and a few major wallet update and data breaches.

I also explain how AI has completely flipped the economics of attack and defense, why Bitcoin is the canary in the digital coal mine, and what practical steps you must take to protect your stack. This episode is a roadmap for surviving and ultimately benefiting from this brutal security stress test.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - The Great Hack...

In this third Coldcard Q&A, I tackle entropy, device trust, DIY signers, and why I’m leaning harder than ever on multi-sig. I walk through why understanding encryption must become a mandatory survival skill, rather than a niche hobby, if we want to resist a dystopian future. I also share where I moved my personal stack, explain how multisig actually saved me, and explore the impossible ethical nightmare of white-hat hackers trying to rescue compromised wallets.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:22) - The future of Coinkite

(00:02:28) - Refunds or going dark?

...

The roundtable is back, but we're missing a familiar face. Mechanic has officially stepped down from Ocean, so it’s just Jeff, Steve and I digging into the aftermath of BIP110, from why the soft fork failed to what Luke and Mechanic’s departure means for Ocean and Bitcoin Core’s influence.

We debate whether the real existential risk is block-template centralization, how much BIP110 helped or hurt Knots and Ocean, and why some of us think the strategy overplayed its hand. We close with a wild proposal to pressure Coinbase into proving reserves using their wrapped BTC to...

In this episode I continue unpacking the Coldcard RNG disaster, wrestling with whether it was malicious or just shockingly incompetent design and attitude. I walk through how arrogance, licensing changes, and convoluted security theater may have let a fundamental failure sit unnoticed for years, possibly causing key collisions and bizarre “free Bitcoin” situations. I also warn about fake Sparrow and Wasabi mobile apps ruggedly stealing funds from people scrambling to move their funds, and set up a part three focused on lessons learned and best practices.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:51) - Malice vs incompetence

In this Guy's Take, I walk through listener questions and comments on the Coldcard random number generation failure and what it really means for Bitcoin self-custody. We dig into why the RNG bug went unnoticed for years, the difference between source-available and truly open source hardware, and how dice rolls and strong passphrases change your threat model. I also share how I’m thinking about safer setups going forward.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Why Coldcard Questions Remain

(00:01:18) - Features vs Core Failure

(00:03:19) - Speed Over Security Risk

(00:04:54) - Car Without An En...

***"In the early days, the average user could probably use a Coldcard and know the amount of entropy required. The average Bitcoin user today, no clue. And so the times have changed, our message should have changed. And where I come down to is essentially what you said HODL, you should custody your bitcoin at the level that you are ready for. And that is a process. Day 1, don't shame someone for using an ETF. Applaud them for exposure and remind them that this isn't the end and as your experience, your knowledge, your position size increases, you may...

Thousands of careful Bitcoiners just got wiped out by a Coldcard entropy bug, and I use this episode to push back hard on the idea that self-custody is dead, and "don't trust, verify" failed us.

I walk through the brutal history of centralized custodial failures, explain why "holding your own keys is still orders of magnitude safer, and extract three real lessons from this recent disaster. This is about keeping perspective, learning the right lessons from pain, and making Bitcoin self-custody stronger, not weaker.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:00:41) - Is self custody...

***"I think that self custody is not going to be dead. I think that there is going to have to be a group, a vanguard of people that do this and take it seriously. The revolution won't work without that. Everything under the spectrum is acceptable. But if you know what you're here for, you got to put pressure against those systems. And that is by taking the self-custody yourself. That's why we make tools for those people."

~ Lloyd Fournier***

Self-custody is not dead, but it is a ridiculously hard problem to solve. And recent...

In this episode, I unpack the claim that BIP-110’s failure proves corporate miners and suitcoiners now control Bitcoin. I walk through the real dynamics between miners and validating nodes, compare BIP-110 to the UASF, and explain why broad consensus is strictly required to change Bitcoin’s rules. Ultimately, BIP-110’s failure actually confirms Bitcoin’s defensive power structure rather than undermining it.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Who Really Controls Bitcoin?

(00:02:15) - Defining 'real' Bitcoin nodes

(00:02:57) - Horse and carriage analogy

(00:04:20) - Why did BIP-110 failed

(00:04:42) - What UASF and SegW...

***"Today can you also use Coinbase to sell your coin? Yes. But can you guarantee that if Coinbase disappears, your funds will be with you? No. Because, it is, at the end of the day, their custody. Whereas in statechains, a really cool perspective is, if the server or the custodian, disappears, because of the design of the system, money comes back at you on L1. You can broadcast an exit or you can do nothing and the money comes back to you. So if something bad happens to us or to [the] server, then still [the] money is...

***"It's going faster than most people thought. We thought that these models would be useful, but not extremely useful, for a while. Now you look at this and you feel [that] if I'm not using this the entire day, I'm losing on something, I'm staying behind, I have to keep running this like crazy. But we haven't prepared for it. People are connecting all of their life to these cloud providers, you know: 'Hey, manage my life'. And then you're giving them everything you have. I don't think the industry had enough time to prepare for the right tools...

In this episode, Steve, Jeff, and I walk through the catastrophic Coldcard entropy failure, how a trusted hardware wallet ended up generating weak keys, and how attackers are now brute-forcing Bitcoin wallets in minutes. We dig into AI’s role in widening the attack surface, the dangers of source-available over true open source, and our own arrogance around hardware security. I share practical steps to get your coins off compromised devices, why multi-sig saved me this time, and how we can turn this gut punch into genuine anti-fragility for Bitcoin self-custody.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction

...

This is an emergency episode to warn everyone of the catastrophic Coldcard entropy bug that’s letting attackers regenerate users’ keys and drain wallets without device access.

I walk through concrete, step‑by‑step instructions to move your coins to safety (including using Sparrow, Nunchuck, and even exchanges as a last resort), who’s most at risk across MK3, MK4, MK5, and Q devices, and what this means for hardware wallets, AI‑driven security research, and multi‑sig going forward.

This is the worst hit to self custody in Bitcoin's history. All we can do is act as quic...

There is a massive miscommunication tearing Bitcoiners apart right now. Instead of arguing over specific code like BIP 110, I want to ask a much harder question in this solo take: Is it actually censorship to address spam?

I'll explain why prioritizing financial transactions over JPEGs isn't authoritarianism, and why claiming it is destroys our ability to protect the network. We built a protocol for decentralized money, not unlimited file storage. Let's talk about what real censorship actually means.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - "Censorship" and Spam

(00:01:41) - The analogy

(00:02:52) - Free speech...

"Your savings represent hours you worked, risks you accepted, businesses you built, time spent away from people you love, and consumption you postponed for the sake of the future. When the monetary system allows others to dilute those savings without your consent, it weakens your claim on that future. Bitcoin offers a peaceful alternative, giving every individual access to property that cannot be created without limit, altered for political convenience, or administered according to a different set of rules for the powerful."

"Two hundred and fifty years ago, Americans declared that they would no longer live as...

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 ar...

***"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...

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...

***"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...

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...

The sentiment lately has been total garbage. We’re deep in a bear market, the red candles are stacking up, and people are getting nervous. So, I got the guys back around the table to ask a really uncomfortable question: what happens if Bitcoin actually dies?

We keep things pretty casual but talk through some heavy stuff. We debate the real dangers of leverage, the bizarre obsession with paper Bitcoin equities, and the petty developer drama surrounding mining protocols. Along the way, we come back to why many of us are still effectively all in on Bitcoin, an...

"In this X post, I said I don't know the consequences of BIP-110. Plenty of people called that incompetent, cowardly, or both. Others praised it as humility. It's neither. It's just true. I don't know the consequences, and here's my claim. Neither do you."

~ Jimmy Song

I am reading Jimmy Song’s latest piece and things get a bit heated today. The debate around BIP-110 has everyone absolutely certain they know what will happen to Bitcoin. But as Jimmy points out, they don't. And honestly, neither do I.

Do we really understand the so...

"comma develops open source ADAS software. You can call it self-driving software, but currently what we ship is something where the user is supposed to pay attention all the time."

"We want the software to be open source so that people have full control. The hardware is something you have root on. We don't have any access to your device in terms of that's necessary to make it operate normally. There's some telemetry that you can turn off if you want. The device is something you buy, you run open source software on it and there's no...

Over 10.5 million Bitcoin are currently underwater. Everyone is panicking about a grueling bear market, but I see things differently. In today's Take, I explain why this recent drop actually signals deep liquidity and a historically accurate market bottom. The traditional four-year cycle is breaking. And as the national debt keeps doubling and the fiat printing won't stop, let's talk about why staying patient right now means everything.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Another big dump & 10.5M BTC underwater

(00:01:25) - Capitulation signal that’s called every bear bottom

(00:02:22) - From 90% crashes to a muted bear

Elon Musk is officially a trillionaire. Naturally, people are calling it yet another failure of capitalism, and I'm calling BS.

I compared his wealth to Andrew Carnegie’s fortune. On paper, Musk’s number looks insane, but when you measure them against the total money supply of their eras, the truth completely flips. I believe we aren't seeing runaway capitalism, but we are simply measuring success with a broken tape measure.

I explain why fiat is failing, why you should be mad at central banks instead of builders, and how we finally opt out.

Ch...

***"We're entering the Bitcoin golden era with all the new technologies we're discovering because for the first decade Bitcoin was still very, at least for the first five, six years, there was so little capital in the industry that not a lot was getting built. Plus Bitcoin still had all these early on issues. Now we're getting to the moment where Bitcoin is extremely solid.

It's a trillion dollar industry, right, or a trillion dollar asset. So I think we're just entering the golden era."

~ Gustavo Flores***

I sat down with Gustavo Flores...

I break down the Treasury’s claim that it seized $1B of Iran’s "crypto" and explain why this was actually Tether, not Bitcoin – and why that distinction matters.

I digs into how stablecoins, ETFs, and exchanges recreate the same centralized, confiscable banking system, contrasted with true Bitcoin self-custody.

When you consider Iran, Russia, and Afghanistan as case studies, it is clear that every other reserve asset becomes politicized. The writing is on the wall for centralised finance, and the world will be forced onto Bitcoin because it is the only neutral money that simply keeps...

"Keeping Bitcoin running is the primary concern here. Making sure that Bitcoin is available to be used as money by everyday people, any actor who wants to come onto Bitcoin and send one UTXO from one to another. That's the most important piece for me when thinking about defending Bitcoin.
And the biggest difference, of course, is that this is a decentralised system. There is no central controller. There's no central control room giving out commands and saying 'this has to change, you must do this.'
We are a decentralised group of individuals who are acting...

The whole crew is back for another roundtable, and things get wild right out of the gate. I sat down with Steve, Mechanic, and Jeff to talk through the absolute mess that is the current state of things. Jeff shares an update on his Canadian immigration purgatory, which spirals into a bigger conversation about living like an outlaw and whether any of us are truly free from the system.

But we couldn't ignore the recent news. We talk about the crazy story of a guy who used Claude to brute-force a lost Bitcoin wallet from eleven years...

"Bitcoin is being embraced by the U.S. and the U.S. financial system and it is it being embraced by Iran and the Iranian regime at the exact same time and both of them know that they can use it without the other one threatening it. And that puts it in an insanely unique place in a world where there are no monies that work like that anymore."

~ Guy Swann

We live in a world where global money printers are silently bleeding your savings out the back door. But the real threat isn't only...