I talk with Kevin Whitmore from Callaghan Innovation. Callaghan are a New Zealand state entity providing research and development assistance and funding to help kiwi businesses grow.
We talk about Kevin’s background and his journey of understanding Bitcoin and what money is, as well as his current role looking at Web3.
For Kevin, Web3 is focussed broadly on "decentralised internet tech". We discuss payment innovations with the Lightning network, Bitcoin, Nostr, and more.
I am encouraged to see an interest in Bitcoin technology from the New Zealand Government. I welcome Callaghan’s approach of objectively looking at everything that comes their way and making judgements based on first principles.
Ultimately having a vehicle like Kevin’s work at Callaghan Innovation could be one of the ways New Zealand becomes a first mover in adopting Bitcoin. I am quietly encouraged to see the label "Web3" reclaimed by genuinely decentralised tech such as Nostr, Lightning Zaps, and Fedi.
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Links:
Kevin Whitmore on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwhitmore/
Callaghan Innovation - https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/
web3nz.xyz - https://web3nz.xyz/
Fedi - https://www.fedi.xyz/
The Wellbeing Protocol - https://www.thewellbeingprotocol.org/
Base58 Bitcoin Protocol School - https://www.base58.info/
In this episode I speak with Mikey Smith, a Kiwi Bitcoiner working in the world of mortgages and finance. Mikey gives some perspectives on the New Zealand housing situation, the slow train wreck that is the Government, and what the longer term outlook might be for the country. We also dive into personal responsibility, creating value, and fishing off of Norfolk Island.
A special mid-winter Matariki episode. I catchup up with some of the Wellington Bitcoin crew here at the studio: Bitkiwi Paul and Konrad Hurren, and Troy joins us at the end.
I talk with Christian Lewe from Blockstream Research. Christian is working on Simplicity, a more robust programming language designed as an alternative to Bitcoin Script. The project that has been in the works for over ten years and has been described by Adam Back as “the last soft fork”, and as Christian shares, enabling simplicity could bypass a lot of the contentious soft fork discussions about things like covenants as this functionality is possible with Simplicity.
Dr Matthew Birchall is a Research Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative. The New Zealand Initiative is a policy think tank conducting independent research on a wide range of issues. We talk about Matthew's report “Paving the Wave: Learning from New Zealand past to Build a Better Future.” The report explores how the country effectively tackled infrastructure projects in the past, and offers guidance on how the country can rediscover this talent.