Popular Episodes

I talk with James Viggiano about recent comments made by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Not soon after we spoke, James shared a clip that went viral of the governor talking frankly about the exorbitant privilege of money printing that the central banks and governments have. James and I talk about some of the game theory from the perspective of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to defend the Kiwi Dollar and their attempts to talk down inflation, and shift the narrative even as the cost of living crisis continues. We also talk about the opportunity for what New Zealand could look like on a Bitcoin standard and how that could interface with the legacy financial system.

Roland Bewick is a kiwi Bitcoiner and Lightning Developer working on Alby and Lightsats. We talk about Roland’s background and how he become involved in Bitcoin, how value4value and new kinds of revenue models for creators could work in the future, as well as the other possibilities that Bitcoin enables as the money of the internet.

Sam Kivi is the CTO and Director at Grid Share, a New Zealand company building flexible load infrastructure centred around renewable energy and Bitcoin mining. We talk about how flexible load works, and the benefits that it provides to the power grid, how it interacts with renewable power generation, and what the opportunities and challenges are, given New Zealand’s unique energy mix. We also discuss the emerging opportunities for landfill methane capture, and what it actually takes to put in the proof of work to stand up a mining operation as Grid Share have done. Sam also shares a new initiative from the company, offering hosting services for Bitcoin miners in New Zealand.

Palash is an Indian Bitcoiner sharing his thoughts on how to bring Bitcoin adoption to the world’s largest democracy. We talk about the sudden demonetisation of certain cash notes by the Indian government, the new unified payment interface and Indian CBDC. Palash also discusses how households approach savings, purchasing and gifting gold, and the social roles of money.

I talk with Dr. Simon Collins, founder of Stackr, a sustainable Bitcoin mining company based in New Zealand. We talk about NZ's unique renewable energy mix, the importance of miner collaboration, and future opportunities to integrate Bitcoin mining with industrial heat processes.