About this episode
Jonathan Bier is the author of the influential best-seller "The Blocksize War: The battle over who controls Bitcoin’s protocol rules", as well as one of the most prolific and respected researchers in Bitcoin. He is also an active investor who sits on various company boards and advises projects in the space.
In this episode, we talk about parallels between the Bitcoin scaling debate and the filter wars, but also highlight some debunked Satoshi Nakamoto claims.
Time stamps:
00:01:11 - Introducing Jonathan Bier and Blocksize War Book
00:02:44 - Meeting BitMEX Founders and Starting Research
00:05:31 - Arthur Hayes' Blog Writing and Vision
00:07:32 - BitMEX Success: Leverage, Perpetual Swaps, Troll Box
00:10:43 - FTX Copying BitMEX and Backend Issues
00:11:20 - Binance's Rise and Market Dominance
00:13:49 - BitMEX's Slow Adoption of Stablecoins
00:16:39 - Current BitMEX Volumes and Rankings
00:17:39 - History of Bitcoin Derivatives and Innovations
00:23:49 - Jonathan's First Bitcoin Encounter in 2010
00:26:12 - 2011 Bubble and Mt. Gox Scandal
00:28:02 - Views on Bitcoin Bubbles and Valuations
00:30:19 - Ad: Bitcoin.com News
00:31:00 - Layer 2 Labs Question: Is Lightning a Waste?
00:32:08 - Lightning Network Success and Limitations
00:35:02 - Scaling Challenges and Sidechains
00:37:30 - Current Filter Wars and Ordinals/Inscriptions
00:39:40 - History of Relay Policies and RBF
00:43:49 - OP_RETURN Limits and Debates
00:47:04 - Bitnod.es Website and Node Peers
00:48:39 - Ineffectiveness of Filters
00:50:00 - Super TestNet's Bandwidth Argument
00:51:42 - Generational Crusades in Bitcoin
01:01:55 - London Meetup Stories and Fanaticism
01:15:00 - Loss of Merchants Post-Blocksize War
01:18:13 - Ethereum Benefiting from Bitcoin Decisions
01:18:48 - 2014 OP_RETURN Wars and Counterparty
01:23:03 - Reasons Counterparty Failed
01:27:31 - Mastercoin, First ICO, and Omni/Tether
01:29:37 - Zcash Launch and BitMEX Futures Shenanigans
01:33:26 - Ethereum DevCon 2016 Attack Story
01:35:04 - Conferences Then vs Now
01:38:00 - Cultural Divide in Bitcoin Maxis
01:39:46 - Misconceptions About Bitcoin Core Developers
01:43:25 - Youth of Early Developers Like Tamas
01:46:59 - Criteria for Developers and Unicorn Myth
01:48:41 - Educators in Bitcoin History: From Satoshi to Saylor
01:52:05 - Dumbing Down of Bitcoin Narratives
01:55:34 - Past Idiocy and Learning Curves
01:56:50 - BIP 444 Dangers and Ineffectiveness
02:00:59 - Irony of Anti-Spam Fork and Spam Magnets
02:01:22 - Parallels to Blocksize Wars, Bitcoin Cash Price Peaks
02:03:30 - Excitement and Fear During BCH Surge
02:04:28 - Reasons Big Blockers Couldn't Compete, Craig Wright's Role
02:05:16 - Satoshi's Response to Scaling Concerns (2008)
02:06:05 - Jeff Garzik's Early Block Size Proposal (2010)
02:07:33 - Early Onchain Exchanges and Scaling Realization
02:07:58 - Defining Small Blocker vs Big Blocker
02:08:56 - Surplus Capacity in Blocks Debate
02:10:10 - Cultural Biases: Technical vs Business Sides
02:11:32 - Com
