S17 E11: John Carvalho on Bitcoin Depression, Bitkit & Pubky
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S17 E11: John Carvalho on Bitcoin Depression, Bitkit & Pubky

3:06:41 Mar 5, 2026
About this episode
John Carvalho is the CEO of Synonym: the company behind the Bitkit wallet and the Pubky social tagging protocol. In this episode, he talks about the progress he's made with his products, the relevance of BIP110, and two concepts which he calls ”Bitcoin depression” and ”Lightning derangement”. Time stamps: 00:00:47 Introducing John Carvalho 00:01:42 Podcast Sponsorships & Cake Wallet Giveaway 00:03:40 Synonym Company Growth & AI Coding 00:07:10 Startup Lessons & Xotika History 00:10:26 Bitcoin Uncensored & Xotika Freedom 00:12:00 Stablecoins, Tether, and Omni 00:15:00 Bitcoin Block Space & Scaling 00:20:13 Blockchain Ecosystems & Class System 00:23:50 Forks, Scaling, and Store of Value 00:52:00 Blockstream, Core Devs, and Institutionalization 00:59:00 Bitcoin Depression & Lightning Derangement Syndrome 01:02:18 Community Fragmentation & Social Dynamics 01:32:55 Bitcoin Core, Trust, and Governance 01:51:32 Soft Forks, Consensus, and Node Power 02:00:04 Maximalism, Altcoins, and Experimentation 02:04:00 Payments vs. Store of Value 02:13:25 Trust, Society, and Social Scalability 02:16:04 Purpose of Bitcoin & Managing Violence 02:23:03 Synonym, Atomic Economy, and Product Vision 02:30:33 BitKit Wallet Design & Bitcoin Units 02:38:19 Bitcoin Community, Learning, and Evolution 02:55:44 Fashion Brand: Tar and Feathers 03:01:44 Social Media, Virality, and PubKy 03:05:08 Closing Remarks & Farewell
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