Episode notes
Donald McIntyre is a collaborator of Nick Szabo’s, and a man who left behind the world of mainstream finance (he previously worked at UBS Securities and Morgan Stanley) to embrace the cypherpunk ethos. He’s passionate about history of money, cypherpunk culture, natural sciences, and anthropology. What makes this episode a must-listen: The crash course in cypherpunk history and the fact that Donald McIntyre knows Nick Szabo’s work so well that this interview is the single closest experience to having the Bit gold inventor himself on the show.
The element of surprise: The tribute to Tim May (the cypherpunk legend who passed one month before we recorded this interview) and the criticism of David Chaum’s Elixxir project. The interview definitely is very cypherpunk-oriented. Also, Mr. McIntyre mentions “Truth Coin” (Paul Sztorc) as a must-have guest — thus establishing a goal that would take me eight seasons to accomplish.
Donald McIntyre talks about the anthropological and historical elements that led to the creation of Bitcoin, and reveals his admiration and affinity for the works of Tim May and Nick Szabo.
Topics and timestamps:
00:50 – Introduction
02:50 – Was Bitcoin Inevitable
06:45 – Cypherpunks
07:50 – Desire for Privacy and Sound Money
09:30 – Money as Freedom
13:00 – Trust Minimization
14:40 – Nick Szabo's Social Scalability
18:30 – Privacy and Intelligence Agencies
24:00 – Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
30:00 – Comments on Centralized Projects
32:00 – Views on Hyperbitcoinization
39:45 – The 1% Wasn't First in Bitcoin
44:00 – The Early Bitcoin Days
44:50 – Bitcoin as a Biological Invention, Nick Szabo's Approach, The Origins of Money
57:00 – Nick Szabo, Tim May, Wei Dai, Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto
01:10:00 – Bitcoin's Game Theory
01:15:00 – Satoshi and Nick Szabo Are Just Like Newton and Leibnitz
01:19:00 – What Was Tim May Like
01:22:00 – David Chaum
01:26:00 – Cypherpunk Inventions
01:30:00 – Tim May and Wei Dai on Violence
01:32:00 – What Is Ethereum
01:38:00 – How ETC Supplements BTC
01:42:00 – Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic in 10 Years
01:53:00 – The Only Legitimate Hard Fork in Bitcoin
01:54:00 – Governments and Bitcoin
01:58:00 – Miners' Attacks on Bitcoin Supply and Block Reward
The element of surprise: The tribute to Tim May (the cypherpunk legend who passed one month before we recorded this interview) and the criticism of David Chaum’s Elixxir project. The interview definitely is very cypherpunk-oriented. Also, Mr. McIntyre mentions “Truth Coin” (Paul Sztorc) as a must-have guest — thus establishing a goal that would take me eight seasons to accomplish.
Donald McIntyre talks about the anthropological and historical elements that led to the creation of Bitcoin, and reveals his admiration and affinity for the works of Tim May and Nick Szabo.
Topics and timestamps:
00:50 – Introduction
02:50 – Was Bitcoin Inevitable
06:45 – Cypherpunks
07:50 – Desire for Privacy and Sound Money
09:30 – Money as Freedom
13:00 – Trust Minimization
14:40 – Nick Szabo's Social Scalability
18:30 – Privacy and Intelligence Agencies
24:00 – Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
30:00 – Comments on Centralized Projects
32:00 – Views on Hyperbitcoinization
39:45 – The 1% Wasn't First in Bitcoin
44:00 – The Early Bitcoin Days
44:50 – Bitcoin as a Biological Invention, Nick Szabo's Approach, The Origins of Money
57:00 – Nick Szabo, Tim May, Wei Dai, Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto
01:10:00 – Bitcoin's Game Theory
01:15:00 – Satoshi and Nick Szabo Are Just Like Newton and Leibnitz
01:19:00 – What Was Tim May Like
01:22:00 – David Chaum
01:26:00 – Cypherpunk Inventions
01:30:00 – Tim May and Wei Dai on Violence
01:32:00 – What Is Ethereum
01:38:00 – How ETC Supplements BTC
01:42:00 – Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic in 10 Years
01:53:00 – The Only Legitimate Hard Fork in Bitcoin
01:54:00 – Governments and Bitcoin
01:58:00 – Miners' Attacks on Bitcoin Supply and Block Reward
