I speak with Ian from the Victorian Bitcoin Technology Club, a not-for-profit incorporated club supporting Bitcoin education and grassroots bitcoin adoption in the state of Victoria, Australia. We discuss the background to starting the club, how it acts as a backwards-compatible organisation for interfacing with the legacy world while also embracing Bitcoin principles. We also talk about the club’s mission, their plans for the future, and how they are trying to operate on a Bitcoin standard.

Dr. James Kierstead is a Research Fellow with the New Zealand Initiative focussing on higher education policy, including academic freedom. James co-hosts Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to free speech in New Zealand, and also has a background in classical studies, in particular democracy in Ancient Greece. We talk about the declining state of New Zealand universities and the impact this has on graduates bringing their ideologies into the public sector. We also dive into the importance of language learning and, the economies of ancient Greece city states, and what we can learn from the past.

I talk with Kieran Nolan about his work combining Bitcoin, teaching, and open-source technology. Kieran’s official role is STEM Wizard, teaching at a primary school in Melbourne, Australia. He has been able to bring tech and learning together into the classroom, including helping kids to run Bitcoin nodes, building projects on Nostr, setting up Minecraft servers with other schools, and more. We discuss teaching and learning, and how kids can be better equiped for our rapidly changing world as well as the challenges with bureaucracy and standards-based education in government schools. Kieran is involved in a huge range of other Bitcoin and education projects including the Mornington Peninsula Bitcoin Group, The School of Bitcoin, the Digital Playhouse Foundation, and more.

Andrew Begin is Director of Marketing at Galoy, a company building Bitcoin-native banking infrastructure for organisations. We talk about Galoy’s Bitcoin projects including the open-source Blink Wallet, made popular through Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador. I learn about the vision for the product as well as its Stablesats functionality and how this work. We discuss the power of communities taking ownership of their financial infrastructure, and the opportunities for grassroots Bitcoin adoption in Africa and Latin America. Finally we talk briefly about permaculture and regenerative farming and the connections with Bitcoin thinking.‍

Brandon Bucher is a Bitcoiner based in New Zealand working on several Bitcoin-related projects and an important figure in the local Kiwi Bitcoin community. We zoom out to discuss the recent high on-chain transaction fees, and what we can expect from discussions about scaling solutions moving forward. We talk about how rough consensus works for making changes to Bitcoin and what the situation was like during the period of the Blocksize Wars and SegWit activation from 2015 to 2017. Finally we discuss the importance of education and support for self-custody of bitcoin.

I talk with Nathan Seiuli, Outreach and Events Coordinator at the Free Speech Union in New Zealand. Over the past few years, it’s become evident that many New Zealanders are both unaware of how vital freedom of speech is, and how dangerous some of the moves are to exclude its protections. We talk about the work the Free Speech Union is doing in New Zealand, including campaigns to promote debate and critical thinking in schools, providing feedback and advice to government, and calling out actions that infringe upon freedom of speech. We also talk about how technology such as Bitcoin and Nostr can provide protection for Freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Zed is a Bitcoiner originally from the Czech Republic, but now living in Wellington, New Zealand, where he organises a Local Bitcoin meetup.We dive into Zed’s story, leaving the Czech Republic to go to London around the time of the occupy movement where he first discovered Bitcoin.We talk about Bitcoin art and the role of popular culture in sharing new ways of thinking, as well as the cultural background that Zed brings to Bitcoin, having being born into a communist system. We also talk about how people such as the Gypsies of Europe or the New Zealand Māori represent a different kind of relationship to the state that we can learn a lot from.

I talk with Rob Clarkson about scaling Bitcoin’s Layer 2 Lightning protocol, and how changes happen to Bitcoin more generally. Rob provides a technical introduction to some of the proposals such as ELTOO, APO, CTV, and we talk a bit about what covenants and vaults mean in Bitcoin.

I talk with Rigel Walshe, who gave a speech at the Baltic Honeybadger conference this year titled “Bitcoin as a Religious Phenomenon”. We explore this topic and how in many ways Bitcoin provides meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Whether it is the rapid growth in local bitcoin meetups post-covid, the spread of ideas such as self-sovereignty and rules for moral action, or the state of Bitcoin Culture on Twitter, the development of the social layer of Bitcoin is undeniable in recent years. 

I talk with Paul from Bitkiwi, who are organising New Zealand’s premiere Bitcoin meetup events. We talk about focussing on Proof of Work in your personal life, unplugging from the utter distraction of legacy media, and really asking fundamental questions about the future state of government and society.

Jason Maier is the author of A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin: A Path Toward a More Just, Equitable, and Peaceful World. The book introduces Bitcoin to a progressive audience focussed primarily on the United States. Jason talks about how Bitcoin can actually help bring about positive social change, and he also dispels some of the common misconceptions about Bitcoin that would otherwise slow adoption among those who need it most.

I talk with Kieran Nolan and Chris Pollard, two Bitcoiners based in Melbourne, Australia. Kieran Nolan is a Bitcoin educator. He is the technology specialist at a primary school in Australia, teaching Bitcoin and STEM topics, including getting Andreas Antonopoulos to do a video lesson with his students Kieran is also part of the theschoolofbitcoin.com, blockchain academy international, and other projects. Chris Pollard join us a little bit later on the episode and is active in helping organise the Bitcoin meetups in Melbourne, running bitcoinonly.store, as well leading a new project to create a permanent bitcoin space: unspent.space. With both my guests I was blown away by the range of impactful projects they are working on.

Evan Lin is a New Zealand software engineer currently working on the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK). We talk about Evan’s journey to get funded by Spiral to work full-time on open-source Bitcoin projects, his experience working and living in Taiwan, and how we can encourage emerging developers to put their time and effort into Bitcoin.

In this episode I talk with Faris Mali about his journey growing up in the Middle East and North Africa, working in the academic world in Australia, and his upcoming book ‘Bitcoin Begins, beginner's guide to money, currency and Bitcoin’. Faris is the co-host of ⁠The Bitcoin Basics Podcast⁠, based out of Nelson, New Zealand and he also runs a company providing info about Bitcoin risk mitigation.

Niko Laamanen is the founder of Konsensus Network, a company that focuses on localising and distributing important literature about bitcoin, Austrian economics, and sovereignty. Niko recognised the importance of being able to convey the Bitcoin message into other languages.

Jeff is a Senior Lecturer for Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. He is also a Bitcoiner, and we discuss how he has been teaching Bitcoin to his students, including sharing Satoshi’s White Paper and exploring the technology of the lightning network.

I talk with Paul from Bitkiwi, who organise New Zealand's premiere bitcoin events. In this episode we talk about how children and young people learn about and interact with money, and how these early experiences can shape their world-view and their understanding of value.

I talk with Roberto Osegueda, a Salvadorian living here in New Zealand. We talk about Roberto's experience growing up in El Salvador among the backdrop of the civil war and gang violence, and how the country has managed to massively change its image over the last few years for the better. El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 and Roberto shares a very

I talk with Hanoz Bilia, the founder of The Altruist, a new Bitcoin education and community space based in the Auckland CBD. The Altruist is NZ's first dedicated Bitcoin space and is a great project helping connect Bitcoiners and people interested about Bitcoin in real life! We discuss Hanoz's motivation to start the space, the importance of providing resources for people to learn and

I talk with Rob Clarkson, a Bitcoin Educator and Merchant Adoption Facilitator based in Queenstown, New Zealand. We talk about Rob's work running workshops, helping people get their first sats and even buying their first coffee with Bitcoin. We also discuss merchant adoption and what the opportunities are for this in New Zealand.