Episode #93: Cryptographic Verification

Ah, now here is a meaty episode. Nearing the ripe age of 50, Gavin Andresen graces us with an appearance as an expert on Bitcoin? He has worked on the project in some way or other since 2010 and is still one of its best-known figures. So we are in good company. One of his first public podcast chats since publicly backing Craig Wright (we don’t need to get into that, do we?), we ask him the hard hitting questions and get some answers! After all, it was Andresen who in October 2011 first floated the idea of a Bitcoin Foundation to lobby for cryptocurrency and promote the idea of a decentralized transaction network to a world that had never heard of such a concept. He gave away over 10,000 BTC (current value $4.6 million) via the Bitcoin Faucet. It has been Andresen’s support for rival protocol Bitcoin Classic, however, and its stated intention to hard-fork Bitcoin to allow ever-larger transaction block sizes, that perhaps left him vulnerable to more criticism. But look, there is a major battle for the future of the currency, and Bitcoin has divided firmly into warring camps on the issue, amid claims larger blocks will lead to bandwidth problems, centralization, and leave it open to control by big business and other domineering entities. Gavin says…show me the whitepaper, hoss! Let’s get to it!