Our guest this week is Ahyke Otutubuike, a technical writer and Bitcoin user based in Nigeria. Nigeria has been in the news this month as its central bank issued a directive, prohibiting regulated financial institutions from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges and companies that touch crypto, essentially unbanking them. Ahyke had a piece in Bitcoin Magazine this past week explaining the situation and adding context for the Bitcoin’s place in Nigeria’s economy overall, and we get additional analysis from him here. We discuss the momentum for Bitcoin in Nigeria and its main use cases, national economic factors behind the central bank’s move and what he sees as the main driver of the move, and what comes next. Ahyke’s Bitcoin Magazine article Follow Ahyke on Twitter @AhykeCop

Bitcoin In Asia

Bitcoin in Nigeria with Ahyke Otutubuike BIA 35

Our guest this week is Alejandro De La Torre, Vice President at Poolin. Alejandro and Poolin are managing taprootactivation.com to improve on the communication and transparency of the Taproot activation process specifically. Poolin has also recently launched hashrate backed token, one that represents 1 Th of hashrate in their own mining operation and is already trading. Alejandro has been in Bitcoin data and mining space since 2014 when he founded SendChat, later acquired by wallet and data service Blocktrail, where Alejandro led BD until it was acquired by Bitmain. Inside of Bitmain, Alejandro cofounded BTC.com, and led their European office during the Segwit upgrade process. Now back with former BTC.com colleagues at Poolin, Alejandro leads their global BD. We discuss Poolin’s hashrate backed token and why it is gaiing traction as a novel market entrant and the progress of taprootaxtivation.com and what comes next in the activation process. Alejandro also shares his thoughts on recent news in North America around DCG’s Foundry and Blockstream as well as Bitmain’s split and how he sees the prospects for each separate entity.

Poolin's Alejandro De La Torre on Hashrate Backed Tokens and Taproot - BIA 34

After a little holiday break we are kicking off 2021 with a quick hitting episode. Our guest is Molly, head of marketing at HashKey Hub. Molly was Bitcoin Magazine’s first employee in Asia and combines that early Bitcoin experience with a lot of success rolling out Bitcoin products in Asia with Hashkey. This is more of a rapid fire episode with Molly’s perspective on mainstream media coverage of Bitcoin in China, the growth of Bitcoin interest products, the Asian view of GBTC and more.

Quick Hits with Molly of Hashkey Hub - BIA 33

Our guest this week is Niall Ferguson. Niall is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of 15 books, including The Ascent of Money and has at least two in the works in the upcoming Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe as well as part two of his excellent Henry Kissinger biography.  Niall also writes a regular column for Bloomberg Opinion. In this episode we dig into Niall’s recent Bloomberg piece “Bitcoin Is Winning the Covid-19 Monetary Revolution” and discuss the history of financial evolution, including how the current iteration of that evolution is playing out between China and the US and how he views Bitcoin in that context. We also discuss the qualities that make Bitcoin a significant advance and the broader importance of decentralization and sovereignty. Find Niall online at niallferguson.com and on Twitter @nfergus

Niall Ferguson on Bitcoin and Financial Evolution BIA 32

Our guest this week is Lixin Liu head of hardware at Cobo and creator of Cobo Vault out of Shanghai. Lixin’s background in hardware and international product development made him Discus Fish’s choice when F2 Pool decided to get into the hardware and security game. We talk about building out Bitcoin hardware from the ground up, why it is valuable to the Bitcoin network to have increasing competition in the hardware product space, the difference between what Chinese miners and western retail users want in hardware products, trends he is seeing in institutional custody interest in Asia and more.

Bitcoin Hardware and Security with Lixin Liu of Cobo Vault - BIA31

Our guest this week is Alejandro De Le Torre, Vice President at Poolin. Alejandro and Poolin have launched taprootactivation.com to improve on the communication and transparency of the Taproot activation process. Alejandro has been in Bitcoin since 2014 when he founded SendChat, later acquired by wallet and data service Blocktrail, where Alejandro led BD until it was acquired by Bitmain. Inside of Bitmain, Alejandro cofounded BTC.com, and led their European office during the Segwit upgrade process. Now back with former BTC.com colleagues at Poolin, Alejandro leads their global Business Development. We talk about lessons learned in the Segwit and blocksize debates, bitcoin upgrade activations and taprootaxtivation.com specifically, operating in the mining pool space and more.

Coordinating Bitcoin Upgrades with Poolin's Alejandro De La Torre - BIA30

We have very special episode this week featuring some of the godfathers of Bitcoin: Nick Szabo, Adam Back and David Chaum. This was recorded as a live panel from Seoul at Korea Blockchain Week and is laid out as a history of the ideas and events that led to Bitcoin from their first person accounts, plus their current thoughts on the experiment and what excites them about the future. From the cryptography and cypherpunk movements to David’s DigiCash, Adam’s Hashcash proof-of-work, Nick’s Bit Gold, and more. Their own contributions were foundational to the development of Bitcoin, and it was fascinating to have them together and playing off of each other in a discussion of that history. A special thanks for fact block for organizing.

The Godfathers of Bitcoin: Nick Szabo, Adam Back and David Chaum - BIA29

Our guest this week is Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of India based Bitcoin exchange Unocoin. A tech entrepreneur who got into Bitcoin in 2013, starting a Bitcoin meetup group in Bangalore out of which came the founding team of Unocoin, Sathvik as CEO is now leading the company through a new Series A funding round led by Draper Associates. We discus how Unocoin became the market leader in India initially, what the exchange ecosystem in India looks like now, why it is a market playing catchup, and why he is bullish on what is next. There aren’t many people who have been operating Bitcoin businesses in India since 2013, and I enjoyed Sathvik’s insights.

Running India's first Bitcoin Exchange with Unocoin CEO Sathvik Vishwanath - BIA28

Our guest this week is Nishant Sharma, a long time bitcoin mining industry insider in China who is now a founder and partner of BlocksBridge Consulting, a communications strategy and advisory firm focused on the Bitcoin mining sector and serving some of its largest companies. Nishant has been in the mining space since 2014, including 4 years at Bitmain in Beijing. We discuss his time at Bitmain, seeing it grow from a two digit employee company to a dominant player in the industry, trends in the mining space outside of China, state of mainstream and industry media coverage and more.

Bitcoin Mining and Communications with Nishant Sharma - BIA27

Our guest this week is Ciara Sun, Head of Global Business and Markets at Huobi Group. Ciara joined Huobi in 2019 first focusing on growth of its institutional business and in her role now now overseeing its growth and product strategy around the world, she gives a great look into what goes into running and growing a global bitcoin company with a diverse range of products. And one that is continuously rolling out new products in very cutthroat markets, including rollouts this year in the futures space, mining pool space, and more. It was interesting to get a look under the hood at how huobi operates, how they plan expansion and navigate regulation around the world and how Ciara is thinking about current trends and the future.

Growing a Global Bitcoin Company with Huobi's Ciara Sun - BIA26

We are actually in South Africa this week after some newsworthy M&A there involving the Luno exchange and DCG. Our guest is Chris Becker, Blockchain Technologies Lead at Investec based out of Johannesburg. Investec is a commercial and investment bank with a significant presence in South Africa, and Chris started their blockchain practice in 2016 - he talks about Bitcoin in South Africa in that time frame, DCG’s acquisition of Luno, the landscape of Bitcoin companies in SA and trends he sees in adoption there. He also puts Austrian economics in the context of fiscal and monetary policy in SA and Bitcoin.

Bitcoin in South Africa with Chris Becker - BIA25

Our guest this week is Australian Hongkonger and Bitcoin entrepreneur Dave Chapman. Dave is the Executive Director of the publicly listed BC Group and its subsidiary OSL (osl.com), one of Asia's leading digital asset platforms. OSL recently became the first recipient of approval in principle for Type 1 and Type 7 licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, allowing them to operate a virtual asset trading platform and deal in securities. It is a significant step from Hong Kong regulators and the result of an intentional approach from OSL. Dave and I discuss that process and its significance, trends that he sees in institutional adoption and more. Dave on Twitter @IAmDaveChapman OSL on Twitter @osldotcom

An Institutional Approach with Dave Chapman - BIA24

Our guest this week is Leo Weese, a long time Bitcoiner in Hong Kong and a Cofounder and president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. The Bitcoin Association has been a significant advocate for and communicator about Bitcoin since 2014 as it has established one of the strongest Bitcoin communities in Asia. One of its recent initiates, an advertising campaign highlighting Bitcoin’s traits and potential as magic internet money and digital gold among other taglines has made waves. We discuss how that came to be, why the quotes and tag lines are timely, why Leo thinks we need to be thinking bigger about Bitcoin’s potential in light of monetary policy and the structure of capital flows around the world and much more. 

Advertising Bitcoin with Leo Weese - BIA23

Our guest this week is Darshan Bathija, founder and CEO of Bank of Hodlers (bankofhodlers.com), an asset backed lending and borrowing platform that I think we will be hearing a lot more of in the future. The company runs out of Singapore and Darshan and most of his team are currently working out of India. Darshan gives great insight into the lending and borrowing markets for retail and institutions in their different geographies from Southeast Asia to Europe and the Americas. He also goes deep on the retail banking sector and monetary policy in India and what his long term vision is for a Bitcoin first bank. Darshan on Twitter @darshanbathija

Bank of Hodlers Founder and CEO Darshan Bathija - BIA22

Description Our guest this week is Raymond Walintukan, Director of Mining Operations North America for Bitmain. His perspective as someone in charge of running and growing a separate geography for a Chinese company and for Bitmain in particular is an interesting one. We talk about that situation, the workflow, the growth strategy, and dive into how it works operationally and how it fits into the broader Bitmain effort. Raymond also details Bitmain’s North American footprint, the nuances of working with public and private utilities in the US and mining trends that he sees heading into this next Bitcoin cycle.  

Bitmain in North America with Raymond Walintukan - BIA21

Hosted by Bitcoin Magazine’s John Riggins, Bitcoin in Asia, gives listeners insight into the minds of the leading experts in the Asia cryptocurrency scene. For beginners and experts, each episode tackles the complex and significant topics facing the current state of Bitcoin in Asia, bridging the information gap between the East and West.

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Bitcoin In Asia

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