Aaron van Wirdum rejoins me to talk about his exploration of how Bitcoin came to be. We talk about his new book, The Genesis Book. In this book, Aaron explores some of the technologies, and philosophies that led to the creation of Bitcoin. We discuss:

What he learned in making this book
Hayek and the Austrians
Extropians
Cryptography and the Cypherpunks
Libertarians
Precursor tech to Bitcoin

Links:

X: @AaronvanW
Site: http://thegenesisbook.com/
Nostr #npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5

Sponsors:

Swan.com (code LIVERA)
CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)
Mempool.space
https://nomadcapitalist.com/live/

Stephan Livera links:

Follow me on X: @stephanlivera
Subscribe to the podcast
Subscribe to Stephan Livera Substack newsletter

Timestamp/Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Motivation for Writing the Book
04:05 - Bitcoin's Origins and Evolution
08:21 - The Influence of Hayek and Austrian Economics
18:54 - The Connection Between FOSS and Bitcoin
25:49 - The Extropians and Their Vision
30:47 - The Cypherpunks and Their Ideology
32:28 - Swan.com
33:52 - Mempool.space
35:00 - Coinkite.com
39:30 - The Rise and Fall of DigiCash
51:20 - The Crypto Wars and Government Regulation
56:26 - Pre-cursor Electronic Cash Projects
01:01:20 - Satoshi's Clever Insight
01:03:00 - Closing thoughts