S1 E2 Remastered: John Carvalho on Bitcoin Politics

Recorded in January 2019 and published alongside the rest of the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast Season 1 episodes in February 2019, this interview with John Carvalho is one of the show's early hits and a statement that this initiative is able to feature unique insights from popular bitcoiners.

The remastered version features enhanced audio, with some extra EQ and compression. Special thanks to Helen's Pizza for sponsoring this initiative!

Time stamps:

0:00 - Intro: Why This Episode Matters 4:16 - Welcome: John Carvalho, the Bitcoin Error Log 5:17 - Bitcoin Politics and the Early Days 6:39 - The Bitcoin Foundation: Ego Platform or Useful Body? 8:53 - First Contact: Silk Road, Forums and IRC 11:40 - Buying Bitcoin in 2012: Mt. Gox, Dwolla and BitInstant 13:20 - The Foundation's Founders and Its Failures 15:45 - The Rebranding Effort and Why It Failed Again 17:04 - The Impossibility of Organizing Benevolent Bitcoin 20:04 - Bitcoin Core, Communication and the Leaderless Project 23:50 - No Official Narrative: Bitcoin's Many Stories 25:49 - Consensus as the Lowest Common Denominator 28:01 - Should Everything Be on a Blockchain? 28:58 - Surviving Market Cycles: Everyone Who Sold Was Wrong 32:46 - Bitcoins Want to Be Free: The Lord of the Rings Theory 34:05 - Roger Ver Attacks Andreas Antonopoulos 37:08 - How Big Is Bitcoin Really? The Coinbase Illusion 40:52 - Media Conglomerates and Hidden Concentration 42:13 - Decentralization Theater and arewedecentralizedyet.com 42:47 - Refusing BitPay and Political Spending 44:46 - Censorship Resistance as Bitcoin's Core Purpose 46:46 - Debunking "Swiss Bank Account in Your Pocket" 48:26 - What Caused the 2017 Bull Run? 51:31 - Stocks as Stores of Value and What Bitcoin Will Cure 53:44 - No College Degree: Comic Books, Punk Rock and Design 56:19 - Massachusetts [Redacted]: Growing Up Arguing 57:21 - Preparing for the Roger Ver Interview 58:32 - The Bcash Moment: Triggered, Not Scripted 1:00:46 - Roger's Debate Tactics: Zoom In, Zoom Out 1:04:36 - Skepticism as a Survival Skill 1:05:32 - Blockstream: Great Developers, Unclear Business Model 1:09:28 - r/btc Conspiracies and the AXA Myth 1:13:48 - Roger's War Chest and the Cost of Fighting Markets 1:18:17 - Will Roger Ever Come Back to Bitcoin? 1:20:40 - Pepe Politics and the Attention Economy 1:22:11 - The Evolution of Bitcoin and the Lightning Generation 1:23:06 - Bitrefill, Gift Cards and the Circular Economy 1:26:09 - Steemit Critique: Gamify, Don't Scam 1:27:16 - Brave, BAT and the Nonsense of Paid Attention 1:30:52 - Hitchcock's Bladder Rule and Final Questions 1:31:55 - Hyperbitcoinization: Hype, Greed and Small Wins 1:35:17 - Nation States Secretly Accumulating Bitcoin? 1:36:29 - Bitcoin and the Shift in Global Power 1:39:32 - Merchant Adoption and the Tax Man Problem 1:42:06 - Bitcoin in 10 Years: Disruption Incoming 1:43:43 - Bitcoin Is a Consensus Ponzi (and So Is All Money) 1:44:26 - The Cantillon Effect and Inflationary Money 1:47:59 - Closing: A Bitcoin Every Thousand Years