Chat_156 – Simplifying Sovereignty with Praveen
“My problem with the core side has been what we talked about with the people that are technical and don’t have the empathy or understand what it was like before you were [technical]. The core people are so dismissive and the hubris is so high that they dismiss these people that are not technical but understand Bitcoin as money right.
“I always say, like my Twitter phrase, Bitcoin is not open source software. Obviously that doesn’t mean it’s not open source, it’s just so much more than that. It’s not just a piece of software, it is money.”
~ Praveen Perera
Managing private keys remains one of the steepest learning curves for new Bitcoiners. How do we get people off exchanges and into self-custody without the terrifying risk of user error?
I sit down with Praveen Perera, the builder behind Cove Wallet, to talk about his unique approach to simplified backups using Passkeys and encrypted cloud storage. We discuss the philosophy of building focused, single-purpose tools versus the ‘super app’ trend, and dig into the technical trade-offs of his architecture.
We also wander into the implications of ‘vibe coding’ with AI, the contentious debates around network spam, and why maintaining a diverse ecosystem of wallet implementations might be crucial for Bitcoin’s resilience.
Check out our awesome sponsors!
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HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF’s Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)
OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)
Pubky: Pubky is building the next web, a decentralized system designed to put control back in your hands. Escape censorship, algorithmic manipulation, and walled gardens by owning your identity and data. Explore the Pubky web and become the algorithm today. Don’t forget to find me on my Pubky ID here: pk:5d7thwzkxx5mz6gk1f19wfyykr6nrwzaxri3io7ahejg1z74qngo. (Link: https://pubky.org)
Chroma: Chroma is dedicated to advancing human performance and well-being through cutting-edge light therapy devices and performance eyewear. Their mission is to enhance physical and mental health, unlocking peak human health, cognitive function, and physical performance. Get 10% off your order with the code BITCOINAUDIBLE. (Link: https://getchroma.co/?ref=BitcoinAudible)
Guest Links
Praveen on X (Link: https://x.com/PraveenPerera)
Cove Wallet on X (Link: https://x.com/covewallet)
Cove Wallet Website (Link: https://covebitcoinwallet.com/)
Cove Wallet on Github (Link: https://github.com/bit…
Read_925 – Stone Ridge 2025 Investor Letter
“Today’s the day.”
~ Mel Fisher
Why does a reinsurance company’s annual letter get me this fired up? Ross Stevens weaves together treasure hunting, Bayesian statistics, and the raw reality of Bitcoin as a human rights tool – culminating in a voice message from Nobel Prize winner Maria Karina Machado that moved him to tears. In my rant, I unpack why optimism isn’t woo-woo, it’s basic logic – and why waiting for certainty before believing in your own success is a guaranteed path to failure.
Check out the original article: Stone Ridge 2025 Investor Letter (Link: https://www.nydig.com/research/stone-ridge-2025-investor-letter)
References from the episode
The Adaptability Quotient by Alec Litowitz – The forthcoming field guide for success mentioned in the letter.
Wired for Story and Story Genius by Lisa Cron – My favorite books on what storytelling actually is. (Hint: it’s not the plot!) (Link: http://wiredforstory.com/books)
Fascinate: How to Make your Brand Impossible to Resist by Sally Hogshead – Fantastic on branding and narrative. (Link: https://a.co/d/5H1FJUy)
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder – Useful for story pacing, but to be paired with Kill the Dog for balance.(Link: https://a.co/d/a1rp6Lc)
Longitude by Dava Sobel (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book))
The Human Rights Foundation (Link: https://hrf.org/)
HRF Weekly Financial Freedom Reports (Link: https://hrf.org/newsletters/)
Host Links
Guy on Nostr (Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
Guy on X (Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
Bitcoin Audible on X (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
Check out our awesome sponsors!
Ledn: Need fiat but don’t want to sell your Bitcoin? Ledn offers secure, Bitcoin-backed loans with no credit checks, flexible repayment, and fast turnaround—often within 24 hours. With $10B+ in loans across 100+ countries and transparent Proof of Reserves, Ledn is a trusted option for unlocking liquidity without…
PSA – Farewell Nodeless
Nodeless is dead. Long live Nodeless. Unfortunately the Nodeless payment service has had to shut down, but for anyone who needs to get in touch for any issues then feel free to contact me or UTXO. Nodeless is also open source, so if you wish to setup an instance for yourself, the project is available on github:
https://github.com/nodeless-io/nodeless-monolith
Follow UTXO on Nostr for surely other great things to come:
npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8
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FEATURING AI Unchained #008 – Ecash and Ai with Obi Nwosu
Obi Nwosu, co-founder and CEO of Fedi, joins us today to talk about the new innovations and challenges in decentralising the web and how both Bitcoin and Ai are at the core of making it possible.
This conversation was recorded for the AI Unchained podcast, but I decided to cross post it here since a lot of the conversation is themed around Bitcoin.
Guest Links: Follow Obi on X: https://x.com/obi
Follow Fedi on X: https://twitter.com/fedimint
A huge thanks to our sponsors, and don’t forget to check out the offers for the listeners of this show!
9% off the Coldcard with code BITCOINAUDIBLE, bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard
Check out the KYC Free, simple, no management, Bitcoin merchant solution, Nodeless.io/guy. Use my link to go to bitcoinaudible.com/nodeless and setup your donation page for free, then share it out on Nostr or Twitter and tag me, and I’ll throw 10,000 sats your way!
Get 50,000 free sats, plus sats back on everything you buy by signing up with Fold and the Spin+ Debit Card. bitcoinaudible.com/fold
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FEATURING – AI Unchained_001 – A New Frontier, with Jeff Booth
Welcome to the first episode of AI Unchained, a new show exploring how AI technology can be a means of empowering the individual, rather than a system of control, and all the tools and perspectives that enlighten that journey.
Our first guest is none other than Jeff Booth, the author of “The Price of Tomorrow” on the incredible deflationary force of technology and why our only choice is to embrace it, not fight it. If you are trying to make sense out of the change that is being unleashed, you do not want to miss this show. Welcome to AI Unchained.
Check out Jeff Booth’s incredible book here:
Amazon.com: The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future
Guy’s Nostr Pubkey: npub1h8nk2346qezka5cpm8jjh3yl5j88pf4ly2ptu7s6uu55wcfqy0wq36rpev
Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off your Bitcoin2023 tickets!
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• The Swan IRA is live! Follow the link to find out how to get your tax free retirement funds, securely allocated to Bitcoin! The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and Fold App. 20,000 FREE SATS! at the LINK
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, with the NEW Coldcard Q1! A company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 9% off the ColdCard!
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Keet AMA – Twitter Spaces on January 30th
Mathias and Paolo join us for a Twitter Spaces AMA to answer all of your questions about this cutting-edge technology. Plus, don’t forget to check out KEET’s mobile release! The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Tune in now for a thrilling Q&A on the future of privacy, secure communication, data sovereignty, & the nascent P2P economy.
Everything to check out to dive into the P2P revolution:
keet.io
holepunch.to
synonym.to
slashtags.to
Don’t forget to leave any feedback at the links below and/or boost and comment on the Fountain app at fountain.fm
…
Follow the white rabbit
…
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 9% off everything in your cart! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 20,000 FREE SATS! at (https://guyswann.com/fold)
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
― Bruce Coville
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Green Eggs and Ham – Decentralized Finance, the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
“This is the root of our cultural concern for crypto DeFi. The cultural, and arguably even structural, commitment to financialization is extremely difficult to reconcile with this core purpose of securities. In a sense, none of this is surprising given the foundations of crypto DeFi. If you jump straight to “decentralized securities” without first nailing down decentralized money and peer-to-peer technology, the urge to financialize is obvious, because what other value or utility can you even attempt to provide?” – Allen & Anders
Check out the full write up with numerous links and references for digging deeper into the ideas discussed:
https://www.uncerto.com/green-eggs-and-ham
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off everything in the store until Christmas! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 5,000 FREE SATS at (https://guyswann.com/fold)
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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Structural Adjustment: How the IMF and World Bank Repress Poor Countries [Alex Gladstein]
This is the full, unabridged reading of Alex Gladstein’s work, “STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: HOW THE IMF AND WORLD BANK REPRESS POOR COUNTRIES AND FUNNEL THEIR RESOURCES TO RICH ONES” published with Bitcoin Magazine.
Link to the original read for the plethora of links and references to dig further into this incredible story.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/imf-world-bank-repress-poor-countries
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off everything in the store until Christmas! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 5,000 FREE SATS at (https://guyswann.com/fold)
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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A Look at the Lightning Network [Lyn Alden]
“I think too many people in those early years interpreted “e-cash” to mean quick-and-easy payments for everyday goods using the base layer, when a better way to think of cash today is as a private censorship-resistant final settlement transaction method. Physical cash, after all, is not necessarily the easiest payment type, or a medium of exchange that we need to use for everything, but it’s the most private and the hardest to prevent from occurring.” – Lyn Alden
The full, uninterrupted reading of Lyn Alden’s incredible piece detailing the philosophy of engineering that informed the layered approach, how the lightning network works, what the future of the lightning network may hold, and answering some common criticisms of the Lightning protocol. If you haven’t heard or read this one, it is not to be missed. Enjoy.
Check out the original article plus the incredible library of material authored by Lyn on her blog below: https://www.lynalden.com/lightning-network/#layers
Check out our amazing sponsors and the products that Guy uses most in the space:
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (swanbitcoin.com/guy)
COME HANG OUT! Join us and the Swan Bitcoin team at the Pacific Bitcoin Conference in November! Get your tickets now, 10% off with code BITOCINAUDIBLE (https://www.pacificbitcoin.com/)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 20% OFF with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (guyswann.com/fold)
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 5% off everything in the store! Coinkite.com
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What is Money, Anyway? [Lyn Alden]
“If a money (the most salable good) is easy to create more of, then any rational economic actor would just go out and create more money for herself, diluting the whole supply of it. If an asset has a monetary premium on top of its pure utility value, then it’s strongly incentivizing market participants to try to make more of it, and so only the forms of money that are the most resistant to debasement can withstand this challenge.” – Lyn Alden
The full, unabridged reading of Lyn Alden’s excellent breakdown of the question that marks the beginning of the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole, “What is Money, Anyway?”
Link to Lyn Alden’s piece and the incredible other work she has on her blog:
https://www.lynalden.com/what-is-money/
Check out our amazing sponsors and the products that Guy uses most in the space:
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (swanbitcoin.com/guy)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 20% OFF with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (guyswann.com/fold)
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Coinkite.com
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PSA – Price Be Crashin 2022!
Welcome to Bitcoin!
For the best products and services to get you started in Bitcoin, our sponsors are literally a handful of those that I use most in this space:
• Get Bitcoin rewards on literally everything you buy with the Fold Card (guyswann.com/fold). Get 20% off with discount code BITCOINAUDIBLE.
• Buy Bitcoin automatically and painlessly with SwanBitcoin (swanbitcoin.com/guy)
• Keep your Bitcoin keys safe on the secure, open source BitBox02 (guyswann.com/bitbox). Discount code GUY gets you 5% off.
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Only the Strong Survive – Full Audio
“In this piece we discuss our concerns around the broader “crypto” space beyond Bitcoin. Our arguments revolve around three primary themes: Philosophical, Technical, and Economic. From a philosophical perspective, we discuss the core properties that make Bitcoin work and that make it unique, in our view. From a technical perspective, we evaluate how these properties are lacking to a greater or lesser extent in alternative “cryptoassets,” having been designed out again on questionable philosophical justifications. From an economic perspective, we walkthrough our concerns that “crypto” has not shown a path to establishing a basis for justifiable real-world value, explain why we believe this would be very difficult to ever accomplish, and suggest therefore that their technical flaws are especially vulnerable. Given the complexity of the task we have set ourselves, this piece is intended to bring our arguments into long form and provide a discussion base for good faith disagreement.” – Allen Farrington & Big Al
Section Summaries:
Part 1 – The Innovation From First Principles
Part 2 – Crypto is Not Decentralized
Part 3 – Crypto is Not Finance
Part 4 – The “Investment” Rationale
Part 5 – Layered Architecture and Gall’s Law
Part 6 – Why We Might Be Wrong
Find the original work and further details in the appendices here: https://www.uncerto.com/only-the-strong-survive
This unabridged reading was brought to you by the BitBox hardware wallet, the open source vault for your Bitcoin keys; The Fold Card, earn sats back rewards on everything you purchase; and Swan Bitcoin, the automatic Bitcoin purchase plan for every Bitcoiner.
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