Next Level Bitcoin Privacy with Alex Gladstein & Chris Belcher

06/19/20 • -1 min

“The evolution of Bitcoin privacy has gone from creating doubt, to hopefully, in the future, making it impossible to link coins to a person. That is the key.”
— Alex Gladstein

Location: Zoom
Date: Tuesday 16th June
Project: Human Rights Foundation & Bitcoin Developer
Role: Chief Strategy Officer & Independent Developer

Privacy is a fundamental human right, and with society migrating away from physical to digital cash, we are losing one of the remaining ways to transact privately.

Bitcoin is an entirely public ledger, in that every transaction is broadcast to everyone running the Bitcoin software. Anyone can view these transactions, but there are ways to obfuscate your spends and make it more difficult, or even close to impossible to follow the trail of transactions.

Currently, the most widely used method for adding privacy to bitcoin is to use CoinJoin services like Wasabi or Samourai. These wallets allow you to add your UTXOs to a transaction along with numerous other participants. Coinjoin can significantly increase anonymity, depending on the number of other participants.

Originally put forward by Greg Maxwell in 2013, Coinswap is a somewhat different method of anonymising your footprint on the Bitcoin network. Chris Belcher recently took the idea and put together a proposal and has received funding from the Human Rights Foundation to develop it.

In this interview, I talk to Bitcoin developer Chris Belcher and Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. We discuss financial privacy as a human right, Bitcoin privacy, financing devs and Chris’ work on Coinswap.

This episode’s sponsors:
Kraken - The best place to buy, sell & trade Bitcoin
BlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial services
Sportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts Bitcoin
Casa - The leading provider of Bitcoin multisig key security.

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WBD233 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/next-level-bitcoin-privacy-with-alex-gladstein-chris-belcher

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“The evolution of Bitcoin privacy has gone from creating doubt, to hopefully, in the future, making it impossible to link coins to a person. That is the key.”
— Alex Gladstein

Location: Zoom
Date: Tuesday 16th June
Project: Human Rights Foundation & Bitcoin Developer
Role: Chief Strategy Officer & Independent Developer

Privacy is a fundamental human right, and with society migrating away from physical to digital cash, we are losing one of the remaining ways to transact privately.

-----

WBD233 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/next-level-bitcoin-privacy-with-alex-gladstein-chris-belcher

-----

If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute

Leave a review on iTunes

Share the show and episodes with your friends and family

Subscribe to the newsletter on my website...

Previous Episode

Bitcoin's Time is Now with Preston Pysh - WBD232

Location: Zoom Date: Friday 12th June Project: The Investors Podcast Role: Host

With the current global economic outlook and rise in social unrest, we are living in unprecedented times. The coronavirus pandemic, subsequent lockdowns and preventative measures put in place by governments around the world has led to many businesses closing or relying on bailouts, and jobless figures are amongst the highest since records began.

The killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police has seen protests against racial inequality have spread across the world. In the US, especially, these protests turned have turned into riots with looting, buildings burnt down and violent clashes.

During this time of uncertainty, the S&P500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have both climbed ~40% since the drop in March, seemingly proving that the markets can behave irrationally. Some analysts are pointing to dangerous signals that we are heading towards the collapse of currencies.

Are all of these combined events the perfect storm for Bitcoin?

In this interview, I talk to Preston Pysh, author, engineer & the host of The Investor Podcast. We discuss the global macroeconomy, deflation vs inflation and why now Bitcoin is more important than ever.

Next Episode

Next Level Bitcoin Privacy with Alex Gladstein & Chris Belcher - WBD233

Location: Zoom Date: Tuesday 16th June Project: Human Rights Foundation & Bitcoin Developer Role: Chief Strategy Officer & Independent Developer

Privacy is a fundamental human right, and with society migrating away from physical to digital cash, we are losing one of the remaining ways to transact privately.