S1 E1: Donald McIntyre on Bitcoin, The Teachings of Tim May and Nick Szabo, and the History of Money

Donald McIntyre is a collaborator of Nick Szabo’s, and a man who left behind the world of mainstream finance (he previously worked at UBS Securities and Morgan Stanley) to embrace the cypherpunk ethos. He’s passionate about history of money, cypherpunk culture, natural sciences, and anthropology. What makes this episode a must-listen: The crash course in cypherpunk history and the fact that Donald McIntyre knows Nick Szabo’s work so well that this interview is the single closest experience to having the Bit gold inventor himself on the show. The element of surprise: The tribute to Tim May (the cypherpunk legend who passed one month before we recorded this interview) and the criticism of David Chaum’s Elixxir project. The interview definitely is very cypherpunk-oriented. Also, Mr. McIntyre mentions “Truth Coin” (Paul Sztorc) as a must-have guest — thus establishing a goal that would take me eight seasons to accomplish. Donald McIntyre talks about the anthropological and historical elements that led to the creation of Bitcoin, and reveals his admiration and affinity for the works of Tim May and Nick Szabo. Topics and timestamps:  00:50 – Introduction 02:50 – Was Bitcoin Inevitable 06:45 – Cypherpunks 07:50 – Desire for Privacy and Sound Money 09:30 – Money as Freedom 13:00 – Trust Minimization 14:40 – Nick Szabo's Social Scalability 18:30 – Privacy and Intelligence Agencies 24:00 – Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins 30:00 – Comments on Centralized Projects 32:00 – Views on Hyperbitcoinization 39:45 – The 1% Wasn't First in Bitcoin 44:00 – The Early Bitcoin Days 44:50 – Bitcoin as a Biological Invention, Nick Szabo's Approach, The Origins of Money 57:00 – Nick Szabo, Tim May, Wei Dai, Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto 01:10:00 – Bitcoin's Game Theory 01:15:00 – Satoshi and Nick Szabo Are Just Like Newton and Leibnitz 01:19:00 – What Was Tim May Like 01:22:00 – David Chaum 01:26:00 – Cypherpunk Inventions 01:30:00 – Tim May and Wei Dai on Violence 01:32:00 – What Is Ethereum 01:38:00 – How ETC Supplements BTC 01:42:00 – Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic in 10 Years 01:53:00 – The Only Legitimate Hard Fork in Bitcoin 01:54:00 – Governments and Bitcoin 01:58:00 – Miners' Attacks on Bitcoin Supply and Block Reward