The Genesis Episode: Reteaching Math as a Liberal Art

Magic Internet Math Hub: https://mathacademy-cyan.vercel.app/index.html

Brian Hirschfield X: @fundamentals21m npub12eml5kmtrjmdt0h8shgg32gye5yqsf2jha6a70jrqt82q9d960sspky99g Website: https://zeuspay.com/btc-for-institutions

Rob Hamilton X: @Rob1Ham npub1emdtsxly9m68m00x206t574jttp65vk0c2m89ms038q047yz7ylqcac9aw Website: https://www.anchorwatch.com/

We’re launching Magic Internet Math. In this kickoff, Rob Hamilton and I set out our mission: to reteach math as a liberal art for Bitcoiners, builders, and anyone who wants conviction in their own reasoning. We share our origin story (a December 18th road‑trip call that should’ve been a podcast), define the show’s “bar‑level” approach to concepts like groups, fields, vector spaces, and probability, and connect them to real systems—Bitcoin, elliptic‑curve crypto, libsecp256k1, and why linear algebra underpins LLMs. We also talk survivorship bias in Bitcoin, the perils of rhetoric over first‑principles thinking, and how to stay sovereign in a world of shiny tools and FUD. We outline what’s coming next: deep‑dives on linear algebra and graph‑based knowledge for AI, approachable cryptography basics (binary/hex, finite fields), conversations with maintainers and researchers (e.g., libsecp256k1, FROST), and how to learn publicly—mistakes and all. If you’ve ever felt “the dumbest person at BitDevs,” this feed is your anonymous on‑ramp to build math legs without the priestly gatekeeping.

• 'Motivate the Math' podcast (Apple Podcasts): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/motivate-the-math/id1790329241
• 'libsecp256k1' (Bitcoin Core): https://github.com/bitcoin-core/secp256k1
• 'Bitcoin Core' (repo): https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
• 'BIP‑32: Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets': https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki
• 'BIP‑340: Schnorr Signatures for secp256k1': https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0340.mediawiki
• 'FROST: Flexible Round‑Optimized Schnorr Threshold Signatures' (RFC 9591): https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9591
• 'Programming Bitcoin' by Jimmy Song: https://programmingbitcoin.com/
• 'Understanding Cryptography' (Paar, Pelzl, Güneysu) 2nd ed.: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-69007-9
• 'An Introduction to Statistical Learning' (official site): https://www.statlearning.com/home
• 'Base58' — Bitcoin protocol school: https://www.base58.info/
• 'BitDevs' (NYC hub and resources): https://bitdevs.org/
• 'Rock Paper Bitcoin' podcast (site): https://rockpaperbitcoin.fm/
• 'Obsidian' (official site): https://obsidian.md
• 'Model Context Protocol' (official site): https://model-context-protocol.com/
• 'Claude Code' by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code/
• 'Claude Opus 4.5' model page: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/opus
• 'AnchorWatch' — Bitcoin custody + insurance: https://www.anchorwatch.com/
• 'BIP‑340 overview (alt mirror)' — bips.dev reference: https://bips.dev/340