1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,840 Welcome to the Free Cities podcast. 2 00:00:13,620 --> 00:00:19,020 My name is Timothy Allen and this is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation. 3 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:37,460 Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of the Free Cities podcast. These are the episodes which 4 00:00:37,460 --> 00:00:44,560 are only available to our subscribers on Fountain and I'll be dropping them in the weeks that the 5 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:50,680 regular release episode is one that subscribers have already been granted early access to. 6 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:59,000 A little background behind the episode. This is part one of two separate conversations I had with 7 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:07,900 the Bitcoin OG GG, which sadly, until this point at least, have never actually been heard by anyone 8 00:01:07,900 --> 00:01:29,036 other than me and him Back in the summer of 2021 I was working on a personal film project with the Australian filmmaker Richard James From my part this involved carrying out a series of interviews with prominent bitcoiners discussing the subject of proof of work which was 9 00:01:29,036 --> 00:01:36,016 also to be the name of the film back then. As now, in fact, I believed that understanding proof of work 10 00:01:36,016 --> 00:01:42,256 was key to greater acceptance of bitcoin in the mainstream world. 11 00:01:42,256 --> 00:01:50,836 and particularly with regards to energy consumption which was certainly a hot topic at the time 12 00:01:50,836 --> 00:01:57,016 how things have changed anyway understanding proof of work is probably one of the harder aspects 13 00:01:57,016 --> 00:02:04,576 of bitcoin to wrap your head around and since i consider gg to be one of the key people 14 00:02:04,576 --> 00:02:12,116 on this subject i was super grateful to end up recording for nearly four hours with him 15 00:02:12,116 --> 00:02:19,456 The conversation ventures into many different parts of the Bitcoin rabbit hole, including in part two at least. 16 00:02:20,095 --> 00:02:21,076 So you'll have to wait for this. 17 00:02:21,236 --> 00:02:32,856 But some fascinating conversation about the spiritual aspects of Bitcoin's emergence and Gigi's personal story of discovery and transformation, which is just incredible. 18 00:02:32,856 --> 00:02:47,371 Now bear in mind this conversation often falls into a question and answer context which isn my preferred way of talking as you probably know from listening to the podcast nor is speaking over the internet 19 00:02:47,731 --> 00:02:53,951 which brought up its own problems in this recording. You'll hear Gigi's internet cut out 20 00:02:53,951 --> 00:03:01,691 no less than four times during this discussion. I tried to edit the cuts out, but often it's better 21 00:03:01,691 --> 00:03:07,611 to just hear them in order to understand the true flow of the discussion. Anyway, long story short, 22 00:03:08,331 --> 00:03:14,971 this film project fell foul to the so-called pandemic, which was still kind of raging in the 23 00:03:14,971 --> 00:03:20,711 background at the time of recording. I ended up closing up my office and going abroad with my 24 00:03:20,711 --> 00:03:26,971 family to escape the draconian measures the UK was experiencing at the time as a result, this 25 00:03:26,971 --> 00:03:34,691 interview, plus many more, with the likes of Nick Carter, Brandon Quittam, Max Hillebrand, 26 00:03:34,851 --> 00:03:42,651 Thomas Strohleich, Knut Zvonholm, Harry Suddok, the name but a few, have all sat idle on a hard 27 00:03:42,651 --> 00:03:49,391 drive for the last four years. Now I hate seeing things go to waste, so I figured this might be 28 00:03:49,391 --> 00:04:08,787 the perfect place to finally publish these conversations You discover tons of signal here of course but what I found fascinating was observing just how much things have changed since these discussions back in 2021 and I don mean just my own understanding 29 00:04:08,787 --> 00:04:17,947 of the subjects discussed I mean I remember really struggling with the concept of proof of work 30 00:04:17,947 --> 00:04:25,027 but also the massive changes we've seen in the adoption and the public image of Bitcoin itself. 31 00:04:25,227 --> 00:04:33,007 Anyway, here's the conversation. I would class Gigi probably as, well in my case at least, 32 00:04:33,087 --> 00:04:38,987 the most respected Bitcoiner out there. He's been at the sharp end of the Bitcoin wedge for a very 33 00:04:38,987 --> 00:04:45,067 long time and I think these two interviews represent an excellent snapshot into that 34 00:04:45,067 --> 00:04:52,247 particular moment in Bitcoin's history. It's GG. So obviously there's a ton of alpha too, 35 00:04:52,247 --> 00:04:56,747 of course. Anyway, enjoy the conversation and see you on the next one. 36 00:05:15,067 --> 00:05:45,047 Thank you.