The Blockchain New Zealand Podcast

Brandon Bucher is an engineer and the co-founder of LightningPay.nz. Brandon and I talk about the recent indictments against the Samourai founders whose wallet was operating a bitcoin mixing service. They are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business which echo with the privacy battles in the 90s over encryption. We get into lightning network adoption, privacy, and the future outlook of your UTXO.

Timestamps:

00:00 Samourai indictment
08:22 moving the goal posts
16:26 privacy as choice
21:37 privacy long game
26:11 cypherpunks and the battle  
32:26 lightning network 
38:04 public info on lightning
41:09 adoption in lighting
49:12 UTXO scarcity
54:25 LightningPay.nz
1:02:25 rapid fire
1:05:24 fin

Some notes from the show:

Samourai indictment 

coin-join/whirlpool 

Bitcoin fog 

Tornado Cash founder sentenced to prison  

Coin Centre post by Peter Van Valkenburgh 

unannounced lightning channels 

Lighting charts 

River Reports 

eCash 

Lightning Pay 

Contact Brandon:

X

LinkedIn

Find Jeff:

X

LinkedIn 

The BCNZ Pod:

Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/

YouTube 

Apple Podcasts

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Spotify 

iHeartRadio 

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

[email protected] 

Recorded at blockheight 842607. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Ian Woolford has made a career working at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and presently he's the director of money and cash which is overseeing the CBDC or Digital Cash program. The RBNZ is partway through a series of consultations to get public feedback and opinion on a Reserve Bank issued digital currency. 

In this conversation Ian makes it very clear that the Reserve Bank wants cash to remain as close to regular cash as possible meaning that anonymity is preserved, and activity is not tracked. Ian also highlights that innovation in banking by banks has been woeful and they hope to encourage non-bank players to innovate here to provide more options for Kiwis.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro
03:05 rural access to cash & services
08:24 balancing physical and digital cash
10:56 is this a CBDC?
12:21 blockchain?
15:14 benefits of digital cash
19:36 innovation in cash 
24:54 privacy
28:40 banking access for startups
30:22 rapidfire
33:02 fin

Some notes from the show:

rural cash trial program 

cyclone Gabrielle cash shortage 

ESAS settlement 

Northern Rock's trouble 

Nigeria's CBDC failure 

Sweden's e-krona 

Ecuador's Dinero Electronico  

RBNZ privacy support paper 

RBNZ Digital Cash Feedback 

Contact Ian:

LinkedIn

RBNZ

Find Jeff:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn 

The BCNZ Pod:

Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/

YouTube 

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Spotify 

iHeartRadio 

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

[email protected] 

Recorded at blockheight 842510. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Brooke Howard-Smith is the founder of Otterfish that is at the heart of the creator economy and influencer marketing. He's also a cofounder of Non-Fungible Labs which is now a part of Futureverse. Brooke and I broadly cover what's happening with AI and how its affecting everything digital and where Web3 fits in. We jump right in Brooke is talking about everyone leveraging what they love, being commercial and non commercial at the same time in the creator economy.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro 
00:56 monetizing & creator economy
05:15 web3
12:26 spotify, superapps, & AI
18:15 instagram & influence marketing
23:08 client AI tools in the creator economy 
28:40 personal AI use 
38:46 non fungible labs
41:55 fluf launch & futureverse
46:22 gemini's mis-launch
51:58 rapidfire
1:02:31 fin

Some notes from the show:

Gino the Ghost on music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb2NG6NWyhjisymBWg8aSXQ 

Kurzweil's singularity https://www.singularity.com/ 

Otterfish https://otterfish.com/ 

Brian Armstrong AI use https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1779946210226577913 

Futureverse https://www.futureverse.com/ 

unstoppable art machine https://www.instagram.com/unstoppableartmachine/?hl=en 

fluf launch https://nfts.wtf/what-the-fluf-3d-bunnies-break-the-blockchain/ 

Gemini's mis-launch https://www.wired.com/story/google-gemini-woke-ai-image-generation/ 

Asian shopping https://youtu.be/p3RhRB3YJks?si=M-y5cZab34sQ3Q5G 

Ready Player One announcement https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/ready-player-one-metaverse-warner-bros-discovery-1235862190/ 

Golden https://heresgolden.com/ 

Contact Brooke:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn

Find Jeff:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn 

The BCNZ Pod:

Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/

YouTube 

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Spotify 

iHeartRadio 

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

[email protected] 

Recorded at blockheight 839555. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Leo Clark is a documentary filmmaker that is presently working with the Nouns DAO community. His latest film, NON-FUNGIBLE AOTEAROA, is debuting at the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs with the tagline: See how NFTs and Nouns DAO are transforming people’s lives in New Zealand.

In this conversation Leo and I talk about the Nouns project and what the community is doing with NFTs and funding artists, we get into Farcaster and decentralised social media and touch on CC-zero (CC0) licensing and how it aligns with web3.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro & doco
12:13 NFT art
14:46 Nouns
20:58 community funding
26:06 Farcaster
31:46 Warpcast
35:50 incentives
39:59 mint everything
42:41 nouns cafe
46:42 CC0 no copyright
50:43 rapid-fire
52:13 fin

Some notes from the show:

The Doco 

The Festival

Nouns 

Prophouse 

Nouns names a new species of frog 

Farcaster 

Warpcast 

Frames 

CC0 No Copyright

Contact Leo:

X/Twitter

Warpcast

Find Jeff:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn 

The BCNZ Pod:

Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/

YouTube 

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Spotify 

iHeartRadio 

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

[email protected] 

Recorded at blockheight 834418. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.

Sam Kamani has lots of experience in tech, from being a founder to a VC, an advisor, and an author. We talk about 3 important aspects to entrepreneurship: talent, ability to raise capital, and access to market. In the back third we get into trends in Web 3 including decentralised physical infrastructure (DePIn) and ETFs.

Timestamps:

00:00 intro
01:12 realestate/density/Dubai 
05:22 web3 in Dubai
09:29 capital & market access
15:57 New Zealand's rating
17:18 Sam's background
22:47 Kiwi access to capital
27:28 no-code tools
31:52 the 30 day startup 
37:22 post covid 
37:40 trends in web3 - stablecoins
46:52 DePIn
50:13 ETFs
56:45 rapid fire
1:00:20 fin

Some notes from the show:

Norway's Oil Fund 

autowhale 

Cookbook.dev 

Remix IDE 

The 30 Day Startup 

PayPal stablecoin 

Chris Rothfuss in Wyoming 

Contact Sam:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn

Find Jeff:

X/Twitter

LinkedIn 

The BCNZ Pod:

Website https://podcast.blockchain.org.nz/

YouTube 

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Spotify 

iHeartRadio 

Media & Sponsorship Enquires:

[email protected] 

Recorded at blockheight 832462. The BCNZ podcast was founded in 2022 by Jeff Nijsse and Bryan Ventura.