#173 – Nic Carter: Bitcoin Core Values, Layered Scaling, and Blocksize Debates

Nic Carter is a financial researcher, investor, writer, and podcaster on topics of decentralized finance. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - The Information: theinformation.com/lex to get 75% off first month - Athletic Greens: athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil - Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off - Blinkist: blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium EPISODE LINKS: Nic's Twitter: twitter.com/nic__carter Nic's Website: niccarter.info/ Nic's Blog: medium.com/@nic__carter Nic's Podcast: onthebrink-podcast.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (13:05) - Can humans fully understand reality? (15:34) - The dollar system (21:44) - Bitcoin (23:19) - Opendime (27:22) - Core values of Bitcoin (35:51) - Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? (41:39) - How Bitcoin works (50:02) - Bitcoin blocksize wars (1:02:27) - Layered scaling of Bitcoin (1:07:25) - Lightning network (1:10:25) - Schnorr/Taproot update to Bitcoin (1:15:17) - Criticisms of Bitcoin (1:25:04) - Bitcoin failure modes (1:33:07) - Bitcoin vs Ethereum (1:37:03) - Vitalik Buterin (1:39:56) - Creative destruction (1:44:51) - Future of Bitcoin (1:48:38) - Tesla, Elon Musk, and Dogecoin (1:56:44) - NFTs (2:04:00) - Bitcoin maximalism (2:10:37) - On writing (2:16:37) - Writing a book on Bitcoin (2:21:07) - Bitcoin resources (2:23:57) - Book recommendations (2:25:56) - Advice for young people (2:29:13) - Meaning of life