#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 : https://theinformation.com/lex to get 75% off first month – Athletic Greens : https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil – Four Sigmatic : https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off – Blinkist : https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium EPISODE LINKS: Nic’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nic__carter Nic’s Website: https://niccarter.info/ Nic’s Blog: https://medium.com/@nic__carter Nic’s Podcast: https://onthebrink-podcast.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://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