Episode notes
Vik Sharma is best known as the CEO of Cake Wallet. But lately, he's built two new projects: a Signal fork with BTC tipping called Radar, and a perpetual trading app named Arbiter. In this episode, he explains how the AI revolution speeds up development.
Time stamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:18 - Vik Sharma Returns: Two New Products in Seven Months
1:41 - Radar: A Signal Fork with Bitcoin Lightning Built In
3:18 - How Radar Works: Signal Servers, Monthly Donations & Linked Devices
5:21 - Why Signal Over Telegram
6:36 - Why Lightning Over Monero
8:19 - Stablecoins for Normies: The Venmo-ification of Bitcoin
10:33 - Spark, Breez SDK & the Stablecoin Question
11:55 - The Nvidia Spark Cluster: Going All In on Local AI
15:25 - Why Local Models Beat Cloud Subscriptions for Security Work
17:03 - Guardrails: When Claude Refuses to Audit Your Own App
18:33 - Dinner with the Trump Administration: America's AI Regulation Mistake
20:45 - Italy's ChatGPT Ban & the Fear of Falling Behind
22:44 - The $100 Cake Wallet Contest
23:15 - Does Cake Wallet Use AI for Coding?
25:16 - Arbiter: A Vibe-Coded Hyperliquid Trading App
27:44 - $5 Million Traded, TestFlight & the Mac Desktop Build
30:13 - Linux Requests & the Orange Rock Comparison
31:17 - Gasless USDC: Circle CCTP & Frictionless Onboarding
35:10 - Can This UX Work on Private Chains? Zano, Aztec, Tari & Beam
37:44 - The $10,000 Red Team Donation & Cake's Audit Results
39:34 - The Coldcard RNG Flaw & the "Someone Is Looking at the Code" Fallacy
43:14 - Passphrases: The Simplest Security Upgrade
43:58 - The Bitcoin Forks: Luke Dash Jr's Blake2 & the Ecash Hard Fork
44:51 - Open-Mindedness: The Original Bitcoiner Virtue
46:44 - Wownero, MoneroV & Why Cake Dropped It
49:22 - The Winning Number Is 27 (and Nobody Picked It)
51:04 - The Privacy Narrative: Why Monero & Zcash Are Pumping
55:07 - "Bitcoin Maximalism Is Almost Anti-Bitcoin"
57:52 - NEAR Intents, Maya & Spending Shielded Zcash
59:53 - How to Try Arbiter Today
1:01:45 - What's Next: Desktop Apps, Multisig & Back to Self-Custody Basics
1:04:26 - Still Bullish on Lightning
1:04:39 - The Gatekeeper Question: How Cake Decides Which Coins to List
1:09:07 - Dash Adopting Orchard While Zcash Moves to Ironwood
1:10:56 - The Maintenance Burden: Why Exodus Dropped Monero
1:12:25 - Zcash Voting, Sapling Addresses & Passphrase Support
1:16:03 - Seth's Role & the Foundation Devices Connection
1:17:01 - Two Million Downloads & the Privacy Tipping Point
1:19:08 - Bitcoin Amsterdam & Conference Plans
1:21:14 - Sponsors & Goodbye
Time stamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:18 - Vik Sharma Returns: Two New Products in Seven Months
1:41 - Radar: A Signal Fork with Bitcoin Lightning Built In
3:18 - How Radar Works: Signal Servers, Monthly Donations & Linked Devices
5:21 - Why Signal Over Telegram
6:36 - Why Lightning Over Monero
8:19 - Stablecoins for Normies: The Venmo-ification of Bitcoin
10:33 - Spark, Breez SDK & the Stablecoin Question
11:55 - The Nvidia Spark Cluster: Going All In on Local AI
15:25 - Why Local Models Beat Cloud Subscriptions for Security Work
17:03 - Guardrails: When Claude Refuses to Audit Your Own App
18:33 - Dinner with the Trump Administration: America's AI Regulation Mistake
20:45 - Italy's ChatGPT Ban & the Fear of Falling Behind
22:44 - The $100 Cake Wallet Contest
23:15 - Does Cake Wallet Use AI for Coding?
25:16 - Arbiter: A Vibe-Coded Hyperliquid Trading App
27:44 - $5 Million Traded, TestFlight & the Mac Desktop Build
30:13 - Linux Requests & the Orange Rock Comparison
31:17 - Gasless USDC: Circle CCTP & Frictionless Onboarding
35:10 - Can This UX Work on Private Chains? Zano, Aztec, Tari & Beam
37:44 - The $10,000 Red Team Donation & Cake's Audit Results
39:34 - The Coldcard RNG Flaw & the "Someone Is Looking at the Code" Fallacy
43:14 - Passphrases: The Simplest Security Upgrade
43:58 - The Bitcoin Forks: Luke Dash Jr's Blake2 & the Ecash Hard Fork
44:51 - Open-Mindedness: The Original Bitcoiner Virtue
46:44 - Wownero, MoneroV & Why Cake Dropped It
49:22 - The Winning Number Is 27 (and Nobody Picked It)
51:04 - The Privacy Narrative: Why Monero & Zcash Are Pumping
55:07 - "Bitcoin Maximalism Is Almost Anti-Bitcoin"
57:52 - NEAR Intents, Maya & Spending Shielded Zcash
59:53 - How to Try Arbiter Today
1:01:45 - What's Next: Desktop Apps, Multisig & Back to Self-Custody Basics
1:04:26 - Still Bullish on Lightning
1:04:39 - The Gatekeeper Question: How Cake Decides Which Coins to List
1:09:07 - Dash Adopting Orchard While Zcash Moves to Ironwood
1:10:56 - The Maintenance Burden: Why Exodus Dropped Monero
1:12:25 - Zcash Voting, Sapling Addresses & Passphrase Support
1:16:03 - Seth's Role & the Foundation Devices Connection
1:17:01 - Two Million Downloads & the Privacy Tipping Point
1:19:08 - Bitcoin Amsterdam & Conference Plans
1:21:14 - Sponsors & Goodbye
