Episode notes
Live from TABConf 8 in Atlanta: Paul Sztorc demos a quantum-resistant soft fork, Christopher Allen on Blockchain Commons, Michael Tidwell on TABConf, plus Andre Beganski, Alex Lewin, Janusz and Will on their work in the space. Recorded on Wednesday, October 14th 2026.
Time stamps:
0:00 Stream warm-up
1:55 Welcome to Bitcoin Takeover at TABConf 8 with Paul Sztorc
2:30 CUSF 2 demo: quantum-resistant signatures, OP_VAULT, OP_CTV & OP_CAT
4:30 Sweeping coins into a quantum-resistant UTXO with BitWindow
5:05 Why miners will never run it
5:52 Is quantum FUD? Pascal's Wager & Saylor
7:50 Bitcoin's overconfidence & the competition
8:41 How altcoins took Bitcoin's use cases
10:17 Greg Maxwell & the belief in Bitcoin's infallibility
11:39 Camera dies, webcam to the rescue
12:30 eCash hard fork: free coins later this month
13:08 Soft forks are opt-in, ignorable & reversible
14:35 Kafkaesque: will soft forks become mandatory?
16:01 Live questions: claiming eCash & does Saylor self-custody?
16:46 Mike Belshe, BitGo & custodians
17:48 The war on crypto, PGP & Enigma
18:44 How to claim your eCash coins
19:13 Liquidity pools instead of paying for exchange listings
21:37 Shinobi walks by & the Coldcard trophy
21:50 Paul leaves for the Town Hall
22:34 Spotting Christopher Allen & sponsor thanks
24:14 André Beganski joins: from Decrypt to MARA Foundation
25:25 Decrypt, The Block & trade publications
25:57 DL News & DeFi Llama
26:49 Blockworks' offer & Supply Shock
27:43 BTCTKVR: Forks! magazine
28:10 The Ledger magazine & sourdough bakers
29:43 Going independent: Bitcoin Magazine vs Bitcoin Takeover
30:30 Storytellers vs AI
32:13 Original reporting & journalism as a public good
33:54 Sponsors & transparency
34:36 Camera battery woes & how to follow André
35:50 Orange Rock sponsor break
37:55 Alex Lewin joins: Finite & private AI
38:47 Fedi, Blockspaces & NCR
39:28 Atlanta, BitDevs & Capture the Bitcoin
40:14 Janusz joins: Zark = Zcash + Spark
41:38 Private AI meets private money
43:35 Privacy as an ingredient for liberty
44:03 Fungibility & a universal currency
45:21 Why Zcash-style privacy and not Monero?
47:05 Shielded pools vs ring signatures
49:44 Scaling privacy: Tachyon vs FCMP++
51:18 The first inning of privacy research
53:56 A bearish year: what still makes you bullish?
56:23 AI will make Bitcoin better, not worse
57:46 Why aren't you at the TABConf funeral?
58:50 The hallway track & why showing up matters
1:00:48 AI psychosis & conferences
1:01:36 Coffee, tobacco & AI as a productivity drug
1:03:08 Forks magazine handout
1:03:46 Atlanta's BeltLine
1:04:52 Favorite conferences: Bitcoin++ & Nashville
1:06:12 The Town Hall & the Tabbies
1:06:47 Paul has spoken at all eight TABConfs
1:07:43 Favorite fork? Bitcoin vs Zcash
1:09:22 The Orchard bug & a coordinated soft fork
1:11:29 Only Bitcoin is stubborn enough to invent witness encryption
1:11:59 Two hard forks this year: Luke's coin & eCash
1:12:40 Fork strategy: don't touch cold storage
1:13:43 Zcash as a BIP 300 drivechain
1:14:52 If Bitcoin goes to zero
1:16:13 Christopher Allen joins
1:17:40 Randomness warnings & VeriSign security reviews
1:19:32 LetheKit & dice entropy
1:20:00 Don't rely on any single key: multisig, MuSig & FROST
1:21:00 Wallet companies & the Coldcard victims
1:22:34 Coinkite, open source & closing the code
1:24:15 No single points of failure, compromise or denial
1:25:08 How Coldcard treated security researchers
1:26:36 Bug bounties in the age of LLMs
1:27:51 Cypherpunks who embraced Bitcoin
1:28:45 Netscape, SSL 2 & the RSAREF license
1:30:18 Writing the SSL 3 reference implementation & TLS 1.0
1:30:47 DigiCash & David Chaum
1:31:29 Certicom, micro-currencies & the Merkle patent
1:32:03 Schnorr patents & ECDSA
1:33:10 secp256r1 suspicions vs secp256k1
1:35:44 Discovering Bitcoin in 2013
1:36:08 UTXOs to revoke X.509 certificates
1:37:08 Decentralized identifiers & DPKI
1:37:37 Paul Sztorc returns: Rebooting the Web of Trust
1:38:32 Namecoin
1:38:59 Christopher's beef: key reuse in Ethereum & Nostr
1:40:30 BIP 32 & one key pair per identity
1:41:19 Christopher promises a part two
1:42:46 Paul introduces Will: 21 days before the midterms
1:43:35 Will on six privacy prisoners
1:43:59 Larry Harmon & Ian Freeman
1:44:45 Roman Sterlingov & Bitcoin Fog
1:47:32 Roman Storm & Tornado Cash
1:48:19 Samourai: Keonne Rodriguez & William Hill
1:50:59 The judge switch & the plea deals
1:54:25 The pardon campaign
1:55:42 Aaron Day's StarkFreedom PAC
1:58:52 Michael Tidwell joins
1:59:42 The Tabbies
2:01:29 Why TABConf 8 is the last one
2:02:01 Death by a thousand cuts
2:03:51 My first TABConf & thanking the sponsors
2:05:27 eCash: the calmest hard fork in memory
2:07:16 Will miners steal from drivechains?
2:08:15 TABConf debates: BTC vs BCH vs BSV
2:09:06 Monero, Dash & bringing people into the fold
2:09:51 Amanda B. Johnson & DarkCoin at the monthly meetup
2:11:55 No-shill policy during the ICO craze
2:12:50 Paul Sztorc's TABConf debates & Peter Todd
2:14:08 How TABConf got scammed in 2019
2:17:58 Greg Maxwell, Nick Szabo & who never came
2:19:45 Why the obituary happened a day early
2:20:31 Forks magazine
2:21:20 Top highlights: hardcore trivia & the standing ovation
2:23:40 What will Michael do with his eCash?
2:24:00 Kill Tidwell: Bitcoin comedy
2:25:12 Matt Odell never came
2:26:13 The first Bitcoin car & Rassah's plane
2:27:36 Atlanta lore: Jeff Garzik, Stephen Pair & BitPay
2:29:42 Bitcoin is not my religion
2:31:01 Favorite fork: Taproot
2:32:45 I like all the hard forks
2:35:24 Diversifying into airdrops: the most irrational VC
2:38:47 Goodbye Michael & wrap-up
Time stamps:
0:00 Stream warm-up
1:55 Welcome to Bitcoin Takeover at TABConf 8 with Paul Sztorc
2:30 CUSF 2 demo: quantum-resistant signatures, OP_VAULT, OP_CTV & OP_CAT
4:30 Sweeping coins into a quantum-resistant UTXO with BitWindow
5:05 Why miners will never run it
5:52 Is quantum FUD? Pascal's Wager & Saylor
7:50 Bitcoin's overconfidence & the competition
8:41 How altcoins took Bitcoin's use cases
10:17 Greg Maxwell & the belief in Bitcoin's infallibility
11:39 Camera dies, webcam to the rescue
12:30 eCash hard fork: free coins later this month
13:08 Soft forks are opt-in, ignorable & reversible
14:35 Kafkaesque: will soft forks become mandatory?
16:01 Live questions: claiming eCash & does Saylor self-custody?
16:46 Mike Belshe, BitGo & custodians
17:48 The war on crypto, PGP & Enigma
18:44 How to claim your eCash coins
19:13 Liquidity pools instead of paying for exchange listings
21:37 Shinobi walks by & the Coldcard trophy
21:50 Paul leaves for the Town Hall
22:34 Spotting Christopher Allen & sponsor thanks
24:14 André Beganski joins: from Decrypt to MARA Foundation
25:25 Decrypt, The Block & trade publications
25:57 DL News & DeFi Llama
26:49 Blockworks' offer & Supply Shock
27:43 BTCTKVR: Forks! magazine
28:10 The Ledger magazine & sourdough bakers
29:43 Going independent: Bitcoin Magazine vs Bitcoin Takeover
30:30 Storytellers vs AI
32:13 Original reporting & journalism as a public good
33:54 Sponsors & transparency
34:36 Camera battery woes & how to follow André
35:50 Orange Rock sponsor break
37:55 Alex Lewin joins: Finite & private AI
38:47 Fedi, Blockspaces & NCR
39:28 Atlanta, BitDevs & Capture the Bitcoin
40:14 Janusz joins: Zark = Zcash + Spark
41:38 Private AI meets private money
43:35 Privacy as an ingredient for liberty
44:03 Fungibility & a universal currency
45:21 Why Zcash-style privacy and not Monero?
47:05 Shielded pools vs ring signatures
49:44 Scaling privacy: Tachyon vs FCMP++
51:18 The first inning of privacy research
53:56 A bearish year: what still makes you bullish?
56:23 AI will make Bitcoin better, not worse
57:46 Why aren't you at the TABConf funeral?
58:50 The hallway track & why showing up matters
1:00:48 AI psychosis & conferences
1:01:36 Coffee, tobacco & AI as a productivity drug
1:03:08 Forks magazine handout
1:03:46 Atlanta's BeltLine
1:04:52 Favorite conferences: Bitcoin++ & Nashville
1:06:12 The Town Hall & the Tabbies
1:06:47 Paul has spoken at all eight TABConfs
1:07:43 Favorite fork? Bitcoin vs Zcash
1:09:22 The Orchard bug & a coordinated soft fork
1:11:29 Only Bitcoin is stubborn enough to invent witness encryption
1:11:59 Two hard forks this year: Luke's coin & eCash
1:12:40 Fork strategy: don't touch cold storage
1:13:43 Zcash as a BIP 300 drivechain
1:14:52 If Bitcoin goes to zero
1:16:13 Christopher Allen joins
1:17:40 Randomness warnings & VeriSign security reviews
1:19:32 LetheKit & dice entropy
1:20:00 Don't rely on any single key: multisig, MuSig & FROST
1:21:00 Wallet companies & the Coldcard victims
1:22:34 Coinkite, open source & closing the code
1:24:15 No single points of failure, compromise or denial
1:25:08 How Coldcard treated security researchers
1:26:36 Bug bounties in the age of LLMs
1:27:51 Cypherpunks who embraced Bitcoin
1:28:45 Netscape, SSL 2 & the RSAREF license
1:30:18 Writing the SSL 3 reference implementation & TLS 1.0
1:30:47 DigiCash & David Chaum
1:31:29 Certicom, micro-currencies & the Merkle patent
1:32:03 Schnorr patents & ECDSA
1:33:10 secp256r1 suspicions vs secp256k1
1:35:44 Discovering Bitcoin in 2013
1:36:08 UTXOs to revoke X.509 certificates
1:37:08 Decentralized identifiers & DPKI
1:37:37 Paul Sztorc returns: Rebooting the Web of Trust
1:38:32 Namecoin
1:38:59 Christopher's beef: key reuse in Ethereum & Nostr
1:40:30 BIP 32 & one key pair per identity
1:41:19 Christopher promises a part two
1:42:46 Paul introduces Will: 21 days before the midterms
1:43:35 Will on six privacy prisoners
1:43:59 Larry Harmon & Ian Freeman
1:44:45 Roman Sterlingov & Bitcoin Fog
1:47:32 Roman Storm & Tornado Cash
1:48:19 Samourai: Keonne Rodriguez & William Hill
1:50:59 The judge switch & the plea deals
1:54:25 The pardon campaign
1:55:42 Aaron Day's StarkFreedom PAC
1:58:52 Michael Tidwell joins
1:59:42 The Tabbies
2:01:29 Why TABConf 8 is the last one
2:02:01 Death by a thousand cuts
2:03:51 My first TABConf & thanking the sponsors
2:05:27 eCash: the calmest hard fork in memory
2:07:16 Will miners steal from drivechains?
2:08:15 TABConf debates: BTC vs BCH vs BSV
2:09:06 Monero, Dash & bringing people into the fold
2:09:51 Amanda B. Johnson & DarkCoin at the monthly meetup
2:11:55 No-shill policy during the ICO craze
2:12:50 Paul Sztorc's TABConf debates & Peter Todd
2:14:08 How TABConf got scammed in 2019
2:17:58 Greg Maxwell, Nick Szabo & who never came
2:19:45 Why the obituary happened a day early
2:20:31 Forks magazine
2:21:20 Top highlights: hardcore trivia & the standing ovation
2:23:40 What will Michael do with his eCash?
2:24:00 Kill Tidwell: Bitcoin comedy
2:25:12 Matt Odell never came
2:26:13 The first Bitcoin car & Rassah's plane
2:27:36 Atlanta lore: Jeff Garzik, Stephen Pair & BitPay
2:29:42 Bitcoin is not my religion
2:31:01 Favorite fork: Taproot
2:32:45 I like all the hard forks
2:35:24 Diversifying into airdrops: the most irrational VC
2:38:47 Goodbye Michael & wrap-up
