Bitcoin might still be wildly undervalued—and Adam Back explains why. In this episode, we sit down with Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, early cypherpunk, and inventor of hashcash, the proof-of-work system that inspired bitcoin mining. Adam shares the story of receiving the first known email from Satoshi Nakamoto, why he didn’t buy bitcoin until it hit $100, and how early ideas like b-money and bit gold shaped Satoshi’s breakthrough. We explore the importance of a fixed supply, why halvings still move the market, and how doubt keeps bitcoin underpriced. Adam weighs in on treasury adoption, supply shocks, and whether this cycle could break the diminishing returns theory. We also discuss volatility, long-term thinking, and the $100 trillion opportunity bitcoin is unlocking.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Why selling bitcoin is like playing against a rigged casino
7:38 - Why Adam didn’t buy bitcoin until it hit $100
10:11 - Realizing bitcoin had bootstrapped into something real
13:35 - The underrated role of Nick Szabo, Wei Dai, and Hal Finney
19:24 - Why the 2008 financial crisis was perfect timing for bitcoin
22:32 - Is bitcoin drifting from its cypherpunk roots?
26:01 - How doubt keeps bitcoin undervalued
27:52 - Why $10 million bitcoin is still possible
31:19 - Why volatility makes bitcoin hard to sell
36:36 - Why halvings still impact the price despite being predictable
42:35 - Why this cycle could invalidate the diminishing returns theory
46:14 - The global unbanked: a $100 trillion bitcoin market
48:12 - The 200-week moving average as a price floor
50:10 - Price reflexivity: why people buy because it’s going up
53:07 - The shrinking tradable supply and why halvings still matter
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