The Bitcoin Game
The Bitcoin Game
Rob Mitchell
The Bitcoin Game, hosted and produced by Rob Mitchell since 2014, is a podcast dedicated to exploring Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 6 with Tone Vays, Jimmy Song, and Giacomo Zucco
Tone Vays and Jimmy Song continue their series of interviews examining the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Because Tone is only releasing this series as streaming video on X and YouTube, "The Bitcoin Game" podcast feed was revived to host this interview series for people who prefer a low-bandwidth audio podcast to consume this long-form content. This is Part 6 of the series, this time featuring Giacomo Zucco. The interview was recorded on November 13, 2025, in a side room at the Bitcoin Historico event in El Salvador.
Nov 14, 2025
1 hr 46 min
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 5 with Tone Vays, Jimmy Song, and Knut Svanholm
Tone Vays and Jimmy Song continue their series of interviews examining the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Because Tone is only releasing this series as streaming video on X and YouTube, "The Bitcoin Game" podcast feed was revived to host this interview series for people who prefer a low-bandwidth audio podcast to consume this long-form content. This is Part 5 of the series, this time featuring Knut Svanholm. The interview was recorded on November 12, 2025, in a side room at the Bitcoin Historico event in El Salvador. The beginning of the recording has been edited to remove issues setting up mics, etc.
Nov 13, 2025
1 hr 19 min
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 4 with Tone Vays, Jimmy Song, and Murch
Tone Vays and Jimmy Song continue their series of interviews examining the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Because Tone is only releasing this series as streaming video on X and YouTube, "The Bitcoin Game" podcast feed was revived to host this interview series for people who prefer a low-bandwidth audio podcast to consume this long-form content. This is Part 4 of the series, featuring Bitcoin Core contributor Murch. The interview was recorded on November 7, 2025.
Nov 12, 2025
2 hr 51 min
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 3 with Tone Vays, Jimmy Song, and Bob Burnett
Tone Vays came out of retirement as a content creator to host a new series of interviews focusing on the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Together with Jimmy Song, he is speaking with a wide range of well-known Bitcoiners on all sides of the debate to help users understand what is at stake. Since Tone didn't set up an audio RSS feed for this series, and a lot of people prefer a low-bandwidth podcast over streaming video on YouTube or X, I brought this podcast feed out of retirement to make the audio easily available. This is Part 3 of the series, featuring Bob Burnett of Barefoot Mining.
Nov 11, 2025
1 hr 33 min
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 2 with Tone Vays, Jimmy Song, Luke Dashjr, and BitcoinMechanic
Tone Vays came out of retirement as a content creator to host a new series of interviews focusing on the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Together with Jimmy Song, he is speaking with a wide range of well-known Bitcoiners on all sides of the debate to help users understand what is at stake. Since Tone didn't set up an audio RSS feed for this series, and a lot of people prefer a low-bandwidth podcast over streaming video on YouTube or X, I brought this podcast feed out of retirement to make the audio easily available. This is Part 2 of the series, featuring Luke Dashjr and BitcoinMechanic. The interview was recorded on October 17, 2025.
Nov 10, 2025
2 hr 14 min
Bitcoin Knots vs Core v30: Part 1 with Tone Vays, Adam Back, and Jimmy Song
Tone Vays came out of retirement as a content creator to host a new series of interviews focusing on the current tensions between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core. Together with Jimmy Song, he is speaking with a wide range of well-known Bitcoiners on all sides of the debate to help users understand what is at stake. Since Tone didn't set up an audio RSS feed for this series, and a lot of people prefer a low-bandwidth podcast over streaming video on YouTube or X, I brought this podcast feed out of retirement to make the audio easily available. This is Part 1 of the series, featuring Adam Back. The interview was recorded on October 16, 2025.
Nov 10, 2025
2 hr 56 min
The Bitcoin Game #76: Andrew "Cybergibbons" Tierney
Welcome to episode 76 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. I'm Rob Mitchell. Today's interview is with Andrew Tierney, otherwise known online as Cybergibbons. Andrew hacks everything from oil rigs at his day job, to Cryptocurrency hardware wallets and smart locks in his free time. We conducted this interview a bit before COVID-19 had taken over the planet, back in the good old days (a few weeks ago), when we were more worried about malware than going to the grocery store without an N95 mask. Andrew and I discuss hacking hardware wallets, general security, IoT devices, home routers, his day job as a hacker for hire, and other stuff too. I hope you enjoy! EPISODE LINKS Andrew's Twitter https://twitter.com/cybergibbons Andrew's Blog https://cybergibbons.com Pen Test Partners https://www.pentestpartners.com Bitfi Hardware Wallet Hack Article https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/john-mcafees-unhackable-bitfi-wallet-got-hacked-again Abe Snowman https://twitter.com/AbeSnowman Oversoft https://twitter.com/oversoftnl Saleem https://twitter.com/saleemrash1d Shadow Ops https://twitter.com/Shadow0pz Trezor https://trezor.io Ledger https://www.ledger.com BC Vault https://bc-vault.com/shop/bc-vault Multisig https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Multisignature Shamir's Secret Sharing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing Secure Element (blog post) https://www.intrinsic-id.com/pros-cons-secure-elements Pen Test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_test Caravan Multisig (Unchained Capital) https://unchained-capital.com/blog/the-caravan-arrives Rubber Ducky https://latesthackingnews.com/2017/06/16/20456 OpenWrt https://openwrt.org Tomato https://advancedtomato.com Ubiquiti Routers https://www.ui.com/products/#edgemax THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY ETORO Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app. Join now at b.tc/etorogame. While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain. As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Infowars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com CREDITS All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn. The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos. Lightning Network tips: https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame Bitcoin tipping address: 3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g Note: We migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) to Libsyn; SoundCloud is just a legacy feed.
Mar 30, 2020
1 hr 6 min
The Bitcoin Game #75: 2014 Interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke
Welcome to episode 75 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. I'm Rob Mitchell. I started podcasting in late 2014, and one of the greatest things to happen in those early episodes was landing an exclusive longform interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke, the 2014 Bitcoin Hero. Badass white hat Bitcoin hacker Johoe (at least that's what I call him) rescued insecure Bitcoin UTXOs from Blockchain.info wallets before they could be taken by less-scrupulous hackers. This was after his contributions to understanding the RNG issues with Android Bitcoin wallets in 2013. He also rescued insecure Bitcoin from one other platform, which he admits for the first time in this interview. Some months after this interview, Johoe responsibly published a side-channel attack on a TREZOR, which eventually led to Satoshi Labs hiring him as a TREZOR Cryptographer. Johoe's Bitcoin mempool stats site is yet another contribution he's made to the space. This is the only audio (or video) interview with Johoe that I'm aware of, and it's worth a listen if you didn't catch it the first time. It's even educational, as Johoe explains concepts like how Bitcoin signatures work and what specifically went wrong with various wallets, in a way that's accessible for non-technical people like myself. Hope you enjoy my first "rebroadcast" to celebrate 75! EPISODE LINKS Johoe first addresses repeating R value issue due to 2013 Android RNG bug https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=251743.msg2890179#msg2890179 Counterparty Bug first addressed by Johoe on BitcoinTalk.org https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg6354731#msg6354731 Johoe discovers the recently compromised Blockchain.info addresses https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9774894#msg9774894 Blockchain.info Wallet https://blockchain.info/wallet Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com Counterparty Wallet https://counterwallet.io Johoe demonstrates TREZOR side channel attack (April 2015) https://jochen-hoenicke.de/crypto/trezor-power-analysis Satoshi Labs announces hiring Johoe as TREZOR Cryptographer https://blog.trezor.io/ethical-hacker-and-bitcoin-hero-johoe-joins-satoshilabs-as-trezor-cryptographer-36c9a6b10d52 Johoe's Bitcoin Mempool Statistics site https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,all THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY ETORO Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app. Join now at b.tc/etorogame. While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain. As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Infowars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com CREDITS All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn. The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos. Lightning Network tips: https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame Bitcoin tipping address: 3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g Note: We migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) to Libsyn; SoundCloud is just a legacy feed.
Feb 28, 2020
43 min
The Bitcoin Game #74: David Jevans of CipherTrace
Welcome to episode 74 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. The Bitcoin Game has been a featured podcast on the LTB Network since 2014! A few facts about David Jevans: In the late '90s, David attended monthly Cypherpunk meetups in Palo Alto. David hired Nick Szabo to help with IronKey (David's previous business, a secure USB product). And David is currently the founder and CEO of CipherTrace, one of the big three "blockchain analysis" companies. David's past and present positions give him a uniquely informed perspective, and I was fascinated to hear his takes. We discuss a wide range of topics, from details about CipherTrace's work, to hardware wallets, supply-chain security, CryptoCapital, Quadriga, BTC-E, CoinJoin, OPSEC, and tons more. EPISODE LINKS CipherTrace https://ciphertrace.com David on Twitter https://twitter.com/davejevans Cypherpunk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk Nick Szabo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo IronKey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IronKey ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic-curve_cryptography 2000 Financial Cryptography Conference https://ifca.ai/fc00/program.html David Chaum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chaum DigiCash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiCash Mt. Gox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox CoinJoin https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CoinJoin Wasabi Wallet https://wasabiwallet.io OPSEC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_security Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s "Travel Rule" https://ciphertrace.com/fatf-crypto-travel-rule THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app. Join now at b.tc/etorogame. While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain. As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Infowars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com CREDITS All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn. The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos. Lightning Network tips: https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame Note: We migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) to Libsyn; SoundCloud is just a legacy feed.
Feb 1, 2020
1 hr 15 min
The Bitcoin Game #73: Tim Pastoor, P2P Identity
Welcome to episode 73 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. When I started paying attention to Bitcoin Twitter in 2013, I noticed a guy named Tim Pastoor, who seemed pretty well-respected by the Bitcoin Twitter community. He and I eventually became good friends on Twitter, so much so that we hung out for a long afternoon when I visited Amsterdam a few years ago. Tim has been focused on peer-to-peer identity and reputation systems for the past five years, supporting Martti Malmi's work in the space (Martti was the first coder to work with Satoshi on Bitcoin). Twitter's Jack Dorsey recently garnered a ton of attention promoting the goal of decentralized social media, and P2P identity may well be the base layer for such projects. Hope you enjoy our talk! Oh, and a correction Tim gave me after our interview - Microsoft's Distributed ID project is now called Ion. EPISODE LINKS Tim Pastoor on Twitter https://twitter.com/timpastoor Jack Dorsey's Tweet about Decentralized Social Media https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106 Complementary Currencies (LETS, Brixton Pound, etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_currency Peer-to-Peer (P2P) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer Martti Malmi (article) https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/10/8751933/the-shy-college-student-who-helped-build-bitcoin-into-a-global Identifi (now Iris) https://identifi.github.io/ Microsoft Decentralized Identity https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/technology/own-your-identity W3C Decentralized Identifiers https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core Carsten Keutmann's Digital Trust Protocol https://medium.com/@carstenkeutmann_96497/digital-trust-protocol-c37e17eeca20 Sovrin https://sovrin.org Urbit ID https://urbit.org/understanding-urbit/urbit-id Sockpuppet Account https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet) Sybil Swarm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack Six Degrees of Separation Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation Metcalfe's Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law Network Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect Microsoft's Ion (Decentralized Identity) https://github.com/decentralized-identity/ion Anchoring into the Blockchain https://medium.com/@edhonour/how-anchors-help-ensure-authenticity-on-the-blockchain-3359051a181 TJ Miller on The Adam Carolla Show (see part two) https://adamcarolla.com/tj-miller-and-mark-geragos Switchboard Operator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchboard_operator Bell Labs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs Iris GitHub https://github.com/irislib Iris Proof-of-Concept https://iris.to THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app. Join now at b.tc/etorogame. While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain. As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Infowars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com CREDITS All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn. The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos. Bitcoin (SegWit) tipping address: 3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g Lightning Network tipping: https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame Note: We've migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) from SoundCloud to Libsyn. So if you noticed the SoundCloud numbers aren't nearly as high as they used to be, that's the reason.
Dec 25, 2019
56 min
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