Carel van Wyk is the founder and CEO of MoneyBadger. MoneyBadger enables easy bitcoin payments at 650 thousand stores in South Africa.

MoneyBadger on Nostr: https://primal.net/p/nprofile1qqsz85k206vm3vqdmlvcy9l4kyfqchlnf4hnctasxufa3ph0ck9decgpk49rf
MoneyBadger on X: https://x.com/MoneyBadgerPay
Wesbite: https://www.moneybadger.co.za/

EPISODE: 189
BLOCK: 933542
PRICE: 1112 sats per dollar

(00:03:26) What is Money Badger? Mission and merchant focus

(00:05:13) Paying anywhere in South Africa

(00:05:27) 650,000 locations

(00:07:04) Leveraging existing QR payment rails and the Pick n Pay breakthrough

(00:10:01) How the flow works: bridging proprietary QR to Lightning

(00:11:18) MoneyBadger app as translator vs. using any Lightning wallet

(00:13:04) Fiat settlement, volatility handling, and business model

(00:17:07) Why no Money Badger wallet? Integrations with Blink, Zeus, Aqua

(00:20:20) A clever LNURL/Lightning Address pattern to decode merchant QRs

(00:23:39) Pragmatic, a bit hacky, and works across wallets

(00:28:04) Replicability beyond SA: Kenya’s M‑Pesa, Ghana, Latin America

(00:32:10) Creating demand: Bitcoin Ekasi as proof-of-use for Pick n Pay

(00:35:15) Real usage: growth to ~5k tx/month and $200k volume

(00:39:40) Who spends Bitcoin? From cash users to OGs and ideologues

(00:42:34) Incentives and the challenge of moving the middle

(00:43:42) Tax context in South Africa: capital gains thresholds

(00:46:59) UX talk: tap-to-pay vs. QR, hardware realities and patience

(00:49:12) Beyond POS: treasury, suppliers, and stablecoin pull

(00:51:03) Bitcoin vs. stablecoins in SA usage; Luno/Binance integrations

(00:55:07) Wild flexibility: paying with almost any token via partners

(00:57:46) Urgency to prove Bitcoin as money before it’s siloed

(00:58:00) Hypothetical: Square/Cash App design vs. bridge approach

(01:03:41) Consumer friction at checkout and signaling acceptance

(01:07:38) Tipping, bridges to Venmo/Cash App, and cash realities

(01:09:19) Call to action: spend Bitcoin to create demand

(01:11:08) Wrap-up: plans to visit SA, links, and farewell

Matt Corallo has been a bitcoin developer for nearly fifteen years. We discuss his views on the recent bitcoin core bug, the proposed us clarity act, and the risks/mitigations of quantum computing.

Corallo on Nostr: https://primal.net/mattcorallo
Corallo on X: https://x.com/TheBlueMatt
Save our Wallets: https://SaveOurWallets.org

Ten31 Quantum Report: https://www.ten31.xyz/insights/quantum-computing-bitcoin-security

EPISODE: 188
BLOCK: 932276
PRICE: 1030 sats per dollar

(00:03:37) Bitcoin Core legacy wallet migration bug

(00:07:41) Backups, edge cases, and defensive coding culture

(00:07:58) Clarity Act and developer protections: SaveOurWallets.org

(00:10:19) Self-custody legal clarity

(00:13:12) Partisan Bitcoin ownership data

(00:14:43) Surveillance and KYC/AML tightening concerns

(00:20:43) Quantum threat framing and scope

(00:22:10) Seed phrases enable quantum-safe proofs via hashes

(00:24:58) What quantum breaks: exposed public keys, Taproot, and address reuse

(00:31:21) Design choices hinge on whether insecure spend paths are frozen

(00:33:43) Options: backup TapLeaf, new address types, and fee/UX tradeoffs

(00:36:14) Opt-in Taproot versioning to signal post-quantum readiness

(00:38:07) Adoption reality: wallet support, privacy impacts, and rollout pace

(00:39:34) Freeze-or-not debate: social contract, market dynamics, forks

(00:43:56) Public vs. secret quantum progress: who gets there first?

(00:47:06) Fork economics: supply shocks, Satoshis coins, and market choice

(00:55:01) In-system vs. out-of-system theft; why quantum is different

(01:10:01) Preparing pragmatically: give future users post-quantum options

(01:24:28) Timelines and hype: where quantum computing really stands

(01:29:00) Final takeaways: no panic

Anjan Sundaram is an independent journalist, author, and founder of the Stringer Foundation with a mission to expand global independent journalism. We discuss his work and how open protocols, such as bitcoin and nostr, empower journalists.

Anjan on Nostr: https://primal.net/anjansun
Anjan on X: https://x.com/anjansun
Stringer Foundation on X: https://stringerjournalism.org/

EPISODE: 187
BLOCK: 928149
PRICE: 1140 sats per dollar

(00:03:09) Anjan’s path: from Yale and Goldman Sachs to war reporting

(00:06:07) How war reporting is changing in the age of social media

(00:10:32) What makes a journalist? Raw footage vs. verified reporting

(00:14:00) Publishing pathways, bylines, pay, and lack of safety nets

(00:18:12) Fixing incentives: philanthropy, prizes, and media economics

(00:21:00) Turning down quant life: the Goldman Sachs detour

(00:23:07) Values alignment: finance, bitcoin, and free information flows

(00:24:49) Bloomberg, Substack, and sustainability

(00:26:19) Designing the Stringer Prize: credibility, juries, and impact

(00:29:39) Launching Stringer: partners, applications, and endowment plan

(00:32:10) Why pay in bitcoin: global payouts, fees, and onboarding stories

(00:35:33) Grants to awards pipeline and the courage index

(00:41:01) Lean ops vs. big charity: publicity without bloat

(00:43:59) The tenure problem: long-term support without dependency

(00:48:26) Transformative fellowships: MacArthur model and global gaps

(00:51:30) Journalism’s core: elevating humane, inspiring stories

(00:53:10) Value-for-value, Nostr, and building ad-free media

(00:58:24) Own your audience: platforms vs. protocols

(01:02:30) Bootstrapping Nostr: network effects and onboarding journalists

(01:05:13) Building a global home for independent journalists

(01:06:07) The drought in investigative reporting and who funds it