Adam Back invented Hashcash, the proof-of-work system Satoshi built Bitcoin. He was also the first person Satoshi ever contacted. The New York Times named him a Satoshi suspect. He says they're wrong.

In this conversation, Amanda and Adam cover: what CipherPunk philosophy looks like in a world of Bitcoin ETFs, why lightning channel compression isn't a red flag, how $2 billion in real-world assets ended up on a Bitcoin layer 2, the quantum threat timeline (and why the 2029 panic is overblown), and what a lifelong crypto anarchist makes of the AI moment.

▫️Timestamps: 0:00 Intro0:30 Is Adam Back Satoshi?1:37 Does the speculation bother him?1:53 First contact: Satoshi reached out to Adam2:53 Weirdest thing about being a Satoshi suspect3:21 Hashcash and the CipherPunk mailing list4:28 Why proof of work was the breakthrough4:58 CipherPunk identity vs. BlackRock adoption6:02 How he reconciles crypto anarchism with institutions8:01 Are institutions changing Bitcoin or vice versa?9:25 The case against institutional Bitcoin10:19 Paper Bitcoin and synthetic derivatives14:04 Why governments are buying gold, not Bitcoin16:41 Has "build on Bitcoin" failed?19:32 Lightning compression isn't a demand signal19:57 Stablecoins and RWAs on Bitcoin layer 221:20 Why Mexican promissory notes ended up on Liquid22:03 Adam's stance on quantum panic23:33 The timeline skepticism 26:45 The danger of rushing a quantum solution28:18 The security budget problem31:13 What does a CipherPunk think of AI?🎧Stay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast ● Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt ● Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq ◽️Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg ◽️Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440 ◽️Follow Adam Back https://x.com/adam3us?lang=en🔔 Don’t forget to Subscribe!#Bitcoin #Blockstream #EndgamePodcast

Toby Shorin, cultural theorist and essayist, argues that the biggest threat of our time isn’t AI taking your jobit’s the optimization mindset turning every natural human impulse into a protocol to follow.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the embodied turn in culture goes way beyond peptides and biohacking

• The real difference between a protocol and a practiceand why it has political consequences

• Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic narrative

• What the AI cult in the Bay Area looks like from the inside

• Why poetry might be the only real escape from living life as a spreadsheet

  
  

  
  

  Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:44 Why everyone is obsessed with their body right now 7:08 The philosophy behind biohacking and morphological freedom 10:42 Why "don't die" is actually a fear-based philosophy 13:27 What AI really threatens it's not your job 14:50 AI mastered chess. Chess adoption only grew. 18:05 Why PE firms are buying sports teams 20:41 Body as asset vs. body as practice 26:24 What is a narrative subsidy? 28:44 Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic 29:20 We forgot how to do the dance 31:52 Did Andrew Huberman invent seeing light in the morning? 32:44 How insurance culture took over everyday life 36:45 Two ways out of the optimization loop 38:00 The poetic way of seeing 40:29 Toby reads a poem he wrote this morning 42:09 The William Carlos Williams connection🎧Stay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast ● Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt ● Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq ◽️Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg ◽️Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440 ◽️Follow Toby Shorinhttps://www.instagram.com/tobyshorin/https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobyshorin🔔 Don’t forget to Subscribe!#Endgame #TobyShowin #BodyFuturism

Your identity, your assets, your privacy, do you actually own any of it online?

Binji Pande from the Ethereum Foundation says no. And he's spent his career trying to change that. In this episode, Amanda sits down with Binji to explore why crypto is really about redesigning human incentives, what digital rights actually mean, and what it would take to build a world where freedom online isn't a privilege.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

03:21 How Binji got into crypto

05:17 If you can program money, you can change the world

09:53 Moloch, prisoner's dilemmas & why the system isn't evil, just indifferent

13:48 From Northwestern to Coinbase: breaking into crypto without a CS degree

15:12 The Ethereum tattoo and what it really means

18:23 Hardware. Software. Trustware.

20:05 How do you know if Ethereum is actually decentralized?

26:29 Ethereum's communication challenge

31:41 Digital rights: you can lock your bathroom door, why not online?

37:16 Privacy as dignity: data breaches, ZK, and the next frontier

43:19 CROPS: what the Ethereum Foundation actually stands for

44:44 Ethereum's roadmap: Is it shipping fast enough?

45:04 Canton, Tempo, competing chains, should Ethereum be worried?

47:00 The world worth building

Stay Connected

Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast

Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt

Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq

Links to Follow:

Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg

Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440

Follow Binji

https://www.linkedin.com/in/binjix23/

@binji_x