Bitcoin Core vs Knots, Spam vs Filters, Quantum Threats, & Social Engineering | Jameson Lopp

"If we ever get to the point where nobody's arguing about Bitcoin, I would be afraid that that's because nobody cares anymore and Bitcoin is actually dead or dying."

In this episode of THE Bitcoin Podcast, Bitcoin technologist Jameson Lopp (Casa co-founder & CSO) joins Walker America to cut through today’s Bitcoin noise: filter wars, spam on Bitcoin, standardness vs. consensus, the real risks (social engineering vs wrench attacks), and how to actually secure generational wealth with family multi-sig. We also dive into the quantum computing threat—timelines, soft-fork options, migration game theory, and why coordination (not cryptography alone) will be the hard part. Plus: culture/politics, ossification, and how debates keep Bitcoin antifragile.
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TIMESTAMPS

00:00

04:35 – Welcome back, early days + Peter McCormack anecdotes

05:21 – Today’s theme: signal vs. noise in Bitcoin debates

06:40 – “Most important debate” = progress vs. complacency

08:51 – Policy fights that loop forever (spam/filtering)

09:50 – “Spam apologist?” meme, why tone online gets warped

11:01 – Money, network, ledger: what is Bitcoin, really?

11:38 – Why endless arguments are healthy (and inevitable)

13:50 – Standardness vs. consensus: why “filter wars” lose

18:17 – Sub-1-sat/vB summer and the limits of policy

19:43 – Will this fracture cause a fork? Why it’s unlikely

21:40 – Is “spam” subjective? The porn test + whack-a-mole

24:57 – Devs’ ROI: Why most won’t fight data-hiding forever

28:05 – Pivot: physical risk / wrench attacks context

30:30 – How common are wrench attacks, really? Who’s at risk

33:13 – Bigger everyday risks: custodial loss & social engineering

36:54 – Brain-hacking / wallet-hacking: modern scam playbooks

38:25 – KYC/AML leaks & elder-targeted attacks

39:52 – Nine-figure thefts, single-sig mistakes, “don’t touch it” bias

44:11 – Family multi-sig: checks and balances that save fortunes

46:00 – Self-custody fear, ETFs, and practical tradeoffs

47:28 – Social engineering dwarfs physical theft (by value)

50:41 – Converting cyber risk into physical security wins

53:42 – Why meatspace attacks stay rarer (and riskier)

54:51 – Geography notes: USA vs. Dubai per-capita patterns

58:36 – Conference caution: drugs, laced items, and OPSEC

59:07 – Quantum threat: timelines, coordination, and game theory

01:02:56 – BIP ideas: migration paths, soft-fork levers, ZK recovery?

01:08:57 – Fungibility fears, objective rules vs. blacklists

01:14:36 – Gov/finance will upgrade faster than Bitcoin can

01:16:53 – Acceleration vectors: hardware, error-correction, AI

01:19:50 – Debate is good; free markets decide

01:21:19 – Culture/politics: partisan framing vs. Bitcoin’s neutrality

01:24:00 – Power centralizes; incentives of the duopoly

01:26:39 – “Third party” reality: MAGA as an internal takeover

01:29:11 – Memes, identity, and where this goes next

01:30:36 – Where to find Lopp: Casa.io & Bitcoin.page

#Bitcoin #JamesonLopp #SelfCustody #Multisig #OPSEC #Quantum #BitcoinSecurity #Taproot #Ossification #ETFs #ColdStorage #CryptoSecurity #fixthefilters #knots #bitcoinknots