Financial Sovereignty, BTCPay Server & the Future of Lightning - a conversation with Nicolas Dorier

In this episode, we talk with Nicolas Dorier (BTCPay Server, NBXplorer, NBitcoin) about how he became a bitcoiner after Mt. Gox, why and how BTCPay Server was born, the merchant-side challenges on Lightning, and why he favors non-custodial solutions. We cover the ecosystem’s evolution, the “Bitcoin for institutions” narrative, EU regulation (MiCA), Japanese taxation, inheritance (Liana wallet), and practical advice for developers.
If you care about Bitcoin’s practical side-development, merchant acceptance, UX, and long-term vision-this one’s for you.

If you want the detailed origin story of how BTCPay was born, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z78ZbPcsc3g

Timestamps:
00:00 – 00:22 Intro
00:23 – 01:30 Introduction, projects: BTCPay Server, NBXplorer, NBitcoin
01:31 – 03:24 “Orange pill” story after Mt. Gox
03:25 – 07:35 Birth of BTCPay Server: the block size war, SegWit vs. 2 MB debate
07:36 – 08:39 Plugin ecosystem, Lightning UX, Blink vs. non-custodial paths
08:40 – 10:33 Atomic swaps (Boltz), second layers, better onboarding
10:34 – 12:10 Samrock Protocol: QR-code pairing, the “gold standard” of UX
12:11 – 14:00 “Normies” and the Phoenix Wallet; banking apps vs. Bitcoin
14:01 – 15:37 Motivation behind NBitcoin: learning through code; the “three-layer” stack
15:38 – 21:40 NBXplorer: why a custom solution was needed
21:41 – 24:00 The “Bitcoin maxi” perspective, altcoins, and marketing vs. code
24:01 – 27:20 Governance/tokenization: what fits within Bitcoin?
27:21 – 28:22 Quantum computing: risk and reality
28:23 – 29:14 Financial sovereignty in 2025
29:15 – 33:20 Institutional Bitcoin and wealth concentration, the Cantillon effect
33:21 – 37:33 EU/MiCA, enforceability and adaptation
37:34 – 41:00 Minimizing fiat interaction, Japanese taxation, MicroStrategy
41:01 – 42:10 BTCPay’s new subscriptions feature
42:11 – 43:40 What would he improve in the ecosystem now? (OP_RETURN debate, cleanup BIP)
43:41 – 44:30 What legacy would he like to leave behind
44:31 – 50:29 Advice for developers, open-source funding
50:30 – 54:31 “Orange-pilling” friends? Gifting and common pitfalls
54:32 – 56:55 Inheritance and the Liana wallet
56:56 – 57:33 Outro

About the guest
Nicolas Dorier - Creator/maintainer of BTCPay Server, NBXplorer, and NBitcoin. Focus: non-custodial payment processing, developer tooling, and pragmatic Bitcoin building.

Mentioned tools / concepts
• BTCPay Server - open-source bitcoin payment processor
• NBXplorer - lightweight indexer/“wallet backend”
• NBitcoin - .NET bitcoin library
• Lightning Network - fast, low-fee BTC payments
• Phoenix Wallet - non-custodial LN wallet that “just works”
• Blink (custodial) vs. Boltz (atomic swap) - ways to receive LN
• Shamrock Protocol - QR-based pairing, smoother onboarding
• Liquid - sidechain; atomic swap LN ↔️ Liquid
• Liana Wallet - inheritance / “proof-of-life” workflows
• The Sovereign Individual - book rec (tech → politics)

Support the channel / Join the convo
• Subscribe, hit 👍, and share with anyone exploring merchant BTC acceptance or Bitcoin dev.
• Comment: Which plugin/solution would help your business the most to accept Bitcoin?
• Questions for Nicolas? Drop them below-we’ll collect the best for a follow-up episode.

#Bitcoin #BTCPayServer #LightningNetwork #NBXplorer #NBitcoin #AtomicSwap #PhoenixWallet #MiCA #BitcoinHungary #Sovereignty #OpenSource

The episode was recorded on October 10, 2025.

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