10 Awesome Bitcoiners to Follow
Plus, the Verdict in the "Satoshi Trial"
Want to learn more about Bitcoin, I mean even more than I give you each week? Discover how Bitcoin relates to banking, investing, monetary policy, lending, and savings? Here are some of the world’s foremost experts and best spokespeople for Bitcoin. Whether you follow their podcasts (my personal favorite), their newsletters or just their Twitter accounts, you’re sure to learn a lot. And trust me, it will be enjoyable.
“Pomp” Anthony Pompliano, host of the Pomp Podcast and The Best Business Show, consistently has the very best guests in the Bitcoin space. I got started with my study of Bitcoin through Pomp. Very well worth your time.
Peter McCormack McCormack is a British journalist with a fantastic podcast called What Bitcoin Did. He also has great guests on his show and combines great Bitcoin knowledge with attitude. His recent episode on Pomp’s show, with Bitcoin hater Peter Schiff, is a can’t miss.
Dan Held Dan Held, chief marketer at Kraken, is a great resource who explains Bitcoin in a very simple, straightforward manner. His tweets are all like that. A pleasure to follow. He also appears on all of the top Bitcoin podcasts.
Michael Saylor Bitcoin’s absolute biggest bull, Saylor is CEO of publicly-held MicroStrategy Corp. In his role, he has engineered the purchase of $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin, and has borrowed $2 billion to do so. (The coins are now worth over $6 billion.) He speaks out regularly in support of Bitcoin and appears on the top podcasts. To say Saylor is “all in” on Bitcoin would be putting it mildly.
Layah Heilpern Author of the recent book Undressing Bitcoin, Heilpern is a staunch, common-sense Bitcoin advocate. With her 170,000 Twitter followers and 22,000 YouTube subscribers, she has become one of the more popular journalists in the space. Link to my review of Undressing Bitcoin.
Jimmy Song Jimmy is a Bitcoin educator, developer and author. He publishes The Bitcoin Tech Talk newsletter and has written the books Programming Bitcoin and The Little Bitcoin Book. Technically, Song is one of the best sources of Bitcoin knowledge. He’s also a perennial speaker at the Bitcoin Conference Miami.
Saifedean Ammous Ammous penned the classic Bitcoin resource, the Bitcoin Bible if you will, called The Bitcoin Standard, pictured below. More recently, he published The Fiat Standard, where he refers to fiat money as “debt slavery.” One of the top resources around for solid Bitcoin knowledge. All Bitcoiners should read The Bitcoin Standard.
Hailey Lennon Lennon is a partner at the Anderson Kill law firm, with offices across the country, and was formerly in-house counsel at Coinbase. Her practice centers on corporate and commercial litigation as well as technology, media and distributed systems development. Lennon is a regular podcast guest and will again be speaking at Bitcoin Conference Miami in April.
Jeff Booth Booth, a tech entrepreneur, boasts 280,000 followers on Twitter for a reason. He’s a wealth of knowledge in the crypto space, and his tweets are gems. (See below.) He’s interviewed by Pomp and all of the other top podcasts on a regular basis.
Cathie Wood The founder and CEO of Ark Investments, Wood is a huge Bitcoin proponent and a big tech investor. Ark’s investment funds currently hold over $1.5 billion in Coinbase stock. Crypto and Bitcoin investors will want to watch the moves that Wood and Ark make.
@APompliano @PeterMcCormack @danheld @saylor @LayahHeilpern @jimmysong @saifedean @HaileyLennonBTC @JeffBooth @CathieDWood
“Satoshi Trial” Verdict Handed Down
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the trial taking place in West Palm Beach, pitting the family of the late Dave Kleiman against Australian coder Craig Wright. Wright claims that he developed the code for Bitcoin, and that he is actually “Satoshi Nakamoto.” Well, Satoshi holds 1.1 million Bitcoins, and those coins haven’t moved yet, so there’s no proof that Wright is actually Satoshi.
Kleiman’s family is alleging that Wright and Dave Kleiman had a “partnership” to develop Bitcoin, and that the two collaborated on the Bitcoin whitepaper. At stake, potentially, are $60 billion worth of Bitcoins.
Link to the November 26 issue:
Will Florida Trial Reveal Satoshi?
The Decision:
The jury found that there was no business relationship between Wright and Kleiman to develop and mine Bitcoin. Thus, if Wright actually owns the $60 billion worth of crypto, the coins are safe. The Kleiman family claimed that Wright had breached an “oral partnership” agreement, while Wright says that Kleiman merely “cleaned up the grammar” on the Bitcoin whitepaper. (Maybe the jury believes the old adage that “an oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”)
The jury did find Craig Wright guilty of “conversion,” effectively misappropriating $100 million from the entity known as W & K Info Research LLC. Thus, Wright is ordered to pay $100 million into that entity, owned by Wright and Kleiman, and not directly into Dave Kleiman’s estate. (Whether Wright has $100 million is anybody’s guess.)
Wright’s take: He is “incredibly relieved,” saying “This is not bad at all.” His attorney, Andres Rivero, “We have just crushed the plaintiffs.” They do not intend to appeal the verdict.
Kleiman’s view: “The team is thrilled with the result, and $100 million is no small sum of money.”
Win - Win, I guess.
But, who is Satoshi Nakamoto? We still don’t know.
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Issue No. 34, December 10, 2021.
Rick Mulvey is a CPA, forensic accountant and crypto consultant. He writes about all things Bitcoin, and yells at the Yankees and Giants. He also runs marathons and makes wine, neither professionally.
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