S16 E41: Yonatan Sompolinsky on Bitcoin, Kaspa & Proof of Work

Yonatan Sompolinsky is an academic in the field of computer science, best known for his work on the GHOST protocol (Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree, which was cited in the Ethereum whitepaper) and the way he applied his research to create Kaspa.

In this episode, we talk about scaling Proof of Work and why Kaspa might be a worthy contender to process global payments.

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Time stamps:
00:01:22 - Debunking rumors: Why some think Yonatan is Satoshi Nakamoto
00:02:52 - Candidates for Satoshi: Charles Hoskinson, Charlie Lee, Zooko, and Alex Chepurnoy
00:03:41 - Alex Chepurnoy as a Satoshi-like figure
00:04:07 - Kaspa overview: DAG structure, no orphaned blocks, generalization of Bitcoin
00:04:55 - Similarities between Kaspa and Bitcoin fundamentals
00:06:12 - Why Kaspa couldn't be built directly on Bitcoin
00:08:05 - Kaspa as generalization of Nakamoto consensus
00:11:55 - Origins of GHOST protocol and early DAG concepts for Bitcoin scaling
00:13:16 - Academic motivation for GHOST and transitioning to computer science
00:13:50 - Turtle pet named Bitcoin
00:15:22 - Increasing block rate in Bitcoin and GHOST protocol
00:16:57 - Meeting Gregory Maxwell and discovering GHOST flaws
00:20:00 - Yonatan's views on drivechains and Bitcoin maximalism
00:20:36 - Defining Bitcoin maximalism: Capital B vs lowercase b
00:23:18 - Satoshi's support for Namecoin and merged mining
00:24:12 - Bitcoin culture in 2013-2018: Opposing other functionalities
00:26:01 - Vitalik's 2014 article on Bitcoin maximalism
00:26:13 - Andrew Poelstra's opposition to other assets on Bitcoin
00:26:38 - Bitcoin culture: Distaste for DeFi, criticism of Ethereum as a scam
00:28:03 - Bitcoin Cash developments: Cash tokens, cash fusion, contracts
00:28:39 - Rejection of Ethereum in Bitcoin circles
00:30:18 - Ethereum's successful PoS transition despite critics
00:35:04 - Ethereum's innovation: From Plasma to ZK rollups, nurturing development
00:37:04 - Stacks protocol and criticism from Luke Dashjr
00:39:02 - Bitcoin culture justifying technical limitations
00:41:01 - Declining Bitcoin adoption as money, rise of altcoins for payments
00:43:02 - Kaspa's aspirations: Merging sound money with DeFi, beyond just payments
00:43:56 - Possibility of tokenized Bitcoin on Kaspa
00:46:30 - Native currency advantage and friction in bridges
00:48:49 - WBTC on Ethereum scale vs Bitcoin L2s
00:53:33 - Quotes: Richard Dawkins on atheism, Milton Friedman on Yap Island money
00:55:44 - Story of Kaspa's messy fair launch in 2021
01:14:08 - Tech demo of Kaspa wallet experience
01:28:45 - Kaspa confirmation times & transaction fees
01:43:26 - GHOST DAG visualizer
01:44:10 - Mining Kaspa
01:55:48 - Data pruning in Kaspa, DAG vs MimbleWimble
02:01:40 - Grin & the fairest launch
02:12:21 - Zcash scaling & ZKP OP code in Kaspa
02:19:50 - Jameson Lopp, cold storage & self custody elitism
02:35:08 - Social recovery
02:41:00 - Amir Taaki, DarkFi & DAO
02:53:10 - Nick Szabo's God Protocols
03:00:00 - Layer twos on Kaspa for DeFi
03:13:09 - How Kaspa's DeFi will resemble Solana
03:24:03 - Centralized exchanges vs DeFi
03:32:05 - The importance of community projects
03:37:00 - DAG KNIGHT and its resilience
03:51:00 - DAG KNIGHT tradeoffs
03:58:18 - Blockchain vs DAG, the bottleneck for Kaspa
04:03:00 - 100 blocks per second?
04:11:43 - Question from Quai's Dr. K
04:17:03 - Doesn't Kaspa require super fast internet?
04:23:10 - Are ASIC miners desirable?
04:33:53 - Why Proof of Work matters
04:35:55 - A short history of Bitcoin mining
04:44:00 - DAG's sequencing
04:49:09 - Phantom GHOST DAG
04:52:47 - Why Kaspa had high inflation initially
04:55:10 - Selfish mining
05:03:00 - K Heavy Hash & other community questions
06:33:20 - Latency settings in DAG KNIGHT for security
06:36:52 - Aviv Zohar's involvement in Kaspa research
06:38:07 - World priced in Kaspa after hyperinflation
06:39:51 - Kaspa's fate intertwined with crypto
06:40:29 - Kaspa contracts vs Solana, why better for banks
06:42:53 - Cohesive developer experience in Kaspa like Solana
06:45:22 - Incorporating ZK design in Kaspa smart contracts
06:47:22 - Heroes: Garry Kasparov
06:48:12 - Shift in attitude from academics like Hoskinson, Buterin, Back
06:53:07 - Adam Back's criticism of Kaspa
06:55:57 - Michael Jordan and LeBron analogy for Bitcoiners' mindset
06:58:02 - Can Kaspa flip Bitcoin in market cap
07:00:34 - Gold and USD market cap comparison
07:06:06 - Collaboration with Kai team
07:10:37 - Community improvement: More context on crypto
07:13:43 - Theoretical maximum TPS for Kaspa
07:16:05 - Full ZK on L1 improvements
07:17:45 - Atomic composability and logic zones in Kaspa
07:23:12 - Sparkle and monolithic UX feel
07:26:00 - Wrapping up: Beating podcast length record, final thoughts on Bitcoin and Kaspa
07:27:31 - Why Yonatan called a scammer despite explanations
07:32:29 - Luke Dashjr's views and disconnect
07:33:01 - Hope for Bitcoin scaling and revolution