S17 E37: Paul Sztorc on the eCash Three Stage Launch, Free Coins & 12 Drivechains

n August 2026, eCash (ECX) comes out in its alpha phase: leading up to a final complete rollout on October 31st 2026, Bitcoin's 18th birthday. To better explain how this process will take place and why every bitcoiner should try BIP300 this Halloween, Paul Sztorc joins the show for a record-breaking 11th time!

Time stamps:

00:01:17 – Welcome: Paul Sztorc for the 11th time, a new record

00:01:42 – Four months since the hard fork announcement

00:02:00 – The three phase rollout: alpha, beta, October 31st mainnet

00:02:25 – Why the launch was delayed: summer, Coldcard hack, BIP 110

00:03:04 – Practice runs: 1,000 test coins convert to 10 real eCash

00:03:55 – Alpha & beta as successors to the drivechain testnet

00:04:25 – How to claim: your Bitcoin private key & splitting transactions

00:04:42 – The fast facts GitHub repo & replay protection

00:05:07 – Why most people should not type in their main keys

00:05:27 – Mining or buying: the other ways to get eCash

00:06:04 – Mining the alpha with SHA-256D hardware

00:06:35 – The 1000:10 conversion threshold explained

00:06:51 – Why old hardware (S9s, Bitaxes) can be profitable again

00:07:17 – The launch difficulty debate: from "difficulty 1" to real data

00:08:14 – Alpha & beta as a glimpse of future price and hash rate

00:09:34 – The other fork's struggles vs planning ahead

00:10:03 – Call to action: withdraw from exchanges, accumulate BTC

00:10:24 – The network only recognizes one owner of the coin

00:10:46 – Self custody advice in a tough summer

00:11:24 – eCash vs BIP 110: honest hard fork vs 100% hash rate claims

00:12:13 – Name picking, PoW changes & the train wreck

00:13:00 – From 5 to 7 to 12 drivechains

00:13:30 – The giveaway announcement & the sponsors

00:16:07 – Thunder: scaling to 8 billion people

00:16:32 – zSide: Zcash Orchard privacy on a drivechain

00:16:48 – BitNames, BitAssets, prediction markets, CoinShift

00:17:17 – Two EVM flavors, an OP_CAT chain & a post-EVM science project

00:18:12 – Elements Plus: Blockstream's own tech, completed by the community

00:19:26 – "How many Lightning implementations at launch?" "Hopefully zero"

00:20:11 – Lightning is a dead project, the evidence is overwhelming

00:20:45 – The giveaway: Paul picks 10, the chat said 77

00:21:17 – Recap: three stages, more drivechains, October 31st

00:22:03 – Try the tech: maximizing what Bitcoin can do

00:22:53 – Rohit wins the prize & the shortest Sztorc interview ever

00:23:59 – The autumn of forks: BIP 110 delays, eCash extends to Halloween

00:24:23 – Bitcoin's 18th birthday on the metzdowd mailing list

00:24:49 – Why drivechains: all fees go to proof of work miners

00:25:38 – Hoping a Bitcoin competitor pushes Bitcoin forward

00:28:02 – Twelve drivechains you can test today