Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
On this episode of the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream, Kurt Wuckert Jr. hosted an Ask Me Anything covering various topics about BSV. Wuckert dove into ElectrumSV, seed phrases, infrastructure, and the upcoming BSV Hackathon.
Stop LARPing. Start building.
To open the livestream, Wuckert thanks RockWallet for sponsoring it and talks about his new article on CoinGeek. In it, he explores how speculation and unwholesome ways to get rich overtake building useful products and services in the economy.
Wuckert notes how, while driving across the United States, he noticed that formerly prosperous small towns are dead and that there’s no opportunity for entry-level work. This economic reality impacts American culture and has even spilt over into Bitcoin. Indeed, few businesses in the Bitcoin economy would have made more money than simply HODLing coins over the past decade.
However, building real products and services is a must for long-term economic prosperity. Check out the article, Stop LARPing, Start Building, here.
The ease of building apps with Babbage tools
On last week’s livestream, Project Babbage Founding President Ty Everett told us that many of the Babbage tools are now open source. One viewer wants to know how easy it is to build games and apps using these tools.
Wuckert says he doesn’t use them personally, so he can’t give an opinion based on experience. However, they use Bitcoin Schema at GorillaPool and are largely interoperable and compatible.
Furthermore, the GorillaPool team has worked with the Babbage team on multiple occasions, and the communication and working together has always been smooth and conflict-free. Based on this, Wuckert says Babbage tools are likely awesome.
Is ElectrumSV still running?
Electrum is early Bitcoin technology that uses an overlay network to filter transactions, Wuckert reminds us. ElectrumSV is a version of that specific to BSV.
While small-block Bitcoiners have pushed for anyone to be able to run a node, things work differently on BSV. Following Satoshi’s vision, the BSV network has been designed so that a few large nodes in data centers will end up feeding many light clients.
ElectrumSV depends on these nodes to serve its data. While the developer who was running it has walked away, GorillaPool will continue to serve the data for the foreseeable future.
Will traditional HD wallets with multiple addresses/seeds still be a good option for self-storage when BIG adoption starts?
Wuckert explains that seed phrases and addresses are derived from public keys. Nodes listen to the blockchain and make assumptions about probable linked public keys, and query them. All of this work needs to be done, and while the system isn’t perfect, it’s good enough for now.
However, if we get to one million transactions per second, it becomes untenable for a node to check. BIP39 will get phased out eventually, but don’t worry until we have 10GB blocks on average, Wuckert says.Why do some say Teranode is out while others are still waiting?
This depends on where you’re sitting and what your role in Bitcoin is, Wuckert explains. If you’re an infrastructure partner, it has been available for six months, and GorillaPool and others have been testing, debugging, and collaborating on it.
Wuckert can’t say for sure, but he’s hearing “heavy whispering” that a Q1 Teranode public release is still in play. It will be released open-source so others can audit the code.
Are more miners always good for decentralization?
Up to a point, and then it’s net neutral, Wuckert answers. More than one is necessary, but more than 10 seems like overkill.
If you advocate that more hash power is always better, then sure, but there are consequences for speed, network latency, etc. Ideally, there should be as few as possible for maximum security. After that, there’s no extra value in having more nodes.
Are any countries considering BSV as digital cash?
Wuckert thinks the ship has sailed for BSV to be used as a national currency, maybe someday. However, there are countries considering using the ledger itself for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), national digital currencies, etc. There’s interest in the ledger, but the idea that Bitcoin might be used as money will have to wait.
The upcoming BSV Hackathon
The BSV Hackathon is taking place in Austin, Texas, between April 5 -6. Wuckert will be there, and yes, there will be a BBQ. The hackathon will be focused on using the Babbage software stack and will have $50k in prize money up for grabs.
Anyone interested in attending or learning more about the rules and expectations can visit BSVHackathon.com.
To hear more about BSV compared to ICP, mining profitability, how non-techies can help BSV, and the MNEE stablecoin, check out the weekly livestream here.
Watch: Unpacking Bitcoin sustainability at #LDNBlockchain24