In this episode, Ankit sits down with FiatJaf — creator of Nostr and one of the most prominent contributors to the Lightning Network. FiatJaf first stumbled onto Bitcoin in 2011, mining a handful of satoshis on an old CPU before writing it off as something that "would never catch on."

This is a two-part conversation focused entirely on FiatJaf's journey — not a technical deep dive on Lightning (that's for another session). Ankit and FiatJaf trace the real, unfiltered story: getting burned by a lost Bitcoin wallet, building the LNbits tool with Ben Arc, the abandoned "Diagon Alley" marketplace idea that quietly became the seed of Nostr.

Chapters:
00:00 – Intro: Meet FiatJaf, creator of Nostr & Lightning contributor
01:18 – Mining Bitcoin on a "trash" computer in 2011
04:01 – From Austrian economics to anarchism: why 2008 changed everything
09:14 – The shitcoin detour: NXT, Ripple, Stellar — and being wrong about all of it
17:42 – Losing 5 BTC, falling for Lightning & building LNbits with Ben Arc
24:41 – Diagon Alley: the failed marketplace idea that became Nostr
28:00 – What Nostr actually is: relays, keys, and how the protocol really works
41:44 – Lightning Zaps, the tipping economy & why simplicity is non-negotiable
59:57 – Is X actually better now? Bots, algorithms & the monetization trap