Sup guys, glad to be here and happy to answer any Q's about Bitcoin, teaching, fav wallets/tools, nodes, lightning... or even killer hair tips. LFG.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 26 Apr 2022
What's something you believe about Bitcoin's future that hardly anyone, including other Bitcoiners, agree with you on?
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
I think in the future renewable mining can become viable as the technology improves. I don't think it's there YET, but I don't buy the narrative that it never will be.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies 26 Apr 2022
Does the Bitcoin tips link under your videos change the way you approach youtube?
Shouldn't Youtube be a place where Bitcoin penetrates like a hot knife through warm butter? What does it take to get loads of mainstream Youtubers onboard of having Bitcoin donation addresses?
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124 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Tips are definitely sneaking up on traditional youtube revenue. Right now I'd say in a GOOD month, my BTC tips are about as much as 10-20% of my regular YT pay (not including sponsors). That's actually pretty impressive now that I think about it - although YT ad revenue is dismal.
Honestly it's just a waiting game at this point. People will use it, they will see it removes gatekeepers, and they will love that. We haven't hit critical mass yet, but companies like Zebedee and Thunder games focusing on niche markets is probably a big piece of that puzzle.
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Alright fam, thanks so much for the chat! Had an absolute blast and I'll see you guys in the interwebs. Join me Friday for WAWB at 6pm ET and hit up the live chat :)
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 26 Apr 2022
If you were elected president of the Council of Bens, which Ben would you make your VP?
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Oooh damn that's a good one. First off, all Bens are equal in ranking but have their own unique skills. For a VP I might go with Ben Gagnon from Bitfarms. Not everyone will be familiar, but he's a hell of a guy and one of the sleeper Bens on his way to greatness.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies 26 Apr 2022
How do you envision the utopian hyperbitcoinized world?
Who owns nodes? Who uses what wallets? Who earns money from running nodes - everyone, only nerds, communities, corporations? Are we teaching about money in school (or is it abstract numbers on a phone screen like it is with with fiat for most people today)?
Let's hear your thoughts!
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41 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
I think the most important thing here would be choice and accessibility. My hope would be nodes normalized as part of your home network infrastructure - one in every router. The default would be self custody because exchanges are obsolete... you simply earn and live on Bitcoin. Custody is only ever needed if you require collateral for a loan - and even then it would be multisig with an impartial 3rd party for disputes. Education would put a focus on the fiat mistakes of the past and virtues of low time preference to build for yourself, your children, and generations to come.
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Eminem 26 Apr 2022
Do you know how to code, and if not have you ever thought of learning?
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122 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
I do not, unfortunately. I even feel like an idiot navigating command line most of the time. I've dabbled with some very basic stuff in apps, but it's been quite a while. TBH it's tough balancing trying out every new thing, making videos, keeping healthy, and having a family, lol. I'd LOVE to learn to code, but I need to learn how to make days last 34 hours instead of 24.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Eminem 26 Apr 2022
I feel you. If you were to start though I would suggest Python would be the easiest and most useful language to learn.
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11 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheBTCManual 26 Apr 2022
Do you think having other assets on Bitcoin like stablecoins (on LN and Liquid) will be a postive for adoption and user experience or will it add even more confusion for the average person looking to get into bitcoin
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
It may add some confusion... BUT it will be less confusing that tens of thousands of other coins out there all claiming you need a new blockchain & token to execute certain functions.
In general, bad ideas are bad ideas regardless of which platform they reside on. If there is a use case for any of these things, they will survive. I personally don't have a need for much of this stuff at the current time. Perhaps simple things like vouchers to redeem for products, event tickets, etc may have a place... but i dunno if it offers a markedly better experience outside of the status quo. The main benefit might be secondary markets without gatekeepers, but you still have to verify a token is actually linked to the real world thing it claims to represent.
This is a long rambling way of saying... I guess we'll see! I'll experiment as things come out
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @spraveenitpro 26 Apr 2022
Hey Ben,
Love your work from Vancouver, the housing in Canada is mess which you know,
Can you do videos/interviews of bitcoin mortgage startups like ledn which are canada based.
More review stuff on Bitcoin based products in Canada? Thanks just a request.
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @zuspotirko 26 Apr 2022
What do you think should be the future of coinjoin/mixing?
Every wallet doing it per default? Having an "incognito" mode like in browsers? Or an exotic unnecessary technology because everyone uses lightning anyways?
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26 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
The default privacy assurances of lightning are pretty decent so that's helpful, but I think there will be a need for on-chain privacy for quite some time, even for the average user. I like to see wallets adding payjoin fake coinjoins and collaborative transactions. I also like how Sparrow wallet has a toggle switch that either optimizes for efficiency or privacy, then automates the rest.
Automation is the key here though. If the default is shitty privacy, that's just what people will do.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 26 Apr 2022
So ... centrally organized mixing?
and coinjoin?
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @ncryppt 26 Apr 2022
Hi Ben! As a fellow Canadian, who would you put amongst the most important / influential Canadian bitcoiners through out the years?
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
So many great ones! John Vallis, Jeff Booth, Greg Foss, Francis Pouliot, NVK... just to name a few.
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @Ge 26 Apr 2022
Sure favorite hot wallets?/ coinjoin protocol? / sparrow or samurai if you had to choose (I'll probably just get both but what the heck ) hmmm favorite btc book and favorite none btc book...also what book do you think helped you the most as far as you stepped into the position your in now?
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52 sats \ 2 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Hot Wallet - Muun because I can do on-chain/LN in one balance. Blue is a close second
Coinjoin - I use Sparrow with whirlpool because I prefer desktop
BTC Book - The 7th Property by Eric Yakes
Non BTC Book - How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Resources that helped me most tended to be pods/videos TBH because I'm a visual learner. Also conversations with other Bitcoiners whenever I had little questions. Books... Inventing Bitcoin my Yan Pritzker was awesome
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11 sats \ 1 reply \ @arrowdrive 27 Apr 2022
Hey Ben, big fan of the show.
I just want to point out that I’m not a fan of Muun wallet for a couple reasons.
- It’s not really a lightning wallet, all funds are on-chain and it just interacts with the LN via submarine swaps. This gets expensive and isn’t sustainable.
- Because the submarine swaps are expensive they extort fees from people who send funds to users running Muun wallets. Every payment to a Muun wallet routes through their node magnetron which charges insane fees of 1500 ppm or more. This also makes it incompatible for receiving funds from some services like RoboSats who refuse to send payments at a loss.
- Since it’s not an LN wallet, it doesn’t have a node public key and as such can’t use LNURL-auth to log into websites like SN.
- It sucks for on-chain too since it lacks even basic coin control and uses nonstandard backup methods. You also can’t connect it through your own node. Bad for privacy.
I think it’s much better to use separate wallets for LN and on-chain, and hopefully on-chain will be used less and less for mobile on the go transactions as LN grows. BlueWallet is my go to mobile wallet for on-chain because it provides all the basic features I consider necessary.
As for LN wallets, my favorite one right now is Blixt Wallet. It runs a full LND node on your phone and allows you to open channels to any other node in the network, which is great for censorship resistance, redundancy and privacy. It’s also easy to get inbound liquidity if needed with the Dunder LSP which will automatically open an inbound channel toward you if it detects you don’t have enough inbound liquidity to receive an invoice.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 8 Jan 2023
I wish I could bookmark/link to share this comment. 👍
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 26 Apr 2022
In what ways do you think Bitcoin education can be improved?
What steps would you like to see the Bitcoin community take to get there?
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111 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
We need to take our own advice and view education through the lens of low time preference. We want everyone to do a million things out the gate without compromise, but that's not how learning works. Sometimes you're gonna have to get someone to buy KYC sats and use a custodial lightning wallet or a piece of hardware that isn't Coldcard in order to EVENTUALLY lead them down the path of a self-sovereign bitcoiner. You'll never get there if your student turns around after the first couple steps of their journey.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @the_bitcoin_bum 26 Apr 2022
You, the rest of the Bens, an upgraded hairstyle for all of them but you, and then we record you teaching them to dance.
Can we make this happen?
Pleb Lab would help to sponsor this. The world deserves this.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
HAHAHA omg I would do this. I'll teach them all a popping combo, followed by a bit of locking and some beginner floor work. Let's do it.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xtr 26 Apr 2022
- Favorite Bitcoin conference moment/talk
- Which node software are you running? If you have multiple nodes, what is your favorite node software (LND,CLN,Umbrel etc).
- Favorite book of all time
- What are you most bullish on for the future of Bitcoin?
- What wallet do you recommend to people when introducing them to lightning?
Thanks for all your great content Ben, love the tutorial videos!
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
- Home mining (because I'm starting down that rabbit hole)
- Currently run Umbrel as my primary but have a Ronin Dojo brrrring away now too.
- Honestly this is gonna sound stupid but... Jurassic Park (sometimes my brain needs a break)
- I'm bullish on privacy making as many advancements in the next 5 years as scaling has made in the past 5
- I default to Muun Wallet now
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @uco 26 Apr 2022
What are your thoughts on using fingerprints as a way to authenticate a hardware wallet? Similar to the hardware wallet Block is building.
Do you see any other features needed to improve hardware wallets in order to onboard the next billion people?
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
It depends on what that hardware is protecting. Perhaps for an on the go additional layer of protection that's pretty good. For long term savings, I'm less sold. That said, I'll be testing out the Block device as soon as it drops and letting everyone know my thoughts then!
UI for hardware could be a little more user friendly. If we could get the hardware UI to be as simple out of the box as blue wallet, but with as many features just under the hood, that would be pretty solid. Bitcoiners tend to put WAY too much info front and center rather than keeping it simple.
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @bitcoinpleb_b 26 Apr 2022
Hi Ben! So many questions!
Mainly about living on bitcoin in Canada and how you are currently doing it.
What apps/services etc do you use currently to live on bitcoin in Canada? Is it any different from your video you did on this?
Do you have to include all Lightning transactions? That would be insane.
Can you tell my the accountant you use?
I want to live on bitcoin and I am trying to figure out how to best do that and and I am having a hell of a time trying to do my taxes right now and will definitely need an bitcoin aware accountant next year I think.
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184 sats \ 2 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
So I earn BTC directly from show sponsors (though I do earn some dollars as well in a small amount of cases where BTC is not yet possible). My flow is basically:
- Receive BTC
- Instantly pay any necessary bills via Bull Bitcoin
- Instantly buy gift cards for essentials based on my typical expenditures
- The rest stays as savings
- If a surprise expense pops up later, you have to be conscious of capital gains/loss
My invoices go straight to sparrow and addresses are labeled by who paid. Coinjoin immediately. Pay bills from there. The rest goes to multisig savings.
Accounting is awful and I just dump that shit on my person at the end of the year. They hate me, and I hate the bill I get afterwards. I do this because I hate the fiat system even more.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoinpleb_b 29 Apr 2022
Do you just not include/consider the transactions made moments after you get paid for taxes? Since there is little to no price movement and thus no capital gains in that short amount of time.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoinpleb_b 26 Apr 2022
Thanks man! 👊🏻
Been dying to know how you do it!
Can you share your accountants name or firm? Or do you prefer not to do that publicly? Totally fine. Are they bitcoin focused/aware obviously? Just looking for a good bitcoin aware accountant.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @aiouy 26 Apr 2022 freebie
hey ben, you’ve reviewed many wallets and products for self custody. In your opinion, why isn’t the mainstream consumer custodying their own btc, what’s the hold up?
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @ayelen 26 Apr 2022 freebie
Hi Ben, do you have advice for becoming a bitcoin content creator and succeeding at it?
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
- Quality over quantity.
- Consistency (scheduling-wise) is key
- Cross pollinate between yourself and other creators for greater reach
- The market is saturated now, so find a niche BTC realm that you can excel in
- Unique ideas will get more eyeballs - latest example I like is Citadel Hunter on YT
- For income, sponsors are currently what pays the bills, but to maintain integrity it's typically me reaching out to companies I already like to ask them to sponsor. Anyone who asks me typically ends up being shitcoin-y or scammy, so those are hard nos. Value for value models (streaming sats) are great and I hope they grow, but it's not big enough yet to replace the former.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 26 Apr 2022
What are the main lessons you brought from teaching dance to teaching Bitcoin?
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1022 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Teaching was a HUGE help to what I do now. When you're dealing with really young kids you have to extract and focus on a central concept or movement (maybe two) to really drive home an idea they can absorb. It taught me to literally ELI5 to everyone learning Bitcoin... because many of us forget that you have to start somewhere and you should never assume someone has that foundational knowledge yet.
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71 sats \ 2 replies \ @Amy 26 Apr 2022 freebie
Hi Ben, as you are a big fan of lightning do you support lightning addresses to receive value 4 value payments? Because everyone could send you bitcoin on Twitter and YouTube with the Alby browser extension (getalby.com) with just a lightning address in your bios
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51 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCsessions OP 26 Apr 2022
Love lightning addresses. I've experimented with Zebedee and Wallet of Satoshi on this. Alby is a new one for me, and I've now jotted it in my list of things to try!
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @0215d7b61b 26 Apr 2022 freebie
You can keep using these Lightning Addresses or use getalby.com/lightning-address with our own node. The Alby extension would detect any Lightning Address in your bio on Twitter or YouTube for sending sats.
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoingraffiti 26 Apr 2022
Best mythological story ever?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @02e6ff7f5a 27 Apr 2022 freebie
Used to watch a lot but then you started to shill Muun wallet and Wasabi. Pushing those two shows a severe lack of judgement.
Honestly, haven’t watched since and started recommending others to watch with caution and seek other sources.
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ayelen 26 Apr 2022 freebie
Hi Ben, do you have advice for becoming a bitcoin content creator and succeeding at it?
0 sats \ 7 replies \ @Eminem 26 Apr 2022 freebie
What did you do before the stuff you do right now?
0 sats \ 1 reply \ @JephMukiza 26 Apr 2022 freebie
Hi Ben, thoughts on BIP-119