I have to say, this was one of the more depressing videos regarding bitcoin I've watched in awhile.
I am a long time listener of @ODELL and I have learned a lot about actual Bitcoin privacy and privacy tools from listening to him over the years. So I'd like to first thank him for that. I also am not trying to pile on the opensats drama from the other day. This is more just me screaming into the void and giving some criticism (hopefully helpful criticism) from someone who appreciates the content/discussion on Bitcoin privacy that Matt has put out in the past and wishes it would have stayed as high signal as it use to be.
Before I get into my rant, I think the lady interviewing asked great questions. Also, maybe Matt felt like he was speaking to a listener base in this specific interview that doesn't care about the nitty gritty details or maybe he didn't feel like he had enough time to really get into it because the interview was only ~40 minutes.
However, the answers regarding how to have decent privacy while using bitcoin were not good, in my opinion. I say this because I know that Matt knows how to use Bitcoin privately. The mere suggestion of using Strike and Phoenix to use Bitcoin relatively privately is disingenuous. Using a KYC exchange then hopping to an LSP that sees all your transactions. Both of those requires trusting those entities (to his credit, he does mention that). He also mentions briefly that the only way to have privacy is self custody, which I do appreciate him mentioning despite not going further into it.
For some reason it feels like there is no longer an attempt to shil/plug/explain truly private Bitcoin/lightning usage. No mention of tools to ACTUALLY use lightning or bitcoin privately. It seems to me that he just automatically assumes that people don't care about privacy enough or it's too difficult/complex so it is not worth explaining it. It is difficult/complex to use Bitcoin and lightning privately but it doesn't mean people out there don't still need to hear how it is done.
Starting from 0, Bitcoin privacy starts with not using a KYC exchange but that is no longer mentioned because trusting Strike with your privacy is now "good enough for most people". It makes me cringe every time that I hear Matt shill Strike because all I can think about is the hundreds of times I have heard him talk about the dangers of KYC and not to use KYC exchanges. This has changed since 2022 ish and it is sad because of how much I personally learned about Bitcoin privacy from listening to him.
I say all this to say:
- I think that more people care about privacy and using Bitcoin privately than Matt thinks. (maybe I'm naive)
- Even if more people don't care about privacy and Bitcoin privacy than Matt thinks, the people who listen to him today will not have a good starting off point or foundational understanding of how to do it because it seems he immediately assumes that most people don't care about actual privacy. That is not true of his listeners from the past who learned a ton about Bitcoin privacy from many of his older podcasts and podcast guests.
- To that point, I would encourage Matt to use his very large platform and influence to continue to talk about tools that are actually private and how to actually use Bitcoin privately instead of assuming it is "good enough" for people to just use a KYC exchange and then an LSP. People don't learn and grow when they hear the most well known Bitcoin privacy influencer tell them that KYC exchange + Phoenix is good enough for them. They just stop there because they assume they are using Bitcoin privately.
Again, I'm not attacking Matt. I'm trying to offer a perspective from somebody who really learned a lot about real Bitcoin privacy from his podcasts in the past and I feel like the new people listening to him now are not getting that, which saddens me.
https://youtu.be/OMCGBf9mQSo
I am a long time listener of @ODELL and I have learned a lot about actual Bitcoin privacy and privacy tools from listening to him over the years. So I'd like to first thank him for that. I also am not trying to pile on the opensats drama from the other day. This is more just me screaming into the void and giving some criticism (hopefully helpful criticism) from someone who appreciates the content/discussion on Bitcoin privacy that Matt has put out in the past and wishes it would have stayed as high signal as it use to be.
Before I get into my rant, I think the lady interviewing asked great questions. Also, maybe Matt felt like he was speaking to a listener base in this specific interview that doesn't care about the nitty gritty details or maybe he didn't feel like he had enough time to really get into it because the interview was only ~40 minutes.
However, the answers regarding how to have decent privacy while using bitcoin were not good, in my opinion. I say this because I know that Matt knows how to use Bitcoin privately. The mere suggestion of using Strike and Phoenix to use Bitcoin relatively privately is disingenuous. Using a KYC exchange then hopping to an LSP that sees all your transactions. Both of those requires trusting those entities (to his credit, he does mention that). He also mentions briefly that the only way to have privacy is self custody, which I do appreciate him mentioning despite not going further into it.
For some reason it feels like there is no longer an attempt to shil/plug/explain truly private Bitcoin/lightning usage. No mention of tools to ACTUALLY use lightning or bitcoin privately. It seems to me that he just automatically assumes that people don't care about privacy enough or it's too difficult/complex so it is not worth explaining it. It is difficult/complex to use Bitcoin and lightning privately but it doesn't mean people out there don't still need to hear how it is done.
Starting from 0, Bitcoin privacy starts with not using a KYC exchange but that is no longer mentioned because trusting Strike with your privacy is now "good enough for most people". It makes me cringe every time that I hear Matt shill Strike because all I can think about is the hundreds of times I have heard him talk about the dangers of KYC and not to use KYC exchanges. This has changed since 2022 ish and it is sad because of how much I personally learned about Bitcoin privacy from listening to him.
I say all this to say:
- I think that more people care about privacy and using Bitcoin privately than Matt thinks. (maybe I'm naive)
- Even if more people don't care about privacy and Bitcoin privacy than Matt thinks, the people who listen to him today will not have a good starting off point or foundational understanding of how to do it because it seems he immediately assumes that most people don't care about actual privacy. That is not true of his listeners from the past who learned a ton about Bitcoin privacy from many of his older podcasts and podcast guests.
- To that point, I would encourage Matt to use his very large platform and influence to continue to talk about tools that are actually private and how to actually use Bitcoin privately instead of assuming it is "good enough" for people to just use a KYC exchange and then an LSP. People don't learn and grow when they hear the most well known Bitcoin privacy influencer tell them that KYC exchange + Phoenix is good enough for them. They just stop there because they assume they are using Bitcoin privately.
Again, I'm not attacking Matt. I'm trying to offer a perspective from somebody who really learned a lot about real Bitcoin privacy from his podcasts in the past and I feel like the new people listening to him now are not getting that, which saddens me.
https://youtu.be/OMCGBf9mQSo
116❤️8❤️2👍1💜1💯1🫂1
