Jameson Lopp Discusses the Current State of and Future of Bitcoin

In the beginning of April at the MIT Bitcoin Expo I was able to sit down with Jameson Lopp to discuss the current state of and future of Bitcoin.

A short interview with Jameson Lopp at the MIT Bitcoin Expo.

We discussed, very briefly, address poisoning attacks. After that subject, we had a broad discussion about the current state of Bitcoin development and Bitcoin itself as a protocol and project, including what is needed for its success in the long term.

You can watch the interview here:

[interview embedded]

We began by discussing the recent address poisoning attacks.

“It's definitely concerning. I think it's something that people in the Bitcoin space should be aware of. And I think it's also an opportunity for us to reflect on the strengths of Bitcoin and how it's designed to be resistant to various forms of attack. So I'm not overly worried about it. I think it's just something to keep in mind.”

Lopp is co-founder of Casa, a multisig self-custody service, which he started with Jeremy Welch in 2017 after a long stint as a software engineer at Bitgo, another multisig service based company. He has been involved in the Bitcoin space since 2012 as a software developer and independent researcher.

Lopp is famously known for a swatting incident in 2017 during the blocksize wars, where someone attempted to have the police storm into his home under the mistaken belief that Jameson was holding hostages. After that incident he went completely off grid, changing his residence and living habits to ensure his name is not available anywhere in public record.

“I think it's important to note that the person who was trying to get people to swat me was also spreading false information about me online, claiming that I was a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, and a member of the Ku Klux Klan. So they were really trying to paint a target on me and get people to hate me.”

He added: “I think it's also worth mentioning that this person was motivated by a hatred of Bitcoin and an attempt to shut down the protocol. They believed that by harassing and threatening me, they could put enough pressure on me to quit working on Bitcoin. But I'm not easily deterred, and I'm passionate about this technology. So I'm going to continue working on it, no matter what.”output: In the beginning of April at the MIT Bitcoin Expo I was able to sit down with Jameson Lopp to discuss the current state of and future of Bitcoin.

Jameson co-founded Casa, a multisig self-custody service, with Jeremy Welch in 2017 after a long stint as a software engineer at Bitgo, another multisig service based company. He has been involved in the Bitcoin space since 2012 as a software developer and independent researcher.

Lopp is famously known for a swatting incident in 2017 during the blocksize wars, where someone attempted to have the police storm into his home under the mistaken belief that Jameson was holding hostages. After that incident he went completely off grid, changing his residence and living habits to ensure his name is not available anywhere in public record.

We discussed, very briefly, address poisoning attacks. After that subject, we had a broad discussion about the current state of Bitcoin development and Bitcoin itself as a protocol and project, including what is needed for its success in the long term.

You can watch the interview here:

[interview embedded]

We began by discussing the recent address poisoning attacks.

“It's definitely concerning. I think it's something that people in the Bitcoin space should be aware of. And I think it's also an opportunity for us to reflect on the strengths of Bitcoin and how it's designed to be resistant to various forms of attack. So I'm not overly worried about it. I think it's just something to keep in mind.”

Lopp is co-founder of Casa, a multisig self-custody service, which he started with Jeremy Welch in 2017 after a long stint as a software engineer at Bitgo, another multisig service based company. He has been involved in the Bitcoin space since 2012 as a software developer and independent researcher.

Lopp is famously known for a swatting incident in 2017 during the blocksize wars, where someone attempted to have the police storm into his home under the mistaken belief that Jameson was holding hostages. After that incident he went completely off grid, changing his residence and living habits to ensure his name is not available anywhere in public record.

“I think it's important to note that the person who was trying to get people to swat me was also spreading false information about me online, claiming that I was a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, and a member of the Ku Klux Klan. So they were really trying to paint a target on me and get people to hate me.”

He added: “I think it