S10 E1: Eric Martindale and George Burke on Portal and DeFi on Bitcoin Layer 3

Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

Bitcoin and DeFi certainly don't sound like they belong in the same sentence. But cypherpunk Eric Martindale, accompanied by community builder and Silicon Valley BTC meetup organizer George Burke, are creating Portal: DeFi on Bitcoin layer 3. This episode is sponsored by Vaultoro, Wasabi Wallet, and Bitcoin Reserve. They're some of the finest, most useful, and most principled companies in the space, so you better check them out. Time stamps: 01:39 – The Silicon Valley Bitcoin meet-up (which George Burke currently organizes) 02:58 – DeFi on Bitcoin’s layer 2 06:05 – What does Bitcoin maximalism actually mean? 10:22 – Why are layers necessary in Bitcoin development and why was Portal built on Lightning as opposed to Liquid? 14:20 – What is a layer 3 and why is Portal one? 21:32 – How Portal is using layer 3 and the ability to post orders 40:25 – Bitcoin privacy really matters 50:25 – Being lazy with privacy also makes governments lazy with their CBDCs 1:04:16 – Why it’s hard to find Bitcoin Core developers 01:07:30 – Eric Martindale’s “Privacy First” principle 01:11:30 – Why buying a pre-built node reintroduces trust in a trust-minimized system 1:15:45 – RISC V boards for Bitcoin nodes 1:20:53 – Eric Martindale is like a younger David Chaum 1:21:30 – What is the ELI5 explanation for Portal? 1:22:50 – What is Portal’s monetization model?