The Bitcoin Game #75: 2014 Interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke

The Bitcoin Game

Welcome to episode 75 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. I'm Rob Mitchell.

I started podcasting in late 2014, and one of the greatest things to happen in those early episodes was landing an exclusive longform interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke, the 2014 Bitcoin Hero. Badass white hat Bitcoin hacker Johoe (at least that's what I call him) rescued insecure Bitcoin UTXOs from Blockchain.info wallets before they could be taken by less-scrupulous hackers. This was after his contributions to understanding the RNG issues with Android Bitcoin wallets in 2013. He also rescued insecure Bitcoin from one other platform, which he admits for the first time in this interview. Some months after this interview, Johoe responsibly published a side-channel attack on a TREZOR, which eventually led to Satoshi Labs hiring him as a TREZOR Cryptographer. Johoe's Bitcoin mempool stats site is yet another contribution he's made to the space.

This is the only audio (or video) interview with Johoe that I'm aware of, and it's worth a listen if you didn't catch it the first time. It's even educational, as Johoe explains concepts like how Bitcoin signatures work and what specifically went wrong with various wallets, in a way that's accessible for non-technical people like myself.

Hope you enjoy my first "rebroadcast" to celebrate 75!

EPISODE LINKS

Johoe first addresses repeating R value issue due to 2013 Android RNG bug https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=251743.msg2890179#msg2890179

Counterparty Bug first addressed by Johoe on BitcoinTalk.org https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg6354731#msg6354731

Johoe discovers the recently compromised Blockchain.info addresses https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9774894#msg9774894

Blockchain.info Wallet https://blockchain.info/wallet

Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com

Counterparty Wallet https://counterwallet.io

Johoe demonstrates TREZOR side channel attack (April 2015) https://jochen-hoenicke.de/crypto/trezor-power-analysis

Satoshi Labs announces hiring Johoe as TREZOR Cryptographer https://blog.trezor.io/ethical-hacker-and-bitcoin-hero-johoe-joins-satoshilabs-as-trezor-cryptographer-36c9a6b10d52

Johoe's Bitcoin Mempool Statistics site https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,all

THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY ETORO

Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app.

Join now at b.tc/etorogame.

While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain.

As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Infowars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company

Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com

CREDITS

All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn.

The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos.

Lightning Network tips: https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame

Bitcoin tipping address: 3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g

Note: We migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) to Libsyn; SoundCloud is just a legacy feed.