CoinGeek Weekly Livestream Special: WeAreDevelopers World Congress Day 1 recap

In last week’s CoinGeek Weekly Livestream, CoinGeek’s Chief Bitcoin Historian Kurt Wuckert Jr. streamed live from the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in Berlin, where he spoke about his experiences on day one of the conference and interviewed Darren Kellenschwiler from Elas Digital.

Surprise about Bitcoin’s technical capabilities

Wuckert opens by noting that he’s encountered a lot of interest in developing on the blockchain. However, when he asks these same people if they’re interested in learning, developing, and running infrastructure, he gets a much less enthusiastic response. 

He’s been busy explaining that with proof of work networks like Bitcoin, they don’t need to worry about that stuff; they can leave it to those whose business it is to run things under the hood, such as TAAL (CSE:TAAL | FWB:9SQ1 | OTC: TAALF) and GorillaPool, and focus on running their businesses. While explaining this, Wuckert also pointed out that, by contrast, proof of stake systems force you to participate in consensus, and he’s seen a few pennies drop as people realize this key difference for the first time.

An interview with Darren Kellenschwiler from Elas Digital

At the conference, Kellenschwiler gave a presentation on the three ways Bitcoin is Turing complete. He tells Wuckert that he was inspired by Ryan X. Charles’ previous presentations on this. After going down the research rabbit hole, he came to several realizations about Bitcoin’s true capabilities that he’s now trying to explain to others.

One of the key reasons Bitcoin SV hasn’t attracted more developers yet is because Bitcoin Script is difficult for most people. However, Kellenschwiler says that with the advent of sCrypt, things are much simpler, and he believes this will lead to an influx of new developers once they figure it out.

Wuckert points out that he’s seen many surprised looks when people realize that Bitcoin can be used as part of a tech stack, noting that most have been misinformed and believe it’s some sort of investment. He then asks what Kellenschwiler would disrupt first if he was thinking like a business. He replies that anything that requires immutability should be at the forefront of the minds of businesses when they consider how blockchain technology might be of use to them. 

Wuckert offers logins as an example of one area that’s ready for disruption. Indeed, we’ve already seen one-click logins to applications like Haste Arcade using wallets like Handcash.

Wrapping up, Wuckert asks Kellenschwiler what he’s working on now. He replies that he’s developing tools for BSV developers, but he’s also working on NFTs and token systems.

Key takeaways

From this livestream, it’s clear that most people attending the conference are unaware of Bitcoin’s true capabilities as a technology. It’s also apparent that most developers aren’t interested in the hassle of running their own nodes and infrastructure and that this is best left to specialists like GorillaPool or Taal. Exciting times are ahead as more people realize what Bitcoin is capable of.

Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Build on Blockchain: Common Challenges & Tools to Make it Easier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSCrXf1Ywc&t=17675s