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BITCOIN

Bitcoin Builders Build What The World Needs

Sunday, March 15, 2026 · from 3 podcasts
Presidio Bitcoin JamBTC SessionsBitcoin And | Bitcoin & E…
  • For most of the world, financial freedom is stability first, not Bitcoin price exposure, driving demand for Bitcoin-native stablecoins.
  • The grassroots Bitcoin developer movement is spreading into financial centers like New York, focusing on building seamless utility layers.
  • US regulators are acknowledging legitimate uses for crypto privacy tools, a tactical shift amid growing political resistance to programmable government money.

North Americans miss the point. According to Francis Pouliot, people outside wealthy nations need banking utility and can't withstand volatility. They want dollar-pegged stability.

On Presidio Bitcoin Jam, builders responded to that demand by launching stablecoin projects from Utxo and Ark. Unlike Ethereum models, these aim to settle on Bitcoin without sacrificing censorship resistance. This is a practical bridge for broader adoption.

The developer ethos driving this work is expanding. Spiral hosted its first New York Builder event at PubKey. This pushes native Bitcoin development into a legacy financial nerve center, signaling a grassroots movement maturing beyond its Austin origins.

The Bitcoin And host highlighted the stark contrast between Bitcoin's predictable scarcity and opaque state power. The US Treasury recently published a report acknowledging that crypto mixers can serve legitimate privacy needs for lawful users.

This is a tactical recalibration. It came alongside a push for new digital asset surveillance powers, but the admission marks a shift from the blanket sanctions of 2022. Simultaneously, lawmakers are trying to permanently ban a US central bank digital currency.

The builders are focused on utility layers like stablecoins and privacy tech. The regulators are grudgingly recognizing privacy. The political class is fighting programmable state money. Bitcoin's apolitical, predictable rules operate in the middle of all three.

Francis Pouliot, BTC Sessions:

- This is what North Americans don't understand.

- Outside of North America, people don't have money and they can't withstand volatility.

StablecoinsProtocolPrivacyAdoption

Entities Mentioned

AardvarkProduct
Bull BitcoinCompany
SpiralCompany
TetherCompany

Source Intelligence

What each podcast actually said

Presidio Bitcoin Jam
Presidio Bitcoin Jam

Strategy's STRC Buying Spree, Open-Source AI Blind Spots, Bitcoin Stablecoins from Utexo & Ark • Mar 13

  • Utxo and Ark introduced Bitcoin-native stablecoins that operate on Layer 2 solutions while maintaining settlement finality and censorship resistance on Bitcoin’s base layer.
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins from Utxo and Ark aim to enable dollar-pegged utility without custodial intermediaries, offering a censorship-resistant alternative to Ethereum-style stablecoins.

Also from this episode:

Lightning (1)
  • Spiral’s team hosted the first Builder event in New York at PubKey, signaling the expansion of grassroots Bitcoin development beyond Austin and into major financial centers.
Other (1)
  • The New York Builder event drew 50 attendees, reinforcing the growing momentum of in-person Bitcoin development meetups focused on open building, fast iteration, and stacking sats.
Nostr (1)
  • Steve from Presidio Bitcoin Jam credits Haley with the idea to launch the New York Builder event, noting the team has run monthly events for nine consecutive months in San Francisco.
Models (2)
  • Open-source AI models face centralization risks despite their decentralized appearance, as control over training data, compute resources, and distribution remains concentrated among a few well-funded entities.
  • Centralized bottlenecks in AI—data, compute, and distribution—undermine the promise of open-source decentralization, making true autonomy in AI development difficult to achieve.
Philosophy (1)
  • The ethos of Bitcoin builders—autonomy, transparency, and permissionless innovation—is now influencing adjacent domains like AI and financial infrastructure, challenging centralized defaults.
AdoptionAI & TechStablecoinsOpen Source
BTC Sessions
BTC Sessions

Silent Payments, Pay Join & the Bitcoin Tech Making You Invisible | NVK & Francis Pouliot • Mar 10

  • Francis Pouliot argues that North Americans fundamentally misunderstand global cryptocurrency demand, where people in economies like Argentina lack the financial cushion to withstand Bitcoin's volatility.
  • Pouliot states that real demand outside wealthy nations is for stable banking utility and a stable medium of exchange, not exposure to a speculative, volatile asset.
  • For most of the world, financial freedom currently means access to stablecoins like Tether, not holding Bitcoin, because stability is paramount when people have little money.
  • Pouliot outlines a pragmatic view of Bitcoin's evolution, where its ultimate success would render educational and onboarding services like his company, Bull Bitcoin, obsolete.
  • The ideal end state for Bitcoin is a world without fiat, where the technology is so seamless and integrated into daily life that it disappears into the background, requiring no explanation.
  • For now, the transition gap is filled by stablecoins serving daily utility and companies like Bull Bitcoin facilitating the on-ramp, but the mission is to build a system that doesn't need intermediaries.
AdoptionStablecoinsPayments
Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & Economic News
Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & Economic News

Cypherpunk Day | Bitcoin News • Mar 9

  • Analysts dismissed the mining of the 20 millionth Bitcoin as a non-event for price, with the Bitcoin And host arguing the predictable, transparent scarcity is the system's core feature, not a catalyst.
  • David Ng of Energy Co said the market is entering a new paradigm of a global asset with nearly zero new supply, a view echoed by Raphael Zaguri of Electron Energy who emphasized the unprecedented clarity of Bitcoin's issuance schedule.
  • The Bitcoin And host stated transaction fees are the only true variable in Bitcoin's future, determined by open market forces rather than opaque code.
  • The US Treasury's new 32-page report to Congress marks a tactical shift, admitting crypto mixers can serve legitimate privacy needs for lawful users, a recalibration from its 2022 sanction of Tornado Cash.

Also from this episode:

Regulation (5)
  • Alongside its privacy acknowledgement, the Treasury seeks new legislative tools including a digital asset-specific 'hold law' to let financial institutions freeze suspicious assets and wants to expand Patriot Act surveillance powers to crypto.
  • The Treasury report tries to thread a needle by distinguishing between custodial mixers, which it says must register, and non-custodial ones, recommending no new restrictions on the latter for now.
  • The Bitcoin And host contrasted Bitcoin's clarity with government opacity, stating, 'The whole point is Bitcoin is clear as crystal, but the US treasury is not clear as crystal.'
  • In parallel, 29 US lawmakers are pushing for a permanent legislative ban on a US central bank digital currency, reflecting growing political resistance to programmable government money.
  • The political fight over a CBDC is heating up as Bitcoin's apolitical, predictable monetary rules present a stark alternative to government-controlled, programmable money.
Custody (1)
  • The host asserted that individuals holding their own Bitcoin keys do not fall under any proposed 'hold law' authority sought by the Treasury.
ProtocolPaymentsAdoptionRegulationStablecoins

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