The Coin Bureau Podcast: Crypto Without the Hype

We’re getting to the end of our exploration of blockchain technology, which means we’re almost ready to start talking about cryptocurrency.In this final blockchain-focused episode, we clarify a few definitions and look at what exactly is going on under the hood when a bitcoin transaction is made. Although blockchain can get pretty complicated, we know that a basic understanding of it will stand you in good stead when we start to talk about crypto in earnest.Further reading for those who like to curl up with a good book:The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (2018), by Michael J. Casey and Paul VignaThe Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains (2018), by Anthony LewisBubble or Revolution? (2021), by Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe and Parth DetrojaBlockchain Revolution (2016), by Don and Alex TapscottWe hope you enjoy the show.Producer for iHeart Media: Noel BrownEditor: Sam Moult Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we started talking in earnest about blockchain: the technology that makes cryptocurrency possible. We avoided getting too deep into the weeds, as it’s easy to get swamped by technical jargon if you’re not careful.This time, we’re wading out a little deeper and talking more about how blockchain works. We’ll explore some of the processes that take place when we use a blockchain and explore how they’re able to function. Naturally, things get a bit more technical from here, but never fear - we’ll explain everything as we go along. We’ll look at hash functions, Merkle trees, nodes, miners and much more besides. And, if that all sounds a bit too technical we’ll also be exploring how one man ended up spending 10,000 bitcoins on pizza.Some further reading if you fancy it:The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (2018), by Michael J. Casey and Paul VignaThe Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains (2018), by Anthony LewisBubble or Revolution? (2021), by Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe and Parth DetrojaBlockchain Revolution (2016), by Don and Alex TapscottWe hope you enjoy the show.Producer for iHeart Media: Noel BrownEditor: Sam Moult Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cryptocurrency couldn’t exist without a technology that many have heard of, but few really understand. Blockchain is something of a buzzword these days and, from the outside, it can look dauntingly complicated. Surely this is something best left to the geeks, right?Well, blockchain is indeed pretty complex, but that doesn’t mean it’s incomprehensible: it just needs some careful explanation. In this episode, we’ll begin to explore the subject of blockchain; what it is and what it’s designed to do. We’ll introduce a few terms that are useful to know in the world of crypto, but we’re going to keep things pretty simple today. The tricky stuff comes later!A working knowledge of blockchain technology is an invaluable aid to understanding cryptocurrency. Once we start to talk about Bitcoin in later episodes, a little blockchain know-how will go a long way.If you want to dig deeper into the wonders of blockchain, then there are a number of well-written and easy-to-understand books available. We found all of those below super-helpful when researching blockchain for this and later episodes.The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (2018), by Michael J. Casey and Paul VignaThe Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains (2018), by Anthony LewisBubble or Revolution? (2021), by Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe and Parth DetrojaBlockchain Revolution (2016), by Don and Alex TapscottWe hope you enjoy the show.Producer for iHeart Media: Noel BrownEditor: Sam Moult Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s time to look at how money moves around in the digital age. It’s a common assumption that, when we make a bank transfer or card payment, the money in our account somehow makes its way from our account to that of the person or entity we’re paying. In fact, it’s a little more complicated than that.Unless we use cash to pay for things, our financial transactions are conducted and overseen by others, be they banks, card issuers, payment networks, governments - and sometimes all of the above. Although these electronic payments are convenient, they come at a price.It’s also easy for us to forget that the banking services we enjoy and that make our lives easier are not available to many other people throughout the world. The numbers of unbanked people out there may surprise you and their exclusion from the financial system costs both them and the world economy dear. We used many sources in the research for this episode, but a special mention must go once again to the book, The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains (2018), by Anthony Lewis. If you want to take a look at the Bank of England’s image we discuss in the episode then you can find it here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/how-do-card-payments-workWe hope you enjoy the show.Producer for iHeart Media: Noel BrownEditor: Sam Moult Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For our very first podcast, we start at the beginning... the very beginning, and discuss a world before money, how money may have developed, and what money actually is anyway. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.