Bitcoin Core is in the spotlight again — and not in a good way. In this roundtable, Jeff Swann, Simple Steve, Bitcoin Mechanic, and I dig into the growing divide over mempool policies, the latest controversial pull request, and what it means for node sovereignty. Why is Core removing user configurability? Are we witnessing a philosophical shift away from Bitcoin's foundations? And more importantly — who's really in control of your node? This conversation is raw, fiery, and filled with high-level critique, speculation, and serious concerns about Bitcoin's future. If you’ve been hearing about “spam,” “filters,” and “dickbutts” on Bitcoin Twitter and want to know what the hell it’s all about — this is the episode.

Guest Links

• Steve Simple Nostr (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3s6a8yn8)
• Steve Simple on X (Link: https://x.com/stevesimple)
• Bitcoin Mechanic Nostr (Link: https://tinyurl.com/2tm827ut)
• Bitcoin Mechanic on X (Link: https://x.com/GrassFedBitcoin)
• Jeff Swann Nostr (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3sjc3bcp)
• Jeff Swann on X (Link: https://x.com/agoristview)

Host Links

• ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
• ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
• Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
• ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
• The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
  
  

Check out our awesome sponsors!

• HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

• OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is an international human rights conference series hosted and produced by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Bringing together the world’s most engaging human rights advocates, journalists, artists, tech entrepreneurs, and world leaders, we aim to share their stories and brainstorm ways to expand freedom and unleash human potential across the globe. Don't miss this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum in May. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/event/oslo-freedom-forum-2025/)

Trying to BUY BITCOIN?

• River: Secure, trusted, bitcoin only, lightning enabled, simple. (Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/river)

Bitcoin Games!

• Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from

What if the true barrier to a world of seamless micropayments isn’t technological, but psychological? In this episode of Bitcoin Audible, we revisit Nick Szabo’s classic essay, “The Mental Accounting Barrier to Micropayments,” exploring why even with lightning-fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions, the smallest payments might never take off as expected. Can new monetization models, AI agents, and value-for-value systems overcome the hidden costs in our minds-or will human cognition always set the lower bound on how small a transaction can be? Dive in as we unpack the unseen limits shaping the future of digital payments and online commerce.

Check out the original article: The Mental Accounting Barrier to Micropayments by Nick Szabo (Link: https://tinyurl.com/8r5cewhc)

Mentioned Links & Resources

• Read_526 - Check Your Financial Privilege [Alex Gladstein] (Link: https://tinyurl.com/y7697t68)
• Ai Read_008 - From AGI to Superintelligence (Leopold Ashen Brenner) (Link: https://tinyurl.com/47fy87ax)
• Micropayments and Mental Transaction Costs by Nick Szabo (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3daf6unm)

Host Links

• ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
• ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
• Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
• ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
• The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
  
  

Check out our awesome sponsors!

• HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

• OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is an international human rights conference series hosted and produced by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Bringing together the world’s most engaging human rights advocates, journalists, artists, tech entrepreneurs, and world leaders, we aim to share their stories and brainstorm ways to expand freedom and unleash human potential across the globe. Don't miss this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum in May. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/event/oslo-freedom-forum-2025/)

Trying to BUY BITCOIN?

• River: Secure, trusted, bitcoin only, lightning enabled, simple. (Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/river)

Bitcoin Games!

• Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of...

"For me, the most important war, the thing that we are fighting for in the world today more than anything else for me is the spirit of the West. The spirit of the West has been under attack by globalists, by fucking adversaries, the trader parasite money changer class. That class, whoever the fuck that is, has been looking to destroy the productive spirit and soul of the West in any way that it can. Weaponizing everything from Chinese to fucking Indians to central banks to everything. And if that war can be fought without dropping fucking bombs and fought in a non-kinetic manner through economic means, that is the win of fucking wins in the history of humanity."

~ Aleks Svetski

What happens when you put an Austrian-leaning Bitcoiner and a self-described mercantilist in the same room to debate the future of America’s economic policy?

In this special re-release from the Liberty Lockdown Podcast, hosted by Clint Russell, I join Alex Svetski for a spirited roundtable on tariffs, the US-China dynamic, and the existential questions facing the West.

Are tariffs a necessary evil to restore American industry, or just another tax that will hollow out the middle class? Can a nation preserve its culture and sovereignty without sacrificing economic freedom? And is Trump’s chaos a sign of strategic genius or just more turbulence for a world already on edge?

We dig into the real-world consequences of policy, the role of great men in history, and whether Bitcoin is the answer—or just a hope for the next generation. Special thanks to Clint Russell and Liberty Lockdown for hosting this debate and letting me share it with you here.

Link to original episode on Liberty Lockdown: DEBATE: The US vs China/Guy Swann vs Alex Svetski (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmELRv_Y8H8)

Bitcoin Audible & Guy Swann Links

• ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
• ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://x.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
• Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
• Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
• ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://x.com/BitcoinAudible)
• The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
  
  

Check out our awesome sponsors!

• HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

• OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is an international human rights conference series hosted and produced by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Bringing together the world’s most engaging human rights advocates, journalists, artists, tech entrepreneurs, and world leaders, we aim to share their stories and brainstorm ways to expand freedom and unleash human potential across the globe. Don't miss this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum in May. (Link: ...