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The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo (#244)

identity-protecting silhouette of Nick Szabo before a window, backlit

“Trusted third parties are security holes.”

– Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo (@NickSzabo4) is a polymath. The breadth and depth of his interests and knowledge are truly astounding.

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He’s a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer best known for his pioneering research in digital contracts and cryptocurrency.

The phrase and concept of “smart contracts” were developed by Nick with the goal of bringing what he calls the “highly evolved” practices of contract law and practice for the design of electronic commerce protocols between strangers on the Internet. Nick also designed Bit Gold, which many consider the precursor to Bitcoin.

This wide-ranging conversation is co-hosted by Naval Ravikant, a mutual friend and one of the most successful investors in Silicon Valley, who also happens to be one of Nick’s biggest admirers.

We cover a lot, including:

Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

#244: The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency -- Nick Szabo

Want to hear another podcast featuring Naval Ravikant?  — Listen to this prior conversation. In this episode, we discuss the habits and behaviors of highly successful and happy people (stream below or right-click here to download):

#97: The Evolutionary Angel, Naval Ravikant

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Unenumerated | Twitter

AngelList | Startup Boy Blog | Twitter

Show Notes

People Mentioned

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