S17 E13: Charlie Spears on Blockspace, Bitcoin Culture & OP_NEXT
From Bitcoin Takeover Podcast by Vlad Costea
March 17, 2026 · 2h 4m · Season 17 · Episode 13
About this episode
Charlie Spears discusses the intersection of AI and Bitcoin culture, along with insights on Blockspace media and the OP_NEXT event.
Charlie Spears is a co-founder of Blockspace media, an organization which specializes in publishing articles and podcasts about Bitcoin mining and scaling. In this episode, we talk about the rise of AI, Bitcoin culture, and the upcoming OP_NEXT event. Time stamps: 00:01:07 – Introduction & Spook Joke 00:05:04 – Blockspace Media Origins 00:08:34 – Technical Glitches 00:11:27 – The Gwart Show 00:13:50 – Bitcoin Media Landscape 00:17:25 – Blockworks vs. Blockspace 00:19:22 – AI’s Impact on Media 00:21:07 – AI Workflow & Security 00:22:30 – Voice Cloning Risks 00:24:41 – AI Content & Authenticity 00:27:45 – AI & Bitcoin Mining 00:30:20 – AI Replacing Creative Work 00:33:02 – Charlie's Music Career & Podcasting 00:36:03 – Cake Wallet Giveaway 00:40:13 – Bitcoin Privacy & Zcash 00:41:18 – Bitcoin Culture Critique 00:47:54 – Altcoins & EVM on Bitcoin 00:51:44 – Lightning Network UX 00:58:20 – Custodial vs. Non-Custodial Lightning 01:01:31 – Scaling Bitcoin & Sponsors 01:06:12 – Giveaway Winner 01:08:22 – AI’s Impact on Mining 01:12:49 – Blockspace Value & Fees 01:19:27 – Bitcoin Development & Conferences 01:27:24 – Covenants & Soft Forks 01:29:13 – Toxicity & Freedom Tech 01:40:58 –…
People in this episode
Host: Vlad Costea
Guest: Charlie Spears
Topics covered
- Bitcoin culture
- AI impact
- Bitcoin mining
- Blockspace media
- Bitcoin development
- Transaction fees
Keywords
- Bitcoin
- AI
- Blockspace
- mining
- media
- OP_NEXT
- Zcash
- transaction fees
- development
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Blockspace, Blockspace media, Blockworks, Zcash
Books & works: The Gwart Show, Cake Wallet
More episodes of Bitcoin Takeover Podcast
- S17 E27: Kieran Mesquka on Railgun & Building Privacy · June 1, 2026 · 1h 43m
- S17 E26: Steve Thurmond, Calin Culianu & The Phenomenal Big Blockers · May 27, 2026 · 8h 15m
- S17 E25: Milan De Reede on Nano GPT, AI & Vibe Coding · May 19, 2026 · 1h 24m
- S17 E24: Zach Herbert on AI & Hardware Wallets · May 15, 2026 · 2h 36m
- S17 E23: Hunter Beast & Mark Karpelès on Bitcoin's Quantum Upgrade · May 10, 2026 · 1h 4m
- S17 E22: Jeremy Rubin on CTV, Char & Building on Bitcoin · May 6, 2026 · 1h 23m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast podcast page.