Building A Bitcoin Bank w/ Alexander Leishman

About this episode

Alexander Leishman discusses his vision for building a Bitcoin bank and various aspects of cryptocurrency trading and banking.

Alexander Leishman, CEO and Founder of River, joins us to talk about his vision for building a Bitcoin bank. We dive deep into why Coinbase pursued a local maximum with altcoin trading, the stickiness of traditional banking despite 0.01% yields, and why stablecoins lack product-market fit for Americans. Alex also shares his perspective on the limits of Lightning Network for global commerce, the necessity of proof of reserves after the FTX collapse, and why Bitcoin's terminal state is to become a boring treasury asset.Subscribe to the newsletter! [https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com](https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com)Notes:* River started in 2019 as a Bitcoin bank.* Coinbase charged retail 2% for altcoin trades.* Major banks pay 0.01% interest on savings.* Proof of reserves adopted after FTX collapse.* Zombie nodes have near-zero running costs.Timestamps:00:00 Start00:34 Starting River01:51 Before River02:59 From altcoins to Bitcoin05:15 Save in BTC08:17 Coinbase trajectory10:13 Stablecoins14:10 Yield, and other fun distractions17:45 Lightning24:24 Proof of reserves26:39 Paper BTC28:08 10/10/25 fallout?33:19 Current cycle vibes36:10 Portfolio allocation39:47 Self…

People in this episode

Host: unknown

Guest: Alexander Leishman

Topics covered

• Bitcoin banking
• altcoin trading
• stablecoins
• Lightning Network
• proof of reserves
• traditional banking

Keywords

• Bitcoin
• banking
• altcoins
• stablecoins
• Lightning Network
• proof of reserves
• FTX
• Coinbase
• traditional banking

Sponsors

Ellipsis Labs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: River, Coinbase

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