Vibe coding is real. I didn’t think it was, but I am thoroughly convinced.

My Korean host walked up to me beaming with pride, holding a physical newspaper I couldn't read. "You made it into print," he said. "This is huge." Apparently, Korean newspapers have strict filtering processes. Getting featured means something.

Flight attendant: "Congratulations! You're now a million-miler. How do you feel?" Me: "Like I travel too much." Flight attendant: "How are you going to celebrate." Me: "By giving my wife my business class seat. I'll sit in economy and watch Squid Games."

Share a piece of lore about yourself x bitcoin

Our approach with the BitVM experiment: radical transparency, not marketing. We reported costs ($15K), limitations, and real challenges. One co-author said our data "doesn't look great" for selling BitVM. That's the point. This was a reality check, not a sales pitch. Sometimes the most valuable research shows you exactly where the problems are.

Mainnet has constraints that testnet doesn't reveal. Older miner software couldn't process our near-4MB blocks, even though they were within Bitcoin's limits. You can't discover real-world engineering constraints without real-world testing.

I have been in Vancouver. Surprisingly more beautiful than Seattle. Working literally on the BC cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes the best research insights come when you change your physical environment completely.

Too many people forget that researchers aren’t marketers. We aren’t trying to make any data look good. We are in the business of reality checks.

Interesting responses to our BitVM experiment: Bitcoin maximalists: "Stop putting junk on the chain!" Bitcoin miners: "Please do more of this!" The miners earned 100x normal transaction fees. Yet some want Bitcoin to remain "pristine" with minimal activity. Bitcoin's security budget depends on transaction fees. Ideology meets economics.

As a professor, I spend my career saying "good question" to students who ask stupid questions. There are no stupid questions, we tell them. But actually, there are stupid questions.