From the show's first episode on April 21, 2013 — opening line: "Good morning, Bitcoins! I'm Fiat Currency, and here are today's Mad Bits! Butterfly Labs actually shipped something working giga hash in the wild" — through Thomas Hunt's November 29, 2016 "We shall fight for Bitcoin" episode, we trace the on-tape firsts the show covered live: the altcoin debuts, the exchange launches, the wallets, the payment processors, the mining hardware companies, the kiosks, the regulators, the conferences, and the on-air guests that built the early crypto industry. All quotes verbatim. All cited.
Thomas Hunt launched MadBitcoins on April 21, 2013 as a daily five-to-ten-minute news roundup. The first episode opened on a Butterfly Labs miner shipment. The format — "Good morning, Bitcoins! Here are today's Mad Bits!" followed by three or four headlines, the running price line, and a donation address — locked in immediately and stayed remarkably stable through the next two-and-a-half years. The corpus we have on disk runs from that first day through a sparse 2016 of conference cuts and the Zcash launch, with 2013 (219 episodes) and 2014 (255 episodes) accounting for the daily-news bulk and 2015 (89 episodes) pivoting toward the conference-interview circuit. By 2016 the show was down to a handful of dispatches.
That early-era window — roughly 2013-04-21 → 2016-11-29 — happens to be the window in which an entire industry was named, built, and broken. So an MB-centric reading of the early industry is unusually clean: most of the firsts that get cited in modern crypto retrospectives were on the MB news desk inside a week of breaking. The earliest mentions on tape for the key items are tabulated below — first Mt. Gox (May 9, 2013), first Coinbase (May 8, 2013, the day Coinbase announced its $5M Series A), first BitPay (May 9, 2013), first Litecoin (May 31, 2013), first Bitstamp (May 14, 2013), first blockchain.info (May 29, 2013), first Silk Road (April 27, 2013 — episode #006), first Cyprus (May 1, 2013 — naming Cyprus as the cause of the spring price spike), first CoinDesk (June 12, 2013 — five months after CoinDesk launched), first Lamassu (August 13, 2013), first Robocoin / Bitcoiniacs (September 9, 2013, two months before the Vancouver kiosk actually opened), first Vitalik Buterin (January 7, 2014), first Ethereum (January 23, 2014 — unveiled at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami).
The arc bends. 2013 is curiosity. By November 18-19, 2013 the show is live-streaming the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Bitcoin and reading FinCEN testimony verbatim. By February 25, 2014, Thomas is narrating the Mt. Gox collapse live as it happens — "another large red candle has formed…the great clif, the great collapse". By March 10, 2014 he's reading the Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing. By March 27, 2014 the IRS calls Bitcoin property and the show says it plain: "IRS takes a position on Bitcoin. It's property." By July 17, 2014 the NY DFS releases BitLicense — Thomas calls Ben Lawsky "Super Nintendo Lossky". And by the end of 2015 he is interviewing Nick Szabo on stage in Las Vegas at the Bitcoin Investor Conference. The early era closes, in our window, with the Wired magazine "Craig Wright is Satoshi" reveal on December 9, 2015 and the Zcash launch on October 29, 2016. After that the show goes quiet for years; the industry stops being new.
What this report does not do: pad. Where the on-tape coverage of an item is thin, we say so — there is no MB coverage of Adam Back, Gavin Andresen by name, KnC Miner, Bitmain, BitUSD, NuBits, or the Trezor launch (Trezor only shows up on April 2, 2014 — months after its public release). Those are notable absences, given how big some of those figures and products would become. The honest read of the corpus surfaces them.
White rows are companies / products / events. Blue rows are altcoin debuts on the show. Orange rows are regulatory or law-enforcement firsts. Every dated row corresponds to a verbatim quote in the body of this report — click to jump.
The Bitcoin ATM industry is well covered in our eight-year ATM report. The thing worth restating here is that MB called the kiosk industry into existence on the news desk before the first machine even opened.
On September 9, 2013 — almost two months before the Vancouver Bitcoiniacs Robocoin actually went live (October 29, 2013) — Thomas teased it on the show:
"No longer will Canadians have to swap cash for Bitcoins in the park like drug dealers. Now they can just buy them from an ATM. That's right, Robocoin Bitcoin ATMs are coming to Bitcoiniacs, a really cool store in Vancouver where you can buy, sell, and learn about Bitcoins." Mad Bitcoins · Sep 9, 2013 · "MadBitcoins Sells Out! — Gli.ph supports Blockchain — Bitcoin ATMs coming to Canada" · YouTube ¹
Lamassu shows up on tape four weeks earlier than Robocoin actually shipped:
"Lamasoo is now taking pre-orders for its Bitcoin ATM. Not quite as neat as the coin-star prototype at Defcon that could even convert worthless fiat coins into bitcoins, but still really neat." Mad Bitcoins · Aug 13, 2013 · "Bitcoin Block Time Down 50% — Bloomberg Bitcoin Ticker — Lamassu Bitcoin ATM Pre-orders" · YouTube ²
(The transcript renders "Lamassu" as "Lamasoo". The audible word, and Thomas's own episode title, is Lamassu.) By May 23, 2014, the first in-casino Bitcoin ATM lands at the D Casino downtown Las Vegas — a Robocoin machine inside a casino that wouldn't yet let you gamble in Bitcoin but would happily sell you a room with it:
"The first in Casino Bitcoin ATM launches in Las Vegas. The D Casino in downtown Las Vegas, the same place where you can rent rooms or buy things at the gift shop with Bitcoins but not gamble. Now has a Bitcoin ATM. It's a Robocoin…" Mad Bitcoins · May 23, 2014 · "First In-Casino Bitcoin ATM Opens — Sending Bitcoin to Uganda — GitChain Project" · YouTube ³
The skinny verdict on the kiosk industry's first nine months on MB: Robocoin (Vegas Strip-ier hardware), Lamassu (Portuguese-named, simpler kiosk), Skyhook (sub-$1,000 tabletop prototype, Jan 13, 2014), BitAccess (joined Y Combinator, Jun 13, 2014), Coinapult locks (Jul 29, 2014) — five named hardware/operator brands on tape inside one calendar year. The full kiosk industry treatment is in the ATM report.
The corpus has 176 files mentioning Litecoin, 52 with Dogecoin, 42 with Feathercoin, 20 with Peercoin, 13 with Vertcoin, 12 with Counterparty, 9 with Namecoin, 9 with Darkcoin, 6 with Primecoin, 3 with Auroracoin, 3 with Mastercoin, 2 with NXT, 2 with Monero, 2 with Zcash. Below is the chronology — what hit the desk first, and what Thomas said when it did.
The hinge is June 4, 2013. By then most of the early altcoins existed, but Thomas dedicates a whole episode — "MadBitcoins! Guide to Other Crypto Currencies" — to walking the audience through them, one at a time, with hands-on installation notes:
"I'm going to try something different today. I'm not going to talk about Bitcoin at all. I'm going to talk about other cryptocurrencies. As if Bitcoin didn't exist. Litecoin. I've heard of Litecoin. My basic understanding is that the world of Bitcoins is about to be rocked by gig-a-hash miners who have ASIC chips." Mad Bitcoins · Jun 4, 2013 · "MadBitcoins! Guide to Other Crypto Currencies" · YouTube ⁴
Same episode, on Feathercoin:
"I wandered into Feathercoin.com and downloaded my third software wallet and make my computer into the world's busiest synchronizing cryptocurrency wallet ever. I changed the direction of the fan in my room…" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 4, 2013 ⁴
Same episode, on Namecoin:
"Moving on to Namecoin. I was going to try and talk about Namecoin, but now I'm not even sure it's a currency. I'm pretty sure it's just an alternative for DNS so that instead of looking up the name […]" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 4, 2013 ⁴
Same episode, on Peercoin (with a casual mention of Terracoin, Novacoin, China Coin):
"Next, PPC is Peer to Peercoin and apparently blew up 700% back in April. Missed a boat on that one. CNCcoin is the new coin on the block and is called China coin and is a Litecoin variant. It's Windows only…" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 4, 2013 ⁴
The first Litecoin mention on tape actually predates the dedicated episode by four days — a passing line on May 31, 2013 about an adult-content site adding a Bitcoin/Litecoin QR code:
"They've added a QR code for Bitcoin and Litecoin to their top 100 page, which you gotta figure is gotta be one of their most popular pages. Remember, every link to Bitcoin is essentially an advertisement for Bitcoin." Mad Bitcoins · May 31, 2013 · "Mt. Gox Verified Only — Pirate Bay Says OK — MadBitcoins in HD! (#032)" · YouTube ⁵
Zerocoin (the academic anonymity proposal that became, several rebrands later, Zcash) debuts on June 7, 2013:
"Zero coin for Bitcoin could make it truly anonymous and untraceable. Many users of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin seen as the first fully anonymous and untraceable currency. But it's not." Mad Bitcoins · Jun 7, 2013 · "Bitcoin Anonymization — Zerocoin — Icelandic Bit Mixing Havens (#037)" · YouTube ⁶
Primecoin enters six weeks later, on July 19, 2013, in an episode titled with a question mark:
"A weak old cryptocurrency wants to capture the wasted energy of Bitcoin's algorithm. It's called primecoin, and it aims to harness the spent energy of Bitcoin's algorithm. A lot of Bitcoin is creating garbage." Mad Bitcoins · Jul 19, 2013 · "Botnet mines Bitcoins — SatoshiDice Sold — Primecoin?" · YouTube ⁷
The 2013 Christmas Special (Dec 24, 2013) is, in retrospect, the apotheosis of the altcoin moment — Thomas prophetically rattles off the entire family tree in one sentence, both predicting and parodying the proliferation:
"Now bitcoin, now lightcoin, now feather in purecoin, on Terra, on namecoin, on primecoin and Franco, to the top of the charts, to the top of […]" Mad Bitcoins · Dec 24, 2013 · "MadBitcoins! Christmas Special 2013 and Live Bitcoin Telethon!" · YouTube ⁸
And the protocol-overlay prediction — accurate three years early — about Mastercoin and NXT colored coins:
"In 2014 we're more likely to see a lot of these altcoins migrate and become a protocol overlay currencies running on top of Bitcoin using perhaps something like Invictus or Portages or MasterCoin and NXT colored coins or something like that to leverage the Bitcoin output effect…" Mad Bitcoins · Dec 24, 2013 ⁸
Auroracoin — the first national altcoin airdrop, dropped on every Icelandic citizen by national-ID lookup — debuts February 6, 2014:
"Cryptocurrency, Auroracoin, given to every person in Iceland. Iceland is getting its own cryptocurrency and it's not Bitcoin and it's not sponsored by the government. Auroracoin will have a 50% pre-mine…" Mad Bitcoins · Feb 6, 2014 · "Bitcoin Nanopayments — Dogecoin Inflation — AuroraCoin Iceland — Art Sales in Bitcoin" · YouTube ⁹
Darkcoin (which would later rebrand to Dash) lands on May 13, 2014 in a one-line zinger:
"Dark wallet returns Bitcoin to its anarchic origins. Dark wallet, dark coin, and let there be dark. A whole new group of technologists are taking over the internet with the goal of restoring it to what it used to be. The freedom to be anonymous, once thought…" Mad Bitcoins · May 13, 2014 · "BitPay Raises $30 Million Dollars — Bitcoin Lobbyists? — Kraken, Peercoin and Dark Wallet, Dark Coin" · YouTube ¹⁰
Counterparty gets a dedicated interview on June 22, 2014 — the team explaining the asset-issuance and decentralized-exchange model that they had already proven on Bitcoin's chain by burning BTC ("proof of burn"):
"Counterparty is a protocol and a currency and a platform totally open for allowing users to engage in peer-to-peer… We're extending Bitcoin and the Bitcoin blockchain to do many more things than it currently do." Mad Bitcoins · Jun 22, 2014 · "Counterparty speaks!" · YouTube ¹¹
And on October 29, 2016, the early era closes with the brand-new launch of Zcash — at an opening price MB measures in the thousands:
"Here are today's Matt Bitz. Zcash Explodes. You, but don't get any on me. Brand new cryptocurrency Zcash dominated the news with claims of anonymity that drove the market wild, starting the price at more than 3,000…" Mad Bitcoins · Oct 29, 2016 · "Zcash Explodes, Bitcoin $700 and the DAO Hacker gets Paid" · YouTube ¹²
Ethereum gets a special slot because of how MB caught it: Thomas mentioned "Vitalik Booterin" on tape on January 7, 2014 — sixteen days before Vitalik unveiled Ethereum at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami — and then covered the unveil live on Jan 23.
The Jan 7 mention, with Whisper-mangled spellings of Roger Ver, Erik Voorhees and Vitalik (corrected here in brackets):
"Roger Vier [Ver], Eric Voorhees, and Vitalik Booterin [Buterin] join CryptoKit in ownership roles. Some of the biggest names in Bitcoin have teamed up to make a Bitcoin browser plugin for Chrome. It's pretty neat, looks fully functional…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 7, 2014 · "KryptoKit Chrome Plugin — India Exchange Back Online — New India Bitcoin" · YouTube ¹³
Sixteen days later, the Ethereum unveil itself:
"Ethereum launches cryptocurrency 2.0 network. As discussed on mad bitcoins live from Milwaukee, Ethereum is calling itself cryptocurrency 2.0. It's a decentralized mining network and software…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 23, 2014 · "MadBitcoins Live — Tiger Direct Accepts Bitcoin — Google Flirts — Feathercoin" · YouTube ¹⁴
The 12 MB files mentioning Ethereum in 2014-2015 trace the project from "cryptocurrency 2.0 network" through the presale, through the developer-fund selling pressure ("Bitcoin prices are still down, perhaps due to Ethereum developers selling off some of their funding" — Jul 25, 2014), and out to the DAO-hacker resolution on Oct 29, 2016. Vitalik himself sits with MB on what was, at the time, a fringe project. The early MB Vitalik mentions are 5 episodes total.
81 MB episodes in the early-era window mention Mt. Gox. 87 mention Coinbase. 19 Bitstamp, 18 BTC China, 15 BTC-E, 14 Kraken, 3 each Bitfinex / ItBit / Cryptsy / Bitfloor. Below: the firsts, the famous Gox collapse narration, the ItBit BitLicense moment, and a "Summer of Bitcoin" roll-call that is itself an artifact.
The earliest Mt. Gox quote in our corpus is from MB's Newbie's Guide to Buying and Securing Bitcoin, posted May 9, 2013 — just three weeks into the show. By then Gox is already the default. Coinbase had announced its $5M Series A the day before, and MB covers it inside 24 hours:
"Coinbase scores $5 [million] in funding. The deal, which followed a seed round in September 2012 of $600,000, will help the San Francisco based company cover operating costs and hire engineers…" Mad Bitcoins · May 8, 2013 · "Coinbase scores $5M — Facebook and Bitcoin? — 23 year-old bitcoin millionaire" · YouTube ¹⁵
(The Whisper transcript reads "$5 billion"; Thomas's own episode title says "$5M". We trust the title.) Six days later, on May 14, 2013, MB runs what is probably the single most quotable piece of crypto industry history that nobody remembers — a one-sentence list of "10 to 15 notable Bitcoin related startups" that is, in hindsight, the Forbes 30-under-30 of the 2013 industry:
"It's the summer of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is here to stay and it's not going away. There are 10 to 15 notable Bitcoin related startups and they are all flush with cash including BitStamp, Trade Hill, BitPay, CoinLab, Coinbase, BitPermir [BitPremier], CoinSetler [CoinSetter]… Coinbase, which last year raised 5 million…" Mad Bitcoins · May 14, 2013 · "Bitcoin Network Supercomputer — Amazon Coins — Summer of Bitcoin! (#017)" · YouTube ¹⁶
The same day, MB ran a special report on the first US federal action against a Bitcoin company — DHS shutting down Dwolla transfers to and from Mt. Gox:
"This is a Mad Bitcoins special report. The Department of Homeland Security shuts down DeWala [Dwolla] payments to and from Mt. Gox. The DHS issued a seizure warrant for the funds associated with Mt. Gox's DeWala account." Mad Bitcoins · May 14, 2013 (special report) · "DHS shuts down Dwolla to MtGox transfers — MadBitcoins! Special Report (#018)" · YouTube ¹⁷
Bitstamp's first standalone mention as a Mt. Gox alternative was already in that "Summer of Bitcoin" roll-call above. BTC China hits the desk on May 7, 2013:
"Our top story tonight, Chinese Bitcoin Rush continues. Over the past 24 hours, BTC China is the number 4 exchange in volume. Over 6% of all…" Mad Bitcoins · May 7, 2013 · "China Bitcoin Rush — Forbes writer lives on Bitcoin — 0.8.2 update" · YouTube ¹⁸
Kraken launches in September 2013. MB's first Kraken mention is the side-line in the CoinDesk BPI launch episode:
"In the wake of the recent Mt. Gox downtime and the launching of the Kraken, CoinDesk had some time to do something truly spectacular. They lau[nched]…" Mad Bitcoins · Sep 11, 2013 · "CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index — Avalon Refunds $2.9 million — BFL Allegedly Censors Refund Posts" · YouTube ¹⁹
Two years later, MB does a sit-down with Jesse Powell at CoinCongress 2015 — by then Kraken is a fixture of the on-tape coverage:
"Good morning, Bitcoins and welcome to Mad Bitcoins live from the Coin Congress conference in San Francisco. We're joined by Jesse from Kraken. How's it going Jesse? It's going well…" Mad Bitcoins · Aug 15, 2015 · "Jesse Powell from Kraken — CoinCongress 2015" · YouTube ²⁰
The single most memorable on-tape exchange moment in the corpus is Thomas narrating Mt. Gox's terminal collapse live on February 25, 2014 — the entire 22-line transcript is essentially a price-chart commentary:
"We're looking at a live chart on Mt. Gox, as another large red candle has formed. This candle started out with a price at around $180. It's gone all the way down to now reaching a current low of $111 and falling. What's particularly dangerous about this candle is that the Bitstamp price is following the Mt. Gox down, with Bitstamp falling to $515… Zooming back out on the Gox chart, the great clif, the great collapse." Mad Bitcoins Live · Feb 25, 2014 · "MadBitcoins Live: Mt. Gox $121, Bitstamp $518" · YouTube ²¹
Thirteen days later the Chapter 15 filing arrives — and the show calls it:
"Mount Gox files for bankruptcy in the US. Chapter 15 bankruptcy, which is a new chapter, but the same old book. Chapter 15 implies that you owe money to people in multiple countries. What a mess. At the same time, Mount Gox source code and internal documents have been dumped onto the internet. The package is said to contain wallet stealing Trojans, so download it your own risk." Mad Bitcoins · Mar 10, 2014 · "Two-Bit Idiot Withdraws — Mt. Gox Files — Wikipedia Flirts — Bitcoin Endures" · YouTube ²²
The post-Gox era's first major regulatory exchange moment lands the following spring. ItBit gets the first NYDFS-approved Bitcoin-exchange license in America on May 9, 2015:
"ItBit launches America's first NYDFS approved Bitcoin exchange. Uh, that's great, I guess. Goldman Sachs invests in Circle, a Bitcoin company." Mad Bitcoins · May 9, 2015 · "NSA Illegal? — ItBit gets a license — Goldman buys in Circle and Bitcoin!" · YouTube ²³
BitPay has 50 episodes in our window. Butterfly Labs has 22. CoinKite has 3. ChangeTip has 17. ShapeShift has 8. The MB show itself was sponsored, at various points, by BitMit, CoinKite, ProTip, BitcoinBlake, and several less remembered firms — Thomas was both reporting on and embedded in this economy.
The very first MB episode (April 21, 2013) opens on a Butterfly Labs miner — and the cold-open style that would define the show is already locked in:
"Good morning, Bitcoins! I'm Fiat Currency, and here are today's Mad Bits! Butterfly Labs actually shipped something working giga hash in the wild. That's why I've sent my money to Butterfly Labs, and I'm in line with everyone else. Can you feel the momentum giga hash…" Mad Bitcoins · Apr 21, 2013 · "Butterfly Labs actually ships something — Gigahash in the Wild — MadBitcoins!" · YouTube ²⁴
Five months later the BFL story has turned: PayPal is processing refunds, Avalon is muscling in:
"Avalon refunds $2.9 million in Bitcoins to ASIC minor [miner] customers." Mad Bitcoins · Sep 11, 2013 ¹⁹
By 2014 the mining-hardware shipwreck stories are weekly:
"Hash fast failed fast and placed last." Mad Bitcoins · May 12, 2014 · "Fake IDs in Bitcoin — Hundreds attend China BTC Summit — What is Peercoin?" · YouTube ²⁵
"Coin Terra folds, Ripple Labs explodes, and Chinese Exchange 796 gets hacked for more than 1,000 Bitcoins. Today's Thursday, January 29th, 2015…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 30, 2015 · "CoinTerra Bankrupt — Ripple Labs $30M — Exchange 796 Hacked!" · YouTube ²⁶
21 Inc — the Balaji Srinivasan-led venture to put a Bitcoin miner inside every consumer device — gets the laconic MB treatment on May 6, 2015:
"21 wants to put a Bitcoin miner in everything. But we all knew that already." Mad Bitcoins · May 6, 2015 · "BitReserve targets India — BitGo Attempts Software Patent — Miners in Everything with 21" · YouTube ²⁷
BitPay's first MB appearance is a personnel sighting at a San Francisco Bitcoin dinner during the show's "Living on Bitcoin Week":
"It's a wild cast of characters, the CEO of BitPay, a Bitcoin speculator decked out in Google Glass, a dude with a face full of piercings who is paying his rent in Oakland in Bitcoin…" Mad Bitcoins · May 9, 2013 · "Ars Technica has a Bitcoin Miner — Living on Bitcoin Week is Over — MadBitcoins!" · YouTube ²⁸
GoCoin first appears on January 15, 2014, adding Litecoin to its payment processor:
"GoCoin adds Litecoin to payment offering. Litecoin continues to cement its position as the silver to Bitcoins gold. As GoCoin joins Coinja and CoinPayments.net offering Litecoin-based pa[yment]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 15, 2014 · "Mt. Gox linked to Silk Road? — Sun Times Paywall — PayPal Believes in Bitcoin" · YouTube ²⁹
CoinKite — Canadian multi-signature wallet/hardware — moves from "the gear" to "the sponsor" by end-2014:
"This episode is sponsored by CoinKite. CoinKite has added multi-signature and has gone above and beyond what's available by adding up to M of 15 and the option to create any or all of the private keys offline…" Mad Bitcoins · Dec 4, 2014 · "Bitcoin Protection Bill in Congress — Terms of Service may change — BitLicense" · YouTube ³⁰
ShapeShift's first MB on-tape moment comes Oct 7, 2014 — sponsoring an artwork bounty:
"Shapeshift offering 5 Bitcoins for the slaying of the bear whale commemorative artwork. Special thanks to Shapeshift.io for hosting the slaying of the bear whale commemorative artwork project…" Mad Bitcoins · Oct 7, 2014 · "Blockchain scores $30M — Bitcoin Merchant Adoption Accelerates — Mycelium Wallet" · YouTube ³¹
17 episodes mention blockchain.info, 15 Dark Wallet, 5 Mycelium, 2 Trezor, 1 Ledger Wallet (the BitcoinMiami 2015 interview). Hardware-wallet coverage is conspicuously thin — see §gaps.
First blockchain.info mention is from the spring's "Newbie's Guide" era, MAY 29, 2013:
"Send them to your friends, send them to your blockchain.info account and use them on your iPhone or Android device. Sending bitcoins around, even small amounts like 10 or 20 cents, can be fun and addicting." Mad Bitcoins · May 29, 2013 · "Bitcoin Upswing Continues — Will Bieber and Bitcoin cause Bitcoin Breakthrough?" · YouTube ³²
Dark Wallet — Cody Wilson's anonymity-focused wallet, born out of the 3D-printed-gun "Liberator" — debuts September 25, 2013:
"Dark Wallet. The Radical Way to Pitcorn [Bitcoin]. From the creator of the liberator, the plastic gun that you can print at home with your 3D printer comes Dark Wallet, which sadly doesn't sound like a…" Mad Bitcoins · Sep 25, 2013 · "Dark Wallet — Get Rich Quick with Bitcoin — Boost.vc's Stellar Startups" · YouTube ³³
Trezor — the original hardware wallet, manufactured by SatoshiLabs and released to retail in mid-2014 — only makes its first MB appearance on April 2, 2014:
"Trezor, hardware, Bitcoin, wallet, in the wild. Watch out paper wallets, it's Trezor, a sound alike of the word treasure, Trezor is a hardware wallet, not a USB drive, it's a small compu[ter]…" Mad Bitcoins · Apr 2, 2014 · "Square accepts Bitcoins — Silk Road: Bitcoin is not Money — Trezor Hardware Bitcoin Wallet" · YouTube ³⁴
The Mycelium 2.0 HD release is October 7, 2014, in the same episode that introduced ShapeShift. Ledger Wallet only shows up in our corpus once — a January 2015 interview at North American Bitcoin Conference Miami:
"MadBitcoins interviews Ledger Wallet #BitcoinMiami 2015" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 29, 2015 · YouTube ³⁵
If 2013-2014 had a regulatory inflection, MB was on the desk for it. 41 files mention the Bitcoin Foundation, 62 mention Silk Road, 16 mention "Dread Pirate Roberts", 9 BitLicense, 4 each "China ban" and "congressional hearing", and one explicit FinCEN testimony quote on the live Senate feed.
The Cyprus banking crisis — the proximate cause of the spring 2013 price spike — gets named on May 1, 2013, on MB episode 11:
"Rumbles around the internet that the $250 spike in Bitcoin prices was caused by the people of Cyprus adopting Bitcoin as a sort of national currency. As you know, the people of Cyprus is a complicated situation. There's outside money coming into Cyprus." Mad Bitcoins · May 1, 2013 · "Bitcoin prices are up — bitcoin mining is more difficult — Cypress?" · YouTube ³⁶
The earliest Silk Road mention is the same week — and Thomas is, on April 27, still figuring out exactly what it is:
"It's my understanding that only OKCupid, some kind of porn site, that drug site, silk road, or whatever it's called, only a couple of people are actually accepting Bitcoins." Mad Bitcoins · Apr 27, 2013 · MB #006 · "Bitcoin prices fluctuate violently — viewer mail" · YouTube ³⁷
The Dread Pirate Roberts segment is August 15, 2013 — six weeks before the FBI takes him down in San Francisco:
"Meet the Dread Pirate Roberts, the man behind the booming black market drug website Silk Road. With competition from Atlantis heating up the online illegal drug market, the infamous Dread Pirate Robert[s]…" Mad Bitcoins · Aug 15, 2013 · "Silk Road CEO Speaks! — Android Flaw Steals $5,700 — BitInstant Lawsuit" · YouTube ³⁸
The Bitcoin Foundation gets a regulatory letter on June 24, 2013:
"Bitcoin Foundation receives cease and desist order from California, not a collector's edition. California's Department of Financial Institutions has issued a cease and desist warning to the Bitcoin [Foundation]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 24, 2013 · "Bitcoin Foundation must Cease and Desist? — Bitcoin Crowdfunding — Google Wallet" · YouTube ³⁹
MB previews and then live-streams the first Senate hearing on virtual currencies, on C-SPAN. The preview, on November 18:
"Today at noon, high noon, Pacific time, 3pm in the east, we'll be commenting on the live feed of the congressional hearing on digital currency, live on C-SPAN, C-SPAN, one of my favorite spans." Mad Bitcoins · Nov 18, 2013 · "Hoodies for the Homeless Success! — China Bitcoin Forever — Bitcoin Hearing Live" · YouTube ⁴⁰
And during the live feed itself — the Counterparty risk quote that became, in the next quarter, a slogan for the entire industry:
"With Bitcoin, it is now possible to transfer an asset remotely and immediately settle the transaction with no counterparty risk. That type of instrument has never existed before and the possibilities of this instant worldwide settlement are very interesting." Senate Banking Committee testimony, simulcast on Mad Bitcoins · Nov 19, 2013 · "Senate Banking Committee Hearing on Bitcoin (Live)" · YouTube ⁴¹
And the FinCEN witness, in the same live feed:
"It's going to take consistent awareness of the growing threat… the Secret Service working with our partners in law enforcement as well as in the prosecution and FinCEN [Fincent] and our international partners will continue to work strategically to remove the gravest threats to our infrastructure." Senate testimony · Nov 19, 2013 · simulcast on Mad Bitcoins · "Peace News Now (Live) — Historic Congressional Hearing on Bitcoin (Part 1)" · YouTube ⁴²
Charlie Shrem's arrest — January 27, 2014 — was the first high-profile crypto-CEO arrest:
"Charlie Shrum [Shrem], CEO of BitInstant, arrested. At first read, the complaint looked like bullshit. Sure, he sold Bitcoins and sure they could be used anywhere, even at the Silk Road. Much like cash, Bitcoins are mone[y]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 27, 2014 · "CEO of BitInstant Arrested — Credit Cards Hacked Again — Megacoin Gravity Well" · YouTube ⁴³
The IRS calls Bitcoin property on March 25, 2014. MB covers it two days later:
"IRS takes a position on Bitcoin. It's property. The IRS announced on Tuesday that it would treat Bitcoin as property rather than currency for tax purposes. This means that Bitcoins wi[ll]…" Mad Bitcoins · Mar 27, 2014 · "IRS declares Bitcoin is Property — CryptoRush Implodes — Doge Sponsors Nascar" · YouTube ⁴⁴
Newsweek "outs" Dorian Nakamoto on March 6, 2014. MB covers Dorian's denial on March 18:
"Putative Bitcoin founder. Categorically, denies it. Dorian Nakamoto hired a lawyer and issued a statement, unconditionally denying that he had any involvement in Bitcoin. Newsweek is wrong, and they've been wrong for 10 days." Mad Bitcoins · Mar 18, 2014 · "Mt. Gox Allows Users to Check Balances — SatoshiCode! — Dorian Denies It All" · YouTube ⁴⁵
And BitLicense — the New York DFS Bitcoin business license that would push half the industry out of New York — is released on July 17, 2014. The "Super Nintendo Lossky" nickname for Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky is born:
"Super Nintendo Lossky [Lawsky] reveals BitLicense rules for New York State. If you operate a Bitcoin exchange or a business that converts Bitcoin into Fiat in the state of New York, you must get a BitLicense from the state…" Mad Bitcoins · Jul 17, 2014 · "BitLicences Released — CheapAir $1.5 Million in Bitcoin Sales — Google +1's Bitcoin" · YouTube ⁴⁶
And the year-and-a-half later closer of the early-era window: the Craig Wright reveal hoax, December 9, 2015:
"Wired Magazine claims to have discovered the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Dr. Craig Wright from Australia, who recently spoke via Skype at the Bitcoin Investor conference in Las Vegas…" Mad Bitcoins · Dec 9, 2015 · "Wired Magazine reveals that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto" · YouTube ⁴⁷
The corpus is rich with named guests — Andreas Antonopoulos (13 episodes), Chris Ellis (13), Megan/M.K. Lords (7), Jason King (6), Stephanie Murphy (5), Brock Pierce (5), Jeffrey Tucker (5), Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee (3 each), Roger Ver (3 — transcribed as "Roger Vier"), Tone Vays (1, late-era), Nick Szabo (1, the Vegas keynote upload), Patrick Byrne (2). Plus 30+ short interviews from BitcoinMiami 2015 and CoinCongress 2015.
The earliest Andreas mention is from a longer-form Sep 27, 2013 interview episode (Davi Barker, Hoodies for Homeless), in passing:
"Well, I think I do have a spoiler alert on that two Bitcoins. I believe it was donated by Andreas Antonopoulos from Let's Talk Bitcoin." Mad Bitcoins Live · Sep 27, 2013 · "Interview with Davi Barker, Hoodies for Homeless" · YouTube ⁴⁸
The marquee Andreas moment in the corpus is October 9, 2014 — covering his Canadian Senate testimony:
"Bitcoin luminary, Andreas Antonopoulos schools the Canadian Senate on Bitcoin. Having a tie that spelled out ties suck in ASCII, Andreas Antonopoulos frequent guest on the Bitcoin group answered questions from the Cana[dian Senate]…" Mad Bitcoins · Oct 9, 2014 · "Antonopoulos Rocks the Canadian Senate, Spiral Charts, Now accepting!" · YouTube ⁴⁹
Charlie Lee (Litecoin) and Jackson Palmer (Dogecoin) on a SF DogeCon panel, April 17, 2014:
"Headlining the event will be a fireside chat with Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, and Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer, followed by a panel discussion by Doge tip bot founder David Devorek, nice keyboard, just kidding, and Doge for water creator Eric Nakagawa…" Mad Bitcoins · Apr 17, 2014 · "DogeCon SF — Ron Paul — Gas Stations Should Accept Bitcoin — Shrem" · YouTube ⁵⁰
Megan (M.K.) Lords — Bitcoin Not Bombs, conference organizer — interviewed at PorcFest June 22, 2014:
"This is mad bitcoins live and we're with megan lords. Megan, how's the convention going so far? It's going great, we've had a lot of people show up, all the talks have been running really smoothly and yeah I think everyone's having a go[od time]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 22, 2014 · "MadBitcoins interviews M.K. Lords, Bitcoin Not Bombs, Conference Organizer" · YouTube ⁵¹
Brock Pierce gets elected to the Bitcoin Foundation board on May 19, 2014 — the resulting resignations make news for the rest of the spring:
"Bitcoin Foundation hit by resignations over new director. More drama from the Bitcoin Foundation as the election of child star, Brock Pierce, has caused a series of resignations with those upset over the mighty duck s[ome]…" Mad Bitcoins · May 19, 2014 · "Federal Reserve 'Bitcoin Boon' — Bigger than Facebook — Bitcoin Costume Contest" · YouTube ⁵²
Patrick Byrne (Overstock) keynotes Bitcoin 2014 Amsterdam on May 15:
"Bitcoin 2014 conference gets underway in Amsterdam today. The convention kicks off with a keynote speech by overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and really goes to the moon Friday night with the presentation of the blockchain awards for which MadBitcoins has been nominated." Mad Bitcoins · May 15, 2014 · "FCC kills Net Neutrality, Allows Fast Lanes — Bitcoin2014 Amsterdam" · YouTube ⁵³
And Jason King's Bitcoin Run Across America — live finish at the BitPay offices in SF — June 8, 2014:
"This is Mad Bitcoins live from San Francisco. We're waiting for Jason King from Sean's Outpost to cross the finish line for his amazing Bitcoin run across America. It's happening shortly at the Bitpay offices across the street from the San Francisco Gian[ts game]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jun 8, 2014 · "Jason King of Sean's Outpost Completes his #Bitcoin Run Across America" · YouTube ⁵⁴
The Bitcoin Belle / Michele Seven panel in Las Vegas, October 30, 2015 — note the Whisper mangle of "Belle" to "Bill" that Thomas's own panel intro corrects on the fly:
"We'll also have a Bitcoin bill, also known as Michelle 7 [Michele Seven] — so if Michelle can come on up, we'll track her down, she's here somewhere, so we'll get her up here. And also the voice of Bitcoin, Dr. Stephanie Murphy…" Mad Bitcoins · Oct 30, 2015 · "Bitcoin Panel with Bitcoin Belle, Thomas Hunt, Stephanie Murphy, Joseph Salerno" · YouTube ⁵⁵
By count of file hits, MB's most-referenced contemporary publication is CoinDesk (153 episodes mention it), Bitcoin Magazine (9), Cointelegraph (9), CryptoCoinNews / CCN (4).
The first CoinDesk reference in the corpus is from June 12, 2013 — at the time, just "the coin desk article":
"A quick Twitter search shows mainly links to the coin desk article, but a few early adopters have taken advantage and are selling their songs in Bitcoin." Mad Bitcoins · Jun 12, 2013 · "Africa Bitcoin? — How to sell digital files for bitcoins — What Caused Flash C[rash]" · YouTube ⁵⁶
The CoinDesk BPI — the index price MB then quoted every day — launches September 11, 2013:
"The new CoinDesk BPI Bitcoin price index shows Bitcoin prices to be steady in the 120 range with the last of 121, a high of 123 and a low of 120. CoinDesk launches proprietary Bitcoin price index BPI." Mad Bitcoins · Sep 11, 2013 ¹⁹
Bitcoin Magazine — co-founded by Vitalik Buterin in 2012 — first appears July 31, 2013, in the context of Adam B. Levine of Let's Talk Bitcoin speaking at Inside Bitcoins NYC:
"Bitcoin Magazine reports on Adam B. Levine, let's talk Bitcoin's speech at the inside Bitcoin's convention in New York City. Bitcoin's watershed moment, an open source cryptocurrency ecosystem." Mad Bitcoins · Jul 31, 2013 · "Bitcoin Standards Group — Bitcoins First Charity — Watershed Cryptocurrency Ec[osystem]" · YouTube ⁵⁷
Cointelegraph gets a dedicated MiniBits review on July 3, 2014:
"Welcome to mini-bits, coin telegraph, news, information and great illustrations highlight[ing] coin-telegraph.com, live cryptocurrency opinion, great articles, how-tos, and infog[raphics]…" Mad Bitcoins · Jul 3, 2014 · "MiniBits — CoinTelegraph" · YouTube ⁵⁸
MB's conference circuit was where the show pivoted from news roundup to interview format. The three big clusters in our window: North American Bitcoin Conference Miami (Jan 2014 & Jan 2015), CoinCongress 2015 (Aug 15-16, San Francisco — 16 dedicated interview uploads), and the Bitcoin Investor Conference Las Vegas (Oct 27-30, 2015).
The first Miami conference mention on tape is January 23, 2014 — Vitalik unveiling Ethereum, in the same episode:
"The project, which will be unveiled at the North American Bitcoin conference in Miami, is the brainchild of Vitalik Booterin [Buterin], the co-founder of Bitcoin magazine…" Mad Bitcoins · Jan 23, 2014 ¹⁴
The 2015 Miami sit-downs — Thomas spent late January 2015 in Miami and uploaded 15+ short interviews: Paul Snow (Factom), Will Pangman (Tapeke), Max from CureCoin, Tiffany from Casheer, Jason King (Sean's Outpost), Paul (Airbitz), Steve Sprague (Rivetz), Dmitry (Mycelium), Micah Winkelspecht (Gem), @BitcoinSusan, Marko (Alt Options), Jonathan (Bitwage), Ledger Wallet, Gold Rush Sam, Leonardo, Twanda (Zimbabwe), Liam (Change Bitcoin Documentary), Authy, Phil Champagne (Book of Satoshi), the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and the College Crypto Network — a near-complete who's-who of the 2015 industry on one playlist.
CoinCongress 2015 (San Francisco, Aug 15-16) produced 18+ similar interview uploads, including Jesse Powell (Kraken), Brock Pierce, Tina Hui (Follow the Coin), Nick Sullivan and Jinyoung Park (ChangeTip), Brennen Byrne (Clef), Justin Newton (NetKi), Joel Dietz (Swarm), Daniel Cawrey (ZapChain), Matej Michalko (Decent), Josh Cincinnati (BlockCypher), Jeremy Gardner (Augur), Marshall Hayner (Trees), Rick Chan (Airbitz), Tiffany Madison, Jonathan Chester (Bitwage), Zak Slayback (Praxis), Timothy Curry (Planet Capital), and Gyft.
The Bitcoin Investor Conference (Las Vegas, Oct 27-30, 2015) gets the Vegas treatment — and includes Nick Szabo's keynote, uploaded directly to MB:
"Nick Sapo [Szabo], everybody. Thanks very much. Thank you. OK, so I'm talking about Bitcoin and other blockchain-based assets. And… that's great. So the origins of some of these ide[as]…" Mad Bitcoins · Oct 30, 2015 · "Nick Szabo speaks at Bitcoin Investor (Las Vegas) 2015-10-29" · YouTube ⁵⁹
(Whisper transcribes "Szabo" as "Sapo" — the audible name and Thomas's own episode title is Szabo. This is the only on-tape Szabo material in the early-MB corpus.)
The same Vegas trip produces the Anthem Blanchard sit-down (Oct 30, vid 24flZdmlmCQ) and the Bitcoin Belle / Stephanie Murphy / Joseph Salerno panel (vid Vq9dSThZx94).
The shape of the early era as a histogram: 219 episodes in 2013, 255 in 2014, 89 in 2015, just 6 in 2016. The show's daily-news format peaked in Q1-Q3 2014 (Mt. Gox era), then shifted to the conference-interview circuit through 2015 before going semi-dormant.
Source: 569 MB transcripts on disk dated 2013-04-21 through 2016-11-29 · grouped by upload_date quarter
Several names and products that loom large in modern crypto retrospectives never appear in the early MB corpus — or appear only fleetingly. We list them rather than glossing over them.
The pattern is consistent: hardware-wallet and stablecoin coverage is thin (these technologies hadn't yet shifted into the news cycle of the show's daily format), while exchange / kiosk / altcoin coverage is dense. The Whisper-base transcription model also routinely mangles non-English names and surnames — every quote in this report has been cross-checked against the YouTube .description and .info.json sidecars for authoritative spelling, and Whisper's variants are bracketed inline.
The last MB episode in our early-era window — November 29, 2016 — is titled "We shall fight for Bitcoin". By then, MadBitcoins has stopped being a daily show. The daily-news format that defined 2013-2014 has migrated to the panel-discussion model of The Bitcoin Group and the long-form-interview model of World Crypto Network — both of which Thomas was running concurrently by 2015. The early-MB corpus closes here. The next major coverage push for Thomas Hunt is the TBG era, which is the subject of the TBG view-decline report.
Read alongside the related reports: the Bitcoin ATM eight-year history picks up the kiosk story that MB started on Sep 9, 2013 with the Vancouver Bitcoiniacs tease and tracks it through Indiana's 2026 ban; the Strippers, Sex & Bitcoin Conference Etiquette report picks up the conference-circuit thread; the Adam Back / Satoshi report documents the Adam-Back coverage that started after the early MB window closed.
Every quote in this report comes from a Mad Bitcoins transcript file on disk, derived from the YouTube source. Where Whisper-base transcribed a name imperfectly, the in-line bracket gives the canonical spelling drawn from the YouTube .description or .info.json sidecar.
MB_20130909_nw6f_IwGUCM.txt — Title: MadBitcoins Sells Out! — Gli.ph supports Blockchain — Bitcoin ATMs coming to Canada. YouTube vid nw6f_IwGUCM. Almost two months before the Vancouver Bitcoiniacs Robocoin actually opened on Oct 29, 2013.MB_20130813_f_QDlDta60U.txt — Title: Bitcoin Block Time Down 50% — Bloomberg Bitcoin Ticker — Lamassu Bitcoin ATM Pre-orders. Whisper transcribes "Lamassu" as "Lamasoo"; verified against Thomas's own episode title.MB_20140523_TvmBL3z5xx0.txt — Title: First In-Casino Bitcoin ATM Opens — Sending Bitcoin to Uganda — GitChain Project. The D Casino in downtown Las Vegas.MB_20130604_Pu1Q2yyrEgw.txt — Title: MadBitcoins! Guide to Other Crypto Currencies. The dedicated altcoin survey episode — Litecoin, Feathercoin, Namecoin, Peercoin, Terracoin, Novacoin, CNCcoin all in one ~10-minute show.MB_20130531_fiMCL-rZGqM.txt — Title: Mt. Gox Verified Only — Pirate Bay Says OK — MadBitcoins in HD! (#032). Earliest "Litecoin" mention in the corpus, in passing on an unrelated story.MB_20130607_vP10kFuf9k0.txt — Title: Bitcoin Anonymization — Zerocoin — Icelandic Bit Mixing Havens (#037).MB_20130719_lyFDOplmC3g.txt — Title: Botnet mines Bitcoins — SatoshiDice Sold — Primecoin?MB_20131224_6AQu-deqANE.txt — Title: MadBitcoins! Christmas Special 2013 and Live Bitcoin Telethon! A multi-hour livestream; the altcoin litany and the protocol-overlay prediction are in the second half.MB_20140206_NTx4bphWKrU.txt — Title: Bitcoin Nanopayments — Dogecoin Inflation — AuroraCoin Iceland — Art Sales in Bitcoin.MB_20140513_cuzDVWwfcZs.txt — Title: BitPay Raises $30 Million Dollars — Bitcoin Lobbyists? — Kraken, Peercoin and Dark Wallet, Dark Coin. Darkcoin → Dash rebrand came in March 2015.MB_20140622_Xe-V5WQ-IxQ.txt — Title: Counterparty speaks!MB_20161029_73B8cS8663g.txt — Title: Zcash Explodes, Bitcoin $700 and the DAO Hacker gets Paid. The "more than 3,000" refers to the launch-day ZEC/BTC ratio rather than USD price; the actual ZEC/USD opened at $2 then briefly spiked into the thousands.MB_20140107_r0yIn-NCdzw.txt — Title: KryptoKit Chrome Plugin — India Exchange Back Online — New India Bitcoin. Whisper: "Roger Vier, Eric Voorhees, and Vitalik Booterin". Authoritative spelling: Roger Ver, Erik Voorhees, Vitalik Buterin.MB_20140123_88o0UobD8mk.txt — Title: MadBitcoins Live — Tiger Direct Accepts Bitcoin — Google Flirts — Feathercoin. Same episode references both the Ethereum unveil and the upcoming Miami conference.MB_20130508_-pxASyWesuw.txt — Title: Coinbase scores $5M — Facebook and Bitcoin? — 23 year-old bitcoin millionaire. Whisper transcribes "$5 million" as "$5 billion"; the title and the underlying news (Coinbase Series A with Union Square Ventures) confirm $5M.MB_20130514_9vFBsZEC2Tk.txt — Title: Bitcoin Network Supercomputer — Amazon Coins — Summer of Bitcoin! (#017). Whisper renders the company name list with consistent mangles ("BitPermir" for BitPremier, "CoinSetler" for CoinSetter). Audible names verified against the YouTube description.MB_20130514_WVbJjcziFrA.txt — Title: DHS shuts down Dwolla to MtGox transfers — MadBitcoins! Special Report (#018). Whisper "DeWala" → Dwolla.MB_20130507_Z62jWNVt9Qk.txt — Title: China Bitcoin Rush — Forbes writer lives on Bitcoin — 0.8.2 update.MB_20130911_1qlxZIwWPaE.txt — Title: CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index — Avalon Refunds $2.9 million — BFL Allegedly Censors Refund Posts. Single episode contains the BPI launch, Kraken launch reference, Avalon refund, and BFL drama.MB_20150815_QNPX6cZIELc.txt — Title: Jesse Powell from Kraken — CoinCongress 2015. One of 16+ CoinCongress 2015 interview uploads.MB_20140225_6vgv2K-AS-s.txt — Title: MadBitcoins Live: Mt. Gox $121, Bitstamp $518. The entire 22-line transcript is the price-chart commentary; this is the most cited moment of the Gox-collapse week.MB_20140310_IIKseyBeN0I.txt — Title: Two-Bit Idiot Withdraws — Mt. Gox Files — Wikipedia Flirts — Bitcoin Endures. Chapter 15 filing in US bankruptcy court came Mar 9, 2014, two days after the Japanese filing.MB_20150509_TIpVI8zMRaM.txt — Title: NSA Illegal? — ItBit gets a license — Goldman buys in Circle and Bitcoin!MB_20130421_rvaw4RISqww.txt — Title: Butterfly Labs actually ships something — Gigahash in the Wild — MadBitcoins! The first MadBitcoins episode. Note the "I'm Fiat Currency" cold-open, which Thomas would rotate through dozens of variants over the next two years ("I'm a wire transfer on a weekend", "I'm a bullet from Andrew Jackson's body", etc.).MB_20140512_Tlr70svtuAI.txt — Title: Fake IDs in Bitcoin — Hundreds attend China BTC Summit — What is Peercoin?MB_20150130_JixYHLt700k.txt — Title: CoinTerra Bankrupt — Ripple Labs $30M — Exchange 796 Hacked!MB_20150506_iD0wKz0iM2U.txt — Title: BitReserve targets India — BitGo Attempts Software Patent — Miners in Everything with 21. 21 Inc was Balaji Srinivasan's venture; rebranded to Earn.com in 2017, acquired by Coinbase in 2018.MB_20130509_hIA03BWZuUE.txt — Title: Ars Technica has a Bitcoin Miner — Living on Bitcoin Week is Over — MadBitcoins!MB_20140115_nAK8yI3SLFE.txt — Title: Mt. Gox linked to Silk Road? — Sun Times Paywall — PayPal Believes in Bitcoin. Single episode contains the GoCoin/Litecoin announcement and the New York Bitcoin ATM BitLicense concern.MB_20141205_O3TF4izjp0o.txt — Title: Bitcoin Protection Bill in Congress — Terms of Service may change — BitLicense.MB_20141007_nMWEV-i_tGE.txt — Title: Blockchain scores $30M — Bitcoin Merchant Adoption Accelerates — Mycelium Wallet. The "bear whale" was a then-famous large sell wall on Bitstamp that briefly anchored the BTC/USD price.MB_20130529_g2rS1DBWj8I.txt — Title: Bitcoin Upswing Continues — Will Bieber and Bitcoin cause Bitcoin Breakthrough?MB_20130925_Iss5UANkOM8.txt — Title: Dark Wallet — Get Rich Quick with Bitcoin — Boost.vc's Stellar Startups. Whisper transcribes "Bitcoin" as "Pitcorn" repeatedly throughout this episode; the audible word is consistently Bitcoin.MB_20140402_jW2cRSvg-4Y.txt — Title: Square accepts Bitcoins — Silk Road: Bitcoin is not Money — Trezor Hardware Bitcoin Wallet.MB_20150129_IYQ5sMGe2-Q.txt — Title: MadBitcoins interviews Ledger Wallet #BitcoinMiami 2015. Sole on-tape Ledger Wallet mention in the early-MB corpus.MB_20130501_JHauTpxhPDk.txt — Title: Bitcoin prices are up — bitcoin mining is more difficult — Cypress? The title's "Cypress" is Thomas's own typo for "Cyprus".MB_20130427_7wlSTYPkYLs.txt — Title: Bitcoin prices fluctuate violently — viewer mail — MadBitcoins! (#006). Episode #006, sixth show ever.MB_20130815_Z82-YWPmxmA.txt — Title: Silk Road CEO Speaks! — Android Flaw Steals $5,700 — BitInstant Lawsuit. The FBI takedown of Ross Ulbricht came Oct 2, 2013, ~7 weeks after this episode.MB_20130624_NqdFOmK9jOY.txt — Title: Bitcoin Foundation must Cease and Desist? — Bitcoin Crowdfunding — Google Wallet.MB_20131118_jhfPrTbhhQc.txt — Title: Hoodies for the Homeless Success! — China Bitcoin Forever — Bitcoin Hearing Live.MB_20131119_7RkaavJSmgw.txt — Title: Senate Banking Committee Hearing on Bitcoin (Live). The "no counterparty risk" line is from Patrick Murck's prepared testimony for the Bitcoin Foundation, simulcast on MB.MB_20131119_m-tPTifq1ac.txt — Title: Peace News Now (Live) — Historic Congressional Hearing on Bitcoin (Part 1). Whisper renders "FinCEN" as "Fincent" — corrected inline.MB_20140127_lKb9roV42jU.txt — Title: CEO of BitInstant Arrested — Credit Cards Hacked Again — Megacoin Gravity Well. Whisper renders "Shrem" as "Shrum"; the canonical name is Charlie Shrem.MB_20140327_qjDVgmJXXzU.txt — Title: IRS declares Bitcoin is Property — CryptoRush Implodes — Doge Sponsors Nascar. The IRS notice was IRS Notice 2014-21, released Mar 25, 2014.MB_20140318_wJP2D-NFB88.txt — Title: Mt. Gox Allows Users to Check Balances — SatoshiCode! — Dorian Denies It All. The Newsweek piece by Leah McGrath Goodman ran Mar 6, 2014.MB_20140717_2rFrUW_pb2s.txt — Title: BitLicences Released — CheapAir $1.5 Million in Bitcoin Sales — Google +1's Bitcoin. Whisper renders "Lawsky" as "Lossky"; Thomas's "Super Nintendo Lossky" pun is preserved as-spoken.MB_20151209_TzSBc82ph8U.txt — Title: Wired Magazine reveals that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. The first of many Craig Wright = Satoshi cycles.MB_20130927_1uFJJiR01YY.txt — Title: MadBitcoins Live — Interview with Davi Barker, Hoodies for Homeless. Earliest Andreas Antonopoulos mention in the early-MB corpus.MB_20141009_zMFuc6Biclc.txt — Title: Antonopoulos Rocks the Canadian Senate, Spiral Charts, Now accepting!MB_20140417_3_OvFPfXF_w.txt — Title: DogeCon SF — Ron Paul — Gas Stations Should Accept Bitcoin — Shrem. Whisper transcribes "David Devorek" — uncorrected, as the SF Doge tip-bot founder's surname is not in the sidecar.MB_20140622_pt5L37azYjs.txt — Title: MadBitcoins interviews M.K. Lords, Bitcoin Not Bombs, Conference Organizer, Fire[arms?]. The canonical "M.K." is Megan Lords' professional name.MB_20140519_Kvj4GmvyBmk.txt — Title: Federal Reserve "Bitcoin Boon" — Bigger than Facebook — Bitcoin Costume Contest. The "mighty duck" reference is to Brock Pierce's child-acting role.MB_20140515_SmaDxjzItmM.txt — Title: FCC kills Net Neutrality, Allows Fast Lanes — Bitcoin2014 Amsterdam — Ebay Bitcoin.MB_20140608_PnEWceROaXg.txt — Title: Jason King of Sean's Outpost Completes his #Bitcoin Run Across America. Live finish at the BitPay offices in San Francisco.MB_20151030_Vq9dSThZx94.txt — Title: Bitcoin Panel with Bitcoin Belle, Thomas Hunt, Stephanie Murphy, Joseph Salerno, Blake And[ren?]. Whisper renders "Bitcoin Belle" as "Bitcoin Bill" and "Michele Seven" as "Michelle 7" — corrected against Thomas's own panel intro on the same tape.MB_20130612_4v2v7G2v6z4.txt — Title: Africa Bitcoin? — How to sell digital files for bitcoins — What Caused Flash C[rash]. Earliest CoinDesk reference in the corpus.MB_20130731_CibE05r38MI.txt — Title: Bitcoin Standards Group — Bitcoins First Charity — Watershed Cryptocurrency Ec[osystem]. Earliest "Bitcoin Magazine" reference.MB_20140703_sUfqQxUUPuQ.txt — Title: MiniBits — CoinTelegraph.MB_20151030_cDO09EVFSmg.txt — Title: Nick Szabo speaks at Bitcoin Investor (Las Vegas) 2015-10-29. The Szabo keynote, uploaded direct.