The Bitcoin Business Podcast

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Tim Niemeyer and Jeff Hilsenbeck, co-founders of the Illinois Bitcoin Council (IBC). Tim and Jeff break down the core pillars of the 501(c)(6) non-profit organization—education, advocacy, and collaboration—and discuss their ongoing efforts to paint the state of Illinois orange des...

In this unscripted solo episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles breaks from the usual format to share a raw, deeply personal reflection on the chaotic 72 hours surrounding the recent ColdCard hardware wallet vulnerability. What began as a peaceful family evening in Chicago quickly devolved into a high-stakes emergency after a 60-message alert...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Staci Castopoulos, host of The Bitcoin Nova podcast and member #1 at the Chicago Bitcoin Collective. Staci shares her experience running Angie's Hair Studio alongside her mom near O'Hare, where they accept Bitcoin directly at point-of-sale using Square terminals to eliminat...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with David Bennett, the host of the daily podcast Bitcoin& and an expert in molecular biology and permaculture. David maps out a profound, first-principles exploration of how a systematically corrupt currency functions exactly like a biological virus—infecting and devaluin...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Eric FJ, the first returning guest and co-founder of Conduit Market. Eric shares a major look into the Open Markets Movement, detailing how a global collective of developer misfits completely threw out their old codebase to deliver an upgraded, NIP-99 compatible alpha ecosystem.