Bitcoin Maximalish: Interview with a cryptocurrency founder | Opinion

Before I was “the bitcoin guy,” most people in town knew me as “the Cattle Baron guy.” I had two separate runs there, totaling 16 years, serving under founder Jeff Wilson — and literally serving him — more than seven years as his Monday-through-Friday bartender.

I should disclose this interview is something of a buddy hookup. Roc Zacharias spotted a kindred spirit in me during the lockdowns after seeing my Facebook posts, and he recruited me. He had recently founded and was working remotely with a few others on Lunar Digital Assets (LDA), an incubation firm. Lunar was set up so independent contractors could team together to help interesting cryptocurrency projects grow. The reality is, people who invent cryptocurrencies aren’t always the most fun at a bar. They need marketers — people who not only understand cryptocurrency but are also social and can play around on X. Roc and I caught up at the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference, hugged hard and chat.

Roc: I first came across bitcoin around 2012, and by 2013 I was deep in. Back then, it was clear bitcoin was the biggest asset in the space, even if most of the world didn’t realize it yet. I started experimenting with ways to build on top of bitcoin — smart contracts, tokenization, colored coins. Some of those early experiments never took off… the technology and culture just weren’t ready.

In the early days, if you tried to build something beyond pure bitcoin payments, people in the community would push back hard. There was a mentality that “bitcoin is enough.” I’ll admit I was a “bitcoin maximalist” myself for a while. But over time I realized there’s value in experimenting. If we want bitcoin to stay relevant for another 14 years, we have to think about layers and applications. The culture has opened up to that now, with ordinals and other experiments.

I joke that I’m “maximalish.” I’m still laser-focused on bitcoin as the foundation, but I see opportunities to build responsibly on top of it. I don’t want to replace bitcoin — I want to complement it. Think of silver and gold. Back when Charlie Lee said Litecoin was the silver to bitcoin’s gold, that was one of the best marketing lines in crypto history. It positioned them not as competition but as allies. That’s how I see what we’re doing now: layering innovation without messing with the core protocol.

Let’s talk about what you’re actually building.

We’re creating an extension block architecture. It doesn’t touch bitcoin’s base layer at all — it just sits alongside. Miners can contribute, efficiency improves, and you unlock new things like smart contracts while still honoring bitcoin’s security. For me, that’s the holy grail: keeping bitcoin strong while making it useful for the next wave of users.

You’ve also been vocal about gaming and education. How does that tie in?

Gaming is where the next billion users are. My son’s generation lives inside games, and their beliefs about money and fairness are being shaped there. Right now, most games treat monetization as evil —  “pay to win.” But in Web3, if we do it right, players can earn assets, keep them and even resell them. That’s a completely different model. To make it work, you have to build slowly and organically. Show players they’re not being exploited.

On the education side, I’m passionate about accessibility. I’ve spoken at universities, but I’m also building metaverse spaces where anyone can join, in any language, with live translation and tokenized incentives. I dropped out of high school, but here I am teaching worldwide. That’s the power of crypto — lowering barriers and letting people create value from anywhere.

You also mentioned ethical standards. Why does that matter so much to you?

Because the gaming and social media industries have been monetizing addiction for years. Loot boxes, Skinner box mechanics, algorithmic dopamine hits — that’s not sustainable. Web3 gives us a chance to be transparent and fair. If we’re going to rebuild financial rails for the digital age, let’s not copy the worst parts of the old system. Let’s show the next generation that technology can serve them, not exploit them.

You’ve been at this for more than a decade. What still excites you about bitcoin?

Honestly? That it’s still here. Over 15 years in, stronger than ever, still the most secure, decentralized, censorship-resistant network on earth. When you start with something that solid, everything else becomes possible. Payments, contracts, gaming, education — they all stand taller when built on bitcoin. That’s why I’m maximalish: I’ll never stop believing in bitcoin as the base layer. But I’ll also never stop building on top of it.

In addition to being the CEO of LDA, Roc is also co-founder of QuickSwap and LitVM, serves on Polygon Grant Board and BitAngels Leadership Council. 

Guy Malone, a certified bitcoin professional, holds three certifications in digital currencies and has written and/or edited for publications including Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin News, Cointelegraph and serves as a consultant to the New Mexico Blockchain & AI Association as well as NM advocate for Stand with Crypto. Reader input for future columns is welcome. Contact Malone via copyedit@rdrnews.com and/or @RichNFrenz on X. Disclosure: Malone owns bitcoin buckazoids and other digital currencies, both for investment and community testnet purposes. Views expressed in this column are those of the author.

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