Most Asian markets still make buying and saving Bitcoin painfully hard. James of Ârc argues the fix is not another protocol breakthrough — it is local founders shipping simple DCA and savings products market by market.

James joins me from Mirissa Beach, Sri Lanka, where Arc is partnering with Fulgur Ventures on a continuous Bitcoin accelerator. He is a former EY advisor and Playfair Capital investor who previously built with Alexander Mann (now Fulgur GP) and later sold Consequence, an early LLM-on-databases company.

The conversation covers why the program is continuous rather than a six- or twelve-week cohort, how to apply at arc.lk/Fulgur, why Sri Lanka ranks among his top-three country bets, the South Coast talent melting pot, funding DCA apps across Asia even where operators already exist, AI agents as Bitcoin users, and why Strike expanding should not scare local founders.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Intro: James of Ârc

00:35 — From Accenture to Venture Capital

02:13 — Building With Alex Singh

03:21 — Fed Up With Monkey JPEGs

05:10 — Ârc Fulgur Bitcoin Accelerator

06:35 — Continuous Program at Mirissa

07:34 — Two Paths Into Ârc Fulgur

10:13 — Why Sri Lanka?

12:02 — Top-Three Country Bet

12:23 — Whales, Leopards, Beach Hub

15:00 — South Coast Talent Melting Pot

18:36 — 34 Local Founders Already In

21:39 — Fund DCA Apps Across Asia

25:23 — AI Agents Will Use Bitcoin

28:18 — Room for Many Asian Operators

32:23 — Just Focus on Your Customer

32:39 — Apply Now

Links:

• https://x.com/James_of_Arc

• https://x.com/FulgurVentures

• https://arc.lk/

Stephan Livera links:

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Mike Belshe, co-founder and CEO of BitGo, walks through how institutional Bitcoin custody actually works in 2026: qualified custody, self-custody co-signing, and why BitGo still centers a 2-of-3 model after pioneering P2SH multisig in 2013.

BitGo now operates as a US-regulated qualified custodian and public company, while still offering the same wallet stack individuals can run in self-custody mode. The conversation covers what “institutional security” means in practice — HSM-backed co-signing, open-source recovery paths, multi-jurisdictional key storage (including how BitGo moved WBTC when US regulation looked hostile), and why on-chain multisig still beats vendor-locked MPC for cold ops.

They also dig into the political and operational risks around large Bitcoin holdings: KYC and PII as honeypots, France tying names to amounts, the war on cash reaching Bitcoin, and whether an EO 6102-style confiscation risk still belongs in the threat model. On the institutional side, Belshe pushes back on multi-custodian setups that add failure modes, explains insurance limits versus the size of the Bitcoin market, and why splitting wallets matters after events like Bybit.

Timestamps

00:00 — Intro: Mike Belshe of BitGo

00:59 — Don't Lose Self-Custody's Power

05:41 — Retail Deserves Institutional Security

07:16 — Humans Are Terrible at OpSec

09:56 — 2-of-3 Protects Theft and Loss

14:35 — Retail Pays 160 Basis Points

19:22 — Why People Drift Toward Banks

20:35 — Self-Custody Is Never Trustless

23:39 — Why BitGo Sticks to 2-of-3

30:31 — A Public CEO Holds Zero at Home

31:27 — KYC Leaks Are Government Honeypots

39:28 — France Doxed Bitcoin Holdings

41:30 — War on Cash Reaches Bitcoin

43:45 — Multi-Jurisdictional Key Storage

45:29 — Executive Order 6102 Could Return

47:43 — Quantum-Resistant Wallets Today

49:27 — Multisig Beats MPC

53:33 — Splitting Custodians Adds Failures

58:29 — 2-of-2 MPC Can't Recover Loss

01:00:57 — $5–7B Insurance vs $1.6T Bitcoin

01:03:35 — Bybit Lost 10x by Not Splitting

01:05:21 — Multi-Institution vs Qualified Custody

Links:

• https://x.com/mikebelshe

• https://x.com/bitgo

Stephan Livera links:

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Walter Maffione, CEO and co-founder of KaleidoSwap, join me to explain how the project grew from an RGB Lightning DEX into a broader swap engine and LSP stack — Lightning as rails between Liquid, Arkade, Taproot Assets, Spark, and RGB — plus KaleidoSDK, desktop app, and browser Extension.

We dig into web app and SDK integrations for merchants and unified-balance wallets, how HTLC atomicity works across layers, BOLT 12 multi-asset offers and Nostr discovery for competing providers, Bitcoin-only scope with Flashnet and Utexo bridges for external stables, and a product lineup of desktop app, browser extension, and dual SDKs.

Walter also covers agentic payments via MCP plugins, self-sovereign local models with Tether’s QVAC, fee ranges around 0.5–1%, and a one-to-three-month mainnet launch path for the extension, swap provider, and web app.

Timestamp:

00:00 — Intro: Walter & KaleidoSwap

00:50 — From RGB to Multi-Layer Swaps

02:14 — LSP Plus Swap Provider Stack

03:42 — Merchants, Stables, Unified Balance

05:38 — Why Swap UX Took Over Wallets

06:42 — Liquidity Ops and Mainnet Path

07:58 — AI Attacks After Boltz Shutdown

10:23 — Defending Non-Custodial Swaps

12:18 — How Atomic Swaps Actually Work

13:36 — RGB, Liquid, Arkade, Spark

14:36 — Open Spec, BOLT 12, Nostr Discovery

18:23 — Pay Anything via the SDK

19:34 — Bitcoin Layers Only + Bridges

22:05 — Desktop, Extension, Dual SDKs

25:05 — UX That Adapts to the User

26:32 — Agentic Payments and QVAC

33:22 — MCP Plugins, Keep Your Own AI

35:11 — Fees Around 0.5–1%

35:57 — Launch Timeline: Next 1–3 Months

37:05 — Find KaleidoSwap Online

Links:

• https://x.com/bit_walt

• https://x.com/kaleidoswap

• https://docs.kaleidoswap.com/whats-kaleidoswap/introduction

Stephan Livera links:

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Recent attacks exposed how even large, educated Bitcoin holders remained exposed through single-vendor setups. The core lesson is that self-custody alone does not remove single points of failure; deliberate design is required.

Dhruv Bansal, co-founder and CISO of Unchained, joins to examine these incidents and the practical barriers that keep most hardware wallet users on single sig despite years of warnings.

The conversation covers the gap between theoretical multisig knowledge and actual adoption, the trade-offs between anonymity and regulated inheritance paths, why newer layers attract attacks first, and the need for human review of AI-generated code at Bitcoin firms.

Bansal argues that cryptographic hardware will become ordinary infrastructure for everyone in an AI-driven internet, not a niche Bitcoin tool, and that mature risk systems rely on fractal networks rather than centralized controls.

Timestamps:

01:42 — No Single Points of Failure Allowed

05:34 — Even Large Holders Skip Multisig?

09:14 — You Could Be Your Own Failure Point

13:35 — Anonymity vs KYC

16:27 — Don't Half-Ass Your Bitcoin Security

21:23 — One Wallet, True Multi-Vendor Security

24:24 — Single Sig Can Still Lose Everything

30:26 — Why Everyone Will Need Hardware Wallets

32:06 — Why Attackers Hit Bitcoin L2s First

36:32 — Bitcoin Firms Must Human-Review AI Code

40:05 — Bitcoin as Humanity's AI Defense System

42:59 — Remove Single Points of Failure Forever

45:25 — Hardware Wallets at Every Gas Station

47:34 — Bitcoiners and Key Entropy

Links:

• https://x.com/dhruvbansal

• https://x.com/unchained

• https://www.unchained.com/

Stephan Livera links:

• Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

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00:00 - Interview with Gabriele Vernetti of Stratum V2 @gitgab19

15:38 - Interview with Jimmy Kostro @jimmykostro

29:30 - Interview with James Check of checkonchain

Links: https://x.com/gitgab19

https://x.com/jimmykostro

https://x.com/_checkonchain

https://x.com/_checkmatey_

https://x.com/stratumv2

Bitcoinchiangmai.org

Interviews at Bitcoin Asia 2026 Day 2

00:00 - Piriya Sambandaraksa

05:14 - Alexander Mann

11:04 - Shone Anstey of LQWD

17:03 -Liam Eagen from Ideal Group

Links:

• https://x.com/piriya

• https://x.com/idealgroup

• https://x.com/liameagen

• https://x.com/LQWDTech

• https://x.com/shoneanstey

• https://x.com/alex_singh_mann

Stephan Livera links:

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In this episode, I interviewed several people at Bitcoin Asia 2026.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Interview with Adam Poulton

06:28 Interview with Giovanni Santostasi

15:18 Interview Jeff Walton of Strive

34:11 Interview with Alex B from ArkLabs

Links:

• http://x.com/Giovann35084111

• http://x.com/adampoulton

• http://x.com/bergealex4

• http://x.com/arklabshq

• http://x.com/punterjeff

• http://x.com/strive

Stephan Livera links:

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In this episode, Piers Macrae demonstrates Wallet Playground and explains why hardware wallets are signing devices, not wallets.

Timestamps:

01:10 — Teach Me vs Do It For Me

03:23 — Test Any Wallet Free in Browser

09:09 — Coldcard Drama Forced Early Release

14:03 — Generate Seeds Using Your Webcam

17:52 — Hardware Wallets Aren't Real Wallets

21:52 — Only 1% Use Multisig for Life Savings

25:33 — Self-Custody Like Firearms Drilling?

27:30 — Only Tiny Percentage Will Self-Custody

Links:

• X: @mineracks — https://x.com/mineracks

• Wallet Playground: https://walletplayground.com/

• mineracks: https://www.mineracks.com/

Stephan Livera links:

• Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

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