According to Director of Research for Black Rock Digital Assets, Will Su, uncertainty around advances in quantum computing may be the biggest unanswered question facing prospective Bitcoin investors today.

He speaks with Head of MARA Foundation Isabel Foxen Duke in this episode — sharing how Black Rock thinks about quantum risk, how their clients are responding to quantum advancements, and what Bitcoin developers can do to preserve investor confidence as this technology evolves.

MORE ON MFTV WITH BLACK ROCK →

- How BlackRock evaluates risks associated with Quantum Computing

- How investors are pricing these risks and effects on adoption today

- What investors want to see from developers to feel comfortable going forward

- How BlackRock views the "quantum timeline" and developers' race against the clock

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 — Intro

00:57 — Will before BlackRock

06:50 — Why BlackRock published a quantum paper

14:24 — The mitigation timeline debate

21:51 — What BlackRock wants from the PQ debate

29:27 — Why quantum concern is dampening adoption

41:18 — Developers stepping up

45:53 — Hardware and hybrid quantum architectures

53:15 — Are corporations overstepping?

59:38 — Corporate involvement in Bitcoin's PQ transition

"You can't do AI, HPC, or Bitcoin without electrons. Acquire electrons, then generate maximum value per electron."

MARA is one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the world, and it’s now moving into the energy and AI/HPC infrastructure territory the whole industry is racing for. What happens to Bitcoin mining when the race for AI power is quickly gaining popularity?

In his second appearance on MFTV, Fred rejoins Head of MARA Foundation Isabel Foxen Duke to explain what's driving that race. AI inference has skyrocketed demand for power, and the bottleneck is energized land — places where the electrons are already flowing.

Fred also lays out MARA's position: a power portfolio few can match, a partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures (a large-scale data center operator with deep hyperscaler and financing experience), and an in-house team spanning digital infrastructure operations, energy, and capital markets.

Bitcoin mining, meanwhile, becomes the load that monetizes power the moment it switches on. A conversation about energy, AI, and how the assets a Bitcoin miner spent years accumulating map onto the most contested market in tech.

CEO of Layer Two Labs, Paul Sztorc, first proposed the Drivechains upgrade (BIP300/301) to enable Bitcoin-native Layer 2s that are trustless and economically aligned with miners.

Today, Paul joins Head of MARA Foundation Isabel Foxen Duke to explain why he believes most current thinking around Bitcoin scaling—including Lightning—is fundamentally misguided, and why many proposed L2s will never generate enough value for Bitcoin's long-term security budget.

We also dive into the political history of Bitcoin soft forks—from SegWit to Taproot—what needs to change in the BIP process, and why Paul believes mining pools, not just Core developers, should play a much larger role in Bitcoin governance.

A fascinating conversation on Bitcoin scaling, miner incentives, governance, and one of the ecosystem's most debated upgrade proposals. Whether you agree with Paul or not, his arguments are among the most consistent—and provocative—in the space.

"Quantum computing has been 10 years away — or five years away, depending who you ask — for decades."

Brandon Black (Rearden Code) is a Bitcoin developer known for his work on protocol proposals like APO, CTV, and MuSig2 — and one of the loudest voices arguing that quantum urgency in Bitcoin is overstated.

In this episode, Brandon joins BIP-360 co-author and MARA Foundation Head Isabel Foxen Duke to break down the real difference between hardware and software breakthroughs in quantum computing, why a working quantum computer is likely much farther away than people think, and why a new theory called rational quantum mechanics could mean breaking Bitcoin's encryption isn't just difficult — it might be physically impossible.

After struggling to find Bitcoin educational materials in her native language, Mexican developer Dulce Villareal launched Librería de Satoshi to make Bitcoin education accessible to Spanish-speaking students in the "language they dream in."

This effort eventually expanded into B4OS—a program that's trained more than two dozen Spanish-speaking Bitcoin Core contributors to date.

In this episode of MFTV, @Dulce_xyz sits with host Isabel Foxen Duke to discuss:

• Why access to Bitcoin education in non-English languages is essential to the long-term decentralization of the network
• How language barriers can quietly concentrate influence among a small subset of developers and builders
• Why Bitcoin's long-term success depends on arming builders and users everywhere—not just those who speak English — with effective user and technical education

In the last year, quantum resistance has become one of the most actively debated topics in Bitcoin technical circles, with growing calls for developers and cryptographers to address potential threats to Bitcoin's signature schemes before they become urgent.

Much of this renewed attention has been driven by advances in quantum computing hardware, alongside improved estimates for the resources required to run attacks against Bitcoin's underlying cryptography.

In this episode of MFTV, Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden breaks down these developments, what they mean for Bitcoin's quantum timeline, and why he believes the recipe for panic isn't too much attention on quantum—it's too little.

Perfect pseudonymity your entire Bitcoin life. One KYC mistake, and anyone can track every transaction you've ever made — today or in 10 years.

Matt Odell, founder of Ten31, breaks down why financial surveillance doesn't just target the powerful — and why anyone leaving a digital trail is exposed.

In this episode, he sits down with Isabel Foxen Duke to discuss why financial privacy is a prerequisite for wealth, and why one simple change to how you use Bitcoin could substantially improve your privacy today.

More than 3 billion people around the world still lack reliable internet access — with many forced to spend huge portions of their income just to get online.

Obi believes Bitcoin fixes this.

Through SateNet, communities across Africa are deploying locally owned satellite internet infrastructure — paid for and sustained with Bitcoin.

The result:

• Costs drop dramatically
• Profits stay in the community
• Lightning & Fedimint infrastructure gets deployed locally
• and people begin saving sats naturally through everyday economic activity

This is one of the most compelling real-world Bitcoin adoption models we’ve seen

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MARA SVP of Government Affairs Jayson Browder shares the unique role Bitcoin miners — especially public mining companies — play in advocating for Bitcoin in American politics.

This interview offers a rare look into how public Bitcoin companies coordinate in Washington, prioritize policy initiatives affecting both industry and retail users, and advocate for pro-Bitcoin legislation at every level of government.

Jayson sits down with MARA Foundation Head Isabel Foxen Duke to discuss:

• Advancing positive tax policy for Bitcoin users (e.g. de minimis exemptions) and miners (e.g. removal of double taxation)
• The impact Bitcoin public companies are making through the BitcoinVoter initiative
• The two biggest challenges facing pro-Bitcoin lobbyists today
• The Bitcoin education gap among American politicians — and how the industry is working to close it

A fascinating conversation for anyone who wants to understand what the largest Bitcoin companies are doing behind the scenes to advance pro-Bitcoin policy in America — and ultimately around the world.

Bitcoin is, critically, an open-source project—with most of the development community building on Bitcoin in an open-source way.

If Bitcoin's codebase were not open-source, it would no longer be permissionless, trustless, or censorship resistant. Its position as "cypherpunk" money is firmly dependent on that fact that anyone can find, review and use its code.

The mining industry, however, typically operates with a different attitude. A small handful of companies make all Bitcoin miners—including chips, firmware, hardware, etc—with all information about how these machines work behind a heavily guarded wall.

In this episode of MFTV, Skot, creator of the first fully open-source ASIC (BitAxe) and boardmember of the 256 Foundation, sits down with Isabel Foxen Duke to share how the open-source mining revolution is growing—and why the mining industry is poised for "absolutely vertical growth" as its tech stack opens up for the world to build on.

Following a series of strategic acquisitions in the energy and AI/HPC infrastructure spaces — MARA recently reaffirmed its long-term commitment to Bitcoin with the launch of the Bitcoin-focused MARA Foundation

MARA CEO Fred Thiel explains why the company — which consistently ranks among the world’s largest Bitcoin miners — believes it has a “unique obligation to protect and nurture the health of the protocol.”

In this special episode of MFTV, Head of MARA Foundation Isabel Foxen Duke sits down with Fred to discuss the Foundation’s mission, its long-term priorities, and the key issues it's committing to support.

The conversation explores Fred’s perspective on some of Bitcoin’s biggest long-term challenges and opportunities, including:

• The potential impact of quantum computing — and how Bitcoin is preparing
• How institutional adoption could shape Bitcoin governance and culture over time
• Mining use cases that can support a sustainable Bitcoin security budget
• Global and domestic catalysts for Bitcoin adoption
• Bitcoin adoption in the Global South and its role as a freedom-preserving technology

Senator Cynthia Lummis explains why the lack of a de minimis tax threshold makes everyday Bitcoin payments impractical — and what a realistic fix looks like.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis walks through the current state of the CLARITY Act — what's passed, what's left, and why traditional banking has become the biggest unexpected obstacle to legislation that isn't even primarily about them.

Few lawmakers have done more to put Bitcoin on the map in American politics than Senator Cynthia Lummis.

At a pivotal moment for digital asset policy in Washington — and following her recent announcement that she does not intend to seek re-election — Sen. Lummis joins MARA Foundation’s Isabel Foxen Duke for a conversation on the future of Bitcoin in the United States and the political battles still ahead.

In this inaugural episode of MARA Foundation TV (MFTV), Lummis discusses the path forward for crypto market structure legislation in the U.S., what’s needed to get the CLARITY Act across the finish line, and how policymakers may overcome potential resistance from the banking industry.

The conversation also explores our prospects for a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the importance of protecting Americans’ rights to self-custody, safeguards for Bitcoin builders and developers, and who may carry the torch for Bitcoin policy leadership in Washington after Lummis’ retirement.

Welcome to the very first episode of MFTV 💫