All Episodes

February 27, 2020 43 mins

Welcome to episode 75 of The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. I'm Rob Mitchell.

I started podcasting in late 2014, and one of the greatest things to happen in those early episodes was landing an exclusive longform interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke, the 2014 Bitcoin Hero. Badass white hat Bitcoin hacker Johoe (at least that's what I call him) rescued insecure Bitcoin UTXOs from Blockchain.info wallets before they could be taken by less-scrupulous hackers. This was after his contributions to understanding the RNG issues with Android Bitcoin wallets in 2013. He also rescued insecure Bitcoin from one other platform, which he admits for the first time in this interview. Some months after this interview, Johoe responsibly published a side-channel attack on a TREZOR, which eventually led to Satoshi Labs hiring him as a TREZOR Cryptographer. Johoe's Bitcoin mempool stats site is yet another contribution he's made to the space.

This is the only audio (or video) interview with Johoe that I'm aware of, and it's worth a listen if you didn't catch it the first time. It's even educational, as Johoe explains concepts like how Bitcoin signatures work and what specifically went wrong with various wallets, in a way that's accessible for non-technical people like myself.

Hope you enjoy my first "rebroadcast" to celebrate 75!


EPISODE LINKS

Johoe first addresses repeating R value issue due to 2013 Android RNG bug
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=251743.msg2890179#msg2890179

Counterparty Bug first addressed by Johoe on BitcoinTalk.org
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg6354731#msg6354731

Johoe discovers the recently compromised Blockchain.info addresses
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9774894#msg9774894

Blockchain.info Wallet
https://blockchain.info/wallet

Coinbase
https://www.coinbase.com

Counterparty Wallet
https://counterwallet.io

Johoe demonstrates TREZOR side channel attack (April 2015)
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/crypto/trezor-power-analysis

Satoshi Labs announces hiring Johoe as TREZOR Cryptographer
https://blog.trezor.io/ethical-hacker-and-bitcoin-hero-johoe-joins-satoshilabs-as-trezor-cryptographer-36c9a6b10d52

Johoe's Bitcoin Mempool Statistics site
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,all


THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY ETORO

Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app.

Join now at b.tc/etorogame.


Bitcoin Keychains from BTCkeychain.com

While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain.

As Seen On
The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}


Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.