The Bitcoin Game #75: 2014 Interview with Dr. Jochen "Johoe" Hoenicke

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!

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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

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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;}