Ep. 95: Alena Vránová - The Fight for Digital & Physical Security

My guest today is Alena Vránová, entrepreneur, author, and builder of freedom tech who has spent over a decade pioneering tools that defend both digital and physical sovereignty. She co-founded SatoshiLabs (Trezor’s mother company), which launched  the world’s first commercially available hardware wallet, joined the Casa Node team to make running Bitcoin and Lightning easy, and co-authored The Little Bitcoin Book, a global bestseller introducing why Bitcoin matters for freedom and finance. Today, she is building GLOK, a project dedicated to protecting Bitcoiners against kidnapping, extortion, and physical threats. In this episode, Alena shares her journey from legacy finance into Bitcoin, recounting how she helped establish an entirely new market for hardware wallets. We discuss the ongoing attempts to co-opt Bitcoin through regulation and confiscation, the dangers of KYC and data leaks, and why physical security is the next frontier for Bitcoiners worldwide. Alena also reflects on the role of women in Bitcoin, the growth of a truly global community, and why she believes building tools for self-defense—digital and physical—is essential for human freedom

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-- SPONSORS & AFFILIATES --

→ Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it): https://affil.trezor.io/SHUn 

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-- LINKS –

Alena’s Twitter: https://x.com/alenasatoshi

Alena’s Nostr: https://bit.ly/4msttRb

Glok’s Website: https://glok.me/ 

Efrat's Twitter: https://twitter.com/efenigson

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-- CHAPTERS –

00:00 - Coming Up

01:40 - Intro to Alena & Her Background

08:27 - Alena’s Journey Into Bitcoin

11:08 - Building Trezor: Pioneering Hardware Wallets & Their Importance

19:17 - Bitcoin Nodes: From Fringe to Mainstream

22:37 - The Little Bitcoin Book

29:08 - The Inevitable Evolution of Bitcoin: Regulation, Co-opting, Confiscation

36:27 - Tech Innovation in Bitcoin

40:02 - Kidnapping, Extortion & “Glok” - Alena’s New Security Project

45:07 - Operational Security Checklist

48:07 - Kidnapping Use Case & Glok’s Deterrent Solution

59:17 - Women’s Safety in Europe

1:00:17 - Empowering Women Generally &