Orange Pilling Crypto With Cats and Wizards | With Udi Wertheimer

One of the most influential voices in “Bitcoin Season II,” Udi Wertheimer is one of the most controversial and, perhaps, most misunderstood figures in the Bitcoin community broadly. A self-identified “survivor” of Bitcoin maximalism, Udi’s critiques of Bitcoin-only tribalism – and the suppression of nuanced discussion that arises as a result – made him the perfect spokesperson for post-Ordinals Bitcoiners looking for someone to represent their “Bitcoin-first” rather than “Bitcoin-only” views. Inspired by Ordinals, Udi and partner @ercwl founded @TaprootWizards – one of the most unique and enigmatic companies in Bitcoin – with a broad mandate to “onboard crypto users to Bitcoin… by any means necessary.” From launching two of the most popular Ordinals collections in the world – to campaigning for progressive Bitcoin opcodes (i.e. CAT) – Udi and the Wizards relentlessly orange pill the most maxi-neglected low-hanging fruit… non-Bitcoin crypto users. As always, you can view this episode on YouTube or Spotify via the linktree in my bio. This episode is powered by Best In Slot (@bestinslotxyz), the leading API for Ordinals and BRC20 data aggregation and indexing—as well as Citrea (@citrea_xyz), a leading 'Bitcoin Rollup' technology and core contributor to the BitVM alliance. Timestamps: 00:20 Udi: The Bitcoin Maxi “Cult Survivor” 03:10 Maxis cheering on Gary Gensler 06:30 Ordinals: Tokens arriving on Bitcoin 08:55 How NFTs helped encourage Bitcoin self-custody 11:40 Making Bitcoin cool again for crypto people 13:55 Why did Udi start the Taproot Wizards company? 16:00 The Wizards’ pitch to investors 18:50 “Successful fundraising” is an oxymoron 20:40 Why did Ryan Dell join the Wizards? 24:00 Taproot Wizards is not strictly an “L2” company 27:00 What went into the Taproot Wizards NFT launch 29:30 The NFT auction and inspiring Solana user participation 32:50 The importance of launching during the bear market 34:30 Every active crypto trader has Phantom wallet 37:10 Cultural differences between Bitcoin, crypto and different wallet users 40:45 Why Udi was impressed by Odin.fun 43:30 Udi is NOT a Runes fan 45:40 Don't be too defeatist about Runes’ failure 47:40 Championing OP_CAT and the Bitcoin Core power vacuum 49:40 Why Bitcoin Core has “failed” 51:35 Bitcoin Core’s weakness around OP-Return drama 55:00 How will Bitcoin devs get things done? 57:40 Udi’s OP_CAT political lobbying effort 01:00:20 Why Udi thinks CTV is unlikely to pass 01:03:40 Robin Linus wanted OP_CAT: What happened? 01:05:30 Were Taproot Wizards a blessing or a curse for OP_CAT?