🎙️ 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
This episode is also on Twitter, Spotify, YouTube, Fountain, Rumble and more.
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We talked about:
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 & in Bitcoin
1:11:27 - A Pronoic Mindset: Alena’s Hope for the Future
My takeaways from this episode:
Alena recounts her path from legacy finance and insurance to co-founding SatoshiLabs and Trezor, creating the first consumer hardware wallet and opening an entirely new market for Bitcoin self-custody
She describes how early Bitcoin adoption in Prague, including the 2011 European Bitcoin Conference, convinced her the movement was real and worth dedicating her career to
Alena explains her role at Trezor, handling business, logistics, and growth while her co-founders focused on mining, hardware, and cryptography
She highlights how Trezor made Bitcoin security accessible, solving the digital risk of hacks and inspiring competitors like Ledger, Coldcard, and BitBox
Alena recalls co-creating the Casa Node, the first plug-and-play Lightning and Bitcoin node, which helped everyday users run their own infrastructure
She co-authored The Little Bitcoin Book with Alex Gladstein, Jimmy Song, and others, giving activists and newcomers a simple explanation of why Bitcoin matters for freedom
Alena reflects on 15 years of Bitcoin, noting both explosive innovation and constant attacks from media smears, regulatory pressure, and state attempts to confiscate coins
She warns of risks from KYC leaks, dormant asset laws, and state confiscations, framing them as new ways governments may try to co-opt Bitcoin
Alena emphasizes that inheritance, privacy, and multisig remain unsolved challenges where Bitcoin needs better tools for everyday people
She introduces GLOK, a new project to protect Bitcoiners from kidnapping, extortion, and physical threats through checklists, training, and an encrypted Nostr-based alert system
Alena shares her motivation to make Bitcoiners and women safer, pointing to the rise of crime, kidnapping, and sexual violence in parts of Europe
She reflects on women in Bitcoin, saying the community can be more honest and harsh than corporate life, but also more genuine, supportive, and empowering
Alena concludes that Bitcoin’s evolution is inevitable, and while threats remain, building freedom tech in both digital and physical realms is the best way to secure the future
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Follow Alena Vránová:
Twitter | Glok's Website | Nostr
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