Yep great pod. I might be bearish on e-cash, but Calle is a legend.
Discussion
Why bearish? Cause it's custodial?
Mainly yes. Giving up custody is not a scaling solution to Bitcoin. Calle says this himself (one of the many reasons I have the utmost respect for him).
Outside of that, I really don't think there is, or ever will be, a large appetite for people willing to become mint runners. High profile ones will be regulated into oblivion and grey market ones will be a huge rug risk to users.
What does that leave? Small knit 'community' or 'trusted' outfits like Bitcoin Beach etc where workable solutions (albeit with inferior privacy) already exist.
Just to add - I'm not against or ridiculing ANYONE building solutions to improve Bitcoin ecosystem usage.
All of the people doing so are far smarter than I, and I commend them for taking action. I just don't think custody is a viable long term approach.
However, right now, there aren't many other viable alternatives. Tradeoffs everywhere!