#179: Kevin Mulcrone

— Kevin Mulcrone built Lily Wallet, a multi-sig quorum setup that uses open-source software for self-sovereign Bitcoin custody with a focus on user experience.

— He wrote a thesis on "Free Banking" systems that existed in the United States for 30 years before the Civil War, showing how private currencies competed until governments monopolized money to fund warfare.

— Lily supports Cold Card hardware wallets via USB connection and uses Andrew Chow's HWI library; planned features include Trezor/Ledger support, Lightning Network integration, and PSBT signing for distributed key setups.

— The roadmap includes running a full node within Lily, implementing fee selection, coin selection controls, and eventually support for CoinSwap privacy transactions through market-maker protocols.

— Mulcrone emphasizes Bitcoin as programmable, permissionless money and sees multi-sig as foundational security infrastructure; he views Bitcoin's competition with fiat as a long, gradual process rather than hyper-Bitcoinization.

— He previously built Ethereum-based event ticketing and submarine swap products; he sees value in service providers like Unchained offering customer-friendly custody while maintaining cypherpunk principles.

— Start with Lily Wallet if you want to set up multi-sig vaults with Cold Card in a user-friendly interface; verify receive addresses on-device rather than trusting software to prevent malware from stealing funds.

— Distribute hardware wallet risk across multiple manufacturers (Cold Card, Trezor, Ledger) in your multi-sig setup to reduce exposure to a single device's vulnerability or backdoor.

— Consider running a BTC Pay Server or using services like River to DCA Bitcoin, then periodically sweep consolidations into your multi-sig vault to manage UTXO count and maintain a tiered custody structure.