The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 164 ｜ The REAL Story Behind the FTX Scandal ｜ Marty Bent ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast

00:00:00.000 My guest today is a significant threat to the globalist vision of our financial future.

00:00:06.800 This vision is something that progressives have only been able to dream about in the past.

00:00:12.240 But technology has caught up to their wildest fantasies of control.

00:00:17.880 They envision a near-term future in which the greatest means of control over you,

00:00:24.480 your money, can be turned on and off like a tap.

00:00:30.000 When your money is fully digitized under government control,

00:00:34.020 every transaction, no matter how small it will be, will be monitored and logged.

00:00:40.340 And if you say the wrong thing, support the wrong cause, associate with the wrong person or group,

00:00:46.000 you will be brought back in line when the access to your own money is denied.

00:00:51.880 My guest is a threat to this progressive globalist design

00:00:55.720 because he dares to believe in the fundamental American view that individual freedom is a good thing.

00:01:03.700 He has this crazy notion that you should be able to control your own money,

00:01:07.580 that money in a way is speech.

00:01:10.080 He is a threat to their design because his whole career has been devoted to building a way

00:01:16.260 to maintain financial freedom in the face of governments drunk on power and control.

00:01:22.480 He believes the best way to do this is Bitcoin.

00:01:26.440 To that end, he founded TFTC.io, a media company focused on Bitcoin and freedom in the digital age.

00:01:35.700 He's a partner at 1031, a leading investment platform focused exclusively on investing in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

00:01:44.400 He is also the host of Tales from the Crypt and the co-host of Rabbit Hole Recap,

00:01:51.440 both podcasts about, what else, Bitcoin.

00:01:55.160 In a world barreling towards more centralized financial control,

00:01:59.640 all of this work in Bitcoin makes Marty Bent a radical.

00:02:04.720 And as you'll hear, he's just fine with that.

00:02:08.220 Today, please welcome my podcast guest, Marty Bent.

00:02:13.240 We begin in just a minute.

00:02:15.840 First, let me ask you, how long did you dream about owning a home before you bought one?

00:02:20.100 Did you spend time in your 20s thinking about what it would be like to have a place of your own

00:02:24.320 with your own mailbox and your name on it?

00:02:27.340 Did you see your future kids playing in the yard, jumping on the trampoline

00:02:30.780 or running around laughing and screaming at each other?

00:02:33.320 Well, did it ever begin with the imagining of how much everything was going to cost?

00:02:43.220 Probably not.

00:02:44.460 Life is not cheap and the good cheap and the good life costs even more sometimes.

00:02:49.780 That's why it's good to find areas where you can save more money, put more back.

00:02:54.480 American financing is here to help you do exactly that.

00:02:57.320 Whether it's a refinance of your mortgage at a lower interest rate or a consolidation loan

00:03:03.060 to get out from under those things like high interest credit card bills,

00:03:06.340 which are going higher and higher, or maybe some other type of loan entirely.

00:03:12.180 American financing is here and they're there for you.

00:03:15.460 They've been working for you and not the bank for over 20 years.

00:03:18.500 And their family owned business style is not going to only make you feel at home.

00:03:22.800 You'll save money.

00:03:24.380 So call American financing, 800-906-2440, 800-906-2440, or go to Americanfinancing.net.

00:03:45.260 Welcome, Marty.

00:03:46.780 Glad to be here, Glenn.

00:03:47.840 Thank you for having me.

00:03:48.540 You bet.

00:03:48.980 You bet.

00:03:49.740 I want to start with news of the day.

00:03:51.800 The FTX scandal.

00:03:56.540 I mean, I don't know anything about them.

00:03:59.940 Just looking at the CEO of the hedge fund who looks like she's about 12 and sounds like she's 12.

00:04:07.600 And him, wow, these people don't instill confidence.

00:04:14.440 But people loved them and a lot of really smart people got behind them.

00:04:20.680 Yeah, it's astonishing.

00:04:21.800 Sam Bankman Freed, SBF, as he's commonly referred to, has become this character, a wunderkind that is going to be the next trillionaire.

00:04:33.320 And it seems that he was just running a big fraud, a Ponzi scheme in the literal sense for many years.

00:04:41.080 I've been suspicious of SBF and FTX specifically for a bit over a year now.

00:04:47.780 Their whole origin story is a bit odd.

00:04:50.140 And that starts with Alameda, the trading company.

00:04:53.460 Right.

00:04:54.100 And then FTX spun out of that.

00:04:55.860 So the trading company is like a hedge fund, right?

00:04:58.540 Yes.

00:04:58.860 Okay.

00:04:59.300 So it's a hedge fund and his girlfriend runs the hedge.

00:05:03.720 I mean, it's just like all kinds of flares go up immediately.

00:05:08.620 Wait, your girlfriend is running that one. 1.00

00:05:10.320 And they ran into trouble, right?

00:05:14.740 And took Bitcoins from FTX?

00:05:21.040 They didn't take Bitcoins, what they took.

00:05:23.380 So in a big theme in the broader cryptocurrency space, particularly the exchange world, is these exchanges will launch what they call an exchange token.

00:05:34.180 I mean, Binance has BNB, FTX has FTT, which was FTX token.

00:05:40.360 And the idea behind these exchange tokens, I think it's a bit scammy.

00:05:44.040 It doesn't really make sense from first principles.

00:05:45.680 But the idea is they pre-mine a token, I believe in FTT's case, a couple hundred million of these FTT tokens.

00:05:55.320 And what they'll do is they'll release that to their users, and their users can buy that token and use it as a piece of equity in the exchange overall, getting some revenues from the trading revenues as well.

00:06:08.880 Wow, that sounds like a scam.

00:06:10.300 Yes, it is a massive scam in my opinion.

00:06:13.220 But the mechanics of these exchange tokens a lot of the time is they'll pre-mine them, and they'll only release a certain amount to market to freely float, and then they'll hold the rest.

00:06:24.420 So they're able to inflate the value of those tokens pretty easily with some spoof trading.

00:06:30.180 And it seems like that is what FTX did, is they launched this FTT token, and then they kept a lot off market, gave a lot to Alameda, and then Alameda was using that token as collateral to get out loans of better money, like dollars and Bitcoin.

00:06:45.660 Oh, my gosh.

00:06:47.120 Yes.

00:06:47.460 That's just, I know there's, you know, it's an unregulated space, but that seems like just common sense.

00:06:58.520 Yes.

00:06:59.000 And would be regulated anyplace else, would it not?

00:07:01.960 Yeah, it's an overt, unregistered security.

00:07:04.260 Okay.

00:07:06.180 So they were playing games with tokens.

00:07:11.640 He's supposedly, you know, some philanthropist that really, do you buy into any of that?

00:07:18.260 No.

00:07:18.940 I mean, I don't, I don't not believe that he believes he's a philanthropist.

00:07:24.680 But from what I understand, he's very heavily influenced by the effective altruism movement headed by William McCaskill.

00:07:32.800 Which is what?

00:07:34.400 It's this, it's an extension of utilitarianism.

00:07:38.700 And these people believe that they are the smartest people on the planet, and they can identify where humanity has the most pressing needs.

00:07:48.820 And the whole idea of effective altruism is to get as rich as possible, identify the problems that exist that they believe are most pressing, and then allocate as much capital there.

00:07:58.680 But when you dig into the underlying philosophy, and some of the trade-offs they're willing to make, it does begin to get a bit evil.

00:08:08.280 Ends justify the means?

00:08:09.440 Yes, exactly.

00:08:12.460 He was a huge donor, promised a billion dollars to the Democrats.

00:08:18.540 If Trump was going to win, he was supposed to donate, I don't remember, 300 million this cycle, and then the next cycle he would donate the rest.

00:08:27.160 That's obviously never happened.

00:08:30.820 I'm trying to remember, 30 million, 30, yeah, 30 million, right?

00:08:36.000 Or billion.

00:08:36.880 I can't remember when, remember when a million used to be a lot of money?

00:08:40.840 Soon we're going to be saying trillions in this context.

00:08:43.060 Yeah, I know, I know.

00:08:43.820 So he donated that money.

00:08:47.720 Everybody was with him.

00:08:51.940 Was this another hedge?

00:08:54.660 I wouldn't be surprised.

00:08:58.800 There's an odd history, not only with Sam and the Democratic Party and Gary Gensler,

00:09:05.380 and it seems like for the last year, two years, he's been trying to buddy up with people in D.C.

00:09:11.420 to develop a regulatory moat for FTX and what he's doing,

00:09:15.600 and potentially get through some loopholes as is coming to the fore, particularly with Gary Gensler.

00:09:24.900 But yes, it seems that he is trying to use his money or his users' money to get influence in D.C.

00:09:32.920 to protect himself.

00:09:34.720 And that's one of the big things of the last year he's really been posturing.

00:09:38.620 Like, hey, we need to regulate this space, and only exchanges like mine should be able to operate.

00:09:42.840 Do you have any idea, on his ledger, I think it just said Trump to lose.

00:09:51.080 Stop Trump or Trump to lose.

00:09:52.780 What is that?

00:09:53.540 Do you know?

00:09:54.320 I don't know for certain.

00:09:55.220 However, FTX, during the 2020 election, the lead-ups to that election,

00:10:02.060 they launched a prediction market for the election where you could bet on the outcome of the election.

00:10:08.920 And basically, you vote Trump win, Trump lose, or Biden win, Biden lose, and you place your bets there.

00:10:17.460 Those were the names of the tokens.

00:10:18.940 So, when it comes to this Trump to lose position, it's a bit odd, because it seems like he may, potentially, we don't know for sure,

00:10:27.040 but he may be developing that position before the 2024 election even begins.

00:10:33.660 Wow.

00:10:36.920 When I see somebody want their company to be regulated,

00:10:42.840 I'm immediately suspicious.

00:10:45.700 I have never, and I'm an entrepreneur, I've never at any time said,

00:10:49.940 you know what would be really great is if we could get more government regulation in our building.

00:10:55.260 That's insane.

00:10:57.320 He was actually wanting to centralize Bitcoin and its usage, right?

00:11:06.820 Yes, well, actually, which is interesting here, SBF, Sam, is not a fan of Bitcoin.

00:11:13.760 So, what he really cared about was regulating the casino.

00:11:17.080 Again, I think there needs to be a clear distinction between Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency space.

00:11:22.940 I truly believe Bitcoin is the signal, and all the altcoins are simply forms of scenerage that these people use to gamble

00:11:31.840 and try to develop war chest, basically.

00:11:35.540 Can you explain, for people who don't know, the difference between the altcoins and Bitcoin?

00:11:42.560 Many differences.

00:11:44.140 I guess we'll start from first principles.

00:11:46.500 I would argue that Bitcoin, it had somewhat of an immaculate inception where it's not going to be able to be replicated.

00:11:55.020 So, once Bitcoin was launched, that was a pretty incredible feat that Satoshi Nakamoto brought to the world.

00:12:01.100 And then, as Bitcoin became popular, people saw, hey, Bitcoin's gaining in value.

00:12:08.140 Maybe we should launch our own.

00:12:09.420 It is open source code.

00:12:11.020 We can form code and create our own tokens.

00:12:12.960 I would argue that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency we're going to have a pure launch and actually be like a free market development.

00:12:22.560 Everything after that has a lot of attention.

00:12:24.600 People know when it's going to be launched, and they can essentially game when the system, when that coin is launched.

00:12:30.780 But even going from there, if Bitcoin is going to be successful, if any other cryptocurrency that's claiming to be the next Bitcoin is going to be successful, they have to be sufficiently decentralized at the base layer.

00:12:43.460 And it is glaringly obvious to me that there is no altcoin that compares to Bitcoin in terms of decentralization.

00:12:52.700 The amount of individuals who are running the software, verifying transactions on their own, not depending on a third party, the amount of mining computers that are spread geographically throughout the planet, the amount of wallet software that's been developed in the space really sets Bitcoin apart from these alternative currencies.

00:13:10.940 But these altcoins, what people promise is, hey, we're going to give you the next Bitcoin.

00:13:16.760 But time and time again, through these cycles throughout the decade, they just turn out to be pump and dumps.

00:13:23.320 So he was he was for the altcoins.

00:13:27.100 Yes.

00:13:27.560 So he runs an exchange that really makes most of their money by allowing people to speculate on these alternative currencies that can speculate on Bitcoin as well.

00:13:35.600 But the majority of his revenues are probably driven by speculation on on these different cryptocurrencies.

00:13:42.100 So tell me, like, tell me the difference between them and like Coinbase.

00:13:49.800 Not much other than Coinbase is probably not.

00:13:52.600 I would even though I'm not the biggest fan of Coinbase, I don't think Brian Armstrong and team are running like an overt Ponzi scheme.

00:13:59.540 Right.

00:14:00.220 OK, that's good to know.

00:14:01.340 That's good to know.

00:14:02.000 Is there anybody that you can trust in that space?

00:14:05.920 Yes, I do think so.

00:14:07.480 So Cash App is an app that many people have.

00:14:11.560 They offer Bitcoin only.

00:14:13.340 There's an exchange.

00:14:14.760 River.com.

00:14:16.040 River is a Bitcoin only exchange.

00:14:18.200 I typically recommend that people only interact with these exchanges that have a pure focus on Bitcoin.

00:14:24.560 Why?

00:14:24.880 Because I think, again, I think that's where the signal is.

00:14:28.200 And I actually honestly, I believe Bitcoin is an imperative as we transition into the digital age.

00:14:34.980 We get the CBDC world where we get free market money where people are not subjected to the digital panopticon.

00:14:43.720 I think the altcoins are distractions.

00:14:45.520 And again, going back to first principles, Bitcoin has the best chance of ensuring that we have freedom in the digital age, particularly around a monetary network.

00:14:54.480 So before we get into all of that, things like FTX going down, that just that just makes the case of the government so much stronger with anybody who's not paying attention.

00:15:09.980 Yes, right.

00:15:11.360 Yes, it's it's a it's a great shame, but it also highlights something that Bitcoiners have been pining on for years, which is Bitcoin since it's a digital bearer instrument.

00:15:22.380 It's like cash in the digital world.

00:15:24.000 You can hold it.

00:15:24.740 You can possess it.

00:15:25.740 There's a there's a very famous line in Bitcoin circles, which is not your keys, not your coins.

00:15:31.260 So if you're not possessing your Bitcoin, if you're not downloading a wallet and actually taking it off an exchange and taking it into your possession, you are beholden to the whims of that exchange that you're trusting.

00:15:45.400 You essentially have an IOU when you hold it on an exchange.

00:15:47.440 I mean, I don't trust my I could just see myself having being that guy who like had all his Bitcoins and they gold storage and took it out and he puts it.

00:15:59.000 He can't remember his keys.

00:16:00.640 And that's just me all over.

00:16:03.480 Well, I get that.

00:16:05.240 And that's a very common sort of response to this and fear.

00:16:09.860 But I would argue practice makes perfect.

00:16:12.040 This is a new way of interacting with money.

00:16:14.560 And what I recommend is people start small and buy on an exchange or maybe you have a friend that will give you Bitcoin after going to dinner.

00:16:23.200 You pay for the bill and he'll pay you in Bitcoin to make up for it.

00:16:26.780 You download a wallet and you practice receiving, sending and then backing it up.

00:16:31.500 And then two other points is the user experience around this process of receiving and securing Bitcoin is getting significantly better over the years.

00:16:41.500 And I think it will continue to get much easier as we move forward and more developers and designers come to make it easier for your average day or your everyday person.

00:16:51.460 And then number two, there's other services that you can use where you do what's called collaborative custody.

00:16:57.500 So there's a company here in Texas called Unchained Capital and via Bitcoin, you can set up a condition to spend Bitcoin where it says, hey, I can't move this Bitcoin unless I have two signatures out of these possible three signatures.

00:17:12.600 And so what this allows you to do is to engage with a company like Unchained, where you can set up a basically conditional wallet that says, hey, I can't move this Bitcoin unless I have two or three signatures.

00:17:24.780 You hold two wallets that will allow you to sign two of the signatures and Unchained holds one in this model.

00:17:31.140 You don't have all the risk on yourself, but you also do have certainty that your Bitcoin is where you think it is.

00:17:37.620 Right. Because that's the problem. I mean, that's what makes it fiat.

00:17:42.720 If we don't know, we don't know where to go. I'm convinced there's no gold in Fort Knox.

00:17:48.100 I mean, I'm sure it's all, you know, split between all of the countries and been, you know, rehypothecated a million different times to different countries.

00:17:59.920 Um, and that's the big fear and the big advantage of Bitcoin.

00:18:08.560 If you have it, um, you and you know where it is, you know, its value, you, you know, it's not being sold over and over and over again and leveraged against something else, which would provide a much more stable economy.

00:18:24.080 Yes. And I mean, this goes back to FTX. This is exactly what they were doing. Their users thought that they were holding their Bitcoin, but it turns out they're rehypothecating it to their trading arm that was losing it on crazy leveraged bets.

00:18:37.760 But there's ways again with Bitcoin's native properties that you can ensure that your Bitcoin is not being rehypothecated.

00:18:43.780 So let's talk about, um, I mean, I remember, uh, I went to a Catholic school growing up and we studied the end times and they talked about the, you know, the mark of the beast where you won't be able to buy groceries or do anything.

00:19:01.520 You won't be able to travel unless, you know, that little chip that's in your hand, you know, is somehow or another scan before we even had scanners.

00:19:09.900 Uh, and everything I look at what's coming between ESG and central bank, digital currency, I'm not saying it is the mark of the beast, but I'm not, not saying that either.

00:19:22.940 That is total and complete control of your life.

00:19:27.420 Right.

00:19:28.240 And they, they openly admit it.

00:19:29.900 I'm not sure if you've seen the clip from Augustine Carstens, who's the head of the bank of international settlements, which many people think is the, uh, the biggest boss of all the banking.

00:19:39.640 Institutions in the world.

00:19:40.840 He's overtly come out and said that we want to central, uh, central bank, digital currency because it will allow us to have complete control over people's money.

00:19:50.080 We can drop airdrop money into their accounts.

00:19:54.420 We can take money away.

00:19:55.480 We can institute negative interest rates.

00:19:57.500 We can tell them, Hey, you can only spend this money at this place within this amount of time.

00:20:02.180 That is crazy.

00:20:04.420 So that's really what they mean when they say you'll own nothing because you won't really own it.

00:20:10.980 They can take it.

00:20:12.280 No.

00:20:12.440 And that's, that's why I'm again, so passionate about Bitcoin because you can truly own it.

00:20:16.940 And the, the prospects of it not existing, uh, and the prospects of the future in a world in which Bitcoin doesn't exist are very gloomy.

00:20:26.000 When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, you open your eyes.

00:20:29.700 And the first thing you think about is pain.

00:20:31.720 It used to be for me, I'm going to face another day of this for years.

00:20:36.680 I suffered from depilitating, uh, pain in my hands yesterday because it turned so cold here.

00:20:43.060 Um, I had the same pain and I almost couldn't do the show because all I could think about was the pain.

00:20:49.260 Um, I had stopped taking my relief factor a few weeks before cause I'm feeling pretty good.

00:20:54.260 I, uh, grabbed the relief factor and really by the, by noon, by the time I took the second dose, I was feeling much, much better.

00:21:04.240 Please try relief factor.

00:21:06.040 It's not a drug.

00:21:07.120 It was developed by doctors to try to fight inflammation.

00:21:10.800 Try it today.

00:21:12.260 See if you can't get out of pain and get your life back.

00:21:14.640 Three week quick start is $19.95.

00:21:17.080 Just try it.

00:21:18.000 $19.95.

00:21:19.560 ReliefFactor.com or call 800-4-RELIEF.

00:21:23.240 ReliefFactor.com.

00:21:24.260 Um, before we get into the, the alternative, so set the stage of what has to happen for a, uh, a central bank digital currency, a CBDC.

00:21:37.960 What, how close are we to that and, and what has to happen?

00:21:42.700 And then, and then I want you to take me through, how do you stop that?

00:21:48.240 Okay.

00:21:49.020 Uh, what has that?

00:21:50.480 Well, today there was just an announcement in the consortium of commercial banks.

00:21:53.980 Here in the United States are going to do a trial run with the federal reserve for, uh, for a digital dollar.

00:22:00.320 I'm not sure if you saw that, but it was literally a couple of hours ago that was announced.

00:22:04.060 Uh, what needs to happen?

00:22:05.800 They need to develop the technical prowess to create the, the actual apps that will, um, basically get this into the hands of everyday American citizens.

00:22:17.000 Uh, which, uh, looking at the history of the government, I'm not very tech savvy.

00:22:21.860 So we may have time on our side in that regard, right?

00:22:24.520 But one only has to look to China and their social credit scoring system.

00:22:28.700 It is possible.

00:22:29.520 They have done it.

00:22:30.300 Um, and so, uh, essentially all they need to do is get a consumer app.

00:22:36.060 It doesn't even need to be a consumer app.

00:22:37.860 It can, uh, they can integrate with other apps like Twitter or WhatsApp, whatever it may be.

00:22:43.760 They essentially just need to turn on a switch at the federal reserve where the federal reserve starts handling individual accounts instead of federal reserves.

00:22:51.580 That's the, are you familiar with the Hamilton project up in Boston?

00:22:55.340 Uh, I don't, I don't think it was the, the central bank Boston, um, or central, uh, or federal reserve Boston, um, was, uh, doing a test of something called something they called the Hamilton project.

00:23:10.060 It was, uh, a central bank coin, uh, and they were testing it with MIT.

00:23:15.420 They say it was ready and it, it will require that you don't have a bank account at a regular bank anymore.

00:23:23.100 Your bank is the federal reserve and, you know, Hey, come get your, come get your Bitcoin as you can spend it now and turn in your dollars and your dollars are worth a dollar today.

00:23:36.960 You know, a couple of weeks down the road, there might be worth 70 cents and then they're worth nothing.

00:23:42.100 Yeah.

00:23:42.600 Or you can't access them because he said something wrong on Twitter.

00:23:45.420 That's yeah.

00:23:47.260 So that is the model.

00:23:48.820 The federal reserve will essentially cut out the commercial banking system.

00:23:52.640 And there's some interesting theories about what's going on with, uh, overarching fed policy, uh, and, and why it has been as aggressive as it is.

00:24:01.700 Many people think it's a signal from the commercial bank saying, Hey, we don't want the CBDC world.

00:24:07.040 Um, but yeah, essentially if the CBDC does become a thing and it does become widespread, it, uh, the federal reserve will have complete control over everybody's money.

00:24:21.660 It'll be digital dollars.

00:24:22.860 Um, but those dollars will, um, trackable 100%.

00:24:27.280 Oh yes.

00:24:27.700 And, and, and, you know, if I remember, um, during the energy crisis in the 1970s, if your license plate was odd numbered, you could only buy, you know, gas on these days.

00:24:40.600 Um, this is individuals, you're not essential, so you don't get to buy gas and you, you are only going to be allowed to go here so you can buy just that amount of gas.

00:24:52.400 I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's down to the individual level, which we saw that you had two stakes last week.

00:25:00.920 That's too many.

00:25:02.040 That's too much carbon emissions.

00:25:03.380 You're not going to be able to buy gas this week.

00:25:05.120 That's how granular they can get with this.

00:25:07.660 Um, when it comes back to vaccines, I mean, they tried to roll it out with the vaccine passports.

00:25:12.700 I think that was botched a bit, but, uh, that was, that was, I believe that was an attempt by them to begin to seed this type of, uh, government run app into the population.

00:25:23.400 So when you, I'm sure you saw the black mirror with the social credit score, I remember when I, I first saw that I knew what was going on in China and I'm like, don't, don't, don't, don't laugh. 0.82

00:25:35.760 They're, they're trying to put this together in China at the time.

00:25:39.160 And now it is here through ESG.

00:25:43.180 And I don't know if you saw, but, uh, in the news, I think it came out yesterday.

00:25:48.320 We talked about it this morning on the show.

00:25:50.360 Um, the world bank is moving into that and, uh, Freddie and Fannie are now moving into the S part.

00:25:59.940 And they say they'll, they'll have another 37 million people that will be able to buy a house because we won't just look at your score, your credit score.

00:26:09.880 There's going to be a score on other things, not defined other things you can do that don't have anything to do with money or savings or ownership that will raise a score for you.

00:26:24.180 And we'll start to have 37 million new homeowners, which will drive the price of everything through the roof.

00:26:34.900 Um, and, and, and control and control.

00:26:38.820 Not only control, it's just self-centered control via self-centorship and forcing unnatural actions on people.

00:26:45.400 Or maybe they'll go out of their way.

00:26:46.960 This is what we see in China.

00:26:48.300 People get scored on, uh, how good of a neighbor they are and you'll find people going out of their way to just knock up on people's doors and say nice things so that their social credit score goes up.

00:26:58.000 It's really, it's exactly like the black man episode you brought up.

00:27:02.320 So what has to happen for it not to go that way?

00:27:06.980 I mean, I think first things first, people need to get vocal, very vocal about it, which I'm happy that you are.

00:27:13.480 And many others have been saying, Hey, this is a line in the sand that we're not going to cross.

00:27:18.420 This is anti-American.

00:27:19.820 This is look how far along we are on ESG.

00:27:23.460 And they're still saying it's a conspiracy theory.

00:27:26.700 Even though vantage score, you could go to their website and you can see it now in practice.

00:27:33.000 It's the E and the S, not the G yet.

00:27:36.820 I mean, that is, it's scary, but I actually think ESG is taking a big blow this year, particularly with the European energy crisis.

00:27:44.420 Yes.

00:27:45.300 So Germany obviously moved first, uh, with their attempts to go to zero carbon, uh, net zero.

00:27:52.480 And they decommissioned a bunch of reliable natural gas, coal, and nuclear power plants in favor of wind and solar.

00:28:00.080 And there's a good argument to be made that, uh, what's going on over in Ukraine is only possible because Germany was in such a position of weakness because of their energy policy.

00:28:09.800 I think many people are waking up to that.

00:28:11.500 And then, uh, I do think people are beginning to get very fed up with the woke capitalism that exists in our world today as well.

00:28:20.380 And, um, I do think ESG has taken a blow and I think, um, as people in the media are talking to family members and friends, we need to really lean in to the winds that, that freedom has gotten this year.

00:28:35.000 And because the overt hypocrisy and overt insanity of ESG is being acutely highlighted this last 12 months.

00:28:45.360 Um, uh, and then Bitcoin is the other way to fix it too.

00:28:50.580 So people speak out and say, we don't want that.

00:28:53.840 And, uh, and Bitcoin in the world where the central government, you know, it, it, it, it's,

00:29:04.240 it's absolutely destined to happen if there's a economic collapse, you just reset everything, you close the banks and then you say new currency and it's all digital.

00:29:14.700 Um, I think that is on the horizon for sure.

00:29:19.760 Um, what happens in that situation with Bitcoin?

00:29:25.740 How can you, how would you use it or how could it keep you free?

00:29:31.080 Yeah.

00:29:32.100 Well, uh, luckily Bitcoin's a globally distributed network.

00:29:36.620 So individuals around the world are holding a state of the ledger and of the consensus rules.

00:29:42.760 Um, and so, I mean, Bitcoin, as long as people had internet access would operate as, as advertised as, as designed.

00:29:51.320 Um, and it runs parallel to the incumbent system.

00:29:55.500 Um, so if they crash the incumbent financial system, flip the switch on the banks one day, Bitcoin would be perfectly fine.

00:30:02.240 It's running on a completely different network, uh, that is run by individuals.

00:30:06.360 And can it be tracked?

00:30:08.300 Uh, there's nuance here.

00:30:10.000 I mean, so Bitcoin, um, can be tracked.

00:30:13.280 And I said, the way the ledger works, you have, um, these outputs that can be tracked through the ledger.

00:30:19.160 But unless you attach, uh, like personal identifying information to that, that, uh, transaction output, uh, you can transact in what's known as a pseudonymous way where the network has no idea who you are.

00:30:34.740 Uh, the only way people can track you on the network is that they have, uh, a connector between your personal information and a particular output that you associated with that.

00:30:45.460 So an example of that is buying on a centralized exchange where you have to do the KYC AML requirements where you have to give them your name, your address, you buy Bitcoin there.

00:30:55.160 And then if you send it to a personal wallet, the exchange essentially assumes like, Hey, I'm going to assume that this address on the network is associated with the information they gave us when they signed up. 0.59

00:31:06.380 Crap.

00:31:06.960 So what, wait, cause I, I have it in Coinbase. 0.97

00:31:10.900 So how would I get it out without marking?

00:31:13.220 So there are, uh, there are, there are tools, uh, that allow you to basically, uh, disconnect your, your future spending of Bitcoin from, uh, the historical spending.

00:31:26.900 Uh, these are collaborative transaction tools known as Coinjoins.

00:31:30.940 Uh, there's companies like Samurai, uh, which run, uh, a Coinjoin coordinator called Whirlpool.

00:31:36.520 There's, um, uh, you have to be, I know, no offense, yes, but you have to be either your age or a total and complete geek.

00:31:45.420 Well, I'll make it, I'll make it even easier.

00:31:47.360 The best way to do that is to work for Bitcoin is to spin up an address or spin up a wallet and sell services for Bitcoin directly to somebody who's not going to ask you for your information.

00:31:57.800 Um, so for my website, uh, it's connected to a wallet that I control.

00:32:03.120 Um, when somebody wants to pay me, they spin up an invoice and that invoice is created for my computer, uh, with an address that only I know.

00:32:11.340 Um, so in that instance, only the person who pays me and I know that I control that address.

00:32:17.080 And the government hates that because you could wildly understate your income.

00:32:24.040 Potentially.

00:32:24.600 Yes.

00:32:25.500 I'm not that you do.

00:32:26.840 I would be horrified if you did.

00:32:29.960 We are above board.

00:32:30.980 Yeah.

00:32:31.320 Okay, good news and bad news for you.

00:32:34.320 And then we get right back to the podcast.

00:32:36.400 Um, first bad news.

00:32:38.180 Looks like beef prices are probably going to increase by another 20% early next year.

00:32:43.960 Isn't that great?

00:32:45.300 Nothing like the largest increase in meat prices in U.S. history to cheer you up right before the holidays.

00:32:52.200 Well, here's the good news.

00:32:54.020 Good ranchers is allowing you to lock in your price on all the meat you buy this November.

00:33:00.680 Remember, when you subscribe during their Black Friday savings, this is your chance to inflation proof your meat budget.

00:33:08.380 You're going to get $70 of free USDA choice steaks and save an additional $25 on every box when you subscribe.

00:33:17.380 Forget the high prices and the low quality of meat at your grocery store.

00:33:21.860 Treat yourself or someone you love to Good Ranchers, their award-winning service and quality this holiday season.

00:33:29.640 Remember, visit GoodRanchers.com slash Glenn or use the promo code Glenn at checkout to grab their best offer of the year.

00:33:37.100 Black Angus is one of the premier breeds of cattle for high-quality beef.

00:33:41.340 So, you don't have a normal Black Friday this year.

00:33:43.820 Have yourself a Black Angus Friday with two free steaks from Good Ranchers.

00:33:48.860 American meat delivered.

00:33:51.860 Can we go through just a couple of things?

00:33:58.940 Who's the guy who started it again?

00:34:01.580 Satoshi Nakamoto.

00:34:02.800 Okay.

00:34:03.620 Nobody knows where he is, right?

00:34:05.280 Or who he is.

00:34:06.200 No.

00:34:07.200 They.

00:34:08.360 She. 0.93

00:34:08.920 Nobody knows.

00:34:09.700 Okay.

00:34:10.900 Has his Bitcoin been touched?

00:34:13.660 No.

00:34:13.960 Has never moved.

00:34:17.680 Is there a possibility he lost his key or forgot his key?

00:34:22.280 Many possibilities.

00:34:23.780 Yeah.

00:34:23.940 Right.

00:34:24.440 He could have lost his key.

00:34:25.860 How much?

00:34:26.520 How much?

00:34:27.500 There's 21 million?

00:34:30.800 Yes.

00:34:31.080 There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin.

00:34:33.520 About just over 19.2 million have been distributed to the network.

00:34:38.660 Okay.

00:34:39.020 So, it's almost all out.

00:34:40.900 When it's all out, then Bitcoin mining stops, right?

00:34:44.260 No, it does not.

00:34:46.840 Okay.

00:34:47.780 Explain Bitcoin mining.

00:34:50.140 So, Bitcoin mining.

00:34:53.540 Essentially, you have a bunch of individuals around the world who run these very specialized

00:34:57.420 computers and they're racing to find a special hash that allows them to add a block of transactions

00:35:05.400 to the ledger.

00:35:08.640 When they do that, they get rewarded in Bitcoin.

00:35:10.840 The miner that adds the block gets rewarded in Bitcoin.

00:35:14.120 And there's two parts of that reward.

00:35:17.000 The one that you're alluding to that will eventually get us to 21 million Bitcoin is the subsidy.

00:35:22.340 So, right now, the subsidy per block is 6.25 Bitcoin.

00:35:26.440 And then the other half of that reward is transaction fees.

00:35:29.220 So, when you send Bitcoin, a lot of times you'll attach a transaction fee to it because the availability of the amount of transactions that can get into a block is scarce.

00:35:41.180 And so, individual users compete to get in their transaction confirmed by attaching a fee to it.

00:35:48.260 So, when all 21 million Bitcoin has been dispersed to market, mining will still exist, but the miner revenue will be driven by the fees that are attached to transactions.

00:35:57.240 So, is this what they talk about, that it has limited capability for real heavy global traffic?

00:36:06.640 It takes too much energy and it's going to be a lot slower at some point.

00:36:11.560 Is any of that true?

00:36:15.580 I told you before we started, I have just enough information to make me wildly wrong and dangerous.

00:36:22.340 So, you view the protocol layer as a settlement layer, where since there's that scarcity of block space and only so many transactions can be included in each block,

00:36:31.600 in the future, when Bitcoin is widely adopted, many believe it will become a settlement layer where large transactions are settled.

00:36:39.900 But, what you can do with Bitcoin is lock it up in second layers that allow you to transact instantly and relatively cheaply without having to wait on a transaction to be confirmed at the protocol layer.

00:36:55.380 So, the most famous second layer solution right now is Lightning, the Lightning Network.

00:37:00.440 And, via the Lightning Network, you can send as small as a hundredth of a penny, as small amount as a hundredth of a penny, to thousands of dollars over that.

00:37:11.200 And, you don't have to wait for something to happen at the protocol layer.

00:37:17.160 Why?

00:37:17.480 Isn't the protocol layer, again, forgive me, isn't...

00:37:21.140 I'm trying to...

00:37:22.760 It's like, you know, it's like talking to a golfer, to a guy who's never seen a golf course.

00:37:29.360 In the protocol layer, though, where it is verified, isn't that the key to Bitcoin, that it is?

00:37:37.400 It's independently verified, right?

00:37:41.080 And so, you know the money exists, and you know you can verify where it is going.

00:37:44.980 If you don't verify it, how do you stop false transactions?

00:37:50.240 So, with Lightning particularly, what you do is you lock up a Bitcoin at the protocol layer, and you anchor to that.

00:37:58.480 So, you point to that amount of Bitcoin that you've locked on the Lightning Network, and that is your verification.

00:38:04.700 And you can only move that amount within what is called a channel.

00:38:08.260 So, you open up channels with counterparties, each putting up some Bitcoin that they want to transact freely, and cheaply, and quickly.

00:38:15.120 And they always have the verified transaction output that they can point to.

00:38:21.320 And if that's not there, they can't operate or spend and receive on the network.

00:38:26.060 So, isn't...

00:38:29.020 Again, I'm so sorry.

00:38:30.460 Man, I apologize.

00:38:31.300 We're getting into the weeds.

00:38:31.860 This whole thing is just going to be a bloodbath.

00:38:33.440 Ugly.

00:38:35.020 But isn't Ethereum...

00:38:37.080 Doesn't Ethereum have...

00:38:39.840 I thought that's where the Lightning Network came from.

00:38:42.200 Aren't they doing...

00:38:45.360 These other coins are being used, I guess, as a backbone, a spine for something else.

00:38:51.360 Do you know what I'm talking about?

00:38:52.720 Yeah, Ethereum marketed itself out of the gate as the world computer.

00:38:57.520 So, Bitcoin... 1.00

00:38:58.440 Comparing Bitcoin to Ethereum, Bitcoin is slow, dumb, and stupid. 1.00

00:39:02.080 It only does a few things, but it does them very well. 1.00

00:39:05.120 And it does them in a very distributed and robust manner.

00:39:08.160 Ethereum saw what Bitcoin was doing and said, hey, we want to do more.

00:39:13.120 We want to do complex scriptability.

00:39:16.280 We want to make all these applications.

00:39:17.840 We want to make all these other networks using the Ethereum network, which they have done successfully.

00:39:25.000 But in doing so, they made a big trade-off, which is to do all that, it's computationally expensive.

00:39:31.400 It takes a lot of data.

00:39:32.320 So, what we've seen over the last six years since Ethereum launched is the amount of data that is associated with that network has gotten so large that it is nearly impossible for individuals like you and me to run our own nodes at home to make sure that the network is distributed.

00:39:50.420 So, while Ethereum and similar networks can do all that cool stuff, at the end of the day, it's all for naught because they're completely centralized.

00:39:58.060 And if the state wanted to come in and flip a switch and say, hey, you guys can't do this anymore, it's becoming relatively trivial for that to happen.

00:40:05.480 Whereas with Bitcoin, you'd have to go around the world, find all the individuals who are running nodes and physically have them unplugged.

00:40:12.740 Explain what a node is.

00:40:13.800 So, a node is essentially a computer that you run that has the rules of Bitcoin that allows you to verify that other participants are acting within the rules of Bitcoin.

00:40:28.400 So, you'd have to shut down the entire internet, wouldn't you?

00:40:35.980 Because you couldn't find the nodes, or can you?

00:40:39.320 No.

00:40:39.600 I mean, you can run them behind Tor VPNs, so it's hard to find.

00:40:43.800 And I think that is the best thing about Bitcoin, myself, is it's not going away.

00:40:52.220 No.

00:40:53.260 And do you know with even quantum computing, can it open?

00:41:00.500 I mean, because the quantum computing, we are so close to being able to hack into anything.

00:41:05.640 Is this going to change the underlying technology of Bitcoin?

00:41:14.320 There's been a long, ongoing debate about quantum, and people, particularly the protocol engineers working on Bitcoin, seem to think that if quantum did come, there are certain cryptographic libraries that can be ported in to make it quantum resistant.

00:41:30.880 But many of them would also say they don't think it's as close as many others think it is.

00:41:35.240 Okay.

00:41:35.640 That's good news.

00:41:37.660 The long term, I mean, I invested in Bitcoin.

00:41:46.420 Mark Andreessen said to me, just before he opened up Coinbase, he said, do you know much about Bitcoin?

00:41:54.460 I said, no.

00:41:56.040 And he said, you should take 10 grand and just invest in Bitcoin.

00:42:00.880 And I remember leaving his office, and my wife said, what is the Bitcoin thing?

00:42:05.460 And I said, I don't know.

00:42:06.200 I've looked into it.

00:42:07.040 I don't understand it at all.

00:42:09.560 And Warren Buffett said, if you don't understand it, you shouldn't invest in it.

00:42:15.500 And it was a fraction of a penny at the time.

00:42:19.820 I wouldn't be here at this table if I had done that.

00:42:24.440 But, you know, when I did buy it, my wife and I just said, let's just take money that, you know, we're fine losing and just put it in and then just hold it.

00:42:35.520 Because who knows?

00:42:36.360 It was the closest thing I could think of as what it would be like if you would have invested with Alexander Graham Bell.

00:42:42.660 You know, it's a game-changing idea, and it doesn't come very often.

00:42:49.280 Do you think it still has the future with all the stuff that's going on with the government now?

00:42:54.800 Do you still think it has the future of $100,000, $200,000 a coin?

00:43:02.800 Yes, certainly.

00:43:03.680 I mean, I'm not going to try and predict when that will happen.

00:43:06.060 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:06.200 But I think...

00:43:07.440 Here's what I'm wondering, because I keep watching it go down.

00:43:10.800 And, I mean, we've made it packed.

00:43:14.080 We weren't going to sell any of it.

00:43:15.660 Just hold it.

00:43:17.920 And as I'm watching it go down and I see what the government is doing, you could see a future where it's just over or not.

00:43:28.240 I don't think so.

00:43:29.200 Why?

00:43:29.480 Because Bitcoin provides a step function improvement on utility of money from an asset perspective where it's very scarce.

00:43:40.520 It's better money than the dollar, which is being inflated away.

00:43:43.500 It's better money than the Bolivar.

00:43:45.400 It's better money than pesos.

00:43:46.640 So, from the aspects of a monetary good, it's just objectively superior in terms of the qualities.

00:43:55.080 It's scarcer, more saleable, more divisible.

00:43:58.300 You can verify it very easily.

00:44:00.540 So, it's better there.

00:44:01.600 And then the network, the peer-to-peer network, allows you to transact directly with a counterpart.

00:44:07.480 So, a lot of the use cases that we've seen to date in Bitcoin happen with remittances in emerging markets, a lot of emerging markets that are sanctioned from the U.S., like Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, other areas, where you have individuals who don't really like their government either.

00:44:27.680 But they are punished because we have this just overarching sanctions that really restrict them from sending money back to their family members.

00:44:37.960 Bitcoin has allowed them to do that for the last 13 years.

00:44:41.180 And the activity in that particular use case with remittances has never gone away.

00:44:46.000 It's only increased.

00:44:46.960 And so, that inherent utility, in one use case, being able to send money back home to family members isn't going away.

00:44:53.680 And it is, Bitcoin is the only network that allows these people to do that.

00:44:58.620 How come, how come it didn't take off, like when Venezuela, I mean, that was the perfect case for Bitcoin to come in and just say, yeah, forget the fiat.

00:45:11.980 We're going here.

00:45:13.460 Why didn't it take off?

00:45:16.040 It's so new.

00:45:17.440 It's, like you said, this is an Alexander Graham Bell, like, invention.

00:45:22.660 It's so foreign to individuals all across the world.

00:45:26.720 It's a new monetary good.

00:45:28.200 And new monetary goods just don't show up once a decade, once every year, once every half century.

00:45:33.860 That happened once every millennia, arguably.

00:45:37.680 And so, we're in the early, early stage of Bitcoin where humanity is simply getting comfortable with what it is, how it works, how individuals can interact with it.

00:45:47.320 And that's one thing I tell people is everybody says, hey, how come Bitcoin's not, if it is the best money, if it does have the best properties, how come not everybody's using it?

00:45:57.040 Well, I go and go back and say, you just don't monetize a new monetary good over the course of a decade.

00:46:03.380 Right.

00:46:03.540 It's probably going to take longer than that.

00:46:06.160 And during its monetization phase, you're going to see a lot of price volatility, which scares people.

00:46:10.700 And that volatility will scare people.

00:46:12.300 But if you pay attention for long enough, you'll see that that volatility leads up and to the right.

00:46:17.940 And with every boom and bust, what you see is more people basically setting the floor after every bust.

00:46:26.660 So, more and more people are beginning to realize the inherent fundamental value and utility that it provides during all these cycles.

00:46:34.640 I do think at some point in the future, there will be a tipping point where everybody realizes, like, oh, this isn't going away and this is better.

00:46:41.360 We just have to tell you, I mean, the central banks over in Asia and Russia, they're all buying gold, all of them, tons and tons.

00:46:50.600 We're selling ours.

00:46:51.740 I mean, that seems brilliant.

00:46:54.720 If I were the president, I would have taken what money we have and said, gold, Bitcoin, and let the chips fall where they may.

00:47:07.680 But I wouldn't want centralized control.

00:47:09.800 Is there any country that's a decent-sized, you know, not a rebel country?

00:47:19.480 Is there any good country that is looking at Bitcoin and saying, we're putting our bet here.

00:47:25.220 We're going to use Bitcoin as our currency?

00:47:28.320 Not yet.

00:47:30.620 Not yet.

00:47:31.580 I think what you're seeing, it's actually more grassroots than that.

00:47:34.920 You're seeing cities, like there's a city in Switzerland, Luongo, they've adopted a Bitcoin standard where they're accepting Bitcoin at all the stores there.

00:47:44.340 Obviously, El Salvador has made Bitcoin legal tender and they're trying to integrate it into their economy.

00:47:51.140 But I really don't, I don't think that's going to happen, nor do I think that's wise for a state to just say, hey, we're going to buy Bitcoin.

00:47:57.680 Why not, me personally, because I do think it's got to be an emergent grassroots movement where individuals decide it's not thrust on them.

00:48:06.820 And I think that'll actually be better for the long-term viability of Bitcoin, where you have individuals getting access to it, whether they're buying it or accepting it for goods and services.

00:48:17.600 Because in my mind, that's a much better path.

00:48:20.800 And that actually gives agencies to the individual.

00:48:23.340 The individual shouldn't have to wait for the state to say, all right, we're going to do this.

00:48:26.220 You can do it today.

00:48:27.200 Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to, they're going to wait for, you know, because it's, I mean, they don't understand.

00:48:34.460 It's like everything today.

00:48:36.720 I think it's going to come down to a photo finish on who gets there first.

00:48:42.360 Does the information about slavery for the rest of you and your family's lifetimes, as far as you can see, does that get to the finish line before, hey, there's a collapse.

00:48:56.680 You've got to take this because we're rewriting absolutely everything and everybody's starving.

00:49:01.460 And so you got to go there.

00:49:02.680 I mean, it's, it's, it's going to be close.

00:49:06.440 It's going to be very close.

00:49:07.860 Again, that's why I'm so passionate about it.

00:49:09.620 That's why I run the podcasts I do.

00:49:11.880 That's why I work at the venture firm.

00:49:14.420 I'm a partner at a venture firm where we're investing in Bitcoin infrastructure.

00:49:17.660 Again, I think it's imperative and I'm doing my best personally to build out this network because again, the, the, the prospects of the alternative are extremely scary and people don't like to use the word, but it will be digital slavery.

00:49:31.660 It will be.

00:49:32.340 Yeah, it will be.

00:49:33.220 Um, I mean, I, when I used to run the blaze, um, mainly into the ground, but when I, when I ran it, uh, I was all for Bitcoin.

00:49:45.720 I was like, let's be the first to take it.

00:49:47.880 Let's, let's go.

00:49:48.720 Um, what is the adoption rate?

00:49:53.160 Cause if we're forward thinking, you know, back then and we wouldn't do it, what is the adoption rate for companies?

00:50:01.040 So they, when, when will we see this at your grocery store or, you know, you know, big stores?

00:50:10.040 Uh, I think relatively soon.

00:50:11.940 So there's a company strike that has entered a partnership with NCR, which is one of the biggest point of sales companies, uh, in the United States or in the world.

00:50:21.660 And, um, they're working on partnerships with Whole Foods, Wendy's, Walmart.

00:50:26.440 And so hopefully within the next year, you'll have the opportunity to go spend Bitcoin over the lightning network at these, uh, retailers.

00:50:34.960 Um, and then on top of that, obviously Jack Dorsey, uh, with block and square, he's been a very, uh, forward thinking Bitcoin advocate and seeing what they've done with cash app, uh, building out that suite of Bitcoin tools.

00:50:49.200 And that app, I would not be surprised if he begins to enable those tools for, uh, individuals who use his point of sale system as well at square.

00:50:58.460 Um, are you concerned, for instance, like PayPal and what they've done or.

00:51:04.960 What the banking system has done to Kanye, um, you, you know, you'll have strike in between the user and the, and the, uh, and the store.

00:51:20.200 You have somebody in between there.

00:51:22.780 You concerned at all about.

00:51:25.220 No.

00:51:25.840 So the way strikes, um, set up with NCR is, is they're essentially providing a backend API that will allow them to accept Bitcoin.

00:51:34.140 Um, but from the user's perspective, I can go, uh, and spend from a wallet that I control where, um, the, the Bitcoin invoice that I'm paying to doesn't really know anything about the history of my transactions or who I am just knows that I'm spending a valid Bitcoin transaction.

00:51:53.980 Okay.

00:51:54.920 That, that's helpful.

00:51:56.180 Yeah.

00:51:56.420 Um, I got this question from two different producers, um, and I was surprised because they're both relatively young and they said, I don't know.

00:52:10.200 I mean, it's just such a renegade thing.

00:52:15.940 Definitely is.

00:52:16.860 You know, that's a sales point for me.

00:52:20.540 Um, but I guess talk about the renegade.

00:52:24.660 Uh, you hear that, that people don't want to do it cause it's too renegade for them.

00:52:28.700 Yeah.

00:52:29.080 It's scary.

00:52:29.920 Uh, not only is it renegade, but it takes a lot of personal responsibility.

00:52:33.420 And I think we live in a day and age where personal responsibility isn't, um, really respected as much as it, as it probably should be.

00:52:41.100 But, uh, wow, that's fascinating.

00:52:43.040 That's why it's so freedom.

00:52:44.320 That's so freedom based.

00:52:45.960 You have to have personal responsibility.

00:52:47.740 If you don't have personal responsibility, you don't have freedom.

00:52:50.440 Yep.

00:52:51.240 Yeah.

00:52:51.660 So that's part of it.

00:52:52.600 And then it is renegade.

00:52:54.040 That's why I like it.

00:52:54.820 I mean, I was born in Philadelphia and I grew up, um, going to Catholic school in Philadelphia as well.

00:53:00.700 And, um, I always had this, um, draw to the founding fathers and the story of how this country was founded.

00:53:08.520 And when it comes to Bitcoin, I think you think of what the founding fathers fought for.

00:53:14.720 They would have loved it.

00:53:15.680 It's protects private property rights.

00:53:17.360 It protects freedom of speech because you're able to send it to anybody you want to.

00:53:20.760 There's nothing anybody can do about it.

00:53:22.920 It's sound money.

00:53:24.080 Um, it checks all the boxes and considering how far we've gotten from the original vision, the founding father set forth for our Republic.

00:53:33.160 Uh, I think Bitcoin, uh, is something if they were alive today, they would be rallying behind as well.

00:53:39.040 When you see companies like, um, BlackRock or Goldman Sachs, they're going in the opposite direction.

00:53:46.720 And yet they open up these trading desks for, um, digital currencies.

00:53:53.200 Uh, why, what are the, first of all, they, uh, the first promise from people who were Bitcoiners said, well, once they open it up and once these places start opening trade, where you can get big institutions to put their money, then it's, then it's over.

00:54:11.800 Then it's everywhere.

00:54:12.600 Did any of that happen?

00:54:15.120 And why are they going BlackRock in particular?

00:54:18.500 Why are they going so hard down a, um, a digital currency road for the government at the same time getting people involved in Bitcoin?

00:54:31.420 Any theory on that?

00:54:33.040 I just want to make money and they can make people, their clients, their clients want access to Bitcoin.

00:54:39.020 They can make money off the, uh, the trading fees.

00:54:41.820 They're going to do that.

00:54:42.420 But I would recommend people to not buy their Bitcoin exposure, uh, via BlackRock.

00:54:48.340 Cause that's what we'll be buying is exposure.

00:54:49.940 I doubt they'll allow you to actually take possession of your Bitcoin.

00:54:52.680 And when you talk about rehypothecation and paper Bitcoin, I wouldn't be surprised if BlackRock is able to not, again, I'm not calling BlackRock and over Ponzi, but FDX had people buying Bitcoin.

00:55:05.960 But it turns out that they were claiming to have 70,000 Bitcoin, but they didn't have any.

00:55:11.220 Isn't paper gold kind of like a Ponzi scheme?

00:55:13.860 Cause there's not enough gold in the world to cover all the paper.

00:55:17.440 Oh yes, definitely.

00:55:18.800 Um, and that's where Bitcoin is an improvement on gold where it's so much easier to take possession of and verify that you have actual Bitcoin.

00:55:25.840 Whereas taking possession, a saying gold to prove that it's actually gold is much, takes much more time and it's much more expensive.

00:55:33.560 What do you say to people that say, yeah, but it's not gold.

00:55:37.560 It's not, it's not gold.

00:55:39.080 I know, but there's, but they say that it's, it's nothing.

00:55:42.000 This is, this is, um, Warren Buffett and his partner.

00:55:46.240 I just saw him on CNBC and he's like, I don't get it.

00:55:49.760 I wouldn't give a sock for it.

00:55:52.480 Um, because he says it's nothing.

00:55:54.820 There's no value there.

00:55:56.320 He says. 1.00

00:55:57.400 Yeah, well, he's an idiot. 1.00

00:55:58.460 I mean, it's like, it's impossible to deny. 1.00

00:56:02.380 Again, going back, Bitcoin allows you to do things that are impossible, uh, in the traditional financial world.

00:56:08.140 So that in and of itself has value.

00:56:10.360 The fact that you can send these transactions that you're not allowed to send on PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, the fact that you can save in a currency that's not being debased, that has value compared to the traditional system.

00:56:21.880 And then on top of that, there is a connection between energy usage and Bitcoin.

00:56:26.420 You mentioned it earlier, but you have to do work to actually produce Bitcoin.

00:56:30.820 And that takes a lot of energy and electricity in the world world.

00:56:34.240 It's not just being printed out of thin air.

00:56:36.080 There are people taking significant capital and execution risks to, to ensure that Bitcoin is, um, producing blocks roughly every 10 minutes.

00:56:46.740 That's one of the big arguments.

00:56:48.300 So is it, it takes so much electricity.

00:56:50.120 It's going to use more.

00:56:51.780 This is a good thing.

00:56:52.540 We need to start rejecting their frame.

00:56:54.160 Uh, energy, energy consumption, increased energy consumption correlates with human flourishing.

00:56:59.900 I saw you had Alex Epstein on.

00:57:01.520 Yeah.

00:57:01.660 I love him.

00:57:02.180 Uh, yesterday, I believe.

00:57:04.020 And last week.

00:57:05.280 Yeah.

00:57:05.600 Last week.

00:57:06.120 I think, um, and I think what he's doing, um, in terms of trying to change the framing of the, the argument is, is incredible. 0.89

00:57:15.180 Um, and I think that's what beyond Bitcoin we need to do is humanity saying, Hey, this, this aversion to energy usage increasing is completely asinine. 0.69

00:57:24.880 It's anti-human.

00:57:25.680 It's, it's not going to end well for us.

00:57:27.360 It really is.

00:57:28.040 It's very anti-human.

00:57:29.240 It is.

00:57:30.020 But when you dive into Bitcoin, particularly Bitcoin does use a lot of energy, but when you look at that at the surface, it's like, Oh no, Bitcoin bad.

00:57:37.540 And I can see how people may think that, but when you dig in what you'll find, again, going back to individuals taking capital and execution risk, Bitcoin mining is ruthlessly competitive.

00:57:48.320 It's ruthlessly capitalistic and miners have to produce a profit on their operations.

00:57:54.360 And one of the most important input costs on their operation is electricity.

00:57:59.600 So they're highly incentivized to drive that all in price of electricity down as low as possible.

00:58:05.220 And what we're finding over time is that the cheapest energy is energy that would otherwise be wasted or stranded.

00:58:12.580 Right.

00:58:12.760 So Bitcoin mining is using a lot of energy, uh, and it will continue to use more energy.

00:58:18.420 However, when you look at it, uh, Bitcoin miners, uh, are, are like the scavengers who are finding inefficiencies throughout the energy sector.

00:58:27.680 Is it China where they're using it right by the hydroelectric dam?

00:58:31.180 They were before they mined, uh, they banned it a couple of years ago.

00:58:35.080 Um, and that was only just because they want to control of their own central bank.

00:58:39.300 Yes.

00:58:39.880 Yeah.

00:58:40.680 Um, but even though they banned it, there are still miners within China, um, that are God bless them. 0.98

00:58:46.000 Evading the, uh, the bans.

00:58:47.840 Um, you, you have a few feelings about the new British prime minister.

00:58:52.740 Uh, I believe you said that, uh, you described him as, uh,

00:58:57.680 as a robotic humanoid.

00:58:59.380 Yes.

00:58:59.980 Why?

00:59:00.840 As you just look at him speak, it's, uh, it doesn't seem human the way, uh, the way he presents himself in public.

00:59:08.540 It's reminded me a lot of Justin Trudeau and a lot of just into down in New Zealand.

00:59:15.920 You look at a lot of these people and you can tell that they're, they're not really talking.

00:59:22.400 They're reading from a script.

00:59:23.740 They're not really talking from like a place of, of passion or anything.

00:59:27.480 They're, they're humanoids that have been told to go out there and read a script about a CBDC or a lockdown or a build back better.

00:59:35.880 And they're, it's amazing how, I think this is why Donald Trump had to be destroyed, um, by, by the progressives all over the world.

00:59:45.280 Cause he's, he, he won't play the game of, I mean, everybody's little system, you know, he likes the, he's, he's a renegade.

00:59:54.680 Uh, and, uh, it's amazing how fast people, uh, change or are replaced.

01:00:03.440 Now, if you're not towing the line on all of this stuff,

01:00:07.120 Liz trust lasts at what?

01:00:08.100 44 days.

01:00:09.040 Yeah.

01:00:09.680 Yeah.

01:00:10.200 That's, that's scary.

01:00:12.120 And again, that's another, I don't want to bring this right back to Bitcoin, but that's like a Bitcoin, I think empowers us to get away from these people.

01:00:20.740 Um, didn't, didn't Trudeau shut down, uh, people with Bitcoin.

01:00:26.860 Didn't he take, he went to, so this is why it's important to take possession of your own Bitcoin and hold your own keys.

01:00:32.580 He went to the centralized exchanges, the FTXs of Canada and said, Hey, don't let these people move their Bitcoin out of your central, centrally regulated company.

01:00:43.480 Um, whereas any individual who accepted Bitcoin to wallets they controlled during those protests was not affected at all.

01:00:50.240 So if you, if, but if you take it out, I mean, this is one of the scary things too.

01:00:55.700 You move Bitcoin or you spend Bitcoin tax laws, a little kind of fuzzy a little bit and you're, and nothing's really been settled and they're just itching to, you know, slam people for Bitcoin.

01:01:10.800 Um, is that calming down at all?

01:01:15.700 Uh, I know Senator Lummis and I believe Hildebrand are working on a bill that would, uh, create a de minimis spend, uh, tax exemption.

01:01:24.340 But no, I think, uh, the capital gains, uh, tax law, especially as it pertains to Bitcoin is, is very restrictive to, to enabling more people spending it here in the United States specifically.

01:01:39.060 Uh, it's a shame.

01:01:40.980 I think it should change.

01:01:41.900 I think people should be able to spend Bitcoin, uh, without the burden of, of having to do capital gains tax.

01:01:47.460 But, uh, we do live in a, a government that wants complete control over us under a government that wants complete control.

01:01:53.480 So I don't expect it to happen here anytime soon, but, uh, this is why I like to tell people just use Bitcoin as a savings account.

01:02:03.680 Um, if you need to, and then if you need to spend it desperately, you'll be able to.

01:02:07.300 So if you take it out and you put it in a wallet and you take it out of the system, so you have it.

01:02:13.280 Okay.

01:02:14.880 Are you charged then?

01:02:17.040 No, no, no, no.

01:02:18.360 Only when you spend it.

01:02:19.560 Only when you spend it for another good or service.

01:02:21.220 And is that all the honor system?

01:02:23.060 I believe so.

01:02:23.660 Yes.

01:02:23.900 At this point.

01:02:24.920 That's why they hate it so very much.

01:02:27.800 Um, you said, uh, recently money, energy, food, healthcare, education, governance, all are being corrupted by men who think they can predict and control the emergent order.

01:02:38.800 The only way out is the misery that exists today, uh, is to smash the points of centralization and let the emergent order do its job.

01:02:48.580 Explain.

01:02:50.400 I think that's the overarching problem of the world today is centralization.

01:02:55.660 And, uh, few men trying to control very complex systems, whether it be the federal reserve and other central banks controlling money, money should be a free market good that, uh, individuals decide on in an emergent form government.

01:03:10.320 Obviously the federal government here in the United States has gotten to the point at which it's the largest government to ever exist.

01:03:16.160 I think there's a lot of bloat there.

01:03:17.460 And I think the individuals in DC trying to make decisions for people spread all across the country are not fully equipped or would ever be, uh, it would ever be possible for them to solve the problems of everybody throughout the country.

01:03:32.680 Just from a pure information systems perspective, they're so disconnected from the source of information on the ground across the country that they can never make good decisions.

01:03:42.540 So, well, isn't that why they, they say they need CBTCs because they were on modern monetary theory.

01:03:51.400 The only way I know it's hard not to laugh, um, with modern monetary theory, their theory is we won't have inflation because we will have the ultimate stop buying this control if they have a central bank.

01:04:08.700 So, so it's like technology has caught up to their arrogance.

01:04:14.940 Yes.

01:04:15.440 But again, they'll be making central decisions, central decisions on what, how to react to that information on the ground, those local areas where they're not the best people to make those decisions.

01:04:24.980 The people who have those problems, uh, are the best people to make those decisions about what they need most urgently and how they want to allocate their capital.

01:04:33.000 Do you, do you research much on AI and AGI, ASI?

01:04:39.860 Uh, not as much as I, I've been falling down the, uh, the, uh, what is it called?

01:04:46.000 I don't even know what it's called, but the, the AI.

01:04:48.740 Transhuman. 0.88

01:04:49.420 Transhuman. 0.88

01:04:50.200 Well, I know.

01:04:50.740 Transhuman. 0.88

01:04:51.380 I've had Whitney Webb on the show quite a bit.

01:04:53.780 She's great.

01:04:54.360 We've dove into the, uh, the transhumanism trend quite a bit.

01:04:57.980 That scares me.

01:04:59.040 Uh, I think it's pretty evil.

01:05:00.520 It's very hubristic in my mind.

01:05:02.220 Oh, big time.

01:05:03.740 Yeah.

01:05:04.140 Big time.

01:05:05.460 Um, I, I think the world is, uh, entering at time.

01:05:10.820 If you just feel like we should be having more philosophical discussions right now, like what

01:05:17.000 is life and how far do we push things and, uh, what is the purpose and the meaning of man

01:05:25.000 and of life?

01:05:25.920 Yeah.

01:05:26.200 Cause it's going to actually start mattering very soon.

01:05:29.600 I, uh, I mean, I think a lot of what we're seeing is what happens when you live in a

01:05:34.200 society that rejects God.

01:05:36.060 And I think it has, I do believe in good and evil.

01:05:41.160 And I think, uh, there's a lot of evil out there that is garnering a lot of power these

01:05:46.420 days.

01:05:46.740 Um, it's, um, I mean, evil, I think by its biblical definition is the one that makes the choice

01:05:57.100 for you.

01:05:57.700 You know, it will tell you how to live where good highly recommends, but allows you to

01:06:08.540 make those mistakes.

01:06:09.660 So you grow without, without any kind of, um, uh, personal risk.

01:06:20.080 There's no growth.

01:06:22.000 No, there's no growth.

01:06:23.760 No.

01:06:24.380 And we live in a, in a world where, uh, for some reason or another, uh, risk is, is not,

01:06:31.080 not good these days.

01:06:32.380 And it's, or not considered good.

01:06:34.680 I think it's very good.

01:06:35.700 Um, I think, uh, I, I think it's essential.

01:06:41.180 I mean, there's, don't get me wrong as it's happening to me.

01:06:46.940 I want it just to stop, but all of the bad things in my life, that's where I've learned

01:06:54.140 the most.

01:06:54.660 It's not in the good times, you know, and it's certainly not if somebody else makes the

01:06:59.860 decision, I can bitch and moan and say, well, they made the decision. 0.94

01:07:03.280 Oh, look what happened. 0.99

01:07:04.100 Of course.

01:07:04.980 And I just, you just become bitter against whatever.

01:07:08.540 The only time that you really learn is when you're failing on a machine that you built

01:07:14.820 and you're going your way and that, and then you're like, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait.

01:07:20.920 I think I want to stop some of the pain here.

01:07:23.900 Maybe I should do it this way or that way.

01:07:26.760 We don't, there's, there's, we don't have the telephone without personal risk.

01:07:31.960 Yeah.

01:07:32.820 And that's why I don't think we'll have freedom, uh, in the digital age without the risk of

01:07:37.600 going out there and trying to usher in this new monetary system, uh, in Bitcoin that truly

01:07:43.580 enables people to take risk.

01:07:46.480 I mean, particularly in the energy sector, that's one of the places I've been most involved

01:07:51.580 in on the mining side is it's insane.

01:07:53.860 The amount of, uh, risks that entrepreneurs in the mining sector are taking and the innovation

01:07:59.200 that they're bringing to the world with that risk.

01:08:01.920 One example is, uh, Bitcoin mining is being used as a flare mitigation technique on upstream

01:08:07.920 oil and gas wells, where in the Bakken down here in Texas, uh, you'll see the famous flares

01:08:15.220 where since the natural gas doesn't have a pipeline to get the market, uh, they simply

01:08:19.440 light it on fire and waste it.

01:08:21.160 Bitcoin miners have taken capital on execution risks to invest in that, uh, services that'll

01:08:26.560 show up and reduce that flare and use it, that gas, run it through a generator, mine

01:08:31.280 Bitcoin.

01:08:32.280 See, that is something a centralized government will never come up with.

01:08:36.740 Uh, I'd like to, sometimes I like to describe Bitcoin as digital's galt, uh, gulch where you

01:08:42.980 can simply John Galt.

01:08:44.280 Yes.

01:08:45.040 Yeah.

01:08:45.200 It's gulch.

01:08:46.160 It's, uh, that's the beauty of Bitcoin.

01:08:48.160 It's open source.

01:08:48.880 You don't have to wait for permission from the government to do something.

01:08:52.320 You don't have to get a permit.

01:08:53.540 You don't have to get a license.

01:08:54.720 It drives me nuts.

01:08:55.580 You can just show up and start building and it's fun.

01:08:58.960 It's invigorating.

01:08:59.620 Uh, you know, I talked to, um, I talked to people overseas and, uh, and they'll come

01:09:05.240 over here and I'll be like, you, you, you have no idea.

01:09:08.880 This is not America.

01:09:10.380 And they still say, are you kidding me?

01:09:13.240 This is still much better than any place in the world, but when did we become this group

01:09:19.300 of people that, uh, waited for permission?

01:09:24.940 Mm-hmm.

01:09:25.540 I'm, it used to be really, you don't think I can.

01:09:31.080 Okay.

01:09:32.240 I'll show you, you know, that's been the main driver in my life.

01:09:35.580 If you tell me I can't do something, I've pretty much guaranteed that I'm at least going

01:09:40.620 to attempt it, you know?

01:09:42.340 Yeah.

01:09:42.820 Um, and we're not that anymore.

01:09:45.800 Nice.

01:09:46.340 I've seen a lot of that in Bitcoin.

01:09:47.680 It's, uh, it's good.

01:09:49.340 It's, uh, it's like the digital wildcatters.

01:09:52.420 There's, uh, it was like a great frontier and that's the beauty of it too.

01:09:55.880 It's in the digital space.

01:09:56.780 You can build software and due to the mining.

01:09:59.060 It's, uh, in, in meat space and the physical world as well.

01:10:02.360 There's so many things to build.

01:10:04.600 There's so many efficiencies to be gained.

01:10:06.240 And what we're finding is by becoming more efficient in our Bitcoin operations, we're

01:10:10.440 actually creating efficiencies, uh, in other parts of the economy, whether it be payments,

01:10:15.460 energy, um, uh, accounting.

01:10:18.720 I remember 10, 15 years ago, I went to Silicon Valley and it was the most exciting time.

01:10:24.760 You know, you, you go there and it felt like wild West America.

01:10:29.060 It felt like anything was possible.

01:10:32.300 And, uh, it concerned me because a lot of the companies were very, very leftist and they

01:10:38.560 kept saying to me, no, no, no, we don't like big government just like everybody else.

01:10:43.260 We're no, we're, we're very libertarian in our approach.

01:10:46.760 I'm like, uh-huh.

01:10:48.420 And now it's just one with big government.

01:10:53.920 You feel the wildcatters are not.

01:10:57.100 Um, no, well, no, I, I mean, right now, certainly not, um, individual.

01:11:05.040 There's a lot of individuals like myself who, um, are into Bitcoin cause they don't like

01:11:09.220 what the government has done to our money or freedom.

01:11:12.720 Um, that's the other thing, again, going back to Bitcoin being a globally distributed network

01:11:17.120 where, and seeing a lot of traction in emerging markets, even if we were to become, or the U.S.

01:11:23.660 government was to become overbearing in terms of regulations and things like that, Bitcoin

01:11:28.720 would survive.

01:11:29.960 Americans just wouldn't be able to reap the full benefits of Bitcoin because of their

01:11:33.640 government.

01:11:34.440 Right.

01:11:34.500 And then you get into the concept of jurisdictional arbitrage where at some point, if the government

01:11:41.520 becomes too overbearing and we see all these people in other parts of the world reaping

01:11:45.480 the benefits of Bitcoin and we're saying, how come we can't do that?

01:11:48.560 You have one of two options.

01:11:50.140 People either get up and leave and you lose your tax base or, uh, it forces changes for

01:11:54.780 the government to say, okay, you guys obviously want to be more like these people over here.

01:11:58.940 So we'll readjust, um, our priors and let you experiment with this and use it freely.

01:12:05.300 Most likely they'll regret not building the wall this time because we'll all be trying

01:12:10.700 to crawl over it the other way.

01:12:12.620 Marty, thank you so much.

01:12:14.080 Glenn, thank you.

01:12:14.660 It's been a pleasure.

01:12:15.080 I really appreciate it.

01:12:20.780 Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend

01:12:26.420 so it can be discovered by other people.

01:12:28.940 I'll see you next time.

The Glenn Beck Program - November 15, 2022

Ep 164 ｜ The REAL Story Behind the FTX Scandal ｜ Marty Bent ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript