In this episode of Tales from the Crypt and Rabbit Hole Recap, host Glenn Blumberg sits down with Marty Bent, founder of TFTC, a media company focused on Bitcoin and freedom in the digital age, to talk about his journey to becoming a Bitcoiner, how he got started in Bitcoin, and why he thinks Bitcoin is the best way to live a financially free life.
00:05:21.040They didn't take Bitcoins, what they took.
00:05:23.380So in a big theme in the broader cryptocurrency space, particularly the exchange world, is these exchanges will launch what they call an exchange token.
00:05:34.180I mean, Binance has BNB, FTX has FTT, which was FTX token.
00:05:40.360And the idea behind these exchange tokens, I think it's a bit scammy.
00:05:44.040It doesn't really make sense from first principles.
00:05:45.680But the idea is they pre-mine a token, I believe in FTT's case, a couple hundred million of these FTT tokens.
00:05:55.320And 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.
00:06:10.300Yes, it is a massive scam in my opinion.
00:06:13.220But 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.
00:06:24.420So they're able to inflate the value of those tokens pretty easily with some spoof trading.
00:06:30.180And 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.
00:07:34.400It's this, it's an extension of utilitarianism.
00:07:38.700And these people believe that they are the smartest people on the planet, and they can identify where humanity has the most pressing needs.
00:07:48.820And 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.
00:07:58.680But 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.
00:08:12.460He was a huge donor, promised a billion dollars to the Democrats.
00:08:18.540If 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.
00:12:11.020We can form code and create our own tokens.
00:12:12.960I would argue that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency we're going to have a pure launch and actually be like a free market development.
00:12:22.560Everything after that has a lot of attention.
00:12:24.600People know when it's going to be launched, and they can essentially game when the system, when that coin is launched.
00:12:30.780But 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.
00:12:43.460And it is glaringly obvious to me that there is no altcoin that compares to Bitcoin in terms of decentralization.
00:12:52.700The 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.
00:13:10.940But these altcoins, what people promise is, hey, we're going to give you the next Bitcoin.
00:13:16.760But time and time again, through these cycles throughout the decade, they just turn out to be pump and dumps.
00:13:27.560So 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.
00:13:35.600But the majority of his revenues are probably driven by speculation on on these different cryptocurrencies.
00:13:42.100So tell me, like, tell me the difference between them and like Coinbase.
00:13:49.800Not much other than Coinbase is probably not.
00:13:52.600I 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.
00:14:24.880Because I think, again, I think that's where the signal is.
00:14:28.200And I actually honestly, I believe Bitcoin is an imperative as we transition into the digital age.
00:14:34.980We get the CBDC world where we get free market money where people are not subjected to the digital panopticon.
00:14:43.720I think the altcoins are distractions.
00:14:45.520And 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.
00:14:54.480So 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.
00:15:11.360Yes, 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.
00:15:25.740There's a there's a very famous line in Bitcoin circles, which is not your keys, not your coins.
00:15:31.260So 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.
00:15:45.400You essentially have an IOU when you hold it on an exchange.
00:15:47.440I 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.
00:16:05.240And that's a very common sort of response to this and fear.
00:16:09.860But I would argue practice makes perfect.
00:16:12.040This is a new way of interacting with money.
00:16:14.560And 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.
00:16:23.200You pay for the bill and he'll pay you in Bitcoin to make up for it.
00:16:26.780You download a wallet and you practice receiving, sending and then backing it up.
00:16:31.500And then two other points is the user experience around this process of receiving and securing Bitcoin is getting significantly better over the years.
00:16:41.500And 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.
00:16:51.460And then number two, there's other services that you can use where you do what's called collaborative custody.
00:16:57.500So 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.
00:17:12.600And 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.
00:17:24.780You hold two wallets that will allow you to sign two of the signatures and Unchained holds one in this model.
00:17:31.140You don't have all the risk on yourself, but you also do have certainty that your Bitcoin is where you think it is.
00:17:37.620Right. Because that's the problem. I mean, that's what makes it fiat.
00:17:42.720If we don't know, we don't know where to go. I'm convinced there's no gold in Fort Knox.
00:17:48.100I 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.
00:17:59.920Um, and that's the big fear and the big advantage of Bitcoin.
00:18:08.560If 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.
00:18:24.080Yes. 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.
00:18:37.760But there's ways again with Bitcoin's native properties that you can ensure that your Bitcoin is not being rehypothecated.
00:18:43.780So 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.
00:19:01.520You 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.
00:19:09.900Uh, 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.
00:19:22.940That is total and complete control of your life.
00:19:29.900I'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.
00:19:40.840He'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.
00:19:50.080We can drop airdrop money into their accounts.
00:22:05.800They 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.
00:22:17.000Uh, which, uh, looking at the history of the government, I'm not very tech savvy.
00:22:21.860So we may have time on our side in that regard, right?
00:22:24.520But one only has to look to China and their social credit scoring system.
00:22:30.300Um, and so, uh, essentially all they need to do is get a consumer app.
00:22:36.060It doesn't even need to be a consumer app.
00:22:37.860It can, uh, they can integrate with other apps like Twitter or WhatsApp, whatever it may be.
00:22:43.760They essentially just need to turn on a switch at the federal reserve where the federal reserve starts handling individual accounts instead of federal reserves.
00:22:51.580That's the, are you familiar with the Hamilton project up in Boston?
00:22:55.340Uh, 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.
00:23:10.060It was, uh, a central bank coin, uh, and they were testing it with MIT.
00:23:15.420They say it was ready and it, it will require that you don't have a bank account at a regular bank anymore.
00:23:23.100Your 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.
00:23:36.960You know, a couple of weeks down the road, there might be worth 70 cents and then they're worth nothing.
00:23:48.820The federal reserve will essentially cut out the commercial banking system.
00:23:52.640And 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.
00:24:01.700Many people think it's a signal from the commercial bank saying, Hey, we don't want the CBDC world.
00:24:07.040Um, 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.
00:24:27.700And, 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.
00:24:40.600Um, 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.
00:24:52.400I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's down to the individual level, which we saw that you had two stakes last week.
00:25:03.380You're not going to be able to buy gas this week.
00:25:05.120That's how granular they can get with this.
00:25:07.660Um, when it comes back to vaccines, I mean, they tried to roll it out with the vaccine passports.
00:25:12.700I 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.
00:25:23.400So 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.
00:25:35.760They're, they're trying to put this together in China at the time.
00:25:43.180And I don't know if you saw, but, uh, in the news, I think it came out yesterday.
00:25:48.320We talked about it this morning on the show.
00:25:50.360Um, the world bank is moving into that and, uh, Freddie and Fannie are now moving into the S part.
00:25:59.940And 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.
00:26:09.880There'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.
00:26:24.180And we'll start to have 37 million new homeowners, which will drive the price of everything through the roof.
00:26:34.900Um, and, and, and control and control.
00:26:38.820Not only control, it's just self-centered control via self-centorship and forcing unnatural actions on people.
00:26:48.300People 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.
00:26:58.000It's really, it's exactly like the black man episode you brought up.
00:27:02.320So what has to happen for it not to go that way?
00:27:06.980I mean, I think first things first, people need to get vocal, very vocal about it, which I'm happy that you are.
00:27:13.480And many others have been saying, Hey, this is a line in the sand that we're not going to cross.
00:27:45.300So Germany obviously moved first, uh, with their attempts to go to zero carbon, uh, net zero.
00:27:52.480And they decommissioned a bunch of reliable natural gas, coal, and nuclear power plants in favor of wind and solar.
00:28:00.080And 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.
00:28:09.800I think many people are waking up to that.
00:28:11.500And 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.
00:28:20.380And, 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.
00:28:35.000And because the overt hypocrisy and overt insanity of ESG is being acutely highlighted this last 12 months.
00:28:45.360Um, uh, and then Bitcoin is the other way to fix it too.
00:28:50.580So people speak out and say, we don't want that.
00:28:53.840And, uh, and Bitcoin in the world where the central government, you know, it, it, it, it's,
00:29:04.240it'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.
00:29:14.700Um, I think that is on the horizon for sure.
00:29:19.760Um, what happens in that situation with Bitcoin?
00:29:25.740How can you, how would you use it or how could it keep you free?
00:30:10.000I mean, so Bitcoin, um, can be tracked.
00:30:13.280And I said, the way the ledger works, you have, um, these outputs that can be tracked through the ledger.
00:30:19.160But 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.
00:30:34.740Uh, 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.
00:30:45.460So 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.
00:30:55.160And 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.
00:31:06.960So what, wait, cause I, I have it in Coinbase.
00:31:10.900So how would I get it out without marking?
00:31:13.220So 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.
00:31:26.900Uh, these are collaborative transaction tools known as Coinjoins.
00:31:30.940Uh, there's companies like Samurai, uh, which run, uh, a Coinjoin coordinator called Whirlpool.
00:31:36.520There'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.
00:31:45.420Well, I'll make it, I'll make it even easier.
00:31:47.360The 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.
00:31:57.800Um, so for my website, uh, it's connected to a wallet that I control.
00:32:03.120Um, 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.
00:32:11.340Um, so in that instance, only the person who pays me and I know that I control that address.
00:32:17.080And the government hates that because you could wildly understate your income.
00:35:17.000The one that you're alluding to that will eventually get us to 21 million Bitcoin is the subsidy.
00:35:22.340So, right now, the subsidy per block is 6.25 Bitcoin.
00:35:26.440And then the other half of that reward is transaction fees.
00:35:29.220So, 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.
00:35:41.180And so, individual users compete to get in their transaction confirmed by attaching a fee to it.
00:35:48.260So, 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.
00:35:57.240So, is this what they talk about, that it has limited capability for real heavy global traffic?
00:36:06.640It takes too much energy and it's going to be a lot slower at some point.
00:36:15.580I told you before we started, I have just enough information to make me wildly wrong and dangerous.
00:36:22.340So, 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,
00:36:31.600in the future, when Bitcoin is widely adopted, many believe it will become a settlement layer where large transactions are settled.
00:36:39.900But, 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.
00:36:55.380So, the most famous second layer solution right now is Lightning, the Lightning Network.
00:37:00.440And, 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.
00:37:11.200And, you don't have to wait for something to happen at the protocol layer.
00:39:32.320So, 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.
00:39:50.420So, 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.
00:39:58.060And 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.
00:40:05.480Whereas with Bitcoin, you'd have to go around the world, find all the individuals who are running nodes and physically have them unplugged.
00:40:13.800So, 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.
00:40:28.400So, you'd have to shut down the entire internet, wouldn't you?
00:40:35.980Because you couldn't find the nodes, or can you?
00:40:53.260And do you know with even quantum computing, can it open?
00:41:00.500I mean, because the quantum computing, we are so close to being able to hack into anything.
00:41:05.640Is this going to change the underlying technology of Bitcoin?
00:41:14.320There'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.
00:41:30.880But many of them would also say they don't think it's as close as many others think it is.
00:42:09.560And Warren Buffett said, if you don't understand it, you shouldn't invest in it.
00:42:15.500And it was a fraction of a penny at the time.
00:42:19.820I wouldn't be here at this table if I had done that.
00:42:24.440But, 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.
00:44:01.600And then the network, the peer-to-peer network, allows you to transact directly with a counterpart.
00:44:07.480So, 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.
00:44:27.680But they are punished because we have this just overarching sanctions that really restrict them from sending money back to their family members.
00:44:37.960Bitcoin has allowed them to do that for the last 13 years.
00:44:41.180And the activity in that particular use case with remittances has never gone away.
00:44:46.960And so, that inherent utility, in one use case, being able to send money back home to family members isn't going away.
00:44:53.680And it is, Bitcoin is the only network that allows these people to do that.
00:44:58.620How 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.
00:45:28.200And new monetary goods just don't show up once a decade, once every year, once every half century.
00:45:33.860That happened once every millennia, arguably.
00:45:37.680And 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.
00:45:47.320And 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?
00:45:57.040Well, I go and go back and say, you just don't monetize a new monetary good over the course of a decade.
00:46:03.540It's probably going to take longer than that.
00:46:06.160And during its monetization phase, you're going to see a lot of price volatility, which scares people.
00:46:10.700And that volatility will scare people.
00:46:12.300But if you pay attention for long enough, you'll see that that volatility leads up and to the right.
00:46:17.940And with every boom and bust, what you see is more people basically setting the floor after every bust.
00:46:26.660So, more and more people are beginning to realize the inherent fundamental value and utility that it provides during all these cycles.
00:46:34.640I 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.
00:46:41.360We 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.
00:47:31.580I think what you're seeing, it's actually more grassroots than that.
00:47:34.920You'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.
00:47:44.340Obviously, El Salvador has made Bitcoin legal tender and they're trying to integrate it into their economy.
00:47:51.140But 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.
00:47:57.680Why 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.
00:48:06.820And 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.
00:48:17.600Because in my mind, that's a much better path.
00:48:20.800And that actually gives agencies to the individual.
00:48:23.340The individual shouldn't have to wait for the state to say, all right, we're going to do this.
00:48:36.720I think it's going to come down to a photo finish on who gets there first.
00:48:42.360Does 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.
00:48:56.680You've got to take this because we're rewriting absolutely everything and everybody's starving.
00:49:11.880That's why I work at the venture firm.
00:49:14.420I'm a partner at a venture firm where we're investing in Bitcoin infrastructure.
00:49:17.660Again, 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.
00:50:11.940So 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.
00:50:21.660And, um, they're working on partnerships with Whole Foods, Wendy's, Walmart.
00:50:26.440And so hopefully within the next year, you'll have the opportunity to go spend Bitcoin over the lightning network at these, uh, retailers.
00:50:34.960Um, 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.
00:50:49.200And 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.
00:50:58.460Um, are you concerned, for instance, like PayPal and what they've done or.
00:51:04.960What 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.
00:51:25.840So the way strikes, um, set up with NCR is, is they're essentially providing a backend API that will allow them to accept Bitcoin.
00:51:34.140Um, 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.
00:51:56.420Um, 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.
00:52:10.200I mean, it's just such a renegade thing.
00:53:24.080Um, it checks all the boxes and considering how far we've gotten from the original vision, the founding father set forth for our Republic.
00:53:33.160Uh, I think Bitcoin, uh, is something if they were alive today, they would be rallying behind as well.
00:53:39.040When you see companies like, um, BlackRock or Goldman Sachs, they're going in the opposite direction.
00:53:46.720And yet they open up these trading desks for, um, digital currencies.
00:53:53.200Uh, 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.
00:54:42.420But I would recommend people to not buy their Bitcoin exposure, uh, via BlackRock.
00:54:48.340Cause that's what we'll be buying is exposure.
00:54:49.940I doubt they'll allow you to actually take possession of your Bitcoin.
00:54:52.680And 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.
00:55:05.960But it turns out that they were claiming to have 70,000 Bitcoin, but they didn't have any.
00:55:11.220Isn't paper gold kind of like a Ponzi scheme?
00:55:13.860Cause there's not enough gold in the world to cover all the paper.
00:55:18.800Um, 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.
00:55:25.840Whereas taking possession, a saying gold to prove that it's actually gold is much, takes much more time and it's much more expensive.
00:55:33.560What do you say to people that say, yeah, but it's not gold.
00:56:10.360The 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.
00:56:21.880And then on top of that, there is a connection between energy usage and Bitcoin.
00:56:26.420You mentioned it earlier, but you have to do work to actually produce Bitcoin.
00:56:30.820And that takes a lot of energy and electricity in the world world.
00:56:34.240It's not just being printed out of thin air.
00:56:36.080There are people taking significant capital and execution risks to, to ensure that Bitcoin is, um, producing blocks roughly every 10 minutes.
00:57:06.120I 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.
00:57:15.180Um, 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.
00:57:30.020But 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.
00:57:37.540And 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.
00:57:48.320It's ruthlessly capitalistic and miners have to produce a profit on their operations.
00:57:54.360And one of the most important input costs on their operation is electricity.
00:57:59.600So they're highly incentivized to drive that all in price of electricity down as low as possible.
00:58:05.220And what we're finding over time is that the cheapest energy is energy that would otherwise be wasted or stranded.
00:58:12.760So Bitcoin mining is using a lot of energy, uh, and it will continue to use more energy.
00:58:18.420However, when you look at it, uh, Bitcoin miners, uh, are, are like the scavengers who are finding inefficiencies throughout the energy sector.
00:58:27.680Is it China where they're using it right by the hydroelectric dam?
00:58:31.180They were before they mined, uh, they banned it a couple of years ago.
00:58:35.080Um, and that was only just because they want to control of their own central bank.
01:00:12.120And 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.
01:00:20.740Um, didn't, didn't Trudeau shut down, uh, people with Bitcoin.
01:00:26.860Didn'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.
01:00:32.580He 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.
01:00:43.480Um, whereas any individual who accepted Bitcoin to wallets they controlled during those protests was not affected at all.
01:00:50.240So if you, if, but if you take it out, I mean, this is one of the scary things too.
01:00:55.700You 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.
01:01:15.700Uh, I know Senator Lummis and I believe Hildebrand are working on a bill that would, uh, create a de minimis spend, uh, tax exemption.
01:01:24.340But 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.
01:02:27.800Um, 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.
01:02:38.800The 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.
01:02:50.400I think that's the overarching problem of the world today is centralization.
01:02:55.660And, 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.
01:03:10.320Obviously the federal government here in the United States has gotten to the point at which it's the largest government to ever exist.
01:03:17.460And 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.
01:03:32.680Just 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.
01:03:42.540So, well, isn't that why they, they say they need CBTCs because they were on modern monetary theory.
01:03:51.400The 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.
01:04:08.700So, so it's like technology has caught up to their arrogance.
01:04:15.440But 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.
01:04:24.980The 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.
01:04:33.000Do you, do you research much on AI and AGI, ASI?
01:04:39.860Uh, not as much as I, I've been falling down the, uh, the, uh, what is it called?
01:04:46.000I don't even know what it's called, but the, the AI.