Latest / Simply Bitcoin / World's LARGEST Country JUST Ditched The USD For Bitcoin | EP 1148
Transcript
- 0:00Yo, the day after Russia officially banned Bitcoin mining
- 0:05for six years in 10 different region, the country's finance
- 0:08minister came out and confirm that Russia is using Bitcoin in
- 0:12international trade settlement. So what is really happening in
- 0:16Russia? Why are they banning Bitcoin
- 0:18mining in multiple regions while simultaneously confirming that
- 0:22they're using Bitcoin to bypass the Western sanctions imposed on
- 0:25them in 2022? Today we're going to be diving
- 0:28into one of the most confused using nation state Bitcoin
- 0:31rabbit holds Russia and try to come to a conclusion about what
- 0:35is truly happening there and what their Bitcoin plan really
- 0:39is. So let's begin with the most
- 0:40recent news. And of course, I'm not alone.
- 0:43We have Tony from the Bitcoin way with us and of course, our
- 0:46fearless leader Nico filling in in the cohost seat.
- 0:49He'll be filling in in the cohost seat on the Friday shows.
- 0:52But let's dive into the news. I'm over here on Reuters guys,
- 0:55and the headline is Russia is using Bitcoin in foreign trade,
- 0:59finance says. And of course this came out on
- 1:02this day. And if you watch the show, I'm
- 1:05pretty sure Opti Opti. There's something, there's a
- 1:06little bit something wrong with your audio, can Finnick.
- 1:10Is it better? I would, yeah.
- 1:12It's fixed now. It's.
- 1:12OK, my bad guys. OK, so we covered this news, I
- 1:17believe it was Monday, you know, Fact Check me on that.
- 1:20We covered the idea of what's going on with Russia, but let's
- 1:23dive into the 1st news 1st and here we go again.
- 1:26We're on Reuters here and it goes.
- 1:27Russian companies have begun using Bitcoin and other digital
- 1:30currencies and international payments following legislative
- 1:33changes that allowed such use in order to counter Western
- 1:36sanctions, Finance Minister Anton Celenov said.
- 1:42On Wednesday. Forgive me.
- 1:44Sanctions have complicated Russia's trade with its major
- 1:47partners such as China or Turkey, as local banks are
- 1:50extremely cautious with Russia related transactions to avoid
- 1:54scrutiny from Western regulators.
- 1:56This year, Russia permitted the use of crypto currencies in
- 1:59foreign trade and has taken steps to make it legal to mine
- 2:02crypto currencies. And of course, we know they have
- 2:05a lot of energy and they are actually mining Bitcoin in
- 2:08Russia. Now we have a quote here.
- 2:10As part of the experimental regime, it is possible to use
- 2:13bitcoins, which we have mined here in Russia in foreign trade
- 2:16transactions. Sounds kind of like the the
- 2:19Trump thing, you know, like all bitcoins will be made in
- 2:21America. And it seems like Mother Russia
- 2:23is doing something similar. Anyway, such transactions are
- 2:26already occurring. We believe they should be
- 2:28expanded and developed further. I am confident this will happen
- 2:31next year. Now, of course, you go in.
- 2:34We're not obviously Nico and I don't speak Russian, but shouts
- 2:39out to our friend Katie, the Russian over at Plan B
- 2:41Passports. And she translated this video,
- 2:44This clip coming. And so she put out a tweet and
- 2:47it goes, has Russia started to utilize alternative payment
- 2:50instruments in international trade?
- 2:52And then the quote here is we've passed new laws as an
- 2:55experimental policy. You can now utilize Bitcoin,
- 2:58which we mined in Russia as mining has been legalized as
- 3:01well. These transactions do take
- 3:04place. Now, the interesting thing is,
- 3:06remember we covered this new story on Monday, I believe it
- 3:10was about what is going on in Russia.
- 3:12And Russia just passed or rather enacted a six year blanket ban
- 3:16on Bitcoin mining in 10 regions. So it's very interesting.
- 3:20On the one hand, they seem to be, you know, stopping mining
- 3:24for individuals in the country. But on a nation state level,
- 3:28they are pushing for international trade settlements,
- 3:32bypassing sanctions. So it really goes down to kind
- 3:35of what Nico and I were saying on the show.
- 3:37It's in Mother Russia. You know, Russia can use Bitcoin
- 3:41to transact and bypass international sanctions, but in
- 3:44the country, the citizens aren't allowed to freely use money,
- 3:47which is kind of the idea we've been talking about here forever
- 3:50on the show. Bitcoin is a Trojan horse for
- 3:52freedom. So it is interesting a rules for
- 3:55the, but not for me situation. And if you really kind of look
- 3:59into the news like you, especially this week, there's
- 4:02been a lot of people talking about what's the use case for
- 4:04Bitcoin. You're just speculating.
- 4:06You guys are just gamblers. And here we have Russia
- 4:09literally using Bitcoin. And I would argue as it's
- 4:12designed, this is the whole point of Bitcoin is it is
- 4:15censorship resistant permission list.
- 4:17When you need to use a money, when you need to transact and
- 4:21someone wants to stop you, This is why you use Bitcoin.
- 4:24And so as I've been saying all year long, 2024 has been one of
- 4:28those foundational years where I think a lot of the bricks have
- 4:32been laid to show the world that there is an actual use case for
- 4:35Bitcoin, whether it's on the corporate level, whether it's
- 4:37the institutional interest, whether it's on the nation state
- 4:40level. The world is waking up to a very
- 4:43simple fact that you need to have a money that is not
- 4:46controlled by anyone and that you can transact freely.
- 4:49A neutral money for the world is going to catch on and it is
- 4:53beneficial. And let's not forget the clip of
- 4:56Putin that we played to, what, 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago, where he
- 5:00very clearly was like, maybe we need to use a money that you
- 5:03can't ban. No one can ban Bitcoin.
- 5:05And so you're seeing that this is playing out and it really
- 5:08goes into a trend I think we've been talking about here on the
- 5:10show for a long time. It's this idea that the people
- 5:14in power, I think, are very aware of what Bitcoin is, what
- 5:18is at stake. And we're seeing that it's
- 5:20starting to play out. So to a lot of people watching
- 5:22this, you know, maybe you have your own views on Russia and
- 5:26Putin himself individually. But Bitcoin is for enemies, as
- 5:30the meme goes. And Bitcoin is a neutral money.
- 5:32And if someone wants to stop a transaction, if you're in the
- 5:36SWIFT U.S. dollar system, they can very easily do it.
- 5:39And now we're seeing that the signal is catching on that
- 5:42Russia is, you know, bypassing U.S. sanctions using Bitcoin.
- 5:46They said other alternative currencies, but I would argue
- 5:50it's mainly in Bitcoin. So again, on the one hand, we
- 5:53see that on the nation state level, or rather probably on the
- 5:56big business level, Russia's allowing international trade
- 5:59settlements to happen with Bitcoin.
- 6:01But internally within Russia, they're starting to, it seems to
- 6:04clamp down a little bit on who can and can't use Bitcoin.
- 6:08Obviously they're passing some laws and some stringent
- 6:11obstacles for people to to sign up and become, you know,
- 6:15sanctioned Bitcoin miners in the country.
- 6:17But we're seeing that the signal is catching on, guys.
- 6:20More people are seeing a use case in Bitcoin.
- 6:22So when people tell you what's the use case for Bitcoin, you
- 6:25guys are just speculating. You guys are just gamblers.
- 6:28Now, we have multiple examples of what the use case is for
- 6:31Bitcoin. A neutral money that cannot be
- 6:33stopped. This is the use case for
- 6:35Bitcoin. Then of course, store value,
- 6:37etcetera, etcetera. But I'm gonna pass it.
- 6:39Actually, I'm gonna pass it over to Tony first.
- 6:41Tony, thanks for coming on the show.
- 6:44What's your thoughts on Russia using Bitcoin for international
- 6:48payments but also seemingly banning mining within its own
- 6:52territory? Yeah, this is, this is fantastic
- 6:56news, man. This is this was inevitable.
- 6:59I mean, the, the day the US dollar was weaponized, it
- 7:04created this, this result. I mean, now that people know
- 7:08that, you know, the money that they've been using for all this
- 7:11all these years can be, you know, switched off, you know,
- 7:14instantly just because somebody disagrees with you.
- 7:17Well, if they can do it to a country, you know, Can you
- 7:19imagine what they can do to every to 8 billion people?
- 7:22And now that people realize this and but more importantly,
- 7:26realize that there is an option, you know, not to leave yourself,
- 7:30you know, dependent on this, they're going to take it.
- 7:33And you know, Russia is no, Russia is no different.
- 7:36They, they fully tried to sanction that country.
- 7:39You know, they, they did God knows what to it.
- 7:42They failed catastrophically. And now we know well, they've
- 7:47they've put Russia and other countries like them on a mission
- 7:51to find a solution that not to never find themselves in that
- 7:54predicament ever again. And Bitcoin is that solution.
- 7:58I mean, Bitcoin is is like, it's protected by cryptography,
- 8:03powered by energy, and controlled by no one.
- 8:07So of course they're going to standardize on it because they
- 8:10know no one can prevent them from using it.
- 8:13And the fact that Russia wants to prevent its people from
- 8:16eventually using it is a bit ludicrous because Bitcoin is
- 8:20peer-to-peer technology. You cannot stop it no matter
- 8:22what you say. What you can do is maybe try to
- 8:24scare people from using it, but eventually they'll clue on and
- 8:27they'll ignore you and they will use it.
- 8:29And then your words will become meaningless and your authority
- 8:32or your authority, your point of authority will become
- 8:35irrelevant. This is what Bitcoin was
- 8:37created, right? It's created as an option out.
- 8:39It's not created to extend the laws and corruption of the
- 8:44existing legacy system. It's designed to format it and
- 8:48replace it completely. Russia is going to do it.
- 8:51I wouldn't be surprised if we see some other country, Maybe
- 8:53China will announce it and before you know it the whole
- 8:55domino effect will kick off and every bloody country in the
- 8:59world will be doing it because they none of them trust each
- 9:03other so they have to standardize on something they
- 9:06know nobody else has an advantage over them with, and
- 9:09that is Bitcoin. It's applicable to nation
- 9:11states. It's applicable to the people.
- 9:13Bitcoin was created for everyone.
- 9:14You can't ban someone from Bitcoin.
- 9:17You can only ban yourself from from using it. 100% couldn't
- 9:23agree more. A lot of high signal there, Tony
- 9:25and I, and this is I think the main point that that I would
- 9:29like to stress for a lot of people, especially if they're
- 9:31newer is like what you said about trust.
- 9:34There's no one trusts each other.
- 9:35This is why we are all looking for a currency that we can
- 9:39trust. And This is why the dollar's
- 9:41been weaponized. This is why no one's trusting
- 9:43Fiat currencies is because we know they're going to go crazy
- 9:46and print more money. It's going to debase your
- 9:48holdings. And then even more, if you're on
- 9:50the SWIFT system, obviously you have to bend the knee to
- 9:53American interests. And now we're seeing that, hey,
- 9:56there are alternatives now. And that also puts the US in a
- 10:00sticky position. And going further, I think since
- 10:04Trump kind of came out and talked about Bitcoin, now we're
- 10:07seeing that everyone else is starting to talk about it.
- 10:10And it really reminds me of the Mexican standoff.
- 10:12You know, once the US kind of put the gun to Bitcoin, everyone
- 10:16else is like, wait, now I have to go to Bitcoin because I'm not
- 10:19going to get left out. So it is very interesting we're
- 10:22seeing Russia talk about this. We do know China's kind of
- 10:25backpedaling as well on their stance of Bitcoin.
- 10:28Obviously we have a what about 20 days, no 23 days, about 3
- 10:33weeks until we see Trump get into office and we'll see what
- 10:37happens. And it, and it's looking like we
- 10:39are seeing a lot of signals in the US that 2025 to, you know,
- 10:432029 is going to have some favorable jurisdiction for
- 10:46Bitcoin. So the global game theory is
- 10:48really picking up and I think we are starting to see a gradually
- 10:53then suddenly moment. And I think we just need one
- 10:55more domino to fall down and things are going to get super
- 10:58crazy. But let me pass it over to Nico.
- 11:00And Nico, what's your thoughts on this?
- 11:02I think we literally called this out on Monday or whenever we
- 11:05called this Tuesday, Wednesday or whatever the show was.
- 11:08It's like we knew this was happening.
- 11:10So Nico, what's your takes when we finally get some confirmation
- 11:13of Russia using it for international settlements?
- 11:16Yeah, I mean, you know, it's, it's the game theory playing
- 11:19out. And I just want to clarify a
- 11:20couple things, right? So they, you know, first you
- 11:24have to go through the timeline of things and, and none of this
- 11:27again, is happening by mere coincidence.
- 11:29Elections have consequences, of course, you know, countries that
- 11:33are competing with the United States, they see the United
- 11:35States potentially gaining an edge in Bitcoin, and they
- 11:39obviously want to stay on top of that, right?
- 11:41That's why you hear, you know, the rumblings coming out of Hong
- 11:44Kong basically saying, hey, we want Bitcoin businesses to come
- 11:47here. Hong Kong, I know it's
- 11:49technically, you know, one country, 2 systems, but it's
- 11:53essentially a proxy for the CCP. And then of course, Russia.
- 11:58But the Russia news is a little bit interesting because first of
- 12:01all, we have to understand that right now they're in a war,
- 12:05they've lost a lot of people in that war.
- 12:07So it's kind of like a wartime economy.
- 12:10Saw that in the chats when we were it saw that in the
- 12:12comments. So it's, it's important to pick
- 12:14that out. And another thing where I want
- 12:15to specify too, is they, they banned Bitcoin mining in some
- 12:19regions of Russia. And I believe those regions are
- 12:22actually closer to the front line of where that war is taking
- 12:26place. So it's not banned in every
- 12:29region in every state. I don't know what the state
- 12:32equivalent is in in Russia. Another thing also that I'll
- 12:37mention is the specific, the specifically if you want to mine
- 12:42Bitcoin in Russia, you have to seek state approval.
- 12:46So you actually like need a license to do so.
- 12:49And in regards to them using Bitcoin to facilitate
- 12:53international trade due to pressure from sanctions, like,
- 12:57yeah, that's a no brainer. But Opti, you you were
- 13:00mentioning this earlier on in the show referencing the article
- 13:04Bitcoin is a Trojan horse for freedom written by Alex Godstein
- 13:07in 2000, 2020 one yeah, I mean, like what people have to
- 13:14understand is that freedom go up technology.
- 13:16And this is to quote his article and number go up.
- 13:19Technology are inextricably linked.
- 13:21You cannot disconnect the two. But if you're a dictator, if
- 13:25you're a leader of a country, you cannot resist number go up.
- 13:29But you don't want freedom go up.
- 13:32What they don't realize is that it's a Trojan horse.
- 13:35Once you let Bitcoin inside, you know, the, the Kingdom, the the
- 13:39country you can't take away. You can't just benefit from it
- 13:45and then not allow the whole freedom aspect of it.
- 13:49So it's fascinating. It's the game theory playing out
- 13:52and I would not be surprised to see Russia backtrack again.
- 13:57But what's really interesting too is Rush Putin was caught in
- 14:03an interview, we called this when it was breaking where he
- 14:07just went on, you know, on a, you know, on a Russian state
- 14:11media and was basically somewhat a report a quote UN quote
- 14:15reporter asked them like something regarding Bitcoin.
- 14:18And he was just like, yeah, like you can't, you can't ban
- 14:23Bitcoin. And then like a week later, it
- 14:27was announced that, you know, the the the Russian State Duma,
- 14:31which is the equivalent of the House of Representatives here in
- 14:33the United States, made the announcement that they were
- 14:36proposing a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
- 14:39So, you know, again, all of this would not have happened, whether
- 14:43it's the news from China, the news from Russia, the news from
- 14:46Brazil, the news from Morocco, none of this would have happened
- 14:51if Donald Trump didn't win the election of, of November 5th,
- 14:572024. So elections have consequences.
- 15:00This is why we're here. But it's beautiful because Long
- 15:04story short, guys, when country, when nation States and
- 15:07institutions compete to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible, the
- 15:12holders of Bitcoin win. Why?
- 15:15Cuz the price goes up. And that's the game theory.
- 15:18That's the incentive playing out.
- 15:20This is how Max Kaiser prophetically knew many years
- 15:24ago when he coined the term Global Hash War.
- 15:28He knew this was happening and it was because of Bitcoins
- 15:31incentives. So it's beautiful to see this
- 15:34play out, but it's a tough pill to swallow.
- 15:37Could you imagine? Even here in the United States,
- 15:40we were covering some news in regards to regulations that are
- 15:44potentially going into effect in January 1st of 2025.
- 15:48Like, it's crazy, some of these reporting requirements.
- 15:52Hopefully the Trump administration walks some of
- 15:54this stuff back. But you have to understand the
- 15:56moment in history that we're in and the and the moment that
- 15:59we're history we're in is the separation of money and state,
- 16:02right? And do you think they're just
- 16:04gonna say, you know what, you know, they have better money.
- 16:08It sounds it has rules without rulers.
- 16:11We're just going to give over the keys and just kumbaya.
- 16:14No, that's bullshit. They get a tremendous amount of
- 16:18power from having a monopoly over money and having control
- 16:23over money. And to think they're just going
- 16:25to give that willingly is extremely naive.
- 16:29But I think we're inevitably going to win because we have
- 16:33incentives on our side and they have coercion.
- 16:36And if history is a teacher, incentives end up ruling the
- 16:40day. Anyways, before we start the
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- 18:18All right, everybody, before we get to the numbers, there's a
- 18:21lot of there's a lot of you guys watching live.
- 18:22We're at 1600 live views already.
- 18:24If you guys are enjoying the show, make sure to smash that
- 18:27like button. All right, everybody, no more
- 18:29delay. Let's get to the numbers.
- 18:31We have a lot to talk about. We'll be right back.
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- 20:19on Clark Moody's dashboard running through the numbers, of
- 20:21course the Bitcoin price is currently $93,980.
- 20:27Guys, wrap it up, 94,000 and $10 it's over.
- 20:30Bitcoin is over. It's dead now.
- 20:31Anyways, the stats per dollar how much Bitcoin you can buy for
- 20:34a single dollar, AKA how much the dollar is worth in Bitcoin
- 20:37is currently at 1064 sets per dollar.
- 20:40The current block height is 876,629.
- 20:45The market cap in Fiat terms, in dollar terms is $1.86 trillion.
- 20:50The Bitcoin versus gold market cap is at 10.11% and the total
- 20:54percentage of Bitcoin that will ever be issued is currently at
- 20:5794.29%, which means roughly 19.8 million Bitcoin are currently
- 21:03circulating, right? So going into this a little more
- 21:06guys, we got pomp on Fox and he's talking exactly about kind
- 21:11of what we've been talking about in the beginning of the show is
- 21:13that now the cat is out of the bag.
- 21:15As we said in the beginning, ever since Trump kind of came
- 21:18out and become pro Bitcoin, you're seeing that other nations
- 21:21are starting to follow suit, essentially doing what we just
- 21:24said a minute ago, what Bitcoin is designed to do.
- 21:28If you need to use a money that people want to stop you from
- 21:32using, you should probably drop the dollar and go on the Bitcoin
- 21:35though. I want you guys to notice one
- 21:37kind of interesting trend here and it's the anchors reaction
- 21:42after the fact and the fact that they're no longer kind of just,
- 21:45you know, talking smack about bitcoiners.
- 21:47It seems like they are starting to get bullish on Bitcoin and if
- 21:51the segment was any longer, they would probably be giving you
- 21:54price predictions themselves. So let's check this out.
- 21:58I think that. Bitcoin is the king.
- 22:00It will remain the king. I think that most of the capital
- 22:03flows from the traditional world are going into Bitcoin.
- 22:05There are going to be other assets that enter into the
- 22:07market. You obviously see the the ETF
- 22:10got approved. You'll probably see others that
- 22:11get approved as well. But the argument for anything
- 22:14other than Bitcoin is a very different one.
- 22:16That is a technology argument. It's no different than trying to
- 22:18pick between Amazon and Google and Facebook.
- 22:20The Bitcoin argument is much more akin to do I want to
- 22:23protect my purchasing power? It's digital gold.
- 22:25And so that argument, to me is much more reasonable for the
- 22:29government to say, hey, we're going to go and we're going to
- 22:30put this in our reserves. I don't think that the United
- 22:33States wants to get in the game of trying to pick tech winners
- 22:35or losers based on, you know, the allocation of capital.
- 22:39Do you have a A1 year target for us on Bitcoin with and without
- 22:43the Bitcoin reserve? With or without, we're going
- 22:46higher. I don't have, I don't
- 22:47necessarily have a price. But I do think that if we go
- 22:50ahead and buy Bitcoin, what's interesting is we will not be
- 22:53the first country to do this. There's a lot of other countries
- 22:55who have already bought their mining, they're holding Bitcoin.
- 22:57What I do think is important though, is America is the
- 22:59greatest capital market in the world.
- 23:01And so if America does it, it pretty much reduces all of the
- 23:05career risk, all of the critiques for all these other
- 23:08countries. And so, you know, Russia
- 23:10recently came out, they said, hey, we're mining Bitcoin.
- 23:11We're to use it in transactions. People are like, oh, that's
- 23:14Russia. You know, we kind of don't like
- 23:15them. And so they're kind of in the
- 23:16corner. People look at El Salvador and
- 23:18like, oh, that's El Salvador. I couldn't point it out on.
- 23:20But if they're doing it makes more of a case if your enemies
- 23:22are doing it that you should be. Well, look, the United States
- 23:25took a pretty drastic action in terms of the sanctions that they
- 23:28went after individuals country and also took some of the
- 23:30Russian assets and said, hey, we're going to give the
- 23:32Ukrainian people. When that happened, Bitcoiners
- 23:35came out and they said you are actually going to further
- 23:38accelerate the demise of the US dollar because now you have
- 23:41introduced the sanctions risk. There's a paper that came out of
- 23:44the Harvard economics department where they talked about will
- 23:46countries now start to buy Bitcoin not for price, not for
- 23:49the sovereignty, but actually as a sanctions hedge Russia.
- 23:53And so Russia is. Actually doing that, do you
- 23:55think they're the only one? No, I wouldn't bet on it.
- 23:58I will say someone on this program on the network said the
- 24:001st 100K on Bitcoin was the easiest and it could easily get
- 24:03to 200 K by next year. I'm like, it took us this long
- 24:06to get to 100. K and you think?
- 24:08200K in the next. Year some people are saying 250.
- 24:10I heard 500. Believable.
- 24:12Well, if you guys. Just keep it.
- 24:13We'll just wait a couple minutes.
- 24:14You guys will be at the couple million here.
- 24:16Anthony Pombley. Well.
- 24:22Just, you know, making light of the conversation.
- 24:24It's funny, at the end of it, they're like, wait, you know, it
- 24:27took 15 years for Bitcoin to get 100K.
- 24:29Wait, are we going to see 200K300K500K next year?
- 24:34You're seeing that, You know, Fox News has been doing a pretty
- 24:37good job of spreading the Bitcoin signal.
- 24:39It seems like a lot of the anchors over there, the talking
- 24:42heads are starting to believe in Bitcoin.
- 24:44And This Is Us infiltrating the culture in real time.
- 24:47And remember when we used to get talked about Bitcoin, it was
- 24:50what, burning the oceans up, you know, we're going to take all of
- 24:53the energy of the world, Bitcoins for criminals.
- 24:56And now they're kind of jokingly talking about, wait, how high
- 24:59can Bitcoin go? Which I think is just absolutely
- 25:02hilarious. We've come a long way.
- 25:04But talking about what Pop was saying and really connecting
- 25:07this to the beginning of the show, you're seeing that this
- 25:10signal is spreading. As we've been covering
- 25:13throughout the whole year, more people are waking up to the
- 25:16actual use case of Bitcoin. Why you might need it in your
- 25:18portfolio, why you might need it on a nation state level, why you
- 25:22might need it if you're, you know, a political prisoner or
- 25:25someone that is a political dissident.
- 25:27This is a use case of money, a neutral money that no one can
- 25:30control. And it's very interesting to
- 25:32kind of hear Pomp say what we've all been saying.
- 25:35I'm sure you guys sat down for holiday Christmas, you know,
- 25:39dinner and your friends and family were trying to tell you
- 25:42that, oh, there's no use use case for Bitcoin.
- 25:44And now we have a so many receipts to show that this is
- 25:48the case. So if they kind of, you know,
- 25:50brushed off Russia using Bitcoin, well, you know, you
- 25:54can. You can point to BlackRock.
- 25:55If they brush off BlackRock, you can point to Russia.
- 25:58You can point to El Salvador. Nico and I have been saying this
- 26:01throughout the year. El Salvador really started the
- 26:04dominoes here, but they're such a tiny country that it was
- 26:07really easy for you to just kind of brush them off and be like,
- 26:11oh, they're an insignificant player on the world stage.
- 26:14But now we literally have a world superpower embracing
- 26:18Bitcoin, using Bitcoin for what it's designed to do.
- 26:20And I think 2025 again, I'm I'm repeating myself going into this
- 26:24next year, I think we're going to see some really big fireworks
- 26:28in regards to Bitcoin, people using Bitcoin again, we see in
- 26:31Russia, China is backpedaling. Of course, the USI think 2025 is
- 26:36going to be a huge splash for Bitcoin in the cultural
- 26:39zeitgeist. And it's going to be very
- 26:41interesting to see all of this play out.
- 26:43And as Nico said, if you are a Bitcoiner and you're holding,
- 26:46you are the one who benefits if you take that Bitcoin into
- 26:49custody and you don't leave it on exchanges.
- 26:52This is how we win. Anyways, Nico, I will pass it on
- 26:54to you. What's your thoughts on Pomp on
- 26:57Fox essentially saying what we've been saying on Simply
- 27:00Bitcoin, but on the corporate press for, you know, all the
- 27:03boomers out there? So First off, I want to give a
- 27:06shout out to the YouTube live stream.
- 27:09Of course we broke 600 live viewers.
- 27:11Currently at 624 we're at 157 likes.
- 27:14Help us break 200 likes within the 1st 45 minutes of the show.
- 27:20So if you guys are enjoying the show so far, make sure to smash
- 27:23that like button. Of course.
- 27:24Shout out to Rumble and X. On the verge of breaking 2000
- 27:28live viewers. I appreciate y'all.
- 27:31Anyways, so a couple thoughts. You know, Pomp got a lot of heat
- 27:35for recommending certain products earlier on with his
- 27:40podcast. And what I got to say is, you
- 27:44know, and this perhaps is a little bit unpopular, appreciate
- 27:46the ZAP. We are streaming ladies and
- 27:48gentlemen on on Noster and we are uploading also simply
- 27:53Bitcoin content on Noster via Primal.
- 27:56Appreciate the Primal guys for helping us out and giving us the
- 28:00ability to do that. But anyways, back to Pompliano.
- 28:04So, you know, Pomp got a lot of crap for, you know, some of the
- 28:08some of the things some of the sponsors that he had earlier on
- 28:11and you know, unfortunately some of them went down.
- 28:14What I got to say about that is, you know, first of all, it's
- 28:17it's very, very difficult to run a media business in this space.
- 28:22And, you know, I respect all content creators and I think
- 28:25Pomp has incredible takes when he goes on the legacy media.
- 28:29And we all have to remember that, you know, us Bitcoiners,
- 28:33we make content for other Bitcoiners or people that are
- 28:37currently seeking Bitcoin. That's why these legacy media
- 28:41interviews are so important because he's essentially
- 28:44breaking the echo chamber every time he goes on there and he
- 28:46drops his knowledge. You know, he is, he's
- 28:50essentially, you know, talking the Bitcoin gospel.
- 28:53I, I find it funny when they asked him about the price
- 28:56prediction and, and he, he didn't want to answer that in
- 28:59regards to that. I mean, like, dude, like, you
- 29:01know, I think, I think, you know, when people disagree, I
- 29:05think the general consensus right now on, on X is that, you
- 29:09know, bitcoins going to hit a hundred 150K200K.
- 29:12That's it. It's going to go back down.
- 29:14I'm a much more bullish than that.
- 29:15I mean, I had doctor Jeff Ross on the show the other day and
- 29:19he's speculating and he's talking about a $475,000 Bitcoin
- 29:23in 2025. And what I got to say is I think
- 29:26bitcoiners, us Bitcoiners have completely forgotten what a bull
- 29:29market feels like because a real bull market hasn't happened
- 29:32since 2017. And Bitcoin tends to do the
- 29:35exact opposite of what the general consensus is.
- 29:38So I would not be, you know, I would not be surprised at all
- 29:44that, you know, I would not be surprised at all that if I would
- 29:50not be surprised at all if you know, like Bitcoin over
- 29:55performs. And what I've also noticed too
- 29:58is it's not only Pomp, it's also Natalie.
- 30:02They've, they've been regularly getting Bitcoiners on legacy
- 30:06media to talk about Bitcoin. And it's because the price
- 30:10appreciation and of course, Michael Saylor's stock is
- 30:13outperforming the rest of the S&P 500.
- 30:15I mean, that's news, you know. So shout out to Pompiliano.
- 30:19I know some Bitcoiners are not the biggest fan.
- 30:21I like Pomp, I like his takes, and I think he does a great job
- 30:26when he goes in there and just educates the masses via the
- 30:31legacy media. And I think the anchors are
- 30:33starting to pick up on it. I mean, Opti, you're one of the
- 30:36first people to point this out, like Squawk Box, Joe Kern, I
- 30:41believe that's his name, regularly defends Bitcoin.
- 30:45And, you know, and you would have thought five years ago that
- 30:48would have never happened. So we're clearly making
- 30:50progress. I mean, if you have the
- 30:52president of the United States coming in, being sworn in
- 30:54January 20th, wishing Bitcoiners happy birthday, I think that's
- 30:59like, you know, that's the definition of winning.
- 31:01We're we're definitely breaking the echo chamber.
- 31:03So we just got to keep on the pressure.
- 31:05We got to keep on, you know, spreading the word of Satoshi
- 31:10and we got to get more people buying Bitcoin, taking that
- 31:13Bitcoin into self custody. And this is how we're going to
- 31:15win anyways. I'm going to pass it on to Tony.
- 31:17Tony, what are your thoughts on Pomp's legacy media interview?
- 31:21Man, it's great what he's doing. I am familiar with what he used
- 31:24to do in the past and I guess that's OK, man.
- 31:26I mean, we, we, we all start, you know, the wrong way.
- 31:29And as long as you adjust properly over time, you know,
- 31:32and the end result really is, is what matters.
- 31:35All this attention towards Bitcoin, all this high signal is
- 31:38extremely bullish. I used to be more of the mindset
- 31:41of a like Bitcoin has to be adopted like the purest way, the
- 31:43way I want to see it done. But you know, you know, over
- 31:46time, I just quickly understood that that's not the way the
- 31:49world works. Unfortunately.
- 31:51We want everyone to get into Bitcoin.
- 31:53Like, I don't really care at this point how you get into it,
- 31:55as long as you start paying attention to it and start
- 31:57benefiting from the technology. But what I want to stress is we
- 32:02shouldn't forget that Bitcoin was created for us.
- 32:06It was created for the people. I mean, it's, it's amazing that
- 32:10governments are now following in and institutions are following
- 32:13in. But Bitcoin wasn't created for
- 32:16them, right? I mean, they've already, they've
- 32:18always been rich by manipulating and corrupting the money and
- 32:21printing it to oblivion. That's they've always had
- 32:24wealth. Bitcoin was the first time in
- 32:26history where normal 8 billion folks, you know, even a high
- 32:31percentage of them that have never had like a dollar to their
- 32:34name, so to speak. Now there's this once in a
- 32:37history opportunity to take that back and like to to regain the
- 32:42power and actually be able to save, you know, their time and
- 32:45energy to something that 100% belongs to them.
- 32:48That can't be Co opted by anyone, that can't be shut down
- 32:51by anyone simply because they don't like your face or your
- 32:53opinion. I mean, this is what Bitcoin is
- 32:56about and Bitcoin will only win as long as it remains
- 33:01decentralized. This is something that I don't
- 33:04want people to forget because they're getting caught up and
- 33:07the number go up and the government FOMO and the
- 33:09institutional FOMO. All of that is great, but
- 33:12fundamentally, none of it matters if Bitcoin doesn't
- 33:15remain decentralized and secure. And the only way this is going
- 33:19to happen is when folks understand that you need to take
- 33:23it into self custody and not, you know, give in to the
- 33:27complacency and conveniences of all the false advertising that
- 33:32sometimes, you know, I hear going on in the space.
- 33:35I mean, we've to really understand Bitcoin, you have to
- 33:40unlearn and let go of many beliefs that you were
- 33:44essentially taught since the day you were born.
- 33:46And I understand that this is extremely hard to do because
- 33:50essentially you're admitting to yourself that you've been a
- 33:52sucker your entire life and you've been lied to and, you
- 33:54know, you've just been part of that rigged system happily.
- 33:59Well, you know, I thought everything was normal until my
- 34:04entire life blew up and only then did I dive in and uncover
- 34:08the truth. And it's like once you once you
- 34:11understand where the like how the system is played and where
- 34:15the Fiat money comes from, its origins, the Ponzi, the fraud,
- 34:18the scam that it is, you know, the system that was designed to
- 34:22steal sensor and control, that is the Fiat system, nothing
- 34:25more. Once you understand that, you
- 34:27start seeing the world from a very different lens.
- 34:30And once you have those binoculars on, you can never
- 34:33take it off all right. And, and I am extremely bullish
- 34:38because over the last two years, you know, I've seen a tremendous
- 34:42increase in enormous interest in Bitcoin.
- 34:47But like the right way. So you know, when you take these
- 34:51binoculars and you pass it to someone and you tell them, look,
- 34:54this is what I'm seeing, This is why I'm excited.
- 34:57And then they look through it and they get it.
- 35:01That's one more person that comes into this army of people
- 35:04that keeps Bitcoin decentralized because without this, none of it
- 35:09matters. So it's really important to to
- 35:13appreciate that, you know, Bitcoin in self custody.
- 35:17That is the revolution, you know, like none of this good
- 35:20news and excitement and Bitcoin is winning talk like goes
- 35:26anywhere if it doesn't remain fully decentralized and and
- 35:31secure. I believe it's going to continue
- 35:33happening because there's tons of people that are finally
- 35:37clicking in that are finally coming into this space the right
- 35:40way. They are ignoring the false
- 35:42advertising. They are ignoring the false
- 35:44marketing. You know, they are taking full
- 35:46self custody and understanding that the personal responsibility
- 35:50around owning your money is not nuclear science.
- 35:53It's not that hard. It's just a it's just a brand
- 35:56new series of steps that you have to understand.
- 35:59Some people will learn it, you know, on their own because
- 36:01there's plenty of great resources online for that.
- 36:03Others will come to the experts that will give you an instant
- 36:07shortcut through the trials and errors so you don't have to risk
- 36:11your funds and waste weeks or months or years figuring it out
- 36:15on your own simply because you don't come from the tech world,
- 36:17right? So if you're in Bitcoin today,
- 36:20you've already won. That's it.
- 36:22You know, like, I mean, they've thrown everything at Bitcoin for
- 36:25the past 15 years and Bitcoins future is exponentially
- 36:29monumentally larger than anything you think you possibly
- 36:32missed by not getting into it in 2009 and 2010.
- 36:37That, you know, back then only like a fraction of the
- 36:40population was paying attention to it.
- 36:42Now you've got 8 billion people, every single government, the
- 36:46biggest institutions in the world, they're all following
- 36:49into it. So if you want to, if you want
- 36:52to still denominate Bitcoin and you know, an inflationary system
- 36:56that it was designed to replace, well then if you're looking at a
- 36:59price target, you know, even a point 0.1 Bitcoin can equate to
- 37:04like $84,000,000. You know, and that can happen
- 37:07like this. I mean, I think as soon as 2025
- 37:10next year, if, if Donald Trump does, I don't know, 25% of
- 37:15everything that he's claiming to do, you'll wake up one day with
- 37:19that a mega candle. And then the world would like,
- 37:22what the hell just happened overnight?
- 37:24Well, you know, what happened overnight is that all of these
- 37:26big institutions and government are buying in the billions of
- 37:31dollars quietly. But the reason it's not
- 37:33reflected right now in the price is because they're doing it OTC.
- 37:37They're not buying it off the public market.
- 37:38Because, you know, if they were to do that, then you'd see the
- 37:41craziness happen in the next 5 minutes.
- 37:43But they're not doing this. I don't know why they're not
- 37:46doing this yet, but at some point, you know, the Otcs will
- 37:49eventually run out and there'll be no other choice than to buy
- 37:52it publicly. And that's when the dam breaks
- 37:55loose. So if you're still sitting here
- 37:57lingering wondering if Bitcoin is a scam or if it's something
- 38:00you should get into, well, you know, your, your window, you
- 38:04know, was already small. Now it's like almost like a
- 38:06pinhole small. So if you don't get off, you
- 38:09know, and do something, you're going to be left out of the
- 38:13biggest opportunity we've ever seen to create and a mass
- 38:16generational wealth. You'll still benefit at some
- 38:19point from Bitcoin by earning it.
- 38:21That's fine. But you know, to be able to
- 38:23front run all the big boys, you know, which was again, the idea
- 38:26behind the creation of Bitcoin is to give the people back that
- 38:30opportunity, right? So if you're not doing anything,
- 38:33well, just you're just wasting it.
- 38:35But those that are in it, pat yourself on the back.
- 38:38You are solid winners, my friends, and as long as you're
- 38:40holding your own keys, you know nothing.
- 38:43Nothing will stop you. You are unconfiscatable.
- 38:46I love that. I love that unconfiscatable and
- 38:49one of the things that really resonated with me, Tony, was and
- 38:52when you said, and I think you hit the nail on the head.
- 38:55If you're in Bitcoin right now, you've already won.
- 38:58It's it's not a matter of it's a, and I know you might not feel
- 39:02it now. It's just a matter of, of just
- 39:04just wait it out. You're going to see five years,
- 39:06your life is going to be radically different.
- 39:09And let's just say your class of 2024, you know, when you're just
- 39:14getting in, you're like God damn, Nico, my first Bitcoin
- 39:16price is like 100 Ki felt the exact effing way.
- 39:20First time I bought Bitcoin, it was like 6600 dollars, $700.00.
- 39:24And I was hearing stories from bogs that were buying Bitcoin at
- 39:29a dollar or $13 or $100. And I was like, dude, like I
- 39:35missed the boat. Like, this is over, this is
- 39:36done. I wish I did more to stack back
- 39:39then. And when Bitcoin inevitably
- 39:42reaches 10 million per coin, I don't think it's a question of
- 39:45if. It's a question of when.
- 39:47That's not financial advice. But I mean, look, I, I, I, I
- 39:51preach what I do myself, right? But you know, when, when Bitcoin
- 39:56eventually I believe reaches new heights, you know, you're going
- 39:59to look back and you'll be like, dude, I wish, I wish I was able
- 40:02to buy at 100K, right? Like Bitcoin is savings and
- 40:06Bitcoin will give you the ability to live a deflationary
- 40:11lifestyle. Meaning, and I know that's not
- 40:13the correct terminology and whatever, but what I'm trying to
- 40:16say is if you're on a Bitcoin standard and you're saving and
- 40:19you're earning a Bitcoin or converting the Fiat that you
- 40:23earn to Bitcoin, you will see that your life gets
- 40:26progressively cheaper over time. Goods and services, the real
- 40:31estate, the things around you are literally going down in in,
- 40:35in, in Bitcoin terms, right. And if you're on a Fiat
- 40:39standard, it's the exact opposite.
- 40:41Things are getting progressively more expensive, making forcing
- 40:44you to work harder, forcing you to think short term because it's
- 40:49very nihilistic. You feel like you have no hope
- 40:51for the future. So when Tony says if you're in
- 40:54Bitcoin now you've already won, that's exactly what he means.
- 40:58It is the cheat code to you know, your, your, your, your
- 41:02financial future. That's what we believe
- 41:03wholeheartedly, yet simply and of course, you know Tony.
- 41:06I know for a fact he does as well.
- 41:08All right, everybody, let's get to news.
- 41:11We have tons to talk about. I do want to give a shout out to
- 41:13the chat again. We have broken 2000 live viewers
- 41:16on the live stream. Almost 100 of you guys watching
- 41:19on Rumble and on YouTube. Oh my God, almost 700 guys,
- 41:23we're on the verge of breaking the 250 like goal.
- 41:26Let's raise that up to 300. 100 likes.
- 41:30If you guys are enjoying the show so far, make sure to smash
- 41:33that like button. Help us get 300 likes before the
- 41:38end of today's show. Alright everybody, no more
- 41:41delay. Let's jump straight into the
- 41:43news. We have tons to talk about.
- 41:45Let's check it out. I want to give a very special
- 41:48shout out to our sponsor, Compass Mining.
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- 42:44I want to give a shout out to our sponsor foundation.
- 42:46It's self custody done right. They've built a premium grade
- 42:50hardware wallet called Passport right here in the US, and it
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- 43:36All right, everybody, so Opti's on the go.
- 43:39I'm on the go too, and we don't have the passport with us.
- 43:44But guys, not your keys, not your cheese.
- 43:47You want to take self custody? I'm just still going to make
- 43:50Opti full screen Opti. There you go guys.
- 43:53Not your keys, not your keys. You want to take self custody of
- 43:58your Bitcoin, which is where we recommend our sponsor Passport
- 44:01by Foundation Devices use promo code simply to get a discount.
- 44:06It does not come with Opti, but it will get you a discount to a
- 44:09Passport by Foundation Devices Opti.
- 44:13It could come with. Opti the right code?
- 44:16No, I'm just here. I'm just here.
- 44:18All right, anyways. OK, guys, we got some
- 44:21interesting news coming out of Wall Street.
- 44:24First, I think we're going to with this news answer a lot of
- 44:28questions and also I think you know, Michael Saylor will also
- 44:32be vindicated once you hear these news stories.
- 44:34So first and foremost, I'm over here on coin Telegraph with the
- 44:37headline Trump link stride files for quote Bitcoin bond ETF.
- 44:43The fund aims to offer exposure to micro strategies, convertible
- 44:47bonds, among others. Now go going into this a little
- 44:50more and the very, really interesting aspect of this is
- 44:54who owns this company? So Strive, an asset manager
- 44:57founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, asked United States regulators
- 45:01for permission to list an exchange traded fund and ETF
- 45:04investing in convertible bonds issued by MicroStrategy and
- 45:08other corporate Bitcoin buyers, according to a December 26th
- 45:11filing. The ETF seeks to offer exposure
- 45:14to quote Bitcoin bonds described as convertible securities issued
- 45:18by MicroStrategy or or by other companies that plan to invest
- 45:21all or a significant portion of the proceeds to purchase
- 45:25Bitcoin, according to the filing.
- 45:27And I do have the filing over here guys.
- 45:28You can check it out yourself, but micro strategy is very
- 45:31clearly named in this throughout the whole thing.
- 45:34You know MicroStrategy is the world's first and largest
- 45:37Bitcoin treasury company, meaning it has adopted Bitcoin
- 45:40as its primary treasury reserve asset.
- 45:42Its strategy to acquire Bitcoin, develop product innovations that
- 45:45leverage Bitcoin and advocate for the acceptance of Bitcoin
- 45:49and the Lightning Network and of course, referencing their huge
- 45:52holdings of Bitcoin. Now going back over here, the
- 45:56Stride Bitcoin Bond ETF will be actively managed and will gain
- 45:59exposure to Bitcoin bond either directly or through financial
- 46:03derivatives such as swaps and options.
- 46:05Strive has not yet specified the management fees.
- 46:08And then moving forward, of course, they're kind of breaking
- 46:10down the Bitcoin bond. Beginning in 2020, MicroStrategy
- 46:14has spent about $27 billion buying Bitcoin as part of a
- 46:17corporate treasury strategy spearheaded by Co founder
- 46:20Michael Saylor. And then of course, it's stock.
- 46:22MicroStrategy MSTR has gained more than 2200%, outperforming
- 46:27every sizable public company except for NVIDIA.
- 46:31And then of course, you know, it's a fine finance these buys
- 46:34by this convertible bond strategy.
- 46:36We've been covering this throughout the year, all, all of
- 46:39the details around this. And of course, they are opening
- 46:42up the option to essentially do the same thing with other
- 46:46companies. Now this story is also
- 46:49interesting considering that Bitwise also did a very similar
- 46:54play. Bitwise files for a quote, you
- 46:57know, Bitcoin Standard Corporation ETF, which would
- 47:01essentially invest in only companies that have adopted a
- 47:05Bitcoin standard, which they define as holding at least 1000
- 47:09Bitcoin in corporate treasuries. So you're seeing 2 very similar
- 47:14plays happen right now in this ETF.
- 47:15Finally, obviously the MicroStrategy strategy is
- 47:19catching on and everyone is looking at MicroStrategy and
- 47:22Michael Saylor and either one, wondering how they can do it
- 47:25themselves or two, looking for exposure.
- 47:29And so I find it, there's two things that I find very
- 47:31interesting here. 1 is the fact that Vivek Ramaswamy's company,
- 47:36Strive, is essentially investing in MicroStrategy.
- 47:40They want that MicroStrategy exposure basically giving a
- 47:43tacit approval of Bitcoin. And I literally saw someone in
- 47:46the chat earlier essentially, you know, I think the main
- 47:48question here for a lot of us Bitcoiners in regards to the
- 47:51Trump administration is whether they're going to follow through
- 47:54with their whole Bitcoin strategic reserve plans, whether
- 47:57they're going to have some favorable regulation for
- 47:59Bitcoin. Well, it looks like the Trump
- 48:02administration and Trump himself and people around Trump are
- 48:06going a full bore into Bitcoin. Obviously, Vivek, he's not
- 48:10necessarily in the government right now.
- 48:12He's going to be a part of the DOGE, you know, Department of
- 48:15Government officials efficiency. So you're seeing that a lot of
- 48:17people around Trump are very actively pursuing getting
- 48:21Bitcoin, Bitcoin exposure, associating themselves with
- 48:24Bitcoin. And let's not forget that Strive
- 48:27by Vivek was actually backed by Howard Leutnick, who is now,
- 48:31what is he Nico? Is he not Treasury Secretary?
- 48:34Commerce, he's head of. And then of course, another big
- 48:39Steve behind the Strive management is.
- 48:42Talk to your table. Is, is Palantir, Joe Lonsdale as
- 48:48well as Peter Teal, Steve's funding.
- 48:50So there is, you know, some concerns in regards to that, but
- 48:53it's starting to show that, hey, it looks like the Trump
- 48:56administration is going to be very pro Bitcoin.
- 49:00They're getting Bitcoin exposure.
- 49:02They want Bitcoin exposure. It is starting to look like the
- 49:05Republicans in the Trump administration.
- 49:07They want Bitcoin to win. Remember Trump said he wants 150
- 49:10K Bitcoin. I would think day one, but he
- 49:13wants 150 K Bitcoin very early in his presidency.
- 49:16It seems like he is kind of linking his reputation to
- 49:19Bitcoin winning, which is, you know, good and bad, I would say.
- 49:24But the second part is micro strategy.
- 49:26Strategy, I think is being completely vindicated and
- 49:30everyone on Wall Street is looking at Bitcoin and and
- 49:33basically essentially either going to follow still or wanting
- 49:37to get Bitcoin exposure. Now.
- 49:40Nico said this all year. Taylor's been putting on a
- 49:42master class throughout the whole year showing Wall Street
- 49:45how to get Bitcoin. Now, I'm sure there's some bit
- 49:49corners that are kind of, you know, drinking the haterade
- 49:52around Sailor and MicroStrategy acquiring that much Bitcoin, but
- 49:56the signal is there. Again, the receipts for 2024, I
- 50:00think prove very clear cut that you add Bitcoin to your personal
- 50:06company treasury, even your nation state treasury and it's
- 50:10going to benefit you. And now more and more people are
- 50:13waking up to the strategy and it seems like you know, the the
- 50:17Nancy Pelosi trading is going to have, you know, a run for its
- 50:23buck. If Bitwise is going to invest in
- 50:25just Bitcoin, what's it strategic reserve fund?
- 50:30And then you also have Strive from Vivek essentially just
- 50:35going to invest a bunch of money into MicroStrategy.
- 50:38So it's definitely some Wall Street games playing out, but
- 50:41the signal remains the same. Bitcoin is the best performing
- 50:44thing, period. And you want exposure to this,
- 50:46obviously here at Simply Bitcoin and of course, Tony at the
- 50:49Bitcoin Way, we argue you want Bitcoin in cold storage, you
- 50:53want Bitcoin in self custody. But I think this is just that
- 50:57that coming wave of Wall Street's interest in Bitcoin and
- 51:01the tsunami of capital that is eventually going to end up at
- 51:04Bitcoin. So very interesting developments
- 51:06we got yesterday. Now I'm gonna pass it over to
- 51:09Tony because we are going to be talking about self custody in a
- 51:12few minutes with the Bitcoin way.
- 51:14So maybe we get, you know, Tony's take on why we need to
- 51:18take Bitcoin into self custody. But what's your thoughts on
- 51:21Vivek? Basically, you know, investing
- 51:24or making an ETF around MicroStrategy?
- 51:26We're seeing Bitwise do ETF on the Bitcoin strategic reserve
- 51:30strategy. So what's your thoughts on the
- 51:33whole MicroStrategy strategy? I think he's been completely
- 51:35vindicated this year. Yeah, absolutely, man.
- 51:38I mean, Michael, Michael Saylor has been a very positive force
- 51:41in the Bitcoin space. You know, he brings in a lot of
- 51:43knowledge, that's for sure. Now, how exactly his micro
- 51:46strategy concoction works, I have to admit I don't fully
- 51:50understand it other than I know it's extremely profitable and
- 51:53it's making the people a lot of money.
- 51:55However, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I mean, this is not
- 51:59Bitcoin, right? This is, I guess, like exposure
- 52:02to Bitcoin because at the end of the day, it is the best
- 52:04performing asset. No matter where you put it, it's
- 52:07always going to do well. But you know, from from the
- 52:10world that I come in, I come from and the lens that I view
- 52:13the world. I mean, I personally wouldn't
- 52:16invest in something like micro strategy because I don't believe
- 52:19in Fiat. Like I don't see the dollar as
- 52:22money anymore. I don't see any Fiat currency as
- 52:25as money anymore. So instead of, you know, placing
- 52:28my risk and time and energy into something that for me is
- 52:32essentially worthless, I would much rather invest into,
- 52:36directly into Bitcoin, which is the the underlying performing
- 52:40asset and hold it myself. Because no matter what happens
- 52:44above that, all the attention that's happening in the space
- 52:46and there's a lot of it coming in with Wall Street coming in
- 52:49and the government's an institution, yes, it's a ton of
- 52:52money. So all of that, you know, it'll
- 52:55play out the way it plays out. But fundamentally, whoever is
- 52:58holding the asset himself or herself in self custody is going
- 53:04to be like catapulted into generational wealth that the
- 53:09world has never known before. Because all of this multiplier
- 53:12effect of all of these other activities happening over
- 53:16Bitcoin benefit the ones holding it in full self custody.
- 53:21This is this is always been my, my view on this.
- 53:25And so Bitcoin's for everybody, you know, they want to play
- 53:28these Fiat games with it. No one can stop them.
- 53:30You know, I mean, it's people can do whatever they believe
- 53:33will serve them best. And for those that believe in
- 53:35that model, well, they're welcome to to participate in it.
- 53:39But ultimately I believe that anything that is not full
- 53:43Bitcoin and full self custody is a risk and will end up
- 53:46backfiring at some point in time.
- 53:49So that is, you know, that is our view on this and our ethos
- 53:54behind everything that we do. Totally, totally.
- 53:58Nico, I don't think we need to rehash your view on Michael
- 54:03Saylor being vindicated this year.
- 54:05I think for you, I think the more interesting angle is this
- 54:09idea now of it looks like Trump might be following through very
- 54:15clearly and heavily in the Bitcoin space considering a lot
- 54:18of people around him are very pro Bitcoin.
- 54:21So what's your take on Vivek's micro strategy ETF right now and
- 54:27the connection with Trump? Yeah.
- 54:29So first I'm looking at the the Poly market odds right now.
- 54:32And and for anyone who doesn't know, betting odds tend to be
- 54:35more accurate than polls and any other prediction on any other
- 54:39predictors. They the The odds right now that
- 54:44Trump will make Bitcoin a reserve in the 1st 100 days,
- 54:47according to Polymarket, is 29%. That's what the market is
- 54:51thinking now in regards to the incoming Trump administration.
- 54:55We got so much. We still do.
- 55:00Do for talking about this, and the reason we kept talking about
- 55:06this is I'm like, guys, not that Bitcoin needs a politician.
- 55:10In fact, that would make the argument that politicians need
- 55:12Bitcoin to stay relevant. But I said that from a
- 55:16regulatory perspective, the put all his policies aside, we're
- 55:21single issue voters, We're Bitcoiners first.
- 55:23But from a policy perspective, from a regulatory perspective,
- 55:27it would have been incredibly PO positive for him to win and it
- 55:31would have been negative for Biden to win another term from a
- 55:36regulatory standpoint, without a shadow of a doubt.
- 55:39And we got so much crap for it. We felt like we had to say
- 55:42something. The Samurai wallet guys were
- 55:44arrested. And then here we are not even a
- 55:47month after the election, Trump isn't even sworn in yet.
- 55:51You know, price of Bitcoin is sitting roughly at 100K.
- 55:54And you're listening to members that are going to be part of his
- 55:58cabinet, are working closely with him, you know, heavily
- 56:02invested in the space, in the industry like elect.
- 56:07I can't say this again. Elections have consequences.
- 56:11I know we all want to live in this world from the sovereign
- 56:14individual where, you know, politics is irrelevant.
- 56:18You know, the nation state is not what it used to be, but
- 56:21we're not in that world yet. We're in the transitionary
- 56:24period. And in the transitionary period,
- 56:26unfortunately, Fiat elections still have significant
- 56:30consequences for everyday life, specifically if you live in a in
- 56:35in a specific jurisdiction. If you live in a specific
- 56:38jurisdiction and they have hostile Bitcoin regulation,
- 56:41you're not going to be able to start a Bitcoin business there.
- 56:43You'll be able to use Bitcoin, but like under, you know, under
- 56:46the table essentially, so, you know, if Bitcoin gives you the
- 56:49power to move with your feet. But, you know, Opti and I were
- 56:51seriously considering going to El Salvador when Operation Choke
- 56:56.2 point O was at its height, you know, So yeah, I think it's
- 57:00incredibly bullish because no one is better than their
- 57:03incentives. Fundamentally, people are run by
- 57:05incentives. And if you have like the Trump
- 57:09cabinet as hardcore, you know, heavily, heavily invested in the
- 57:18Bitcoin ecosystem, in the Bitcoin space, I mean, that is
- 57:24massive. Like, you know, that's, that's
- 57:26huge because they would be acting out of, they would be
- 57:30acting against their own interests if they tried to pass
- 57:33any type of anti Bitcoin regulation.
- 57:36And I'll say this, you know, do you think it's a coincidence
- 57:38that Trump is, you know, like that?
- 57:40He said the other day, he's like, it doesn't make sense that
- 57:43Bitcoin has capital gains because Bitcoin is money.
- 57:45Like, what is that going? What's what's happening there?
- 57:48Like, do you think he's saying that like, oh, like these
- 57:51Bitcoiners are so great and he's saying that because he probably
- 57:53has some, you know, he's saying that because the people around
- 57:56him own Bitcoin. We know for a fact that the vice
- 57:59president, JD Vance owns Bitcoin.
- 58:02Like that is confirmed. David Bailey gave Trump a
- 58:07Bitcoin at the Bitcoin conference.
- 58:09Like the like the physical Cassacius coins.
- 58:11I don't know how to pronounce that.
- 58:13A physical Cassacius coin to Trump on stage at the Bitcoin
- 58:16conference, like aligned incentives, You know, so it is
- 58:20incredibly positive. And now that Vivek is talking
- 58:25about a MicroStrategy ETF, like what?
- 58:28Like MicroStrategy essentially acts like a Bitcoin proxy.
- 58:33Like if you're buying MicroStrategy, you're buying
- 58:35MicroStrategy to get exposure to Bitcoin.
- 58:37So the fact that a guy that is working so close to Trump is
- 58:41actively going out and where do you think the price is going?
- 58:46Like it's not rocket science, but I think a lot of us don't
- 58:49believe it. We do not believe it because we
- 58:52have PTSD from 20/21 when the CCP banned Bitcoin mining in the
- 59:00middle of the parabola and it literally took the life out of
- 59:05Bitcoin and you saw the hash rate drop 50%.
- 59:09The price quickly followed and then it slowly recovered.
- 59:12And then we had that like lame double top and we were all like
- 59:16over underwhelmed. We were like, dude, this sucks,
- 59:18this sucks. This is this is like, you know,
- 59:21this this it's not what happened.
- 59:23So it's very difficult to conceive a parabola in Bitcoin
- 59:28because we really haven't had one since 2017.
- 59:32Now, am I saying we're going to get A20XI mean that would be
- 59:36$2,000,000 per coin. I highly doubt that anything can
- 59:39happen. But even if it does a quarter,
- 59:42even if it does half of that, 1/4 of a 20X is a 5X, right?
- 59:495X from 108,000, that's more than a half, $1,000,000 per
- 59:54coin, right? Like at a 2X which I think would
- 59:57be a let down next year, that would be 216,000 from the all
- 1:00:03time high of 108 that we hit earlier on.
- 1:00:06Like a 3X would be at $300,000 per coin.
- 1:00:10Like you would lose your mind at $300,000 per coin, right.
- 1:00:13So, you know, all the, the, the, the regulatory planets are
- 1:00:18aligning on the corporate level. All the corporate level planets
- 1:00:23are aligning Metaplanet, MicroStrategy, Bitcoin.
- 1:00:26Well, all these companies are, you know, again, I agree with
- 1:00:29Tony. I don't know what what's going
- 1:00:31on back there, but you know, it looks like Bitcoin is helping
- 1:00:35their, their, their, their, you know, their corporate strategy.
- 1:00:39And then of course, you know, the price of Bitcoin keeps going
- 1:00:43up. So yeah, this is incredibly
- 1:00:46bullish. I can't emphasize that enough,
- 1:00:47but I'll leave it at this. There's two things that are
- 1:00:50happening in Bitcoin. There's two phenomenons.
- 1:00:52There's the investment, Bitcoin as an investment and there's
- 1:00:56Bitcoin as a revolution, right? I'm a millennial.
- 1:00:59So is Opti. And I know that Tony, because
- 1:01:02he's told us his story, has lived through the collapse of
- 1:01:07money. OK.
- 1:01:08And I'm not here for the investment.
- 1:01:12I'm here for the revolution. I think I want a world where my
- 1:01:16daughter lives in a world where, you know, the in a world where
- 1:01:22money is separated from state. Just like we just went through
- 1:01:26the transition of separation of information and state.
- 1:01:29We just went through that Elon acquiring X, the rise of Noster,
- 1:01:33the rise of free speech platforms like Rumble.
- 1:01:36We already went through the state trying to maintain their
- 1:01:40monopoly in the narrative control over media.
- 1:01:44And then we just went over that hump and now we're heading into
- 1:01:47the final boss and the final boss.
- 1:01:49And that hump I think is going to be a lot steeper.
- 1:01:52It's going to be a lot harder to get over is the separation of
- 1:01:54money and state. Because once again, I can't
- 1:01:56repeat this enough. The state, the government gets a
- 1:01:59tremendous amount of power from being able to create money for
- 1:02:02free that everyone else has to work for.
- 1:02:05And what Bitcoiners are advocating for.
- 1:02:07And don't let anyone demonize you for thinking this.
- 1:02:10All we want is a world where you don't have to.
- 1:02:14You don't have to work for money that another man can create for
- 1:02:18free. That's all we're asking for.
- 1:02:20So all the people that talk about equality and equity and
- 1:02:23democracy, how is that? I would say those are supportive
- 1:02:28of those ideas. I would say the idea that a
- 1:02:32group of people that a bureaucratic elite have the
- 1:02:36privilege of being able to create money at no cost to them
- 1:02:41is more equal to a system that no one has that privilege.
- 1:02:47What system is more equal? And then the other narrative
- 1:02:49that I'll say because I'm ranting on a little bit, but
- 1:02:51it's Friday, I'm on and I'm, I'm having a good time because
- 1:02:54Tony's here. The last thing that I'll say is
- 1:02:57one of the narratives that I've seen Elizabeth Warren use is
- 1:03:00saying stuff like, you know what?
- 1:03:04Bitcoin is private money and the dollar represents the public.
- 1:03:09It's public money that is BS. Can you audit the Fed?
- 1:03:16Could you audit the dollar? No.
- 1:03:19Can you create more dollars? No.
- 1:03:20You go to prison. That's that's that's
- 1:03:23counterfeiting, right? Do you know what the monetary
- 1:03:27policy is going to be, you know, six months from now?
- 1:03:30No idea. That's what they say is public
- 1:03:34money. The other is an open Ledger.
- 1:03:39We know what the monetary policy is gonna be for the next 100
- 1:03:41years, and anybody could audit the chain anytime they want.
- 1:03:46They run a node, What's up? And no one has the ability to
- 1:03:50create more of it. I mean, if you do create more of
- 1:03:53it, you have to pay a cost just like everybody else.
- 1:03:56What sounds more public and private to you?
- 1:04:00So anyways, I'll leave it at that.
- 1:04:01Guys, stay tuned. We're going to hit the culture.
- 1:04:04We're going to talk to Tony about the Bitcoin way.
- 1:04:07They're your personal Bitcoin IT team and they'll they'll help
- 1:04:11you guys take self custody, run a node, all of that stuff
- 1:04:14because we got a lot of questions about that in the
- 1:04:16chat. You got to go check out our
- 1:04:18friends over at the Bitcoin way. We'll be right back.
- 1:04:20We're going to hit the culture. I want to give a shout out to
- 1:04:23our sponsor, Hive Digital Technologies.
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- 1:04:57hivedigitaltech.com. All right everybody, I do want
- 1:05:12to give a shout out to our sponsor, Bit Block Boom.
- 1:05:15Guys, this is going to be one of the best Bitcoin celebrations of
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- 1:05:23Guys, this is one of the funnest Bitcoin conferences of the year.
- 1:05:26They have the BBQ, they have the workstations, they have the
- 1:05:30dinners, the lunches, the brunches.
- 1:05:32It's awesome. It's a great time, great
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- 1:05:36the industry, you gotta go to the you gotta go to Bit Block
- 1:05:39Boom. In fact, it's the first
- 1:05:41conference where me and Opti met each other in person.
- 1:05:44You could make an argument that simply Bitcoin would not exist
- 1:05:47in its current form if Bit Block Boom wasn't a thing.
- 1:05:51This is how consequential this conference was for my business
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- 1:05:58The entire Simply Bitcoin crew is going to be there.
- 1:06:01Ruston, Dante, Opti, Nico, Sophie, Jacob, the entire, you
- 1:06:05know, X crew or some of them at least.
- 1:06:08Wine's going to be upset. But anyways, you're going to,
- 1:06:11you're going to have a great time.
- 1:06:12You want to get your tickets quickly.
- 1:06:14The prices do increase in 11 days.
- 1:06:18So you want to get your tickets quickly before the prices go up.
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- 1:06:47Anyways, I want to take advantage of the fact that we
- 1:06:49have Tony from the Bitcoin way here in the house.
- 1:06:53Tony, what we were talking about earlier before we went live is,
- 1:06:59you know, we've been seeing a lot of talk.
- 1:07:00I don't want to name any names, but these ideas being planted on
- 1:07:06X about this idea of most people, they would be better off
- 1:07:12with custodians. They would be better off with
- 1:07:14other people holding their money.
- 1:07:16It's like this narrative shift that has actually come out of
- 1:07:20again, I don't wanna name any names out of the Bitcoin
- 1:07:23community lately, some members of the Bitcoin community lately,
- 1:07:29of course, of us Maxis, you know, not your keys, not your
- 1:07:33Bitcoin, right. So what what is your response to
- 1:07:35that? Like what what's your what's
- 1:07:37your take on this kind of normalization of custodians?
- 1:07:42I, I would even say that it's it's some type of attack.
- 1:07:46I see it as an attack because I'll tell you what guys, without
- 1:07:50self custody, Bitcoin will become just like gold.
- 1:07:53It will be Co opted. You'll see paper Bitcoin.
- 1:07:57They'll use paper Bitcoin to surprise the price of Bitcoin,
- 1:08:00therefore the adoption of Bitcoin.
- 1:08:02Like you know, I'm seeing this and I'm like guys, what is this?
- 1:08:05Like you know, like what team are you on?
- 1:08:07What's going on here? Yeah, man, it's utter.
- 1:08:11It's utterly disgusting and disgraceful to to read this in
- 1:08:14this space. I mean, I've always said there's
- 1:08:16a lot of Bitcoin influencer slash hypocrites that are out
- 1:08:21there. And you know, when you start
- 1:08:23hearing comments and reading comments like this, all it does
- 1:08:26is is cement that without the decentralization of Bitcoin,
- 1:08:31there is no Bitcoin, there is no revolution.
- 1:08:33Pack your stuff, go home, go find the job at McDonald's.
- 1:08:35Nothing changes at that point. You understand the whole, the
- 1:08:38whole premise of why the world is changing the way it is, is
- 1:08:42because we have the the money that nobody can Co opt and
- 1:08:46control and do anything with other than use, right?
- 1:08:49That's the whole part of the decentralization.
- 1:08:52But you have to own it. So to have people that talk
- 1:08:55about Bitcoin all day, claim it's the best thing under the
- 1:08:57sun, then go make these irresponsible comments that
- 1:09:03people holding a certain amount of wealth $1,000,000 or up
- 1:09:06should are better off at an ETF because they're too stupid to
- 1:09:09learn how to hold their own money.
- 1:09:11That is disgusting and disgraceful and utterly
- 1:09:13irresponsible. When you start bringing in 3rd
- 1:09:16party custodians into Bitcoin, what are you doing?
- 1:09:19You are breaking every single rule of what this whole
- 1:09:23revolution is about and you should you should be banned and
- 1:09:26blocked and ignored completely for for making such utter utter
- 1:09:30nonsense remarks in the space. So it's it's very appalling to
- 1:09:35to have to read and have to put up with this because
- 1:09:37unfortunately these people are play, are playing and praying on
- 1:09:42the ignorance of the masses. Bitcoin is still a novel concept
- 1:09:46to the general population. I mean, 99% of folks are
- 1:09:50completely clueless to it. But unfortunately they still
- 1:09:54rely on legacy media, They still rely on quote UN quote
- 1:09:59influencers. And so when these people start,
- 1:10:03you know, spewing these lies, well, those that don't know any
- 1:10:06better, well, a lot of them are going to fall for these lies and
- 1:10:10at some point they will get hurt.
- 1:10:13When you're not doing self custody, when you're involved in
- 1:10:16whatever shape, wave or form with a third party custodian, at
- 1:10:20one point it's going to blow up in your face.
- 1:10:23That is a mathematical certainty.
- 1:10:25There's no such thing as good reputation or these people are
- 1:10:28nice and these people are polite and I know I like them, I know
- 1:10:31them. There's no such thing when it's
- 1:10:33a third party custodian. It's a counterparty risk.
- 1:10:36Bitcoin wasn't created for this. There's no need for anyone to
- 1:10:40put themselves in that predicament, but what they need
- 1:10:43to do is take the time to sit down and learn a series of
- 1:10:47steps. It's not hard.
- 1:10:48Like I said before, this is not rocket science.
- 1:10:51We're not, we're not learning nuclear physics here.
- 1:10:53It's just a series of brand new steps that need to be explained
- 1:10:57in a certain way. Follow proper security protocol,
- 1:11:00a little bit of common sense and discipline and everything is
- 1:11:04just fine. You know, when you're holding a
- 1:11:05significant amount of wealth, you should be at the forefront
- 1:11:09of wanting to own your money and not trusting anyone else with
- 1:11:14it. Because we've seen time and time
- 1:11:16again what happens when you trust third party custodians
- 1:11:19that are reputable. We've seen the Mount Gods,
- 1:11:23you've seen the FTX. How many times do things have to
- 1:11:27blow up for, you know, people to finally learn and understand
- 1:11:31this? I mean my story for those that
- 1:11:33know it. You know when everything gets
- 1:11:35stolen from you? Literally.
- 1:11:37Tony, Tony, like we, we got it. We got to hit it.
- 1:11:39We got to hit that story of yours because you know, like you
- 1:11:43got to talk about your experiences in Lebanon, you got
- 1:11:45to talk about what happened to you.
- 1:11:47You got to talk about that because that was very, I still
- 1:11:50remember that. That's how impactful it was.
- 1:11:53And I didn't mean to interrupt you because please share the
- 1:11:56details with the 2300 people watching live right now.
- 1:12:01Well, basically what happened was that, you know, a few, a few
- 1:12:04years ago, in 2019, I, my life was retired, or at least I
- 1:12:07thought it was retired. I had, you know, run three
- 1:12:09successful businesses. Life was good financially for
- 1:12:12me. And then I went to bed one
- 1:12:14night, woke up the next day with $70.00 to my name.
- 1:12:16Why? Because the banks decided that,
- 1:12:19you know, you know, screw the people, we're stealing
- 1:12:22everybody's money. So the ATM stopped working,
- 1:12:24their credit card stopped working.
- 1:12:26Nobody has access to any, any funds in their account,
- 1:12:28irrespective of how much money you had in it.
- 1:12:31And the worst part is none of these pricks at the bank would
- 1:12:35answer the phone. You're a piece of garbage.
- 1:12:37Nobody cares. OK?
- 1:12:39So when you wake up to something like this, it's like essentially
- 1:12:42like somebody dropping a nuke on your life.
- 1:12:44You can never prepare for it. No matter how smart and strong
- 1:12:46you think you are, something like this will destroy you.
- 1:12:49And unfortunately, a lot of folks that I know are no longer
- 1:12:52here because of this. So when you experience something
- 1:12:55like this, the level of trust that you have in the legacy
- 1:12:58system is not at 0. It's at -1 million.
- 1:13:02So when you hear people still touting third party custodians
- 1:13:06and trusting this and trusting that, you know that that raises
- 1:13:09my blood pressure to a point where I almost wish that they
- 1:13:13have they go through what I went through.
- 1:13:15So if you understand once and for all what the lesson is here,
- 1:13:19you understand Bitcoin was created as an exit to that
- 1:13:22system. You can no longer like hold on
- 1:13:26to the beliefs that the legacy system was created to be nice.
- 1:13:31The legacy system is the scam. The idea of having to trust
- 1:13:35someone with your money, or worse, need to ask permission
- 1:13:39from someone to use your own money is lunacy.
- 1:13:42Like you have to be mentally ill to still adhere to that, to that
- 1:13:47principle, right? Because first of all, you're
- 1:13:50doing this with money. That isn't money.
- 1:13:52It is worthless toilet paper that a group of thieves and
- 1:13:55literally hit the button and print for free while you have to
- 1:13:58go slave from morning to night in order to make it.
- 1:14:01And on top of it, they RIP you off with taxes.
- 1:14:04And to add to it, they RIP you off with inflation by
- 1:14:07continuously printing it because you know they're parasites in
- 1:14:11society. They have they offer zero value
- 1:14:14other than extracting everything from you.
- 1:14:16And so as long as you remain in this broken system, all you're
- 1:14:20doing is prolonging the lifespan of that rubbish which is
- 1:14:25essentially killing you and your freedom and your your purchasing
- 1:14:29power on a daily basis in real. Time.
- 1:14:32All right, so we push Bitcoin self custody to everyone.
- 1:14:37We do not believe that anyone is incapable of learning a few new
- 1:14:42steps. Whatever age you are, whatever
- 1:14:46your background is, as long as you're minimally comfortable on
- 1:14:50a computer, you have everything you need to master this Florida
- 1:14:55State. And we will take you from a
- 1:14:57point of knowing nothing to a point of mastering this where
- 1:15:01it's as if you've been doing it your whole life, irrespective of
- 1:15:04the amount of money that you're dealing with.
- 1:15:06So whether you're transacting with $100 or $100 billion, it'll
- 1:15:11be the same 62nd transaction action.
- 1:15:13You're in, you're out, you're done.
- 1:15:15There's no need to stress, there's no need to panic,
- 1:15:17There's no need to break a sweat or think you're going to lose
- 1:15:20your money because you're holding it and all that stuff.
- 1:15:22We teach you everything. We bring in over 25 years of
- 1:15:26cybersecurity into the mix to account for any or most extreme
- 1:15:31scenarios that other people will not even think of unless they
- 1:15:35come from that world. And so when they decided to
- 1:15:38destroy my life, what happened is that they weaponized me into
- 1:15:42a tool of education. My mission here, I've said this
- 1:15:44many times, is not to make money.
- 1:15:46My mission here is to educate, to build an army of people that
- 1:15:51understand that the legacy system must go and be replaced
- 1:15:56by one that can no longer be manipulated by any human being.
- 1:16:00And so all this bullish news that you hear about Bitcoin is
- 1:16:04fantastic, but none of it benefits you specifically unless
- 1:16:09you have your own reserve, your own strategic reserve in your
- 1:16:14possession. I don't care what BlackRock is
- 1:16:17doing. It doesn't benefit me.
- 1:16:18It doesn't benefit you. I don't care what micro strategy
- 1:16:21is doing. It's good for the space, but is
- 1:16:24it good for you? That is the question 8 billion
- 1:16:27people at some point are going to have to ask themselves.
- 1:16:30Because if you do nothing, you will end up in a predicament
- 1:16:34where either your funds will be stolen from you the way they
- 1:16:36were from me, or they will keep them in the bank account, but
- 1:16:40their purchasing power will be castrated to a big fat 0.
- 1:16:44No matter what the number says on screen, you won't be able to
- 1:16:48buy anything. So Bitcoin is the one in a like
- 1:16:52in a life like lifespan, historical opportunity to take
- 1:16:57advantage of this. But so many people are flippant,
- 1:17:00like, you know, subconsciously, sometimes I wish I can flip the
- 1:17:03switch and make more people just live through 15 minutes of what
- 1:17:07it felt like to have your life completely ripped away from you.
- 1:17:11Just so you understand why someone like me is so adamant
- 1:17:15about pushing this the right way and making people see the world
- 1:17:19from the lens that I see it now. Because unless you go through
- 1:17:23something this extreme and you're still living in, you
- 1:17:27know, a financially privileged world, you may not really
- 1:17:30understand why this crazy person is saying the words that he's
- 1:17:34saying. But the mechanics of Fiat
- 1:17:36currency are not isolated to Lebanon.
- 1:17:39They are coming everywhere because the money printer cannot
- 1:17:43stop. In fact, it has to be
- 1:17:45exponentially worse because of the level of debt that is
- 1:17:48currently out there. Now, in order to sustain these
- 1:17:52monumental levels, the printing has to surpass previous records.
- 1:17:57And when that happens, that $1000 that's sitting in your
- 1:18:01bank account is going to have the purchasing power of 50
- 1:18:04bucks, all right. And when that happens, God knows
- 1:18:08how how how it manifests in the real world.
- 1:18:10Because when people are hungry, they start doing crazy things.
- 1:18:13I've seen good people do things that are unspeakable, all right?
- 1:18:16And these are people that I grew up with and they're not bad
- 1:18:19people. They're desperate people.
- 1:18:21So are they all of a sudden criminals?
- 1:18:23No, they're not. They are people that are
- 1:18:24resorting to anything that is available to them to make ends
- 1:18:29meet and that is that. That is the dire situation I
- 1:18:32don't want to see happening. So the more people understand
- 1:18:36that if you do nothing, you are headed off a Cliff and if you
- 1:18:41want to do something, do it properly.
- 1:18:43Don't take the lazy approach. The, the, the are like the way
- 1:18:48we do self custody is extremely comprehensive, very detailed,
- 1:18:52but extremely easy to understand.
- 1:18:54There's no shortcuts, there's no workarounds.
- 1:18:56We're never involved in any of your, of your, of your custody.
- 1:19:01We don't sign your transactions, we don't touch your Bitcoin.
- 1:19:04We don't do any of this stuff. We just teach you how to be your
- 1:19:08own bank because now you are the head of security and the idea
- 1:19:11here is for you to master this. Well, take that knowledge, pass
- 1:19:16it on to your kids, and hopefully they can take that
- 1:19:19knowledge and they pass it on forever and that torch keeps
- 1:19:22going in that direction. That's how Bitcoin wins.
- 1:19:26That is the only way Bitcoin wins is for it to remain this
- 1:19:30decentralized and secure and in the hands of as many people as
- 1:19:35possible. This is the one in a lifetime
- 1:19:37opportunity to front run the thieves that have created a
- 1:19:41system that have been it is destroying your life to this
- 1:19:44day. All right, so this is my
- 1:19:47message. People need to wake up.
- 1:19:49There's no such thing as a shortcut.
- 1:19:50If it's not Bitcoin, it's not Bitcoin.
- 1:19:53There's no maybe it's Bitcoin. If it's not Bitcoin and you're
- 1:19:57holding the keys, you're not holding anything.
- 1:19:59And if you're involving a third party institution under the
- 1:20:03guise of convenience or protection, you are bringing an
- 1:20:07unnecessary risk to yourself. And I promise you, one day it
- 1:20:10will blow up in your face and you will not like the way that
- 1:20:14ends. So avoid all of this.
- 1:20:17Take 1015 minutes, do the work. It's not hard.
- 1:20:20There are experts to help you. We're definitely there for this.
- 1:20:24This is our entire ethos and purpose of being now.
- 1:20:28Is to educate in order for people not to experience what I
- 1:20:32went through and what hundreds of thousands of folks went
- 1:20:35through just as far back as five years ago.
- 1:20:42That was an inspiring rant. And the reason I asked you to do
- 1:20:45that, Tony, is because you know, this is this is this is not just
- 1:20:50a business that you started out of, you know, because you were
- 1:20:54bored or whatever. This is something that you
- 1:20:56started out of necessity and you started it because you're trying
- 1:21:00to help people avoid what you went through, which I can't even
- 1:21:05imagine what that must have been like working decades for it to
- 1:21:10just go, you know, overnight. And then when you know, you,
- 1:21:15you, you call them out like there's nothing to go.
- 1:21:17There's no one to you know, and then they don't take
- 1:21:20responsibility for they probably like, I'm sorry, guys, we made a
- 1:21:22mistake like this. And that like that is crazy.
- 1:21:24That is theft on a massive scale.
- 1:21:26And what inflation is. It's essentially it's taxation
- 1:21:30route without representation. And governments rely on the fact
- 1:21:33that people are just not knowledgeable about it.
- 1:21:36So they can just continue getting away with it.
- 1:21:38Right? This is what Bitcoins all about.
- 1:21:40And I and I ran a poll right when we started the culture
- 1:21:45segment and I wanted to kind of get a gauge on how many people
- 1:21:50right now, 129 of you guys watch it watching on on YouTube.
- 1:21:55I asked the question, do you take self custody of your
- 1:21:57Bitcoin? 79% of you guys said yes.
- 1:22:00This is a very good sign. But 20% of you guys, roughly
- 1:22:042021% of you guys said no, that is unacceptable.
- 1:22:07You got to take self custody of your Bitcoin or you're relying
- 1:22:11on someone else holding your money.
- 1:22:12And history has shown that's probably not a good idea.
- 1:22:16So we recommend over the guys over at the Bitcoin way.
- 1:22:20If you are a little bit intimidated by, you know, a
- 1:22:24little bit intimidated by self custody.
- 1:22:26If you're a little bit intimidated by, you know, the
- 1:22:30technicalities of it, these guys will walk you through A-Z and
- 1:22:35you know, they'll walk you through it in a way where it,
- 1:22:38they'll meet you where you're at in your Bitcoin journey, right?
- 1:22:41Who I think is incredibly important.
- 1:22:44Before you go on for those of you guys that commented or
- 1:22:48rather did that poll of why you aren't self customing, could you
- 1:22:53either comment on the video what is stopping you from self
- 1:22:56custody or dropping in the chat? Just so we can get an idea like
- 1:22:59what is stopping you from self custody and and then keep going
- 1:23:02Nico, I I just wanted to throw that in there.
- 1:23:04Either comment on the video if you're re watching this after or
- 1:23:06if you're in the chat, comment in the chat.
- 1:23:08We we want to get a gauge of why you aren't self custody.
- 1:23:12Go on, Nico. I think, I think that's a great
- 1:23:13idea. So, yeah, I, I, I wanted to ask
- 1:23:16Tony to tell his story because I remember the first time I heard
- 1:23:20that story, you know, it was incredibly inspiring and, you
- 1:23:25know, it was a very powerful story.
- 1:23:27And it's a, it's a story that, you know, you should, you
- 1:23:31should, you should take the mind and, and Tony, I don't know if
- 1:23:33you know this, but I'm, I'm a Venezuelan man.
- 1:23:35We went through very, very not, you know, I've, I have the
- 1:23:38privilege of living in the United States, but my family
- 1:23:40members went through a period of hyperinflation.
- 1:23:43And then not to mention the government there is, is a little
- 1:23:47bit collectivist. So, you know, freezing bank
- 1:23:50accounts isn't out of the question, so to speak, right.
- 1:23:54And yeah, so, you know, it's it's I, I really resonate with
- 1:23:59what you're saying. And Bitcoin truly does fix this.
- 1:24:03This is what Bitcoin is for. In the developed world.
- 1:24:06We have we have the comfort. Alex Gladstein coined the term
- 1:24:10financial privilege of not having the necessity to seek
- 1:24:15alternatives because we are complete.
- 1:24:17We are. We're comfortable.
- 1:24:19We're comfortable with the financial system.
- 1:24:21And I'm not talking about me, but I'm talking about, you know,
- 1:24:22the masses. But it's a comfort based on BS
- 1:24:28because if you look, if you look behind the hood, it's not 10%
- 1:24:33reserve banking anymore. It's 0% reserve banking in the
- 1:24:37United States. Meaning like if everyone went to
- 1:24:41a bank right now and they said, hey, I'm withdrawing my money,
- 1:24:44the banks would literally go under.
- 1:24:46They don't have everyone's money.
- 1:24:48They they literally take your money.
- 1:24:50As soon as they take it, they lend it out to someone else,
- 1:24:53right? That's like the whole banking
- 1:24:55model. But you know, they don't even
- 1:24:57have reserve requirements on that.
- 1:24:59So this is a very fragile system that every time gets into a
- 1:25:03crisis, they just print in a ridiculous amount of money,
- 1:25:08basically stealing from the public to make sure that the
- 1:25:11system continues to be propped up.
- 1:25:14This is literally why Bitcoin was born in the genesis block.
- 1:25:17It literally says Chancellor, on the brink of the second bailout
- 1:25:19for banks. Well, not even that Nico.
- 1:25:22I was going to mention that earlier.
- 1:25:23It literally says, you know trust in third parties is the
- 1:25:26problem in. The world.
- 1:25:28You know, and like the first sentence.
- 1:25:30In the in the white paper, Yeah, Opti's exactly right in the
- 1:25:33white paper. So, you know, again, you know,
- 1:25:36self custody is a revolution. We've been saying that for a
- 1:25:38very long time. We're very picky on who our
- 1:25:40partners are. We have a literally self custody
- 1:25:43by by default that's our lead sponsor just to exchange, just
- 1:25:48to give you guys an idea of who we are.
- 1:25:50You know, we have, we have, we have hardware wallets, we have
- 1:25:52backup seeds. And of course, you know the
- 1:25:55Bitcoin way sponsors Rustin and Dante's show.
- 1:25:58So, yeah, guys, if you don't take self custody and you
- 1:26:02perhaps you're a little bit intimidated, you want experts to
- 1:26:05walk you through the process, head over to the bitcoinway.com
- 1:26:09and these fine gentlemen will take care of you guys.
- 1:26:12And much more than just taking self custody, I mean, they offer
- 1:26:15a variety of services, right? So it's cybersecurity, again, if
- 1:26:19you're trying to play that judicial arbitrage game, right,
- 1:26:23you know, find a residency in a country that potentially is a
- 1:26:25little bit more favorable from a tax perspective or perhaps just
- 1:26:29from a security perspective. And also something that's not my
- 1:26:33area of expertise, which is the the cybersecurity aspect.
- 1:26:38I think that a lot of people, you know, underestimate how
- 1:26:43potentially vulnerable their devices are, right?
- 1:26:45So that's, that's something else that they specialize in.
- 1:26:48So head over to Bitcoin Bitcoin the bitcoinway.com today and you
- 1:26:54can book a free consultation, I believe, and those guys will
- 1:26:57guide you to the right place anyways I do we are reaching the
- 1:27:02top of the show. Today is December 27th, 2024.
- 1:27:06I'm your Co host for today, Opti in the hosting seat, my
- 1:27:09legendary Co host, always optimistic and of course my
- 1:27:12brother from another mother and our special guest today, Tony
- 1:27:16from the Bitcoin way guys go check them out like I said, and
- 1:27:21we're simply Bitcoin live. We'll see you guys on Monday for
- 1:27:23another episode next. The next week is going to be
- 1:27:27where we're we're coming up close to the last episode of
- 1:27:322024 for simply Bitcoin. So you know, it's it's crazy.
- 1:27:37You know, this this year was was very big for us and we
- 1:27:40appreciate you all for, you know, for, for supporting us
- 1:27:43along the way, giving us the viewership and being being an
- 1:27:47amazing audience. Opti and I are going to be on on
- 1:27:51BTC sessions channel later today.
- 1:27:53So that should be a lot of fun. But until then, guys, we love
- 1:27:56you all. We'll see you on Monday for a
- 1:27:58brand new episode, Simply Bitcoin Live.
- 1:28:02Peace out everybody. Today's episode was brought to
- 1:28:05you by bitcoinwell.com, a Bitcoin only platform on a
- 1:28:08mission to enable financial independence.