Latest / Simply Bitcoin / America's Bitcoin Plan FORCES 3rd Largest Country to FOMO Into Bitcoin? | EP 1139

Transcript

America's Bitcoin Plan FORCES 3rd Largest Country to FOMO Into Bitcoin? | EP 1139 · Simply Bitcoin

• 0:00
  Yo, the third largest country in the world is actively discussing
• 0:05
  the possibility of implementing a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• 0:09
  This $4.2 trillion giant looks intimidated by the US because
• 0:14
  politicians are directly referencing America's strategic
• 0:18
  Bitcoin stockpile. But the country we're about to
• 0:20
  talk about is not alone. In the past few weeks, we've
• 0:23
  seen Brazil, Russia, Hong Kong, Poland, Texas, Pennsylvania, and
• 0:28
  now the third largest country in the world all talk about
• 0:32
  strategic Bitcoin reserves. Your chance to buy Bitcoin under
• 0:36
  100K is dramatically disappearing because of all the
• 0:40
  nation state FOMO. You better start stacking.
• 0:44
  You better get your position. Let's dive into it guys.
• 0:47
  So of course I'm not here alone. I got our our fearless leader
• 0:52
  Nico and we have Simon, founder of found fares with us today.
• 0:56
  So we're going to talk about all that today, but let's just dive
• 0:59
  right into this headline. So we got a headline here.
• 1:02
  Japanese lawmaker asked government to create a national
• 1:05
  Bitcoin reserve. And let's you know, I was
• 1:09
  telling Nico about this this morning and he didn't even under
• 1:11
  like he's like, really, man, it's life is memes and memes is
• 1:14
  life. Guys.
• 1:15
  This is crazy. So the Prime Minister or the PM
• 1:18
  has recently expressed caution about crypto related reform, but
• 1:22
  MPs are pushing for change. So a Japanese lawmaker by the
• 1:26
  name of Satoshi Hamada, I believe is his last name, an MP
• 1:31
  from the Party to Protect the People from NHK Proposer asked
• 1:36
  the government to launch a national Bitcoin reserve,
• 1:39
  echoing similar recent calls from MPs in Argentina, Russia
• 1:43
  and beyond. Like I said, you know, we got
• 1:44
  them from Poland, we got them from Brazil.
• 1:46
  We have states in America talking about adding to or
• 1:49
  creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve bill.
• 1:52
  So Hamada submitted a written question to the government
• 1:55
  regarding the creation of a reserve fund for crypto assets.
• 1:58
  And I have it over here for you guys, guys.
• 2:00
  So question and answer subject questions on the status of
• 2:04
  understanding the movement to introduce Bitcoin reserves in
• 2:07
  the United States and other countries.
• 2:10
  So again, directly referencing what we're doing here in the US,
• 2:14
  as we've been telling you guys the last couple of weeks, it's
• 2:16
  starting to make waves and ripples around the world ever
• 2:19
  since Trump came out and talked about the strategic Bitcoin
• 2:22
  stockpile. Every other country has to take
• 2:24
  it seriously. But there is some some good
• 2:27
  quotes coming out of Hamada here.
• 2:28
  So in the question, the lawmaker noted their moves are now afoot
• 2:33
  in Brazil and the United States, where Treasury officials could
• 2:36
  soon begin holding Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
• 2:39
  Hamada went on to ask the Japanese government to consider
• 2:41
  converting part of its foreign exchange reserves into virtual
• 2:44
  currencies such as Bitcoin. And of course, he added that the
• 2:47
  Trump administration is appointing a new crypto czar and
• 2:51
  making similar moves to get a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• 2:54
  So the lawmaker mentioned that BTC could soon become a national
• 2:58
  strategic asset. And of course, I just named what
• 3:02
  the question was. And here you see, Hamada
• 3:05
  questions also made note of the fact that BTC is less
• 3:08
  susceptible to the influence of specific countries or
• 3:10
  institutions. And he said that it's neutrality
• 3:13
  and decentralized nature allow Bitcoin to support economic
• 3:16
  activity without relying on any specific currency.
• 3:20
  The set the government is set to provide Hamada some questions in
• 3:23
  the next couple of weeks. The real signal here, though,
• 3:26
  guys, is that Hamada represents a small political party.
• 3:29
  They only have two seats in parliament.
• 3:31
  But there's a high probability that other politicians are kind
• 3:34
  of thinking in the same term. That's Hamada.
• 3:36
  As we're seeing in other nations, everyone is starting to
• 3:40
  take Bitcoin seriously. So we'll see what happens.
• 3:43
  And you know, Tokyo, they need to reform their crypto tax laws
• 3:47
  moving forward. And as our boys over at Bitcoin
• 3:50
  Well mentioned when we put this news out on our Twitter, for a
• 3:53
  country with a with a decade of economic stagnation and aging
• 3:58
  and declining population, Bitcoin could literally save
• 4:01
  Japan. I think this is obviously a no
• 4:04
  brainer in regards to what is happening it with Japan.
• 4:07
  I mean, of course, guys, you know, Bitcoin was created by a
• 4:10
  pseudonym named Satoshi Nakamoto, and there's a lot of
• 4:13
  rumors going around as to why he did that.
• 4:16
  One is because as we know, Japan was first to kind of do the
• 4:22
  quantitative, you know, the QE out there printing money and
• 4:27
  they're a little bit of ahead. Their economy is a little bit of
• 4:30
  ahead of the US economy and they are in trouble right now.
• 4:33
  And This is why we're seeing that in the US.
• 4:37
  We are starting to talk about a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• 4:39
  Of course, yesterday we talked about it.
• 4:41
  Texas is proposing a strategic reserve bill.
• 4:44
  Now we have officially two states in the US, Pennsylvania
• 4:48
  and Texas introducing a strategic Bitcoin reserve bill.
• 4:52
  And and we didn't really cover some of the stuff about the
• 4:55
  strategic Bitcoin reserve bill in Texas.
• 4:58
  So just kind of diving in a little bit here. 1 The bill will
• 5:01
  propose that Bitcoin donations from Texas residents are going
• 5:05
  to be allowed. It will securely store and
• 5:07
  manage Bitcoin for at least five years.
• 5:09
  They will have a five year huddle stash.
• 5:11
  It'll 3 ensure transparency through biannual reports and
• 5:14
  audits. It will allow state agencies to
• 5:17
  accept cryptocurrencies and converting them to Bitcoin.
• 5:20
  Established rules for security donations and management.
• 5:22
  So guys one caveat I did read when I read the bill was there
• 5:26
  is a caveat in the bill saying that you know after five years
• 5:32
  that the Comptroller of Texas will be able to sell the Bitcoin
• 5:36
  for other cryptocurrencies. So I don't know how that got
• 5:39
  snuck in there. One thing that was a little
• 5:42
  concerning, but you know, Texas doing a five year huddle stash.
• 5:46
  I, I love it. I absolutely love it.
• 5:47
  Now, you know, using the Poly market odds or the betting odds
• 5:52
  we've been covering this surround the last couple of
• 5:54
  weeks of what is going on using the betting odds and kind of
• 5:57
  Twitter sentiment, public sentiment of whether you know
• 6:01
  this is going to happen or not. We're seeing that on polymarket.
• 6:05
  They're not really giving it too good of odds right now.
• 6:07
  Will Trump create a Bitcoin reserve in the 1st 100 days
• 6:10
  right now, 28% chance with about $1.1 million in volume, which is
• 6:15
  a little different than what we're seeing on Kashi, which is
• 6:18
  another betting odds and it goes will Trump create a national
• 6:21
  Bitcoin reserve? These odds are more in the 60%,
• 6:24
  but it has a less volume. You know, it's only got about
• 6:28
  128 K in volume. So will we see a strategic
• 6:32
  Bitcoin reserve or strategic stockpile in America?
• 6:35
  We don't know yet, but the point remains the same.
• 6:38
  And we've been telling you guys this for a while, that ever
• 6:41
  since Trump came out and started to talk about a strategic
• 6:44
  Bitcoin reserve or strategic Bitcoin stockpile, every other
• 6:47
  country in the world has to take it seriously.
• 6:49
  And we're just seeing this signal continue to go on that
• 6:53
  everyone is now talking about a Bitcoin strategic reserve asset,
• 6:58
  all because of Trump. So, hey, you may not like Trump,
• 7:01
  but he is definitely a lightning rod here.
• 7:05
  And now that conversation is catching on like wildfire again.
• 7:09
  We have Brazil, we have Poland, we have, you know, cities in
• 7:13
  Canada. We have states in the US.
• 7:15
  Like, it's getting crazy out there.
• 7:18
  I think 2025 is just going to be crazy.
• 7:20
  So, you know, Japan, now they're starting to talk about it.
• 7:23
  All thanks to Trump, man, Nico, I think at this point, we can
• 7:26
  really say, you know, the Trump pump is real.
• 7:28
  You know, the Donald pump confirmed.
• 7:32
  Let's go. 2025 is going to be great.
• 7:35
  Yeah, I mean, look, it it, it was, it was hilarious that he
• 7:38
  took, sorry guys, this room is not sound treated, but it was
• 7:42
  hilarious that he took credit for the, you know, the Bitcoin
• 7:46
  reaching 100K. But in a way he's right.
• 7:49
  You know, and we got so much Flack as as a channel for like
• 7:55
  getting into the kind of political discussion where like
• 7:57
  guys like, it kind of matters who gets elected into office.
• 8:02
  And not only because of the price appreciation, but because
• 8:05
  of the regulatory environment, which is going to feed more
• 8:09
  further price appreciation. Right.
• 8:11
  So, yeah, it's it's it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's,
• 8:15
  it's unfortunate, but it is what it is.
• 8:17
  And yes, this is the Trump pump. Like the the pump started when
• 8:22
  Trump was elected that the moment that happened, everything
• 8:26
  just went through the roof, right?
• 8:28
  And that's because the market felt confidence that operation
• 8:31
  choke .2 point O was over. So, you know, I think that in
• 8:36
  unfortunately, like we all want this world in our heads from the
• 8:41
  sovereign individual where politics don't matter.
• 8:44
  And I think we are heading towards that world, but we're
• 8:47
  still in the Fiat world. And in the Fiat world,
• 8:49
  unfortunately, Fiat elections still have consequences.
• 8:53
  And you know, as a media organization, it's like, do you
• 8:57
  just stay quiet or do you speak up, right?
• 8:59
  And we decided to speak up and we're and we, we're glad we did,
• 9:03
  right. And we're glad that we have a
• 9:05
  pro Bitcoin administration in the White House and but we are
• 9:09
  going to hold them accountable. So he did promise to free Ross
• 9:13
  within the 1st 100 days. No, no, he said, to free Ross
• 9:17
  day one. Free Ross, Let's be.
• 9:19
  Clear. Here, let free Ross day one.
• 9:21
  I'm going to give him a little bit of a buffer of like 10.
• 9:23
  Days or so Mad Dog. Promises made, promises kept.
• 9:27
  Let's keep the. Promises, you know, like I
• 9:29
  expect him to free Ross. So yes, elections have
• 9:32
  consequences. This is an idea that I'm going
• 9:34
  to keep like kind of like like beating into you guys
• 9:37
  metaphorically because yes, it unfortunately, we still live in
• 9:42
  this, in this Fiat world and you know, this it is what it is.
• 9:47
  But in in regards to, you know, the, the, the Japan news, I
• 9:52
  mean, that is absolutely crazy. We have like this domino effect,
• 9:58
  you know, that's happening on a worldwide scale.
• 10:00
  It's like this phenomenon, which is absolutely the SAT in the
• 10:06
  chat, this worldwide phenomenon of all these countries, like
• 10:10
  dropping the idea of a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• 10:14
  Like we have Japan, we have a politician in Brazil, we have a
• 10:19
  we have in in Russia happening. We now have it in Japan, we have
• 10:22
  it in the United States, not only on the state level, but
• 10:25
  also on the federal level as well.
• 10:27
  So it's really, really exciting times.
• 10:29
  And again, what is what what was the catalyst for all of this?
• 10:34
  The catalyst for all of this is that election that just happened
• 10:38
  in November, you know, even though like again, very
• 10:41
  unpopular with a lot of Bitcoiners because in bitcoiners
• 10:43
  are inherently anti government. And I understand you guys, but
• 10:48
  guys use your common sense. This is a separation of money
• 10:50
  and state by definition. It is political by definition,
• 10:55
  right? So anyways, guys, really, really
• 10:57
  exciting stuff. I also want to welcome our guest
• 11:00
  for today. I believe we met in El Salvador.
• 11:03
  We have Simon in the House joining us.
• 11:05
  Simon, how you doing? Thank you.
• 11:08
  Yeah, it's great to be here. I've.
• 11:09
  I've got to say, Yeah, I mean, it really is fascinating what's
• 11:11
  going on with the the kind of the idea of the Bitcoin
• 11:15
  strategic reserve spreading around the world now.
• 11:18
  And, yeah, Donald Trump has led the way.
• 11:19
  It's, it's got to be said, naive.
• 11:21
  But Kelly did start this three years ago.
• 11:23
  He was the first. But Donald Trump obviously runs
• 11:25
  a much bigger country and it's getting a lot more coverage.
• 11:28
  But, yeah, the election, you know, it was the first ever
• 11:30
  Bitcoin election, really. And I know a lot of Bitcoiners
• 11:33
  that haven't voted for for years, but because there was one
• 11:36
  candidate that was actually supporting Bitcoin, they went
• 11:39
  out and voted. So it'd be, I mean, obviously
• 11:41
  you don't know how many votes he would have got had he not have
• 11:44
  endorsed Bitcoin. But I'm probably thinking a lot
• 11:46
  of Bitcoins went out and voted. You've got to remember one in
• 11:49
  seven people in America owned Bitcoin.
• 11:51
  So that might have been the thing that really actually
• 11:53
  delivered the victory for him. 100 percent, 100% agree.
• 11:57
  With you all right, one one question though, Simon, when is
• 12:01
  you know based on your accent, when is the UK going to get a
• 12:04
  strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill proposed?
• 12:08
  I was trying, yeah. I was.
• 12:09
  I was speaking to politicians during the elections saying if
• 12:12
  you support Bitcoin, the bitcoiners will vote for you.
• 12:15
  I also told them they should go on podcasts.
• 12:17
  That's another thing that the the Trump team have done.
• 12:20
  You know, they've been on a lot of podcasts and that that's
• 12:22
  reached out to a lot of people. People really kind of get a
• 12:25
  chance to hear what they really think about.
• 12:26
  So they, they're using the new tech, you know, they're, they're
• 12:29
  really kind of endorsing new technology and attracting a lot
• 12:33
  of the younger voters, I think by doing that really.
• 12:35
  Kind of absolutely. And by doing so, they were able
• 12:38
  to circumvent the legacy media gatekeepers, right, by going
• 12:42
  straight to the the podcasting that that was, I think, a
• 12:46
  really, really important strategy of what the Trump
• 12:49
  campaign did. And you know, of course, you
• 12:51
  have Elon now, like screaming from the rooftops, you are the
• 12:54
  media now and on, right? So that just kind of adds fuel
• 12:57
  to the fire. So I 100% agree.
• 13:00
  You know, we're in this brave new world, so to speak.
• 13:04
  I think it's extremely exciting for people that are, you know,
• 13:07
  fans of of Freedom of Information, freedom of speech,
• 13:11
  and I'm just so excited for the future and what's to come.
• 13:15
  I think the best is is yet to come.
• 13:17
  So anyways guys before we start the show I do want to give a
• 13:21
  very special shout out to simply Bitcoins lead sponsor
• 13:25
  bitcoinwell.com. bitcoinwell.com is the best place to build your
• 13:29
  automatic self custody Bitcoin stack buy real Bitcoin enable
• 13:33
  your independence. The fastest and safest way to
• 13:35
  buy Bitcoin on chain or via the lightning network in Canada,
• 13:38
  USA. To get started, you put in your
• 13:41
  e-mail address takes about two to 5 minutes to get started.
• 13:45
  And what makes Bitcoin well different it is that it is a
• 13:48
  completely non custodial platform that makes it different
• 13:52
  than everybody else. And what that means essentially
• 13:55
  is when you buy Bitcoin on Bitcoin well as soon as the
• 13:58
  funds clear, they go straight to yourself custody Bitcoin wallet
• 14:04
  address. So you cannot even leave the
• 14:09
  funds your Bitcoin on the exchange, which perfectly aligns
• 14:12
  with simply Bitcoin ethos of the separation of money and state.
• 14:16
  They also just recently announced the Bitcoin well
• 14:19
  Infinite product. It's a Bitcoin OTC desk tailored
• 14:23
  for high net worth individuals that are looking to buy $50,000
• 14:27
  worth of Bitcoin or more. Now, what makes Bitcoin well
• 14:31
  Infinite different than everybody else is again, you're
• 14:36
  dealing with a human being. So if you're in the, you're
• 14:39
  looking to buy, you know, $50,000 worth of Bitcoin or more
• 14:43
  and you're tired of dealing with Coinbase, you're tired of
• 14:45
  dealing with UIS and you want someone to call of which you can
• 14:50
  either say, hey, I want to buy Bitcoin, I want to sell Bitcoin.
• 14:53
  You want your own like private representative instead of just
• 14:57
  dealing with, you know, UIS and all that stuff.
• 15:00
  The Bitcoin well infinite product is for you.
• 15:02
  Also, every time you buy Bitcoin on Bitcoin well, you earn
• 15:06
  Bitcoin well points and you could redeem those points
• 15:08
  towards the Bitcoin wishing well contest.
• 15:10
  Toss a coin to the wishing well and 1st person who scans the QR
• 15:15
  code has won 500 SAT. Every time you toss a coin into
• 15:18
  the wishing well, you win, but every time you have an
• 15:21
  opportunity to win up to 1,000,000 satoshis.
• 15:24
  So go to bitcoinwell.com today and use promo code simply BTC.
• 15:29
  Again, simply BTC and you get 3 tosses into the Bitcoin wishing
• 15:35
  well. All right everybody, let's get
• 15:37
  to the numbers. We have tons to talk about.
• 15:39
  Smash the like button. If you guys are enjoying the
• 15:42
  show, help us break 150 likes within the first hour.
• 15:47
  Let's check it out. I want to tell you guys about
• 15:57
  our sponsor Stamp Seed. Is your Bitcoin and cold storage
• 16:01
  really secure? Are your seed words really
• 16:05
  secure? Stamp seeds Do It
• 16:25
  Your words are actually stamped into the metal plate with this
• 16:29
  hammer, so once your words are in, they aren't going anywhere.
• 16:33
  No risk of the plate breaking apart and your pieces falling
• 16:37
  everywhere. Titanium stamp seeds will
• 16:39
  survive nearly triple-A heat produced by a house fire.
• 16:43
  They are also crush proof, waterproof, non corrosive and
• 16:47
  most importantly, because this is generational wealth time
• 16:51
  proof, all things that paper is not allowing you to huddle your
• 16:57
  Bitcoin for the long haul. I mean, here is the plate that
• 17:01
  they crushed, they put in water, they put a blowtorch to it and
• 17:05
  as you can see, the words have survived.
• 17:08
  Stamp your seed on stamp seed and you can use promo code
• 17:13
  simply to get 15% off anything on their store.
• 17:17
  Head over to stamp seed. All right, everybody, you want
• 17:22
  to take advantage of that QR code down below, head over to
• 17:25
  stamp seed. Use promo code simply.
• 17:28
  Again, promo code simply get 15% off anything on the stamp
• 17:32
  se-ed.com store. Not your keys, not your queso.
• 17:38
  All right, everybody, Opti. We got Safer Dean, man, this is
• 17:42
  crazy. We had Jack Mahler's on Tim
• 17:45
  Cast. We have Safer Dean on CNNBC.
• 17:48
  What? Bro?
• 17:49
  This is like the year of winning, man.
• 17:51
  This is the year of winning. We're taking over legacy media.
• 17:55
  This is crazy. The Overton window is not only
• 17:58
  this not only shifting, it's shattering Opti.
• 18:01
  Yeah, I mean, to your point, like shouts out to Joe Kernan.
• 18:05
  First and foremost, it it looks like Squawk Box is turning into
• 18:08
  just a, you know, pro Bitcoin maxi propaganda machine on CNBC.
• 18:13
  And you just love to hear it for for all of us here.
• 18:16
  You've probably heard safety and say this multiple times.
• 18:20
  It's literally it sounds like a Bitcoin podcast.
• 18:22
  But I don't think we can underestimate just how powerful
• 18:25
  it is for him to go on corporate press and start talking about
• 18:29
  all the things we've been talking about for a long time.
• 18:31
  Remember who the audience is that still watches, you know,
• 18:35
  the corporate press that still watches the television.
• 18:37
  They're they're usually a little older.
• 18:39
  They're more boomers class and safety and goes on here and
• 18:42
  literally it sounds exactly like a Bitcoin podcast.
• 18:46
  We've been hearing this message for a long time.
• 18:49
  But safety and is doing the Lord's work out here and orange
• 18:53
  Pilling the older generation on the simple question we ask here
• 18:57
  all the time. What is money?
• 18:59
  Of course he kind of goes and let's just I'm not going to play
• 19:02
  the whole thing. I might I might bounce in and
• 19:04
  out a little bit because it is kind of long.
• 19:06
  But I'll, I'll give you a couple, couple good chunks out
• 19:09
  of this, couple good sound bites from Joe Kernan and safety non
• 19:12
  squawk box. I think Bitcoin is continuously
• 19:16
  proving its value to more and more people more, and people are
• 19:18
  beginning to realize that. And as more people realize just
• 19:20
  how revolutionary and important this is as a monetary
• 19:24
  technology, more people buy it and the price keeps going up.
• 19:28
  It's been going on for quite a while, and I think it's going to
• 19:31
  continue because ultimately Bitcoin is a money that cannot
• 19:34
  be inflated. Nobody can make more of it.
• 19:36
  There's only going to be 21 million.
• 19:37
  That's it. And it's just such a simple
• 19:39
  fact. But it is so unique because no
• 19:41
  other form of money can credibly claim such a property.
• 19:46
  And that means that eventually everything continues to decline
• 19:49
  next to Bitcoin because you keep making more and more of
• 19:52
  everything. And it gets a little bit far
• 19:57
  into the weeds, but I was looking at some of your comments
• 20:00
  here. I'm just fascinated by it.
• 20:02
  And we want to get back to the real world and what it means for
• 20:05
  people with with regulatory issues and where we are in the
• 20:10
  the genesis of Bitcoin. But you point out that Fiat,
• 20:15
  Fiat money and. The monetization of debt, which
• 20:20
  every time the government does something, it's basically almost
• 20:24
  like mining gold, except in this case we just increase the supply
• 20:29
  of the existing money to pay for what we're doing, and that's
• 20:33
  never going to work. And even when you're off the
• 20:35
  gold standard, gold has a stock to flow.
• 20:38
  We can only make so much per year, produce so much per year.
• 20:41
  Same with Bitcoin until we hit 21 million and then there's no
• 20:45
  more produced. And at that point that will be
• 20:48
  the stake in the ground to value all other currency.
• 20:53
  Right. Yeah.
• 20:55
  And I think that's really ultimately what it comes down
• 20:57
  to, the thing that made gold money, why gold became money.
• 21:00
  Yeah, it wasn't jewelry safe. It wasn't everybody thinks and
• 21:03
  that's the misunderstanding of what money is.
• 21:05
  It's not because you can make a nice ring out of it.
• 21:07
  It there's there's characteristics of why gold for
• 21:10
  4000 years has been used to represent value, but it has
• 21:14
  nothing to do with with what it's used for.
• 21:17
  No, it stores value well because it's very difficult to increase
• 21:20
  the supply of gold. It's very difficult to increase
• 21:22
  the supply of gold substantially.
• 21:23
  Every year the supply of gold goes up, but only around 1 1/2
• 21:26
  to 2%. And so that means the people who
• 21:28
  hold it as money end up doing very well for themselves, and
• 21:31
  people who hold other things don't do well.
• 21:33
  And that is true for gold, and that's what made gold money for
• 21:36
  the whole world practically at the beginning of the 20th
• 21:38
  century. Then governments come about and
• 21:41
  they use their debt as money. And since then the average over
• 21:44
  the last 60 years or so, between 1960 and 2020, for 60 years, the
• 21:49
  average Fiat currency grew in supply at around 14% per year or
• 21:54
  overall Fiat currencies grew in supply at around 14% per year,
• 21:58
  per year. So we went from 1 1/2% to 14%,
• 22:01
  about 10 fold increase in the supply growth rate.
• 22:04
  And 14% per year means that on average you lose half of the
• 22:07
  value that's stored in money over five years.
• 22:10
  So you lose half of the value of your money over five years.
• 22:12
  That's the average Fiat. Yes, of course some currencies
• 22:15
  are better than the average, like the US dollar and euro.
• 22:17
  They only increase at around 7-8 percent per year.
• 22:20
  Some currencies are a lot worse. They increase at 20-50, maybe
• 22:23
  100, sometimes percent per year. But on average, it's just
• 22:27
  continuously increasing in supply.
• 22:29
  So it's value declines and because it's value declines,
• 22:31
  that incentivizes everybody to a, not save and B, they caught a
• 22:36
  lot of debt and that's why everybody is in debt.
• 22:38
  And that's what Bitcoin fixes. If we go back to having a hard
• 22:41
  money where money is no longer debt, we no longer we need to be
• 22:44
  monetizing debt. We no longer need to get
• 22:46
  everybody to become a debt slave in order for us to have a form
• 22:50
  of money. We have a form of money that is
• 22:51
  just a commodity that doesn't require anybody to get into debt
• 22:54
  for it. OK, OK, guys, go watch the whole
• 22:58
  clip. But first and foremost, I I just
• 23:00
  love the ticket right here. The Bitcoin standard author on
• 23:03
  Squawk. And have you been in Bitcoin for
• 23:06
  a while? I'm sure you've heard safety and
• 23:08
  say this multiple times. Obviously, there's always the
• 23:11
  debate between gold and Bitcoin. And and I jokingly say it all
• 23:15
  the time, like, yeah, like I love gold.
• 23:17
  I think it's beautiful. I wear it as jewelry, but that
• 23:19
  doesn't mean I want it to be money.
• 23:21
  And you know, safety and even Joe Kernan are like, yeah, like
• 23:25
  that is not, not why gold was money in the 1st place.
• 23:28
  It's not because of its use case.
• 23:30
  And you still hear people say the same thing all the time.
• 23:32
  It's like, oh, you know, gold has a use case and Bitcoin has
• 23:35
  no use case. And it's like, guys, I don't
• 23:38
  know if you realize, but that's that's a feature, not a bug.
• 23:41
  I want my money to just be money, not have all of these
• 23:44
  other premiums on it that aren't monetary.
• 23:47
  All right, first and foremost, I always got a dunk on gold.
• 23:50
  I love dunking on gold because hey, I want it to be
• 23:53
  demonetized. I'm trying to get my house
• 23:55
  gaudied out in some gold, pillared everything.
• 23:58
  Anyways, the second part that I think is the most powerful
• 24:02
  conversation to have, and Nico and I talk about this constantly
• 24:05
  on the show. You ask yourself, what is money?
• 24:09
  Why are we being forced to use a money that's designed to steal
• 24:12
  from us? And here we are safety and
• 24:15
  rolling the numbers out very clearly and very easily.
• 24:18
  You know, if you're holding Fiat, on average, you are losing
• 24:21
  14%. Obviously, if you're in the US,
• 24:24
  it could be a little different, it could be a little lower.
• 24:25
  If you're in a different country, it could be a little
• 24:27
  higher. But the numbers are very clear.
• 24:29
  If you are losing purchasing power year over year, it's
• 24:34
  undeniable that you are losing a lot of purchasing power on a, on
• 24:39
  a time frame of five to 10 years.
• 24:40
  And I think so few people understand that very simple idea
• 24:44
  that you are holding melting ice cubes, that if you are saving in
• 24:48
  Fiat, you are getting poorer. And, you know, over 5 to 10
• 24:52
  years, you might be losing half of the purchasing power that you
• 24:56
  thought you had. And we're seeing a lot of
• 24:58
  boomers out here, a lot of the older generation falling into
• 25:01
  this position. I don't know if you guys have
• 25:03
  seen all the numbers out there, but a lot of people that thought
• 25:06
  they were going to retire on their savings now realize that
• 25:09
  it's not going to go as far as they have to.
• 25:12
  And they're, you know, older, working.
• 25:14
  And This is why we constantly tell people you just need to
• 25:17
  save in Bitcoin. This is the only way to protect
• 25:19
  yourself because we know one thing that government will
• 25:22
  continue to print money and they have to print money to keep it
• 25:26
  going. And so you have to protect
• 25:29
  yourself. You need to save in something
• 25:30
  that they cannot print, obviously.
• 25:32
  Hey, you could use gold if you want to.
• 25:34
  Like, yes, it's a great store value, but you know, we live in
• 25:38
  a digital world. You might want to get some
• 25:40
  digital money. I think it's going to catch on.
• 25:42
  Anyways, before I pass it to Niko, I'm going to pass it to
• 25:44
  Simon because I already think I already know what Niko is going
• 25:47
  to say here. So Simon, first of all, what's
• 25:49
  your thoughts on seeing safety in on corporate press just
• 25:53
  sounding like a toxic Bitcoin maximalist and then dive into
• 25:56
  what he was saying and and why you think it's such a powerful
• 25:59
  message? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's
• 26:02
  great to see safely and obviously on CNBC.
• 26:04
  I I've been watching CNBC for years and you know, they've over
• 26:07
  the years they've, they've slowly warmed up to the idea of
• 26:10
  Bitcoin. And Jo Kernan, you know, he's
• 26:12
  consistently looking at those six characteristics of, of muddy
• 26:15
  and saying, well, hang on a minute, Bitcoin actually fits
• 26:17
  all of those. So in in his own way, he's
• 26:19
  starting to really appreciate Bitcoin.
• 26:21
  But yeah, I mean, Seifer Dean talking about gold.
• 26:24
  I mean, I have to admit I I was a gold bug back in 2008 during
• 26:27
  the financial crisis. I was buying gold sovereigns and
• 26:30
  burying them in the back of the garden.
• 26:32
  And, you know, for a long time I was stuck on that idea that it's
• 26:35
  actually a physical thing. You know, Bitcoin isn't a
• 26:38
  physical thing. So it's it's harder to
• 26:40
  appreciate the value when it takes more time to study and
• 26:42
  understand the proof of work system, you know, and, and the
• 26:46
  network effect that Bitcoin has that really makes it very
• 26:48
  unique. And, you know, ultimately the
• 26:50
  utility of it. You know, if if the dollar
• 26:52
  failed tomorrow, you know, how would we all trade with each
• 26:55
  other? Are we going to use small bits
• 26:56
  of gold to go down to the shop for a loaf of bread?
• 26:58
  Or are we just going to have a Bitcoin wallet on our phone and
• 27:01
  use that instead? It's much more practical.
• 27:04
  Yeah, 100%. I mean, like, what are you going
• 27:06
  to do when you go to CVS? You pull out like a weight and a
• 27:10
  little little pic and you're like, all right.
• 27:14
  And you just you just give them little like little bits of gold.
• 27:18
  But I I but to to give you and Simon looks like I'm assuming
• 27:22
  you're a little bit older than me and you know, like that from
• 27:27
  from that era. You know, I think I would have
• 27:30
  been a gold bug too, because I don't think the gold bugs got
• 27:34
  anything wrong. What they got that like in terms
• 27:37
  of the concepts of how the system is broken, what I think
• 27:42
  that they got wrong is essentially the tool.
• 27:45
  That's the only thing. And that's kind of like a a
• 27:47
  little bit of a tragedy too, like a little bit of a Greek
• 27:50
  tragedy because it's like Peter Schiff, if you hear his takes on
• 27:54
  the Fed, if you hear his takes on the system, he is spot on.
• 27:59
  Where he gets it wrong is the tool.
• 28:02
  And I empathize a little bit with that.
• 28:03
  Can you imagine building your entire, a very successful
• 28:06
  career, by the way, your entire career on selling gold and all
• 28:11
  this stuff. Then all of a sudden Bitcoin
• 28:13
  comes along and it's like Bitcoin is a superior asset to
• 28:16
  gold and it's because of its physical characteristics.
• 28:19
  Gold's physical characteristics limit its ability for it not to
• 28:24
  be Co opted. Let me and I'll and I'll kind of
• 28:27
  dive deep as to why that is the case.
• 28:29
  So if you think about gold, it's, it's a, it's a heavy
• 28:34
  metal. Like it, it weighs a lot of
• 28:36
  money, like it weighs a lot. So if you have like a bar of
• 28:40
  gold, it's different. But if you are storing a big
• 28:44
  portion of your wealth and you're a higher net worth
• 28:46
  individual, that bar of gold is heavy.
• 28:49
  Also think about traveling, right?
• 28:52
  Let's say your country goes down a, a very hostile kind of
• 28:56
  regulatory environment. You don't like what they're
• 28:58
  saying. This was about to happen in the
• 28:59
  United States. Me and Opti were seriously
• 29:01
  discussing, you know, putting up the shot, like pulling up shop
• 29:05
  and just going to El Salvador and setting up shop over there
• 29:08
  because like, you know, they're arresting Bitcoiners left and
• 29:11
  right and all that. And, you know, with gold, it's
• 29:17
  like, are you going to put a bar of gold in your suitcase?
• 29:20
  And then you're going to have faith that like, you know,
• 29:23
  they're not going to say anything, you know, when you
• 29:25
  cross the border. Same applies to cash.
• 29:28
  Like there's a reason that, you know, they only make $100 bills
• 29:31
  or €100 bills back in back. Like, you know, 10 years ago,
• 29:37
  they used to have the €500 bill, but they got rid of that
• 29:41
  altogether as well. So, you know, the inflation, you
• 29:44
  know, the purchasing power of these bills continues to
• 29:47
  decrease and you know, but the, the, the actual numeric value
• 29:52
  stays the same, right? So, you know, you can't, you
• 29:56
  don't really have like a way to effectively store your wealth
• 30:02
  without fear of it being confiscated.
• 30:06
  You know, and, and that tends to happen if the government finds
• 30:09
  itself in a, in, in a predicament.
• 30:12
  And I think that's essentially where gold failed.
• 30:14
  Gold failed not because it wasn't sound money at the time,
• 30:19
  right? But gold failed because of its
• 30:22
  physical characteristics, limited its ability for
• 30:26
  individuals to take self custody of it.
• 30:30
  And another thing that I'll say is try sending $1,000,000 worth
• 30:34
  of gold to someone halfway across the planet.
• 30:39
  It's going to be very expensive. There's a lot of trust involved.
• 30:43
  It's not instantaneous. And that's in stark contrast
• 30:46
  with Bitcoin. With Bitcoin, not only can you
• 30:48
  send that money anywhere or like anywhere around the world
• 30:51
  instantaneously for very small fee, but also theoretically you
• 30:57
  can store 1,000,000 billions, trillions of dollars in your
• 31:01
  mind just by memorizing a 12 to 24.
• 31:05
  Word, seed, phrase. And that completely changes the
• 31:07
  game. Personally, I'm a fan of gold.
• 31:10
  I actually own physical gold, like physical gold, not IOU
• 31:15
  gold, you know, in case there is an apocalypse.
• 31:19
  But like, you know, I, I, I, I, I think Bitcoin is a superior
• 31:24
  store of value in, in, in my opinion.
• 31:26
  I think it's just, it's just better.
• 31:29
  One of the things that like people, and it was actually Eric
• 31:33
  Trump that said this at the Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu
• 31:36
  Dhabi, the price of gold hasn't like the gold hasn't an
• 31:41
  inflation rate. So if the price of gold goes up
• 31:45
  higher, the production of gold goes up higher with it, right?
• 31:50
  If the price of Bitcoin goes up, the production of Bitcoin not
• 31:55
  only stays the same, it actually gets cut in half every four
• 31:59
  years. So gold has scarcity, but
• 32:04
  Bitcoin has absolute scarcity. And I was actually like running
• 32:08
  the numbers in terms of like I was asking ChatGPT the other
• 32:12
  day, how much gold is in is on the moon, How much gold is in
• 32:17
  the sun, right? And like the numbers are just
• 32:20
  astronomical, right? But the reason that you know
• 32:24
  that that isn't it is it's it's extremely difficult to get gold
• 32:28
  off the moon. It's impossible to get gold out
• 32:31
  of the sun, right? But I'll tell you this.
• 32:34
  Is there more Bitcoin on in the moon?
• 32:37
  No. Is there more Bitcoin floating
• 32:40
  in outer space? No.
• 32:41
  Is there more Bitcoin in the sun?
• 32:43
  Maybe, but no. So, yeah, I mean, that's really
• 32:47
  the two differences between, you know, these two things.
• 32:51
  I think gold did a great job, you know, to get us to this
• 32:55
  point. I think I give a lot of kudos
• 32:57
  for the gold bugs because they really, really started.
• 33:00
  They put a lot of effort into identifying the corruption and
• 33:05
  the flaws within the current system.
• 33:08
  But, you know, it's there. There's a new technology, it
• 33:12
  does it better. And of course, that's Bitcoin
• 33:14
  and of course, safe. Such an elegant job at, you
• 33:19
  know, speaking about all these topics.
• 33:21
  And I believe he's releasing a new bug.
• 33:24
  I mean, new bug, new bug, new book as it relates to gold that
• 33:28
  he announced at, at the Bitcoin MENA conference, I believe the
• 33:32
  name of the book is the, the gold standard, right?
• 33:35
  So he wrote the Bitcoin standard, the Fiat standard and
• 33:38
  the gold standard. And it's just kind of laying out
• 33:41
  the case between all the different standards.
• 33:44
  And once you read all the books, you'll come to a very, very,
• 33:47
  like very, very fast conclusion that Bitcoin is obviously the
• 33:51
  superior way. It's the superior asset.
• 33:54
  It's, it's the, it's the money that is meant to be the global
• 33:57
  reserve currency. And another thing that I'll say
• 34:00
  too, and then I'll pass it on to Opti cause I've been rambling on
• 34:03
  for a little bit. If you take a look at the size
• 34:07
  of the Fiat standard and you take a look at the size of the
• 34:10
  Bitcoin standard in terms of vault like like the thickness of
• 34:14
  the book, the Bitcoin standard is actually smaller than the
• 34:18
  Fiat standard, right? And you know, I think I think
• 34:22
  simplicity is beautiful. The Bitcoin white paper was 9
• 34:25
  pages. You know, things don't have to
• 34:27
  be complicated and you know you shouldn't have to be a part time
• 34:32
  investor just to maintain your purchasing power.
• 34:34
  So don't believe the SIOP buy Bitcoin stack SAT stay humble,
• 34:38
  stack the stay solvent and just sit back.
• 34:41
  Enjoy your life, do some work and earn some money that
• 34:45
  actually values your time Opti. Yeah, well, I really just want
• 34:48
  to highlight one comment in the chat.
• 34:50
  Shouts out to SpongeBob SquarePants.
• 34:53
  You know, if you are a gold bug out there, I think this is just
• 34:57
  some some pure signal here. So gold is still a, you know, a
• 35:01
  store of value, but it won't make you wealthy.
• 35:03
  And Bitcoin will do both. And I, I actually love this
• 35:06
  messaging, you know, agree and amplify.
• 35:09
  Yeah, gold's cool and all, but you know, digital cool gold is
• 35:13
  it's a lot better, even though I hate that digital gold name.
• 35:16
  But as we know, you know, Bitcoin is still being monetized
• 35:19
  and we live in a digital world and 21 million hard cap.
• 35:22
  Like to me, it's just it seems like such a no brainer because
• 35:25
  maybe, you know, we're digitally native.
• 35:27
  It's just like it's so obvious. We're so far down the rabbit
• 35:30
  hole that to me it just like it you're never going back to Fiat.
• 35:33
  Like yeah, I want gold, but like I'm not going to use it for
• 35:36
  money. Like, you know, I got a gold
• 35:38
  necklace. Like I think it's pretty it's in
• 35:40
  my blood to like gold, but do I want it as money?
• 35:43
  Like no, I want Bitcoin and I think more people are catching
• 35:46
  on to that. And so it is it is absolutely
• 35:49
  interesting seeing safety and go on squawk box, you know, the
• 35:52
  corporate press and just destroy gold bugs because the audience
• 35:57
  is probably a lot of gold bugs and a lot of Fiat maxies.
• 36:00
  And hey, you know, I'm here for it.
• 36:02
  Shouts out to safety and being a toxic maxi on squawk box.
• 36:06
  This is this. Is what I'm here for.
• 36:08
  But but I mean even the anchor is becoming a little bit of a
• 36:11
  time. Actually.
• 36:13
  Again, he's like shutting down people.
• 36:15
  Like there's people that came on the show the other day, they
• 36:17
  were doubting Bitcoin and he was just like, are you crazy, dude?
• 36:21
  You know? So like he's even starting to,
• 36:23
  he's taking the orange pill himself, you know?
• 36:26
  Anyways guys. Wait, wait, Nico, Squawk Box is
• 36:29
  the biggest Bitcoin maxi podcast.
• 36:32
  Are they replacing simply Bitcoin?
• 36:34
  It's happening anyways guys, if you guys are enjoying the show
• 36:37
  so far, make sure to smash that like button.
• 36:41
  We're about to break 500 live viewers on YouTube alone help us
• 36:45
  break 200 likes within the first hour of the show.
• 36:49
  We're at 100 or we're almost at 150.
• 36:52
  So if you guys are enjoying the show, enjoying the content
• 36:54
  really helps push the message forward.
• 36:57
  If you smash that like button, all right guys, we're going to
• 37:00
  hit the news. We will be right back.
• 37:04
  I want to give a very special shout out to our sponsor Compass
• 37:08
  Mining. They make Bitcoin mining
• 37:10
  accessible to everyone from beginners to experienced
• 37:14
  investors. Their turn key miners gets you
• 37:17
  online and hashing within 48 hours, making it easier than
• 37:21
  ever to start your mining journey.
• 37:24
  Plus, with their active marketplace, you can resell your
• 37:27
  miner at any time, adding flexibility and value to your
• 37:31
  investment. Visit their website to access a
• 37:34
  wealth of resources, learning everything you need to know
• 37:37
  about Bitcoin mining. Take your first step into the
• 37:41
  world of Bitcoin mining with confidence.
• 37:43
  Discover more at Compass Mining dot IO.
• 37:46
  Again, Compass mining dot IO and see how Compass Mining can power
• 37:52
  your success. I want to give a shout out to
• 38:02
  our sponsor foundation. It's self custody done right.
• 38:05
  They've built a premium grade. Hardware wallet called Passport.
• 38:09
  Right here in the US and it integrates seamlessly with their
• 38:13
  free app called Envoy. Passport is fully open source
• 38:17
  and verifiable. It's the most intuitive Bitcoin
• 38:20
  wallet design with a UX reminiscent of a classic feature
• 38:23
  phone, so you'll know how to navigate it and use it the
• 38:26
  moment you pick it up. It's also air gaps, meaning
• 38:29
  Bitcoin stays offline, never touching an Internet connection.
• 38:33
  It's Bitcoin only open source, verifiable air gap security
• 38:37
  model, gorgeous design craft premium grade materials.
• 38:40
  Get your Bitcoin off exchanges and into your own hands in just
• 38:44
  a few minutes with Passport at foundation dot XYZ slash.
• 38:48
  Simply get Peace of Mind for your peace.
• 38:53
  All right, everybody, this is Opti.
• 38:55
  He's not making a phone call. He's actually on the Passport by
• 38:59
  Foundation Devices. It's incredibly easy to use.
• 39:03
  It's convenient. It doesn't sacrifice security
• 39:06
  for convenience. This is a perfect gift to give
• 39:08
  to somebody that perhaps is a little bit intimidated by self
• 39:11
  custody. You get them a Passport by
• 39:14
  Foundation Devices, they can take self custody of their
• 39:17
  Bitcoin and perhaps they don't get a little bit scared away by
• 39:20
  the all the technical stuff. So.
• 39:23
  Anyways, yeah, one, one last message.
• 39:25
  Oniko, it's it's Christmas time guys.
• 39:28
  If you know, if you celebrate Christmas, this might be a good
• 39:31
  stuffing. What's it stocking stuffer for
• 39:34
  your, for your mother, your cousins, your brothers and
• 39:37
  sisters. I think I'm actually going to
• 39:39
  buy a few for, for my cousins. We'll see.
• 39:42
  We'll see. We'll see if they're lucky
• 39:43
  enough. But, you know, it might be a
• 39:45
  good gift anyways. Anyways, let's get into today's
• 39:47
  news story. So very interesting.
• 39:51
  And of course, guys, forgive me. Forgive me, but we're talking
• 39:54
  about politicians again today because what's Nico?
• 39:57
  We say elections have consequences.
• 40:00
  And it looks like we are getting some more favorable people in.
• 40:06
  The House and politicians in the US and I'm here for it.
• 40:09
  So here we go. So as you can see over here,
• 40:13
  Representative French Hill will now be the head or the next
• 40:18
  chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
• 40:21
  So you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with
• 40:24
  Bitcoin? Like who cares?
• 40:25
  Another politician just got elected.
• 40:27
  Well, let's just go in. We can see.
• 40:29
  You know what, Cynthia? Senator Cynthia Loomis says she
• 40:32
  goes congratulations to Representative French Hill on
• 40:34
  being selected to chair the financial committee.
• 40:37
  This is a huge win for the digital asset community.
• 40:40
  Looking forward to working together to pass comprehensive
• 40:43
  digital asset legislation again, guys, you know my view.
• 40:47
  I, I really don't like the digital asset meme personally,
• 40:51
  but we all know that when they talk about digital assets, at
• 40:53
  least coming from politicians or institutions, they really mean
• 40:57
  Bitcoin. Usually that kind of opens the
• 40:59
  door for things other than Bitcoin like stablecoins.
• 41:02
  But when you hear digital asset, that means, you know, Bitcoin.
• 41:05
  And so here we go. Let's move forward and let's
• 41:08
  just hear from his, you know, from the horse's mouth.
• 41:11
  What does Representative French Hill think about Bitcoin and
• 41:15
  what his next job's going to be? So here we go.
• 41:17
  Yeah. We need a market structure for
• 41:20
  digital assets. We don't have rules of the road
• 41:23
  under Chairman Gensler. We had just regulation by
• 41:26
  enforcement. This is not helping America
• 41:28
  succeed, not helping technological advance innovation
• 41:32
  for Web 3, the use of blockchain both in publicly traded
• 41:35
  companies and in financial services.
• 41:37
  So that is the the top priority for us and our Majority Leader
• 41:42
  Steve Scalise has it on his first 100 days of the House is
• 41:45
  to move a regulatory structure bill for digital assets and I
• 41:48
  also believe a dollar back payment stable coin for under
• 41:53
  U.S. law as well. You believe in a Bitcoin
• 41:57
  reserve? You know, I don't really, I
• 42:02
  don't, I have to say I was. I know Cynthia Loomis from
• 42:05
  Wyoming. I heard her give her speech at
• 42:06
  the Bitcoin conference in Nashville.
• 42:09
  I understand why some people are attracted to that.
• 42:12
  I'd have to think long and hard about what the value of that is
• 42:15
  to the United States or the Treasury.
• 42:17
  But I am certain of this that we need a fair minded, fit for
• 42:21
  purpose regulatory structure 4 digital assets in this country.
• 42:26
  Well, you heard it there guys. It looks like what Nico and I
• 42:31
  have been saying in regards to 2025.
• 42:34
  It looks like it might be playing out in real time.
• 42:37
  And So what did we say when Trump got elected or you know,
• 42:41
  he's president of the elect, he was running on a pro Bitcoin
• 42:45
  administration. The whole Republican Party has
• 42:48
  aligned themselves with pro Bitcoin legislation.
• 42:51
  You know, the right to self custody.
• 42:53
  Hopefully soon enough we get them to no capital gains tax on
• 42:56
  Bitcoin. But you know, they've been
• 43:00
  talking about strategic Bitcoin reserves.
• 43:03
  We got the next SEC head is pro Bitcoin, the next CFTC head is
• 43:11
  pro Bitcoin. Now we have the Chairman of the
• 43:16
  House for Financial. Wait, hold on, let me look.
• 43:18
  Chairman of the House for Financial Services seems to be
• 43:21
  pro Bitcoin and it looks like what we said is going to play
• 43:24
  out in 2025 for the next 4 years.
• 43:27
  It seems like we are going to get some favorable regulation in
• 43:30
  the US Obviously, we will keep tabs on that.
• 43:33
  But I do find it very interesting that in that clip
• 43:36
  and that clip came out this morning that he said they will
• 43:39
  do their best to pass some kind of regulation or some rules for
• 43:43
  the road within the 1st 100 days.
• 43:45
  So personally, my initial thought is let's hope it doesn't
• 43:47
  get rushed. Let's hope there's actually some
• 43:49
  good advisors there. And you know, as you can tell,
• 43:52
  you know, Nico Nico's the reigning tether guy here on the
• 43:55
  show, You know, he's a stable coin Maxi on the show.
• 43:59
  I'm not a fan of stable coins at all, but you can see that when
• 44:02
  they say digital assets, they're really talking about stable
• 44:05
  coins. I, I don't think they're
• 44:06
  necessarily talking about other shit coins.
• 44:08
  They're just talking about Bitcoin and stablecoins.
• 44:10
  As you can hear, you know, representative French Hill
• 44:12
  basically said it dollar backed stablecoins, which is obviously
• 44:17
  a way to proliferate dollar worldwide.
• 44:20
  And I do find it very interesting though that he is a
• 44:24
  little concerned about the strategic Bitcoin reserve or
• 44:27
  stockpile, though at least they're giving it actual like
• 44:31
  they're actually thinking about this.
• 44:32
  They're not, they're not just saying no, yes, you know, like
• 44:34
  we've heard Elizabeth Warren come out here and be so against
• 44:37
  everything in the Bitcoin industry, not give it any
• 44:39
  thought. At least now they're being
• 44:41
  mindful kind of what Simon said earlier that, hey, if you fight
• 44:46
  Bitcoin, you fight the, the, all of the people in that your, your
• 44:51
  jurisdiction that are Bitcoiners.
• 44:52
  Like you're no longer going to be able to be a politician.
• 44:55
  And now they have to actually think about what they're going
• 44:57
  to do around Bitcoin without just directly shutting it down.
• 45:01
  So again, it looks like 2025 in the US, we're going to have some
• 45:04
  favorable jurisdiction around Bitcoin.
• 45:06
  Obviously I don't like the word regulation, but I guess, you
• 45:10
  know, politicians are going to do what politicians do.
• 45:13
  Now, on the flip side, kind of segwaying this to Simon here
• 45:17
  because you're not in the USI think what the president gets
• 45:20
  set in the US is going to make ripples around the world and
• 45:23
  everyone will look to what the US does as, you know, credence
• 45:28
  or precedent for what they should do in their own country.
• 45:31
  And so hopefully, if the US does figure this out and we do it
• 45:34
  correctly, then, you know, the the real game theory and
• 45:38
  competition petition around the world to acquire Bitcoin will
• 45:41
  take off. And I'm here for it.
• 45:43
  As a Bitcoiner, I want a jurisdiction that treats me
• 45:45
  well. And we know that Bitcoin allows
• 45:48
  us to move and or, you know, put capital where it needs to be,
• 45:52
  where it is treated well. So I think for now, Nika, we are
• 45:55
  going to be able to stay in the US.
• 45:58
  I'm pretty excited for it. I, I don't want to move ever.
• 46:01
  But hey, you know, it is what it is.
• 46:03
  And we'll, we'll, we'll have to do what we have to do
• 46:06
  eventually. Yeah, I'll chime in before we we
• 46:09
  pass the baton to Simon. But yeah, I mean, look, the
• 46:13
  couple things. So it, you know, we've made
• 46:17
  progress, right? The the reality is and, and
• 46:19
  politics is, is, is, is very, this is a reason as to why
• 46:23
  people don't like talking about it is because politics by
• 46:26
  definition is the organization of power.
• 46:29
  So, you know, kind of morals and integrity kind of go out the
• 46:33
  window and it's very nasty, you know, and I think we saw that
• 46:37
  really in the last couple of years or so.
• 46:40
  So but you know, we are making progress when you know, these
• 46:44
  these very old senators that per they don't fully understand
• 46:48
  Bitcoin, but I'm very confident of that are saying like, yes, we
• 46:52
  are. We will take a look at it.
• 46:54
  I don't like that he's saying that there needs to be some type
• 46:58
  of Bitcoin doesn't listen. You guys need to understand
• 47:01
  something. Governments won't regulate
• 47:04
  Bitcoin. Bitcoin will regulate
• 47:07
  governments. It's not the other way around,
• 47:09
  right? Bitcoin ain't democratic, right?
• 47:13
  It ain't democratic, it's consensus.
• 47:15
  So, you know, it's not going to change.
• 47:19
  And that's what makes it so revolutionary, right?
• 47:23
  That's what makes it so uncorruptible.
• 47:25
  So, But that's a very tough pill to swallow for, you know,
• 47:29
  politicians living in, you know, the, the, IT, you know, the,
• 47:35
  the, you know, the, the, you know, the, I would say near the,
• 47:39
  the tail end of the nation state era.
• 47:42
  If you are to believe in, in the book for if you are to believe
• 47:45
  the theory from the, the sovereign individuals.
• 47:46
  So you know, they still believe that, you know, they can
• 47:50
  essentially control the wall though the war, the war, the
• 47:54
  world by, you know, passing laws and all that stuff.
• 47:57
  But you know, Bitcoin is in immutable code.
• 48:00
  Like it just Bitcoin itself, like has its laws.
• 48:03
  You can't change it and you've seen it, right?
• 48:06
  You've seen nation states attack this thing.
• 48:08
  You see nation states trying to ban this thing.
• 48:11
  And you know, whether it's Russia, whether it's China,
• 48:14
  whether it's the United States, the eventually all bent the knee
• 48:18
  to Bitcoin here in the United States for the last 3 1/2 years.
• 48:22
  We were essentially attacked. Our industry was attacked.
• 48:25
  There was people from our industry that were jailed.
• 48:27
  There's there's documents that are being leaked that literally
• 48:32
  confirm that operation Choke .2 point O was not only real, but
• 48:37
  the government was actually asking banks to debank Bitcoin
• 48:42
  and crypto companies, right? And what happened when they did
• 48:46
  that? This is when the Bitcoin
• 48:48
  incentives and game theory come into play.
• 48:50
  Before this election cycle, Bitcoiners did not care about
• 48:55
  politics. They forced our hands and
• 48:59
  Bitcoiners now became part of the donor class and all of a
• 49:03
  sudden we started donating to pro Bitcoin politicians.
• 49:08
  Do you think Trump or the Republican Party?
• 49:10
  All of a sudden they just found Satoshi and they're like, yeah,
• 49:13
  this Bitcoin thing is awesome. No, Bitcoiners started donating
• 49:17
  money to their parties. They started getting behind
• 49:20
  those candidates. And there is actually a video
• 49:22
  that I saw. Of Mark Cuban.
• 49:24
  Going on a podcast talking about as to some of the reasons as to
• 49:28
  why he believed Kamala lost. And he was like, he was like, I
• 49:32
  think they dropped the ball on crypto.
• 49:34
  Like 40% of young people own Bitcoin and crypto.
• 49:40
  And when you're going to attack, they don't own stocks.
• 49:43
  And when you're going to attack their bags, they're going to
• 49:46
  react very negatively to that. So yes, I think it's a big
• 49:50
  progress, you know that he's mentioning that, but we shall
• 49:55
  see. The 1st 2 years of the
• 49:57
  administration when the Republicans have essentially
• 50:00
  full spectrum dominance in terms of they have the House, they
• 50:04
  have the Senate, they have the judicial branch and the Supreme
• 50:07
  Court and they have the executive branch.
• 50:10
  All right, so you have two years.
• 50:12
  They, they'll probably lose the House during the midterms.
• 50:14
  Let's see what Elon and Vivek do with this.
• 50:17
  The, the, the doge thing, Department of Government
• 50:19
  efficiency or whatever. Now as it relates to Bitcoin
• 50:22
  weaving it, I mean as it relates to stablecoins weaving it back
• 50:25
  in and then I'll pass it on to Simon.
• 50:28
  So OK, yes, I do like stablecoins because I'm a
• 50:32
  capitalist and I'm a free market maximalist.
• 50:34
  And I Bitcoiners had this idea that in developing countries,
• 50:39
  what you are going to see was mass adoption of Bitcoin as
• 50:43
  people were fleeing their local Fiat currencies, which were
• 50:48
  being heavily debased and they were going to flee into coin.
• 50:51
  That did not happen. What is happening instead is in
• 50:56
  developing countries, stable coin adoption, specifically
• 51:00
  Tether is it's viral, it's going through the roof.
• 51:04
  It's insane. And that's what I see.
• 51:08
  And and Paolo, the CEO of Tether and Samson Mao agree on this.
• 51:12
  And it was actually Samsung Mao that that integrated Tether into
• 51:17
  his wallet Aqua and Jack Mahler's actually just made an
• 51:21
  announce that made made an announcement that strike was
• 51:24
  going to integrate USDT into the strike platform.
• 51:28
  And you know that Jack Mahler's and strike are full Bitcoin
• 51:31
  maxi, you know, full Bitcoin maxies.
• 51:34
  And also the tether team is as well.
• 51:36
  They're full back Bitcoin maxies.
• 51:38
  But the way that I see it and the way that they see it is that
• 51:41
  tether is a stepping stone into Bitcoin, right?
• 51:45
  The, The thing is with these developing countries, the dollar
• 51:48
  seems amazing because they're trying to escape double digit
• 51:52
  inflation. Once you're already in the
• 51:55
  United States and the dollar's all like surrounding you, you
• 51:59
  know that the dollar is bad and then now you're trying to escape
• 52:02
  the dollar and you're trying to escape the dollar into Bitcoin.
• 52:04
  So I think it's a stepping stone for individuals.
• 52:07
  It's a great educational thing because they're going to,
• 52:10
  they're going to have access to digital wallets.
• 52:12
  They, they don't have to go to a bank account.
• 52:14
  They can just download an A wallet on their phone and boom,
• 52:17
  they can start receiving tethers.
• 52:19
  And I think all roads inevitably lead to Bitcoin.
• 52:23
  So I think that inevitably, inevitably will lead to Bitcoin
• 52:27
  adoption down the road sooner or later as the world comes to
• 52:32
  realize that Bitcoin is not only the superior asset, but also the
• 52:36
  superior money. So I don't think that I don't
• 52:40
  put Tether in the same category as shit coins.
• 52:44
  I think Tether is in the category of stable coins.
• 52:48
  Would I use tethered? No, because I have the financial
• 52:51
  privilege of living in a country where I have access to great
• 52:55
  financial rails, I have access to bank accounts, I have access
• 52:59
  to financial services that allow me to go through my daily life.
• 53:04
  But the vast majority of the world doesn't have access to
• 53:07
  that. But they still want dollars,
• 53:11
  right? Eventually, what the world's
• 53:13
  going to come to realize, I'm calling it right now, that
• 53:17
  inevitably is going to lead to Bitcoin adoption.
• 53:21
  But last point, I'm a free market maxi.
• 53:24
  I'm a capitalist. I'm telling you what the market
• 53:28
  is saying and speaking. And if you deny the market, if
• 53:32
  you deny the market reality, you're not a capitalist by
• 53:34
  definition, you're not a fan of the free market.
• 53:37
  So my take on the regulatory environment, but I'll say this,
• 53:40
  we are winning. We're going to stay winning.
• 53:42
  And I think the best is yet to come.
• 53:45
  Simon, what's your take? Yeah, and.
• 53:48
  So much has been said there. I want to respond to all of it,
• 53:51
  but we don't have enough time. Probably going back.
• 53:53
  No, we do, We do we we're totally good.
• 53:55
  We're it's a. Final show so we can go on do
• 53:58
  whatever you want do. Whatever you want.
• 54:00
  Yeah, I mean the. Stable coin thing.
• 54:01
  I mean that. That is massive, as you're
• 54:03
  saying, developing countries where they've got Fiat money
• 54:06
  that the government is literally stealing from them.
• 54:08
  You know, they've got all kinds of structures in place which
• 54:10
  basically mean the government can steal money and they're
• 54:12
  inflating it very quickly for those people there.
• 54:15
  They, they can't get a dollar bank account.
• 54:17
  Obviously, you know, there's not American banks that will give
• 54:19
  them a dollar bank account. But the ability to have a cheap
• 54:21
  smartphone that they can put a wallet on and store stable coins
• 54:26
  and get access to the dollar, that is a lifesaver for them
• 54:28
  because it actually means they can get out of poverty.
• 54:31
  They can save money. That's how you get out of
• 54:33
  poverty over time by saving money.
• 54:34
  But if you can't save in the local currency, then how do you
• 54:38
  do that? You know, it's it's only the
• 54:40
  advent of of effectively self custody money is what we're
• 54:43
  talking about here. I mean, Bitcoin is self custody
• 54:44
  money, Ted. There is also self custody
• 54:47
  money. It's the ability to do that on
• 54:48
  your own phone and save, you know, the the work that you've
• 54:51
  done in the past and, and keep it for the future, invest and,
• 54:54
  and, and accumulate wealth and actually get yourself out of
• 54:56
  poverty. That's a massive thing.
• 54:58
  And I think it is a stepping stone because they won't
• 55:00
  initially understand Bitcoin, but they will understand storing
• 55:03
  a digital dollar. Once they get used to that, they
• 55:06
  might start to look at the fact that, you know, Tether is
• 55:09
  tracked and it can be censored. You know, it is a centralised
• 55:12
  currency effectively. So although it's not really
• 55:14
  happening much at the moment, you know, at at some point there
• 55:17
  may become a problem and then they're the the real asset they
• 55:20
  really want to have is Bitcoin. And at some point they might get
• 55:23
  ready for the the volatility that obviously, obviously has
• 55:25
  versus the dollar. Or probably at some point in the
• 55:28
  future, the dollar might become more volatile than Bitcoin is
• 55:31
  now. This is what we expect in the
• 55:33
  Bitcoin space with the way that the government is recklessly
• 55:36
  printing more money. And we do expect that at some
• 55:39
  point the dollar is probably going to be very volatile.
• 55:41
  And then at that point, the volatility argument against
• 55:44
  Bitcoin is completely flawed, you know, because it is then a
• 55:47
  more stable asset. But one of the things you were
• 55:49
  mentioning there with the proliferation of Bitcoin around
• 55:52
  the world is the BRICS are they are looking at creating their
• 55:56
  own currency that they can use to trade amongst themselves.
• 55:59
  But if they use any form of centralised Ledger, much like
• 56:02
  the dollar is, then they would have to trust each other in some
• 56:05
  way. I mean, maybe it would be China
• 56:06
  that would control the Ledger because they're the biggest one
• 56:09
  of those countries. Or maybe Russia would.
• 56:10
  But whoever controls it, the other countries then have to
• 56:13
  trust them to A, not print more money and just add it to the
• 56:17
  Ledger in the way that the dollar is doing, or B, to not
• 56:20
  censor. You know, if, if China's
• 56:22
  managing the Ledger, they did decide they don't like something
• 56:24
  that Brazil is doing, they could basically just cancel all the
• 56:27
  money that Brazil has on the Ledger and they've lost it, you
• 56:30
  know? So that's that's a real risk for
• 56:32
  any one of those countries that's engaging in that new
• 56:35
  currency that they might want to design.
• 56:37
  But of course, if they chose to use Bitcoin, they wouldn't have
• 56:40
  that problem at all. They would be able to act in a
• 56:42
  way that they don't have to trust each other because it is a
• 56:45
  trustless system. So, yeah, we've got real
• 56:47
  opportunities there. I mean, going back to the gold
• 56:49
  thing, I've got to say that the mindset of a gold bug, I mean, I
• 56:52
  was there for many years. You know, it's when you
• 56:54
  understand how fundamentally flawed the financial system is,
• 56:58
  you, you can see that it's a train wreck waiting to happen.
• 57:01
  And you try to look for ways out of it and you end up buying
• 57:03
  maybe like farmland, maybe property, maybe gold.
• 57:07
  But the, the, the biggest thing with gold is where do you store
• 57:09
  it? You know, I've, I've had this in
• 57:11
  the past, You know, you can bury it in your garden, but maybe if
• 57:13
  somebody comes along with a metal detector and finds it, you
• 57:15
  know, put it under your floorboards, you know, there's
• 57:18
  all kinds of issues with that. Bitcoin is the first real self
• 57:21
  custody asset we've ever had in history where you can actually
• 57:25
  store your value for yourself with cryptography, storing those
• 57:28
  12 words in, in your head or in some other way without the need
• 57:32
  for security, without the need for a bank or a bank vault,
• 57:36
  store it in for you without safety deposit boxes.
• 57:39
  You can literally store your own value.
• 57:41
  So I think that's a, a massive thing, you know, and it's, it's,
• 57:44
  you can't underestimate the importance of what we've got
• 57:46
  here in Bitcoin. It took me a long time.
• 57:49
  I have to say I'm a little bit older than you guys, as you
• 57:51
  said, so it took me a long time to refigure it out.
• 57:53
  But once you've done the reading, once you've really kind
• 57:55
  of opened your mind and looked at what Bitcoin can do, it
• 57:58
  really is the best form of money that we've ever had, 100% a
• 58:02
  hundred. Percent.
• 58:03
  I mean it. It's obvious and and it's
• 58:06
  obvious in hindsight. It's obvious after you've put in
• 58:08
  the proof of work to understand, but I, I completely agree with
• 58:13
  you, Simon, you know, and it's, it's, it's very, very exciting
• 58:17
  times. I think it, it didn't happen as
• 58:20
  we all anticipated. I think it happened slightly
• 58:23
  different. But you know, we, you have to
• 58:25
  adapt. You have to adapt to the market,
• 58:28
  you have to adapt to the times. But I think, you know,
• 58:31
  inevitably, like I said, all roads lead to Bitcoin because it
• 58:35
  is the superior asset inevitably, right?
• 58:39
  And I think the world is going to wake up to that, whether it's
• 58:41
  sooner, whether the whether it's sooner or later.
• 58:44
  One of the things that you were saying in the beginning, Simon,
• 58:47
  is, you know, like this is something that, and Alex
• 58:50
  Gladstein actually wrote a book about this called financial.
• 58:52
  I don't know if that's the, the full title, but financial
• 58:56
  privilege. And essentially, like, look,
• 58:59
  most people are just worrying about the day-to-day, man, you
• 59:02
  know, like they don't have the, the luxury that, you know, a lot
• 59:07
  of us have where we have supplemental income that we can
• 59:11
  put into Bitcoin. Most of the world is paycheck to
• 59:15
  paycheck. They're just looking to make
• 59:17
  ends meet. And you know, Bitcoin,
• 59:21
  unfortunately, I mean the however, which way you want to
• 59:24
  phrase it, either due to the Lightning Network not completely
• 59:28
  being rolled out or due to its volatility in the short term,
• 59:33
  they're looking at this and they're just like, you know
• 59:36
  what, like like this tether thing, it's dollars and, and
• 59:40
  their mind, you have to understand from these countries,
• 59:42
  and I'm, and I'm from one of these countries, right, $100
• 59:46
  bill is like the top of the hierarchy in terms of what they
• 59:51
  perceive as sound money, right? They like everyone wants dollars
• 59:56
  and with the, with the adoption of, of, of stable coins on a
• 1:00:03
  massive scale, they're getting that access to dollars.
• 1:00:06
  But eventually they're going to come to that realization on
• 1:00:11
  their own. Wait a second.
• 1:00:13
  You know, my Tether wallet could still be frozen.
• 1:00:16
  My Tether wallet could still, you know.
• 1:00:19
  I'm still dealing with inflation still and, you know, eventually,
• 1:00:23
  you know, they, they'll, they'll run into Bitcoin that that's
• 1:00:25
  really my belief. And that's the belief of people
• 1:00:28
  that are a lot smarter than me as well.
• 1:00:32
  And I and I really don't believe they're competitors, so to
• 1:00:35
  speak. I don't think it's a shit coin.
• 1:00:37
  It's just it's a stable coin. That's what it is.
• 1:00:39
  But anyways, guys, we have a lot to talk about, so stay tuned.
• 1:00:42
  We're going to get to the culture segment.
• 1:00:44
  We're going to talk to Simon about his project Fanfares, his
• 1:00:49
  company Fanfares, and he calls it the Internet money era of
• 1:00:54
  podcasting. I'm really excited to kind of
• 1:00:57
  dive into this topic specifically because we are
• 1:01:00
  content creators, Opti and I, and simply Bitcoin, like we're a
• 1:01:03
  media company. We're all content creators here.
• 1:01:06
  And one of the most difficult things that you can do as a
• 1:01:10
  media company in this era is being able to monetize, right?
• 1:01:14
  How do you make a business out of it?
• 1:01:16
  How do you get paid? You know, you're putting all
• 1:01:18
  this, all this hours and effort into your work.
• 1:01:21
  You know, you're getting a ton of engagement, you're getting a
• 1:01:23
  ton of views. And how do you make money out of
• 1:01:26
  this, right? So this is a problem that Simon
• 1:01:29
  has set out to solve. This is why entrepreneurs are
• 1:01:32
  leading the world. And we're going to talk about
• 1:01:34
  this. So guys, stay tuned for the
• 1:01:37
  culture. Let's check it out.
• 1:01:40
  I want to give a shout out to. Our sponsor.
• 1:01:42
  Hive Digital Technologies as the first ever public miner, Hive's
• 1:01:47
  been battle tested through every possible market and as the first
• 1:01:51
  with an AI strategy, Hive continues to redefine the future
• 1:01:56
  of sustainable energy. Also got to casually drop this
• 1:02:00
  in here. Hive consistently tops the
• 1:02:02
  industry in Bitcoin mine per Exahash.
• 1:02:06
  They're lean and mean, they're green and clean, and they're
• 1:02:09
  changing the the game. Learn more by following them at
• 1:02:12
  Hive Digital Tech or check out their website,
• 1:02:15
  hivedigitaltech.com. All right, everybody, I do want
• 1:02:30
  to give a shout out. To our sponsor bit Block Boom
• 1:02:34
  guys, this is one of the best conferences of the Bitcoin
• 1:02:40
  industry, of the Bitcoin space. It's not too big where you get
• 1:02:44
  lost in the sauce. It's not too small, it's just
• 1:02:47
  the right size so that you can you can casually approach some
• 1:02:52
  of your favorite bitcoiners or favorite Bitcoin companies to
• 1:02:56
  spark up a conversation with them and potentially get a job
• 1:02:59
  in the industry. Or if you have a question for,
• 1:03:02
  you know, for Opti, for Rustin, for Dante, for myself, you can
• 1:03:06
  come up to us again. Other bitcoiners are going to be
• 1:03:08
  there as well to their speakers have just been announced.
• 1:03:11
  There's more speakers to come. Guys, it's going to be
• 1:03:14
  absolutely awesome. You definitely don't want to
• 1:03:17
  miss Bitlock Boom 2025. It's going to be host posted in
• 1:03:21
  Dallas, TX April 3rd through the 6th.
• 1:03:24
  Prices increase for the tickets as days go by.
• 1:03:27
  So you want to get your tickets quickly.
• 1:03:29
  And if you use promo code BBB 21, you'll get $100 discount off
• 1:03:37
  your tickets. We hope to see you guys at Bit
• 1:03:40
  Block Boom 2025 in Dallas, TX get your tickets now.
• 1:03:46
  All right, everybody, let's open up the conversation.
• 1:03:49
  Let's take advantage of our guest for today.
• 1:03:51
  We have Simon in the house. Simon is a Bitcoin entrepreneur,
• 1:03:56
  not only a Bitcoin entrepreneur, but he is a Bitcoin bootstrapped
• 1:04:01
  Bitcoin entrepreneur, which I give a lot of respect to.
• 1:04:05
  Because if you guys don't know, even though we've been offered
• 1:04:09
  simply Bitcoin is completely bootstrapped.
• 1:04:12
  We have not relied on any type of money, any type of funding
• 1:04:15
  from the outside. And you know, that's the
• 1:04:18
  ultimate bet on yourself when you're the one funding your
• 1:04:23
  hopes, your dreams and your, your, your future company.
• 1:04:27
  So let's talk a little bit about this Simon.
• 1:04:29
  I'm going to pull up the website.
• 1:04:31
  It's called Fanfares and you can check out the website at
• 1:04:35
  fanfares dot IO. At the top it says welcome to
• 1:04:39
  the Internet money, Internet money era of podcasting.
• 1:04:44
  So Simon, what motivated you to create this?
• 1:04:47
  What is this about? What is this about?
• 1:04:50
  Who is this for? Give the audience a quick two to
• 1:04:53
  three minute elevator pitch on Fanfares.
• 1:04:57
  OK. Thank you, Nico.
• 1:04:58
  Yeah, so I'm really interested in Bitcoin in in many ways, but
• 1:05:01
  particularly as a currency, as a medium of exchange.
• 1:05:04
  And if we look at the way that Fiat money works, you know,
• 1:05:07
  there's high transaction fees, there's minimum transaction fees
• 1:05:09
  on credit cards that make small payments very expensive to do.
• 1:05:13
  So you can't really do transactions less than about a
• 1:05:15
  dollar. But with Bitcoin Lightning, you
• 1:05:17
  can, you can do very small payments and Bitcoin Lightning,
• 1:05:19
  you know, it's relatively recent in terms of being reliable.
• 1:05:22
  You know, we've, we've bitcoins been around for nearly 16 years
• 1:05:24
  now, but the last two to three years, it couldn't like this
• 1:05:27
  become a very reliable means of making small payments.
• 1:05:30
  So the application that I thought this could be used for
• 1:05:33
  is when, when we look at the way that we consume media content on
• 1:05:36
  the Internet, how are we paying for it?
• 1:05:38
  A lot of the time we're paying with our time and our attention.
• 1:05:41
  We're watching ads that that have been being pushed on us by
• 1:05:45
  the people that are sponsoring the the content.
• 1:05:47
  Or we're paying with subscription, like maybe we've
• 1:05:49
  got a Netflix subscription. We're paying for a bundle of
• 1:05:52
  media. And the way we used to pay for
• 1:05:54
  stuff before the Internet existed was we would go into a
• 1:05:57
  shop with some cash and we would pay for an item and we would get
• 1:06:00
  it. But we don't really have the
• 1:06:02
  ability to do that on the Internet yet.
• 1:06:04
  So my thoughts were if we could find a way to make it so that
• 1:06:07
  people could buy single items of content with Bitcoin and gain
• 1:06:11
  access to that content, that would be really kind of a great
• 1:06:15
  use case for Bitcoin as a currency.
• 1:06:17
  If you think about it at the moment, you know, with the way
• 1:06:19
  content is, is distributed, you know, if you're a creator, you
• 1:06:22
  have to put it on Spotify or on YouTube in order to get
• 1:06:24
  discovered, but you're effectively giving up your
• 1:06:27
  ownership rights of that content when you do so because anybody
• 1:06:30
  can then access it. What we'd like, what we are
• 1:06:32
  building is a system where you can upload to our, our
• 1:06:36
  applicant, our, our client, and it's a Nosta client.
• 1:06:39
  So you upload to with you using your Nosta identity and that
• 1:06:44
  that content is then stored in an encrypted format.
• 1:06:48
  So only the people that have the decryption key in their Nostra
• 1:06:50
  identity can connect and and enjoy that content.
• 1:06:54
  So that means that you can then sell decryption keys to people
• 1:06:58
  using Bitcoin lightning. So it's it's an application
• 1:07:01
  that's built on Nostra. If you haven't looked at Nostra
• 1:07:03
  already, I suggest you download the primal app or Amethyst on
• 1:07:07
  Android is very good as well. It's a revolution in terms of
• 1:07:11
  having ownership of your own content, and we think this is
• 1:07:13
  the best way to deliver this kind of service where content
• 1:07:17
  creators can basically restrict access to their content, the
• 1:07:20
  kind of premium content they might have put on Patreon
• 1:07:22
  before, behind subscription wall.
• 1:07:24
  I mean, no one really likes subscriptions because we end up
• 1:07:27
  getting stuck in them for six months and we forget we've got
• 1:07:29
  them and then we discover we haven't used them or we've been
• 1:07:31
  paying for them the whole time. To sign up, you've got to put in
• 1:07:34
  all your information, all your credit card details, name and
• 1:07:36
  address and everything. What you really want is just to
• 1:07:38
  connect with the Bitcoin making wallet, make a single payment
• 1:07:42
  anonymously and get access to that content.
• 1:07:44
  With Nostra as well, you can store that encryption key there
• 1:07:47
  so you own that content forever. You will always have access to
• 1:07:50
  it. So this is what we're building.
• 1:07:51
  We have a prototype version out there at the moment, Fanfare's
• 1:07:54
  1.0. It's a little bit clunky, but it
• 1:07:56
  is usable. So you can actually buy podcasts
• 1:07:59
  on there and you can upload podcasts if you're a podcaster
• 1:08:01
  yourself. Early next year we're going to
• 1:08:03
  be releasing 2.0 fanfares, which is going to be much easier to
• 1:08:06
  use and much more versatile. So we're really excited about
• 1:08:09
  what we're building. We really want to work with
• 1:08:11
  creators like yourselves that are struggling with this concept
• 1:08:14
  of how to monetize, you know, because there is, as we say,
• 1:08:17
  there's advertising subscription, there's value for
• 1:08:19
  value. Value for value is a great
• 1:08:21
  concept, but so far, no one's really making a lot of money out
• 1:08:24
  of that. That's the reality.
• 1:08:25
  It's not competing with the sponsorship alternative.
• 1:08:28
  And it is an unfortunate fact of human nature is, you know,
• 1:08:30
  people don't always give money, you know, particularly when
• 1:08:33
  they're behind a keyboard and you know, they don't, no one's
• 1:08:35
  really going to know if they've actually paid or not.
• 1:08:37
  You know, they're getting the content for free anyway.
• 1:08:39
  Why should they pay for it when they can get it for free?
• 1:08:42
  But if we have a kind of manage the friction of the user so that
• 1:08:46
  in order to actually get access to the content, they have to
• 1:08:49
  make the payment. And it could be that it's like a
• 1:08:51
  two-part podcast episode or two parts of a video and the first
• 1:08:55
  part is free going out on the normal free channels.
• 1:08:58
  But then it's really promoting the second part where perhaps
• 1:09:01
  some of the more interesting stuff is.
• 1:09:02
  And there's a link in the description that the listener
• 1:09:05
  can be directed to. They click on that.
• 1:09:07
  It takes them to fan fairs where they've got the QR code that
• 1:09:11
  they can scan, make the payment. It doesn't have to be a large
• 1:09:14
  payment. This is the thing I think
• 1:09:15
  certainly at the beginning, we'll experiment with very low
• 1:09:17
  payments of $0.10 or $0.50 and this kind of thing just in order
• 1:09:21
  to get people using the application.
• 1:09:23
  But yeah, I mean, over time it, it's crowdfunding, you know, if
• 1:09:26
  you, if you've got 100,000 viewers, all of them or maybe
• 1:09:29
  even just just 10% of them actually pay $0.50 each, that's
• 1:09:33
  still $5000. You know, that's not bad for a,
• 1:09:36
  a podcast episode. So I think if you actually get
• 1:09:38
  to the point where people are motivated to make the payment in
• 1:09:42
  order to get what they want, then you'll find there's a lot
• 1:09:44
  more monetization than we've achieved so far with value for
• 1:09:46
  value. So we're trying to up the game a
• 1:09:48
  little bit. We're trying to integrate with
• 1:09:49
  Nosta. We've also got a, a really cool
• 1:09:52
  referral scheme that we're going to build around it.
• 1:09:54
  So using the payment split technology that exists with
• 1:09:56
  Bitcoin has never existed with Fiat money.
• 1:09:59
  You know when one payment is made, they can automatically
• 1:10:01
  split multiple wallets. So maybe you guys are making a
• 1:10:03
  podcast together, You want to split the money 5050 that's
• 1:10:07
  automatically done for you. But maybe you also want to give
• 1:10:10
  a percentage of the money that's paid to anyone that reposts for
• 1:10:13
  you. So in that scenario, they can
• 1:10:14
  get a referral link when they make that repost through Nosta
• 1:10:17
  or they make it through Twitter or any other social media app,
• 1:10:20
  they're going to get a percentage of the money that's
• 1:10:23
  paid off the back of their recommendation.
• 1:10:25
  So we think that could be really powerful in terms of getting
• 1:10:28
  viral adoption and and spreading the word of Nosta out into other
• 1:10:31
  social media apps, bringing people into Nosta and the
• 1:10:34
  creators that of course will be telling their audience about
• 1:10:37
  Bitcoin so that they can get a Bitcoin pot wallet and make the
• 1:10:40
  payment about Nosta so they can get a Nosta account and receive
• 1:10:43
  those payments themselves for the referrals that they're
• 1:10:45
  making. I love that so and let's.
• 1:10:48
  Talk a little bit more about that, Simon, because I'm, I'm so
• 1:10:52
  again and I'm coming at it from kind of like a, a started this
• 1:10:57
  as a hobby. Somehow me and Opti made this
• 1:11:00
  into a podcast and then this year we've somehow made it into
• 1:11:04
  a media company. But let's talk about the kind of
• 1:11:07
  like the reality of the kind of media business and have a little
• 1:11:14
  bit of insights into this just cause I've been doing this for
• 1:11:17
  so long. The look, I love value for
• 1:11:21
  value. A big supporter of Nostra
• 1:11:23
  specifically since simply got accidentally de platformed.
• 1:11:28
  And you know, big, big proponent of of owning your content of
• 1:11:33
  which you're posting and huge believer in all that.
• 1:11:36
  But the, the volume is happening on the, the reality is the
• 1:11:43
  volume is happening on platforms that are not in Auster And the,
• 1:11:49
  the, the, the market reality as well is that the vast majority
• 1:11:56
  of our revenue comes from direct sponsorships.
• 1:12:00
  Now I've talked to a lot of people about this and you know,
• 1:12:05
  unless you're ideologically inclined, but if you're more
• 1:12:09
  market inclined, you know, you're just, you come to the
• 1:12:12
  same realization that we did, which is like, you know, if you
• 1:12:16
  want to scale this, if you actually want to make this into
• 1:12:18
  a business, you need, you need, you need that revenue, right?
• 1:12:23
  You need that, that direct sponsor revenue from from
• 1:12:27
  Bitcoin companies that want exposure to your audience.
• 1:12:30
  Now, of course, there's alternative ways of
• 1:12:32
  monetization, direct subscriptions.
• 1:12:36
  You know, a lot of people do this.
• 1:12:37
  If you subscribe to Netflix, it's essentially the same thing,
• 1:12:41
  right? You pay a certain amount of
• 1:12:43
  money every month and you get access to Netflix's library,
• 1:12:47
  right? And then of course, there's
• 1:12:50
  value for value, which is coming.
• 1:12:51
  There's also the panhandling of asking for donations every show,
• 1:12:56
  which some content creators do. We haven't done that yet or
• 1:13:02
  maybe we have maybe experimented within the past, but we just we
• 1:13:05
  didn't, we didn't, didn't really feel right for us.
• 1:13:07
  So, you know, like what we found is like, realistically speaking,
• 1:13:12
  right now, where we are in history, the way to actually
• 1:13:17
  scale a, a Bitcoin podcast or a Bitcoin media company is through
• 1:13:23
  direct sponsorships. You know, is that ideal?
• 1:13:27
  I wouldn't say it's not ideal or ideal.
• 1:13:30
  I would say it's just the, it's the market reality.
• 1:13:33
  It's just, it's just how things work.
• 1:13:35
  So like, how, what's your plan to, to, to tackle that problem,
• 1:13:39
  right? Like, how do you convince people
• 1:13:42
  like us to essentially invest time in your platform where
• 1:13:47
  perhaps maybe the ROI isn't quite there?
• 1:13:51
  Of course we're going to support Bitcoin projects.
• 1:13:53
  You know, this is something that we, we always do at simply
• 1:13:56
  Bitcoin. We support Bitcoin initiatives,
• 1:13:59
  we support Noster, but it doesn't really make us money,
• 1:14:03
  right? We do, we do it because we want
• 1:14:04
  to support the movement. So how do you, how do you
• 1:14:08
  support, how do you make the case to, for example, simply or
• 1:14:12
  other successful Bitcoin, you know, content creators like for
• 1:14:16
  perhaps McCormack or Natalie right, or, or BTC sessions.
• 1:14:21
  How how do you pitch them on this idea and get them really
• 1:14:26
  interested in it compared to, you know, the revenue that
• 1:14:30
  they're making off of direct sponsorships?
• 1:14:33
  Yeah, I totally understand what you're.
• 1:14:35
  Saying, I mean, all of the people you mentioned there, I, I
• 1:14:37
  would like to pitch to all of them because I think that
• 1:14:38
  they're all doing great work in the Bitcoin space.
• 1:14:40
  And I, I, I mean, I love podcasts.
• 1:14:42
  I, I love watching YouTube videos and, and listening to
• 1:14:44
  stuff about Bitcoin. So, you know, we have a huge job
• 1:14:47
  to do. There's no doubt about it.
• 1:14:48
  It's very difficult to to create an alternative monetization
• 1:14:51
  system. And in many ways what we're
• 1:14:53
  actually building is a new economic system here.
• 1:14:55
  You know, we're finding a way to actually get monetisation
• 1:14:58
  without that need for direct sponsorship.
• 1:15:00
  And we're not going to be able to do it immediately, of course,
• 1:15:03
  you know, but we're building tools that we believe can
• 1:15:06
  actually deliver on that solution.
• 1:15:07
  So having the ability to actually lock content behind a
• 1:15:10
  paywall and have people pay for it.
• 1:15:13
  So the way I would say it would probably work is if, if you,
• 1:15:16
  you're doing an episode that you believe is particularly high
• 1:15:19
  value, it might have been something that you would look at
• 1:15:21
  putting behind a Patreon subscription wall before you
• 1:15:24
  save that one. You know, you, you don't put it
• 1:15:26
  out immediately on the, the free platforms, but you point people
• 1:15:30
  to it with your free content and you say here, it's a very
• 1:15:33
  special episode and it's going to cost you 100 SAT's, 1000
• 1:15:36
  SAT's, whatever it is. We don't know what the right
• 1:15:38
  price is yet. You know, maybe we could just
• 1:15:40
  say, well, it's 100 SAT's minimum payment.
• 1:15:43
  But then a lot of people once they've actually got the wallet
• 1:15:45
  out, will think, well, I want to pay more than that.
• 1:15:46
  You know, it's just getting them through that friction, that
• 1:15:48
  laziness of not being bothered to make the payment, which is
• 1:15:51
  probably a lot of the problem with value for value.
• 1:15:53
  But yeah, it's, it's finding a way to incentivise people to
• 1:15:56
  make a payment, finding the way to because, you know, we, we
• 1:15:59
  know that you guys put a lot of work into making this content.
• 1:16:02
  We don't really want to have to have ads in the middle.
• 1:16:04
  But you know, the time of our lives, 55 minutes of my life
• 1:16:07
  watching ads, you know, that's probably worth quite a lot.
• 1:16:10
  You know, it's, it's more scarce than Bitcoin.
• 1:16:13
  So, you know, I would make a payment to to see an episode
• 1:16:16
  without the ads there. Or maybe sometimes it's, it's an
• 1:16:19
  episode that you're going to put out in a week's time, but you
• 1:16:21
  make it available more early on the fanfare's platform with the
• 1:16:25
  payment behind it. What we think is there's
• 1:16:27
  probably 100 different ways of skinning this cat.
• 1:16:31
  There's probably loads of different ways of monetizing.
• 1:16:33
  Having the tools is just the first part.
• 1:16:35
  We need to really experiment. We need to come up with creative
• 1:16:37
  ways of using this technology because Bitcoin is a currency.
• 1:16:41
  That's the thing, you know, it's the idea that you pay for
• 1:16:44
  something and then you get it. You can't do that on the
• 1:16:46
  Internet right now. If we build tools where you can
• 1:16:48
  do that, there's probably loads of different ways that we can
• 1:16:51
  make money out of this. It's having people like you guys
• 1:16:54
  on side, willing to experiment, willing to explore the
• 1:16:57
  technology. That's what we want to do.
• 1:16:59
  Yeah, absolutely, man. And you know all the power.
• 1:17:01
  To you and, and I, I hope you know, I hope you succeed in in
• 1:17:06
  building this out and creating a potentially a new alternative
• 1:17:10
  revenue source for content creators because it's definitely
• 1:17:14
  in need. It's definitely a problem that
• 1:17:17
  that that could be solved, needs to be solved by entrepreneurs
• 1:17:22
  and you know, I, I'm, I'm very excited to see kind of where
• 1:17:25
  this goes and you know, the, the, the possibilities of, of
• 1:17:30
  this platform because you're absolutely right.
• 1:17:32
  You know, Bitcoin and Noster, right, just opens a a variety,
• 1:17:37
  so much new possibilities for for Bitcoiners and Bitcoin
• 1:17:41
  content creators. I just, I, I, I want to see it
• 1:17:44
  reach that critical mass, right? And I haven't seen that yet.
• 1:17:49
  And not to mention the network effects of of X and of YouTube,
• 1:17:54
  you know, they're very, very large.
• 1:17:57
  And that's something also that that that Bitcoiners, you know,
• 1:18:02
  perhaps don't fully appreciate, which is the like, I'm super
• 1:18:09
  bullish on Noster. I post on Noster every day.
• 1:18:11
  I post on Noster as much as I post on on X, right?
• 1:18:15
  And I ZAP people and I get zapped and it feels really,
• 1:18:17
  really nice. We post on Rumble, we post on X,
• 1:18:21
  we post on all the podcasting platforms, right?
• 1:18:24
  But there are platforms that obviously are more valuable for
• 1:18:28
  us on a, on a monetary level. And there are platforms that we
• 1:18:32
  post because we want to support the community, but are less
• 1:18:34
  valuable, right? And that's just the, as a
• 1:18:37
  business owner, that's just the economic reality.
• 1:18:40
  I'm, I'm, I just, I, I want to see, I want to see it like, I
• 1:18:44
  want to see the, like, I see the concept behind zaps.
• 1:18:47
  I see the concept behind value for value, but I actually want
• 1:18:52
  to see, you know, like I actually want to see it as a
• 1:18:57
  VAT, as a viable alternative, you know, because that I think
• 1:19:02
  that would change the world. I think that would, you know,
• 1:19:04
  what move the balance of power for sure.
• 1:19:07
  And it would, you know, create a a much better experience for for
• 1:19:11
  for content creators in a way. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's
• 1:19:16
  it's it's really interesting, Simon.
• 1:19:18
  It's really, really cool. For anyone who's interested in
• 1:19:22
  checking out Simon's website, go to fanfares dot IO.
• 1:19:25
  I'm going to pull up the screen again one more time.
• 1:19:28
  It's the Internet money era of podcasting.
• 1:19:32
  I think we're in the infancy of this era.
• 1:19:34
  I think we have so much more to go before the kind of that
• 1:19:40
  matures and hopefully we do get to a point where the value for
• 1:19:45
  value starts becoming awesome, you know, and you know, it's, it
• 1:19:49
  starts becoming a, a, a feasible alternative revenue stream for
• 1:19:54
  for for content creators. So anyway, Simon, I do want to
• 1:19:58
  thank you for coming on the show today.
• 1:20:00
  Glad to have met you in El Salvador.
• 1:20:03
  And I appreciate your work, man. You know, I love Bitcoin
• 1:20:06
  entrepreneurs. I love people that are self
• 1:20:09
  funded. Those are the people that are
• 1:20:10
  taking the the risk, the bets on themselves.
• 1:20:13
  So I have a lot of respect on that and it's been great to have
• 1:20:17
  you on the show today. Thank you very much.
• 1:20:19
  The one the one thing I would. Say is we wouldn't encourage you
• 1:20:21
  to leave any of the other platforms.
• 1:20:23
  We would encourage you to stay on that, continue to produce
• 1:20:25
  content because that's where we're going to grab the users
• 1:20:27
  from. But we know the only way that we
• 1:20:29
  can really succeed is if we can make you money.
• 1:20:32
  If we can create a situation where you can make more money
• 1:20:35
  with Bitcoin and Nosta that you can with YouTube and Spotify,
• 1:20:38
  then we've won. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:20:41
  I completely. Agree.
• 1:20:42
  And you know that we're, we're totally open to making more
• 1:20:45
  monies, right, Opti? I likes money.
• 1:20:49
  So anyways guys. I hope you guys enjoyed this
• 1:20:52
  week of Simply Bitcoin Opti. Another, another one checked
• 1:20:56
  off. Man, we're almost two more
• 1:20:57
  weeks. Wait, wait, what?
• 1:20:58
  Yeah, two more weeks. For 52 dude.
• 1:21:01
  Oh my God, what? 2 year?
• 1:21:03
  Two years of since we've done the live, four years of doing
• 1:21:06
  this almost, almost another another year in the books.
• 1:21:10
  But anyways, guys, this show would not be possible without
• 1:21:13
  you guys. So we really love you.
• 1:21:15
  We appreciate you guys for tuning in, having faith in me
• 1:21:19
  and Opti and the rest of the simply Bitcoin crew.
• 1:21:22
  So thank you so much Your host for today is Optimus fields Co
• 1:21:25
  host Nico and of course, our special guest Simon.
• 1:21:29
  Simon is a Bitcoin entrepreneur building alternative ways for
• 1:21:33
  content creators to monetize their content.
• 1:21:36
  Check out fanfares dot IO to check out what Simon is working
• 1:21:42
  on today. Anyways, guys, enjoy the
• 1:21:44
  weekend, go outside, touch some grass, eat some steak, enjoy the
• 1:21:48
  and we'll be back on Monday for a brand new episode of Simply
• 1:21:53
  Bitcoin Live. Today's episode was brought to
• 1:21:57
  you by. Bitcoinwell.com, a Bitcoin only
• 1:21:59
  platform on a mission to enable financial independence.