Latest / Bitcoin for Financial Services Podcast / Bitcoin Custody, IRAs, and Inheritance Planning for Financial Professionals
Transcript
- 0:00Folks in the market don't want six different Bitcoin companies, right?
- 0:03They want one where they can do everything they need, whether that's hold for the long term, have liquidity out of that cold storage, being able to buy or sell, which I'm pretty sure there's still very few places in the market that you can do that, buy and sell directly out of cold storage.
- 0:19And then we can touch further on kind of the unique account types, right?
- 0:22To my knowledge, this is still the only place where you can have an IRA, where you retain majority key control, Roth, traditional SEP, and then also those trust accounts to go further on the inheritance side and helping folks avoid probate.
- 0:40And again, to the tradeoffs, making sure that that Bitcoin stays private and pass away.
- 0:44Bitcoin is a currency on the Internet.
- 0:47If you don't trust any other currency, this is where you go.
- 0:50It's going to outperform everything.
- 0:51Bitcoin could eventually be worthless.
- 0:53Every day is a good day to buy Bitcoin.
- 0:55Bitcoin reached its highest price to date.
- 0:57Bitcoin hitting a new high.
- 0:59It really has reached escape velocity.
- 1:00There is no second best.
- 1:02Who cares about Bitcoin?
- 1:03It's the only secure database that's ever been invented.
- 1:05Antisocial.
- 1:06Bitcoin is the real deal.
- 1:08Stupid.
- 1:09Everything is bullish for Bitcoin.
- 1:11Immoral.
- 1:12It's going up forever, Laura.
- 1:14Fix the money.
- 1:15Fix the world.
- 1:16Thank you.
- 1:46Welcome to Bitcoin for Financial Services Media, the podcast where sound money meets professional services.
- 1:56We explore how to build the financial services industry within the principles, values, and ethos of Bitcoin.
- 2:02Today, we're joined by Ben Brila, Director of Sales at Unchain.
- 2:06Let's get started.
- 2:12Welcome back to Bitcoin for Financial Services Media.
- 2:15We're stoked. Great guest today. Veteran of the Bitcoin for Financial Services ecosystem, Ben Brela, Director of Sales at Unchained. How are you doing, Ben?
- 2:26Doing great, Wyatt. Thanks a lot for having me. I'm really excited about what you guys are doing. So grateful for the chance to be on and contribute.
- 2:33Of course. Now, it's always fun to bring friends on the pod. You and I both work out of the space. We've gotten to know each other well over the last couple of years. You guys are doing great work at Unchained.
- 2:44And so we're going to have a fruitful conversation.
- 2:47You know, partner of Basilic, so I've gotten to know you guys well over the years, too.
- 2:53You know, we're recording on St. Patrick's Day here.
- 2:56I got my green on.
- 2:57Doesn't look like you're supporting the cause.
- 3:00Well, that's the thing about recording from home, Wyatt, is you can't see what I'm wearing underneath.
- 3:04So I am on the low.
- 3:09Well, we'll take it.
- 3:10We'll take it.
- 3:11Ben, why don't you give the audience a little bit about how you got into Bitcoin, how you got into Bitcoin professionally and what you're doing now?
- 3:19Sure.
- 3:20So my Bitcoin story is a bit of a sly roundabout way into Bitcoin.
- 3:25I grew up in the D.C. area and I saw my mother, who leads a team of research nurses at NIH, working with late stage cancer patients.
- 3:35And, you know, these folks, I think more than anyone else in the world recognizes the scarcity of our time, the fact that time is truly our scarce asset.
- 3:45And, you know, from there, what naturally comes to come is, you know, how are we going to utilize our time?
- 3:50Right. And so my personal goal became how can I improve quality of life for as many folks as I can?
- 3:57And so I thought about going to medical school and PA school, ended up going into the free market and studied engineering and ended up working in medical sales.
- 4:05And what I found from that was that while the splints I was selling were helping folks with a immediate injury or temporary solution, the problem was that a lot of these folks were living check to check and still had no understanding of money and how it has such an outsized effect on quality of life.
- 4:26And so, you know, shout out to Seb Bunny. I read his book, The Hidden Cost of Money, where he argues that everything is really downstream of money. And so from there, a bit of a self-taught investor coming out of college realized that Bitcoin is truly the best tool that I have in my toolbox to help improve quality of life for as many folks as I can.
- 4:50The concept, the Japanese concept of Ikigai kind of helped me get there.
- 4:54But for all intents and purposes, that's why I'm here is because I believe that educating folks, individuals, institutions on Bitcoin is really the best way for me to help improve their quality of life and help them make the most of our time, our scarce asset.
- 5:12No, it's beautiful.
- 5:13We love those personal connections.
- 5:15I think it makes you coming to Bitcoin that much more real, that much more purposeful.
- 5:20So you're kind of going down this Bitcoin rabbit hole.
- 5:23What gave you the conviction to jump into it professionally?
- 5:28Yeah.
- 5:31One of those situations where you have to go really low to go high and to figure out, you know, your true mission.
- 5:37And part of that was, unfortunately, through a severe fracture of my leg.
- 5:43I was playing soccer and fractured my tibial plateau, had to go in for a surgery that I never wanted with a bunch of screws and hardware.
- 5:52And the surgeon described it as a career remodeling injury.
- 5:56So what that gave me was a ton of time to think about how I'm using my time.
- 6:02And it also gave me a lot more time to continue down the never ending rabbit hole to learn more and more about Bitcoin.
- 6:11And I think over the years, my conviction grew.
- 6:16And then that was kind of the nail in the coffin where I realized, look, I have to get up every day and work on, you know, what is most important back to the Ikigai concept so that I am fulfilled and can also ensure that I'm helping others and doing something that I think is meaningful.
- 6:36And after transitioning from medical sales to software sales, I think a lot of that meaning wasn't there, right?
- 6:45Because I don't know, we've all spent time in and around SaaS and it's a very cutthroat environment.
- 6:51Whereas when I wake up and get to help folks secure Bitcoin for the long haul and potentially affect their bloodline and generations to come, that I know is worthwhile.
- 7:06This episode is brought to you by Satoshi Pacioli, a full-service accounting and tax firm built for the Bitcoin economy.
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- 7:36Yeah, very cool. Appreciate the background. That's great for you to share. So let's get into what you do at Unchained, what Unchained is, and we'll kind of jump off from there.
- 7:51Sure thing. So Unchained provides a full suite of financial services for Bitcoiners. So we've been around for close to a decade at this point.
- 8:02um and you guys started in 2016 we did we did yeah so we're coming to your anniversary this year
- 8:08you know this year exactly kidding and i you know i feel like in the bitcoin space those are like
- 8:13dog years or something right like it feels like yeah for real um and so the core of unchained
- 8:20is collaborative custody so um i know you know a lot of your folks are experienced bitcoiners but
- 8:27you know for those that don't know i think maybe let's level set a little bit right so they're 21
- 8:32million Bitcoin, all of them live on addresses. And each of those addresses is secured by either
- 8:38a single or multiple private keys. Now, most individuals start buying Bitcoin on an exchange,
- 8:44and that's fine, right? There's little friction. The issue there is that as you accumulate more
- 8:51Bitcoin, you understand who's holding the private keys. And when you're holding Bitcoin on an
- 8:55exchange or with a custodian, they are typically holding the private key or private keys.
- 9:01And so over time, as you start to secure more and more Bitcoin, that tends to become an unacceptable level of risk.
- 9:10And Bitcoiners, as they understand the ethos of not your keys, not your coins, tend to want to secure those keys on their own.
- 9:18And so they might go to a single signature setup where they have a device and a backup seed phrase under the bed or in the safe.
- 9:26But the issue there is that if that C phrase is compromised, your Bitcoin is as good as gone.
- 9:32And so for high net worth individuals and institutions who are stacking very material amounts of Bitcoin, that type of risk doesn't make sense and is unacceptable.
- 9:45So folks start to consider collaborative custody built on multi-signature custody.
- 9:51So imagine instead of a single key securing your Bitcoin, there are three.
- 9:55And with our clients, they're typically holding the majority. So they're holding, let's say, two keys and Unchain holds the third. What this provides for our clients is really the best of both worlds because they know that they retain key control. They're the only party in the world that can unilaterally move their Bitcoin. But at the same time, they now have some room for error.
- 10:17So if something happens to one of those keys, if a house burns down, something that's out of your control, it's not the end of the world.
- 10:25You can come back to Unchained. We can help you re-secure that third key and continue to secure your Bitcoin.
- 10:32And what we find is that as folks grow their Bitcoin conviction and the amount of Bitcoin they hold in turn, they want to work with a group that they can trust, but they don't have to.
- 10:47And that's the beauty of this model is that you kind of have your cake and eat it too in terms of the client retaining key control.
- 10:55But Unchained being here in the event that something happens to one of those keys or to take it a step further, and I'm sure we'll get into this, this type of model lends itself really well to things like inheritance.
- 11:08And I know a lot of Bitcoiners see Bitcoin as a generational asset.
- 11:12So, you know, it doesn't make sense to spend all this time and energy stacking if you're not going to be sure that it's going to officially pass on to your heirs.
- 11:22A hundred percent. And that's a great level setting point.
- 11:26And so we have Unchained. I love working with you guys.
- 11:30I refer to you guys as like the premier Bitcoin financial services company in the country.
- 11:35I mean it with every word. And so we have this custody solution to through multi-sig core.
- 11:41your guys' core business. And then as you guys have grown, have added your additional financial
- 11:47services on top of that, you know, we got, we got loans, we got IRAs, we got, you know, OTC desk,
- 11:54inheritance protocol. And for my seat, it's just been so easy to onboard to you guys. My clients
- 12:01have like a one-stop shop. You know, I think it's fairly easy for, you know, traditional RIAs to
- 12:06think of, you know, Unchained as kind of like their, their pseudo like Bitcoin custodian.
- 12:12Obviously you guys don't take full custody of people's coins. You're, you're a partner in that,
- 12:16but your setup is so flexible. I love like this two or three base because it just provides us so
- 12:22many different opportunities. And, you know, one thing we really focus on with our clientele,
- 12:30you know, especially with, you know, Bitcoin still be kind of at store value phase, you know,
- 12:34moving to medium of exchange here, you know, quickly is making sure, you know, we have a
- 12:38rock solid foundation for our custody solution. And there is no silver bullet when it comes to
- 12:44Bitcoin self custody. It's a series of trade-offs and you kind of touched on some of those. And you
- 12:48guys have made it tremendously easy for a client to hold two keys in the quorum. You know, your
- 12:54connections feature is awesome. That's why I utilize my client. If I'm holding, you know,
- 12:59key in the form are able to geographically distribute three keys now. So, you know,
- 13:03if they lose their key and myself and Unchank and how, you know, set up a new wallet,
- 13:08obviously, you know, inheritance planning as well. Why don't you kind of get in the nuts of bolts
- 13:13of how connections work? Because I really feel like that is like the most pivotal
- 13:18tool for advisors or folks in my seat. And I really do. My kind of my prediction for the future
- 13:27is it's going to be much more commonplace for Bitcoin holders to have their financial advisor,
- 13:34to have their CPA, to have their state planning attorney hold a key for them.
- 13:38It's really not too intimidating from the service provider point of view
- 13:41because you guys made it super easy on your platform.
- 13:44So walk us through how that actually works.
- 13:47Absolutely.
- 13:47This goes to the roots of Unchained,
- 13:50which is thinking about e-control as establishing a network of keys.
- 13:57And because we've created the Unchained platform built natively into the Bitcoin network, it allows for these type of connections.
- 14:10So I think, you know, in a story form, this might make a little more sense to folks, right?
- 14:15So imagine, you know, you are the Bitcoiner in your family, you get set up with Unchained, and then you have some relatives who, you know, would benefit from this type of service.
- 14:25but maybe they're not ready to hold multiple keys, right?
- 14:28Maybe you kind of want to help them dip their toes into the water
- 14:31and become comfortable before, you know, assuming
- 14:36the majority key control or maybe they never have to do that And so you can imagine you have your unchained account you can send a connection request to someone else to help them create an
- 14:48account. And then their account is actually connected to yours on the backend through our
- 14:54platform. And so this allows for a few things, right? At the core, it could be that they are
- 15:01able to create a multi-signature account with Unchained where they only have to deal with
- 15:10controlling one device. So now you have the benefits of multi-sig, but they don't have the
- 15:15complexity there. So that's, I think, the first use case where, you know, let's say you have an
- 15:19older relative and you want them to have this setup available to them. You create that connections,
- 15:26they upload one key, then you're able to then build a vault constructed of their key,
- 15:33one key that you already have on the platform, and then the unchained key.
- 15:37And so now they have the benefit of this two out of three multi-sig quorum.
- 15:45And what it does is it lends itself very well to things like inheritance.
- 15:49So if you're already connected to that account on our platform,
- 15:52it's going to make the inheritance even more seamless.
- 15:56Um, whereas typically, you know, you're going to set up that inheritance protocol and keep that with your, um, estate planning, uh, attorney or your, or your trustee.
- 16:06Um, but the point is we want to meet folks where they are, right?
- 16:11And we understand that, you know, there may be folks in your family who never go down the rabbit hole as far as you, and they don't want to understand multi-stignature custody and that's okay, right?
- 16:20They can still benefit.
- 16:21it, they don't need to be in a situation where they are vulnerable to single points of failure.
- 16:28We've seen the rise in scammers and fraudulent folks trying to steal Bitcoin.
- 16:33And I would say that utilizing these checks and balances goes a long way for those who
- 16:40are not as technically Bitcoin inclined.
- 16:45Well, it really does.
- 16:46And I give you guys a huge tip of the cap for your game theory when designing the platform.
- 16:53I think it gives people a lot of confidence and trust.
- 16:55You know, myself, you know, using connections, clients can determine how much information they want to share with me.
- 17:03So they're comfortable with that.
- 17:04You know, I can sign a transaction after the client initiates it.
- 17:09You know, I can't initiate a transaction myself.
- 17:12You know, the account owner has to be the one to actually broadcast the transaction to the network.
- 17:18And so there's a lot of safeguards that you guys have intentionally built in, which I think is really great.
- 17:25And especially when you're working with a more Bitcoin-focused, you know, individual,
- 17:29they get extremely scrupled about their custody solution, as they should.
- 17:32And they ask a lot of questions like, how do I not get rugged in this scenario?
- 17:36And it's, you know, physically impossible with the way you guys have set things up, which, you know, provides myself with a lot of comfort, provides my clients with a lot of comfort.
- 17:44And so it just works, which is, you know, an issue we find a lot in Bitcoin land is like, does this does this actually work?
- 17:52And so that's fantastic.
- 17:54And, you know, it helps a lot, too.
- 17:57I was honestly kind of nervous when I was first getting started.
- 18:01It's like, oh, man, my compliance consultant is not going to like this.
- 18:04And, you know, I walked into the platform, my role in holding one of the three keys in Quorum is like, no, this is fine.
- 18:13Like you don't have custody. You can't unilaterally move your client's Bitcoin.
- 18:16It's a bunch of other things I have to take into account.
- 18:19If I have custody of clients' assets and you guys just make it very easy to help provide folks with some custody solutions.
- 18:28A hundred percent. And I think something that you said stuck out there in terms of, you know, how how early we really are, because a lot of individuals come to Bitcoin on their own.
- 18:43But others just, you know, hear it through the grapevine. And so when we serve both both individuals and institutions, and I was talking to a business leader the other day who just thought that, you know, holding Bitcoin on behalf of an enterprise was a nonstarter.
- 18:57because, you know, one person, he thought one person had to hold the keys.
- 19:02And so when we had a, you know, basic conversation around the ability for multiple keys,
- 19:07you know, you could immediately see the light bulb go on in his head
- 19:10and the ability to, you know, set up a business account with us
- 19:14and then create perhaps a flexible forum where it's maybe two out of three
- 19:18or it's three out of five.
- 19:19Or, you know, maybe it's two out of three with some additional approver levels, right?
- 19:24Maybe you have a board of five folks and only two are prepared or able to hold keys, but you'd like approval from the other three when a transaction is broadcast.
- 19:34We have that flexibility.
- 19:36And I think simplicity is also key to Unchain at its core.
- 19:42Folks in the market don't want six different Bitcoin companies, right?
- 19:45They want one where they can do everything they need, whether that's hold for the long term, have liquidity out of that cold storage, being able to buy or sell, which I'm pretty sure there's still very few places on the market that you can do that, buy and sell directly out of cold storage.
- 20:01And then we can touch further on kind of the unique account types, right?
- 20:05To my knowledge, this is still the only place where you can have an IRA, where you retain majority key control, you know, Roth, traditional SEP, and then also those trust accounts to go further on the inheritance side and helping folks avoid probate.
- 20:22And again, to the tradeoffs, right, making sure that that Bitcoin stays private when you pass away.
- 20:26totally it maybe was one of the biggest decision-making criteria when i was trying to figure
- 20:34out who like my bitcoin partner was going to be in this practice and i mean yeah you obviously want
- 20:39to reduce as much friction as possible for onboarding clients you know you want a seamless
- 20:45user interface like a one-stop shop and so just the fact that you guys are able to accommodate
- 20:49all those different account types that's obviously what a you know traditional
- 20:52your brokerage service or custodian is going to offer. So, you know, we don't have to go
- 20:56here for IRA. We don't have to go there for our trust. We don't have to go, you know,
- 21:00XYZ for our loan. You know, it's all built in natively in the platform. And in that vein,
- 21:07what have you guys seen, you know, actual boots on the ground for, you know, future requests,
- 21:12whether that be from, you know, RIAs like myself, accountants, estate plan attorneys,
- 21:17but on the professional side. And then also from, you know, the end client user perspective,
- 21:21of how do you envision this platform growing and if you guys have any plans to add on the additional
- 21:27features and services? Yeah, I think that's a great question. We're always trying to stay on
- 21:33top of what folks in the market are looking for. And I would say it's a balancing act between,
- 21:44and I think this is a testament to why we've been around for close to a decade, between
- 21:47staying in your lane, right, knowing what you do really well and leaning into those aspects,
- 21:53which, you know, currently right now with us is custody, trading, and then commercial lending,
- 21:59and making sure that you're the best in the business at those things, while also
- 22:06continuing to grow and listening to our clients and hearing, you know, what they have to say. And so
- 22:13So I would say, you know, one limitation you could argue of our platform right now is that we have a $2,000 minimum trade size.
- 22:25That's because these Bitcoin buys are being deposited directly into cold storage.
- 22:31So we're, you know, we're cognizant of UTXO sizing on that front.
- 22:37But in terms of, you know, perhaps ease of use or ability for you to kind of even consolidate all your Bitcoin needs even further, you know, I would love to see something like a like a DCA function, right, to support smaller buys and perhaps, you know, a custodial type account where, you know, you can accumulate small amounts of Bitcoin.
- 22:59And then when it's a certain UTXO size that could migrate into cold storage.
- 23:04Um, but I think another component that we've heard loud and clear from our clients is, is how important the human aspect is, right? You can't assemble a team like this overnight. That's, you know, part of the reason why it's, it's taken close to a decade. Um, I, I encourage everybody to go check out our blog and our knowledge base because we have some of the, the, the top thought leaders in the space.
- 23:26And so whenever there's a tricky Bitcoin topic that I'm trying to dig deeper on, that's typically where I'll go.
- 23:35But on the human note, I would say knowing that you can actually meet the Unchained team in person is huge.
- 23:43So we do as much as we can in terms of boots on the ground.
- 23:46You know, you and I spend a lot of time and, you know, labor of love here at the space in Denver.
- 23:51I run the local Boulder Bitcoin meetup.
- 23:54So, you know, shout out to all my folks here in Colorado. We're always growing and looking to improve there. And I would say that through our signature service, which is more of our private client experience, those folks are getting invited to private client events around the country.
- 24:11And it goes a long way when you're that, you know, weird Bitcoin guy in your friends or family circle that, you know, has hopefully not quite been totally ostracized yet, that you can actually go out and, you know, have a nice dinner with other folks who are on the same page as you.
- 24:26Or, you know, I know we're working on an event down in Nashville where they're going to go out and, you know, shoot some guns.
- 24:33And we have a wine tasting coming up here at the space with Ben Justman.
- 24:38Shout out Peony Lane.
- 24:39So I think that emphasis as well. Obviously, we have the best technical infrastructure in Bitcoin, but I think the team that backs it up and being able to interact with that team is huge for a lot of our folks.
- 24:55it's actually massive um i'm happy you brought that up because yeah something you know you and
- 25:02i have discussed you know offline obviously in our own you know ventures like the community
- 25:06aspect of bitcoin is super important i think it's one of the best investments you can make
- 25:10it's just getting no other bitcoiners learning from other bitcoiners in real life obviously
- 25:14the internet's great but nothing needs those those in-person interactions unchained i can attest
- 25:19those great parties um so it's always it's always a good time getting together with the unchained
- 25:24folks. And even in my personal experience, I've reached out to you. I've reached out to Rocky.
- 25:32I am having this issue. What do you think about this? I know you guys, I know I'm talking to a
- 25:38human on the other end. If you guys have been sure, like directed me to support, I had this
- 25:44one issue and like four support guys jumped on to try to help me solve it with my client. It was
- 25:50just really reassuring to know, you know, we were getting good advice. There were real humans
- 25:55based in, you know, North America that were ready, willing, and able to help us. Gave my client a
- 26:02huge peace of mind. And so I really do give you guys props for not skimping on that. I think it's,
- 26:09you know, fairly easy once you get to a big scalable business like Unchained to, you know,
- 26:13kind of cut corners and you haven't. Like the support is tremendous. And especially from,
- 26:18you know professional services too it's like i'm used to being able to my track five providers
- 26:24you know call somebody and talk to people on the phone i feel like bitcoin companies a lot of times
- 26:29they won't lean into like the tech angle here's your chat bot and it's like no i don't want to
- 26:34talk to the ai i want to talk to a real guy right are you guys like it's like are you even in the us
- 26:39like where do you guys where are like do you have a location so i always joke too i'm trying to catch
- 26:46all my unchained Pokemon. I'm, I'm getting working through them. You know, I've met quite a few guys,
- 26:51you guys are growing fast. It's making it harder on me. But, um, you, another thing, you, I want to
- 27:00discuss with you, you know, your boots on the ground guy talking to real Bitcoiners every day.
- 27:08And you and I have talked about it too. It's like this instant, interesting, you know,
- 27:12conundrum. I really like talking about price, but we definitely notice that our pipeline fills up
- 27:17when price goes up. You got to do a little bit more legwork to get leads and talk to folks when
- 27:24price goes down. So I'm just really curious, what are your just general perspective strategies,
- 27:30you know, folks sitting in a professional services role, how you're talking to clients
- 27:37about Bitcoin and good and bad markets, what the feedback is like, you know, how you're converting
- 27:42them and still trying to emphasize like the importance of your services, even when it may
- 27:48not seem obvious to them with the price action of the day? Yeah. So I think there's a few different
- 27:55ways we do that. I think part of it is that, you know, we always stick with the ethos that bear
- 28:01markets are for building, right? And so what you're going to see, yeah, what you see more out of
- 28:05Unchained in these times is more content, right? So we've been doing more work to put out more
- 28:11research, we just put out a piece on quantum as that seems like kind of the, the FUD du jour
- 28:17lately. Um, and it's just, I paused a little bit because, you know, just to quickly flip back to
- 28:29the community side, right. We're, we're around the guys who are the lead developers at the space
- 28:35for these quantum resistant proposals. So when you're, when you're seeing that on a day-to-day
- 28:40basis, it helps you deal with that FUD. And you're also able to speak to it truthfully, right? It's
- 28:45not like, hey, I just heard this thing X and Y. It's like, hey, I actually got to talk to Hunter
- 28:50and Jeff and these guys who are actually authoring the BIPs. So you get to see, one, the level of
- 28:57urgency in terms of that particular FUD. And then just the beautiful anti-fragility of the Bitcoin
- 29:05network in terms of, hey, there's this attack. We're going to reinforce ourselves and make
- 29:09ourselves stronger so that we can defend against it I would also say that you know from a just from a sales perspective it almost impossible to do like cold Bitcoin outbound right Because you just come off like a scammer So a lot of times it it those warm relationships
- 29:31It's it's working with folks who are already using the product.
- 29:33And hey, you know, how can we is there anybody else in your network who we can help, you know, who might benefit from this because it's been so helpful to you.
- 29:41and, you know, always beating the drum on education, right?
- 29:48So how many Bitcoin lending companies have we seen go down in the last decade, right?
- 29:55It's almost countless at this point.
- 29:56I'm pretty sure BlockFill's filed for bankruptcy in the last couple of weeks.
- 30:02And so I would implore, without providing any sort of financial advice,
- 30:05said, for anyone who's looking at commercial Bitcoin-backed loans, to do your extreme due
- 30:14diligence on your relationship to your collateral. Because that's what we pride ourselves on here at
- 30:19Unchained, is that you are closer to your collateral than you are anywhere else, because
- 30:24it's held in a multi-signature vault where instead of you holding two keys, you hold one. So Unchained
- 30:33holds a second and then a third party arbiter holds a third, meaning that all three parties
- 30:40have constant visibility into the Bitcoin on chain, ensuring that it's not being rehypothecated
- 30:45at all or sent to any sort of third party during the life of the loan, but also ensuring
- 30:51that none of the three parties has unilateral ability to access that collateral during the
- 30:56life of that loan.
- 30:57So I think during these lulls in price action, it's a time to continue to hone and refine your knowledge so that you're ready to take opportunity going forward.
- 31:10And then, you know, from a personal experience, when folks are, you know, hey, Ben, I thought, you know, Bitcoin, I thought Bitcoin wasn't going to be as volatile anymore, et cetera, et cetera.
- 31:18So, you know, I hear you. But at the same time, what I can tell you from experience is, one, the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago.
- 31:27If you can't do that, you should plant that thing today.
- 31:30And two, you know, most of us Bitcoiners have way more Bitcoin now than we ever would have without those significant drawdowns in the past.
- 31:37So see it as an opportunity back to basics, produce more than you consume.
- 31:44And then you have the ability to accumulate Bitcoin with the excess.
- 31:49Totally. I think that's a that's a great answer.
- 31:53And it's also a great example of that core two, three multisig, you know, at work in the loan product.
- 32:00I have a lot of interest from clients in Bitcoin collateralized loans.
- 32:04I think it's like a great tool, but, you know, even some of the work I'm doing with my private credit fund evaluating like these loan servicers and originators, it honestly gives me so much more respect and thankfulness for Unchained because things can get a little dicey behind the scenes.
- 32:19Are you pooling collateral?
- 32:21Is that collateral pledge to a different party?
- 32:24Or is like, if everything is core, two, three, multi-state, like the exact address, your Bitcoin collateral is held, exactly under what circumstances it can move or not.
- 32:38And so it's just crucially IRA product functions similarly.
- 32:43And it is really important.
- 32:49Your wealth deserves intention. Basilic Financial is a Bitcoin-focused wealth management firm built
- 32:56to help our clients find balance between money and meaning. We integrate sound money strategies
- 33:00across four distinct personalized services, financial planning, individual wealth management,
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- 33:16consultation. Absolutely. Um, not sure if, um, you know, this was on your list of stuff to cover,
- 33:29but, you know, happy to go further into the IRA if, uh, if that's relevant. Yeah, let's do it.
- 33:35Awesome. So that is one of my favorite products at Unchain. So I have to give it some airtime.
- 33:40Oh yeah. And I mean, you know, when you sit down, I'm sure when you sit down with your clients,
- 33:44Like oftentimes what we see is kind of like the low hanging fruit, right, is like the old 401k or the old IRA that, you know, they may or may not have even checked out in years.
- 33:55And who knows if it's invested, what it's invested in, you know, how it's performing.
- 34:00So that was, you know, the immediate wake up call to me a few years ago when I learned that this was even an option was, hey, you know, been stacking up a 401k through medical sales and, you know, sure enough, can't buy Bitcoin in there.
- 34:15So the ability to, you know, seamlessly create an IRA to IRA transfer or a 401k to IRA rollover through our platform is really efficient.
- 34:29And I know in the past, you know, those types of transfers have typically taken like weeks, but we have a really smooth integration in there.
- 34:35And, you know, we often see the funds come over in one to three or four days now, depending on the current custodian.
- 34:45But, you know, for anyone out there listening, if you're thinking you kind of racking your brain on ways to get more Bitcoin exposure, this is one way that maybe a lot of folks haven't considered.
- 34:55And so a couple of unique advantages there would be one, because it's true spot Bitcoin and you retain key control in retirement, you can actually take distribution in kind.
- 35:09So you don't necessarily need to sell that Bitcoin to dollars when you're when you're taking a distribution.
- 35:15So I think that's one of the critical advantages.
- 35:19And then also, obviously, pairing that with the liquidity portion makes it simple.
- 35:26Totally.
- 35:27And one of the things, I mean, you see, even like Bitcoinira.com, it's like a centrally held crypto company.
- 35:39It's like pretty unflattering.
- 35:42There's a lot of unflattering crypto IRA products out there.
- 35:46I think the key innovation at Unchained is like this tri-party agreement.
- 35:51So all tax-qualified accounts in the U.S. need a qualified custodian, right?
- 35:55It's like, well, when Bitcoin or alarm bells go off, it's like, I don't want somebody else casting my Bitcoin.
- 36:00You guys work with Fortis Bank, which is fun enough, out of Denver, and they agree to sign the keys back over to you,
- 36:06all seamlessly done in the background of Unchained platform.
- 36:10And so you essentially have this unchained vault and this IRS paper wrapper.
- 36:15That's your IRA, and you still get to control your keys.
- 36:19And so it really is, I think, extremely clever and very unique product offering in the market.
- 36:28On product offerings, and then I kind of want to switch to your guys' outreach initiatives,
- 36:35but let's walk through the inheritance planning protocol.
- 36:38This is, you know, I would say very hot topic when we're talking custody solutions with clients is, yeah, I mean, you may have like this sick treasure map and, you know, your seed phrase is buried in, you know, Africa and then got assigned advice in the Antarctic circle.
- 36:54You know, and it's like, nobody's getting my Bitcoin, especially maybe your heirs.
- 36:59And so I think you guys, again, have thought out a really good protocol that nearly anybody can implement.
- 37:09Walk us through the details of that and how you arrived on this specific procedure.
- 37:15Yeah.
- 37:15So the core of this, like everything we do, is no single points of failure.
- 37:19And so as you illustrated, we hear about these exotic multisignatures.
- 37:25And like you said, no one's going to access the Bitcoin, right?
- 37:30Arguably not even your heirs, because unfortunately, oftentimes the Bitcoiner is the single point of failure.
- 37:38And so, yes, I hear you, hardcore Bitcoiner.
- 37:42You don't want anybody in the world to know how much Bitcoin you have.
- 37:45And I get that.
- 37:46And as Wyatt noted, you know, every single setup has tradeoffs.
- 37:52And so what we find is the majority of our clients see that the small tradeoff in terms of privacy or knowledge of account on the Unchained side is well worth the massive benefits of the peace of mind and clarity that come with knowing you have a robust inheritance setup that you getting hit by a bus does not derail.
- 38:20And so there's really two ways to set that up with us.
- 38:24So you can either set it up on your own in a DIY fashion,
- 38:30or the majority of our clients who are seeing Bitcoin as a generational asset
- 38:37and perhaps have a lot more moving parts might use our signature service for one year,
- 38:41which is going to be that private client white glove experience
- 38:45where you're actually going to be working directly with the team
- 38:47and have a dedicated account manager to first, you know, look at your Bitcoin picture in a holistic manner, right?
- 38:57Get you set up operationally and then look at the inheritance component.
- 39:04And so if you have a trust, we can help you title Bitcoin to that trust.
- 39:10You know, if you have a will, you can also look at it on an intent with appropriating it into the will.
- 39:15But the beauty of this is basically it boils down to a packet of information that's inclusive of a copy of one of your feed phrases, as well as two executor letters that explain the process.
- 39:30That gets stored in a tamper evident bag and is given to your trustee or your heir.
- 39:36And so now, you know, heir or trustee doesn't have to be a Bitcoin wizard or guru.
- 39:41they have to understand that if so-and-so passes away,
- 39:46I'm going to approach and work with Unchain,
- 39:49proving that they're no longer around,
- 39:51and then use the combination of this protocol
- 39:54with the third key that Unchain's already securing
- 39:57to then accomplish the wishes of the trust of the will
- 40:00in terms of moving Bitcoin.
- 40:04Totally.
- 40:06And, yeah, I'm sure you guys have heard some gripes from Maximus.
- 40:10I think it's a pretty genius, like, bulletproof way to go about custody in the most, you know, seamless way possible if you don't already have a professional service provider that is, you know, a key agent.
- 40:23Yes, you know, it's another copy to Z phrase, but like we talked about earlier in the conversation, you don't have your account log in.
- 40:29They can initiate a transaction.
- 40:31You know, they can't collude with Unchained.
- 40:33so it is fairly seamless.
- 40:35And even in the protocol, you guys urge clients to call this person every six months,
- 40:42make sure the bag isn't tampered with, make sure they know where the bag is,
- 40:46and so we reduce any of that potential human error.
- 40:51So I think it's like the best off-the-shelf inheritance protocol I've seen,
- 40:55and it really helps me get peace of mind, giving my clients good advice on how to handle this.
- 40:59Really appreciate that.
- 41:01why glad that it's it's working as intended and um you know one note on that you know checking in
- 41:07every six months right if uh if the bag has been tampered with you you probably need a new trustee
- 41:12right yeah yeah that's totally fair um
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- 41:55So I think an interesting conundrum for folks building businesses in the Bitcoin space, obviously, like you're loving for target markets, like probably going to be Bitcoiners.
- 42:08But after you reach a certain amount of scale and as Bitcoin, you know, kind of just does its thing and continues to grow and reach new people, your target market expands.
- 42:17expands. And so Unchain has been super supportive of the Bitcoin community, the Bitcoin ecosystem.
- 42:24You guys sponsor a ton of events, meetups, conferences, like really the whole gamut.
- 42:31You know, I think you guys make a great effort. If you are represented somewhere, put boots on the
- 42:36ground. You know, you have like an Unchain representative to talk to the product. And then
- 42:41recently, and correct me if I'm wrong, if it's more than recently, you guys are kind of moving,
- 42:45out of Bitcoin events or Bitcoin-specific things into energy or broader finance conferences and
- 42:54meetups. How have you guys kind of thought about tapping the Bitcoin community, continue to support
- 42:59sponsor conferences, and then also extending an olive branch to different industries and
- 43:05potentially onboarding them? Sure. I think it's a two-pronged approach where we're not going to let
- 43:12go what we've already been doing well, which is the presence at the Bitcoin-only events.
- 43:19You'll see us at Big Block Boom in a couple weeks down in Texas. And then, of course,
- 43:23the majority of the team will be out in Vegas there a couple more weeks.
- 43:30But the second prong of that is the tangential networks and marketing, right? And so I've been
- 43:37to a couple events recently, like, for instance, with the Colorado Technology Association,
- 43:41as well as some other local networking events.
- 43:46But the point being there is that I think Bitcoiners often fall into this trap
- 43:52of thinking that, you know, it's been around for 15 or 16 years, right?
- 43:58Like you had to have like if you weren living under a rock and you have any inclination like you should get Bitcoin by now Right And I guess what I would say is what we found is I don believe that that actually the case
- 44:10I believe that you actually have a lot of smart folks out there who are in their own lane, whatever their craft might be.
- 44:15And they're trying to provide for their family and they're getting hit on both sides by inflation and taxation.
- 44:22And they just haven't had the time. And that's what I what I pulled from a couple of these recent events.
- 44:28is that, you know, I still believe the biggest danger to Bitcoin is apathy, is that we have a
- 44:36whole society of NPCs and sheeple who don't care, right, enough to, and, you know, we devolve into
- 44:43the movie Idiocracy, if you've ever seen that, where we have, you know, Powerade coming out of
- 44:47the water fountains and stuff. I've never seen that movie, no. It's worth a watch. But the point
- 44:55there being is that I still believe that there's a ton of opportunity, but it's going to take,
- 45:00you know, twice as much work as we've already put in. And it's going to be, you know, person by
- 45:06person if we don't want to wait for the whole, you know, change happens one funeral at a time,
- 45:11morbid outlook, right? And that's, you know, boots on the ground at these Bitcoin only events,
- 45:17or, you know, go to your local tech networking event, right? Go to your, there's tons of stuff
- 45:23on Eventbrite, on meetup.com that, you know, there's other folks out there looking to learn.
- 45:28And most folks who aren't in the financial space kind of have an inkling of, you know,
- 45:34something's wrong. I just can't figure out quite what it is. Like, I know I feel like I'm on a
- 45:38treadmill. I get the extra job and things don't really change. So when you can kind of pull that
- 45:45veil up them for a little bit and let them know that there are, you know, tons of intelligent
- 45:50of people working on this. And you complement that with something like a physical space,
- 45:55like the space in Denver, where, you know, you now have the world's first hot tub heated with
- 46:00Bitcoin mining, right? Like, if, you know, if that doesn't, you know, perk your ear up a little bit,
- 46:06okay, maybe we're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna eventually figure this out. But I think for
- 46:11anybody who has an inkling of curiosity, and I think a little bit of pain, those are two,
- 46:17usually the, the prereqs, um, knowing that there's folks out here like us and, and, and you guys at
- 46:24Basilic and Jordan with Bitment, um, I think there's, there's plenty of work to be done. So,
- 46:29you know, let's not rest on our laurels. Um, of course we can sit back, but like, I'm all,
- 46:35I'm in the camp of, of let's accelerate this so that, you know, we can see the benefit of
- 46:40living on a hard money standard. Um, ideally while, while you and I are, you know, healthy.
- 46:47Yeah, right, right. No, I appreciate that. That's something I go back and forth with a lot, like is my time and efforts better spent targeting Bitcoiners? You know, should you reach outside of that, try to get more people in the fold? Obviously, you know, you mentioned too, it's like time is, you know, the most scarce resource. So, you know, allocating that efficiently. And, you know, something I want to end with here that you mentioned, obviously, you know, our audience is more, you know, financial services focused, RIAs, CPAs, state plan attorneys, capital allocators, etc.
- 47:17What have you guys done in exchange to specifically reach out to those folks?
- 47:21Is that kind of like a growth cohort you see is servicing?
- 47:26You know, you get one of me on, you get additional, you know, 10, 20, 30 clients like that are now using the Unchained platform, you know, whatever it may be.
- 47:35How are you specifically thinking about marketing and reaching out to these kind of folks?
- 47:41Yeah.
- 47:41So in the past, there's definitely been some friction there with, you know, product requirements,
- 47:48et cetera.
- 47:48And I think we've come a long way on the reporting side of things, the visibility side, the
- 47:54permissions, right?
- 47:55So you might be able to view an account and not necessarily take any action.
- 48:01And, you know, this is a space that we are really excited for meeting folks.
- 48:10and helping them. And we want to be a resource. I think it's part of that issue where there's still
- 48:18a lot of advisors and RIAs and financial folks who, you know, this thing was a career risk for
- 48:25the better part of the last decade, right? So that is definitely going to take time.
- 48:31But what I would say to those folks, if this is a, you know, little thing at the bottom of
- 48:36your checklist, like, hey, I got to have some sort of Bitcoin strategy or I have to look deeper into
- 48:41this, like, come talk to us. Like, we'll, you know, we have, I would argue, you know, the best
- 48:47sales team in the world and we're distributed across the country. So, you know, no matter where
- 48:51you are, one of our folks is going to be happy to come, you know, meet you for a coffee or meet with
- 48:57your firm. Like, right, for instance, this example I used earlier where it was a, you know, business
- 49:04leader who just hadn't had much education on Bitcoin keys and never thought that a business
- 49:11could hold it because of that issue with concentrating the risk in terms of one person.
- 49:17I had a call with him. And then from there, we were able to meet with his entire group
- 49:22because he works with a bunch of CFOs and controllers who probably make the final say
- 49:29for their business in terms of whether or not they could even have a Bitcoin approach.
- 49:34So being able to come at it from there, almost a more top-down approach, I think is beautiful because, you know, after a career in software sales as well, like you can do everything right from a sales perspective.
- 49:47And then you get chopped down by the CFO, right, because he wasn't aware of what's going on or you didn't really fit into his budget.
- 49:56So we want to work more with these type of folks.
- 50:01And I think as the toolkit gets built out with things like BitMint and Satoshi Pacioli, it's just going to make it easier for us to all collaborate.
- 50:11But please, you know, see Unchained as the Bitcoin infrastructure in your toolkit, along with a team who will teach you whatever you and your clients need to know about Bitcoin.
- 50:24Yeah, that's fantastic.
- 50:26I can personally vouch for that.
- 50:28actual last thing, because you just saved me from the wrath of Jordan. One of the things he wanted
- 50:34us to talk about, it's like you guys have added a lot of reporting features and stuff. 1099 DA is
- 50:40a big talking point right now. They're specifically addressing it at Satoshi Patchouli and Bitman
- 50:46just to make Bitcointer's life easier, especially when it comes from a tax perspective.
- 50:52You guys are kind of unique. I know a lot of my clients, at least anecdotally, they're still
- 50:57buying exchanges and then moving Bitcoin over, as you mentioned earlier, in larger UTXO chunks.
- 51:03But a few clients that utilize the trade desk.
- 51:06So how are you guys kind of handling that?
- 51:08Because you're kind of in a unique situation where a lot of, I imagine, Bitcoin secured
- 51:14through Unchained isn't natively bought at Unchained.
- 51:18And so it leaves you guys in maybe a little bit of a predicament from a reporting perspective.
- 51:23So I want you to shed some insight on what you guys have done recently on that.
- 51:27Yeah, absolutely.
- 51:28And so, you know, I am obviously far from a tax expert and can provide no, you know, tax, finance or legal advice, but could definitely provide my two stats here.
- 51:39And where we stand with that is that we are, you know, by law going to provide those forms to all of our clients.
- 51:46And then, you know, they will be, to my knowledge, as as complete as possible.
- 51:52Obviously, for any Bitcoin that wasn't purchased through Unchained, there's not going to be a cost basis for that.
- 51:59So that's going to be up to the individual and the folks that they're filing with to extrapolate that based on their previous records.
- 52:10um and and so from a general approach there you know we are of the stance that we're obviously
- 52:22going to comply with any sort of requests like legal requests for information but to the minimum
- 52:28you know that that we can so we you know stand here with bitcoiners with um with you know privacy
- 52:36and security at our core.
- 52:39Given that, you know,
- 52:41these reporting requirements
- 52:42are changing over time,
- 52:44we will stay up to date with them,
- 52:47you know, as they develop.
- 52:49Yeah, I think that's really
- 52:52kind of like the best of both worlds,
- 52:53you know, take responsibility
- 52:54for knowing your cost basis.
- 52:57There are a lot of tools coming out
- 52:58like BitPen to make that easier.
- 53:01You know, Unchained as a service provider,
- 53:03they'll help you,
- 53:04but ultimately not your responsibility.
- 53:06And I don't even mean that in like a bad way.
- 53:08Like you guys are dodging it.
- 53:09Like you literally don't know my cost basis of Bitcoin.
- 53:12I bought a river and moved into a chain.
- 53:15Actual last thing, I promise,
- 53:17but I think we would be remiss not to talk about this.
- 53:22I had an intention to earlier, but, you know,
- 53:25questions I get, I'm sure you get as well.
- 53:28I think are specifically important for folks in the, you know,
- 53:32financial services industry is you guys have kind of architectured and constructed Unchained.
- 53:37You know, it's like, well, what if Unchained goes out of business tomorrow? Like what happens to my
- 53:40Bitcoin? You know, you have this open source, you know, caravan wallet, you know, very similar to,
- 53:45you know, Sparrows. You, you know, can actually recreate the wall and still move your Bitcoin,
- 53:51you know, very sound. Why don't you kind of just walk us mechanically through how that works,
- 53:55how you guys address that concern? Absolutely. So again, on the ethos of
- 54:01no single points of failure, right? If Unchained was to disappear overnight, you as a client are
- 54:10fine as long as you have the knowledge of how to interact with your wallet configuration file.
- 54:16That's the, you know, kind of map file that's generated for each multi-sig vault, if you will,
- 54:23and it lives directly in our platform. And then our best practices is that you download a couple
- 54:29copies for this exact instance. But simply what's required is that you utilize free and open source
- 54:39multi-sig coordinator software such as Caravan or Electrum or Sparrow. These are different options
- 54:46that you could utilize where those coordinators will basically take the combination of your config
- 54:54file and then allow you to sign with your two keys to move the Bitcoin completely independent
- 55:00of Unchained.
- 55:02So that also gives clients a lot of extra peace of mind in terms of, hey, yes, like I
- 55:08know there's these small tradeoffs in terms of you guys know my balance, et cetera.
- 55:12But knowing that I can't go down with the Unchained ship is huge for me after every,
- 55:18you know, Celsius, BlockFi type of blow up I've seen over the last 10 years.
- 55:23Totally.
- 55:24Yeah, and just personally, I generally instruct clients, if they're holding both keys, download the configuration file, keep that on encrypted, flash drive, like you said, a couple of copies.
- 55:35And we're able to pretty much weather any storm that can come our way.
- 55:40And so just another crucial piece of building a quality Bitcoin financial services company I think you guys have taken upon yourself.
- 55:48A hundred percent. And one more follow through with that is if you're the type of person that's like, hey, man, like you just said a bunch of words salad and said, like, if I know what I need to know, I can get my Bitcoin.
- 55:59If you don't feel like that, that's fine. Like I would I would welcome you to come work with our team, use our signature service for a year and have that account management to walk you through this.
- 56:10And you and your family can get on a call and you can do a mock recovery process. Right. So it's not just theoretical. It's like, hey, we see how it actually works.
- 56:18And now we've removed the uncertainty from what it looks like if something happens to Unchained.
- 56:26We have a concrete path forward.
- 56:28Totally.
- 56:30That's tremendous.
- 56:31This has been a tremendous conversation.
- 56:33Where can folks find you, Ben?
- 56:36They can find me.
- 56:38So I am our director of sales for Unchained in Colorado.
- 56:41And shortly I'll be handling more of the Mountain West here.
- 56:44So if you're in Colorado or this general area, you know, feel free to reach out to me, just Benjamin at Unchained.com.
- 56:53I'm also on X at Bitcoin Benji, B-E-N-J-I-I-I, three I's.
- 57:02And then I do as much as I can on the ground.
- 57:07So I'm on the board of directors here of the space Denver.
- 57:11So if you're ever in town, you know, feel free to give me a ring and we could set up some time there.
- 57:16And then I live in Boulder, Colorado, and I run the local meetup up here.
- 57:22So we have a small, thriving community of Bitcoiners.
- 57:26And, you know, our mission this year is to increase merchant adoption.
- 57:32So, you know, if you're out in Boulder and Denver, open up your cash app map and see where you can spend Bitcoin.
- 57:38and let's get this thing going in rotation
- 57:41because it starts as a store of value,
- 57:44then we go to medium of exchange
- 57:45and eventually unit of account.
- 57:49That's right, man.
- 57:50Thanks so much, brother.
- 57:51It was a pleasure.
- 57:52Absolutely.
- 57:52Thank you, Wyatt.
- 57:53Take care.
- 57:59We appreciate you joining us.
- 58:01If you want to help build the future
- 58:02of Bitcoin and financial services,
- 58:04hit subscribe, leave a review,
- 58:06sign up for a newsletter,
- 58:07and most importantly, share this with someone in your network who's integrating Bitcoin into
- 58:12their practice. The more professionals we reach, the better served our clients are.
- 58:17Stay sharp, stay sovereign. Keep lean from the front.
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