Latest / Simply Bitcoin / kutus84Rules for thee (enemy) not for me (friend) - Schmitt nailed it 100+ years ago as a system.
Transcript
- 0:01Everyone is optimistic on the Clarity Act being passed this
- 0:05year, but that's only because they're not paying attention.
- 0:09We have a really dangerous story developing behind closed doors,
- 0:13with rumors suggesting the most important protections for
- 0:17Bitcoin is being quietly sacrificed for the bill to pass.
- 0:21We've been very skeptical on this show about this bill since
- 0:25day one, but if this rumor is true, it could confirm our worst
- 0:30fears about the Clarity Act. So to start this story, I do
- 0:34want to give a huge shout out to the boys over at TFTC, Marty and
- 0:38Matt, for basically highlighting and having this inside scoop.
- 0:42So here's a clip from yesterday's Rabbit Hole recap,
- 0:46and it is something we've been talking about all week and it's
- 0:49really not looking too good. Short clip, but a very powerful
- 0:54one. Here we go.
- 0:56Breaking news from the Hill. My birdie on the hill is texting
- 1:01me right now saying update Dems are coming for BRCA.
- 1:04Specifically protection for devs.
- 1:06Ours are willing to remove some protections to get some Dems on
- 1:10board. Dems are hitting three angles.
- 1:12Dev protections Trump family crypto ethics and yield stable
- 1:15coins. We have to sound the alarm
- 1:18regarding BRCA protections. Coinbase could push harder on
- 1:22that end too, considering they're spending millions to be
- 1:24here on the Hill. So we should pressure Coinbase
- 1:27to draw the line there. But the fact that Republicans
- 1:32didn't secure Van Holland's vote is a big signal.
- 1:36A bad signal. He has been trying quite a bit
- 1:39to help create bipartisan agreement on that end.
- 1:42Kill the bill. Guys, kill the bill.
- 1:45If they're not gonna, if they're not going to get developer
- 1:51protections enshrined into this law as bitcoiners like
- 1:55everything else that they're going to push for the expansion
- 1:57of the Patriot Act, all that bullshit and really just cater
- 2:01to the crypto lobby, then we should use our voices.
- 2:04Kill the bill. No bill.
- 2:06It's better than a bad bill. It's going to sour a lot of
- 2:09people in DC Trump administration won't be happy as
- 2:11a big priority for them. But fuck it if you're not going
- 2:14to secure civil liberties in the digital age, particularly for
- 2:19open source software developers, when this is a very
- 2:22straightforward protection for any other manufacturer, any
- 2:26other tool that can be used by criminals, then don't let them
- 2:31get it. Kill it on demand unless they
- 2:34keep these protections in, and arguably unless they make them
- 2:38clear too, because it's so fucked up.
- 2:43How politics works, Like you're literally sitting here, they're
- 2:51horse trading for all this shit and one of the things they're
- 2:53going to horse trade, developer protections for stablecoin
- 2:56yield. It's like what?
- 3:00Yeah, I mean, without developer protections, we get absolutely
- 3:03nothing from this bill. Once again, guys, we've been
- 3:09saying it for a minute, a bad bill or no bill is better than a
- 3:13bad bill. And, and I have some more.
- 3:15It's not just Marty and Matt saying this.
- 3:17I, I actually have a lot more in this.
- 3:19But Nico, if you want to go on just first, first instinct,
- 3:22first impressions of, I mean, we've been covering this all
- 3:25week. The B, it's in particular the
- 3:27BRCA provisions to protect open source development.
- 3:32It seems as of now, based on the rumors and even the conversation
- 3:37we've heard coming out of, you know, Washington, DC, is that it
- 3:41looks like they're trading those developer protections for the
- 3:44stablecoin yield. It's not a good luck.
- 3:47Now that we have the whole bill, at least now that we know what's
- 3:49going to be in the bill, I guess now we can nitpick on what is
- 3:53actually going to get passed into law.
- 3:55So the fight's not over, but as of now, are we really that
- 3:59surprised? No, and I I I do.
- 4:03First of all, shout out to Marty and and Matt.
- 4:06Always great commentary. You know those two are legends.
- 4:10Rabbit Hole recap was a precursor.
- 4:12Dude, we wouldn't be here. Without that we wouldn't be here
- 4:14without rabbit hole recap. So shout out to those legends.
- 4:16That's the first thing I got to say.
- 4:18Second thing is I do slightly disagree with with Odell on his
- 4:24point because the, the self custody protections are still
- 4:28there. However, I do agree it's very
- 4:32difficult for me to say what Matt is saying because so many
- 4:36of our, of our, of our partners are again, these are, these are
- 4:40US based companies and they benefit from the passage of the
- 4:44Clarity Act, right. So at the same time, the
- 4:50Bitcoiner and me, this is nuanced.
- 4:52There's there's two two things could be true at the same time.
- 4:57Listen, that was one of the biggest things for bitcoiners
- 5:01guys like if you don't want a Tornado Cash 2 point O type of
- 5:06situation, that provision in the bill was specifically there to
- 5:11protect that type of situation occurring again.
- 5:15And as we continue into the rest of this decade and as the the
- 5:21the the, the separation of money in state continues to
- 5:26accelerate, This is the type of provision that because it's not
- 5:32included into law, can and will be used against open source
- 5:38developers as more and more of the world's population chooses
- 5:44to use Bitcoin as a non sovereign alternative to their
- 5:49local Fiat currency. And as you can imagine, you
- 5:53know, This is why Satoshi remained anonymous, right?
- 5:58And I fundamentally believe that if Satoshi was not anonymous, I
- 6:04think he'd be in jail today. So because the the argument can
- 6:09be made. And Elizabeth Warren used this
- 6:11argument in the Senate Banking Committee in in in the Senate
- 6:17Banking Committee, you know, conversation yesterday where
- 6:21Elizabeth Warren, one of her talking points was Iran, you
- 6:26know, wanted to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for people
- 6:31to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Now, I played you the clip of
- 6:35Senator Lummis kind of rebuffing that and saying, listen, like
- 6:39this bill actually allows even more.
- 6:42It's so crazy saying this, but even more oversight, even more
- 6:45surveillance, right? But this is this is this is a
- 6:50very, this is a very difficult provision where like as a
- 6:53Bitcoiner, you know, that supports Bitcoin, holding
- 6:58Bitcoin in in spot and holding Bitcoin in self custody.
- 7:01If this provision was allowed, then again, developers in the
- 7:06United States wouldn't feel like they're just one administration
- 7:10away from potentially living in a hostile environment.
- 7:13And I know that's not a problem now, but I guarantee you that as
- 7:18more and more of the world's population adopts Bitcoin and
- 7:22uses Bitcoin outside of the system, you can see how
- 7:28governments would react to this. And it actually reminds me of
- 7:32again, the book from the, the, a passage from the book The
- 7:37Sovereign Individual, where they specifically this book was
- 7:41written in, I believe, 1997. And it specifically says, and
- 7:48when I say tax, by the way, I'm not talking about income tax, to
- 7:53be very specific. That's a whole other
- 7:55conversation, whole discussion that I want to get into today.
- 7:57But when I talk about tax, I'm, I'm specifically talking about
- 8:01the inflation tax because all Western governments,
- 8:04specifically in the United States continue to spend more,
- 8:08more then they collect in tax revenue.
- 8:11So it's this deficit spending. And the reason that they're able
- 8:14to fund this deficit spending in the very in the 1st place is
- 8:18because they're able to print money.
- 8:20But if more, if more and more people stop using that said
- 8:25money, then the effectiveness of being able to print for pay to
- 8:31pay for things starts to go down.
- 8:34So you can just see, and guys, we've been so right about so
- 8:38many things throughout the years.
- 8:40Like we were right about a nation state adopting Bitcoin.
- 8:43We were right about the ETFs, We were about, we were right about
- 8:46public treasuries, about public companies adopting Bitcoin.
- 8:50We were saying these things back when it was unpopular.
- 8:53We were saying these things back in 2020 when none of these
- 8:57things were true, right when other of these things came to
- 9:01fruition. And the reason we were so
- 9:02confident in those thesis is not because we're geniuses, but
- 9:06because we understood the game theory of Bitcoin.
- 9:09Ultimately, Bitcoin is fundamentally better money for
- 9:13two reasons, two more reasons, but for ultimately 2 reasons.
- 9:17Number one, it's censorship resistant properties and that
- 9:21makes it immune from that makes it immune from censorship, that
- 9:27makes it immune from capital controls, right?
- 9:30You saw this with the Canadian truckers protest and thing #2 is
- 9:34it's a non inflation inflationary currency.
- 9:36You can say it's a deflationary currency.
- 9:38It has absolute scarcity, so it doesn't have inflation built in,
- 9:42right. So again, I'm going to read you
- 9:45guys this passage from the book The Sovereign Individual.
- 9:48I've read it so many times throughout the show, but it it
- 9:51really applies to the point that I'm trying to make here.
- 9:53Lacking their accustoms, their accustoms scope to inflate,
- 9:58governments, even in traditionally civil countries,
- 10:01will turn nasty. As income tax becomes
- 10:04uncollectible, older and more arbitrary methods of extraction
- 10:08will resurface. The ultimate form of withholding
- 10:11tax, the de facto or even overt hostage taking, will be
- 10:15introduced by governments desperate to prevent wealth from
- 10:19escaping beyond their reach. Unlucky individuals will find
- 10:23themselves signaled out and held to ransom in an almost medieval
- 10:27fashion. Now this is what applies to
- 10:30samurai. Businesses that offer services
- 10:33that facilitate the realization of autonomy by individuals will
- 10:37be subject to infiltration, sabotage, and disruption.
- 10:41Arbitrary forfeiture of property, already commonplace in
- 10:43the United States, where it occurs 5000 times a week, will
- 10:47become even more pervasive. Governments will violate human
- 10:50rights, censor the free flow of information, sabotage useful
- 10:55technologies, and worse. So again, this book wrote was
- 10:59prophetic. It called out censor the free
- 11:03flow of information even in the United States of America.
- 11:07Do you guys remember that clip of the googly eyed lady?
- 11:11You know, like making like a like a song talking about like,
- 11:14you know, information sensor like it was crazy, but
- 11:18basically. They're they?
- 11:20They were trying to like, set up like a ministry of truth in the
- 11:23United States. Ultimately that didn't work out
- 11:26because of the 1st amendment. Thank God for the wisdom of the
- 11:29founding fathers to understand, but sabotage useful technologies
- 11:34included in the passage as well. This was written back in 1997.
- 11:39What is going after, you know, open source software developers
- 11:44that are working on privacy tech, privacy tools, privacy
- 11:51protocols that don't have access to that money?
- 11:54What is that but not sabotaging useful technology?
- 11:57And you could say, OK, Benico, what about the what about the
- 12:01hostage taking? What is putting someone in a box
- 12:05for a certain amount of time not a form of hostage?
- 12:09Taking. Right.
- 12:10Like that is literally it's like, and it's not even a
- 12:12hostage taking, it's hostage taking, making an example out of
- 12:16that person and then literally keeping that person in the box.
- 12:20A big part of this election was a big motivation for bitcoiners
- 12:26to vote for Trump, which I don't regret was the fact that he was
- 12:29going to free Ross Ulbricht and he made good on that promise.
- 12:32We did put a lot of pressure and he ended up freeing Ross
- 12:36Ulbricht. So this is what I'm talking
- 12:38about and this is where I want you guys to understand where we
- 12:42are in the movie. We are in the disintermediation
- 12:45of information and the disintermediation of money.
- 12:48This is what we're living through.
- 12:49I think we went, we already went past the worst of the the battle
- 12:54for the disintermediation of information.
- 12:57You know, a big portion of that was the Internet.
- 12:59A big portion of that was Elon acquiring X with The X-Files
- 13:03came out, it literally exposed that the United States
- 13:06government was telling social media platforms to censor the
- 13:09free speech of Americans. Ladies and gentlemen, we have
- 13:13not even begun the disintermediation of money.
- 13:17We have not even begun the separation of money and state.
- 13:21That hasn't even started yet. That only begins and and we had
- 13:25Adam O'Brien, the CEO of Bitcoin well yesterday on the show and
- 13:29he was talking about it. That doesn't begin until a
- 13:34percentage of the population is actively holding Bitcoin in self
- 13:39custody outside of the traditional financial system and
- 13:43transacting peer-to-peer with other people.
- 13:46Circular economies. The way that we see at Bitcoin
- 13:49Beach in El Salvador is a great example of that, right until I
- 13:55would say maybe 5 to 10% of the population is doing that.
- 13:59And as as we said on yesterday's show, I believe only 1%, less
- 14:03than 1%, I would say 100,000 of us worldwide actually use
- 14:08Bitcoin, actually take it in self custody, actually
- 14:11understand the ethos of Bitcoin. I think that this specific
- 14:17provision not being passed, first of all, it sets up a
- 14:21precedent. Second of all, you can see just
- 14:27using basic common sense and logic how that will be
- 14:32weaponized in the future to go after open source developers.
- 14:38And if they went after Tornado Cash, what makes you think
- 14:42they're not going to use the same arguments to go after
- 14:46Bitcoin developers? Because they can make the case
- 14:49and say, hey, this Bitcoin developer, you know what, he
- 14:53contributed code to the Bitcoin protocol.
- 14:56And because he contributed code to the Bitcoin protocol and
- 14:59because Iran is receiving Bitcoin, he's breaking the law.
- 15:03And he's enabling essentially, you know, the transmission of
- 15:07money to sanctioned countries in the United sanctioned countries
- 15:12that on the that are on the list of Foreign Office of Foreign
- 15:15Asset Control. So you can see how that argument
- 15:18gets made. So this is a part of me where
- 15:21like I'm a little bit divided, you know, and, and, and I'm glad
- 15:25that I have Opti here because I know where Opti's going to side
- 15:27on this. But there's a lot of our
- 15:29partners that will benefit tremendously and us too, as a
- 15:33Bitcoin business in the United States from something like the
- 15:36Clarity Act, Bill passing. However, simultaneously, you
- 15:40know, Matt is right in the sense that that was a very strong
- 15:44position, that was a very strong provision.
- 15:47And it also exposes a lot of incentives, right?
- 15:50Like if this was a hill that the Elizabeth Warren camp was
- 15:55unmovable on. It tells you everything you need
- 15:58to know in terms of what they plan to use in the future to go
- 16:04after open source developers that again, are inconvenient to
- 16:10the system. So you guys have to understand
- 16:12where we are in the movie. You guys have to understand the
- 16:15implications of this. Another passage that I want to
- 16:18read for you guys is the authors of The Sovereign Individual have
- 16:22also predicted that with the rise of this new cyberspace and
- 16:26consequently cyber money again, 1997, this was written.
- 16:30It will be. I wish I read it, it will, but
- 16:32that was a baby. It will become harder for a
- 16:34nation state to collect taxes. From you can't even read now.
- 16:38It will become harder for a nation state to collect taxes
- 16:41from its citizens. Again, when I mentioned taxes,
- 16:43I'm not just talking about the income tax specifically, I'm
- 16:47talking about the inflation tax. They compare the state to a
- 16:50farmer keeping cows in a field to be milked, but that soon the
- 16:56cows will have wings. They predict that for the
- 16:59government to collect taxes from its citizens in this type of
- 17:02society, it will have to violate human rights.
- 17:05Even traditionally civil countries will have to resort
- 17:09and turn nasty. And you can apply that, like, to
- 17:13the samurai guys, Like, like, let's talk about that.
- 17:16And I think we're having one of them on the show somewhat soon.
- 17:19Let's talk about that for a SEC. What did they do?
- 17:25They definitely poked the bear a little bit by being vocal on X,
- 17:30right? However, ultimately what they
- 17:33did was they just designed a piece of software that allowed
- 17:38bitcoiners to get more privacy. They didn't have access to the
- 17:45funds that were being used using that piece of software.
- 17:50They didn't have access to those funds.
- 17:53But all the argument that the government had to make was,
- 17:56listen, even though 97% of the funds that are going through
- 18:03samurai are not tied to illegal activity, 3% is tied to the
- 18:10North Koreans. Therefore, you're breaking the
- 18:13law. Simultaneously, let's talk about
- 18:17all the money laundering that occurs in the traditional
- 18:21financial system that has all the rules and regulations in
- 18:25place. Why isn't that being focused on?
- 18:29You had these massive news of these big banks that were
- 18:33facilitating money laundering for the Mexican drug cartels.
- 18:38Do you see the CE OS of those big banks being locked up in a
- 18:42box? No, the big banks got fines.
- 18:48Our industry gets thrown in jail, the banks get fines.
- 18:53So justice is supposed to be equal, but as you can see, it's
- 18:57not being treated as equal. And the reason it's not being
- 19:00treated as equal, let's be clear here, is because ultimately the
- 19:04reason that governments just give banks fines is because
- 19:08governments ultimately do control banks through the Bank
- 19:11Secrecy Act, through the Patriot Act.
- 19:14So the way that I described it as a bank account is essentially
- 19:17a two of three multi sig where you hold one key, the state
- 19:21holds another key, and then the bank holds another key.
- 19:26That's not a great multi sig. That's not a good multi sig at
- 19:29all. You don't control the majority
- 19:31of the keys in that situation, right?
- 19:33So a lot of things to unpack here.
- 19:36It's not equal justice. There's hypocrisy there.
- 19:42If it's not equal justice, by definition it is not justice.
- 19:46They're picking and they're picking and choosing which rules
- 19:49to enforce in order to protect the system.
- 19:54And that fundamentally is unjust, right?
- 19:58So yes, I mean, that's a big loss.
- 20:02It's a big, big loss. Well.
- 20:04Well, to be clear, it's not completely out and that's that's
- 20:07where I do want to kind of nitpick that the the detail.
- 20:11Nitpick on that. I'm, I'm, I'm glad that, that,
- 20:13that you're, you're rebuffing on, you're rebuffing me on that.
- 20:17So you're, you're right if it does get lost, which is what
- 20:20we're seeing happen, but currently it's not.
- 20:23Completely out. So nitpick on that before.
- 20:25I do want to get your opinion on Odell, right, So you know where
- 20:29I stand, right where I'm kind of on the fence.
- 20:32I'm like, listen, I see both sides.
- 20:34I see how this could be a tremendous benefit to Bitcoin
- 20:37businesses in the United States, this being passed.
- 20:40And then simultaneously I'm like, dude, like this is not
- 20:43good. Yeah, I mean, look, I kind of
- 20:45agree with them. I've been saying for a while
- 20:47like kill, kill the bill. I, I mean, I'm on, and I said
- 20:51this a while ago, like I don't agree with Brian Armstrong much,
- 20:56but I do with agree with the statement that we heard in
- 20:58January that I'd rather have no bill than a bad bill that
- 21:01actually hurts us. And by us, I mean us Bitcoiners.
- 21:05Because it, it has been, you know, looking like for a while
- 21:09that the Clarity Act with all of its compromises with the bank's
- 21:12lobbying on it, that it has become a quote crypto bill and
- 21:16not so much a Bitcoin bill, maybe a digital assets bill or
- 21:20whatever you want to call it. And so yes, I see there is some
- 21:23good in here like I mentioned when we covered the initial
- 21:26markup release that hey there is some good in it.
- 21:30But also, if this provision does get tossed out, then like it, it
- 21:38doesn't set a good precedent for where we are.
- 21:40And as we know, we are currently in a privacy war in our, in the
- 21:44world right now. There is a free speech fight
- 21:48going down right now on privacy. As we know there's been a huge
- 21:53move towards digital IDs and CBD CS and basically, you know,
- 21:56transparency and everything in one app and all of our
- 21:59information being tracked and bagged for our benefit.
- 22:03And now it looks like if this does get tossed out and I'll,
- 22:07I'll jump into the the technicals here in a second.
- 22:11It does look like it's going to be very dangerous work to work
- 22:16on open source software. And we already know like it's
- 22:19already a tough job for Bitcoin developers to work on Bitcoin.
- 22:23So yeah, it's it's looking, it's looking not the best, but here
- 22:27let me. I, I do so like I do want to
- 22:29add, I want to add more context so you guys understand, like the
- 22:32hypox. Well, well, can I?
- 22:34Can I read? Let's read the text and then and
- 22:36then we'll, we'll chat about it 'cause we, we've been ranting
- 22:38for a minute. I mean, dude, no, it's good.
- 22:40It's good. This is the thing to talk about.
- 22:41Yeah, no, I agree. I agree.
- 22:43OK, so here we go. So as I said, it's not just a
- 22:46rumor coming from Wow. I'm Blake Marty's source on
- 22:52Capitol Hill. We are seeing Coin Center right
- 22:55about it. We saw the Bitcoin Policy
- 22:57Institute, they're a little more favorable on this.
- 23:00If you guys saw this tweet, they're saying huge.
- 23:04Coin Center does echo what Bitcoin policy said.
- 23:08This is big, but I think they give us a little more insight
- 23:12into what is going on. So here's Coin Center,
- 23:15coincenter.org and here's the headline.
- 23:17The BRCA did survive Clarity's markup, so let's not give up on
- 23:21it now. And I just highlighted a couple
- 23:23portions. So as a reminder, the BRCA
- 23:25explicit protect blockchain developers and service providers
- 23:29that do not have control over assets from being considered
- 23:32quote money transmitters for purposes of regulatory licensure
- 23:36and potential criminal liability.
- 23:38The purpose of the BRCA is to prevent what has already
- 23:41happened several times in the past, aggressive regulators and
- 23:44prosecutors broadly interpreting money transmission laws to
- 23:48target developers of blockchain tools or open source
- 23:51development. So going a little further, what
- 23:54happened today, obviously as we saw the Clarity Act pass wow,
- 23:58what's it might be your phone, the, the Clarity Act pass
- 24:02markup, while it passed the Senate Banking Committee, we
- 24:05already passed the Senate Agricultural Committee.
- 24:08Now that will be combined and that will be voted by the Senate
- 24:12and then that will be turned into the law.
- 24:13But here's where the nitty gritty comes in.
- 24:16So in order to gain wild wider support, the Lummis amendment
- 24:20removed recently added language that cross reference to BRCA in
- 24:24order to exempt non controlling developers and service providers
- 24:27from S3 O one or three O 1. Even with that language removed,
- 24:31three O 1 still contains robust developer protections.
- 24:34Most notably, the section is premised on a meaningful
- 24:37distinction between decentralized protocols and
- 24:40quote non decentralized protocols in which a group of
- 24:43persons under common control have the ability to alter the
- 24:46protocol or restrict access. In other words, the section is
- 24:49designed to apply to actors doing more than simply
- 24:52developing and publishing permission list and neutral
- 24:54software protocols for exchanging assets.
- 24:57We are still waiting and this is kind of the the big point here
- 25:01that really kind of relates to what we saw in the clip from
- 25:04Marty and Matt. We are still waiting the final
- 25:06full amendment text, but have discussed various edits since
- 25:09January and have assurances that those edits maintain the
- 25:12essential components of the previous draft.
- 25:14Now, going further, the BRCA remains necessary to clarify
- 25:18that a money transmitter is someone who takes control of the
- 25:21customer's assets, and that blockchain developers who never
- 25:24exercise such control should not face the threat of criminal
- 25:27liability under money transmission laws.
- 25:30Now, what remains so far is workable and a principled
- 25:34compromise. At least this is what
- 25:36Coincenter's saying. The BRCA continues to provide
- 25:38critical protections against misuse of money transmission
- 25:41laws by the DOJ and financial regulators.
- 25:44While three O 1 one preserves meaningful protections for truly
- 25:47decentralized developers, which might be the big kind of, you
- 25:50know, phrase here without abandoning long standing
- 25:54securities laws, principles applicable to intermediaries
- 25:57acting in positions of trust. Now here's the big take away.
- 26:00This is where we currently stand.
- 26:02So you heard all of our concerns.
- 26:05You heard kind of the breakdown of what is actually in
- 26:08contention here. Here's the final thought from
- 26:11Coin Center. And I think this is where we
- 26:13currently stand, hence why the headline was like, let's not
- 26:15give up on this. But as I've been saying, as
- 26:19Marty and Matt kind of said, even as Nico has been kind of
- 26:21saying, and I think all of us have been feeling, this is like
- 26:24if we finally get the final Clarity Act and it's bad, I
- 26:31think no bill might be better than a bad bill.
- 26:33But anyways, the final concern, the final take away here is the
- 26:36narrow support from Democrats and the potential for some
- 26:39stakeholders to abandon developer protections in favor
- 26:42of their own interests. Make Coin Center very concerned
- 26:45that last minute negotiations on the floor could strip the BRC as
- 26:48developer protections from the from the bill right at the time
- 26:52of passage. So again, this fight isn't over.
- 26:56It's not completely been scrapped.
- 26:58The the developer protections aren't gone yet, but as we've
- 27:03been seeing, the stable coin yield compromise has been the
- 27:08biggest concern. And if that still becomes
- 27:11contentious, when the Final Clarity Act does get voted on by
- 27:14the Senate, there's been a lot of talk from a lot of the, and I
- 27:18hate to, you know, get partisan here, but from the Democrats
- 27:21essentially talking about ethics provisions.
- 27:24And a part of that, the developer protections might get
- 27:28scrapped to get a final bill through the door and signed by
- 27:31President Trump. So the fight's not over.
- 27:34It's not completely doom and gloom, but we are seeing that if
- 27:38this is becoming the contentious point, there is a very, very big
- 27:43possibility that it will probably get scrapped.
- 27:45So the clarity act as of now. Now we finally get the whole
- 27:49picture of what might be in it. I don't know dude.
- 27:52I I think I might stand with no bills better than a bad bill
- 27:56and. This is why we have two hosts,
- 27:58right? To give you guys to give you
- 28:01guys the the the. I would say maybe balance view.
- 28:05Balance view from 242 Iqs. So I, I kinda wanna go back to
- 28:10the hypocrisy aspect that I was talking about a little bit
- 28:12earlier. And Opti, if you can make this
- 28:14wide screen, 'cause I'm, I'm, I'm gonna be reading off of
- 28:16this. So TD Bank pleaded guilty to
- 28:19historic federal charges of conspiracy to commit money
- 28:22laundering and violating the Bank Secrecy Act, agreeing to
- 28:25pay over $3 billion in fines. An investigation revealed that
- 28:30the bank failed to monitor $18.3 trillion in transactions and was
- 28:37utilized by criminal networks to launder hundreds of millions of
- 28:41dollars. TD Bank became the largest bank
- 28:44in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations
- 28:48in the major in the first major bank to plead guilty to felony
- 28:52charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- 28:55The fines. The three-point $3.09 billion
- 28:59total penalty includes payouts to the Department of Justice,
- 29:03the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and the federal, the
- 29:06Federal Reserve and a record $1.3 billion penalty assessed by
- 29:11FinCEN. Now check this out.
- 29:14What were they money laundering for?
- 29:17Fentanyl trafficking? The bank's LAX oversight made it
- 29:21an attractive conduit for narcotics sales.
- 29:25And one notable scheme, Traffickers bribed bank
- 29:28employees to launder up to $670 million, including bringing
- 29:34duffel bags filled with cash directly to branch counters, it
- 29:40goes on to say. It sounds like Scarface dude.
- 29:45No executive charges Legal experts point out that assigning
- 29:50personal criminal liability is highly decentralized in big
- 29:53banks, making intent difficult to prove.
- 29:56Consequently, no high-ranking executives were named or charged
- 30:02individually. Contrasting precedents.
- 30:05And this is what I'm talking about.
- 30:07The lack of executive jail time has drawn heavy criticism,
- 30:11specifically compared to other Fed federal financial
- 30:15crackdowns, such as the four month prison sentence handed to
- 30:19finance founder CZ for similarly failing to maintain adequate
- 30:25anti money laundering controls. So again, why couldn't CZ use
- 30:31the same argument? Why couldn't Arthur Hayes use
- 30:35the same argument? And This is why I'm telling you
- 30:38that this isn't justice. This is unequal justice.
- 30:43And if it's unequal justice, it ain't justice.
- 30:45It's rules for thee, but not for me.
- 30:47Now, to be fair, several low level branch employees and
- 30:51retail bankers face extensive prison time after pleading
- 30:55guilty to acting as internal insiders for criminal
- 30:58syndicates. OK, that's fine.
- 31:01Then why couldn't the same argument be made for CZ and
- 31:05Arthur Hayes, right? So like again, it, it, it's just
- 31:10like guys like the magnitude it it.
- 31:16They were facilitating money laundering for narcotics, $18.3
- 31:24trillion in transactions was utilized by criminal networks to
- 31:28launder hundreds of millions of dollars, 18.3 trillion.
- 31:34So like, let's take Elizabeth Warren's stance here for a
- 31:40second. The banks have the regulations,
- 31:45the banks have the controls. The banks have the KY CS, They
- 31:49have everything that that you say that the Bitcoin industry
- 31:53doesn't have. Do you think the Bitcoin
- 31:56industry has facilitated $18.3 trillion in transactions and was
- 32:02utilized by criminal networks? The market cap of Bitcoin is 1.5
- 32:06trillion. It again, it's unequal.
- 32:09It's not fair, right? So any type of argument that
- 32:15they're making, you have to look at the incentive, which is so
- 32:19important because if they really cared about these things, if
- 32:23they really cared, then high level bank executives would be
- 32:28in jail. What about 2008 and 2009, which
- 32:32I would say was the biggest crime committed to the
- 32:35millennial generation, the Gen. Z generation, the Gen. alpha
- 32:39generation, and the Gen. Beta generation.
- 32:42No single high-ranking banking executive went to jail for what
- 32:49happened in 2008. And that caused materially more
- 32:54harm to the American people, to the average American citizen,
- 33:01than anything that the samurai wallet developers did, than
- 33:05anything that Ross Ulbricht did. Not even close.
- 33:11And then to weave this back in, this is exactly what the book
- 33:16The Sovereign Individual was talking about.
- 33:20I don't they're applying these What what was it?
- 33:24What's the the phrase it's it's it's prosecution by what is.
- 33:29It engagement by enforcement or prosecution by enforcement.
- 33:32Prosecution by enforcement. So if they're applying the rules
- 33:35unequally, then that isn't, that isn't justice, that isn't the
- 33:40law. I mean, technically you could
- 33:41say it's the law, these are cases, etcetera, etcetera, but
- 33:44that isn't justice. That by definition is unjust,
- 33:48right? So again, why they so hell bent
- 33:52on that specific provision and thank you for providing that
- 33:56Coin center, you know, article, but we do have to remember that
- 34:00coin Center is a lobbying group and they're and they're
- 34:02obviously. A little more shit Coiny focus.
- 34:05I didn't say that, but. We like what they're doing or I
- 34:08like what they're doing, but you know, but like calling a spade a
- 34:11spade. I didn't say that, but you know,
- 34:14like like again, if we want justice and we want, if we want
- 34:21justice and we want equal, equal application of the law, then why
- 34:26do the bankers get away with it? And then why does anybody from
- 34:29our industry get locked in a box?
- 34:32That's like clearly two different treatments of
- 34:36depending on where you are on the side of the football, right?
- 34:39And then you have to ask yourself, why is it that our
- 34:42industry gets targeted so much? And I, I keep telling you guys,
- 34:45it's because they want a central bank digital currency.
- 34:47They do not want competition for a central bank digital currency.
- 34:51They do not want competition for it.
- 34:53I mean, I'm going to play you guys the clip after the break.
- 34:56But you know what? F it, I'm going to play you guys
- 34:58the clip right now of Elizabeth Warren saying the choir part out
- 35:01loud. It pushes more of the market
- 35:04into crypto and removes protections for investors and
- 35:08removes recourse for victims. That is the wrong direction to
- 35:12go in. All right, when this blows up
- 35:14the economy, I hope everybody remembers.
- 35:18So OK, let's use those. Let's use those arguments.
- 35:24What? What about 2008?
- 35:26Elizabeth Warren? I think you were a senator back
- 35:28then, weren't you? Not.
- 35:30What about 2008? Were there recourses for all the
- 35:34individuals got that got affected for that?
- 35:37No. You know what happened?
- 35:39The big banks got a bailout. Main St. bailed out Wall Street.
- 35:44What about recourses then? Like again, it's it's pure utter
- 35:51hypocrisy that's the problem. It's pure utter hypocrisy.
- 35:57But I love that she's saying the choir part out loud, which is
- 35:59like, you're God damn right more of the economy is going to go
- 36:03into Bitcoin. And that's what you ultimately
- 36:05fear. That's what you ultimately fear.
- 36:08You fear Bitcoin being integrated into the traditional
- 36:12financial system because you know that once Bitcoin is
- 36:16integrated into the traditional financial system and all the
- 36:19trad FI is starting to benefit from number go up, it's going to
- 36:23be a whole lot harder for you to roll out that CBDC and mandate
- 36:28the American people to adopt it. It's going to be a whole lot
- 36:32harder because all your donors, your big donors, and then we
- 36:35know who the big donors of Elizabeth Warren are.
- 36:37They're the big banks. You know what?
- 36:41I I don't think they're going to take your side so much on on
- 36:44that, right? So again, like it, it's just the
- 36:48pure and utter hypocrisy coming from the likes of Elizabeth
- 36:52Warren, right? These are the same people that
- 36:54were taking donations from Sam Bankman Freed, right?
- 37:00Same people. So it's like like, you know,
- 37:03it's a rules for thee, but not for me.
- 37:05It's unequal justice. And that is not right.
- 37:09That is not correct. And that's why I'm not I'm I'm
- 37:11these arguments, they fall short on me.
- 37:13They, they, they don't even make logical sense and you're not
- 37:16being truthful and you're taking advantage of the information
- 37:19asymmetry with low information voters that don't know anything,
- 37:24that have a preconceived notion of crypto.
- 37:28And unfortunately, and this is what I said, yes on yesterday's
- 37:31show, unfortunately the Bitcoin industry gets joined with the
- 37:37crypto industry. Like if you are a low
- 37:40information voter, if you don't know much about Bitcoin, you
- 37:44think that Bitcoin and crypto are one in the same, you cannot
- 37:48differentiate the 2. So she's taking advantage of
- 37:53that. And what is that but not
- 37:56opportunist? What is that but not being
- 38:00honest? What is that but not being
- 38:02honest? Let let's if, if we want to talk
- 38:04about, you know, the, the American people and who gets
- 38:08affected the most. You know who gets affected the
- 38:11most when they print money? It's the people that don't own
- 38:15assets. You know who doesn't own assets?
- 38:19The lower and middle classes. These are the people that
- 38:23Elizabeth Warren is saying that she's advocating for.
- 38:27This is the thing that Bitcoin specifically fixes.
- 38:32So let's be real here about what's going on.
- 38:35She's being dishonest with her arguments.
- 38:39She's being incredibly dishonest.
- 38:42And maybe it's because she doesn't know any better.
- 38:45Or maybe, and I agree with Opti by the way, or maybe again, it's
- 38:50because she wants an alternative system and she knows that that
- 38:53alternative system isn't popular.
- 38:56She ran part of the Kamala campaign ran on This is
- 39:04Elizabeth Warren's own campaign slogan, creating an anti crypto
- 39:10army. That didn't work out too well
- 39:13during the election. But again, simultaneously it
- 39:17doesn't help. And I told you guys she was
- 39:19going to use this as ammunition. I told you guys this, it doesn't
- 39:24help that the Trump and that that the President Trump
- 39:27launched a meme coin a week before he got inaugurated.
- 39:31And the meme coin was like straight up like a pump and
- 39:33dump, right? It doesn't help, right?
- 39:36That doesn't help the case, right?
- 39:38And I told you guys that what was always going to, what was
- 39:40going to be weaponized as well is the fact that Iran made this
- 39:43announcement that they were going to accept Bitcoin as a
- 39:47form of payment to pass the Strait of Hormuz.
- 39:50So I mean, that's my take on all that Optia.
- 39:53I mean, like it's, it's kind of like, you know, it's rules for
- 39:57thee and not for me. It's unequal justice.
- 39:59It's not, it's not right. It's not correct.
- 40:02I'm not buying her arguments. And she's taking advantage of
- 40:05the fact that some people just don't know any better.
- 40:08They just don't. It's, it's not that they don't
- 40:10know any better, it's just that they're just not truly informed
- 40:12about what's actually going on. And she's clearly taking
- 40:15advantage of that. Yeah, I mean, not surprised at
- 40:19all to be honest here, but I it's probably tripe to say at
- 40:23this point, but in our circles, we all know the real criminals
- 40:28use the dollar. So like I, I know, I know it's,
- 40:31I know. It's like a meme, but that could
- 40:34be like, but like, OK, like that could be like a like a meme and
- 40:37like whatever, but like I ran you guys the numbers.
- 40:40Yeah, that's what that's what I'm saying.
- 40:41That's what I'm saying. But anyway.
- 40:42Point $3 trillion in transactions was utilized by
- 40:46criminal networks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars
- 40:49via TD Bank, a heavily regulated bank within the traditional
- 40:53financial system with all the KYC and AML protections.
- 40:59Despite all of that $18.3 trillion in transaction.
- 41:03And by the way, the vast majority of money laundering and
- 41:08the vast majority of illicit finance is still conducted
- 41:11through the traditional financial system.
- 41:13It's not conducted through the Bitcoin protocol or the Bitcoin
- 41:18network. So why is there such a focus on
- 41:21this and not on that? And the reason is because they
- 41:25don't control this, but they control that.
- 41:28And ultimately what it comes down to is they care about
- 41:31control. That's what it comes down to.
- 41:35So anyways, I think we've covered this thoroughly in my
- 41:38opinion. Yeah, probably too long
- 41:41actually. One last thing I do want to say,
- 41:43because I have been mentioning this for a long time, It is very
- 41:46interesting, especially now that we're seeing a lot more
- 41:50conversation around Bitcoin in Washington DC, that they always
- 41:56kind of say the same thing that if the system is failing and
- 42:00there's obviously debate on that, it is funny that the
- 42:03framing is oh look, hey, it might be failing, but like
- 42:07don't, don't look at what the left hand's doing.
- 42:09It's because of what Bitcoin's doing.
- 42:11And we're, we're basically going to become the scapegoat here.
- 42:14And we've been talking about that for a long time.
- 42:15Like if the God forbid we see an absolute meltdown of the
- 42:20traditional financial system, we all probably know they're gonna
- 42:24be blaming Bitcoin and, and crypto.
- 42:27It's it's like it's, it's being telegraphed now.
- 42:30I mean, I don't know if it's actually going to happen that
- 42:32way, but if it does, know that we will be the scapegoat. 100%
- 42:36and people aren't going to be able to do differentiate between
- 42:39Bitcoin and crypto. And unfortunately this law too
- 42:43again, it it like the reason it's been held up for so long is
- 42:47because this bill isn't just a Bitcoin bill.
- 42:49It's a Bitcoin and defy and crypto and and everything and
- 42:54Opti's like laughing his ass off.
- 42:56I'm laughing at the chat. I'm laughing at the chat.
- 42:57Opti is the left. Hand.
- 43:01Oh, man. OK, All right, All right.
- 43:04I think we've, I think we've beaten a dead voice.
- 43:06Here we've covered it thoroughly.
- 43:08Yeah, yeah, I think. Anyways, guys, we're going to be
- 43:10right back just after the break. Stay tuned because we have a
- 43:13video of Senator, Senator Lummis talking about the significance
- 43:19of this bill, how difficult it's been to pass.
- 43:23And we have to understand where we are in the movie.
- 43:25The pivotal shift that is happening in human society with
- 43:30the integration of Bitcoin, with the adoption of Bitcoin
- 43:33worldwide, what it means for us as human civilization, what it
- 43:37means for us as a country, what it means for us as the world,
- 43:40right. And I think Elizabeth Warren
- 43:42touched on a little bit of that. So we're going to be right back
- 43:46just after the break. Stay tuned.
- 43:49Today's episode is brought to you by Bitcoin Well, infinite.
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- 46:00back. By the way, guys, we're
- 46:02developing something new. We can't tell you what it is,
- 46:06but it's coming very, very soon. We've been working on this for
- 46:09the last couple months. We put a lot of love and a lot
- 46:12of attention into it. It is not a shit coin, but if
- 46:15you want to find more about what we're working on, scan the QR
- 46:19code on your screen right now and you can sign up.
- 46:23All you got to put, all you got to do is you put your your
- 46:25e-mail and we'll update you on it.
- 46:27But we're very, very excited to announce what we've been working
- 46:31on, on Simply Bitcoin. And again, it's not a shit coin.
- 46:34It's not an all coin, ladies and gentlemen.
- 46:36So because I know it gives that kind of vibe when you're saying
- 46:39it that way, but it's not. It's really, really awesome.
- 46:42A lot of love, a lot of attention, and you're going to
- 46:45find a lot of value out of it if you're a Bitcoiner.
- 46:47So scan the QR code below and it will take you to the website.
- 46:51Anyways, at the time of recording, the Bitcoin price is
- 46:54$79,440. That's per dollar 1259 block
- 46:59tight, 949,540 realized monetary inflation .83% market cap 1.59
- 47:08trillion Bitcoin versus gold market cap 5.29% percentage
- 47:13issued 95.3% decline from all time high -37% so if you're
- 47:20buying Bitcoin right now, you're getting a 37% discount.
- 47:24Anyways, no more delay. Here is Senator Lummis talking
- 47:26about the significance and the difficulty that it's been
- 47:31passing the Clarity Act into law.
- 47:34I'll let her talk about it. This is the hardest piece of
- 47:39legislation I've ever worked on. I served 14 years in the Wyoming
- 47:43Legislature, 8 years as State treasurer, and now 14 years in
- 47:47the Congress. This is by far the hardest piece
- 47:50of legislation I've ever worked on.
- 47:53And your colleague Kirsten Gillibrand said the same thing.
- 47:58And she has more experience than I do in the US Senate.
- 48:02And it's because this is a case of first impression.
- 48:06This is a very new commodity and security and it takes time to
- 48:15craft something to address the innovation that has been brought
- 48:20about through blockchain technology.
- 48:25And that's why it's taken such a bipartisan effort, heavy lift,
- 48:31lots of negotiations, involvement from those people
- 48:36who are in the industry. And it has morphed since we
- 48:40began this bill five years ago because the industry has matured
- 48:45over those years. This is new, and to have
- 48:49something this innovative come to us via legislation today
- 48:57really is quite remarkable. So I want to thank the people in
- 49:02this room, both in the audience and at the table, for their
- 49:08tireless dedication. Treasury, the White House, the
- 49:13industry, we have all worked hard together and I pledge to
- 49:18you we will continue to work hard together after today and
- 49:25before this bill hits the floor to address that maybe 1% of the
- 49:32remaining issues that didn't come to fruition before today,
- 49:40in spite of our round the clock negotiations.
- 49:44This is America's innovation of the 250th anniversary of our
- 49:53Constitution. There's been nothing like it in
- 49:56our history. This bill continues the legacy
- 50:00of America by ensuring innovation happens here on US
- 50:05soil under clear pro growth, pro consumer guidelines.
- 50:10And I can't resist, Mr. Chairman, when I was listening
- 50:14to the ranking member, the risks of which she spoke exists now,
- 50:23right now, because there is no regulatory framework.
- 50:27There is no way now that this industry can protect the good
- 50:40actors, discover, vet and punish the bad actors, and create a
- 50:47playing field with clear regulation both at the SEC and
- 50:52the CFDC that everyone can play under and continue to innovate.
- 50:58We can return this industry to the United States because the
- 51:02majority of it has already left for overseas, because this
- 51:07legislation wasn't ready until today.
- 51:15Dude, I can't, I can't believe I, I, I had the honor of being
- 51:18able to, to interview her epic, epic speech, right?
- 51:23And you know, she hit on all the points, but you, you heard it
- 51:28from Senator Lummis. This has been the most difficult
- 51:31bill. And you said, you heard her say
- 51:35how how game changing this would be for the country and how how
- 51:40pivotal this would be for the country and how unique this
- 51:46specific bill is and how throughout her entire career,
- 51:52she's never had so much difficulty passing a bill.
- 51:55And I think that tells you everything you need to know.
- 51:57And then again, I think the, the, the beauty kind of like
- 52:01the, the, the, the symbolism of the Trump administration's goal
- 52:06of, of getting this passed by July 4th, which again would be
- 52:09the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, which
- 52:14again, maybe it got a little bit sidetracked, you could say.
- 52:18But this was a country that, you know, was founded on the base of
- 52:21freedom, right? So you know what is Bitcoin but
- 52:25not freedom? I, I, before we go, I, I do just
- 52:31want to say I, I do appreciate Senator Lummis optimism on this.
- 52:36Obviously, as you guys know, I've been very cynical about the
- 52:39whole Bitcoin meets politics, Bitcoin meets Washington DC.
- 52:44But we, I think every single Bitcoiner throughout this whole
- 52:48process has realized like Senator Lummis is the real MVP.
- 52:51You know, if you don't know Senator Lummis, I know some
- 52:54people just have a blanket cynicism about politicians, but
- 52:58I think Senator Lummis has really put in the good fight.
- 53:00We all know she's basically going to be gone 2027.
- 53:04She's, you know, going to move on to bigger and better things.
- 53:07But she is a Bitcoiner and she. Let's be specific, she's not
- 53:10running for re election. Exactly.
- 53:12She's not running for re election.
- 53:13Yeah, but that might actually that might have sounded worse
- 53:15than I than I wanted to. But she is a Bitcoiner.
- 53:20She's been holding Bitcoin or sorry, been holding Bitcoin.
- 53:23She has Bitcoiners, very, very influential Bitcoiners that are
- 53:28part of her family, her extended family.
- 53:30Like, yes, she's only one piece of, you know, everything going
- 53:35on in Washington, DC, But I think every single one of us can
- 53:38truly say that she's done everything that she could.
- 53:42And I think we all got to give, you know, Senator Lummus, the
- 53:45Bitcoin senator, a lot of praise for the work she's done.
- 53:48I'm sure it was a lot harder than we've seen publicly.
- 53:52I'm sure you know it, it definitely, as she said in that
- 53:55clip, tried her like it was, it was very difficult.
- 53:57So hey, again, I know I've been cynical about this process.
- 54:02What's going to go in the clarity Act, etcetera.
- 54:05But I do got to give the props to Senator Lummis for for
- 54:09staying in the fight, for doing the fight for being in the
- 54:12arena, as we always say. So, you know, shouts out to
- 54:15Senator Lummis. I I truly love the optimism
- 54:17there. Absolutely, guys.
- 54:18We still have a ton to get to. Right after the break, I'm going
- 54:23to give you guys an update on Polymarket.
- 54:25Also, historic day, ladies and gentlemen, coming out of the
- 54:31Federal Reserve. I'll give you guys an update on
- 54:34the Federal Reserve, who is on the Federal Reserve, what their
- 54:37stance is on Bitcoin, and also some news coming out of JP
- 54:42Morgan. Again, another major, major bank
- 54:45moving towards the industry. So guys, stay tuned.
- 54:49You're not going to want to miss it, and Opti's got something
- 54:52special for you. You guys during the culture
- 54:54segment someone used Clod to break into an old Bitcoin
- 54:59wallet. They thought they lost the
- 55:02passcode. Too Can AI crack our wallets?
- 55:05So no, there's there's more, there's more.
- 55:08Nuance. I know, I know.
- 55:09They're totally so you guys. Don't want to miss the rest of
- 55:12the content for the rest of the show, so stay tuned.
- 55:14We're going to be right back. Just after this quick break, I
- 55:18want to give a shout out to our partner Leaden.
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- 57:55All right, everybody getting into today's news, massive,
- 57:59massive news coming out of the Federal Reserve.
- 58:04And again, I'm going to say the line that Opti absolutely hates
- 58:08elections have consequences. So Jerome Powell's tenure at Fed
- 58:16chair ends today and now we have a new Fed chair and check this
- 58:23out. River did a pretty good job at
- 58:25putting this together. These where?
- 58:28You click it where you click. It these are all the Fed
- 58:32governor's and let's check this out.
- 58:36Kevin Walsh quotes If you're under 40, Bitcoin is your new
- 58:41gold. Michelle Bowman again, it's and
- 58:44they put pro and and neutral and all that stuff.
- 58:47So Kevin Walsh, the chair is pro stance on Bitcoin again.
- 58:52He said if you're under 40 Bitcoin is your new gold.
- 58:54Michelle Bowman pro She's the VC super.
- 58:59I think supervision. Did he mean supervisor?
- 59:01I guess supervision, you don't need a tech background to
- 59:05appreciate the opportunity that blockchain provides to the
- 59:08financial system. That's a big one.
- 59:10Chris Waller pro I all I have always argued that Bitcoin was
- 59:15going to end up being something like electronic gold.
- 59:18It's a store of value that is massive.
- 59:21Ladies and gentlemen, Jerome Powell, neutral to positive.
- 59:25It's like gold, only it's virtual gold.
- 59:27It's really a competitor to gold.
- 59:29Lisa Cook, neutral to positive, she says encourages financial
- 59:33innovation while cautious of stability risks.
- 59:37Philip Jefferson, he is a vice chair, neutral to unknown, no
- 59:42public record statement on Bitcoin or digital assets.
- 59:44And then Michael Barr, the only cautious slash skeptical 1
- 59:48emphasizes guardrails, consumer protection and financial
- 59:51stability risk. Again, these these are like
- 59:54these are like 2017 arguments. Like what about the guardrails
- 59:58on the banks laundering money? What about like consumer
- 1:00:01protection from debasement of the currency?
- 1:00:04I want consumer protection from debasement of the currency.
- 1:00:07Right, what about financial stability risk?
- 1:00:09What about, you know, not debasing the currency?
- 1:00:12I would say that that causes more financial instability for
- 1:00:15the lower middle classes than any type of, you know, thing
- 1:00:18that Bitcoin does. So again, you know, but we're
- 1:00:22making progress, ladies and gentlemen, more of these are pro
- 1:00:25to neutral than cautious slash skeptical.
- 1:00:29So again, you could see how elections have consequences.
- 1:00:33You can see how the political winds are moving.
- 1:00:35You could see how the culture natural needle to worldwide
- 1:00:38Bitcoin adoption is moving as well.
- 1:00:40And also I want to get to this other headline before I get
- 1:00:43Opty's takes on all of this. JP Morgan increases Bitcoin ETF
- 1:00:48holdings by 174% According to an article on Intellectia dot AI
- 1:00:56significant increases. JP Morgan disclosed 174%
- 1:01:02increase in its holdings of Black Rocks ETF and its Q1 2025
- 1:01:08filings, making a notable shift in the bank's exposure to
- 1:01:12Bitcoin ETFs and indicating growing interest from
- 1:01:15traditional financial institutions in crypto products.
- 1:01:20Quarterly Comparison The report shows a substantial increase in
- 1:01:25JP Morgan's BlackRock position as of March 31st, 2025 compared
- 1:01:31to the end of Q4 of 2024, although the exact timing and
- 1:01:36price of the increase remain unclear, suggesting a
- 1:01:39combination of market value appreciation and potential new
- 1:01:43shares share purchases. Market attention As the largest
- 1:01:48bank in the US, JPMorgan's increase in Bitcoin ETF exposure
- 1:01:53draws significant market attention, signalling that large
- 1:01:56financial institutions are actively engaging with regulated
- 1:02:00crypto project products, with I Bit being the dominant vehicle
- 1:02:04for institutional Bitcoin exposure since its launch in
- 1:02:08January of 2024. Regulatory Transparency The 13 F
- 1:02:13filing provides market participants with a transparent
- 1:02:16view into how banks and asset managers are positioning
- 1:02:20themselves around Bitcoin. And while it does not clarify
- 1:02:23the reasons behind JP Morgan's increase in I bit, the scale of
- 1:02:28the change undoubtedly contributes positively to the
- 1:02:31narrative of institutional adoption of Bitcoin ETFs.
- 1:02:36I mean, is it the best? No.
- 1:02:40Is it a step in the right direction?
- 1:02:42Yes. Would I have wished them to say,
- 1:02:46hey, JP Morgan significantly increased by 174% their spot
- 1:02:54Bitcoin exposure to Bitcoin? Absolutely.
- 1:03:00I don't know, man. Like look like the problem with
- 1:03:04the ETF is like, ultimately guys like the way we win is
- 1:03:10institutions, nation States and individuals taking Bitcoin into
- 1:03:14self custody. That's how we went.
- 1:03:18What's yet to be seen and yet to be determined is like what
- 1:03:24happens if the majority of these institutions don't adopt
- 1:03:29traditional spot Bitcoin, but they adopt Bitcoin through the
- 1:03:33ETF? Is that regulatory capture?
- 1:03:39Are they going to have influence over the Bitcoin network?
- 1:03:43Is BlackRock going to propose a fork of some type and then force
- 1:03:49the exchanges through regulations to adopt that
- 1:03:52certain fork? And you know, like these are all
- 1:03:56considerations to have, right? Opti thoughts, ideas, concerns.
- 1:04:06Well, look, I'll start with the JP Morgan news because we also
- 1:04:11saw this morning that AUS or sorry, UAE sovereign wealth fund
- 1:04:16has also increased their exposure.
- 1:04:18I, I forget the name, it's like MU MU Dabala or MU, forgive me,
- 1:04:22but we've been we've been covering them for a while.
- 1:04:24So anyways, with this idea of the institutions coming in,
- 1:04:29obviously we're not at the full, at the scale of full blown FOMO
- 1:04:35into Bitcoin, but I think we are seeing the foundations for, I
- 1:04:41don't want to say the institutional push or I was
- 1:04:45going to say I capture a Bitcoin, but we are seeing that
- 1:04:48the institutions are here, whether you love them or hate
- 1:04:50them, whether you're a fan of the ETFs or not, it's becoming
- 1:04:53very obvious that, and I've said this before, I think 2026 is
- 1:04:57going to be the year that we can very clearly stamp on the
- 1:05:00history of Bitcoin as the year that we did get embraced for
- 1:05:04better or worse. And this is starting a new era
- 1:05:06in Bitcoin. It is starting a new phase in
- 1:05:08Bitcoin, potentially the ending of the early adopter into the
- 1:05:15early majority phase. Now it's going to be very
- 1:05:17interesting to see how this plays out.
- 1:05:19Obviously, as I've been showing on the show, as we've been
- 1:05:22covering for a while, retail is nowhere to be found.
- 1:05:26So institutions are the ones currently, again, for better or
- 1:05:30worse, that are wholly in control of where the short term
- 1:05:35action of Bitcoin is going. I'm sure that will change at a
- 1:05:39certain point. We will see Bitcoin I believe
- 1:05:42pop to the up upside once they're obviously either have
- 1:05:46their bags packed or they can no longer really control the
- 1:05:50momentum and liquidity of buying a Bitcoin.
- 1:05:53But where we currently are is obviously them trying to
- 1:05:56position themselves. And this is further data points
- 1:06:00for that idea. Now for I believe personally,
- 1:06:03what is more interesting to me, obviously I'm, as you guys know,
- 1:06:07I've, I've really started to follow a lot more on the macro
- 1:06:11stuff. And it is, I would say a stark
- 1:06:13change from what I've done in the past.
- 1:06:15You know, I came into Bitcoin and was like, and the Fed, I
- 1:06:17don't care about what 12 people deliberate about inflation rates
- 1:06:22and interest rates and all this stuff.
- 1:06:24Like, to me, I don't think 12 people, you know, a small group
- 1:06:29of people should be able to 1, control the money supply, but
- 1:06:34two, be able to have enough information to accurately
- 1:06:37predict what is best for the economy.
- 1:06:38That's just kind of my, my first principles here.
- 1:06:41But what is very interesting is we are seeing the end of an era.
- 1:06:45You know, Jerome Powell's out the the Jay Powell memes.
- 1:06:50I think we have to put to rest now.
- 1:06:51No more Jay Powell money printer meme.
- 1:06:54We're going to have to update this.
- 1:06:55So it is an end to an era. Here we are in the midst of a
- 1:07:00transitional period from a Jerome Powell LED Fed to now a
- 1:07:05Kevin Walsh LED Fed. Now that is going to be
- 1:07:08obviously a cultural change. He, you know, Kevin Wash is now
- 1:07:13the basically the leader of the Fed.
- 1:07:15So there will be some some change here.
- 1:07:18Now, as I've said in the past, what is going to be the most
- 1:07:21interesting thing to me is if we encounter a Gary Gensler type
- 1:07:26scenario here where he is pro Bitcoin before he gets in a
- 1:07:29position of power and then afterwards, what is his stance
- 1:07:33going to be? Now, obviously in a more macro
- 1:07:37sense, what we what is going to be very interesting for every
- 1:07:41single one of us is whether Warsh is going to cut interest
- 1:07:46rates. How is he going to be hawkish?
- 1:07:48Is is he going to be dovish? Are we going to see an increase
- 1:07:51in interest rate cuts? Or are we going to see kind of a
- 1:07:55similar standing, you know, holding down of what Jerome
- 1:07:59Powell did? Are we going to see quote,
- 1:08:01independence from the Fed or will he do exactly what the
- 1:08:04Trump administration wants, which we know what they want.
- 1:08:07They want to cut interest rates. The money printer is going to
- 1:08:10turn on. So it is an interesting time.
- 1:08:12Now, I know a lot of Bitcoiners don't really care about the Fed.
- 1:08:15I know we have the classic idea of like, I thought we got into
- 1:08:19Bitcoin so that we can, you know, separate money from state.
- 1:08:22Why are you guys talking about the Fed so much?
- 1:08:24Well, part of this story is the connection between what is
- 1:08:29happening at the Fed and what these institutions are doing.
- 1:08:33Because as we have a new investor coming into Bitcoin,
- 1:08:36they are looking at the broader macro markets.
- 1:08:39They are looking at different signals in the market to invest
- 1:08:43their capital. Now, if Bitcoin isn't being led
- 1:08:47by retail FOMO or retail investors or us Bitcoiners
- 1:08:52anymore and it is being led by the institutional capital, then
- 1:08:56This is why we are starting to see.
- 1:08:58And as the signals have been saying and we've been repeating
- 1:09:01on this show, Bitcoin is entering into the macroeconomic
- 1:09:05picture. Bitcoin is growing up, it is
- 1:09:07maturing. So we kind of can't just dig our
- 1:09:12heads in the sand anymore and ignore everything going on in
- 1:09:15the macro. As we like to joke, we are all
- 1:09:18macro experts now. You know, every every couple of
- 1:09:21months on Twitter, we become a new expert on something that is
- 1:09:25going crazy in the world. Well, now I think it's upon us
- 1:09:29to really look at what is happening in the macro, global
- 1:09:33economic perspective so that we can very clearly and truthfully
- 1:09:41view Bitcoin in the proper context.
- 1:09:44I think that is probably the biggest signal that I'm getting.
- 1:09:47I actually, I, I do want to move on to the culture, but I'm
- 1:09:51reminded of this Magoo tweet and I really liked it.
- 1:09:54It was, I was laughing about it. It's a good troll.
- 1:09:57I love Magoo, He's a really good troll.
- 1:09:59But he did say something. And even though it was a troll,
- 1:10:02it does I think have a lot of signal in it.
- 1:10:04And you guys might get mad about it, but the, the tweet was
- 1:10:07something on the lines of you can't take financial advice from
- 1:10:14Bitcoiners because they are basing their perspective on how
- 1:10:19they wish the world was versus how the world is.
- 1:10:23And I think there is a very, you know, there's a very strong case
- 1:10:27to to like see that there is some, some value in that troll.
- 1:10:32And this is what I've been trying to do on this show for
- 1:10:35the last year and a half. This is what I'm going to
- 1:10:37continuously try to do is obviously try to look at the at
- 1:10:42the world, at economics, geopolitical situations and have
- 1:10:46as clear of a lens as possible so that I can, you know, give
- 1:10:51you the best insight that that puts Bitcoin in the context of
- 1:10:55the global markets. And obviously that's not going
- 1:10:58to change how I view Bitcoin, but it will, I think, change how
- 1:11:03I'm seeing Bitcoin in the context of the broader markets
- 1:11:06and the broader view here. And so I think right now it is
- 1:11:10very important for us to really recognize, OK, we have a
- 1:11:13changing of the guard at the Fed.
- 1:11:15Things are going to be at the very least a little different
- 1:11:19now. How does Bitcoin react in this
- 1:11:21environment now? And I think that's something
- 1:11:24that we will constantly be talking about.
- 1:11:26I will obviously be reiterating and trying to update my
- 1:11:30perspective on things. I mean, I don't know if if Kevin
- 1:11:34Wash is going to beat the Powell memes bro.
- 1:11:36Like it's. He's not going to meet the the
- 1:11:38anime money printer. Like, what are we going to do?
- 1:11:40We're not going to put Powell on the thumbnails now.
- 1:11:42Like, you know, that's, that's kind of sad.
- 1:11:45Could we have like a moment of silence?
- 1:11:49All right, that's over. Not wait a moment, to be clear.
- 1:11:54A moment of silence for the Jay Powell money printer meme.
- 1:11:57Not for necessarily Jay Powell leaving.
- 1:11:59I mean both. Honestly I'm I might hot take.
- 1:12:05We should put them on the thumbnail today.
- 1:12:07We should probably should have hot take though.
- 1:12:09I'm starting to come around on, on Jay Powell.
- 1:12:12I don't know if he was as bad as we all thought he was.
- 1:12:14And and that's probably like in hindsight, wait, hold on, hold
- 1:12:18on. In hindsight, you know, it's
- 1:12:20like you don't know what you got until you lose it.
- 1:12:23You're you're you're bearish on. No, I'm not bearish on Kevin,
- 1:12:26Wash I I'm actually pretty bullish on him.
- 1:12:29But I'm just saying we, we, the unknown unknown, we don't know
- 1:12:33what we don't know and we don't know what is going to happen.
- 1:12:38So look, I'm just holding out. Look, I don't think Jay Powell
- 1:12:42is probably going to go down in history as one of the best Fed
- 1:12:44chairs. But it might, he might not be as
- 1:12:49bad as we thought he was, is all I'm all I'm trying to say.
- 1:12:52I don't think necessarily that Kevin Walsh is going to be
- 1:12:55worse. That's not what I'm saying.
- 1:12:57I'm just saying maybe we kind of gave him a really hard time and
- 1:13:02maybe, maybe you, maybe we can just look back on the memes and
- 1:13:05remember the good times. Maybe.
- 1:13:09I don't know, hey, look, maybe he's the worst Fed chair we've
- 1:13:11had, but I'm just saying, I'm, I'm not going to say he's going
- 1:13:16to have the best Fed chair legacy, but I'm also not
- 1:13:19necessarily saying that I'm 100% convinced that he was the worst
- 1:13:23Fed chair. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
- 1:13:26I think I think hindsight will will help me make that decision.
- 1:13:30Oh guys, we're going to be right back just after the break.
- 1:13:33We're going to hit the culture. We're going to talk about
- 1:13:35Claude. Apparently Claude helped
- 1:13:37someone. Recover A is cracking Bitcoin
- 1:13:40while it's boys it's over. We're going to be right back.
- 1:13:44I want to give a shout out to our partner Hive Digital
- 1:13:47Technologies. Fueled by clean energy, Hive has
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- 1:14:14on sustainable digital infrastructure.
- 1:14:16You can catch the latest buzz at Hive Digital Tech or at Hive
- 1:14:20digitaltech.com. I want to give a shout out to
- 1:14:24our partnersat123.com Sovereignty isn't just about
- 1:14:28your money, it's about your communications too.
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- 1:15:14To get 15. Percent off anything on the
- 1:15:16store. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
- 1:15:24Yeah, the Chad's funny there, guys.
- 1:15:27I'm trolling. Yeah, I'm not funny.
- 1:15:29I'm. I'm not funny.
- 1:15:30Gear. I was trolling.
- 1:15:31OK, Chef Tommy, I was trolling. I'm trolling.
- 1:15:34OK, It was a troll. Hold the tomatoes.
- 1:15:37I was trolling. OK, All right, Anyways, what?
- 1:15:40What happened? I'm sure you guys, some of you
- 1:15:42guys have saw if if you're not on Twitter or wait, seen, seen,
- 1:15:47seen. Sorry, whatever, dude, it's,
- 1:15:51it's the last bit of the Friday show.
- 1:15:53All right, give me some. Give me a break here, OK, I'm
- 1:15:56sure some of you guys have seen if you are perpetually online
- 1:15:59like we are and you're on Twitter and you got a lot of us
- 1:16:04like Opti, this is old news. Yeah, well, you know, we've had
- 1:16:06guests on all week. I didn't have an opportunity to
- 1:16:08talk about this, OK. I wanted to talk about it
- 1:16:10earlier. I actually wanted to make a show
- 1:16:12on this but no one really cares about AII.
- 1:16:15Was gonna really do a click bait fund title on this but I my my
- 1:16:20my better angels. Got the best of me.
- 1:16:23Anyways, anyways, what am I talking about?
- 1:16:25So this guy CPRKM on Twitter, he goes holy effing Shiite.
- 1:16:35Oh my God, Claude just cracked this.
- 1:16:38Thank you anthropic AI. Thank you Dario Omedia naming my
- 1:16:43kid after you. So apparently he used he lost
- 1:16:47his wallet. He says my, I've been locked out
- 1:16:50of my Bitcoin wallet for nine years and he basically let
- 1:16:56Claude and then I'll I'll give you the whole tweet where he
- 1:17:00kind of breaks it down. He let Claude have access to his
- 1:17:04Bitcoin wallet and it helped him get back into his Bitcoin wallet
- 1:17:07that he was locked out of. Now obviously the prevailing FUD
- 1:17:13line if you want to use that is like uh oh, AI is cracking
- 1:17:15Bitcoin wallets guys, it's all over with like you know Bitcoin
- 1:17:19like why what are we doing here? A is going to take over the
- 1:17:22world. We're all cooked like there's no
- 1:17:23point in doing anything now I don't think that's the case.
- 1:17:27It there is a very particular kind of technical aspect of
- 1:17:30this, which is obviously why Claude was able to help this guy
- 1:17:34get into his Bitcoin wallet. So here we go.
- 1:17:37Here's like the, I guess the summary of it.
- 1:17:40And he goes, so he gave Claude access to the hardware that his
- 1:17:45Bitcoin wallet was on and it goes, OK, let me check bit TC
- 1:17:49recovers actual second pass decryption ran to codes, it
- 1:17:52goes, let me use BTC recovered directly with dumped private
- 1:17:55keys to decrypt, ran to commands, it goes, found the
- 1:17:59bug. The password passed is in shared
- 1:18:01key plus password concatenated. Ran decrypt with correct BTC
- 1:18:07recover algorithm. Shared key plus password private
- 1:18:10keys decrypted. Let me convert to AWIF format
- 1:18:14and verify addresses. Ran 3 commands and he got into
- 1:18:17his wallet that had five Bitcoin in it.
- 1:18:19So for this guy, super hype got into a what?
- 1:18:22What's 5 Bitcoin right now? It's like 5 * 80,000.
- 1:18:28Someone did the mass. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:18:31A decent size. Decent size.
- 1:18:33Anyways, let's go, let's go further.
- 1:18:35And he goes, I tried like 7 trillion passwords.
- 1:18:39Found this old mnemonic a few weeks ago that ended up being
- 1:18:42the old password before I changed it.
- 1:18:44Thought I was screwed. A last ditch effort.
- 1:18:46Dumped my whole college computer into Claude.
- 1:18:49It found an old wallet file that the mnemonic successfully
- 1:18:52decrypted. Locked out 11 plus years because
- 1:18:55I got stoned and changed the password.
- 1:18:58Spent $250 on each law. Holy F and he goes Seriously
- 1:19:03shout out to Entropic AI. Ended up being the most obvious
- 1:19:07opening ever but I would have been too dumb to figure it out.
- 1:19:10Best part is the password was low 420.
- 1:19:13Fuck the police with with some characters and then he got his
- 1:19:17last tweet muting as Claude. To summarize our recovery
- 1:19:21efforts. TLDR, tried roughly 3.5 trillion
- 1:19:25passwords, none worked. Ended up matching an old seed
- 1:19:29phrase that I found in a college notebook with an old wallet
- 1:19:33file. So to be clear and to minimize
- 1:19:37the fact that you guys are going to say I'm fudding, Claude
- 1:19:40didn't actually crack the password if it wasn't help from,
- 1:19:45you know, the guy finding some stuff.
- 1:19:47So here we go it goes. blockchain.com wallet recovery
- 1:19:51recap what we were trying to do recover 5 bitcoins stuck in a
- 1:19:54blockchain.com wallet encrypted with a forgotten second
- 1:19:57password. The recovery path that worked an
- 1:20:00old wallet backup from a December 2019 download on an old
- 1:20:03computer was decryptable with the.
- 1:20:06The old second password that we already knew from a notebook
- 1:20:09mnemonic. Bitcoin private keys never
- 1:20:11change, only the encryption around them does.
- 1:20:13Decrypting the old backup with the old password gave us the
- 1:20:16same private keys controlling the current funds.
- 1:20:19So at 5 Bitcoin out roughly 395 K what we tried that didn't
- 1:20:24work. 8 weeks of effort. BTC recover Roughly 334 billion
- 1:20:29passwords tested. Hash Cat roughly 3.4 trillion
- 1:20:34passwords tested across generic brute force pattern attacks and
- 1:20:38gap phase attacks. Mnemonic decoding found two
- 1:20:41blockchain.com legacy mnemonics in a notebook, decoded them to
- 1:20:44old main and old second passwords, and then
- 1:20:47comprehensive password search across 2 Macs.
- 1:20:51Total passwords tested roughly 3.5 trillion.
- 1:20:54None matched the current hash total.
- 1:20:56Spend $15 on a vast LAIGPU rental.
- 1:21:03And then just to put the cherry on top, this is probably the
- 1:21:06funniest part about this whole saga.
- 1:21:08He tweeted later. Best part is I'm finally able to
- 1:21:10dump my Bitcoin cash. F you Roger.
- 1:21:16Legend, legend, absolute legend. One of us, one of us, one of us,
- 1:21:20one of us. But like the technicals of it.
- 1:21:23Obviously Claude or AI didn't actually crack the wallet, no.
- 1:21:29No, no, I just found his password.
- 1:21:30It just yeah, it exactly so, you know, shout out to this guy and
- 1:21:35and backing up it didn't. Crack the password yet?
- 1:21:39Dude, you're already getting bearish on me.
- 1:21:42Already getting bearish. But hey, I guess the take away
- 1:21:45here is 1 probably don't smoke while you are, you know, riding
- 1:21:51down your seed for phrase he. Didn't know bro, this was back
- 1:21:55in the day. I know, but we are.
- 1:21:58Bitcoin was probably worth. Like, I mean, 11 years ago it it
- 1:22:02was worth like what what's 11/20/15?
- 1:22:05Maybe like 500 bucks. Yeah, some maybe 5000 bucks
- 1:22:09dude. That's if it's like can.
- 1:22:10You imagine those nine years of just like.
- 1:22:13Hating yourself but anyways anyways, we are in 2026 so good
- 1:22:17hygiene when you are writing down your seed phrase and and we
- 1:22:22were getting there. We were getting there and your
- 1:22:24seed phrase and your. Password stamp them or use the
- 1:22:29bit key which is seedless, right?
- 1:22:31And and on top of that, probably don't smoke while you're doing
- 1:22:35this process. You should be as sober and clear
- 1:22:37headed as possible. I agree with that.
- 1:22:39And or as well. Multiple backups.
- 1:22:43I agree with that too. But you know, it is it is pretty
- 1:22:47pretty kind of cool story for this guy.
- 1:22:49First of all, obviously he got back into his wallet, Shouts out
- 1:22:53to AII. Guess AI is might be good for
- 1:22:55something. Might be good, might be good for
- 1:22:57something. And yeah, AI is not cracking
- 1:23:01Bitcoin wallet so, but it's a good floodline.
- 1:23:04I do like the good floodline. How's the quantum?
- 1:23:07OK, so never. Anyways, guys, thank you so much
- 1:23:12for tuning into another episode of Simply Bitcoin Live.
- 1:23:15I do want to give a shot. That's a crazy story, by the
- 1:23:18way. Wait, wait.
- 1:23:20Wait, this is funny. This is funny. 3 point hold on.
- 1:23:233.5 trillion passwords and none of them were 420 fucked up?
- 1:23:29That's a good one. Guys, you don't want to miss the
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