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In order to even entertain Bitcoin, you have to have one thing in your brain.

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You have to kind of acknowledge that governments across the world are going

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to continue to print money and debase their own currencies to solve problems

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because it's politically expedient.

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If you don't think that, you'll never come around on Bitcoin, ever.

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So that's what I found. Bitcoin is, some people are like, it has no purpose, no sense.

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But that's why people are using it. That's how BlackRock is marketing it.

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They even show a chart of the purchasing power of the dollar since the Fed came out.

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You used to see those charts like in the deep corners of crypto Twitter.

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Now BlackRock is out there traveling the world showing people this chart.

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This is.

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Music.

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A production of WGBH.

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Welcome in to This Week in Bitcoin, episode 36. My name is Chris.

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That intro was Bloomberg's intelligence

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senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, I think is how you say it.

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And he was talking to a contentious audience there.

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But even some of the old cranks he was talking to are going the extra mile this

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week trying to understand, what is this Bitcoin thing? What's going on?

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And like we've said before on the show, nothing changes minds like a good price

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pump and maybe a red wave financed by the crypto lobby.

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And I think something that I didn't expect, but in, I suppose,

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hindsight makes a lot of sense is micro strategy is sucking all of the air out of the room.

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So one of my goals this week, among others, is to help explain to Bitcoiners

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what all the fuss is about, what's going on, why is micro strategy all of a

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sudden getting more attention than Bitcoin when Bitcoin is the thing that seems to be pumping?

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What's going on out there? And, you know, things really seem to have come to

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a peak of fit this week, as my grandparents used to say.

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So let's start with what's going on here.

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Because Tuesday, MicroStrategy was the third most traded stock in the U.S.,

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more than Apple, more than Microsoft, more than Amazon combined.

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And then on Wednesday, November 20th, MicroStrategy, MSTR, became the most traded

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stock in the United States, up 15% on a day when most of the market is down.

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Also today, MicroStrategy crossed the $100 billion market cap threshold to become

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the 93rd largest public company in the United States.

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And over the last 24 hours alone, MicroStrategy has passed 40 different companies on the top charts.

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It is now $15 billion larger than Dell.

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I think they need to rename the company to MacroStrategy at this point.

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And, of course, now everyone's taking notice. Oh, what's going on?

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What? What's happening here?

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What's all this fuss about?

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You know, and I think part of it is a lot of people like, well,

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it's just a company buying Bitcoin.

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What's the big deal? And I think if you're looking at Mikey's Bitcoin strategy

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and you think that's the play, you're probably missing about half of why this

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MSTR stock is so successful.

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And this is the bit I want to explain to Bitcoiners because it's actually massive

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big news for Bitcoin long term.

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You see, traditional, slow, safe money, they're buying all this debt that MicroStrategy issues.

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So you've got to think about this as it almost has two halves to it.

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And one half is all the ties to the legacy financial system,

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all the big money who won't invest in Bitcoin.

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It's a conduit for that big, safe, slow money that wants a little bit of upside

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action, but wants protection on the downside.

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Then on the other side, you have the stock, which, of course,

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retail is buying. Of course, investors are buying. That's highly volatile.

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And that actually is a feature. People that are trading options and investing,

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they want that volatility and they leverage it.

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And there's lots of infrastructure to do that. It's also appealing to shops

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that just don't want Bitcoin, don't want to hold Bitcoin, have some sort of rule against Bitcoin.

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It's actually been pretty clear now for a while. Bill Miller laid out the micro

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strategy appeal back on day one, or maybe it was day two of the Bitcoin ETF

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launches. So this is way back in Q1.

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Miller just lays it all out there for us. The fourth bill, it's great to have

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you on and certainly we'll get your take on legacy financial assets in your portfolio.

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But as an owner and believer in Bitcoin, what is the advent of the ETFs mean,

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if anything, for the fortunes of the asset class?

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I think it represents an enormous step forward for institutional capital accessing the asset class.

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But I think there's actually something out there that's already exposed to Bitcoin,

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which we've owned for quite a while, which is actually better than a Bitcoin

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ETF, and that is MicroStrategy.

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MicroStrategy is better than, in my assessment at least, is better than a Bitcoin

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ETF for a couple reasons. Number one, it's more liquid.

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So it's the largest owner of Bitcoin in the world.

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Not only that, there's no fees attached to it. And so you think about the optionality

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of owning a new technological asset and being the largest owner of that asset,

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it provides enormous optionality over the long term.

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Not only that, you've got a CEO who owns a billion dollars worth of stock,

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who owns 750 million dollars worth of Bitcoin personally.

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He's a technologist. He's got 31 patents to his name. So he gets it.

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So, you know, we can talk about the ETFs, but there's already something that's

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more liquid out there already. And it's really interesting to consider that.

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Although it's a micro strategy.

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I mean, it's perhaps more liquid at this point for sure.

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But its value is also going to deviate from the value of the underlying Bitcoin.

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And, of course, there is also a software business in the public company as well.

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Absolutely. And that's one of the things that makes its point for sure.

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But its value is also going to deviate from the value of the underlying Bitcoin.

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Of course, there is also a software business in the public company as well.

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Absolutely. And that's one of the things that makes it super interesting to

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me in that if the value deviates from the intrinsic value, so if the price goes above intrinsic value,

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Michael can sell more shares into the open market and use that cash to buy Bitcoin.

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That's an enormously value accretive thing to do.

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If you think about the history of fiat currencies, always debasing themselves.

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Right. And then you've got something

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whose supply, Bitcoin, is completely independent of the demand for it.

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That's a very value accretive thing to do is sell something in dollars and buy something in Bitcoin.

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I guess that's good if you already own the stock. But maybe don't be one of

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those buyers of a new equity offering at a big premium to intrinsic value if

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it's just, you know, essentially an arbitrage.

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Well, selling shares at a premium to intrinsic value benefits ongoing shareholders.

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So we don't mind that at all. No, I figured.

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So what they're saying there is they don't mind if Saylor dilutes the shares,

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you know, issues more shares to buy more Bitcoin.

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In fact, the holders like it. And if the value dips well below,

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right, the intrinsic value of the software business plus the Bitcoin,

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he can always buy back shares.

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So Wall Street likes the fact that there's a manager here.

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There's a bullish Bitcoin manager. and if things dip, he can always just buy back stock.

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Wall Street likes that safety mechanism. So, you know, having somebody at the

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helm of what is effectively a closed-end fund...

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Allocating that capital is enormously value creative longer term.

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Gotcha. So as somebody who, you know, who looks at individual,

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you know, equity and bond opportunities out there with a value orientation,

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how are you finding the markets right now in terms of whether there's...

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We'll stop there because I want to keep moving.

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I think if that was a little technical, I think there's probably a more clear

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explanation I can give you.

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They're they're doing a a conduit

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from big safe money into bitcoin where big

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safe money gets to do check all of their boxes and everybody

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on the other end that wants the volatile trade gets to check all of their boxes

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and the end result is he's created a product on both ends of the market that

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seems to be really popular and he's just absolutely smashing the market he's

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he's made nvidia look boring okay well how does that compare to all the s&p 500 Okay.

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NVIDIA is the number one. And you can see that we used to be proud we were slightly

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beating them, but now we're crushing them.

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Right? This is not even funny anymore.

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Here's the thing. If you can copy NVIDIA's business model, I encourage you to do so.

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I don't think Apple and Google and Microsoft and Amazon believe they can copy

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NVIDIA's business model.

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Do you understand how important that is, what he's saying there?

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These businesses need growth. These businesses need stability,

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and their assets are melting away.

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And they can't just go create a giant AI chip business and drive value through

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the market that way. They're kind of tapped out.

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What can Apple do at this point? What can Amazon really do at this point? It's incremental.

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And there's just kind of this end of the road that they're at.

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And in order to be the next business, they'd essentially have to completely retool.

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And then you're competing in NVIDIA's game.

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There's not really an option here.

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I don't think Apple and Google and Microsoft and Amazon believe they can copy

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NVIDIA's business model.

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But I'm inviting all of you to copy my business model.

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I'm telling everybody, I'm singing it, I'm yelling it from the treetops,

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I'm showing you how, I'm publishing the playbook.

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It's the simplest thing possible.

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Any company can copy that, right?

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And that's what you get if you copy that business model. So there he has NVIDIA

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with their 1,228% gains since August 10th of 2020.

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And MicroStrategy has 2,785% gains.

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So they've really, they truly have just blown NVIDIA out.

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I mean, it's amazing. And so, of course,

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you're going to see more and more organizations get on board with this.

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Because what Saylor's doing is he's creating this kind of playbook for companies to follow.

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And he explains it in a way that maybe is a little bit easier to understand

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in a X spaces, I guess it was.

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It's kind of like, and I use this analogy, Jan, it's like if you look to Standard

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Oil and you said, well, the company seems to be trading at a premium to the oil reserves.

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Well, no joke. That's because the company has a refinery and it creates kerosene.

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You ever try to put crude oil in a rocket or crude oil in a jet or crude oil

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in your car or pour crude oil on a highway?

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The point is you can't. You need asphalt. You need gasoline.

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You need kerosene. You're refining it.

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You can't do the refining without the reserves.

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So the Bitcoin reserves that we have

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have a practical use the use is they're

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collateralizing the fixed income instruments and then they're creating volatility

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and performance for the equity instrument which feed the option instruments

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which create the volatility and all of those things together mean that.

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We're just kind of like a, we're like a transformer. You got 480 volt three-phase

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power coming in one side of the property.

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And on the other side, you want to run your daughter's hairdryer or your,

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you know, or your washer and dryer or your electric heater,

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or you, you know, and, and I think we're stepping it down, you know,

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most, most three-phase electricity will blow out the hairdryer, but I get your point.

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I think it's, I'm actually making the point to three-phase power

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is what i use to run my 500 ton yacht but there's

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a massive transformer that steps it down

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you know from the street and what micro

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strategy is doing with its capital is it's transforming high

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voltage bitcoin into low vol low voltage securities and so it's taking off i

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tried to keep a list in just the last week i saw more organizations announce

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they were starting some sort of Bitcoin-backed treasury that I could keep track

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of. Here's a few that I got.

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Seamer Scientific acquired 215 Bitcoin for $17.7 million.

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Thumbsub Media Corporation just approved a $1 million Bitcoin strategy plan.

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MetaPlanet, we've talked about them. They snapped up an additional 124 Bitcoin.

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Cosmos Health has added Bitcoin to its treasury. They're a Chicago-based global

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healthcare group. And it would seem that River has done a study that has 62

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different public companies that now have a Bitcoin treasury strategy of some kind.

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And if you go out to private companies, they estimate it's thousands with 1,000

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business clients on River Business alone.

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10,000 or 1,000? I may have that number off by a bit.

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But they mentioned that recently they have seen more business account signups than ever before.

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And they estimate that over 15 billion dollars

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in bitcoin or 671 bitcoin has been purchased by private entities obviously sailor's

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leading the pack here micro strategies even increased its lead significantly

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over tether as the largest corporate buyer and recently sailor released that

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he was invited to speak with the microsoft board now you recall.

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I talked about a story that Microsoft, that revealed that Microsoft was going

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to vote on building a Bitcoin treasury in December.

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An activist member put this up for vote. It doesn't really seem like the board overall is for it.

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And Saylor, in the same ex-spaces thing, really went into some details that,

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A, make it sound like maybe he's involved with this.

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And, B, he took a pass at trying to get Saatchi Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, to take a meeting.

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And Saatchi declined. And perhaps that was the declining of that meeting that

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led to the activists forcing the issue with the board.

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So they may, if you listen to this, tell me if it sounds like to you,

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they're trying to do an end run around perhaps the executive level of Microsoft,

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which may be anti-Bitcoin.

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I'm taking a lot out of this. I'm reading tea leaves here. So I'd love it if

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you boosted in your take on this clip.

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Microsoft is facing a shareholder vote next month that would force the board

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to evaluate Bitcoin as a treasury asset, to which the board replied,

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we already do evaluate it. This proposal is unnecessary.

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So just curious, do you think that these types of shareholder proposals are

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a good way or the best way to push Bitcoin as a reserve?

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Or do you think there's other ways that folks on the call here could help catalyze greater adoption?

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Well, first of all, I think it's a perfectly fine way to do it.

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And the activists to put that proposal together contacted me to present to the board.

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And I agreed to provide a three-minute presentation. That's all you're allowed.

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And I'm going to actually post that online and I'm going to present it to the board of directors.

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I also offered, we also offered to withdraw that proposal of Satya Nadella would meet me.

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And I said, I would fly to wherever he is and meet him in confidence in his

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office for an hour to discuss.

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But that offer was not accepted. So you will see me putting together the three

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minute proposal for Microsoft and it'll get posted and we'll send it to the board.

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And I think it's a good and not a bad idea to put it on the agenda of every company.

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That ought to be put on the agenda at Berkshire Hathaway and Apple and Google

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and Meta because they all have huge hordes of cash. They're all burning shareholder value.

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And the approach of an Apple is 98.5% of the enterprise.

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Sorry, the approach of Microsoft is 98.5% of the enterprise value is levered to quarterly earnings.

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And 1.5% of the value of the stock is tangible assets.

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And it would be a lot more stable stock and a much less risky stock if half

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the enterprise value of the stock was based upon tangible assets or property like Bitcoin.

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So I think there's a great argument to be made. I think shareholders should make it.

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We're preparing materials and we're enthusiastic advocates. And if anybody's

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got an entree to the board of a company with massive amounts of capital, I'm happy to help.

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Music.

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Another reason Bitcoin is doing really great this week and getting a lot of

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attention is the ETFs are absolutely on fire.

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And yesterday, as I record, options around those ETFs were approved.

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So BlackRock alone has purchased 88,000 Bitcoin in the last 30 days.

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Their ETF, which is IBIT, has become the fastest ETF in history to hit $40 billion

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in assets under management.

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So by comparison, the second fastest ETF to ever get to $40 billion took 1,253

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days, so like six times longer.

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But the bigger story is these ETF options.

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This is huge because, first of all, we're getting a whole new data signal,

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which is fascinating because you're seeing how people are placing their bets

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on the price for the future.

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And it seems like a lot of people are betting that Bitcoin is going to easily

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break $100,000 in the next month. So it's fascinating to watch that data signal,

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which I didn't really expect.

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Outside of that, I want to try to explain options and why they should,

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at least to some degree, help miners and maybe, maybe reduce volatility.

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What do you think the effect of options being available on IBIT has, if any, on the market?

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I think it's a big effect. All other markets, commodities, equities,

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the derivatives and options markets are orders of magnitude larger than the

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spot markets. I think it gives institutions really good abilities to hedge,

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I mean, better than anything.

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But the onshore options market in the U.S. is very thin, right?

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You have some CME options.

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You used to have smaller shops. Some of those went away. So outside of the OTC

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space, there's not been a good place for institutions to do options.

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And by the way, I should mention retail.

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44% of U.S. equity options are traded by retail, and they really can't access any options at all.

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So you can imagine if we get into a bull market where retail is trading on Robinhood

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and other fintech apps, that those options could be really impactful.

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That's Alex from Galaxy Digital. And he's saying, essentially,

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not only are institutions going to use this, but these are instruments now that

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retail, you and I, you know, the plebs, never had access to.

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And so that's also going to be a really big deal. And it is causing the price to pump.

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So the price of Bitcoin near an all-time high, getting closer now to the $94,000 level.

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And this happening as ETF options going live, giving investors a new way to hedge their exposure.

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Kenzie Segalis is here, joins us with more this morning. Good morning.

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Hey, good morning, Andrew. This is what U.S. crypto investors have been waiting for.

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On Tuesday, the Nasdaq listed options on BlackRock's $44 billion spot Bitcoin ETF.

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Day one of trading showed that more than 80% of options volume were call orders

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to buy Bitcoin, meaning that investors are betting that the token is poised for even more gains.

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Can you just soak that in? So over a billion dollars in action, almost two bill, right?

283
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And 88% of it, is that what she said? 80%, let's go with that,

284
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is a bet that the price is going to go up.

285
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I think the market likes the coin. And this is just the first of the U.S.-based

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asset issuers to offer options.

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The other 10 providers will soon follow suit with several more slated to list

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on the New York Stock Exchange later today.

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Now, this is really a significant moment for Bitcoin adoption because rather

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than just buying and holding the asset, this next stage is all about creating

291
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a new margin framework for Bitcoin so that you can amplify your returns.

292
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Being able to hedge positions and make leveraged bets is a big draw both to

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retail and to institutions.

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And even though we've seen a lot of trading volume on the CME derivatives exchange,

295
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getting options tied to these spot crypto products on the NASDAQ and NYSE is

296
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a big unlock for traders.

297
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Because ultimately, Andrew, a more robust onshore derivatives market is how

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you attract fresh investment, which is a tailwind for the price of Bitcoin.

299
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And I could not have seen a more perfect timing for these ETFs all around.

300
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They launch in January just before the halving, just as the market is really

301
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starting to wrap their head around the impacts of long-term inflation.

302
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And then these options come online just as a very pro-crypto administration is forming.

303
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A new SEC head is on his way in.

304
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The obvious problem of inflation continuing to be persistent has obviously,

305
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I mean, I just, like, it's not going away.

306
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It's just, I mean, it's just become clear, right? Like a year ago,

307
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it was like, oh, yeah, no, they're going to beat inflation. Look how fast it's coming down.

308
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Today, it's not looking like it's coming down. It's very sticky.

309
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It's in the obvious category now. That's why I use the word.

310
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And so investors are very much retuning for scarcity.

311
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And the ETFs, while I think it's still better for all of us to hold the actual

312
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asset, the ETFs offer this sort of easy exposure, right?

313
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This kind of simple way to hedge against the ravages of inflation using the

314
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existing tools and system that are in place.

315
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So it's like they're the perfect product for the reality of the market right

316
00:21:59,218 --> 00:22:01,098
now. You could not have timed this any better.

317
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Welcome back to Morning Trade Live. 95,000 Bitcoin continues to hit all time highs.

318
00:22:10,498 --> 00:22:14,318
How high can it go? How do people feel trading this, buying this?

319
00:22:14,458 --> 00:22:19,238
David Jankansky is with us, CEO, CIO at Quantify Funds.

320
00:22:19,418 --> 00:22:23,458
All right. So he's really there. I'll warn you now because I have no reason

321
00:22:23,458 --> 00:22:28,178
not to. He's there to shill a new ETF product that they have that's clearly

322
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aimed at investors that are looking for scarce assets.

323
00:22:30,778 --> 00:22:34,358
But I think he makes a good point as to why the market's ready for this right now.

324
00:22:34,578 --> 00:22:38,898
I know we have the halving every four years. There seems to be a little uncertainty.

325
00:22:39,358 --> 00:22:44,378
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of equity rally is somewhat engineered as well through buybacks.

326
00:22:44,678 --> 00:22:48,178
We're in a world of some assets have less supply and some have more.

327
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Stocks, there have been less shares, more buybacks. There's lower supply.

328
00:22:52,618 --> 00:22:56,258
Currencies around the world are printing at enormous rates and

329
00:22:56,258 --> 00:22:59,738
assets such as bitcoin and gold actually hold some scarcity bitcoin

330
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as you noted post having mines at

331
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about 86 basis points a year so less than one percent new supply a year gold

332
00:23:07,558 --> 00:23:12,398
supply increases about 1.75 percent a year so you have to ask yourself what

333
00:23:12,398 --> 00:23:16,358
is what is the pace of printing that paper currencies are going to experience

334
00:23:16,358 --> 00:23:18,078
over the next couple years we've

335
00:23:18,078 --> 00:23:21,398
seen about 40 percent of all dollars in circulation printed since COVID.

336
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And I think, as we discussed earlier, that's front of mind for everyone trying

337
00:23:24,898 --> 00:23:28,458
to figure out, especially with this big rally we've seen in pretty much all

338
00:23:28,458 --> 00:23:31,518
assets, how do you protect this now? What if inflation comes back?

339
00:23:31,718 --> 00:23:35,798
And that's why we launched the STKD Bitcoin and Gold ETF to combine two assets

340
00:23:35,798 --> 00:23:39,658
that can both independently protect against debasement of the price.

341
00:23:45,917 --> 00:23:48,477
There's also the reality of

342
00:23:48,477 --> 00:23:54,857
the perhaps more and more realistic-looking Bitcoin reserve of some kind.

343
00:23:55,717 --> 00:23:59,677
Cynthia Lummis, or Lummis, like Hummus, has introduced a bill,

344
00:23:59,697 --> 00:24:03,897
and it is now the fourth most viewed bill in the entire country.

345
00:24:04,037 --> 00:24:05,837
That's her strategic Bitcoin reserve bill.

346
00:24:06,677 --> 00:24:11,717
And also this week, BlackRock and VanEck publicly came out backing the Bitcoin reserve idea. Yeah.

347
00:24:12,297 --> 00:24:17,997
Van Eck went all in on the actual like full proposal where BlackRock was a little more vague.

348
00:24:18,517 --> 00:24:22,817
BlackRock kind of backed the general idea of some kind of reserve,

349
00:24:23,017 --> 00:24:27,277
but didn't point to any particular initiative like Lummis's bill.

350
00:24:27,457 --> 00:24:32,857
And it just really seems to be overall creating a shift around the public perception

351
00:24:32,857 --> 00:24:37,477
of Bitcoin at a level I've never seen in 13, 14 years of following Bitcoin.

352
00:24:37,697 --> 00:24:42,677
It's really kind of wild. Even Good Morning America had positive coverage of Bitcoin.

353
00:24:43,457 --> 00:24:47,117
Yeah, Bitcoin has been on this defying gravity kind of runner.

354
00:24:47,317 --> 00:24:50,737
So up 34% just since the election.

355
00:24:50,937 --> 00:24:55,097
And in large part, the election is what's been fueling this meteoric rise.

356
00:24:55,237 --> 00:24:58,197
Bitcoin could break through $100,000 by January.

357
00:24:58,497 --> 00:25:03,017
This is slowly becoming more mainstream. 17% of Americans, so about one in five,

358
00:25:03,157 --> 00:25:07,817
now have had some sort of exposure to cryptocurrencies. One in five? Five.

359
00:25:08,517 --> 00:25:12,037
One in five. How about that? Isn't that something?

360
00:25:12,217 --> 00:25:18,797
And I've definitely noticed conservative family members of mine and conservative

361
00:25:18,797 --> 00:25:22,657
influencers online are looking at Bitcoin more seriously now as well.

362
00:25:23,057 --> 00:25:27,377
I think so there's it's we've definitely opened up the between micro strategy

363
00:25:27,377 --> 00:25:29,777
and the Bitcoin reserve talk.

364
00:25:29,917 --> 00:25:34,297
We seem to have really opened up or shifted the Overton window on it again,

365
00:25:34,497 --> 00:25:36,717
more so than I just it's amazing how it happens.

366
00:25:36,877 --> 00:25:40,137
Really, It seems to escalate with the price. It really does.

367
00:25:40,137 --> 00:25:42,257
It just seems to always escalate with the price.

368
00:25:43,797 --> 00:25:47,797
Okay, I got a question for you. I want you to lock your prediction on the show with a boost.

369
00:25:48,117 --> 00:25:52,617
Will we see a Bitcoin reserve of some form in the U.S.?

370
00:25:53,515 --> 00:25:59,235
And I'm going to say in 2025. If yes, tell me why. And if no, also tell me why.

371
00:25:59,395 --> 00:26:04,555
I would like to know what you think. Are you, I guess, aka bullish on a reserve

372
00:26:04,555 --> 00:26:06,995
or are you bearish on a Bitcoin reserve?

373
00:26:07,355 --> 00:26:10,615
You know, it is the number four viewed bill in the country right now.

374
00:26:10,875 --> 00:26:16,015
But the Republicans don't have a massive majority and the Senate is known for

375
00:26:16,015 --> 00:26:17,095
kind of being a buzzkill.

376
00:26:17,575 --> 00:26:19,975
So you can have the executive branch get excited about things.

377
00:26:20,075 --> 00:26:22,895
The House can get excited. Social media can get excited.

378
00:26:23,515 --> 00:26:27,835
The Senate usually takes things slow and tries to calm things down.

379
00:26:28,315 --> 00:26:31,455
We'll see. I'd like to know your prediction. Boost in and let me know.

380
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:38,480
Music.

381
00:26:39,795 --> 00:26:44,415
Alright, coming up, your boosts. My take on why altcoins are about to go nuts.

382
00:26:44,655 --> 00:26:46,055
Yes, brace yourself, Bitcoiners.

383
00:26:46,515 --> 00:26:50,475
Project update you need to know about. And not one, but two final clips of the

384
00:26:50,475 --> 00:26:52,335
week. They're both so great, I had to play them.

385
00:26:52,855 --> 00:26:55,935
But before we go any further, if you'd like to support the show by stacking

386
00:26:55,935 --> 00:26:58,875
sats, I've got a link to River in the show notes.

387
00:26:59,255 --> 00:27:02,555
They're a great place in the U.S. to buy stats, stack sats. You can transfer

388
00:27:02,555 --> 00:27:06,035
over the Lightning Network. They've got their Bitcoin reserves that are verifiable by you.

389
00:27:06,215 --> 00:27:11,095
They're an all-Bitcoin company with a beautiful interface and some great leadership. That's River.

390
00:27:11,295 --> 00:27:14,375
I have a link in the show notes. You use that link. We both get some sats.

391
00:27:14,655 --> 00:27:18,035
Now, maybe you want to spend your sats. Christmas is coming up or the holidays.

392
00:27:19,255 --> 00:27:22,575
Thebitcoincompany.com, promo code Jupiter, or use the link in the show notes.

393
00:27:23,175 --> 00:27:27,035
You get some sats, the show gets some sats. It's a great way to go from lightning

394
00:27:27,035 --> 00:27:29,135
to a gift card instantaneously.

395
00:27:29,275 --> 00:27:32,535
And you can log in with your lightning ID too. So you don't even have to create an account.

396
00:27:32,735 --> 00:27:37,375
I love it. That's the Bitcoin company. A link to that. I'm also using Fold to pay my bills.

397
00:27:37,595 --> 00:27:39,835
And I stack sats that way. If you've been thinking about the Fold card,

398
00:27:40,015 --> 00:27:41,695
I have a link to that in the show notes now as well.

399
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:49,520
Music.

400
00:27:50,605 --> 00:27:54,005
And we also have some boosts. Boosty Gray.

401
00:27:54,325 --> 00:28:04,525
And our baller boost this week is user 204 coming in with 49,609 sats. Hey, rich lobster!

402
00:28:06,185 --> 00:28:09,405
He says, hopefully my name is fixed on Fountain now.

403
00:28:13,485 --> 00:28:17,625
No, I don't know what's going on there, man. Last few boosts were anonymized.

404
00:28:17,625 --> 00:28:21,845
I always enjoy the show, and your efforts and determination make it great.

405
00:28:22,025 --> 00:28:26,365
I subscribe to the JB Monthly membership as well. Hey, Jupiter Party member, thank you.

406
00:28:26,685 --> 00:28:29,425
And try to catch your other shows each week and share them with friends.

407
00:28:29,545 --> 00:28:30,685
Dang, dude, thank you very much.

408
00:28:31,085 --> 00:28:37,045
After hearing Cantor Fitzgerald's talk and Sailor, I realized I'm not nearly bullish enough.

409
00:28:37,245 --> 00:28:39,805
Price talk, newbie corner, second layer, mints, nostril talk,

410
00:28:40,625 --> 00:28:43,125
begging on fake Toshi, it's all good with me.

411
00:28:43,265 --> 00:28:46,825
You, sir, deserve a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you for all that support.

412
00:28:48,625 --> 00:28:54,865
Thank you very much. I don't know if I'm fighting a cold today or if I just messed up my sinuses.

413
00:28:55,765 --> 00:28:58,885
Probably did both, to tell you the truth. You know, you get sick one way and

414
00:28:58,885 --> 00:29:00,485
then you're kind of vulnerable and you get sick another way.

415
00:29:00,965 --> 00:29:03,645
But even when I'm a little under the weather, I still want to do the show.

416
00:29:03,745 --> 00:29:06,945
And these boosts, they really are a motivating factor because I love this segment.

417
00:29:07,005 --> 00:29:08,825
I love hearing from you guys. And I really appreciate that.

418
00:29:09,566 --> 00:29:12,986
Thank you very much. Adversaries 17 is back.

419
00:29:13,166 --> 00:29:20,906
Hello, Mr. Adversaries. And he comes in with 24,576 sats. All systems are functional.

420
00:29:21,726 --> 00:29:26,246
Responding to the Bitcoin chain size, as of this boost, my node takes up 595 gigabytes.

421
00:29:26,586 --> 00:29:29,446
It's really just a drop in the bucket, though, for my 50 terabyte server.

422
00:29:29,726 --> 00:29:31,846
Nice. Oh, I'd love to have 50 terabytes.

423
00:29:32,306 --> 00:29:36,186
Feeling tight on storage these days. He says, regarding if people are asking about Bitcoin.

424
00:29:36,386 --> 00:29:39,766
Yeah, they're asking me. I've had quite a lengthy conversation with some co-workers

425
00:29:39,766 --> 00:29:40,926
about it over the last few days.

426
00:29:41,466 --> 00:29:45,106
Neither of them have any at the moment, but I think they might soon.

427
00:29:46,786 --> 00:29:50,946
Wow. Chris, how do you feel about this workflow? You DCA onriver,

428
00:29:51,106 --> 00:29:54,926
withdraw over Lightning to an AlbiHub, send from AlbiHub to Boldstart Exchange

429
00:29:54,926 --> 00:29:57,726
to my cold storage, and exchange it from layer 2 to layer 1.

430
00:29:58,226 --> 00:30:01,686
It says, I understand I would need enough channel liquidity to make that happen,

431
00:30:01,706 --> 00:30:04,126
but is that a workflow that is sound?

432
00:30:04,846 --> 00:30:08,246
What sat amount would you recommend for the trigger to step two?

433
00:30:08,446 --> 00:30:12,466
I think that is pretty sound. I think you could take out the need for an Albi

434
00:30:12,466 --> 00:30:14,746
hub for that intermediary step and just go to liquid.

435
00:30:15,286 --> 00:30:18,406
If that was something you wanted to consider since you're using Boltz.exchange

436
00:30:18,406 --> 00:30:22,866
anyways. So you could go from lightning over river to liquid.

437
00:30:23,586 --> 00:30:27,326
But absolutely, if you already have an Albi hub and you have the channel capacity,

438
00:30:27,466 --> 00:30:30,226
which it sounds like you do, then that is really a fantastic option.

439
00:30:30,746 --> 00:30:34,666
As for the amount, this is like a really impossible question.

440
00:30:35,406 --> 00:30:39,486
It really depends. I think you should wait to at least over a million sats.

441
00:30:39,846 --> 00:30:42,506
And I think you should consider five million sats. It's like,

442
00:30:42,566 --> 00:30:45,686
what's your bet on how much Bitcoin is going to be worth and how much you might

443
00:30:45,686 --> 00:30:48,486
transfer and UTXO transfer sizes in the future?

444
00:30:48,626 --> 00:30:50,966
It's really, really tricky that way.

445
00:30:51,286 --> 00:30:53,446
I wish there was a way we could...

446
00:30:54,677 --> 00:30:57,817
You know, I wish the liquid network, I wish I could advocate that you could

447
00:30:57,817 --> 00:30:59,817
just cold storage with liquid, but I just can't.

448
00:31:00,377 --> 00:31:03,677
I can't do that. Liquid's not a long-term storage. It's an intermediary.

449
00:31:04,157 --> 00:31:09,117
And I also can't recommend you leave it long-term on a hot lightning node.

450
00:31:10,017 --> 00:31:13,037
You know, I just feel like that's also not a great long-term storage for your

451
00:31:13,037 --> 00:31:14,677
SATs. You really do want to get it into cold storage.

452
00:31:14,797 --> 00:31:19,117
So I'm glad you're thinking about that, 17, and keep us posted on the workflow.

453
00:31:19,617 --> 00:31:22,257
And you might consider a liquid workflow, but if you already have the AlbiHub,

454
00:31:22,437 --> 00:31:23,357
you don't really need it.

455
00:31:24,497 --> 00:31:27,937
It's something I'd like to feedback on, though. You can tell I would like some feedback on that one.

456
00:31:28,417 --> 00:31:31,557
ChewToy comes in with 22,222 sats.

457
00:31:31,677 --> 00:31:35,337
This old duck still got it. I heard Jack Mahler's on the Bitcoin Standard Pod

458
00:31:35,337 --> 00:31:39,357
say that bill pay on strike is coming soon. Oh, okay.

459
00:31:39,917 --> 00:31:43,617
Thanks for that tip. I've also used the fold card, but the value of sats back

460
00:31:43,617 --> 00:31:46,237
reward was less than what I could get from my normal credit card.

461
00:31:46,417 --> 00:31:48,737
Now I just use the credit card and buy more sats on strike. Like,

462
00:31:49,137 --> 00:31:55,057
yeah, I look at the fold card as I was going to spend that money anyways,

463
00:31:55,057 --> 00:31:56,557
and I wasn't going to use a credit card.

464
00:31:56,637 --> 00:31:59,957
I wanted to just use a checking account or a debit card.

465
00:32:00,477 --> 00:32:03,017
And so those are the transactions that I'm doing monthly.

466
00:32:03,797 --> 00:32:06,957
I could see if I had a credit card that I liked that did sats back,

467
00:32:07,097 --> 00:32:08,217
I could see just using that.

468
00:32:08,437 --> 00:32:11,477
It really is kind of hit and miss. And the way the fold stuff works is the more

469
00:32:11,477 --> 00:32:12,937
you use it, the more sats you get back.

470
00:32:13,657 --> 00:32:16,737
And so I put a lot of my big bill payments on there, like, you know,

471
00:32:17,297 --> 00:32:19,017
car payments and insurance and stuff like that.

472
00:32:19,557 --> 00:32:23,617
We'll see if that's the best way long term. There could be other solutions.

473
00:32:24,177 --> 00:32:27,317
I'm going to continue to explore. But I appreciate that boost.

474
00:32:27,837 --> 00:32:31,457
Gene Bean comes in with 4,400 and 44 sats.

475
00:32:31,737 --> 00:32:34,317
Affleck! Yeah, that's an Affleck. It's two boosts. Really, he says,

476
00:32:34,457 --> 00:32:36,057
thanks for the well wishes, Chris, and the rest of JB.

477
00:32:37,077 --> 00:32:39,837
I inadvertently listened to some of the podcasts out of order.

478
00:32:39,837 --> 00:32:44,337
And I heard from white paper to win to winter and I can't wait to dive into latest episodes,

479
00:32:44,817 --> 00:32:48,417
I also look forward to getting back into a few other shows I saw Wes has a Knicks

480
00:32:48,417 --> 00:32:52,737
flake for Albie hub are you using it and do you recommend it for us Knicks officiados

481
00:32:52,737 --> 00:32:56,037
I got to do something custodial now that Albie has an end date yeah we'll get

482
00:32:56,037 --> 00:33:00,117
to that I don't think that flake is quite there yet I'll talk to him about that

483
00:33:00,117 --> 00:33:01,837
because we do want to get that set up,

484
00:33:02,824 --> 00:33:06,964
So when we do have a working flake for Albie Hub on Nix, I will link it in the

485
00:33:06,964 --> 00:33:10,344
show notes and put it on blast. Good to hear from you, Gene. Thank you.

486
00:33:10,844 --> 00:33:15,844
Nix comes in with 3,333 sats. Put some macaroni and cheese on there, too.

487
00:33:15,984 --> 00:33:18,084
Just says thanks for the show. Well, thank you for the boost,

488
00:33:18,244 --> 00:33:19,204
Nix. Appreciate the value.

489
00:33:20,004 --> 00:33:24,904
Cypher Citizen is here with 8,000 sats. This is the way. It's crossed a bunch

490
00:33:24,904 --> 00:33:26,504
of boosts, which are fire emojis.

491
00:33:27,664 --> 00:33:30,944
That's awesome. You know what? I like that.

492
00:33:35,284 --> 00:33:39,584
Thank you, Cypher Citizen. Good to get some emojis from you.

493
00:33:39,904 --> 00:33:44,284
The immunologist is here with 8,888 sats.

494
00:33:44,624 --> 00:33:48,324
That's not possible. Nothing can do that. Well, I see it right here.

495
00:33:48,444 --> 00:33:49,464
Let's hear it good, buddy.

496
00:33:49,724 --> 00:33:53,064
He says, take 4x breakfast for a great podcast. Take four times.

497
00:33:53,204 --> 00:33:54,444
Yeah. You know, you should have it.

498
00:33:54,944 --> 00:33:58,504
Twib is part of a healthy, balanced breakfast. That is very true.

499
00:33:59,044 --> 00:34:02,644
Thank you, the immunologist, for pointing that out. Coach Rick is here with

500
00:34:02,644 --> 00:34:06,524
2024 Sats. Analysis mode, password 80085.

501
00:34:07,424 --> 00:34:09,984
He says, thanks for the early episode. I had to get on it, man.

502
00:34:10,304 --> 00:34:13,344
You know, it's fun sometimes. It's just fun to ride that wave.

503
00:34:13,564 --> 00:34:16,424
And you got to figure that's when interest was probably at its height.

504
00:34:16,584 --> 00:34:18,024
What's going on? Those kinds of things.

505
00:34:18,384 --> 00:34:21,044
When I can, I'm happy to do that with the show. Because, you know,

506
00:34:21,044 --> 00:34:25,764
it's here to keep everybody informed and kind of try to put some sense to what

507
00:34:25,764 --> 00:34:28,564
seems like sometimes a little bit of madness. Thank you for the boost.

508
00:34:29,384 --> 00:34:33,144
Ace Ackerman's here with a row of ducks, 2,222 sats.

509
00:34:34,244 --> 00:34:38,304
Thumbs up on the State of the Network segment. The BTC price discussion on occasion is sufficient.

510
00:34:38,524 --> 00:34:41,664
I started talking to friends and family about Bitcoin in the summer of 2018

511
00:34:41,664 --> 00:34:46,404
and the wide variety of sponsors and no chatter about it yet from them.

512
00:34:46,504 --> 00:34:48,364
But I'm expecting some during the holidays.

513
00:34:48,584 --> 00:34:51,384
I'm a Gen X, by the way, which makes a difference, I think.

514
00:34:51,964 --> 00:34:54,964
Yeah, I agree. I think it's definitely an age thing there to a degree.

515
00:34:55,444 --> 00:34:57,104
My mom asked me about it recently.

516
00:34:57,824 --> 00:35:00,744
And so she bought a little bit because she asked me about it a few weeks ago.

517
00:35:00,764 --> 00:35:03,004
So she bought a little bit before the biggest rally.

518
00:35:03,144 --> 00:35:06,204
So I think she's already in profit, which is amazing. That generally...

519
00:35:07,019 --> 00:35:10,079
You know, that's not always your experience with Bitcoin. May not always be.

520
00:35:10,639 --> 00:35:12,919
So that's kind of fun. But otherwise, I really haven't heard from anybody.

521
00:35:13,739 --> 00:35:17,419
I haven't really heard from anybody. And people know because,

522
00:35:17,779 --> 00:35:23,539
you know, I mean, I was mining, you know, a decade ago and talking about Bitcoin.

523
00:35:23,959 --> 00:35:27,919
I was doing podcasts about Bitcoin. So I really put it. I'm really, I'm pretty well known.

524
00:35:28,259 --> 00:35:31,259
I'm pretty well known for saying this is something you might want to get a little

525
00:35:31,259 --> 00:35:32,499
bit of in case the price goes up.

526
00:35:33,079 --> 00:35:36,199
I really don't know how many people out there actually ever listen, though. but

527
00:35:36,199 --> 00:35:38,879
at least mom did thanks ace it's nice to hear

528
00:35:38,879 --> 00:35:42,379
from you no hmm noro flomo

529
00:35:42,379 --> 00:35:45,919
n-r-o-f-l-m-a-o oh

530
00:35:45,919 --> 00:35:48,719
okay noro probably laughing your no

531
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:53,559
that's not it either no that's not it i gave it a shot i'm gonna say noro flomo

532
00:35:53,559 --> 00:35:57,219
i'm sorry i'm a little distracted i got fruit loops in this drawer oh my god

533
00:35:57,219 --> 00:36:00,899
this drawer is filled with fruit loops uh boosting in from uh the three three

534
00:36:00,899 --> 00:36:04,699
three one jeez i'm all over the place today a little bit of a head cold i guess

535
00:36:04,699 --> 00:36:08,019
i don't know boosting in from 313 Detroit. Ayo! Hey, nice.

536
00:36:09,759 --> 00:36:12,039
Recently discovered the show on Fountain, the podcast rakes.

537
00:36:12,399 --> 00:36:14,519
Yeah, that's great. It's become my favorite. I look forward to you every week.

538
00:36:14,639 --> 00:36:17,719
Well, that's great. This is not my best week.

539
00:36:17,779 --> 00:36:22,559
B-O-O-S-E. Not my best week, so stick with me. Stick with me.

540
00:36:22,619 --> 00:36:23,839
I promise I'll be better next week.

541
00:36:24,319 --> 00:36:27,119
Thought Loki 1 comes in. And thank you for the boost. It's great that you found.

542
00:36:27,119 --> 00:36:28,859
Us on Fountain. I really appreciate hearing from you.

543
00:36:29,259 --> 00:36:32,359
Thought Loki 1 comes in with 19,000 sats.

544
00:36:33,579 --> 00:36:37,459
I wanted to say thank you for all the info that you share. I'm a former altcoin

545
00:36:37,459 --> 00:36:40,519
miner, but now I'm fully into Bitcoin.

546
00:36:40,839 --> 00:36:43,659
Thanks again for the patience you had with me and helping me set up my wallet

547
00:36:43,659 --> 00:36:46,219
workflow. I feel good with my Bitcoin on cold card now.

548
00:36:46,479 --> 00:36:50,439
Thanks to you and the Bitcoin dad retro shout out for making me a maximalist.

549
00:36:50,739 --> 00:36:53,399
Hey, that's great. You know?

550
00:36:54,254 --> 00:36:57,954
I mean, all coins will rip. I'll get into that. But you should not let it distract

551
00:36:57,954 --> 00:37:00,674
you from the path that is Bitcoin. We'll be talking about that.

552
00:37:01,234 --> 00:37:05,814
Appreciate that. Chimp came in with a row of ducks, 2,222 sats.

553
00:37:06,634 --> 00:37:12,454
Heard it on Twib. He's boosting the song. And I'd like also three eggs and some steak. Rare, please.

554
00:37:12,674 --> 00:37:15,614
You got it. Coming right up. Noongi comes in also with a row of ducks.

555
00:37:16,434 --> 00:37:19,094
Good song. Great podcast. Thank you for supporting the artist,

556
00:37:19,214 --> 00:37:21,874
Noongi. Appreciate that. Baffo is back.

557
00:37:23,054 --> 00:37:26,954
Holy smokes. Folks, I never saw this one coming.

558
00:37:27,354 --> 00:37:31,674
Did you hold on? Pump the brakes right there. No way. Are you here? Is this real?

559
00:37:32,374 --> 00:37:38,174
Let's hear it. Good buddy. 15,000 sats. Baffo is back. Thanks for bringing back the Bitcoin pod.

560
00:37:38,394 --> 00:37:41,434
It is well needed and coverage is nothing less than amazing.

561
00:37:41,714 --> 00:37:45,134
You saved me a ton of time saving from going through all of the Bitcoin news

562
00:37:45,134 --> 00:37:49,394
garbage just to get to the straight stuff. To get to the point.

563
00:37:49,894 --> 00:37:54,434
Well, there you have it. Oh boy. Day one was our guarantee. Nice to hear from

564
00:37:54,434 --> 00:37:57,414
you, Bafo. Welcome back. Glad you're on board.

565
00:37:58,154 --> 00:38:02,674
Galactic Starfish comes in with 14,567 sats.

566
00:38:02,974 --> 00:38:06,974
Yes, zip code is a better deal. I don't think that's a zip code.

567
00:38:07,214 --> 00:38:10,994
He says, I'm just super behind and thus uncertain if this resource has been shared or not.

568
00:38:11,334 --> 00:38:15,294
That's it. Here it is. Oh, it's the River Bitcoin in 21 Minutes link.

569
00:38:15,414 --> 00:38:16,534
I will put that in the show notes.

570
00:38:17,074 --> 00:38:21,894
That could be a good one to share with folks that are asking about Bitcoin and you want a resource.

571
00:38:22,574 --> 00:38:27,814
This could be it. I will link to that. Thank you very much, Galactic. Nice to hear from you.

572
00:38:28,454 --> 00:38:31,494
Chatty Mike comes in with 7,222 sats.

573
00:38:32,294 --> 00:38:35,414
He says, what's the rationale for having the Bitcoin reserve?

574
00:38:35,614 --> 00:38:38,634
It's not like during the gold standard, there was a practical use.

575
00:38:39,134 --> 00:38:44,694
So the Lummis bill gets into this, probably worth taking a quick look at.

576
00:38:44,814 --> 00:38:46,394
I have a direct link to it in the show notes.

577
00:38:46,854 --> 00:38:51,474
The idea is that we buy, if you go with the Bitcoin reserve bill,

578
00:38:51,814 --> 00:38:57,514
over a period of five years, the US government, with using funds that exist already,

579
00:38:58,034 --> 00:39:04,194
either through selling gold or reserve excesses, we purchase Bitcoin up to a million Bitcoin,

580
00:39:04,734 --> 00:39:06,274
about 5% of the supply.

581
00:39:06,694 --> 00:39:12,574
And we hold it for 20 years. The idea being is that that Bitcoin,

582
00:39:12,734 --> 00:39:16,554
honestly, just by the US government taking that action would significantly increase the value of Bitcoin.

583
00:39:16,954 --> 00:39:20,434
But then over that 20-year period, you would see other nation states,

584
00:39:20,594 --> 00:39:23,254
other companies, rich individuals, all pile in.

585
00:39:23,754 --> 00:39:27,234
So over that 20-year period, in theory, the price would continue to go up quite

586
00:39:27,234 --> 00:39:29,534
a bit because so much of the supply is now locked up.

587
00:39:30,134 --> 00:39:32,634
And then you have another halving in there, right, in a few more years.

588
00:39:33,274 --> 00:39:38,394
The idea is that maybe that supply starts to offset the $36 trillion in debt

589
00:39:38,394 --> 00:39:41,854
that we are, maybe not over, you know, maybe it doesn't, maybe,

590
00:39:41,974 --> 00:39:45,494
you know, like 50 trillion or something, but maybe, maybe we get 10 trillion

591
00:39:45,494 --> 00:39:47,054
in Bitcoin in that reserve.

592
00:39:47,614 --> 00:39:50,074
And we start to have something that begins to offset that debt.

593
00:39:50,794 --> 00:39:52,314
I think that's part of the idea.

594
00:39:53,831 --> 00:39:58,411
And then also you have to figure if other nations do it, there's sort of like a race to the end there.

595
00:39:59,111 --> 00:40:04,951
It's sort of like an arms race, but for an asset, I suppose.

596
00:40:05,591 --> 00:40:09,131
Tell me what you think about that. Does that make sense? And Blue Moose came

597
00:40:09,131 --> 00:40:12,091
in and ran us out with 2,450 sats.

598
00:40:12,351 --> 00:40:14,311
That's a spicy meatball.

599
00:40:14,851 --> 00:40:19,091
No message, just the support, which I appreciate. Thank you very much.

600
00:40:19,671 --> 00:40:22,971
Now we do have the 2,000-sat cutoff, so that way we don't, you know,

601
00:40:23,131 --> 00:40:24,251
spend the whole show reading Boost.

602
00:40:24,491 --> 00:40:29,511
But I do read all of them, including the one that came in from Bitcoin Pup at

603
00:40:29,511 --> 00:40:34,691
100 sats and Grounded Grid and Wartime and Josh and Paranoid and so many others

604
00:40:34,691 --> 00:40:37,271
in there. I'm scrolling right now. There's a lot in there. Thank you, everybody.

605
00:40:37,691 --> 00:40:41,291
I really appreciate it. In fact, we had 26 folks Boost in.

606
00:40:41,731 --> 00:40:45,251
52 of you also just set your app to stream those sats.

607
00:40:45,431 --> 00:40:50,391
So collectively, you sat streamers helped the show stack 63,837 sats.

608
00:40:50,971 --> 00:40:59,971
When you combine that with our boosters, well, we have a 265,494 Bitcoin stack for the show today.

609
00:41:04,871 --> 00:41:09,311
Thank you, everybody. Really appreciate that. That's a pretty good showing for the weekly show here.

610
00:41:09,711 --> 00:41:15,051
And, you know, obviously you break that down hourly. It's still not a great, great pay.

611
00:41:15,531 --> 00:41:18,971
But I'm in this for the long haul, and I feel like there's a strategy for a

612
00:41:18,971 --> 00:41:24,071
podcast network to have a Bitcoin reserve that is made possible by the people

613
00:41:24,071 --> 00:41:25,291
that are consuming the content.

614
00:41:25,571 --> 00:41:28,491
The people that are consuming the content, it's not really fair to call them

615
00:41:28,491 --> 00:41:31,911
investors, but it's a de facto investment in the ongoing content.

616
00:41:32,091 --> 00:41:35,971
And then those Bitcoin, as they increase in value, continue to go to work for the podcast network.

617
00:41:36,411 --> 00:41:41,751
I don't know if we're going to have some sort of micro strategy, macro strategy.

618
00:41:41,751 --> 00:41:46,391
But I think as we go into yet another year where ad sales are declining even

619
00:41:46,391 --> 00:41:51,171
further, there's a strategy here that may keep the network alive that otherwise

620
00:41:51,171 --> 00:41:53,891
would not even be possible or exist.

621
00:41:54,431 --> 00:41:59,191
And it's done directly over an open source peer-to-peer network by the people

622
00:41:59,191 --> 00:42:00,251
that are consuming the content.

623
00:42:00,431 --> 00:42:05,831
For the people that the content is made for, not some advertiser or some pharmaceutical

624
00:42:05,831 --> 00:42:09,831
company or even in this baby industry, some particular crypto exchange,

625
00:42:09,951 --> 00:42:11,071
but by the people themselves.

626
00:42:11,911 --> 00:42:15,191
It's so awesome and I really appreciate it. If you'd like to participate,

627
00:42:15,191 --> 00:42:18,591
you just need a new podcast app, podcastapps.com.

628
00:42:19,031 --> 00:42:23,151
I think Fountain's the easiest way to get started, but there's a bunch of options in there.

629
00:42:23,231 --> 00:42:26,651
Like if you want to set up an AlbiHub, which is really nice,

630
00:42:26,791 --> 00:42:30,451
you can connect that to things like Podverse or Castomatic or Podcast Guru.

631
00:42:30,731 --> 00:42:32,031
It gives you the ability to move

632
00:42:32,031 --> 00:42:35,831
between apps, which is a pretty powerful concept if you think about it.

633
00:42:36,131 --> 00:42:38,751
So try it out, get a new podcast app, whichever one suits you,

634
00:42:38,751 --> 00:42:41,571
then send a message into the show and support each production.

635
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:53,040
Music.

636
00:42:54,174 --> 00:42:57,814
I think there's going to be a little bit of a sour pill that Bitcoiners are

637
00:42:57,814 --> 00:42:59,534
going to have to swallow with the Trump administration.

638
00:43:00,434 --> 00:43:06,034
Along with your Bitcoin pump, you're also going to get the shitcoin pump because

639
00:43:06,034 --> 00:43:09,054
the Trump administration isn't a pro Bitcoin administration.

640
00:43:09,054 --> 00:43:10,974
They're a pro crypto administration.

641
00:43:11,534 --> 00:43:15,774
And even just going through his cabinet picks, quite a few folks in his cabinet

642
00:43:15,774 --> 00:43:20,714
picks are Bitcoiners are definitely pro crypto industry. And I think you're

643
00:43:20,714 --> 00:43:24,974
going to see under the Trump administration, all these kinds of cryptos pump.

644
00:43:25,674 --> 00:43:30,374
Your salooners and all your meme coins are just going to continue to get even

645
00:43:30,374 --> 00:43:33,654
more legitimacy. And I think that's actually a bad thing because I think it

646
00:43:33,654 --> 00:43:37,994
steals a lot of newbies away from Bitcoin. I'll give you an example.

647
00:43:38,614 --> 00:43:42,814
I won't use the names, but my wife has a practice in Skagit County.

648
00:43:43,374 --> 00:43:47,974
She has clients that come in. And one of these clients knows that my wife is

649
00:43:47,974 --> 00:43:51,334
a fan of Bitcoin. It's come up in a conversation before as she was considering it.

650
00:43:51,834 --> 00:43:55,894
Well, now that Trump is in office, this gal, she wants to buy Bitcoin.

651
00:43:56,154 --> 00:44:00,254
And did you know Donald Trump launched his own Bitcoin? The gal tells my wife.

652
00:44:01,294 --> 00:44:04,934
What's this now? My wife says to her, yeah, Donald Trump, he has his own Bitcoin.

653
00:44:05,534 --> 00:44:09,474
Yeah, it's a Donald Trump Bitcoin coin. They don't understand.

654
00:44:10,674 --> 00:44:15,194
Especially, especially, and I don't mean this disparagingly,

655
00:44:15,914 --> 00:44:18,454
the boomers who are just now paying attention because Trump won.

656
00:44:18,674 --> 00:44:26,254
They don't understand that like the Donald Trump coin isn't Bitcoin or Solana or XRP.

657
00:44:26,594 --> 00:44:30,234
They think they're like Bitcoin, part of Bitcoin somehow.

658
00:44:30,954 --> 00:44:34,474
And this is going to be a huge problem that we're going to have to sort through

659
00:44:34,474 --> 00:44:39,154
because it steals people away from the real actual scarce asset and instead

660
00:44:39,154 --> 00:44:41,774
directs them towards these assets that are managed by a team of people that

661
00:44:41,774 --> 00:44:46,174
are making money off them and dumping on top of everybody on every top. It's a bad deal.

662
00:44:47,135 --> 00:44:49,435
So with the good, and the good being Bitcoin gets legitimacy,

663
00:44:49,675 --> 00:44:52,995
maybe we get a Bitcoin reserve bill, we get a bunch of pro-Bitcoin people in

664
00:44:52,995 --> 00:44:57,055
the government, a lot of the Senate and the House are going to be pro-crypto or Bitcoin.

665
00:44:57,875 --> 00:45:04,595
It is good, but it also has some bad. And I think the Trump family has incentive

666
00:45:04,595 --> 00:45:08,315
to see all of crypto pump, not just Bitcoin.

667
00:45:08,815 --> 00:45:11,975
Crypto news that's just breaking. Kate Rooney has that for us. Hi, Kate.

668
00:45:12,435 --> 00:45:15,515
Hey, Mike. So we've got a couple of crypto headlines here. I'm going to start

669
00:45:15,515 --> 00:45:19,095
first with report here from the Financial Times that Donald Trump's social media

670
00:45:19,095 --> 00:45:22,135
company is in advanced talks to buy back.

671
00:45:22,295 --> 00:45:25,655
That is a crypto trading venue owned by the Intercontinental Exchange.

672
00:45:25,655 --> 00:45:27,635
That's the New York Stock Exchange parent company.

673
00:45:27,795 --> 00:45:31,395
As True Social does look to expand beyond online conversations.

674
00:45:31,575 --> 00:45:32,755
Again, this is according to the FT.

675
00:45:33,455 --> 00:45:37,955
The media group here is owned by President-elect Donald Trump.

676
00:45:38,235 --> 00:45:42,995
And according to this report, is closing in on an all share purchase of that

677
00:45:42,995 --> 00:45:45,615
crypto exchange. They're citing two people familiar with those talks.

678
00:45:45,775 --> 00:45:49,955
We've reached out to both companies, but you can see shares of Trump media up more than 8 percent.

679
00:45:50,155 --> 00:45:54,655
And then backed was up as much as 40 percent, but is now halted for volatility.

680
00:45:54,915 --> 00:45:57,855
And then separately, Wall Street Journal now reporting that President-elect

681
00:45:57,855 --> 00:46:01,675
Trump is meeting with the CEO of crypto exchange Coinbase.

682
00:46:01,775 --> 00:46:05,675
That is Brian Armstrong of the Journal here, citing people familiar with the matter.

683
00:46:05,835 --> 00:46:09,835
They are expected, according to this report, to discuss personal appointments

684
00:46:09,835 --> 00:46:15,935
to his second administration. I find that to be wild and also last week I played

685
00:46:15,935 --> 00:46:20,675
a clip of Cantor Fitzgerald CEO talking Howard Lutnick talking about his Bitcoin stash.

686
00:46:21,703 --> 00:46:26,163
Yesterday, Trump nominated him for commerce secretary. And the crypto industry

687
00:46:26,163 --> 00:46:30,383
plowed tens of millions of dollars into the election. It's looking for a return on that investment.

688
00:46:31,083 --> 00:46:35,183
So the entire crypto industry is going to thrive for better or worse.

689
00:46:35,383 --> 00:46:39,623
Maybe some of these will find a use case. I think it's going to be a few years

690
00:46:39,623 --> 00:46:44,083
of trying to force a use case into some of these, in my opinion,

691
00:46:44,483 --> 00:46:47,883
you know, because they don't have the scarcity factor.

692
00:46:48,063 --> 00:46:52,263
They don't have the decentralization factor. They don't have the network effect.

693
00:46:52,563 --> 00:46:56,703
And they almost, as far as I know, all, especially the ones we're talking about

694
00:46:56,703 --> 00:47:01,883
on a day-to-day basis, have a team or a foundation or a group of people managing

695
00:47:01,883 --> 00:47:04,743
and running them. They're really truly more like securities.

696
00:47:05,163 --> 00:47:07,763
They're not a scarce asset like Bitcoin.

697
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:17,840
Music.

698
00:47:18,563 --> 00:47:23,043
Now i have uh some great final clips of the week i don't i try to only do one

699
00:47:23,043 --> 00:47:27,143
final clip because that seems like to be the point but this week i found a supercut

700
00:47:27,143 --> 00:47:29,843
of something i don't play super cuts on the show don't know if i ever have but

701
00:47:29,843 --> 00:47:32,203
this week i found a supercut i want to play for you.

702
00:47:32,503 --> 00:47:37,443
But first, I need to make you aware of some big changes happening at Albi.

703
00:47:37,523 --> 00:47:39,983
This is the only update I have for you this week because it is that important.

704
00:47:40,303 --> 00:47:44,303
I'm hoping most of you have seen this, but on January 4th, 2025,

705
00:47:44,703 --> 00:47:46,443
one day after Proof of Keys Day,

706
00:47:47,223 --> 00:47:50,103
Albi is going to stop providing their shared wallet service,

707
00:47:50,123 --> 00:47:54,483
and they're going to focus exclusively on Albi Hub, the Albi Extension,

708
00:47:54,723 --> 00:47:57,243
and the Albi Go app, which all work together.

709
00:47:57,743 --> 00:48:01,923
If you fail to withdraw your funds from the Albi custodial service by January

710
00:48:01,923 --> 00:48:06,683
4th, 2025, your remaining balance will be converted into fee credits.

711
00:48:06,963 --> 00:48:11,143
These credits will be used to spin up and cover a month of Albi Cloud subscription

712
00:48:11,143 --> 00:48:14,483
and open up a payment channel so that way you can get your stuff out of there

713
00:48:14,483 --> 00:48:16,203
or set up your own self-custodial hub.

714
00:48:16,643 --> 00:48:18,963
I am an Albi Hub user. It's good.

715
00:48:20,047 --> 00:48:24,367
I'm using AlbiHub Cloud, but I also have seen a lot of setups that are pretty straightforward.

716
00:48:25,207 --> 00:48:30,207
I think this is getting sort of spun as, oh, it's so hard to set up a node.

717
00:48:30,207 --> 00:48:32,787
You got to go get Start9 or Umbra. You don't have to go that far.

718
00:48:33,347 --> 00:48:37,587
There are easier ways to use AlbiHub. You just need to look into it a little

719
00:48:37,587 --> 00:48:39,207
bit. It's really not that big of a deal.

720
00:48:39,367 --> 00:48:41,727
And they've made the migration process really smooth.

721
00:48:42,147 --> 00:48:44,807
Is it as easy as something like a fountain app, wallet? No.

722
00:48:45,527 --> 00:48:49,567
But there is a self-sovereignty aspect to this. And you have to ask yourself

723
00:48:49,567 --> 00:48:51,647
if that's worth a little bit of extra work.

724
00:48:52,387 --> 00:48:56,107
It really does not take much to get set up, depending on how you do it.

725
00:48:56,227 --> 00:49:00,987
And of course, it may be that this is the opportunity for you to consider spinning up a node.

726
00:49:01,527 --> 00:49:04,567
Why not help the network a little bit? It's fun to run a node,

727
00:49:04,567 --> 00:49:07,987
and you can set up AlbiHub and self-sovereign your Lightning.

728
00:49:08,307 --> 00:49:13,447
I really, I know it seems like a lot, but I really think for most people listening

729
00:49:13,447 --> 00:49:15,647
to this show, it is actually a very achievable goal.

730
00:49:22,067 --> 00:49:26,627
Now, I'm going to play the supercut. And you'll probably recognize some of the

731
00:49:26,627 --> 00:49:29,307
voices in here, because some of them are pretty famous, but they're all from

732
00:49:29,307 --> 00:49:33,047
quite a while ago, because, well, quite frankly, they're going to say things

733
00:49:33,047 --> 00:49:35,627
that are just not said out loud in the media anymore.

734
00:49:36,067 --> 00:49:40,427
But it is a supercut of how the U.S. monetary system functions.

735
00:49:40,847 --> 00:49:45,007
This is a really important baseline understanding to have, so when we talk about

736
00:49:45,007 --> 00:49:47,567
the money printer, you know what's actually happening.

737
00:49:48,307 --> 00:49:51,967
The Federal Reserve System is a scam. Any questions?

738
00:49:54,157 --> 00:49:55,477
If you have the courage to read

739
00:49:55,477 --> 00:49:59,957
the Federal Reserve Act, you talk about boring, but it's all in there.

740
00:50:00,377 --> 00:50:06,317
The United States Congress passed a law, which in essence was a cartel agreement,

741
00:50:06,597 --> 00:50:12,217
for all the major banks to come together and share the market and control the

742
00:50:12,217 --> 00:50:13,277
market to their advantage.

743
00:50:14,217 --> 00:50:19,797
The constitutional dollar is defined as a weight of gold or silver.

744
00:50:20,757 --> 00:50:26,857
The genius of the Federal Reserve plan was it inserted a man in the middle in

745
00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:33,517
1913 between the Constitution and the people in the form of the Federal Reserve.

746
00:50:33,797 --> 00:50:36,797
And that was the introduction of the Fed dollar.

747
00:50:37,157 --> 00:50:42,677
It's not the dollar that is defined by the Constitution. It's a note that's

748
00:50:42,677 --> 00:50:43,977
issued by the Federal Reserve.

749
00:50:48,637 --> 00:50:51,917
The power to actually print the money is the basis for the whole inflationary

750
00:50:51,917 --> 00:50:54,837
system doesn't mean they actually put the money and spend it that's what the

751
00:50:54,837 --> 00:50:58,157
treasury used to do in the civil war it's a more sophisticated way of doing

752
00:50:58,157 --> 00:51:00,857
it they write out checks out of thin air,

753
00:51:01,337 --> 00:51:05,557
buy bonds with it and then the checks or deposits on the fed then go out into the system,

754
00:51:07,137 --> 00:51:13,177
now that we have the federal reserve system now that we have a means of creating money ourselves,

755
00:51:13,717 --> 00:51:14,517
creating money.

756
00:51:14,737 --> 00:51:18,677
The purpose of tax has become very narrow.

757
00:51:19,977 --> 00:51:24,017
We can fund everything we want to do simply by creating the money.

758
00:51:24,297 --> 00:51:31,377
We still need the tax primarily as a social mechanism, as a means of engineering

759
00:51:31,377 --> 00:51:34,617
society, as a means of control.

760
00:51:35,057 --> 00:51:37,277
That's what they have the taxes for.

761
00:51:40,977 --> 00:51:46,697
Before every election, our representatives would like to make us think we're getting a tax break.

762
00:51:47,864 --> 00:51:52,204
And they're able to do it while at the same time actually raising our taxes

763
00:51:52,204 --> 00:51:55,404
because of a bit of magic they have in their kit bag.

764
00:51:55,784 --> 00:52:00,904
That magic is inflation. They reduce the tax rates, but the taxes we have to

765
00:52:00,904 --> 00:52:05,904
pay go up because we are automatically shoved into higher brackets by the effect

766
00:52:05,904 --> 00:52:08,124
of inflation. A neat trick.

767
00:52:09,044 --> 00:52:13,004
Taxation without representation. Yeah, sure, we'll keep your taxes low.

768
00:52:13,124 --> 00:52:16,364
We'll just inflate the money supply as you go into a higher tax bracket.

769
00:52:16,364 --> 00:52:20,724
Now, I want to combine that with a recent interview with Samson Mao.

770
00:52:20,944 --> 00:52:25,724
Samson Mao has one hell of a resume, but he's presently the leader of Jan3,

771
00:52:25,844 --> 00:52:28,844
which are the folks behind the Aqua Wallet, which we talked about on the show before.

772
00:52:29,244 --> 00:52:34,364
And what Samson lays out here is the business of the IMF and the World Bank.

773
00:52:34,504 --> 00:52:37,424
So when you combine these two things, so that's how the U.S.

774
00:52:37,524 --> 00:52:38,524
Financial system works.

775
00:52:38,664 --> 00:52:41,804
And then here's how their partners on the world stage function.

776
00:52:41,804 --> 00:52:46,604
There are definitely forces out there that don't want Bitcoin to be adopted.

777
00:52:46,904 --> 00:52:52,924
Some of it is not so covert. So you see the IMF actively at work trying to convince

778
00:52:52,924 --> 00:52:58,644
El Salvador to roll back or dial back their Bitcoin law or minimize it in some way.

779
00:52:59,124 --> 00:53:02,144
You've also seen the IMF exert pressure on Argentina.

780
00:53:02,144 --> 00:53:06,304
If you go back a couple of years, you'll see Argentina had a sort of a letter

781
00:53:06,304 --> 00:53:08,664
of intent saying they're not going to do anything with Bitcoin.

782
00:53:08,664 --> 00:53:13,004
But in other places too, countries we've engaged in, such as Suriname,

783
00:53:13,344 --> 00:53:17,064
we met with their central bank, we presented a plan there, and then a few weeks

784
00:53:17,064 --> 00:53:20,264
later, the World Bank visited and suddenly things go quiet.

785
00:53:20,464 --> 00:53:25,624
So we know for a fact that there are definitely interested parties that don't

786
00:53:25,624 --> 00:53:29,024
want Bitcoin to be adopted worldwide as money.

787
00:53:29,264 --> 00:53:33,564
Well, why is that? Because they're rolling out CBDCs? That's probably part of

788
00:53:33,564 --> 00:53:38,004
it, but also the business of these supranational organizations like the IMF

789
00:53:38,004 --> 00:53:43,984
and World Bank is effectively to loan money and to keep countries impoverished, right?

790
00:53:44,224 --> 00:53:47,424
There is no country taking money from the IMF that...

791
00:53:48,612 --> 00:53:55,932
That has grown out of that debt or grown into prosperity out of borrowing money in and of itself.

792
00:53:56,612 --> 00:54:00,112
El Salvador is doing quite well now, but that's more to do with the policies

793
00:54:00,112 --> 00:54:05,252
and the adoption of Bitcoin than being able to borrow more money from the IMF.

794
00:54:05,372 --> 00:54:11,092
So I think it's their goal that they keep people borrowing because then they

795
00:54:11,092 --> 00:54:12,692
keep their jobs and they keep their mandate.

796
00:54:12,692 --> 00:54:16,452
But that's not necessarily in the best interest of sovereign nations,

797
00:54:16,452 --> 00:54:21,652
that you're beholden to a foreign power to dictate what happens in your own

798
00:54:21,652 --> 00:54:23,252
country and with your own economy.

799
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:33,680
Music.

800
00:54:35,172 --> 00:54:37,792
Checking in with the state of the network. Before we get out of here,

801
00:54:37,912 --> 00:54:41,512
Bitcoin is currently sitting at $94,050.

802
00:54:43,752 --> 00:54:46,812
Sats per dollar, 1,063 sats to $1.

803
00:54:48,112 --> 00:54:54,012
Bitcoin is up 3.7% since our last episode, just down 1% from the all-time high.

804
00:54:55,312 --> 00:54:59,992
I mean, you really can't complain there. You really can't. And look at this.

805
00:55:00,232 --> 00:55:07,992
A nice, healthy 19,747 nodes are active and reachable on the network.

806
00:55:08,112 --> 00:55:09,412
I'd love to see that number get up.

807
00:55:09,572 --> 00:55:11,772
Some of you out there could get that. Let's get that over 800.

808
00:55:13,172 --> 00:55:16,152
19,747, that's rookie numbers. We can do better than that.

809
00:55:16,852 --> 00:55:20,872
It's looking pretty incredible. The market cap right now for Bitcoin is kissing

810
00:55:20,872 --> 00:55:24,332
$2 trillion. It is at $1.86 trillion.

811
00:55:25,472 --> 00:55:32,292
We may be about to watch Bitcoin crack $2 trillion in market cap. Isn't that incredible?

812
00:55:34,852 --> 00:55:40,592
The state of the Bitcoin network. It's unbelievable. It really is.

813
00:55:40,732 --> 00:55:42,512
It's just incredible to watch it go.

814
00:55:44,312 --> 00:55:47,812
Thank you very much for tuning in this week's episode of This Week in Bitcoin.

815
00:55:47,812 --> 00:55:50,772
And boy, am I just, I'm just amazed at the last few weeks we've had.

816
00:55:50,992 --> 00:55:54,892
We knew it was coming, right? We knew it was coming after the election. And here we are.

817
00:55:55,312 --> 00:55:58,332
We are really cooking. And now the market is betting that we're going to crack

818
00:55:58,332 --> 00:56:01,392
100,000 in probably about a month or less.

819
00:56:01,652 --> 00:56:04,792
Links to what we talked about this week at thisweekinbitcoin.show.

820
00:56:04,952 --> 00:56:06,992
Please boost in. Tell me what you'd like to hear from the show.

821
00:56:07,132 --> 00:56:09,812
More of, less of, what I didn't talk about that I should have.

822
00:56:09,952 --> 00:56:14,792
And also, I want to hear your predictions on the Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. Is it going to happen?

823
00:56:14,912 --> 00:56:19,312
Why or why not? and then please consider sharing this show with a friend.

824
00:56:19,612 --> 00:56:20,912
Hey, also, thank you, everybody.

825
00:56:21,552 --> 00:56:26,012
Your boosts put Tiptoe, our song of the week, number three on the charts.

826
00:56:26,692 --> 00:56:30,852
Nicely done, everyone. So I'm going to leave you with another value for value track.

827
00:56:31,112 --> 00:56:35,012
This one really rocks. It's Slight Curiosity by Circle the Earth.

828
00:56:35,672 --> 00:56:39,832
I heard a thing or two about you. Whole lot of talking in those big, big shoes.

829
00:56:40,332 --> 00:56:43,572
Probably just to Paris. Carbon footprint, you should be embarrassed.

830
00:56:43,812 --> 00:56:46,752
I heard a rumor's all about you. A whole lot of trouble in your birthday.

831
00:56:46,640 --> 00:59:24,462
Music.