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But here's the future, folks. Seriously, right now, the World Trade Organization.

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Lowers their economic growth forecast for this year, for next year.

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Some of these numbers are huge, huge moves.

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Rebecca Patterson, you're expert at this. I mean, this is the future that we're

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seeing right now this morning.

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Yeah, you know, I've been trying to find when is the last time we saw a dollar

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bond and stock sell off in tandem that lasted for more than a few days.

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1977, 78. So we haven't seen what we're living through right now in a very,

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very long time. We'll be back.

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Music.

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Welcome in to This Week in Bitcoin, episode 54. My name is Chris,

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chrislas.com, jupiterbroadcasting.com.

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Well, that's the word of the week seems to be uncertainty, $70 followed by its

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good buddy, the always scary volatility.

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We're going to get into that, how it impacts Bitcoin potentially positively.

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But first, I think we should start with something a little more core to Bitcoin,

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something that impacts every Bitcoin user.

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And anybody that's been around Bitcoin for a while, this probably has been on

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their mind once or twice, and perhaps even this week. It's mining centralization.

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And it was brought to the forefront of conversation by an in-depth analysis

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of Bitcoin mining centralization done by b10c.me.

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I'll have a link to their really good post in the show notes.

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The high-level takeaway is in the current Bitcoin mining landscape,

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proxy pools like Antpool and their friends, which are about six mining pools,

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produce more than 95% of the block templates.

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And this is looking at data for early 2025. Six mining pools mine more than

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95% of all the Bitcoin blocks.

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So you've got Foundry and Amp Pool. They're the biggest. And then they've got

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their friends, some of which are interestingly organized.

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And consistently, they're controlling about 60% to 70% of the hash rate.

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And one of the things that B10C did is they introduced a mining centralization

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index, which quantifies centralization by summing up the hash rate of the top mining pools.

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It's a pretty good looking chart, but it's a pretty serious rate. like Foundry alone.

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Leads with 30% of the hash rate, just foundry.

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And mining pools can disguise their affiliation. Antpool and its proxies,

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they might hash through smaller pools, giving sort of a misleading interpretation of decentralization.

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But when you take Antpool and all of these sort of proxies that are hashing

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for Antpool, well, then it goes up from, oh, look at this nice decentralized

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chart to, well, actually 40% of the pie through 2023 and 2024 was Antpool.

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And in their analysis here, they discover that 2017 was really the sweet spot

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for decentralized mining, and it's only really been getting more centralized.

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I have a lot of thoughts on this, but the ocean pool has continually articulated their concerns.

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And I would say Luke Dasher has been at the forefront of that.

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And this clip gets into what he's worried about.

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I would say for Bitcoin to be a success, there has to be a decentralized system

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that provides the guarantees that are expected of Bitcoin.

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It's like people assume there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins but if the

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bitcoin network becomes centralized

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that guarantee is out the door and there's nobody to enforce it.

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We don't have a centralized entity enforcing Google, so it's really either the

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Bitcoin users enforce it or there is no enforcement and the miners can just do whatever they want.

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The white paper goes in to talk about the potential for a 51% attack if it were to be centralized.

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What people often don't realize is you don't need 51% of the network cash rate to do a 51% attack.

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You can do it with 30%, even 20%. There's just a possibility that you will fail

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when you try to do it, but it's possible to succeed as well. Gotcha.

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51% just happens to be the point where you're guaranteed to succeed at any time you want to do a tap.

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Now, this is a concern people have. And what he's saying is you don't actually

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need 51% of the hash rate.

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And I completely agree. We need to diversify mining. There needs to be...

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It's nice to see like Tether. Tether announced that they're going to put their

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mining hash rate into Ocean. I mean, these things are nice to see.

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But over the years, I've kind of learned not to worry a great deal about this.

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I mean, I do keep an eye on it, but I have a couple of contrarian views.

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One, I don't think the current crop top of mining companies,

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I don't think half of them are going to be around in 10 years.

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I mean, big money is about to get into this. Things are going to consolidate

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and change. New entrances are going to come in with BlackRock money behind them.

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So these things tend to ebb and flow. Although, you know, the longer these top

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dogs remain, the more entrenched they get, the more expertise they accumulate.

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So they're not to be totally shrugged off. But the other reason,

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the other kind of contrarian view I don't quite worry too much is even if they

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did have, say, more than 50% of the network cash rate,

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I still don't understand what the economic incentives would be for them to attack the network.

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You know, if a mining operation did something like a 51% style attack.

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The price of Bitcoin would crash immediately. And so what would really be the advantage?

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You'd end up with a worthless currency. It's something that Safe pointed out,

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the author of The Bitcoin Standard, when he was interviewed by Lex Friedman.

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And also, you know, he points out the block size war taught us some lessons here too.

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Learn about the 2017 block size war to understand why miners don't control Bitcoin.

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I discussed this briefly in my Bitcoin Standard, but there's a recent book that

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discusses this in detail called The Block Size War by Jonathan Beer.

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It's a great description of,

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in 2017, essentially the miners thought that they could control Bitcoin.

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There was one mining company that produced the majority of the machines that were on the network.

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And their allies had a control of the machines that were out there.

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And they controlled the majority of the hashrate. And they thought that they

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could change Bitcoin's supply,

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not supply, sorry, they could change Bitcoin's block size, which is

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a tiny little detail technical

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parameter it's not even all that big of a deal for the economics of it but they

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thought that they could pass this change they could force this change on the

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network and the members of the network rejected it and they weren't able to

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do it so the nodes are what is sovereign the nodes are what determine the rules of the game the miners.

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Are a service provider.

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The miners invest capital upfront.

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You know, they buy the machines, they buy the electricity, they buy the storage,

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they buy the locations, they pay the rent.

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And they invest all of that money based on the idea that if they behave according

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to what the nodes want, the nodes will reward them with Bitcoin.

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So the miners are in no position to dictate terms for anyone.

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You know, they've put up their capital upfront and they will only recoup it

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if they do what the nodes want.

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So therefore, what really matters is the decentralization of the nodes.

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So you want to have as many nodes as possible.

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You want to have a system where there's a large number of nodes.

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I don't always agree with all of that take.

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I don't know, maybe his grasp on some of the more esoteric technical aspects

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of Bitcoin, like his comment there about the block size.

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But I do agree with the latter half and high-level take that he had there,

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that these miners have invested capital up front to buy equipment.

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They need to recoup those costs. they have staff to pay.

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So it just doesn't seem likely that they would want to destroy the value of Bitcoin.

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But I'd like to know what you think. Are you concerned about mining centralization?

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Is it something the show should focus more on?

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Is it something you legitimately are concerned about when you look at what risks

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actually to face Bitcoin?

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I'm curious if this is actually something the audience is dialed in on. Boost in. Let me know.

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Music.

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The last three weeks have been nothing but historical for this show.

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It started with the tariffs. The tariffs were announced while I was recording the show.

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The following episode, the next week, the tariffs were paused during the show.

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And this week, Jay Powell is holding a press conference during the show.

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And there's just a lot of moving pieces.

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Now, as Bitcoiners, this is kind of every other day, right? This is a typical Wednesday for us.

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But for traditional market, quote unquote, investors, they are losing it.

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I mean, it has really been something to watch. how well Bitcoin has held up

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while the market pukes and trades like an altcoin, and then seeing these supposed

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investors who just can't seem to stomach any volatility at all.

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What do you make of just some of the action that we're seeing in the markets

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and how it's impacting the bond market itself, the bond market,

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something the president seems to be reacting to, and these bond traders,

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they don't seem to like all this tariff uncertainty.

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So last week, they paused the tariffs for 90 days, dropped everything down to

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10% except for China, and then the White House came out, It's,

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oh, no, no, it's totally fine.

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And then when Trump was asked, he said, oh, yeah, well, it's because the bond

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market looked queasy. The bond market was getting queasy.

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So they're watching the bond market. Yeah, so the tariff uncertainty is driving

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a lot of volatility in the long end of the Treasury curve.

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So people are paying attention to the 10-year and to the 20-year,

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and there's been incredible volatility in that space in just the last month.

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I mean, even the 20-year has had a total return change of over 7.5% in one month

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alone. So that worries investors and it concerns people.

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There's a lot of volatility in the market reflected of this uncertainty where

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you don't see as much volatility and you do see stability and I think continues

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to be a safe haven for investors is in the shorter end of the curve where rates

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have been more stable. OK, let's get into what this crap means.

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Oh, they're so uncertain. What's going on? Well, there is legitimate.

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I mean, I am being I am being very, I guess, harsh towards these investors because

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there are some legitimate curveballs being thrown at them that some of them just don't see coming.

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Well, this is the third round of restrictions from the U.S. government on NVIDIA

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in terms of selling these AI chips into China.

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The first came in 2022 and then in 2023.

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There was talk in the late days of the Biden administration that perhaps they

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would stop NVIDIA from selling this very chip, the H20, into China because many

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Chinese companies are using this to be able to build their models.

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Notably, DeepSeek used the H20 to be able to come out with a model that kind

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of stunned the world a while back.

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The Trump administration is going ahead. They're saying that they cannot sell

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this chip for the indefinite future. That's having a direct effect on NVIDIA.

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They're taking a write down of $5.5 billion in this quarter.

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An analyst estimate that it could cost them $12 to $14 billion overall.

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So it's a setback for NVIDIA. And perhaps just as important,

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it's going to motivate Chinese companies to move even more quickly in developing

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alternatives for these AI chips.

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You know, we didn't see the tariffs against AI chips work last time, right?

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When we restricted them to the H20s, they created DeepSeek using,

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you know, every trick in the book they could to get it as efficient as possible.

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So when we manipulate the market like this, it doesn't actually seem to work

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out in our favor long-term, yet we keep trying over and over again.

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So I understand how it is sort of a changing situation, but that's the landscape here.

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And I'm going to play Mr. Lunatat to himself, the Mike Novogratz Galaxy CEO.

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I want to play through this clip. I normally wouldn't play this,

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but I think we could break this down in real time and kind of understand the

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stupid mindset that these supposed investors have and why we're not seeing Bitcoin

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respond as a safe haven like we are gold recently.

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And perhaps why we will see Bitcoin respond as gold eventually.

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Take a look at Bitcoin trading right now. $84,000 up from about 76.

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It had sort of gone below for a while.

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Joining us right now in an exclusive interview is Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz.

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We've all been trying to figure out exactly what's really going on here, Mike.

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You know, Bitcoin has moved. We also have folks seemingly maybe getting out

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of cash and bonds and going into gold. Tell us what you think is really happening.

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Listen, you know, this tariff thing came out of nowhere for a lot of people,

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and it has provided a really big shock to the global economy.

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I just, okay, we're going to start here. This has been a sentiment that we hear,

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oh, this tariff thing, it came out of nowhere.

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Some of it, you know, like, oh, now they're going to do pharmaceuticals,

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you know, oh, the H20 chips.

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But he's literally been talking about it since before he was the Republican

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nominee. I went back and looked, and he was interviewed by Bloomberg right around the debates.

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He might have just gotten the nomination when he started publicly talking about tariffs.

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And when you hear this kind of talk, what it makes me think is that these investors

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are not actually dialed into what's going on.

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You know, they're looking at maybe their Bloomberg terminal at best,

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but they're not dialed into the real world situation.

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And Bitcoiners over time, I think because they're looking for signal,

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have dialed into some of these indicators and they have started to pay attention to some of these things.

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So for this show, for example, we've been talking about the shock this is going

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to create in the market since November.

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And a few weeks ago, I exclaimed how I was shocked that these idiot investors

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that are supposedly these geniuses haven't caught on to what's going on and

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then all of a sudden panicked when the actual Liberation Day or whatever it was called landed.

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Who could have seen this coming? Well, just about every Bitcoiner didn't anybody listening to this show.

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So I don't buy the premise that this was some big shock. I just don't buy that premise.

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This tariff thing came out of nowhere for a lot of people and it

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has provided a really big

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shot to the global economy right and that's

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i suppose it has that is true it should not have the scale of them perhaps but

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the fact that we're doing these tariffs has been i mean you could argue he even

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ran on it i am not i'm not arguing for against them in fact the more i think about it

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just seems like more economic manipulation and every time the federal government

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gets their hand in the market it seems to skew things for the

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worse and i'd like to i'd like to hear somebody out

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there convince me how tariffs aren't market manipulation but you

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know like it wasn't a shock we all knew it was coming of happening at

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the same time where we're we're really re reimagining what our security apparatus

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is going to be right so you had 80 years really post-war war ii of a similar

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security apparatus for the world and an economic structure and does that security apparatus,

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is that like a euphemism for saying that the United States way overspends on

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its military budget and was essentially the world police?

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You know, we're about to pass our first trillion dollar defense budget.

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Trillion dollars just for defense.

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I mean, where do we stop? At what point is it too much money?

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At what point do we stop putting all of this on the credit card just because

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we want to be the world police.

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I don't like going this direction, but the reality is there is sort of an economic

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unsustainability to it. I don't know how you fix it,

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But there is talking about it like it has been this golden era is false.

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We are thirty seven trillion dollars in debt now.

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Security apparatus for the world and an economic structure.

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And then in 89, you really accelerated that with globalism, right,

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with the global revolution.

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And Trump saying, wait a minute, I want to change that. And so that uncertainty

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is showing up in all markets.

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Right. And, you know, the broad U.S. stock market is roughly down 10 percent

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on the year. that doesn't seem near enough dislocation when you put it in context

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that we're looking at this titanic shift in what we're doing.

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And so I think people are in a risk-off mindset.

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Bitcoin broadly does well with these kind of macro conditions unless there's this kind of risk-off.

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What I mean by that is there's always two vectors in Bitcoin.

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One is the macro story, which you're seeing play out in gold, right?

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Which is the uncertainty, get myself out of the dollar, get myself into something

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safe. But the other is the adoption story.

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And because we're such a young asset, the adoption story needs more calm. It just does.

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And so when there's this kind of chaos, the new buyers disappear.

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And that's what we've broadly seen. We've seen very few new buyers.

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I do kind of agree with that last bit of the analysis. When things get really.

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New buyers do seem to dry up. We were seeing that with ETFs.

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First week of April, heavy sell-offs, and now things are starting to actually

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stabilize. In fact, people are buying more of the Bitcoin ETF.

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But when things were really kind of rocky and everything was just taking off

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with the tariffs, people stopped buying.

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And so you see people sell, they get short, they buy back.

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It's starting to trade better in the last few weeks relative to stocks.

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But broadly, Bitcoin has been the mag-8 and not gold. I don't think that's a permanent condition.

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And listen, gold is telling you everything you need to know.

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Right. I used to say this all the time. Bitcoin and gold are report cards on

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financial stewardship.

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Right. If you're the secretary of treasury of the U.S.

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Or any country, your report card really is what's gold? What's the yield curve telling you?

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And gold is something that's not great. Who is the buyer of gold right now?

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And what money is buying gold? You know, foreign central banks,

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listen, you're going to see, this is a prediction. I don't know if it's true.

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I know we're going to have a BRICS currency at one point in the next 24 months.

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I bet you part of it's backed by gold, the digital version.

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You're seeing gold, the digital version. I don't think he means Bitcoin.

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Does he mean like some sort of like ERC-20 token pegged to gold?

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What is he talking about? It's currency at one point in the next 24 months.

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I bet you part of it's backed by gold, the digital version.

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You're seeing foreign central banks buy gold.

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Listen, when I first got into the markets in the late 80s,

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I was always fascinated with the fact that in developed markets like the US

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or Japan, there was no real correlation between the shape of the yield curve

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and fiscal policy, right?

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You could spend a lot, you could run big budget deficits, and the yield curve didn't,

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care. But if you're an emerging market or developing market, it cared a lot.

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And so this shift between we felt the Minsky moment, when does people start caring?

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The way the U.S. market is behaving

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in a risk off is exactly opposite of what we've seen for 30 years.

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Right. It's interest rates higher in the dollar weaker.

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That means we're starting to behave more like an emerging market than a developed market.

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This is actually an important point and something that I think we should talk

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about a little bit more as it relates to Bitcoin in a moment.

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We are seeing an interesting change where the dollar is getting weaker and the

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yield is going higher. So debt's getting more expensive.

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The dollar is buying less. And it's all happening pretty quickly for bonds and

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dollar in their timeframes.

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I'm not saying we've gotten there yet. It's the early stages.

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And that should get us all nervous. I'm sure that's got Secretary Bessett nervous.

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I'm sure it's got, you know, people around the White House who understand this nervous.

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Because, Mike, some people tried to dismiss these moves last week and say,

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look, we don't want to make too much of a two or three day thing.

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Look, the bond market's already calmed down.

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So you do think that what was happening was maybe the beginning of a bigger

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shift that D.C. needs to pay attention to?

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I think, yeah. I was just going to say, kind of leading from that.

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The parachute out is, well, they might be working on a whole new kind of global

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financial architecture. And I'm curious if you have any thoughts on that, too.

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Yeah, listen, the architecture we had brought peace and prosperity to the world in over 80 years.

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Unless you're in the Middle East or Africa, right?

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More so than we ever saw. And so globalization was great for the world.

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It was great for wealthy people in the West. It was great for Vietnamese workers.

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It was really not great for the factory worker in the U.S. and in Europe.

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This is the part that really pissed me off.

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Now, you heard Novogratz earlier say he got his start in the late 80s.

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Then you also heard him say globalization really took off in 89.

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Now, I'm not being ages. I'm just speaking to my observation.

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But there's a lot of boomer investors that got really, really lucky.

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They were riding the post-gold peg removal and globalization boom.

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And getting goods out of China really was, like, think about this.

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From the late 80s till the early aughts, cheap China goods was disinflationary.

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So we could have low rates.

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We could print money. We had the dot-com boom.

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These guys were so lucky. I mean, I say no millennial, what Novogratz just said

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would never come out of the mouth of any millennial or younger generation.

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This is only something an old generation X or boomer would say,

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because they were born during a money printing golden golden era and a globalization

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golden era that benefited people closer to the money spigot.

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Now, then he just casually said, oh, but the factory worker,

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which is a euphemism for the entire middle class, for the people of the country.

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That's what the euphemism for is for the people. And he's just the factory workers.

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But otherwise, it's been great.

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So, you know, other than the other 290 million people in America alone,

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other than those 290 million, it's been great.

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It's been the best in the world. Why would we want to change it? than we ever saw.

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And so I'm sorry, the best system we ever saw. Why would you change it?

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It's the best system we ever saw.

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I guess Mike Novogratz has never gone on a road trip through this country because

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you get 15, 20 minutes outside a city and you start seeing absolute devastation.

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The architecture we had brought peace and prosperity to the world in over 80

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years, more so than we ever saw.

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And so globalization was great for the world. It was great for wealthy people

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in the West. It was great for Vietnamese workers.

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It was really not great for the factory worker in the US and in Europe.

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And we're trying to pivot that. It's a very noble, like, you know,

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it's funny, my politics kind of align.

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I would have thought if I was in charge, I'd want to bring down the deficit

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and I'd want to work on inequality.

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And this is what the goals here are. I just think you can't do that by wishing

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we didn't have this kind of trade system, wishing we didn't have 30 years of

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supply chains built out.

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Unfortunately, I do agree with him here. I think the United States of America made its bed.

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I'll get into why later, specifically. But I think the decision was cast by Nixon.

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And so we have been on a trajectory for so long that to unravel it means to

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essentially unravel and restart the entire economy.

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I hate to agree with Novogratz, but I do tend to agree here.

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You can't do that by wishing we didn't have this kind of trade system,

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wishing we didn't have 30 years of supply chains built out.

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You know, people make decisions if you're a Colombian coffee farmer or an American

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00:24:24,970 --> 00:24:31,310
furniture importer, a retail furniture person based on some medium term horizon.

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And we're literally ripping up that horizon overnight. Are we stuck, Mike?

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I mean, do you think the market is basically saying to the administration,

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OK, you want to try this goal?

355
00:24:41,370 --> 00:24:43,830
The electorate has kind of given you this mandate to some extent.

356
00:24:44,070 --> 00:24:47,570
You went to put it into practice and it just screamed no. And is that because

357
00:24:47,570 --> 00:24:49,050
the fiscal deficit is too big?

358
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Like, if they had been able to really make a meaningful change on that front,

359
00:24:52,510 --> 00:24:55,650
would it all have worked? Or do you think this is just the global market saying

360
00:24:55,650 --> 00:24:58,790
this can never work? This is a deeper question than it sounds like.

361
00:24:59,590 --> 00:25:02,790
Essentially, she's saying, is it the administration versus the markets?

362
00:25:03,230 --> 00:25:06,710
And the markets are just simply saying, we ain't going to go with this.

363
00:25:06,830 --> 00:25:08,470
We're not going to go along with this. This ain't working.

364
00:25:08,610 --> 00:25:11,450
And the administration, which they had been saying, well, we're not watching

365
00:25:11,450 --> 00:25:13,470
the markets. They're not quite saying that as much now.

366
00:25:14,030 --> 00:25:16,270
So it's a deeper question than it sounds like on the surface.

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00:25:16,270 --> 00:25:21,910
I think the global markets are saying you're going too fast and this strategy is not going to work.

368
00:25:22,370 --> 00:25:26,210
That's what I think the markets are saying. Listen, just the increase in our

369
00:25:26,210 --> 00:25:32,050
interest rates since this thing started is a higher annual cost than all the Doge savings.

370
00:25:32,330 --> 00:25:35,090
Right. You just think we have thirty five trillion in debt and,

371
00:25:35,170 --> 00:25:39,810
you know, you go 50 basis points or 30 basis points. Even that's that's one

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hundred hundred fifty billion dollars.

373
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You know, it's it's really hard. that is that is a damning point,

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That is a very damning point. And it puts the doge cuts into perspective,

375
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which it sounds like there's been some talk about the total impact of those

376
00:25:56,405 --> 00:25:57,845
cuts even being reduced quite a bit.

377
00:25:58,365 --> 00:26:04,065
That's not going to be the third leg of a stool that the administration has been articulating.

378
00:26:04,265 --> 00:26:11,085
You know, it's been tariffs, tax cuts, and deregulation and spending cuts.

379
00:26:11,605 --> 00:26:16,005
Well, $150 billion or so, it's dropping the bucket, especially when you look

380
00:26:16,005 --> 00:26:17,225
at the counter things that are happening.

381
00:26:18,165 --> 00:26:20,925
So deregulation, it's hard to really quantify. Now, Besant says,

382
00:26:21,005 --> 00:26:23,785
oh, you'll see that by November. Well, how do we even quantify that?

383
00:26:23,985 --> 00:26:25,985
So I think Novogratz makes an interesting point. We'll wrap it up here.

384
00:26:26,105 --> 00:26:29,865
I think the markets are saying, listen, just the increase in our interest rates

385
00:26:29,865 --> 00:26:35,845
since this thing started is a higher annual cost than all the Doge savings, right?

386
00:26:35,845 --> 00:26:40,225
You just think we have $35 trillion in debt and, you know, you go 50 basis points

387
00:26:40,225 --> 00:26:44,045
or 30 basis points even, that's $100, $150 billion. dollars.

388
00:26:44,665 --> 00:26:49,825
You know, it's it's really hard to take this deficit down and doing it at the

389
00:26:49,825 --> 00:26:54,985
time when you're going to put growth at risk and shift the entire tax code. Right.

390
00:26:55,725 --> 00:27:00,425
Tariffs pre this tariff move accounted for about two percent of taxes where

391
00:27:00,425 --> 00:27:03,765
income taxes and payroll taxes are 85 percent.

392
00:27:04,505 --> 00:27:10,065
And so we're going to cut taxes here and raise them here. The numbers don't add up.

393
00:27:10,425 --> 00:27:13,425
And that kind of uncertainty I think has just scared markets.

394
00:27:13,665 --> 00:27:15,185
Yeah, I do agree. The numbers, that's what I've been saying.

395
00:27:15,285 --> 00:27:17,825
It doesn't really work out. There has to be another piece to this.

396
00:27:18,185 --> 00:27:25,925
I still feel that these supposed investors are nothing but investors.

397
00:27:27,125 --> 00:27:30,005
Whatever's happening with tariffs and taxes and world trade,

398
00:27:30,365 --> 00:27:35,865
does that fundamentally alter what a company is capable of doing or the products

399
00:27:35,865 --> 00:27:38,245
they're working on? It might alter their profits.

400
00:27:38,545 --> 00:27:43,265
It just feels like these people that are freaking out right now and selling

401
00:27:43,265 --> 00:27:46,965
their Bitcoin ETFs and selling all of their stocks, they probably shouldn't

402
00:27:46,965 --> 00:27:48,005
own stocks in the first place.

403
00:27:48,065 --> 00:27:51,225
There's actually a famous quote by Warren Buffett on this.

404
00:27:51,585 --> 00:27:55,465
Some people should not own stocks at all because they just get too upset with price fluctuations.

405
00:27:55,845 --> 00:27:59,585
If you're going to do dumb things because your stock goes down,

406
00:27:59,885 --> 00:28:03,705
you shouldn't own a stock at all. I think this probably applies to Bitcoin too, right?

407
00:28:04,425 --> 00:28:06,965
Maybe you shouldn't, if you're going to do dumb things when Bitcoin goes down,

408
00:28:07,285 --> 00:28:08,765
maybe you shouldn't own Bitcoin at all.

409
00:28:09,105 --> 00:28:11,085
What are dumb things? Selling a stock as it goes down? Yeah,

410
00:28:11,085 --> 00:28:12,185
selling a stock as it goes down.

411
00:28:12,345 --> 00:28:19,285
I mean, if you buy your house at $20,000 and somebody comes along the next day

412
00:28:19,285 --> 00:28:22,005
and says, I'll pay you 15, you don't sell it because the quote's 15.

413
00:28:22,825 --> 00:28:24,525
Look at the house or whatever it may be.

414
00:28:26,184 --> 00:28:30,104
Some people are not actually emotionally or psychologically fit to own stocks,

415
00:28:30,204 --> 00:28:34,704
but I think there are more of them would be if you get educated on what you're

416
00:28:34,704 --> 00:28:36,544
really buying, which is part of a business.

417
00:28:36,884 --> 00:28:40,404
And the longer you hold stocks, the less risky they become.

418
00:28:40,624 --> 00:28:43,424
Whereas the longer the maturity of a bond, the more risky it becomes.

419
00:28:43,624 --> 00:28:45,964
The longer you hold Bitcoin, the less risky it becomes, right?

420
00:28:46,024 --> 00:28:51,104
If you bought Bitcoin years ago at 10,000 or 40,000, 84 is looking pretty good.

421
00:28:51,544 --> 00:28:56,584
I think this is all part of a broader strategy. I'm not saying there's a master plan in place.

422
00:28:56,744 --> 00:29:00,324
I'm saying something else has to click in. There has to be another component

423
00:29:00,324 --> 00:29:04,824
because if the United States wants to remain the reserve currency of the world,

424
00:29:05,004 --> 00:29:10,704
which they have recently articulated, they do, then there's always going to be trade deficits.

425
00:29:11,144 --> 00:29:14,624
And Lynn Alden, I'll put a link to the full podcast in the show notes,

426
00:29:14,724 --> 00:29:16,784
did a great job of explaining this recently.

427
00:29:17,264 --> 00:29:21,544
And what I'm not the first to argue, but I've written this in various articles

428
00:29:21,544 --> 00:29:25,724
and in my book is the association between having the global reserve currency

429
00:29:25,724 --> 00:29:29,464
and structural trade deficits, at least as the way it's currently structured.

430
00:29:29,624 --> 00:29:33,484
I think, too, while you listen to this, consider those out there that have advocated

431
00:29:33,484 --> 00:29:36,464
that Bitcoin should be the reserve currency for the United States.

432
00:29:36,944 --> 00:29:42,684
Get rid of the Federal Reserve, go back to hard money, maybe peg the dollar to Bitcoin.

433
00:29:43,184 --> 00:29:48,124
Bitcoin is the reserve currency. So when you hear Lynn explain how the reserve

434
00:29:48,124 --> 00:29:51,264
currency works for the United States, it's

435
00:29:51,652 --> 00:29:56,292
and how it's related to our deficit, trade deficit. Imagine the United States

436
00:29:56,292 --> 00:29:57,492
ever trying to get rid of this.

437
00:29:57,692 --> 00:30:02,512
And the mechanism for that is that, to my definition, if you're the world reserve

438
00:30:02,512 --> 00:30:06,352
currency, most countries around the world are using your currency in some way.

439
00:30:06,432 --> 00:30:10,712
They're holding that currency or instruments for that currency as reserve assets.

440
00:30:10,752 --> 00:30:13,672
They're often using it as a cross-border funding currency.

441
00:30:13,772 --> 00:30:16,772
They're using it as the main trading pair for other currencies.

442
00:30:16,772 --> 00:30:21,012
And they're denominating a lot of international contracts in that currency.

443
00:30:21,012 --> 00:30:24,972
So there's a lot of need for that currency. There's a kind of insatiable demand for it.

444
00:30:25,252 --> 00:30:30,372
And particularly those funding, like the debts, all represent inflexible demand for that currency.

445
00:30:30,512 --> 00:30:35,132
So some of that usage is voluntary, and other uses of that is involuntary.

446
00:30:35,472 --> 00:30:38,812
Unless you want to default, you need to be able to access that currency.

447
00:30:39,052 --> 00:30:42,052
So what that means is that compared to other currencies in the world,

448
00:30:42,292 --> 00:30:45,152
there's an extra layer of demand for the dollar.

449
00:30:45,612 --> 00:30:49,472
Normally, you hold the currency of a country because you want to interact with

450
00:30:49,472 --> 00:30:50,492
that economy in some way.

451
00:30:50,752 --> 00:30:55,012
Whereas the dollar, countries that have maybe even minimal trade with the US

452
00:30:55,012 --> 00:30:58,272
are not looking for that purpose, will hold a lot of dollar assets anyway,

453
00:30:58,392 --> 00:31:00,792
just because they need it for all these kind of global requirements.

454
00:31:01,212 --> 00:31:04,952
And what that means is that unlike many currencies that will trade on interest

455
00:31:04,952 --> 00:31:09,472
rate differentials, trade imbalances, things like that, the dollar will trade

456
00:31:09,472 --> 00:31:12,632
on those things, but it has this extra structural bid to it.

457
00:31:12,632 --> 00:31:16,592
And what that means is that especially for lower margin things,

458
00:31:16,892 --> 00:31:22,532
it's generally less economical to produce them in the US, even compared to other developed countries.

459
00:31:22,672 --> 00:31:26,912
So it's not just compared to developing ones, even compared to many of our developed

460
00:31:26,912 --> 00:31:29,752
peers, it's just harder to manufacture in the US.

461
00:31:29,932 --> 00:31:34,592
And our import power is very significant. And so basically, that's the mechanism

462
00:31:34,592 --> 00:31:36,972
that kind of forces open our trade deficit.

463
00:31:37,172 --> 00:31:41,252
And so every year, we're pouring dollars out into the world so that they can

464
00:31:41,252 --> 00:31:44,252
use it as the global reserve currency. And basically,

465
00:31:44,459 --> 00:31:49,279
The imbalance there is that there are some parties that are very boosted by that arrangement.

466
00:31:49,599 --> 00:31:52,819
So Washington, D.C. can sanction anyone in the world practically.

467
00:31:53,159 --> 00:31:55,719
If you work in Wall Street, you're loving the situation.

468
00:31:56,219 --> 00:32:00,539
Tech and healthcare are kind of high margin things that are not really heavily impacted by that.

469
00:32:00,679 --> 00:32:05,499
Whereas if you work in industry or in other kind of like heavier areas,

470
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:08,319
particularly the Rust Belt areas, that's part of why it rusted,

471
00:32:08,559 --> 00:32:09,979
you're on the wrong side of that.

472
00:32:09,979 --> 00:32:14,479
And so over time, there's been kind of shifting economic realities as well as

473
00:32:14,479 --> 00:32:18,279
shifting politics around that kind of accumulating imbalance.

474
00:32:18,559 --> 00:32:23,499
I think a key thing that she says here is that there's just a structural system

475
00:32:23,499 --> 00:32:25,179
in place when you're the reserve currency.

476
00:32:25,259 --> 00:32:29,879
And there's going to be trade deficits because of that. You're putting dollars out into the world.

477
00:32:30,099 --> 00:32:35,379
And as a result, it's almost always going to be more economically viable to

478
00:32:35,379 --> 00:32:37,639
manufacture outside the United States.

479
00:32:37,639 --> 00:32:41,879
So when we went off the gold standard,

480
00:32:42,279 --> 00:32:46,659
when we came up with the deal with OPEC and others to do international trade

481
00:32:46,659 --> 00:32:52,419
in dollars, when we started that process, we've begun something that has only

482
00:32:52,419 --> 00:32:56,159
been building now for over 40 years.

483
00:32:57,399 --> 00:33:00,139
And structurally it doesn't make as

484
00:33:00,139 --> 00:33:02,859
much sense to manufacture everything here in the united states not

485
00:33:02,859 --> 00:33:05,739
even getting into the talent pool and all of that and

486
00:33:05,739 --> 00:33:08,799
you know the potential robotics just getting into just structurally the

487
00:33:08,799 --> 00:33:15,239
way the reserve currency functions and you know there there has been talk of

488
00:33:15,239 --> 00:33:17,459
well maybe we're going to have a new breton woods and we're going to have a

489
00:33:17,459 --> 00:33:22,479
new reserve currency i don't think that's on the table besant has laughed at

490
00:33:22,479 --> 00:33:26,939
that question and also seems to have a plan in place,

491
00:33:27,159 --> 00:33:31,139
although he is the world's bond salesman, so I don't know, but he seems to think

492
00:33:31,139 --> 00:33:35,379
they have plenty of room still and he's not worried about the bond market or

493
00:33:35,379 --> 00:33:37,079
the reserve status of the dollar one bit.

494
00:33:37,708 --> 00:33:41,588
Do you have a sense of who is dumping U.S. assets? Who's been dumping U.S. treasuries?

495
00:33:41,788 --> 00:33:45,788
I don't think there's a dumping. And I think we saw in the tick data either

496
00:33:45,788 --> 00:33:50,248
today or Friday that actually foreign ownerships picked up.

497
00:33:50,568 --> 00:33:54,148
We had three big auctions last week.

498
00:33:54,168 --> 00:34:00,008
And on the longer end auction, 10-year, 30-year, we saw increased foreign competition.

499
00:34:00,008 --> 00:34:06,428
So I actually think this is one of those occasional VAR shocks that you get

500
00:34:06,428 --> 00:34:07,708
in the trading community.

501
00:34:07,968 --> 00:34:12,308
I think a lot of people got very leveraged, maybe out over their skis.

502
00:34:12,508 --> 00:34:18,148
And then you combine that with some real money selling and you get these moves.

503
00:34:18,328 --> 00:34:21,548
So you don't think it's sovereigns? Potentially it's hedge funds unwinding?

504
00:34:21,808 --> 00:34:25,728
I have no evidence that it's sovereigns.

505
00:34:25,728 --> 00:34:31,968
Look, Anne-Marie, not you, but the nature of journalism is to create a headline

506
00:34:31,968 --> 00:34:38,828
that 10 days ago, when 10-year yields hit 390, said, well.

507
00:34:39,448 --> 00:34:41,228
Secretary Besson got what he wanted.

508
00:34:41,228 --> 00:34:44,308
He got 10-year yields down, but it's the wrong reason.

509
00:34:44,668 --> 00:34:48,688
Now, I forget what they hit on Friday, maybe 440-something.

510
00:34:48,868 --> 00:34:53,068
We saw a 50 basis move last week in 10-year yield. at the same time that the

511
00:34:53,068 --> 00:34:59,568
dollar was weakening nearly 3%. How do you simultaneously look at that situation?

512
00:34:59,568 --> 00:35:02,868
It feels like investors are dumping U.S. assets.

513
00:35:03,128 --> 00:35:09,868
Well, look, I've learned that not to look at what happens over a week.

514
00:35:11,408 --> 00:35:14,368
I, for better or worse, have lived through a lot of these things.

515
00:35:14,588 --> 00:35:19,868
And in trading, in one's personal trading history, it's the scar tissue that

516
00:35:19,868 --> 00:35:20,888
sticks with you the most.

517
00:35:20,888 --> 00:35:26,168
I can tell you exactly where I was standing in 1998 when the long-term capital,

518
00:35:26,168 --> 00:35:30,968
the debacle happened. That had nothing to do with anything other than a bunch

519
00:35:30,968 --> 00:35:33,368
of geniuses up in Greenwich who had too much leverage.

520
00:35:33,668 --> 00:35:37,468
So you're not concerned at this moment about the U.S. dollar or the U.S.

521
00:35:37,548 --> 00:35:39,448
Treasury losing safe haven asset?

522
00:35:40,068 --> 00:35:45,168
No. We're still a global reserve currency. We are still a global reserve currency.

523
00:35:46,028 --> 00:35:50,288
We have a strong dollar policy. The dollar can go up and down.

524
00:35:50,288 --> 00:35:55,028
If you go and look back at President Trump's first term, I don't remember the

525
00:35:55,028 --> 00:36:04,008
exact number, but the dollar in 2017 went down, I can't remember, 7, 8, 9 percent.

526
00:36:04,328 --> 00:36:10,568
And then once the tax bill was done, took off, took off for the remainder of his term.

527
00:36:11,148 --> 00:36:17,628
We have a strong dollar policy and we take a long term look at the dollar value.

528
00:36:18,028 --> 00:36:21,488
And then he talks about how it will look in the second half of President Trump's

529
00:36:21,488 --> 00:36:23,188
previous term, the dollar just took off.

530
00:36:23,928 --> 00:36:28,448
So the decline we're seeing now, they may view as temporary if they have some sort of strategy.

531
00:36:28,548 --> 00:36:32,888
He does get into some of the ways they could boost the dollar strength, basically games.

532
00:36:34,134 --> 00:36:38,274
Bitcoin doesn't tend to shine when the dollar rips. So if they do have some

533
00:36:38,274 --> 00:36:42,754
sort of plan for the dollar to rip later on, it'll be interesting to see how that impacts Bitcoin.

534
00:36:43,234 --> 00:36:47,354
There was one other comment he made there before we get off of Besant for the

535
00:36:47,354 --> 00:36:49,234
day that I thought was noteworthy.

536
00:36:49,454 --> 00:36:52,374
They talk about J-Pow and if the Fed wants to step in and help.

537
00:36:52,934 --> 00:36:56,034
And Besant reveals that they have breakfast together every week.

538
00:36:56,394 --> 00:36:59,674
Have you spoken to the Fed at all about contingency plans, though,

539
00:36:59,814 --> 00:37:04,994
if financial stability risks flare up? Chair Powell and I have breakfast every

540
00:37:04,994 --> 00:37:08,534
week, and we discuss a wide range of things.

541
00:37:08,854 --> 00:37:13,874
And, you know, our staffs are always in contact. We have a markets room.

542
00:37:13,934 --> 00:37:15,054
They have a markets room.

543
00:37:15,254 --> 00:37:20,374
But, you know, and specifically, did we discuss some kind of a break the glass?

544
00:37:21,234 --> 00:37:24,614
I think we're a long way from that. So when was the last time you guys spoke?

545
00:37:24,754 --> 00:37:25,714
You had breakfast last week?

546
00:37:26,174 --> 00:37:31,254
We had breakfast last week, and it was an away game. I was over at the Fed.

547
00:37:31,254 --> 00:37:35,074
And no concern so far from the Fed chair on what he saw in the treasury market.

548
00:37:35,594 --> 00:37:40,954
I think we would have heard from the Fed chair. I think we heard from Governor

549
00:37:40,954 --> 00:37:43,014
Collins of Boston on Friday.

550
00:37:43,414 --> 00:37:50,174
We heard from Governor Weller today on his thoughts on what tariffs mean.

551
00:37:50,454 --> 00:37:51,974
So it seems like business as usual.

552
00:37:52,434 --> 00:37:55,214
Totally independent, though. Totally independent. Has breakfast every week.

553
00:37:55,294 --> 00:37:57,774
I wonder which A-PAL serves for breakfast when you come to visit.

554
00:37:58,754 --> 00:38:01,894
Something a grandma would serve? I don't know. What do you think?

555
00:38:02,114 --> 00:38:04,394
Who's going to tell me you think J-Powell would serve for breakfast?

556
00:38:05,534 --> 00:38:08,534
So speaking of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve,

557
00:38:08,714 --> 00:38:15,014
he spoke today, and he seems also to be fairly confident in the state of the economy.

558
00:38:15,194 --> 00:38:19,614
Now, I think this is important because Bitcoin is sort of waiting this out right

559
00:38:19,614 --> 00:38:21,194
now to try to figure out where this is going.

560
00:38:22,034 --> 00:38:27,174
So at the Fed, we are always focused on the dual mandate goals that Congress

561
00:38:27,174 --> 00:38:30,594
has given us, maximum employment, and stable prices.

562
00:38:31,094 --> 00:38:36,914
Despite heightened uncertainty and downside risks, the U.S. economy is still in a solid position.

563
00:38:37,154 --> 00:38:40,754
The labor market is at or near maximum employment.

564
00:38:41,294 --> 00:38:46,834
Inflation has come down a great deal, but is still running a bit above our 2% objective.

565
00:38:47,254 --> 00:38:50,414
When JPOW speaks, Bitcoin reacts in real time.

566
00:38:50,574 --> 00:38:56,354
So you can suss out if the market likes what he's saying or not just by watching the price of Bitcoin.

567
00:38:56,854 --> 00:39:00,794
But he didn't have much new to add there. But he did have something new to add

568
00:39:00,794 --> 00:39:01,934
with his thoughts on crypto.

569
00:39:02,094 --> 00:39:06,494
During a Q&A later, he was asked about his thoughts on stablecoins and crypto.

570
00:39:07,154 --> 00:39:14,314
This is probably noteworthy because it's the Federal Chairman of the Federal

571
00:39:14,314 --> 00:39:17,774
Reserve talking about crypto and in a fairly positive way.

572
00:39:18,174 --> 00:39:20,214
Pretty big tone shift from a couple of years ago.

573
00:39:20,674 --> 00:39:25,374
You know, so we went through a wave of failures and fraud and things like that

574
00:39:25,374 --> 00:39:26,954
were the headlines for a couple of years.

575
00:39:28,751 --> 00:39:33,151
I think what you see now is, and during that period, by the way,

576
00:39:33,251 --> 00:39:36,571
we were trying to work, we worked with Congress to try to get a framework,

577
00:39:36,791 --> 00:39:40,111
a legal framework for stable coins, which would have been a nice place to start.

578
00:39:40,311 --> 00:39:45,311
We were not successful. I think that the climate is changing and you're moving

579
00:39:45,311 --> 00:39:49,111
into sort of more mainstreaming of that whole sector.

580
00:39:49,351 --> 00:39:53,291
So Congress is, again, looking at both the Senate and the House are looking

581
00:39:53,291 --> 00:39:55,691
at a framework, a legal framework for stable coins.

582
00:39:55,891 --> 00:39:59,951
You know, depending on what's in it, that's a good idea. We need that. There isn't one now.

583
00:40:00,171 --> 00:40:04,211
And stable coins are a product that a digital product that could actually have

584
00:40:04,211 --> 00:40:09,071
fairly wide appeal and should contain consumer protections of the typical sorts

585
00:40:09,071 --> 00:40:12,311
and transparency. And that's what the Senate and the House are working on.

586
00:40:12,371 --> 00:40:13,271
So that's a positive thing.

587
00:40:13,591 --> 00:40:17,791
I also think some of the you know, we took a pretty conservative and other other

588
00:40:17,791 --> 00:40:22,371
bank regulators took an even more conservative perspective on on on the guidance

589
00:40:22,371 --> 00:40:23,971
and rules we imposed on banks.

590
00:40:23,971 --> 00:40:27,491
I think there'll be some loosening of that, and I think we'll try to do it in

591
00:40:27,491 --> 00:40:30,731
a way that preserves safety and soundness, but that, you know,

592
00:40:30,911 --> 00:40:34,711
permits and fosters appropriate innovation,

593
00:40:35,131 --> 00:40:40,211
but that does so in a way that, again, doesn't put consumers at risk in ways

594
00:40:40,211 --> 00:40:43,371
they don't understand or make banks less safe and sound.

595
00:40:43,691 --> 00:40:46,791
Well, I guess it's safe to assume the Federal Reserve won't be lobbying against

596
00:40:46,791 --> 00:40:49,551
stablecoin legislation, and it sounds like...

597
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:56,280
They're also on board with lessening regulations for banks getting involved with crypto.

598
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,320
Should be interesting, for better or for worse, I suppose.

599
00:41:00,300 --> 00:41:03,640
I just, I don't think it's like, nothing there he said was absolutely blow away,

600
00:41:03,820 --> 00:41:07,760
other than it was so positive, and he's the chair of the Federal Reserve.

601
00:41:14,220 --> 00:41:19,020
And gold's been really having a runaway, which you'll hear or read anywhere,

602
00:41:19,020 --> 00:41:23,240
that that's a sign that something is really wrong structurally and the market

603
00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:25,760
is preparing for the worst case scenario. Correct.

604
00:41:26,240 --> 00:41:30,700
Where are we going here? And how are you thinking about Bitcoin relative to

605
00:41:30,700 --> 00:41:32,620
gold in this particular moment?

606
00:41:32,860 --> 00:41:34,480
Yeah, I think that's what everyone's really talking about right now.

607
00:41:34,660 --> 00:41:36,700
Bitcoin is down about 10% to start the year.

608
00:41:36,940 --> 00:41:40,760
Gold's up 20%. But if you look out over one year, they're both up about 35%.

609
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:42,600
So it's pretty interesting that there's been this divergence.

610
00:41:42,900 --> 00:41:45,940
But if you go back and you take a look, you can actually see that gold usually

611
00:41:45,940 --> 00:41:49,320
leads these rallies. and nobody really knows why that happens.

612
00:41:49,540 --> 00:41:52,780
My kind of guess would be that a lot of the central banks and institutional

613
00:41:52,780 --> 00:41:56,260
investors, they're either not approved to buy Bitcoin or they're not used to

614
00:41:56,260 --> 00:41:58,960
running to Bitcoin in these moments of kind of geopolitical uncertainty.

615
00:41:59,180 --> 00:42:02,720
What we do see though is when gold runs about a hundred days later or so,

616
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,480
Bitcoin not only catches up, it usually runs much harder. And so you get that

617
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:07,440
kind of higher volatility.

618
00:42:07,940 --> 00:42:11,100
That's the key point is there's usually about a hundred day lag and then Bitcoin

619
00:42:11,100 --> 00:42:15,560
starts to run. It's like, oh, I don't know. Nobody knows why people run the gold. Really?

620
00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:19,040
It's called a safe haven right so

621
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,880
when you have times of uncertainty you don't go for the

622
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,720
thing that's new and maybe risky in your central banker

623
00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:27,620
opinion you go for the thing you've known for thousands

624
00:42:27,620 --> 00:42:30,440
of years is considered a store of

625
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,180
value i mean it's a totally logical play we're not there yet

626
00:42:33,180 --> 00:42:36,220
with bitcoin and bitcoin doesn't have the market size even

627
00:42:36,220 --> 00:42:39,420
we don't have the liquidity depth like we couldn't

628
00:42:39,420 --> 00:42:44,640
fill that role right now you couldn't do it now at a smaller scale for like

629
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:49,420
us you know the plebs we're already there right but at like the nation state

630
00:42:49,420 --> 00:42:54,340
level no it's not deep enough it's not deep enough of course not now will it

631
00:42:54,340 --> 00:42:56,400
get there yes yes of course it will,

632
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:01,540
it's everything but but better that gold is for this type of thing but we're

633
00:43:01,540 --> 00:43:05,420
not there yet and it may be let's be honest maybe a generational thing for some

634
00:43:05,420 --> 00:43:08,400
people you know some of these central bankers have been doing this for 20 30

635
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:09,740
40 years some of them are getting up there,

636
00:43:10,340 --> 00:43:12,560
you think they're going to roll the dice at this point in their career.

637
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:31,760
Music.

638
00:43:34,392 --> 00:43:37,352
Thank you, everybody, that supports the show by doing what you do.

639
00:43:37,512 --> 00:43:40,992
You can buy Sats on River with our link in the show notes.

640
00:43:41,452 --> 00:43:45,092
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641
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and they have that awesome 3.8% in-sats savings for your fiat. Great for smash buys.

642
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Now, if you're all about the self-custody, the Bitcoin Well is an automatic

643
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644
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648
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649
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650
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651
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652
00:44:25,912 --> 00:44:30,232
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653
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654
00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:50,480
Music.

655
00:44:52,712 --> 00:44:56,952
And we did get some boost into the show this week, and we're going to start

656
00:44:56,952 --> 00:45:00,612
with a truly baller boost from Adversary17.

657
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:24,080
Music.

658
00:45:24,987 --> 00:45:27,967
All right. You're doing a good job.

659
00:45:28,187 --> 00:45:32,207
And Adversary17 writes, Great episode, Mr. Fisher. So much great information

660
00:45:32,207 --> 00:45:34,447
and very high density. Thank you again for all you two.

661
00:45:34,847 --> 00:45:39,167
Well, thank you, adversaries. I really appreciate that. It's been a wild three

662
00:45:39,167 --> 00:45:41,867
weeks of shows just adapting and tucking and rolling.

663
00:45:42,347 --> 00:45:45,507
So that means a lot. Appreciate that baller boost. It's been a minute,

664
00:45:45,527 --> 00:45:46,907
too, since we had a big baller boost.

665
00:45:47,467 --> 00:45:51,347
You did some heavy lifting. Appreciate it very much. Thank you for the boost.

666
00:45:52,227 --> 00:45:57,167
A-Train is here with 33,333 sats.

667
00:46:00,007 --> 00:46:05,307
You made me want to be a better man. He says, great show. Thanks for the thought-provoking content.

668
00:46:05,527 --> 00:46:08,807
One thing that kept going through my mind, especially after the Redaglio clip,

669
00:46:09,007 --> 00:46:13,227
is that we are living through an unprecedented time, a once-in-a-lifetime.

670
00:46:13,507 --> 00:46:16,047
His book, Principles for Dealing with a Change of World Order,

671
00:46:16,127 --> 00:46:20,907
spells this cycle out well, which begs the question, Do any of these talking

672
00:46:20,907 --> 00:46:23,487
heads really know how to predict this stuff?

673
00:46:23,747 --> 00:46:26,007
I don't think any of their charts will work through this.

674
00:46:26,387 --> 00:46:29,367
Part of the beauty of getting orange-pilled is that you're forced to have a

675
00:46:29,367 --> 00:46:34,087
basic understanding of the current fiat system. Yep, and how broken it is.

676
00:46:34,907 --> 00:46:41,287
I know. Bitcoin, the lens of Bitcoin truly helps you understand how broken the fiat system is.

677
00:46:41,427 --> 00:46:44,567
I've heard it said before, and it's true, it's hard to measure the system from within the system.

678
00:46:45,087 --> 00:46:48,447
Then Bitcoin gives you a way to step outside that and measure it, and it's...

679
00:46:49,754 --> 00:46:52,394
He says, I think those of us who have taken the time to understand Bitcoin aren't

680
00:46:52,394 --> 00:46:56,274
stressed. Just bummed that we will be priced out of being a whole coiner. Thanks again.

681
00:46:56,974 --> 00:47:01,234
Yeah, we, you know, to that point, I feel like we are in this weird price point

682
00:47:01,234 --> 00:47:07,514
where, you know, 80,000 and above, it's kind of too expensive for plebs.

683
00:47:07,614 --> 00:47:09,114
I mean, you can stack against that and you should be.

684
00:47:09,254 --> 00:47:14,394
You should always be stacking against it regardless because it's a savings technology, in my opinion.

685
00:47:15,194 --> 00:47:17,554
But, you know, you're not going to go buy one, right? You're not going to go.

686
00:47:17,654 --> 00:47:19,654
If it was at 20,000, that almost seems reasonable now.

687
00:47:20,374 --> 00:47:24,694
So like i think the plebs aren't stacking as hard as they used to be when it

688
00:47:24,694 --> 00:47:26,134
was lower priced and it's not

689
00:47:26,134 --> 00:47:29,134
yet quite expensive to make wall street just freak out and buy like crazy,

690
00:47:29,654 --> 00:47:34,574
we're in this in-between phase thank you train nice to hear from you user 20

691
00:47:34,574 --> 00:47:41,014
20049 says i hope you can see my handle now no not yet not yet the traders love

692
00:47:41,014 --> 00:47:44,354
the vol i'm not sure what's going on there i'm not i i would love to know if

693
00:47:44,354 --> 00:47:46,754
you go into your fountain profile and you see it they sent 21,000 sats.

694
00:47:46,894 --> 00:47:48,194
So they said, I'm hoping you see my handle now.

695
00:47:48,694 --> 00:47:51,434
If not, let it be known. I'm satsquanch. Well, there you go,

696
00:47:51,554 --> 00:47:52,834
satsquanch. Thank you for boosting in.

697
00:47:53,354 --> 00:47:57,034
He says, the show rocks. I hope you can attend and speak at BitBlockBoom next

698
00:47:57,034 --> 00:47:58,854
year, April 15th in Fort Worth, Texas.

699
00:47:59,174 --> 00:48:03,894
I just got back from this party and it was a blast. I ate a bit too much barbecue,

700
00:48:04,154 --> 00:48:05,514
but I'll recover to eat another day.

701
00:48:07,074 --> 00:48:09,834
That's what you should do when you're in Austin. I hope you went to Terry Black's.

702
00:48:10,474 --> 00:48:13,674
So I would love to go. Oh no, Fort Worth, Fort Worth.

703
00:48:14,234 --> 00:48:16,414
Yeah, I actually I would love to go to Fort Worth. Been to Fort Worth a few

704
00:48:16,414 --> 00:48:18,094
times. I liked it quite a bit.

705
00:48:18,534 --> 00:48:21,834
Not quite Austin, but a very easy flight from Seattle.

706
00:48:22,194 --> 00:48:26,114
I, for a little while there, I was doing that flight a couple of times a year

707
00:48:26,114 --> 00:48:28,774
when I was working at Linux Academy. They were based out of Fort Worth.

708
00:48:29,574 --> 00:48:33,134
So I've been there and I like it. Would go again. Barbecue is not quite as good

709
00:48:33,134 --> 00:48:34,594
as Austin, but that's all right as far as I know.

710
00:48:34,994 --> 00:48:40,774
I would, I hope at some point the show gets noticed by events and would like to invite us out.

711
00:48:41,534 --> 00:48:45,214
And I have heard that BitBlockBoom is a good one. I'd love to know your thoughts

712
00:48:45,214 --> 00:48:46,394
on it and what made it so good, too.

713
00:48:47,558 --> 00:48:51,538
Because I hear that it's really great, but I don't, I don't know why, you know?

714
00:48:52,018 --> 00:48:54,118
I don't hear, I don't, I don't know. Thank you for the boost.

715
00:48:54,198 --> 00:48:58,298
Appreciate it. Hybrid sarcasm is here with 10,000 sats. Coming in hot with the boost.

716
00:48:58,538 --> 00:49:02,138
To me, success, and this would be like success for the Trump administration's

717
00:49:02,138 --> 00:49:03,438
effort here, would look like the U.S.

718
00:49:03,558 --> 00:49:07,038
Having another semiconductor option besides Taiwan.

719
00:49:07,878 --> 00:49:12,038
Whether manufactured in the U.S. or another country, the economy is currently

720
00:49:12,038 --> 00:49:15,038
too fragile with Taiwan being the only real option.

721
00:49:15,758 --> 00:49:19,978
Interesting. So diversifying our supplier base would be an indication of success.

722
00:49:20,138 --> 00:49:22,698
I think that's a decent metric and one that would be measurable.

723
00:49:23,338 --> 00:49:26,378
Good suggestion, hybrid. Appreciate that. I think there's others,

724
00:49:26,398 --> 00:49:29,098
too. I'd love to hear other ideas. But that is a decent one.

725
00:49:29,938 --> 00:49:33,798
Wise Hoddle comes in with 4,242 sats.

726
00:49:34,258 --> 00:49:38,058
That's not possible. Nothing could do that. Well, Wise Hoddle did it. Shut up, Scotty.

727
00:49:38,298 --> 00:49:41,038
He says, high signal week in and out. Keep up the good work.

728
00:49:41,158 --> 00:49:43,078
The emotion level is just right for me. Okay, good.

729
00:49:43,298 --> 00:49:47,178
I do like to know. If I were to gauge the success of all these crazy moves in

730
00:49:47,178 --> 00:49:51,258
the economy by the Trump administration, I would look at the number of reputable,

731
00:49:51,598 --> 00:49:57,038
genuinely independent news and entertainment media in business by the end of the term.

732
00:49:57,198 --> 00:50:00,718
How many more independent banks? How many more independent small businesses?

733
00:50:00,978 --> 00:50:05,238
How much higher are the birth rates? How many more people are debt free?

734
00:50:05,518 --> 00:50:08,478
All of these are, I think, signs of a healthy society.

735
00:50:09,058 --> 00:50:11,418
And if that's not the goal, then I don't know what is.

736
00:50:13,618 --> 00:50:18,398
That's seriously wise hodl stuff right there he lived up to your username i

737
00:50:18,398 --> 00:50:22,318
agree so we should see an increase in independent businesses an increase in

738
00:50:22,318 --> 00:50:26,938
independent banks and higher birth rates and less debt those would be things

739
00:50:26,938 --> 00:50:30,238
i think we could measure maybe we you know you'd want to measure them four or

740
00:50:30,238 --> 00:50:33,178
five years out so it'd be a little bit delay but,

741
00:50:33,767 --> 00:50:35,607
I was hoping for metrics that we could probably observe sooner,

742
00:50:35,727 --> 00:50:37,747
but I do think those would be really good long-term metrics.

743
00:50:38,367 --> 00:50:43,287
Great ideas. Thank you, Wise. Appreciate it. Ace Ackerman's here with a row of ducks.

744
00:50:44,567 --> 00:50:48,167
He says, here's a whipsaw row of ducks boost. Whipsaw! Whipsaw! Woo!

745
00:50:49,547 --> 00:50:51,407
Gene Bean's back with a row of ducks.

746
00:50:53,187 --> 00:50:55,547
Gene Bean says, keep up the good work. Nice to hear from you,

747
00:50:55,607 --> 00:50:57,267
Gene Bean. Thanks for boosting in.

748
00:50:57,967 --> 00:51:04,567
Now we've got a boost from OBL918 with 14,567 sats. Oh my God,

749
00:51:04,667 --> 00:51:06,047
this drawer is filled with fruit loops.

750
00:51:06,227 --> 00:51:10,227
Who is so clueless about Bitcoin that they sell right along with their stocks

751
00:51:10,227 --> 00:51:14,447
just to hold the dollar, which is guaranteed to go down in value?

752
00:51:14,727 --> 00:51:18,367
I get why the market spooks and sells, but Bitcoin is not some U.S. corporation.

753
00:51:18,687 --> 00:51:22,687
Just goes to show having money is not the same as having whizzed Boosty McBoosterson.

754
00:51:23,387 --> 00:51:27,627
OBU are so right. I mean, the dollar is getting weaker right now.

755
00:51:27,767 --> 00:51:31,187
So like they're bailing out the dollars and just losing money.

756
00:51:31,327 --> 00:51:35,267
Now, the fair interpretation would be to assume they put it into like some sort

757
00:51:35,267 --> 00:51:36,627
of money market account or something.

758
00:51:36,947 --> 00:51:40,287
And so, you know, they're getting like a four or five on this thing or something. Who knows?

759
00:51:40,807 --> 00:51:46,847
But still, it is really something. I mean, I get the Bitcoin goes down.

760
00:51:47,107 --> 00:51:48,687
And yes, it can be volatile.

761
00:51:49,687 --> 00:51:54,187
The traders love the vol. But, like, the U.S. dollar is guaranteed to go down

762
00:51:54,187 --> 00:51:57,587
in Bitcoin over time, over, like, definitely a four-year period goes up.

763
00:51:58,067 --> 00:52:05,287
I think they have not wrapped their head around how much of a special attribute

764
00:52:05,287 --> 00:52:09,547
it is for Bitcoin as an asset not to have corporate risk,

765
00:52:09,747 --> 00:52:13,167
not to have sovereign risk, not to actually be a stock.

766
00:52:13,207 --> 00:52:15,467
I don't think they've wrapped their heads around it like they have with gold.

767
00:52:15,747 --> 00:52:17,667
They still look at it as a bit of a tech stock.

768
00:52:18,047 --> 00:52:21,127
He says, I love the in-depth coverage of U.S. economics. don't even think about

769
00:52:21,127 --> 00:52:24,047
scaling it back. That has been a debate that's brewing on the show.

770
00:52:24,907 --> 00:52:28,807
It's something I think about. It's tricky, right? Because not only is the US

771
00:52:28,807 --> 00:52:33,267
market driving the Bitcoin price action and also the largest economy looking

772
00:52:33,267 --> 00:52:37,287
at seriously adopting Bitcoin and other crypto, but additionally,

773
00:52:37,667 --> 00:52:42,227
this tariff stuff is driving the world news, driving the world economy,

774
00:52:42,827 --> 00:52:44,987
having worldwide impacts. So...

775
00:52:46,289 --> 00:52:49,989
It's hard to avoid. And what's interesting is when Bitcoin isn't ripping,

776
00:52:50,349 --> 00:52:53,409
it's generally because something massive is happening in the macro.

777
00:52:53,769 --> 00:52:58,209
And so that tends to get a lot of attention on the show because that macro situation

778
00:52:58,209 --> 00:53:01,189
is the next hurdle Bitcoin has to get through.

779
00:53:01,609 --> 00:53:05,669
That's where we're at right now. But then Bitcoin gets over that hurdle and

780
00:53:05,669 --> 00:53:09,569
then Bitcoin begins to be the center of attention again.

781
00:53:09,689 --> 00:53:12,749
And you start seeing mainstream media coverage, you start seeing more written coverage

782
00:53:12,749 --> 00:53:16,409
of it it's a fascinating cycle and you

783
00:53:16,409 --> 00:53:19,329
know as we see these things happen you see the price often

784
00:53:19,329 --> 00:53:22,489
go sideways too clarkian comes in with 5 000 sats

785
00:53:22,489 --> 00:53:26,989
you're supposed do you also have to post at least 2x collateral for loans on

786
00:53:26,989 --> 00:53:31,609
salt lending do they do margin calls at 70 ltv and liquidation 80 like lent

787
00:53:31,609 --> 00:53:35,509
it's essentially the same yeah you want it you want essentially so say you want

788
00:53:35,509 --> 00:53:38,809
to take out five thousand dollar loan you'd want to have ten thousand dollars

789
00:53:38,809 --> 00:53:41,989
of Bitcoin collateral, or more, ideally.

790
00:53:42,669 --> 00:53:45,809
One thing that SALT does, I've never experienced this, so I can't speak to it,

791
00:53:45,969 --> 00:53:50,189
but SALT has a stabilization process, which they talk about this on their website.

792
00:53:51,109 --> 00:53:55,429
I don't know. I think I would actually like it. Perhaps this is a use case for

793
00:53:55,429 --> 00:53:56,469
a Bitcoin or in stable coins.

794
00:53:56,669 --> 00:54:01,569
If the Bitcoin price is dropping massively, like it did right before the COVID

795
00:54:01,569 --> 00:54:06,249
lockdowns, and it just dropped, I don't know, what was it, 50, 60% in a day.

796
00:54:06,749 --> 00:54:11,449
They have a process where they can swap your Bitcoin into stablecoins and maintain

797
00:54:11,449 --> 00:54:15,529
its value before you get liquidated, and then let you buy back into Bitcoin

798
00:54:15,529 --> 00:54:16,429
when the price recovers.

799
00:54:16,749 --> 00:54:22,209
They also let you add stablecoins, and now you can connect through ACH.

800
00:54:22,589 --> 00:54:27,669
You can add a balance of fiat that it will pull from before it liquidates your Bitcoin.

801
00:54:27,849 --> 00:54:32,749
So you could have $10,000 in Bitcoin collateral for your $5,000 loan,

802
00:54:32,909 --> 00:54:37,669
and then you could have another $1,000 in fiat if you wanted or whatever that

803
00:54:37,669 --> 00:54:41,769
would be pulled from before it liquidated your Bitcoin. So I like that that's how salt works.

804
00:54:42,069 --> 00:54:45,869
I've never had to work with any of that aspect of it, but it's an interesting

805
00:54:45,869 --> 00:54:48,129
use of stable coins and that kind of stuff.

806
00:54:49,069 --> 00:54:50,509
I don't know how they technically do it,

807
00:54:51,475 --> 00:54:55,495
So it does give me some pause, but I think if I were actually to experience

808
00:54:55,495 --> 00:54:58,955
it, I'd probably appreciate the service. Great question. Thank you for the Boost Clarkian.

809
00:54:59,735 --> 00:55:01,895
Producer Jeff's here with a row of ducks.

810
00:55:03,535 --> 00:55:09,135
Aha! I finally got my what's minor up and running. Just in time for it to be too hot to run.

811
00:55:10,455 --> 00:55:14,615
Oh, California's already too hot. I got it integrated into Home Assistant,

812
00:55:14,855 --> 00:55:19,615
which allows for the next step, power use automation. Thought I'd share. Thanks for the show.

813
00:55:20,195 --> 00:55:24,475
Yeah, what producer Jeff has going here is he's got his solar system also hooked

814
00:55:24,475 --> 00:55:25,915
up to Home Assistant, much like I do.

815
00:55:26,375 --> 00:55:29,715
And so he knows when I've got X amount of solar coming in, I've essentially

816
00:55:29,715 --> 00:55:31,575
got more power than I can use.

817
00:55:32,055 --> 00:55:35,275
And he can run things like the Bitcoin miners. It's pretty neat.

818
00:55:35,335 --> 00:55:36,575
And it's something I've always wanted to do.

819
00:55:36,955 --> 00:55:44,615
My RV has solar, not nearly as much as Jeff, but it has about 1,300 or 1,400 theoretical.

820
00:55:44,835 --> 00:55:48,755
But I really get, at best days, 1,000 watts of solar at best.

821
00:55:49,335 --> 00:55:52,855
But it does often It didn't mean I have more power than I know to do with,

822
00:55:53,015 --> 00:55:55,095
you know, midday by about two o'clock.

823
00:55:55,435 --> 00:55:58,315
I'm all charged up. And I've always thought it'd be so neat to then fire up

824
00:55:58,315 --> 00:56:01,235
like a Bitcoin miner or kick off an EV charger.

825
00:56:01,675 --> 00:56:04,435
So, so cool. You're doing that, PJ. And thanks for the boost.

826
00:56:04,515 --> 00:56:05,775
Keep me updated on how it goes.

827
00:56:07,235 --> 00:56:12,415
1776 is here with 2,121 sets. Coming in hot with the boost. Hey,

828
00:56:12,495 --> 00:56:13,375
Chris, digging the show.

829
00:56:13,675 --> 00:56:16,515
I got a bug in my ear from your podcast.

830
00:56:17,275 --> 00:56:20,475
So I post on Noster. And by the way, you present the latest news on what factors

831
00:56:20,475 --> 00:56:23,035
influencing Bitcoin's behavior and adoption. Keep up the great work.

832
00:56:23,415 --> 00:56:25,175
Unfortunately, my Nostra link isn't loading at the moment.

833
00:56:25,615 --> 00:56:28,255
Sorry about that. I will take a look at that after the show,

834
00:56:28,315 --> 00:56:31,875
though. And it's really great to hear from you, 1776. I think that's your first boost.

835
00:56:32,435 --> 00:56:34,535
It's great to have you on board. Glad you're listening.

836
00:56:37,335 --> 00:56:40,775
I also appreciate when anybody shares about the show. Shout out to Nostra.

837
00:56:40,875 --> 00:56:45,355
If you want to hit my Nostra profile, I have a redirect set up at chrislas.com.

838
00:56:45,655 --> 00:56:49,355
And it'll take you to like a primal page. but you can follow me on any Nostra client.

839
00:56:50,458 --> 00:56:56,098
And Northern HODL rounds us out with a Spaceballs boost 12,345 sets.

840
00:56:56,518 --> 00:57:00,518
So the combination is one, two, three, four, five.

841
00:57:01,138 --> 00:57:03,958
Excellent High Signal episode. Appreciate your efforts into sifting out the

842
00:57:03,958 --> 00:57:06,778
best nuggets from all the noise. Catching up from a couple of weeks of boost.

843
00:57:07,198 --> 00:57:11,558
Booyah! Booyah indeed! Yes. That's amazing. I've got the same combination on my luggage.

844
00:57:11,858 --> 00:57:15,458
Yeah, it's been a really wild couple of news weeks. And trying to just really

845
00:57:15,458 --> 00:57:19,698
focus on the big picture stuff and stuff that I think will impact Bitcoin has

846
00:57:19,698 --> 00:57:21,698
really been my motivation going forward.

847
00:57:21,838 --> 00:57:24,418
And I appreciate the boost giving me that feedback.

848
00:57:24,738 --> 00:57:27,658
And I really appreciate that it's actually getting noticed too.

849
00:57:27,818 --> 00:57:30,418
You know, it's something, sometimes those things go unnoticed.

850
00:57:30,598 --> 00:57:32,918
Thank you, everyone. And thank you, everybody who streams sats.

851
00:57:33,038 --> 00:57:37,378
We had 45 of you stream sats as you listened to the episode and you stacked

852
00:57:37,378 --> 00:57:42,898
collectively 71,667 sats for episode 54 of This Week in Bitcoin.

853
00:57:43,078 --> 00:57:48,818
When you combine that with our boosters, we have a grand total this week of

854
00:57:48,818 --> 00:57:55,918
285,864 sets big shout out to Adversary17.

855
00:57:57,722 --> 00:58:00,682
Our boost put us over. Thank you, everybody who supports the show with a boost.

856
00:58:00,802 --> 00:58:04,402
It is a value for value podcast, and I'm definitely trying to make this value

857
00:58:04,402 --> 00:58:08,222
for value model work. This is a great way to support the show with a boost.

858
00:58:08,382 --> 00:58:11,362
You can use Fountain FM or any of the podcast apps that support it.

859
00:58:11,502 --> 00:58:14,602
You can find those at podcastapps.com. Fountain makes it really easy.

860
00:58:14,762 --> 00:58:19,262
And if you just aren't in a position to boost right now, sharing the show with

861
00:58:19,262 --> 00:58:20,702
somebody who's Bitcoin curious,

862
00:58:21,682 --> 00:58:25,582
or maybe contributing to the website in some way, we have a Jupyter Broadcasting

863
00:58:25,582 --> 00:58:29,902
GitHub or joining our community in Matrix, something to help spread the awareness

864
00:58:29,902 --> 00:58:31,222
of the show and help people listening.

865
00:58:31,502 --> 00:58:35,082
Anything like that, word of mouth is a great way to help grow a podcast.

866
00:58:35,302 --> 00:58:36,842
That kind of stuff matters too.

867
00:58:37,942 --> 00:58:42,042
But these days, a boost is greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you,

868
00:58:42,122 --> 00:58:44,022
everybody. Smoke if you got them. Really?

869
00:58:44,922 --> 00:58:48,302
I just, I really have no excuse. I love that clip.

870
00:58:50,462 --> 00:58:53,142
All right, that concludes the boost segment. Thank you, everybody.

871
00:58:53,162 --> 00:58:54,722
We had 58 unique participants.

872
00:58:55,062 --> 00:58:58,342
It's always an interesting number, right? Because we have tens of thousands

873
00:58:58,342 --> 00:59:01,522
that can listen. Well, in this case, just around 10,000 or so.

874
00:59:02,202 --> 00:59:05,322
And 58 folks make all the difference to keep the show going.

875
00:59:05,402 --> 00:59:07,682
I think we could get that number up a tick, too. If you haven't boosted for.

876
00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:18,160
Music.

877
00:59:07,682 --> 00:59:09,922
A while and you'd like to, it can make a difference.

878
00:59:21,062 --> 00:59:25,702
How about some updates for you? Yeah. Block has launched an open source tool

879
00:59:25,702 --> 00:59:27,502
for Bitcoin treasury management.

880
00:59:27,682 --> 00:59:34,282
It includes a dashboard for managing corporate Bitcoin holdings and provides

881
00:59:34,282 --> 00:59:37,342
a real-time Bitcoin to USD price quote API.

882
00:59:37,542 --> 00:59:41,482
So you can have a website and have a public disclosure of your Bitcoin treasury

883
00:59:41,482 --> 00:59:44,642
using this tool that's open source released by Block.

884
00:59:44,922 --> 00:59:49,042
It'd be something pretty interesting if some companies fold and others maybe

885
00:59:49,042 --> 00:59:50,202
started looking at something like that.

886
00:59:51,295 --> 00:59:55,535
Also in the updates section, Unchained has launched the Bitcoin Legacy Project.

887
00:59:55,855 --> 01:00:00,475
The initiative seeks to advance the Bitcoin ecosystem through a Bitcoin-native

888
01:00:00,475 --> 01:00:03,915
donor-advised fund platform, also known as a DAF.

889
01:00:04,435 --> 01:00:07,755
Investments in community hubs, support for education and open source development,

890
01:00:07,755 --> 01:00:12,955
and a commitment to long-term sustainability with transparent annual reporting are expected.

891
01:00:13,335 --> 01:00:17,035
In the first year, the program will provide support to Bitcoin hubs in Nashville,

892
01:00:17,295 --> 01:00:20,195
Austin, and Denver. I'm a pretty big fan of these Bitcoin hubs,

893
01:00:20,235 --> 01:00:21,035
so I think that's kind of neat.

894
01:00:21,295 --> 01:00:24,815
Support also includes $50,000 to the Bitcoin Policy Institute,

895
01:00:25,115 --> 01:00:31,855
$150,000 commitment to the University of Austin, and up to $250,000 in research

896
01:00:31,855 --> 01:00:34,475
grants through Bitcoin Scholars Program.

897
01:00:35,275 --> 01:00:39,455
Unchain says that, quote, they will match grants one-to-one made to partner

898
01:00:39,455 --> 01:00:43,895
organizations who support Bitcoin core development when made through the Unchain-powered

899
01:00:43,895 --> 01:00:49,095
Bitcoin DAF up to one Bitcoin. So they'll match up to one Bitcoin.

900
01:00:51,075 --> 01:00:54,135
Metaplanet i've told you they're deploying the micro

901
01:00:54,135 --> 01:00:57,715
strategy strategy has now

902
01:00:57,715 --> 01:01:01,135
reached the 10th largest public

903
01:01:01,135 --> 01:01:06,295
bitcoin holder after acquiring another 319 bitcoin and increasing their total

904
01:01:06,295 --> 01:01:16,755
holdings to 4 525 coins and ross albrecht is expected to speak at bitcoin 2025

905
01:01:16,755 --> 01:01:20,195
the conference He writes on X, quote, it's official.

906
01:01:20,395 --> 01:01:24,095
I'm excited to announce that I will be making my first public appearance and

907
01:01:24,095 --> 01:01:28,855
speech since my release from prison at the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas.

908
01:01:29,295 --> 01:01:33,635
Well, that's pretty neat to see. Be interested to hear what he has to say.

909
01:01:33,815 --> 01:01:38,555
I will keep an ear out to see if I can get clips for the show and if there's

910
01:01:38,555 --> 01:01:41,955
anything newsworthy that comes out of Bitcoin 2025 conference today.

911
01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:53,200
Music.

912
01:01:55,602 --> 01:01:59,262
Now, I believe Oklahoma's Bitcoin reserve bill has failed.

913
01:02:00,522 --> 01:02:04,462
But I still want to play this clip. This is the senator from Oklahoma.

914
01:02:05,222 --> 01:02:10,162
And she notes that she changed her vote on the Bitcoin reserve bill because

915
01:02:10,162 --> 01:02:11,222
of the feedback she heard.

916
01:02:11,522 --> 01:02:17,822
Up until this afternoon, I have been a no, but I am going to be a yes.

917
01:02:17,822 --> 01:02:21,862
And I had a couple of constituents reach out to me.

918
01:02:22,742 --> 01:02:27,862
And because of that, because I'll be honest, I don't like voting yes on things

919
01:02:27,862 --> 01:02:28,962
that I don't understand.

920
01:02:30,122 --> 01:02:34,382
But my ignorance maybe isn't the reason to vote no.

921
01:02:34,942 --> 01:02:40,982
But that doesn't mean that I won't be a no on the floor if it gets to that point.

922
01:02:41,142 --> 01:02:45,162
But because constituents reached out and talked to me about it a little bit,

923
01:02:45,322 --> 01:02:46,362
I'm going to be yes today.

924
01:02:47,162 --> 01:02:50,122
Because constituents reached out and talked to me about it, I'm going to be

925
01:02:50,122 --> 01:02:54,242
a yes today. Do you understand that means you can directly make a difference?

926
01:02:54,922 --> 01:02:58,202
That's huge. There's still states that have these Bitcoin reserves up.

927
01:02:58,942 --> 01:03:02,242
If you're motivated, it might be worth a call. It can make a difference.

928
01:03:02,502 --> 01:03:07,202
Now, before we get to the state of the network, I want to play a clip from Sam Hyde.

929
01:03:07,402 --> 01:03:12,482
It's been getting shared around X and Noster this week. And I think it's a good

930
01:03:12,482 --> 01:03:13,862
motivator for anybody out there

931
01:03:13,862 --> 01:03:18,182
right now who's a little freaked out that Bitcoin isn't $100,000 or more.

932
01:03:18,562 --> 01:03:23,082
You don't understand what you own. And if you have any common sense,

933
01:03:23,242 --> 01:03:26,662
you should be spending a little bit more time learning about Bitcoin.

934
01:03:26,862 --> 01:03:32,222
Maybe go run a node or something like that. You'll realize how much more there is to the rabbit hole.

935
01:03:32,382 --> 01:03:36,482
But instead of me saying it, I'm going to let Sam say it. What is there that's

936
01:03:36,482 --> 01:03:38,782
more important than your time and your energy, right?

937
01:03:39,002 --> 01:03:43,302
And it's like you could say that like family is more important than money.

938
01:03:43,542 --> 01:03:46,962
But what are you doing when you're away from your family? You're trading your

939
01:03:46,962 --> 01:03:51,362
time and energy for the stuff that you need to like get by in life.

940
01:03:51,542 --> 01:03:57,202
It's a core civilizational technology like fire.

941
01:03:57,202 --> 01:04:03,902
And to fuck with the parameters of money, to like mess with the little variables

942
01:04:03,902 --> 01:04:07,442
and the ingredients that make it what it is.

943
01:04:07,622 --> 01:04:13,622
You're messing with something that's at the base of a really powerful vector.

944
01:04:13,922 --> 01:04:18,682
Like little changes down here make the vector swing wildly.

945
01:04:19,102 --> 01:04:21,782
Robert Kiyosaki, is that the guy's name?

946
01:04:22,502 --> 01:04:25,222
Who's the guy that wears the glasses that he stole from me?

947
01:04:25,542 --> 01:04:29,442
Rich dad, poor dad. And he says, gold is God's money.

948
01:04:29,662 --> 01:04:36,262
I don't think that that's hyperbole or a fallacious thing to say or...

949
01:04:37,603 --> 01:04:40,443
That you that it's like out of pocket saying I think that

950
01:04:40,443 --> 01:04:44,203
using precious metals for money in particular the

951
01:04:44,203 --> 01:04:47,523
one precious metal that every civilization settled

952
01:04:47,523 --> 01:04:51,663
upon using as money I don't think it's coincidence you said something to me

953
01:04:51,663 --> 01:04:54,803
that was very interesting you said Bitcoin isn't something you're gonna want

954
01:04:54,803 --> 01:04:58,703
to sell it's something you're gonna want to pass down to your kids yeah which

955
01:04:58,703 --> 01:05:05,283
that is basically how I look at gold how I've looked at gold and now I'm a little more Listen,

956
01:05:05,423 --> 01:05:08,143
I dove in headfirst, so I'm kind of getting into Bitcoin a lot more.

957
01:05:08,463 --> 01:05:12,123
But that was a very interesting statement. I'm starting to ramble,

958
01:05:12,203 --> 01:05:22,763
and I would just urge anybody watching this to do the research on Bitcoin and figure out what it is.

959
01:05:22,803 --> 01:05:29,183
Because it's not going anywhere, and it's going to be the unit of account for the future.

960
01:05:29,183 --> 01:05:32,343
If it's not going to change your life materially it's

961
01:05:32,343 --> 01:05:37,083
going to change the lives of your children materially put aside the negativity

962
01:05:37,083 --> 01:05:42,903
and the anxiety that comes with thinking about money and the surface level ponzi

963
01:05:42,903 --> 01:05:47,063
scheme get rich quick stuff that that is associated with cryptocurrency and

964
01:05:47,063 --> 01:05:50,423
start researching bitcoin and what it is because there's there's.

965
01:05:50,320 --> 01:06:00,880
Music.

966
01:06:03,841 --> 01:06:07,701
Let's take a look at the state of the network. As I wrap up,

967
01:06:07,961 --> 01:06:11,701
it is block height 892,722.

968
01:06:12,841 --> 01:06:18,701
The price of Bitcoin in U.S. dollars is 84,340. Kind of been hanging out around here.

969
01:06:19,581 --> 01:06:22,461
Sats per U.S. dollar is 1,186.

970
01:06:23,381 --> 01:06:26,621
Although over the last seven days, we're actually up 2.4%.

971
01:06:27,621 --> 01:06:35,021
Still down 22.7 from our all-time high on January 19th, 2025, which was 109,160.

972
01:06:36,601 --> 01:06:40,781
However, fee rate's pretty low. Two sats per v-bike, great time to open up a

973
01:06:40,781 --> 01:06:44,241
lightning channel. And there, I think these are down a bit.

974
01:06:45,721 --> 01:06:49,101
21,368 reachable nodes. I think that's down.

975
01:06:50,621 --> 01:06:55,001
Oh, I think the TWIB crew out there needs to go do a lift, get a few more nodes online.

976
01:06:56,621 --> 01:07:00,561
The hash rate is crazy. The power of the network is incredible.

977
01:07:00,961 --> 01:07:06,861
I mean, overall, the hash rate for 90 days, 822 exahash. It's remarkable.

978
01:07:07,561 --> 01:07:11,881
So it's, yeah, the Bitcoin network is doing very well. It is very strong.

979
01:07:19,401 --> 01:07:23,541
We're just sniffing at block height 900,000. I mean, it's going to be a bit,

980
01:07:23,641 --> 01:07:26,361
but like, it's now in the far distance.

981
01:07:26,621 --> 01:07:30,341
You know when you're on your road trip and the city you're going to finally shows up on the sign?

982
01:07:30,821 --> 01:07:35,461
I feel like that's where Blockhite 900,000 is right now. Thank you so much for tuning in.

983
01:07:35,701 --> 01:07:38,281
Links to what I talked about this week are at ThisWeekInBitcoin.show,

984
01:07:38,301 --> 01:07:40,401
including things I didn't manage to make into the show.

985
01:07:40,581 --> 01:07:43,501
Now, I hope I got you something that was high signal, didn't get too distracted

986
01:07:43,501 --> 01:07:45,241
by emotions. Let me know how I did there.

987
01:07:45,521 --> 01:07:48,901
That is always the goal, and I appreciate a boost telling me how I did.

988
01:07:48,981 --> 01:07:52,861
And I'd also like it if you have anything that you wished you saw or heard on

989
01:07:52,861 --> 01:07:54,201
the show that didn't make it in.

990
01:07:54,621 --> 01:07:57,021
Boost that in as well, and I'll try to incorporate it into future episodes.

991
01:07:57,401 --> 01:08:00,001
Now, when we get out of here, I'm going to leave you with a value for value track.

992
01:08:00,301 --> 01:08:02,641
This is a new one. I believe she's from Austin.

993
01:08:03,920 --> 01:11:11,751
Music.