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Greetings and salutations my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is The

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Bitcoin Podcast. It's Wednesday August 23rd 2023. At the time of recording the

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Bitcoin block height is 804-557 and the value of one Bitcoin is still one

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Bitcoin. Today's episode is the Bitcoin Weekly News Roundup. I'm gonna cover the

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big stories the week, run through some rapid-fire news, then zoom out and give

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you some perspective. You can find all the links and accounts mentioned in this

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episode via the article version of this show, linked in the show notes, or by going

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to BitcoinPodcast.net slash words. Before I get started on the news roundup I

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wanted to let you know I've started recording Bitcoin Talk episodes of the

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Bitcoin Podcast. You can watch these interviews at BitcoinPodcast.net,

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youtube.com slash at Walker America or Walker America on Rumble. And of course

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you can always listen to these episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

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Yesterday I released the first episode of Bitcoin Talk with Jordan Shaqtel and

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today I'm speaking with Jeff Booth. Next week I'll be speaking with Preston

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Pish. Thank you to all these guys for sharing their scarce time with me.

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Without further ado, let's get into the Bitcoin News Roundup.

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Get your Bitcoin off by NITs. In general, it's a good practice to remove any

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Bitcoin you have on an exchange into self-custody at regular intervals,

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because until you hold that Bitcoin in self-custody, you don't really have any

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Bitcoin. You just have an IOU for Bitcoin. And you hope that whatever

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exchange you use to purchase that Bitcoin actually has it when you go to

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withdraw. People who had Bitcoin on FTX found this out the hard way when it

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turned out that FTX did not in fact have their customers Bitcoin that they

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claimed to have. They just had paper Bitcoin IOUs. Something similar may be

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about to happen with Binance. To be clear, I am not saying anything definitively,

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and I truly hope this is not the case. I hope that Binance has all their

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customers Bitcoin that they claim to have. I hope Binance is 100% solvent and

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the rumors of Binance selling customer Bitcoin and buying their own BNB token

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to prop up its price are just that. Rumors. There's some weird stuff happening

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with their Euro on and off ramps as well, and if Binance decides to freeze Bitcoin

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withdrawals, heaven forbid, this could get very dicey. Bottom line, you don't want

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to be stuck with paper Bitcoin on any exchange. As a sidebar, I noticed that for

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some reason, CZ Binance follows little old me on Twitter, so CZ, if you're

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listening to this, which you almost certainly are not, please do not sue me

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because I am simply speculating on the rumors of the alleged use of customer

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Bitcoin to prop up the price of BNB. Great, I should be covered now, right?

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Anyway, I'm not saying you should only get your Bitcoin off Binance. You should

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get your Bitcoin off of any exchange you are using. This is just a good habit to

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get into, and a habit which solvent exchange operators should encourage. I

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don't know what the truth is or how events will unfold. A shitload of people

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around the world use Binance, and Binance also just integrated the Bitcoin

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Lightning Network, which is pretty neat. That being said, it's always a good idea

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to take your Bitcoin off of exchanges and into your own custody, regardless of

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who is operating that exchange.

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The Bitcoin Crash

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Last week, Bitcoin took a big old dump from the mid-29,000s and got as low as

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the 25,000s. At the time of recording, it's bounced back up a bit and is

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currently sitting around 26,500. It's tempting to look back retrospectively

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and try to attribute a rapid change in Bitcoin's fiat price to any number of

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factors or individual events. But the reality is that Bitcoin is, and has

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always been, a volatile asset in the short term when priced in fiat. That's why

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at the beginning of every show, I say, the value of one Bitcoin is still one

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Bitcoin. Do I care about the fiat price of Bitcoin? Of course, because that fiat

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exchange rate determines how many satoshis I get per US dollar, the fiat

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currency I am paid in. But the big picture is this. Every fiat currency, every alt coin,

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every asset will trend to zero relative to Bitcoin in the long term. The Bitcoin

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fear and greed index is currently at 37, meaning fear. And I like it when the

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market is fearful, because that means I'll be able to stack more SATs per

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dollar this week than I did last week. So don't sweat the small stuff. We have a

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Bitcoin having next year. If you can't handle Bitcoin at 25k, maybe you don't

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deserve it at 100k. And that's okay, because you'll be back.

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Fiat monetary logic. The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by

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Jason Furman a few days ago titled, The Fed Should Carefully Aim for a High

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Inflation Target. Quote, if it can stick to stabilizing the economy now, then it

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could start thinking long term in 2025. This is ironic because the essence of

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fiat monetary policy is to never think long term. Here's the opening paragraph

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from the article. The Federal Reserve has appropriately focused on a single

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objective for a year and a half, getting inflation down. While the war isn't won,

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and I fear the hardest battles may be ahead, it is necessary to think about

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what victory would entail. In the short run, the Fed should be aiming to

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stabilize inflation below 3%. If it can achieve this goal, then it should shift

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to a higher target range for inflation when it updates its overall strategy

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around 2025. On Twitter, Nobel laureate fiat economist Paul Fax Machine Krugman

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had this to say, I agree with Jason Furman's call for a 3% inflation target.

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The rationale for 2% has been overtaken by a couple decades experience, and many

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of us have been saying this for a while. To the esteemed Mr. Krugman, yours truly

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responded, personally, I think we should make the inflation target 4.20%. I

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challenge anyone to provide a good reason why 3% is better than 4.20%.

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Now, my response was a joke, but also not a joke. The real joke is that arbitrary

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inflation rates are somehow arrived upon as a consensus for what is the ideal

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inflation. I mean hell, why not 5% or 10% inflation target? The reality is that

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the 2% inflation target is just small enough where over the short term, the

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average person doesn't realize that the government and central bank are stealing

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from them. It's a slow, gradual loss of purchasing power that is only noticeable

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in retrospect. A 2% or 3% inflation target might not sound like a lot, and

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that's the point, but here's the reality. At the current 2% inflation

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target over 20 years, you'll have lost around 33% of your purchasing power. At

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the proposed 3% inflation rate over 20 years, you'll have lost around 45% of

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your purchasing power. This means that the stated goal of fiat economists

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proposing a 3% inflation target is to steal at least 45% of your purchasing

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power over the next 20 years. But any normal non-fiat economist person who

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buys food, fuel, or heaven forbid is trying to buy a house knows that the

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real rate of inflation, not the target rate, is much, much higher than 2% or 3%.

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If we have 5% inflation over 20 years, you'll have lost around 62% of your

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purchasing power. 10% over 20 years, you'll have lost around 85% of your

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purchasing power. 15% over 20 years, you'll lose around 94% of your

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purchasing power. If you want to learn more about the nature of monetary

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inflation and price changes, listen to the Bitcoin Out Loud episode where I read

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Mises' take on inflation. The last thing I'll say on the subject for today is

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this. Bitcoin also has an inflation rate, but unlike an arbitrary target rate

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imposed by PhD fiat economists and a real inflation rate that fluctuates widely

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at the whims of central bankers, Bitcoin's inflation rate is predictable,

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it's fixed, and the inflation rate of Bitcoin doesn't increase. Instead, it

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exponentially decreases every four years when the amount of new Bitcoin issued

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per block is cut in half. The next halving is in April 2024 when the amount of

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new Bitcoin issued per block is cut in half from 6.25 to 3.125.

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Tick tock, next block.

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Now for some rapid fire news. Via Bitcoin Archive, Bitcoin daily RSI is now the most

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oversold since the COVID crash in March 2020. Via BTC Times, nodal power raises

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13 million in seed round to boost renewable energy initiatives. Via

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Glassnode, Bitcoin balance on exchanges just reached a five-year low of 2,269,235.253 BTC.

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Via Bitcoin Magazine, a solo Bitcoin miner with one paid a hash of hash rate

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won a block reward worth 6.25 Bitcoin. A miner this small would only solve a solo

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block once every seven years on average at this difficulty.

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Via Francis at BoldBitcoin, thanks to Bitcoin Jungle CR and BoldBitcoin

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off-ramp integration for merchants which lets them easily convert their Bitcoin

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no KYC, you can now buy pretty much anything with Bitcoin in Costa Rica via

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Market & More, an online shopping service. Via the Bitcoin Therapist,

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MicroStrategy struggled for 20 years to grow their market cap above 2 billion.

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Then they adopted a Bitcoin standard. Within six months, their market cap was

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nearly 10 billion and after three years it rests at 4.6 billion. Imagine when

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other companies figure out that Bitcoin is a cheat code. Via BTC Times, Bitcoin

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secures 100 million in series C funding now at 1.75 billion valuation. Via Pete

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Rizzo, exactly 15 years ago yesterday, Adam Back reviewed the first draft of the

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Bitcoin White Paper in an email sent to him by Satoshi Nakamoto. He's still

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working on BTC today. Via Glassnode, the Bitcoin percent supply last active five

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plus years ago just reached an all-time high of 29.349 percent. Via BTC

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Times, Unchained, a leading financial services company focused on Bitcoin,

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witnessed a 170% rise in Bitcoin-backed loans between the first and second

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quarters of 2023. Via Wicked Smart Bitcoin, it's been 651 days since the

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all-time high. How long are you willing to hodl your Bitcoin? As a side note, this

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was published on Monday so it's now been 653 days. Good job. And to finish up the

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rapid-fire news, another one via Wicked Smart Bitcoin. Those who started daily

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dollar-cost averaging Bitcoin at the all-time high are once again in profit.

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Fiat Maxis in disbelief.

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To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out and give a little perspective. I know it's

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hard to see the fiat price of Bitcoin go down, especially if you're new to

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Bitcoin. And if you don't own any Bitcoin, maybe the price fluctuations are

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enough to scare you away. I'm not here to tell you what to do with your money

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because frankly, I don't care what you do with it. It's your money. Use it when

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you need it. But I do believe in educating others about Bitcoin and sharing

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my own experience so they can make their own decisions, but hopefully with better

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information. So I'll say this, regardless of fiat price, it is always a good time to

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buy Bitcoin. Personally, I didn't start buying Bitcoin until I nibbled a few

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sats in December 2019, and then more aggressively in 2020 as lockdown started,

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stimulus checks rolled out, and I realized our monetary system was seriously

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fucked up. That's when I finally went headfirst into the Bitcoin rabbit hole. I

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didn't have a pile of cash sitting around, so I bought a few sats whenever I

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could. I bought Bitcoin all the way to the top at 69,000 or so, and all the way

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down to the most recent bottom around 16,000. I bought Bitcoin yesterday, and

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I'll buy Bitcoin today and tomorrow too. I tell you this so you can understand

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that I'm not some Bitcoin OG who's sitting on a massive stack of Bitcoin

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from years ago trying to preach to you about Bitcoin while already being set

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for life. I work a fiat job, and I use Bitcoin as my savings account. I use

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Bitcoin to save the value of my time and energy, to save the value of my hard

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work. The best way I know how to do this is to buy a little bit of Bitcoin

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frequently and consistently, to dollar cost average and stack sats. I dollar

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cost average into Bitcoin because I don't know what the fiat price of Bitcoin

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is going to be later today or tomorrow or next week or next month, so I convert

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dollars to sats a few times a week. If the fiat price takes a dip like it is now,

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I take the opportunity to get some extra sats for my dollars. I'm a simple man,

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I'm not a trader, and I'm not some gigabrain investor. I'm just a pleb who

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works hard and saves in Bitcoin. Why do I save in Bitcoin? Because I know with

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certainty that over the long term, Bitcoin is the best option to store the

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value of my time and energy. It's absolutely scarce. The monetary policy is

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predictable, and the inflation rate of new Bitcoin will exponentially decrease

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with every four-year halving until the year 2140, where no new Bitcoin will ever

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be created again. I save in Bitcoin because the world is fucking uncertain,

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and I like having the knowledge that no matter what happens in the fiat world,

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the value of the Bitcoin I save can be measured as a fraction of the absolutely

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finite 21 million Bitcoin that will ever exist. My name is Walker, and I'm a

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Bitcoiner. And that's a wrap on this week's Bitcoin News Roundup. If you are a

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Bitcoin-only company interested in sponsoring the Bitcoin podcast, head to

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BitcoinPodcast.net. You can find me on Noster by going to primal.net slash

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Walker. If you want to follow the Bitcoin podcast on Twitter, go to at

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Titcoin Podcast and at Walker America. You can also find the video version of

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this podcast at youtube.com slash at Walker America and at Walker America on

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Rumble. Bitcoin is scarce. There will only ever be 21 million, but Bitcoin

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podcasts are abundant, so thank you for spending your scarce time to listen to

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another fucking Bitcoin podcast. Until next time, stay free.