Greetings and salutations my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is the Bitcoin
podcast. It's Wednesday July 26th 2023. At the time of recording the Bitcoin
block height is 800400 and the value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin. Today's
episode is the weekly Bitcoin news roundup. I'll cover the big Bitcoin story
of the week, run through some rapid-fire news, then talk about some Bitcoin
adjacent stories that you should know about and finally I'll zoom out and tie
a few threads together talking about the surveillance state and the gradual
erosion of freedoms. Without further ado let's get into the big Bitcoin story of
the week. Block 800,000 in the Bitcoin having countdown.
On Sunday night US time the Bitcoin network produced block number 800,000.
You may ask why is 800,000 so significant isn't it just a number and yes
you're correct it's just a number but it's a big round number and it's worth
noting a couple of points at this milestone. Bitcoin produced 800,000
blocks without a central bank. 800,000 blocks without a government. 800,000
blocks without a CEO or marketing department. 800,000 blocks without
Silicon Valley VCs or a pre-mine for insiders. 800,000 blocks without asking
for permission. In addition to the symbolic importance of a number like
800,000 blocks this milestone is significant for a very tangible and
predictable reason. The next Bitcoin having when the block reward is cut in
half from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin will happen at block 840,000. So now
we're less than 40,000 blocks away from this event which will likely take place
in April 2024. If you don't know what the Bitcoin having is I have an entire
Bitcoin 101 episode dedicated to this topic you can find it at the link in
the show notes but here's a high-level summary of why the having is so
important. The having process results in an exponentially decreasing issuance of
new Bitcoin until we reach the maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoin. We are
already around 93% of the way there and only a small fraction of the world owns
Bitcoin right now. There are over 25 million millionaires in the United
States alone. That means not enough Bitcoin will ever exist for even the
present-day millionaires in America to own a full Bitcoin. You don't have to be a
PhD economist to understand a simple fact. If demand for Bitcoin stays the
same or increases while the supply of new coins decreases the price in fiat
money terms rises. After producing block number 800,000 can you guess what the
Bitcoin network did? It produced block number 800,001 then 800,002 and so on. At
the time of recording we're at block 800,400. This is why Bitcoiners say
tick tock next block no matter what happens Bitcoin just keeps going.
Now for some rapid-fire news and Bitcoin adjacent stories. Interest rates at 22
year high. Today the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage
points to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% a 22 year high. In my humble opinion the Fed
is doing a bang-up job of setting us up for a long period of stagflation where
inflation remains persistently high yet growth is slow. When Bitcoin ETF via
Bitcoin archive ProShares says its futures Bitcoin ETF has closely matched
the spot Bitcoin price. This undermines one of the SEC's main objections to a
spot Bitcoin ETF. At this point ol' Gary Gensler won't be able to say no to
BlackRock and the rest but specifically BlackRock for much longer. It's a matter
of when not if. Bitcoin threatens the money monopoly. In a Twitter space today
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Bitcoin threatens
the monopoly of the US government and other governments to print endless money
to fund endless wars. While he's definitely not the first one to say
this and he certainly won't be the last it's nice to hear these words coming
from a presidential candidate. The narrative in the mainstream is shifting
you can feel it. RFK Jr. also confirmed that he purchased two Bitcoins for each
of his seven children after Bitcoin Miami using his commission from the
Monsanto case and wow that must have been a nice fat check. Bitcoin price
prediction via markets insider Bitcoin could soar to $180,000 before the April
2024 halving as potential BlackRock ETF helps drive demand. FunStrat says now I'm
not a fan of price predictions in general. That's why I say at the beginning
of every show the value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin but I think it's
worth pointing out when these predictions come from the mainstream sources
or legacy sources let's say. It shows how the narrative is shifting how more and
more people are waking up to the power and potential of Bitcoin. As an aside on
this day in 2020 the big headline was Bitcoin rises above $10,000 for the
first time since early June. With Bitcoin hovering just below $30,000 today
I'm sure all of us would love to go back to 2020 and stack more cheap sets. Three
years from now you're going to look back on today's price and think the
exact same thing. Tesla still holds Bitcoin via Bitcoin archive Tesla still
holds $184 million worth of Bitcoin and has reported no change in its Bitcoin
holdings for the fourth consecutive quarter in Q2 2023. In Q2 2022 Tesla
made headlines when it sold more than 30,000 Bitcoins accounting for roughly
75% of its total holdings for $936 million. Despite this significant sale
the company has not engaged in any further Bitcoin transactions maintaining
its remaining holdings. BlackRock is bullish. According to a 2022 BlackRock
report shared by Mike Hobart that's been making the rounds on Twitter Bitcoin
provides quote positive skewness unlike other investable assets and strategies
such as equities, option markets, hedge funds, high yield bonds, real estate,
equity indexes, government bonds, currencies and commodities so basically
everything you could possibly invest in. Here's the wild part. According to the
BlackRock report quote the optimal BTC allocation is large 84.9% the remainder
of the portfolio 15.1% is split 6040 between equities and bonds with 9.06%
in stocks and 6.04% in bonds. Say no to CBD sees via Disclosed TV Putin signed a
law introducing a central bank digital ruble and creating an appropriate
electronic platform. You're going to continue seeing a lot of these
announcements from central banks around the world especially in countries with
more authoritarian leanings. Bye-bye Bluebird. Elon Musk rebrands Twitter to X
with the goal of creating the everything app and has previously praised the
Chinese super app WeChat. Clearly Elon is trying to go far beyond social media
and one of the first steps will likely be the integration of payments within the
app. Sadly Elon has long ignored calls from
Bitcoiners to implement the lightning network on Twitter I mean X opting
instead to pump Dogecoin to the unwitting masses. My guess is Elon will
create his own shitcoin for this specific purpose probably called X coin
because he really loves that letter. After all Elon knows he can't control
Bitcoin so even if Bitcoin and lightning are the best options he'll want to go
in a direction that allows him to exert complete control. The best option? Create
a new shitcoin. Speaking of shitcoins next up Worldcoins dystopian vision. If
you haven't heard of Worldcoin this week it officially launched. You may have
seen it on Twitter or Nostar. It's the dystopian eyeball scanning shitcoin
created by open AI Sam Altman and Alex Blania. It's funded by a long list of
VCs including the distinguished super scammer Sam Bankman Freed, the folks at
Andreessen Horowitz, Three Arrows Capital and many many others. I don't want to
spend too much time on this dystopian shitcoin. Am I saying dystopian shitcoin
too many times? Anyway I don't want to spend too much time on this dystopian
shitcoin so I'll just point a couple things out. One, Worldcoin is not
launching in the USA right now. It's being promoted in the global South
primarily. Ask yourself why? Two, there is a massive allocation 25% of the
Worldcoin tokens to the VCs, developers and a reserve fund. This should be a
huge red flag for anyone with half a brain. Three, this should go without saying
but they are literally scanning your eyeballs and creating the CIA's wet
dream for enabling a global surveillance state where every move, every purchase,
every interaction whether online or in person is catalogued, analyzed and ready
to be used against you if you should step out of line. According to Altman,
quote, the goal is simple a global financial and identity network based on
proof of personhood. This feels especially important in the AI era. Well,
isn't it convenient that Sam Altman whose company created one of the most
popular AI tools, chatGPT, has been testifying in Congress about the dangers
of AI and asking for regulation that makes it harder for small competitors to
compete with giant incumbents like his company and harder for individuals to
access open source AI solutions and isn't it convenient that Sam has been
warning that the very AI tools his company created will make it difficult to
establish who is actually a person? Isn't it convenient that Sam Altman just
launched Worldcoin which wants to scan and store the retinal data of billions
of people to quote solve the very same problems he's warning Congress about?
The problems his company helped create. Isn't it convenient that Congress
hasn't called any hearings to discuss the ethics and dangers of creating a
global eyeball catalog tied to a currency that is owned and controlled by a
private company? I mean it's almost like governments around the world would love
to have a database of everyone's eyeballs tied to their financial lives
and internet presence. As Preston Pish pointed out, when Zuckerberg tried to
launch Facebook coin Libra in 2019 he was immediately called to a
congressional hearing and the whole thing was shut down. Kind of makes you
think who's behind Sam Altman and why he's just running around talking about
this new centralized UBI identity coin with no fear from the SEC or anyone
else in government especially after all the lawsuits in the past 12 months. Okay
I realize I said I wasn't going to spend too much time on this dystopian shit
coin but here we are. I guess I should give it a rest right? I mean if I'm not
careful I might be labeled a conspiracy theorist or something. After all maybe
Sam Altman is genuinely trying to help humanity by offering people a VC-backed
token created out of thin air with 25% for insiders in exchange for a complete
retinal scan that can uniquely identify you for the rest of your life. And I'm
sure the CIA, NSA, and state security agencies around the world definitely
don't have a backdoor to this world coin eyeball database. I mean when has the
government ever tried to encroach on your personal privacy or implement
illegal surveillance programs? That would be crazy right? Anyway you catch the
game last night?
Unconstitutional financial surveillance. Coin Center's case challenging
Congress's expansion of section 6050I of the tax code was dismissed a few days
ago. You should be paying attention because this will impose mass surveillance
on ordinary Americans. No central bank digital currency required. Remember that
sneaky addition to Biden's infrastructure bill in 2021 that most
people forgot about? Now that Coin Center's case was dismissed on January
1st 2024 this law will require anyone receiving crypto or Bitcoin payments
greater than $10,000 to report the transaction to the IRS and government
and report the personally identifiable information of the sender as well. No
warrant required from Coin Center's lawsuit in 2022. Quote, the reporting mandate
would force Americans using cryptocurrency to share intrusive details
about themselves both with each other and with the federal government. Under the
terms of the mandate, everyday senders and receivers of cryptocurrency would be
forced to reveal their names, social security numbers, home addresses and
other sensitive personal identifying information. Receivers would then have 15
days to report all of that information about both parties along with the
details of their transactions to the federal government. The 2021
amendments reporting mandate would also require the receivers to maintain
records of their transactions and the personal identifying information of
senders for five years. Now this is a blatantly unconstitutional move by the
Biden administration and one that is not getting nearly enough coverage from the
legacy media. The question I have is will any of the pro-Bitcoin candidates use
their platforms to speak up about this? FedNow launches. Via BTC Times, the
Federal Reserve unveils new instant payment system FedNow and according to
the Federal Reserve, quote, the FedNow service is a payment service the Federal
Reserve is making available for banks and credit unions to transfer funds for
their customers. It is like other Federal Reserve payment services such as FedWire
and FedACH. The FedNow service is neither a form of currency nor a step
toward eliminating any form of payment including cash. The Fed is clearly trying
very hard to convince people that they aren't trying to get rid of cash or
implement a CBDC, don't worry. In my opinion they're using the good old foot
in the door technique. They're getting people to accept a modest change. I mean
who wouldn't want a faster payment service, right? In order to make people
more receptive to larger changes like a central bank digital currency later on
they will gradually start making cash more difficult to use like the ECB is
doing already in Europe. Do not be the frog in the pot of boiling water. Pay
attention to what central banks around the world say and what they do. The best
way to protect yourself from the eventual implementation of CBDCs is to
study Bitcoin and stack sats. They can do whatever they want with fiat money but
they can't fuck with Bitcoin.
To wrap up today's show let's zoom out and talk about financial surveillance,
CBDCs and the gradual erosion of freedoms. Between world coin launching a
dystopian shit coin retinal scanning orb that rewards you with a token created
out of thin air, the dismissal of coin center's lawsuit against unconstitutional
tax reporting requirements, Fed now launching and Elon wanting to emulate
the Chinese WeChat. There's a lot of shit hitting the fan all at once. Add to that
the fact that 93% of central banks are engaged in some form of CBDC work and
the picture becomes very clear. Governments and big tech corporations are
aligning in the interest of taking as much personal data from you as they
possibly can and exerting absolute control over the tool that touches every
aspect of your life, money. Ask yourself this, do you think Sam Altman and the VCs
that back world coin are honestly interested in helping people or do you
think they found a slick shiny way to make a bunch of money and potentially
sell some backdoor eyeball data to three letter agencies on the side? Do you think
the social media we use should try to emulate Chinese platforms that allow
complete government surveillance and censorship? I mean why not just implement
a social credit system as well right? Do you think central bankers should be
trusted with even more control over the monetary system, how it works and how
people are allowed to use their money? Do you think the government has a right to
know the details of all your financial transactions including the personal
information of all people involved? When they fund wars around the world with
your tax money and the Pentagon has 3.5 trillion dollars in assets unaccounted
for and can't even pass an audit? On a personal note my wife Carla is pregnant.
Soon we're going to be parents, we are very excited. I'm sure a lot of you
listening are already parents and if not you likely will be one day. I want to
raise our child in a world where the state and big tech do not have the
absolute power to turn us into slaves of a fascist state. That's why I care so
deeply about open-source protocols like Bitcoin and Noster. I do not want to live
in a fascist surveillance state. I do not want to be the frog in the pot of
boiling water. I do not want to look back once it's too late and think I wish I
would have fought back. That's why I speak up. My fellow plebs it is
incumbent on us to push back against the erosion of our freedoms. Do not let the
cancerous boot of totalitarianism get its foot in the door. Speak up, push back. If
not us, who? If not now, when? I'll leave you with this. The state does not protect
your freedoms. You are already free.
And that's a wrap on this week's Bitcoin news roundup. You can find me on Noster
by going to primal.net slash Walker. If you want to follow the Bitcoin podcast on
Twitter, go to attitcoinpodcast and at Walker America. You can find the video
version of this and all the podcasts at youtube.com slash at walkeramerica. Bitcoin
is scarce. There will only ever be 21 million. But Bitcoin podcasts are
abundant. So thank you for spending your scarce time to listen to another fucking
Bitcoin podcast. Until next time, stay free.