Greetings and salutations my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is the Bitcoin podcast.
It's Wednesday, October 18th, 2023. The Bitcoin block height is 812800 and the value of one
Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin. Today's episode is the Bitcoin news roundup. I'm going to cover
a couple of big stories, run through some rapid fire news, then zoom out and give you
some perspective. You can find all the links and accounts mentioned in this episode via the
article version of the show linked in the show notes or by going to Bitcoinpodcast.net slash
words. And of course you can always watch the Bitcoin podcast on rumble or YouTube or listen
on fountain.fm or wherever you get your podcasts. If you listen to the Bitcoin podcast on fountain,
consider giving the show a boost or creating a clip of something you found interesting. For
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checked out fountain yet, I highly recommend it. You can send Bitcoin to your favorite podcasters
and also earn Bitcoin just for listening. Without further ado, let's get into the Bitcoin news
roundup.
Geriatric Warhawks. In a recent interview with Sky News, US Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen was asked about America's ability to afford to support wars on two fronts with
Russia and Ukraine on the one hand and Israel and Hamas on the other. Here's what she said.
Paul Tudor Jones, the famed investor, was on CNBC this week and he said, this is the
most threatening and challenging geopolitical environment that I've ever seen. At the same
time, the US is in its weakest fiscal position since World War II, with debt to GDP at 122%.
Can America, can the West afford another war at this time?
I think the answer is absolutely. America can certainly afford to stand with Israel
and to support Israel's military needs. And we also can and must support Ukraine in its
struggle against Russia. And look, the American economy is doing extremely well.
This is a strange thing to say, because we can't even afford to support our veterans
here at home. Actually, we can afford to. We just apparently prioritize funding for
ever wars on foreign soil to keep the military industrial complex fat and happy instead of
taking care of the men and women who actually serve our country.
Also this week, our octogenarian in chief, Joseph Robinette Biden, yes, that is his real
middle name, look it up, made a statement on 60 minutes that would honestly seem like
an AI deepfake if the president hadn't posted it on X himself.
Where the war is in Israel and Ukraine more than the United States can take on at the
same time. Where the United States of America, God's
sake, the most powerful nation in the history of the world, and the history of the world,
we can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting some serious late stage Roman Empire vibes from
Biden. Moreover, this statement clearly shows Biden's dementia is in full force, because
he seems to have forgotten how our involvement in and withdrawal from Afghanistan turned
out. IE with $83 billion spent and around $7 billion worth of weapons and military equipment
left in the hands of the Taliban. We've already sent roughly $76.8 billion to Ukraine, and
I'm sure many more billions will start flowing into the Middle East again shortly. Meanwhile,
the US public debt is $33.5 trillion and growing. Debt to GDP is at 120%, and the purchasing
power of the US dollar has never been lower. But fear not, because according to Paul Krugman,
the fight against inflation is over, mission accomplished, as long as you don't count
unimportant things like food, energy, housing, or used cars. Who needs them anyway? So what
can you do to protect yourself from these geriatric war hawks, central bankers and fiat
economists' chills? Study Bitcoin. Save in Bitcoin. Teach other people about Bitcoin.
Vote with your money and opt out of their system.
Breaking Bitcoin ETF News If you thought this section was actually going
to give you some breaking Bitcoin ETF news, I'm sorry to disappoint. I don't know about
you, but I am sick and tired of hearing about the Bitcoin ETF, about the delays, about the
new filings. There's just so much engagement. Clickbait out there, and very little actual
substance. We even saw a coin telegraph share fake news about a Bitcoin ETF approval, and
many people jump on the bandwagon sharing the fake story, but hey, at least they got
clicks and maybe some of that X advertising revenue, right? Yes, bags will be pumped when
the ETF is approved. And yes, it's a matter of when and not if. And yes, everyone will
continue engagement farming with speculation about the ETF. And yes, it will continue to
be annoying and there will be more fake news. So instead of running through the same shit
you've heard on repeat on X, I'll share with you a quote from my recent Bitcoin talk with
BTC sessions.
If top down was all that mattered, top down would have already given us Bitcoin. We needed
ground up for Bitcoin to even have a chance at existing. No top down system would have
said, you know, it's a good idea. Taking away all our power. It's a great idea. Let's build
that thing. It's not just that it's nice to have it's that you need you need bottom up.
I'm not saying that top down can't exist. I'm not saying that top down isn't going to
pump a bunch of bags, because it probably will right like that's but but that that's
not that's not the thing that changes lives. That's not the thing that changes the world.
Right. It's the bottom up that changes the world when when you go and you see places
where people have had their their livelihoods and their life savings destroyed by fiat central
bankers by by the currency devaluation by mandated or or official exchange rates and
all these all these predatory things that happen to everyone but you know with the dial
cranked to 11 in many countries. The only thing that solves that is bottom up is individuals
saying I am opting out and I'm opting into a system where this cannot happen. Thank you
to BTC sessions for putting things in perspective and reminding us all that bottom up adoption
is why we're all here in the first place. Now for some rapid fire news. Black Rock CEO
Larry Fink calls Bitcoin a flight to quality. Technically he said crypto but as Brad Mills
pointed out he's publicly stated on TV that he can't say Bitcoin. So when he says crypto
he means Bitcoin and I'm sorry to disappoint the altcoin shills out there via BTC times.
Blockstream unveils green light to enable scalable and non custodial lighting network
integration and via blockstream themselves in the spirit of Bitcoin and to encourage
the growth of the non custodial lighting options. We are offering a free green light
plan designed to empower small businesses. The plan allows developers to deploy up to
1000 on demand nodes via BTC times. Thunder has introduced clinch an API aimed at facilitating
instant cross border low cost peer to peer betting using the Bitcoin lightning network
setting their sites on the $95 billion gambling industry via GG on Noster. OpenSats announces
its third wave of Noster grants. We are happy to announce 12 grants for open source projects
in the Noster ecosystem. Adding to the 16 grants announced in July plus the three grants
announced in August. The total number of Noster projects funded by OpenSats as of October
is 31 via BTC times. Madeira and president launches Bitcoin business hub to spur innovation
and via documenting Bitcoin. New record Bitcoin hash rate of 440 sex trillion hashes per second.
Nice. To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out. If you've been following Bitcoin and
global politics, then you've certainly heard of Javier Malay, the pro Bitcoin anti central
bank presidential candidate in Argentina. Argentina's presidential election is coming
up fast on October 22. Ahead of the election, Argentina's minister of economy Sergio Massa
who is also running for president and lagging behind Malay in the polls confirmed that Argentina
will completely eliminate income tax. Now, while this might sound great at first glance,
I mean, who likes paying taxes, right? A discerning individual will quickly realize what this means.
This is the government blatantly admitting that they do not need to tax your income because
they can just print money out of thin air. Unfortunately, financing government spending
with the old money printer instead of through taxation in a balanced budget has consequences.
And in Argentina, those money printers are sure working overtime. The September inflation
came in an almost 140% year over year. This is a great example of something we bit coiners
talk about all the time. Inflation is a silent tax. Even worse, it's a tax whose rate can
be arbitrarily changed at the drop of a hat. And when people start to complain about prices
increasing everywhere, the government can conveniently blame greedy corporations or
certain people not paying their fair share or Putin or literally anything else. But what
they will never do is admit that inflating the money supply is the root of the problem.
Worse still, inflation is a silent tax that hurts the poor and middle class the most while
benefiting the already rich who are in closest proximity to the creation of new money. It's
as simple as this. When the government and central bank increase the quantity of money
from nothing, the purchasing power of the money you hold decreases. If you're new to
the Bitcoin space and this sounds confusing to you, fear not, I've done several episodes
and read covering inflation. To paraphrase Jeff Booth, abundance in money creates scarcity
everywhere else. Scarcity in money creates abundance everywhere else. And here's the
point. Politicians in Argentina, the US, Canada, Europe, and everywhere in the world
will do anything in their power to stay in power. They'll make changes they claim are
good for you, say they're lending you a helping hand, unlike that other guy who's just some
kooky libertarian conspiracy theorist nut. And ultimately they sacrifice future prosperity
for a politically convenient short term solution that is not a solution at all, but rather
the cause of more problems. Jimmy Song summed up the situation in Argentina well. So Argentina
has abolished the income tax ahead of its presidential election in a last ditch attempt
to defeat the libertarian candidate who's leading in the polls. This proves, one, they're
granting money. They really don't need to tax you explicitly. Two, that inflation itself
is a stealth tax that can be imposed without any legislation or transparency. The mechanics
of money are going to become way more obvious to people going forward. So my fellow plebs,
I hope you're awake. I hope you're paying attention. I hope you're ready and willing
to call out the monetary idiocracy, becoming ever more prevalent in our societies and our
politics. But that's also a tale as old as time. As more and more people wake up to the
realization that our money is broken, they're going to look for answers. And for those of
us who already understand that Bitcoin is the answer, we need to keep educating informing
and helping those who are blind to see the power of sound money. And that's a wrap on
this week's Bitcoin news roundup. If you are a Bitcoin only company interested in sponsoring
the Bitcoin podcast, head to BitcoinPodcast.net or send me a DM on social media. 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 at TIT coin podcast and at Walker America. You can also find the
video version of this podcast at youtube.com slash at Walker America and at Walker America
on rumble. 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.