Here's the thing, Trump's speech wasn't really about Bitcoin.
It was a political speech that included Bitcoin a few times, but it was meant to convince
you to vote for him and donate money to his campaign.
Now that's fine, and to be expected, he is a politician running for office, so it's
natural.
But do not confuse campaign promises with actions once in office.
One of the biggest things Bitcoin has taught me is that proof of work matters, and empty
promises do not.
Put another way, fiat is talk, Bitcoin is action.
Greetings and salutations, my fellow pubs.
My name is Walker, and this is the Bitcoin Podcast.
The Bitcoin time chain is 854712, and the value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin.
I just got back from the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, and what a conference it was.
My lovely wife, Carla, and I were the MCs on Nakamoto's stage on Friday for the second
year in a row, and I want to give a shout out to Alex McShane, ex-frog, and the backstage
crew for running a damn good show.
And a shout out to the Bitcoin conference team and Bitcoin magazine for putting together
a truly historic conference.
This was our first conference back since our son arrived, and it was great to see so many
friends in the flesh and meet some new ones as well.
A particular highlight of the weekend was Saturday night at a true hole in the wall
karaoke bar called Santas, which is apparently quite well-known, where Bitcoin developers,
entrepreneurs, investors, creators, and plebs all sang throwbacks together at the top of
their lungs, which is why I don't have much of a voice right now, drinking beer and white
claws from a cash-only bar and literally closed the place down.
Amidst all the political spectacle at the conference, you may have missed some really
awesome keynotes and panels, which I highly recommend you go back and watch.
To name just a few I enjoyed, Snowden, obviously, both of Alex Gladstein's keynotes, which
were really outstanding.
The always realistic yet optimistic Matt Corallo, although I think at least 8,000 people watched
his talk because it was right before Trump's, so that was nice.
The panel with Dave Smith, Guy Swan, Luke Groman, and Mark Moss was both quite hilarious
and also very high signal.
And of course, the last panel of the day on Saturday, the Nooster panel.
Odell, American Odo, Will Kasarin, and McShane absolutely killed it, and shout out to all
the diehard Nooster fans who stayed till the bitter end, and if you haven't seen it yet,
you really should go back and watch it.
As for the political side, there were elected officials from both sides of the aisle, which
is nice, although more from the red team than the blue team.
Senator Lummis, who has been a vocal Bitcoin proponent for years, made an announcement
right after Trump's speech, which I think many people in the audience probably missed
as they hurriedly departed the stage once Trump was done speaking.
She announced an actual bill to build a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Specifically, the legislation would, and I quote, establish a decentralized network
of secure Bitcoin vaults operated by the United States Department of the Treasury, with statutory
requirements ensuring the highest level of physical and cybersecurity for the nation's
Bitcoin holdings.
A $1 million unit Bitcoin purchase program over a set period of time to acquire a total
stake of approximately 5% of total Bitcoin supply, mirroring the size and scope of gold
reserves held by the United States, be paid for by diversifying existing funds within
the Federal Reserve System and Treasury Department, affirm self-custody rights of private Bitcoin
holders, and emphasize that the strategic Bitcoin reserve shall not infringe upon individual
financial freedoms.
Now, as for Trump, I saw a lot of Bitcoiners seem somewhat disappointed after his speech,
saying they wished he would have said more or done more.
But for me, Trump's speech was exactly what I expected, and it included mostly everything
Bitcoiners predicted he would talk about, and that Bitcoiners also sort of memed into
existence.
He indirectly talked about a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had already
pledged to do on the day before.
But in contrast to RFK Jr., Trump didn't actually say the U.S. would buy Bitcoin, just that
the U.S. would keep 100% of its current Bitcoin, rather than auctioning it off, as has been
done in the past, and keep any other Bitcoin it confiscates in the future, because that's
where it got the Bitcoin it has now.
He talked about freeing Ross Ulbricht, mentioned crypto many, many times, and trolled Elizabeth
Warren, which was absolutely hilarious.
He also talked about wanting to further U.S. dollar hegemony through stablecoins, and did
not mention shrinking the size of our extremely bloated government.
Now, I thoroughly enjoyed Trump's speech.
Trump is an incredible performer, and quite a natural comic.
He fed off the audience well, and clearly knew how to work the room.
He's a pro.
Personally, I felt that RFK Jr.'s speech on Friday displayed a much deeper knowledge
of Bitcoin, and a focus on Bitcoin versus Bitcoin plus crypto.
And again, RFK Jr. also actually announced a tangible plan for a strategic Bitcoin reserve,
as did Senator Lummis.
Technically, Trump was the only one not to announce a strategic Bitcoin reserve plan,
but whatever.
Again, I enjoyed Trump's speech.
I found it highly entertaining.
He's a charismatic guy with great energy, and he's hilarious.
I laughed my ass off.
But I want to remind everyone that he is still a politician, pandering to a crowd to try and
win their votes and donations.
I also think Trump underestimated the depth of knowledge of Bitcoiners in the room.
Why do I say this?
Because he made statements like, under my leadership, we had effectively no inflation,
none.
Now, any Bitcoiner who has spent more than five minutes studying monetary theory, and
had the use of their eyes and ears while he was in office, knows that there was in fact
a great deal of inflation during President Trump's administration.
The money supply expanded dramatically during Trump's four years in office.
The United States printed trillions of dollars out of thin air, or should I say the cabal
or cartel that controls our money, the Federal Reserve System.
So this is what I want to talk about today, because there's already plenty of analysis
about all the political speeches from the conference.
And I think this point about inflation is extremely important for people to understand.
And clearly there is still some misunderstanding, because people like Trump keep making these
kind of statements like there was zero inflation, and nobody seems to check them on it.
When politicians, central bankers, and media talking heads refer to inflation, they are
really talking about prices rising.
Inflation is an increase in the supply of money.
It's literally an inflation of the money supply.
Prices rising is a result of inflation.
It is also important to note that rising prices occur with a lag relative to monetary inflation.
When they print money out of thin air, prices do not immediately go up everywhere all at
once.
Prices rise with a lag, and unevenly, whether that be the price of labor, consumer goods,
assets, etc.
So when Trump says, under my leadership, we had effectively no inflation, none, we know
this to be objectively false.
Now in Trump's defense, he probably assumed he could get away with such a blatant lie,
because he's used to speaking at rallies where the attendees are 100% already bought
into his shtick.
I don't want to make assumptions, but I think it's probably fair to say that the
average knowledge of monetary theory at a Trump rally is lower than that at a Bitcoin
conference.
The average attendee at a Trump rally has probably never heard of the Cantillon or Cantillon
effect, but the average attendee at a Bitcoin conference likely has.
Now if you're listening right now wondering what the fuck is the Cantillon or Cantillon
effect, don't worry, I will explain it to you very simply.
The Cantillon effect, described by Richard Cantillon, an Irish-French economist, that's
where the Cantillon comes from, but you can pronounce it as Cantillon if you'd like,
is the idea that when new money is created, that money disproportionately benefits those
closest to the creation of the money first, then gradually spreads into the wider economy.
You can almost think of it like trickle down monetary policy.
So what does that actually mean in practical terms?
It means that those who are closest to the creation of the new money, for example, the
big banks, fortune 500 companies in large corporations in general, etc., etc., receive
that new money first.
Here's a very simplistic example to help you better understand.
Now imagine you are on a beautiful island.
The total money supply of the island is 100 island bucks.
There are, let's say, 10 people on the island.
There is a scarce amount of goods available for purchase.
Now let's say that I, as a resident of this beautiful island, create a makeshift printing
press, really MacGyver that shit up, and print 100 island bucks out of thin air.
The total money supply of the island is now 200 island bucks, but no one on the island,
besides me, is yet aware that their money has just been debased.
I inflated the money supply.
With my freshly printed island bucks, I go around and buy up all the assets I want at
the existing market price, based on a monetary supply of 100 island bucks.
Perhaps I might even overpay just a little bit if I'm really interested in acquiring
those assets quickly.
The sellers of those assets are pleased because they've sold, at or slightly above, the prevailing
market price.
So far, so good, everyone's happy.
But now, that money begins to trickle down.
The people who received my newly created island bucks start buying other things.
There are now twice as many island bucks competing for the same amount of goods, and so prices
begin to rise.
A bushel of coconuts, let's say, which previously cost five island bucks, now costs six or seven.
But commerce appears to be booming, and for a while everyone is happy.
However, no new production capacity was added to create more necessary goods.
So now we have twice as much money chasing the same amount of goods.
Since I was closest to the creation of the new money, I was literally printing it, I
benefited the most by purchasing goods at the prevailing market price.
As the money changes hands and works its way through our little island economy, prices
continue to rise because the supply of goods hasn't increased.
But the money supply has.
The labor working for the coconut farmer is at a disadvantage.
His wages remain the same, but now the coconuts he helps to harvest are twice as expensive.
The labor who had been saving to buy a nice house finds that houses have doubled in price,
and his savings now have half the purchasing power they did before.
As for me, I've purchased all the houses on the island with the freshly created island
bucks and the value of those houses has now doubled.
This is the canteon effect.
Those who receive the new money first benefit the most.
While those who get it later suffer from rising prices and decreased purchasing power, as
the new money trickles its way down.
At this point you might be thinking for fuck's sake Walker, you've been talking about coconuts
for five minutes now, what the hell does this have to do with Trump?
A fair question indeed, so let's dive into that.
When under the Trump administration, trillions of dollars were created out of thin air.
That money went first to the banks, who lent it out, purchased assets, etc.
The Federal Reserve also directly bought assets like corporate bonds on the open market.
For big corporations and for asset holders, this was amazing.
If you owned a house or stocks, for example, you saw the value of those assets increase
dramatically in a very short period of time.
Huzzah, everyone's rich.
Well not everyone.
If you didn't own any assets, you obviously did not see the value of your non-existent
assets increase.
You did not see your wages increase.
Slowly but surely, as this new money trickled down into the wider economy, you did see the
prices of the things you need to buy just to live start to increase slowly, then more
rapidly.
This is why inflation has the worst effect on the poorest in our society, because they
do not hold assets whose prices rise first before newly created money trickles down and
fucks the rest of us.
The ultimate effect of printing money out of thin air is the centralization of hard
assets in the hands of those in proximity to the creation of the new money.
Those who receive the new money first, Donald Trump bragged that the stock market was doing
incredibly well during his presidency, even with COVID.
But now we see why.
Trillions of dollars were created out of thin air and it flowed first into assets, stocks,
real estate, gold, Bitcoin, etc.
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trust your hardware wallet manufacturer and you should be able to verify.
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But prices for various consumer goods didn't begin to rise right away.
It took some time and there were the stimulus checks at well which kept everybody distracted
for a little while as they said, hey, yeah, free money.
But then prices did start to rise.
About the time Joe Biden took office or a little bit after.
Now let me be clear, this is not an attempt to remove blame from Joe Biden for his utterly
disastrous policies, like for example, the Inflation Reduction Act, which had literally
nothing to do with reducing inflation.
But like most government bills, they name it the exact opposite of what it actually
does.
Additionally, we all know that Joe Biden has no fucking clue what's going on.
So blaming him feels a lot like blaming your grandpa for shitting himself at a family picnic,
but I digress.
I do think it is important to point out that when Trump says there was effectively no inflation
during his administration, we must be honest with ourselves and call this what it is.
A lie.
The Federal Reserve Private Bank Cartel printed trillions during Trump's administration.
Asset prices increased during his administration.
We generally do not view asset prices going up as a bad thing though because if you hold
assets you are getting richer, or so you think.
But in reality, your assets, like your house, are not actually worth more.
They haven't increased in value.
Your money is just worth less, and so the price has gone up.
And if this continues, your money will eventually be worthless.
So again, the price of assets rose because we increased, we inflated, the base money
supply of the US dollar.
The price of homes went up during both the Trump and the Biden administration, but started
to come back down just a little bit more recently because the Fed has actually shrank the money
supply during the Biden administration.
But again, not giving credit to Biden for this, he has no idea what's going on, and
the Federal Reserve is a private bank cartel.
Just wanted to be clear on that.
Now if you're a boomer, let's say, and you own a home, or maybe two, or three, or twelve,
you have been tickled pink as you watched the paper value of your home grow.
But if you're a member of the younger generations, and you do not own a home, this has been disastrous.
Even if you had a fair amount of savings built up, you did what you were supposed to, right?
The purchasing power of those savings has decreased dramatically.
Buying a first home is now further out of reach than ever before for the vast majority
of the population, especially the younger.
So again, the Cantillon Effect is the idea that an increase in the supply of money disproportionately
benefits those who receive the new money first.
If you want a deeper dive on inflation in general, then you should check out this read
by Ludwig von Mises that I did on episode 4 of my Austrian Audible series, Inflation.
Here is a fantastic and short explanation of inflation by Ludwig von Mises, which should
clear up any remaining confusion you have.
If the supply of caviar were as plentiful as the supply of potatoes, the price of caviar,
that is, the exchange ratio between caviar and money, or caviar and other commodities,
would change considerably.
In that case, one could obtain caviar at a much smaller sacrifice than is required today.
Likewise, if the quantity of money is increased, the purchasing power of the monetary unit decreases,
and the quantity of goods that can be obtained for one unit of this money decreases also.
When in the 16th century, American resources of gold and silver were discovered and exploited,
enormous quantities of the precious metals were transported to Europe.
The result of this increase in the quantity of money was a general tendency toward an
upward movement of prices in Europe.
In the same way today, when a government increases the quantity of paper money, the result is
that the purchasing power of the monetary unit begins to drop, and so prices rise.
This is called inflation.
Unfortunately, in the United States, as well as in other countries, some people prefer
to attribute the cause of inflation not to an increase in the quantity of money, but
rather to the rise in prices.
I absolutely love that breakdown by Mises, and he spoke these words in 1958, but they
are just as true today, even more so because now instead of printing paper money, which
takes a little bit of work and a lot of paper, governments in central banks like the Federal
Reserve, Private Bank Cartel, can create new money out of thin air with a few keystrokes
on the computer.
Now, at this point, you may be thinking, damn, Walker, what's the problem?
Printing money pumps the price of Bitcoin, right?
So just shut the fuck up and get behind the orange man who's going to pump the orange
coin and stop asking so many questions.
Fair point again.
But bags will inevitably be pumped no matter who is in office because the state and the
private bank cartel, known as the Federal Reserve, will always create more money out
of thin air.
My goal today, as always, is not to tell you what to think or what to do.
Do and think whatever the fuck you want.
My goal is simply to make you question, to make you doubt, to make you think independently
at all.
Remember, politicians are politicians.
They will say whatever they think will get them elected.
They will make promises they do not keep.
I mean, hell, they would promise you that we'll be mining Bitcoin on the moon if it
would help get your vote and donations.
As I've said many times, Bitcoin doesn't need politicians, but politicians do need
Bitcoin and they need Bitcoiners.
I think that it is a great thing.
We had multiple US senators, members of Congress, state senators, and both the independent and
Republican presidential candidates speak at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville.
That's awesome.
It's historic.
They all came to try and suck up to a room full of psychopaths, autists, beautiful weirdos,
anarchists, and nerds.
They came to a conference centered around magic fucking internet money because our power is
growing.
They came because Bitcoin is here to stay and Bitcoiners are going to be the dominant
economic and cultural force in the world in the years to come.
This point cannot be stressed enough.
The paradigm has shifted.
The Overton window has shifted.
Bitcoin is no longer niche.
Bitcoin is in the spotlight and cannot be ignored.
Now in my opinion, we should not try and reject this newfound political spotlight.
We should embrace it and use it to our advantage.
You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you as the old saying goes.
Of course, at the same time, we should continue to build parallel systems outside of the fiat
systems that currently plague our world.
We should continue to drive bottom up adoption in America and across the rest of the world.
As we're doing now, the politicians have opened the gates and let the Trojan horse
of Bitcoin through into the Citadel.
A Trojan horse packed with Bitcoiners.
You do not need to simp for every politician that says a few cheap words you like.
Let them simp for you.
Here's the thing.
Trump's speech wasn't really about Bitcoin.
It was a political speech that included Bitcoin a few times, but it was meant to convince
you to vote for him and donate money to his campaign.
Now that's fine.
And to be expected, he is a politician running for office, so it's natural.
But do not confuse campaign promises with actions once in office.
One of the biggest things Bitcoin has taught me is that proof of work matters and empty
promises do not.
Put another way.
Fiat is talk.
Bitcoin is action.
You should actively ridicule anyone who tells you that you need to support a particular
candidate.
That's because they made some empty campaign promises that you like.
That is the most fiat fucking thing I have ever heard.
But that doesn't mean you can't get excited that politicians from both sides of the aisle
and independence are actively talking about Bitcoin in a positive light.
This is great and should be celebrated.
The Bitcoiners who have worked hard, whispering in the ears of these candidates and their
teams should also be applauded once again.
And I cannot stress this enough.
I'm not here to tell you what to think or how to act or who to vote for or who you should
donate money to or not donate money to.
Anyone who tries to do that is just a status to larking as a Bitcoiner.
I am just here to humbly remind you that if you are not doubting, you are not thinking.
And if you are not thinking, you are an NPC.
It is important to be especially critical and doubtful of those who seek power and say
things you like.
And if you like the person themselves and find them charming, charismatic, funny and
inspiring, it is very easy to develop massive blind spots when we are told things we like
to hear by people we like.
There is no red.
There is no blue.
There is the state.
And there is you.
The state is a gargantuan bloated beast that sucks the productive energy out of society.
The state is composed of people.
People who have the same capacity for good and evil that all of us possess.
I have hope for the future, not because of promises that politicians make while trying
to win my favor, but because of the radical, revolutionary, fucking inspiring people I have
met through Bitcoin and Noster, people building parallel systems outside of state control without
asking for permission from politicians.
Remember, Bitcoin isn't just some other financial tool or a cool investment.
It is a revolutionary force and it's reshaping our understanding of money, power and freedom
and giving us a chance at all of those things.
Trump's speech at the Bitcoin conference was a spectacle full of all the bombast and
his just enigmatic charisma that we've come to expect.
But it was fundamentally a political pitch.
He was pandering.
Don't let the spectacle distract you from the substance or lack thereof.
I don't need to tell you that promises made on the campaign trail often seem to evaporate
in the harsh light of political reality once that candidate actually takes office.
Bitcoin teaches us the value of proof of work and the importance of actions over words.
Fiat currencies are built on promises.
Bitcoin is built on verifiable truth.
We must remain vigilant and skeptical, especially when politicians of any colored stripe try
to co-opt this movement.
They need us more than we need them.
They are national, but Bitcoin is global.
Bitcoin is supranational.
Bitcoin will succeed and is succeeding regardless of the actions of any one country or any one
politician because Bitcoin is global, borderless, and un-fucking-stoppable.
And again, the excitement around political figures acknowledging Bitcoin and supporting
it is significant and it's worth celebrating.
But it should not cloud our judgment.
This isn't about pledging blind allegiance to anyone who speaks favorably about Bitcoin.
It's about holding them accountable and ensuring they understand that our support is highly
conditional on real, meaningful action.
We must demand their proof of work and we should not trust, we should verify.
Bitcoiners are not NPCs.
We are doubtful, critical thinkers, at least most of us are.
We do our own research and we demand more than just empty rhetoric or at least we should.
A kind reminder.
The goal here is to separate the creation of money from state.
Our future lies not in the hands of politicians, but in the revolutionary and fucking radical
spirit of Bitcoiners around the world who are building parallel systems that defy state
control.
These systems powered by Bitcoin and other decentralized open protocols like Noster are
the building blocks of a future where our freedom, financial or otherwise, is not dictated
by the whims of the fucking state, but secured by code, collective effort, and independent
human action.
This is our path forward.
A path that demands skepticism, critical thinking, and above all unwavering commitment to the
principles that make Bitcoin revolutionary in the first place and to the go fuck yourself
attitude that has gotten Bitcoiners where we are today.
Bitcoin didn't get where it is today because a bunch of Bitcoiners have been non-stop kissing
the asses of every politician they could find.
It got here because cipherpunks write code and those that can't write code can at least
meme and the Bitcoiners that meme tend to fucking go after idiot politicians who say
stupid stuff about Bitcoin and have been for years.
We didn't get here by playing nice, we got here by being fucking aggressive and sticking
to our principles.
So think for yourselves, use your fucking brains, remember why you got into Bitcoin in
the first place, don't go simping for the first politician who says nice things about
Bitcoin.
They work for us, or at least they're supposed to, but we all know that's bullshit.
But make them work really, really hard to earn your votes if you vote at all, earn your
support and earn your donations.
If you want to give them any, personally I don't.
Play hard to get and be hard to persuade.
Do not forget that we hold the power here.
It's up to us to wield it wisely.
Our strength lies in our independence and our relentless pursuit of truth and freedom.
You should demand more, expect more and never settle for less.
Okay, all of that said, Bitcoin doesn't care, and you also shouldn't care what the fuck
I have to say.
If you do, that's great, thank you.
But if you listen to this whole thing and you're thinking, this guy's a fucking idiot,
he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about, fuck this guy, that's great.
Tell me to go fuck myself again.
I don't care either.
And again, Bitcoin definitely doesn't.
I just want you to think for yourself.
So my fellow Bitcoiners, I'll leave you with this because honestly, I am really losing
my voice and it was already basically gone.
You can't fix the system from within the system.
If you could, it would already be fixed instead of more bloated and corrupt than ever.
That's why we need to keep building in parallel and use our growing power and influence to
force the system to change with relentless outside pressure.
Humans won't build the future we want to see.
That's up to us.
And that's a wrap on this Bitcoin news roundup episode of the Bitcoin podcast.
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head to Bitcoinpodcast.net or hit me up on social media.
If you enjoyed this show, share it, tag me and let me know what you thought.
You can find me on Noster by going to primal.net slash Walker.
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America.
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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.