The world is changing fast and things are going to get really fucking crazy,
but we'll be okay because we have Bitcoin. We're winning,
and we're building a parallel system outside of the broken fiat one.
Take care of your family, take care of yourself, and take care of your future.
Put another way, focus on what can be unburdened by what has been.
So I figured I'd quickly recap some of the Bitcoin news that's come out recently to get you all caught up,
and then zoom out and give you some perspective on all of the political chaos we are currently
witnessing in America, and more importantly, what all this means for Bitcoin and for you.
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.
If you are not already subscribed to the Bitcoin podcast, wherever you are listening or watching,
go ahead and do that and then share it with your friends, family, or strangers on the internet.
As a side note, my lovely wife, Karla and I are going to be emceeing on Nakamoto main stage at the
Bitcoin conference here in Nashville coming up on Friday. So if you're there and want to say hi,
please do so. It's our first conference back on the scene since our son arrived,
so we are stoked to see our fellow plebs in the flesh again. Now without further ado,
let's get right to it and start off with some rapid fire news.
Germany finishes selling 50,000 Bitcoins in what will be regarded by historians as one of the dumbest
moves of all time. Via Bitcoin Archive, Senator Menendez who said Bitcoin is the ideal choice
for criminals was just convicted for taking bribes in gold and cash which is so strange because I
thought only Bitcoin was used by criminals. Anyway, via BTC Times, the Liquid Federation adds
nine new members as Bitcoin on Liquid reaches a record high via the block. Japan's meta-planet
buys an additional $1.2 million worth of Bitcoin, shares jump 21% and that brings its total Bitcoin
holdings to 245.992 BTC. Via Bitcoin Archive, China, world's largest bank, ICBC says Bitcoin solves
gold's problem of divisibility and being inconvenient to carry. No shit Sherlock, but glad to hear you
say it. Via Crypto Slate, Putin warns of power shortages from Bitcoin mining, calls for expansion
of CBDC and as Alex Gladstein pointed out, breaking dictators don't like freedom money,
want centralized control. Via Peter McCormack, Real Bedford has acquired 66.9 BTC for $4,500,420.69
at an average price of $67,220 per Bitcoin. At first I thought this was a joke because of the
42069, but I believe it to be factually correct. As of today, Real Bedford hodles 82.7 BTC acquired
for $5.37 million at an average price of $64,925 per Bitcoin. 15.8 BTC is held in float for
football matters, the rest is held in our treasury. In more Bitcoin Treasury news, publicly traded
gaming company Boya bought $45 million of Bitcoin for its treasury. US Spot Bitcoin ETF balances
have hit an all-time new high, now firmly over 900,000 BTC. Trump's VP pick JD Vance reportedly
owns Bitcoin, according to his financial disclosures. And to round us out, a massive global Microsoft
outage caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike crippled banks around the world, but Bitcoin was
unaffected. Tick tock next block. Now for a couple other stories. Craig Wright is a fraud. On July 17,
fake Toshi, aka Craig Wright, was required by the courts to publish a legal notice on his website
and social media. It's really a chef's kiss moment after this scumbag spent years trying to ruin
the lives of people like Holdenot and Peter McCormack. I'm going to read you the notice because
it really is just wonderful. Legal notice. Dr. Craig Steven Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
On 20 May 2024, Dr. Craig Steven Wright was found by the High Court of England and Wales to have been
dishonest in his claims to have been the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator
of Bitcoin. The court found that Dr. Wright lied to the court extensively and repeatedly
in his evidence and that he attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents, quote,
on a grand scale and presenting them in evidence. Overall, quote, all his lies and forged documents
were in support of his biggest lie, his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto. In advancing his false
claim to be Satoshi through multiple legal actions, Dr. Wright committed a most serious abuse of the
process of the courts of the UK, Norway, and the USA. The High Court formally declared as follows.
First, that Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not
the owner of the copyright in the Bitcoin White Paper. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who
adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period between 2008 and 2011.
Fourth, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. Fifth, Dr. Wright is not the
author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. The full judgment and its appendix,
detailing various forged documents created by Dr. Wright, is accessible at the following URL.
Judiciary.uk slash judgments slash copa dash v dash right. Dr. Wright has been ordered not to
commence any legal proceedings based on his false claims by claim or counterclaim or procure any
other person to do so. He has also been ordered not to threaten any such proceedings explicitly or
implicitly or procure any other person to do so. Ah, isn't that just lovely? The only thing that
could make this any more satisfying is that the courts ordered him to legally change his name
from Craig Wright to Craig Wrong. Karma is a bitch, Craig. Mark Cuban gets bullish.
On July 17th, Mark Cuban put out a couple tweets that indicate he is extremely bullish on Bitcoin,
and rightly so, here's what he said, part one. Here is a contrary opinion on the emergence of
Silicon Valley support for former President Trump, which like all my opinions on here,
probably won't be popular. It's a Bitcoin play, not because the former president is a far stronger
proponent of crypto. That's nice, but doesn't really impact the price of crypto. It makes it
easier to operate a crypto business because of the inevitable and required changes at the SEC.
What will drive the price of Bitcoin is lower tax rates and tariffs, which if history is any
guide, and it's not always, will be inflationary. Combine that with global uncertainty as the
geopolitical role of the USA and the impact on the US dollar as a reserve currency, and you
can't align the stars any better for a BTC price acceleration. Part two, how high can the price go?
Way higher than you think. Remember the market for BTC is global, and the supply has a final limit
of 21 million BTC, with unlimited fractionalization. Keep that in mind as you consider what happens
if because of geopolitical uncertainty and the decline of the dollar as the reserve currency,
BTC becomes a safe haven globally, which means that BTC could be what countries and all of us
look to to buy as a means to protect our savings. Crazy? It already happens in countries facing
hyperinflation. And if things really go further than we can imagine today, and I'm not saying they
will, just that this has a possibility somewhere above zero, then BTC becomes exactly what the
Maxis envisioned. A global currency. All I'll add to Mark's tweets is that it's quite satisfying to
see people come to the realization that BTC is in a league of its own, and that it might be worth
getting some because it is catching on. Ultimately, BTC is a hedge against uncertainty. In unpredictable
times, BTC is predictable. It has a fixed supply of 21 million, and no amount of fiat fuckery can
change that. In a world filled with chaos, BTC is calm, producing blocks every 10 minutes.
In a world gone mad, BTC is sanity. And speaking of a chaotic world gone mad, on July 13th,
somebody tried to assassinate the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. We were literally
one head turn away from potential civil war. But before we get into that, let's hit our sponsors
quick. Just like you shouldn't trust politicians, you shouldn't trust your hardware wallet manufacturer,
and that's why you should head to bitbox.swiss.com, slash walker, and use the promo code walker for
5% off the fully open source, Bitcoin only, Bitbox 02 hardware wallet. Then get your Bitcoin off the
exchange and into your own self custody so that they're actually yours and not just paper IOUs.
The Bitbox 02 is easy as hell to use whether you are brand new to Bitcoin and it's your first
hardware wallet or you are a seasoned psychopath. It's Bitcoin only, and again, it is fully open
source. You can head to their GitHub and verify for yourself. There's no need to trust me or to
trust Bitbox. When you go to bitbox.swiss, slash walker, and use promo code walker,
not only do you get 5% off, but you also help support this fucking podcast. Now, a lot of you
listening to this show may already be deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. But if you're listening
to this podcast and feeling a bit overwhelmed, don't sweat it. Bitcoin consulting dot US has
you covered some people go down the rabbit hole solo, but others want someone to guide them on
their journey. If you're one of the latter, go to Bitcoin consulting dot US, whether you are an
individual and you want someone to help you with your personal Bitcoin strategy, or you're a company,
and you want help integrating Bitcoin payments, implementing private projects, or maybe you just
need some general contractor services. Bitcoin consulting can take care of you. Go to Bitcoin
consulting dot US and book a consultation today. Again, that's Bitcoin consulting dot US. Okay,
we're back. So clearly things did not go according to plan with the Trump attempted assassination.
And whatever narrative version you believe, I think we can all agree that there's a lot of
things that do not add up here. I'm not going to get into all of these different theories on this,
ridicule the Secret Service for their obvious failures or review any of the bullshit propaganda
coming out of the corporate media, because I'm sure you've already been inundated with it on
social media and are probably a bit tired of it. So I'll just give a couple observations. One,
they tried to scapegoat Trump for almost a decade, claiming he was the cause of all the problems in
America rather than a symptom. And it didn't work. Trump's support only grew. Two, they tried to
weaponize the law against Trump on multiple occasions, and it didn't work. Trump's support
only grew and he's running for president again. Finally, they tried to assassinate Trump months
before the election, but they failed. Now Trump's support is the greatest it has ever been. Additionally,
I think it's important to point out that the obvious strangeness of the circumstances surrounding
the attempted assassination before president and current presidential candidate have made a lot
of people who were very much asleep start to wake up to the fact that maybe just maybe the media
industrial complex and the anointed political elites are completely full of shit up to their
eyeballs. It's like after the Trump-Biden debate when the corporate media became suddenly aware
of Biden's obvious cognitive decline apparently shocked by a fact that had been painfully obvious
for a long time to those of us with eyes, ears, and functioning brains. It reminds me of the Orwell
quote from 1984. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final,
most essential command. Oh, and speaking of Biden yesterday in a post on X, Joe Biden tweeted a
letter allegedly signed by him saying he was stepping back as the Democratic nominee for president
to focus on continuing to be president, which we all know he is clearly unfit to do anyway, but okay,
again, you'd need eyes, ears, and a functioning brain to realize that he is unfit. So I guess a
lot of people are shit out of luck. This is again all very strange. We know that Joe Biden doesn't
have control of his own Twitter account that much is very obvious and has been for his entire presidency.
He's also obviously not cryptographically signing his messages like someone on Noster would, but I
don't think we're going to get Joe Biden on Noster anytime soon, sadly. But anyway, we also know that
any time the corporate media machine and status shows rally around a particular narrative instantly
in a seemingly coordinated fashion, it's a sure sign that everything is not as it seems.
It's obviously very weird that Joe Biden is still nowhere to be found. As many has suggested,
does he even know that he resigned as the Democratic candidate or was he out celebrating
National Ice Cream Day only to come home and find that Jill had resigned for him? Furthermore,
the fact that Joe Biden allegedly endorsed Kamala Harris via his Twitter, which again,
he does not control without any sort of public appearance is all very strange. It's also very
obvious that Kamala is probably the only person who is more laughable of a candidate than Joe Biden,
no pun intended. As a side note, I also find it quite hilarious and ironic that the same Democratic
party that spent the last few years calling a walking tour of the Capitol and insurrection
just orchestrated a soft coup against their nominee, the sitting president. I don't want to
spend too much time on all of this because again, it's literally all anyone is talking about on
social media. So you've probably been inundated with innumerable theories about what's actually
going on and half of your timeline asking where is Joe Biden. But again, while Joe Biden stepping
down is unprecedented, it is in no way unexpected. Everyone who has been paying attention knew this
was going to happen. It was only a matter of time. Zooming out, I think this whole saga is yet another
instance of more and more people beginning to wake up to the absurdity that is our political
circus. The Biden administration has clearly showed people that the president is not actually in
charge of the country and is not making real decisions. The position is just a figurehead,
which of course makes the curious mind wonder who is really in charge and pulling all the strings,
if it's not the person you voted for. What I do want to talk about a little bit is the signal
amidst all this noise. To me, the signal is that former president Donald Trump and presidential
candidate RFK Jr, as well as other senators and members of Congress, are going to be in Nashville
this week speaking at the Bitcoin conference, alongside the developers, entrepreneurs, and
educators who have been driving Bitcoin adoption for years and make a moment like this possible.
Given the Bitcoin conference is nestled snugly between the Republican National Convention and
the Democratic National Convention, this year really is the Bitcoin National Convention.
And in case you hadn't noticed, Bitcoin is very much on the ballot this year. RFK Jr has been
vocally pro-Bitcoin since he announced that his campaign would be accepting Bitcoin donations
at the Bitcoin conference in Miami last year. He's also spoken at length about different ideas
that he has for Bitcoin, like backing the US dollar with a basket of commodities,
which includes Bitcoin. More recently, Bitcoiners have clearly gotten the ear of Donald Trump in
his campaign, and he's spoken positively about Bitcoin and crypto, to be fair. It's clear at
this point that his understanding of the significance of Bitcoin is probably not especially deep,
but he's also not stupid, so he realizes a good opportunity to drum up support and fundraise when
he sees one. I think he's also accurately identified that if the United States does not
continue to be a leader in the Bitcoin industry, then another country like China will step in and
fill the void, and that would be to the detriment of the United States and American citizens.
Now, I think it's important to point out exactly what this means for Bitcoin and for Bitcoiners.
We all know that Bitcoin doesn't care, and as I've said many times, Bitcoin doesn't need
politicians. Politicians need Bitcoin. That said, if given the choice between having a government
that is vocally pro-Bitcoin or vocally anti-Bitcoin, I will obviously pick the former. It's easier to
swim with the current than against it. Bitcoin will succeed, and is succeeding, regardless of the
actions of any one administration or country, because Bitcoin is global, borderless, and unstoppable,
but selfishly or patriotically, as an American, I want my country to be pro-Bitcoin, because we're
America, goddammit, and we fucking should be. That said, I am also not holding my breath and
assuming that candidates that make campaign promises that I like will honor those campaign
promises once they get elected. This would be fucking stupid. I am, however, hopeful about the
future of Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, and the potential for Bitcoin companies in general to thrive in
America if the state is not actively fighting against them, trying to make their lives more
difficult. But let's be honest about why politicians are now starting to fall over themselves to show
that they are pro-Bitcoin. It's not because Bitcoin is really neat freedom tech. It's because
Bitcoin and Bitcoiners are growing more powerful and influential every single day, and will be the
most powerful economic and cultural force in the world in the decades to come. Bitcoiners who save
the value of their time and energy in the hardest money humanity has ever discovered, are increasing
their purchasing power drastically relative to the rest of the populace. Bitcoiners, toxic maxis
specifically as we all know, are incredibly ferocious when it comes to attacks on Bitcoin.
Any new piece of fud that has ever been trotted out by anti-Bitcoin propagandists is immediately
dismantled by a horde of angry cyber hornets who love nothing more than to meme idiocy into oblivion.
I think it is important to remind you, my fellow Bitcoiners, that we are in the power position now.
Politicians are coming to us to try and win our votes and to try and get our donations naturally.
This didn't happen out of nowhere though. It's thanks to the hard work of countless
Bitcoiners who wouldn't fucking shut up about Bitcoin over the last 15 years. We are at a turning
point both nationally in America and globally, and because Bitcoin is super national it exists
independent of any one nation state, and Bitcoiners are a global force to be reckoned with. We have an
incredible amount of power and leverage. We are no longer in the position where we need to feel
the need to grovel and beg, to try and get politicians to pay attention to us so they don't
govern us into oblivion. They are paying attention. Everyone is paying attention.
All eyes are on Nashville for this conference. Will Trump's speech be a stream of fairly empty
platitudes that get cheers from the crowd but fail to deliver anything of real substance? Perhaps.
Or perhaps it will be something truly groundbreaking, like a pledge to develop a strategic Bitcoin
reserve as has been floated by a number of people on social media. And let's not forget RFK Jr.
Again, he has been pro-Bitcoin longer than Trump. He's also an independent and has garnered a massive
amount of support, even as an independent candidate outside of the red-blue duopoly,
even while being vilified by both folks on the right and on the left. The fact that both the
independent candidate for president and the Republican candidate for president are now
vocally pro-Bitcoin is crucial because it forces the hand of the Democratic Party.
They have two options, maintain their current course, which means continuing to be generally
anti-Bitcoin, or change course to try and lean into a pro-Bitcoin, pro-freedom agenda,
taking away that piece as a bargaining chip and a cudgel to be used by Republicans and
independents against them. Obviously, the Democratic Party becoming vocally pro-Bitcoin
is by far the smartest thing they could do, because it takes that power away from Donald Trump or
RFK to be able to say, I'm different because I support Bitcoin. If we do reach this fascinating
point in history where somehow presidential candidates for all political parties in the U.S.
are pro-Bitcoin, what does that mean going forward? Well, it means we are even more powerful than
before. This is something Michael Saylor predicted at the Bitcoin conference in Miami last year.
I was privileged enough to be on the panel for the news desk with Saylor, Guy Swan, and Pete Rizzo.
Saylor said that in the next election politicians would be competing to see who is more pro-Bitcoin,
and that's exactly what we have right now. Of course, with the notable exception of the Democratic
candidate. Now at the moment, that candidate appears to be Kamala Harris, but in my opinion,
there is no way she ends up being the final Democratic nominee. So it would be very interesting to
see if anyone from the Democratic Party ends up making an appearance at the Bitcoin conference,
whether it's Kamala or whoever ends up vying for the nomination ahead of the DNC next week.
Again, it would be stupid of them not to, but let's not put it past them.
My fellow Bitcoiners, this is an incredible moment. This is a turning point. We are not in defense mode.
Again, we are in the power position, but we should continue to be wary, to be doubtful,
to question everything, especially when what we are told sounds just a little too good to be true.
That doesn't mean we can't get excited and hopeful about the possibilities,
but we should also not assume candidates will honor their campaign promises.
To do so would be to ignore both reality and history.
So my fellow Bitcoiners, I will leave you with this. The world is changing fast,
and things are going to get really fucking crazy, but we'll be okay because we have Bitcoin.
We're winning, and we're building a parallel system outside of the broken fiat one.
Take care of your family, take care of yourself, and take care of your future.
Put another way. Focus on what can be unburdened by what has been.
And that's a wrap on this Bitcoin news roundup episode of The Bitcoin Podcast.
If you are a Bitcoin-only company interested in sponsoring another fucking Bitcoin podcast,
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.
If you want to follow The Bitcoin Podcast on X, go to at titcoinpodcast and at Walker America.
You can also find the video version of this podcast at youtube.com slash at walkeramerica
and at walkeramerica 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.