Hey everyone, Michael here with the Bitcoin Way.
Something many of you may not realize is that each day after we finish recording Bitcoin banter,
we'll sit around and chat offline for a bit.
Sometimes we're just catching up or talking shop.
Other times the conversations get, well, very interesting.
After a recent banter we did with our friend Brandon Gentile,
we had one such discussion and by accident, we ended up recording it.
Instead of scrapping it, we thought you'd have fun getting a behind the scenes, uncensored look at the kinds of things a bunch of toxic Bitcoin maxis discuss when they think the camera isn't rolling.
Here it is. And I hope you enjoy.
My hope, and I'm sure a lot of our it's like Bitcoin gets to a point where enough of us Bitcoiners are wealthy enough where you can start kind of pushing back on the system.
And unfortunately, it looks like it's going a little slower than than you hoped.
so it's like weird where does that like you know they have like you said tony they have directed
energy weapons they have sound weapons they can just melt you sitting there you're militia okay
great you're gone you know the national guard just takes you up at what point like how many
of these guys are bots are they actual humanoids like are they men and women who like actually see
the you know the veil come down they start flipping to our side like what's the end game
you know a year from now five years 10 20 years from now that's that that's the this weird catechism
we're in. The thing is, there's also one detail that you're not thinking of. In moments of
hyperinflation, the army also fails because how are they going to get paid? Yeah, that happened
in Iran. They weren't getting paid and some of the soldiers were signing with people. And that also happened in Lebanon. Correct.
Yeah. So what kind of soldier is going to want to put his life on the line for 20 bucks a month?
no reason yeah right so there's also that silver lining that a lot of people don't think of they
just like oh but the government has tanks and military and all that shit okay great but it
has to feed these people but then you can argue but they can print but you know it's irrelevant
at that point because you're already hyperinflated so what are you going to print
printing the money becomes more of a burden than you know than just leaving it that's why i think
they're going to flip to a stable coin. I think before the dollar hyperinflates, they're going to
say, we have a new asset. This replaces the dollar. It'll be mandatory. Everybody gets it as soon as
you open your bank account, totally coordinated in the US. And we're going to flip from the cash
dollar system to the digital stable coin system like that. And I think that's what the Clarity Act,
I think the whole thing is fake. I think like Brian saying, I don't like the Clarity Act,
was just a way for them to create a narrative.
Brian, Coinbase, the banks,
they already agreed, in my opinion,
instead of a crypto paying you 5% or 7%
when the bank only pays you a half,
they both agreed earlier to say,
hey, we're just gonna give people 3%
instead of going to 5.
That way, the banks are happy
because now they can issue stable coins.
Crypto's happy because they get to still offer a yield,
but it's not as much.
so the consumer doesn't benefit like they do today.
So you tampen down the yield for consumers,
the big guys, crypto and banks align,
and now you have the whole stablecoin crypto
that becomes mandatory for everybody else.
But that's just kicking the can down the line.
It's not fixing anything.
In fact, it's making things worse
because you're probably going to be obliged
to use a digital ID with all this bullshit.
That's right, yeah.
But I think that's how they do it. I think they know that the collapse is coming.
The dollar is not going to last any longer. And they're going to just use, you know, you'll either use Tether or you'll use Bank of America stable coin.
Essentially, it'll all be the same. But they're going to flip the system.
And maybe it'll take a month to get everyone onboarded. But you'll wake up and your Chase Bank account is now denominated in stable coins.
And how long do you think it'll take before enough people reject this?
I think it'll be good at first. People will like it. And then I think the restrictions and the vice tightens over time.
And then you have Gavin Newsom as president. And he says, we're not going to allow the purchase of Bitcoin with any government backed stablecoin.
And now you have the dividing line. You're either in Bitcoin or you're not. And you can't get into Bitcoin at that point.
Except they're earning it potentially like on the side, like outside the system.
Yeah, selling your own goods and you can only accept Bitcoin.
The thing is, in a scenario like this, not being able to buy Bitcoin would be the least of my worries.
Because in order to really enforce their stupidities, they're going to restrict you from buying anything.
They're going to restrict you from maybe buying gas or buying a plane ticket to leave or buying certain types of food.
that way you are really desperate and willing to do anything to comply in order to you know
get these things well this this is what i suspect is more likely to happen if you give power to
psychopaths like that hey guys i gotta run i've got a plumber at my house but uh you guys get that
no that what zio michael that what greer said though i think like i think that happens for the The thing with what Greer said happens first and maybe they tried they tried to do it silently to cut off the exit ramps
Then Tony, it goes to what you're saying.
It goes to like, oh, Hey, we're restricting 15 minute city, like that kind of shit.
But then it's like people, people turn around and like, okay, well I'm escaping.
Like, oh, it's too late.
They already cut off the Bitcoin that, that, then that's what, so I think both you are right.
It's just the timeline that it happens in, I think is the interesting part.
So what do you guys think that looks like?
Like if that were to happen, like how many people would simply be, oh, okay, that's how it is now?
97%, 98%.
We need stupid shit to happen.
We need big, dumb things to happen.
I mean, really, like I hate saying that.
I don't want to.
Like I hate saying that, but like we have to.
You need Max Payne.
You have to have big, stupid.
Look at Justin Trudeau.
He probably orange-pilled more people in one event than almost anyone on earth.
You need like to both your points.
Like you need the freezing of accounts.
You need these stupid things.
You know, Trump getting kicked off of Twitter.
Look what happened after that.
You know, Nostra comes about.
You know, Elon buys Twitter, you know, for whatever that's worth.
But like things start happening.
You know, the parlors of the world, all these other things happen because dumb things happen.
And people don't wake up otherwise.
It's unreal.
I don't get it.
For me, the silver lining to bad news is that it pushes intelligent people to continuously, you know, build better tools to give these assholes a bigger middle finger each time, right?
And so this is how Nostra was born.
This is how Bitcoin was born.
And this is how many things going forward will be born.
Because the worst things gets, people need their exits, right?
And so these exits need to continuously be refined and made more bulletproof.
So that's it, man.
They exist.
They cannot be stopped.
They cannot be taken away.
And it just puts an end to the abuse.
And to your point, I mean, again, everything we've been talking about,
it's into your question, Tony, like, that's why it's preparing, you know, firearms, food storage,
you know, getting some water, like all these things, because you've got to prepare for bad
shit happening and then be ready on the backside to like, okay, we're building, we're building
with Bitcoin. We're doing these things in that chaos and story of life, right? That's what they
give me the clarity. I think people that are in a position to leave are, you know, better off just
leaving and you know and saving themselves such monumental you know problems and headaches down
the line but i don't know if how many people are you know have that luxury to just pack up and leave
i suspect right not that many right not many i mean not many so that's gonna be a lot of people
fighting it out here that's that's for sure you know even the clarity act i think the clarity act
going down or like this you know what happened the last week or two that was a good like line
the sand too you know because that really i think was the first real time where like you know someone
when some of these big guys took a uh put a put a put their foot down was like oh and so this is
that i don't there's an impasse like how do you how do you get around this you know kind of going
back to what you're saying career with the stable coin stuff this is very interesting because we
might be at an impasse where how do you get around it the banks don't want it they clearly are
threatened by bitcoin right this is the thing that no one wants to talk about right larry finks head
at wf but he's also the biggest bitcoin etf guy yeah right i mean the guy's the guy's a joke so
it's like this is now starting to be exposed and this is the line in the sand they passed the genius
act really quick and now the clarity act stuff is now like getting held up and i don't think it's
going to work and now you have an impact so now this fissure starts to your guys points of people
are going to have to start choosing because now altcoins are going to get hurt more and more over
time because banks aren't going to want this shit going on they might come up with some little you
whatever. But like we have this world now where there's true fissure and you can't get around it
because they don't want you leaving because, oh, we're sharing the spread, the 3% where the bank
wants all 5%. They don't want to share the spread, you know, with the, with the people and deposits.
So now you have this world that's really aligned in the sand and now people are going to start
choosing. And this is where the education, everything we're all doing now is becomes very,
very important. As people start looking for answers of, Hey, why the hell can I get 2%,
3%, 5% with stable coins when this was the case, you know, so now here we go. I think the game
started like a week or two ago. So you guys think that 2026 will be the year to remember? Like,
is this the turning point? Absolutely. I mean, silver is almost a hundred bucks. Gold is,
you know, almost at 5,000. I think that we're going to see the dollar crash. But unlike what
you were saying, Brandon, I think it was all manufactured. I think that the banks and the
crypto have already agreed behind the scenes. And we're just seeing political theater where we
think they're going like this yeah that way we feel better about the outcome because uh david
sacks in davos said the banks are going to have to compromise he said that he's like the banks
are going to have to compromise so i don't think the banks want the stable coins but they have to
they're forced to compete and i think the only way that crypto survives is if it can be legitimized
by the banks. So they both need each other. And that's why I think it was already agreed
to months ago. And now we're just watching the theater play out. And when the dollar
does hyperinflate, that's when they already have the answer ready. Totally organized,
totally orchestrated. You've got Bitcoin and then you've got government stable coins.
So then my theory about this two-tiered world is very possible based on what you just described.
because everything you just talk about now is relevant to people stuck in that system But if you on a Bitcoin standard living in circular economies which will continuously flourish
then all of this is like, it's almost like it's in another country, right?
Like it doesn't affect you.
It's not part of your daily existence anymore because you're no longer a subject to that system.
That's going to be crazy.
Like, I mean, this is a theory that I have in my head, but I mean, the more we discuss these things and the more I see things unfold, like, I'm worried I'm going to be right.
You know, like, and if I am, like, what the hell, man?
Like, I mean, this is messed up because a certain percentage of people are going to be okay.
And that may include you.
But you also know a lot of people that you care about that are going to not be okay.
Yep.
But you're not in a position to help them as easily as you would be like now.
So what do you do?
Yeah, I don't know.
I think the best outcome for us would be if Bitcoin goes to 5 million, 10 million.
To me, that's going to draw in the people who can still catch the upside over time.
And I think most people are only going to be able to get Bitcoin in a permission product like an ETF or holding it at a bank.
Yeah, so nothing really changes for them.
They just have fake sugar.
Yeah, they have custody Bitcoin.
But if you have it in self-custody, then you can operate between both systems with more independence.
I don't know if there are really any good outcomes.
I don't know if there are any good outcomes.
Black swans.
What if, like, I do, I believe that some of these nation states, again, kind of like you guys have kind of danced around some of this to a degree.
And so this makes me think of Chase Bank, some of the nation states.
Some of these people are going to collapse because they're going to play stupid games with Bitcoin.
Whether they're in these permission products or not, they're going to do dumb things because we know that's inevitable.
And they will blow themselves up.
And I think that might some of these black swan events, like literally out of left field, where all of a sudden you're playing, you're FTXing.
And then all of a sudden, Bitcoin, as we know, it's an auditing system.
And it's going to catch up to you, right?
Yeah.
And it's going to be out of left field.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Man, I can't prove it.
But you know, sometimes when you have a very strong sixth sense, I really have a feeling we're going to wake up one day and Bitcoin is just going to be like up there.
for no, you know, one reason.
It's just going to be there.
And a lot of the folks that are not like,
that are banking on everything except for Bitcoin,
they're going to have their faces melted.
And the ones that worry me the most
are the ones holding on to precious metals
because historically that's always been the safe haven, right?
But we don't live in that, you know, primitive time anymore.
what like first of all most folks don't hold the physical metals like the gold or the silver they
don't have them at home those that do have them in like in small trinket amounts like you know
maybe a chain a metal you know a few coins and stuff like that fine how are you going to use it
like are you going to take a bar to a supermarket and literally tell the guy i'll swap you this for
like 17 tomatoes like how are you like practically how are you going to do it you can't and if you
have a lot a lot of precious metals how are you going to protect them right you know like no i was
telling you this earlier today you agree like this brings back you know ptsd from the stories that my
parents used to tell me when i was a kid during the early days of the civil war in lebanon
people used to smuggle their own gold, right?
Do you know how they used to hide gold?
Up there, up the sphincter.
Not in dirty diapers, in themselves, you know,
anywhere imaginable so that they don't get stolen.
We had, I was told stories of folks that were living
in the worst, most notorious neighborhoods,
hiding barrels of gold underground in their living rooms
because it was supposedly the last place anyone would look
because this was like the worst place to be.
This is where they hid the gold.
And so can you imagine all hell breaks loose?
The first target is going to be high net worth neighborhoods, right?
Whether they have it or not, it doesn't matter.
The perception that people may have valuables there
is what's going to trigger the focus to go after them.
And so if you are actually hoarding physical precious metals,
how do you protect yourself against that?
And if you wanted to leave with your precious metals,
what bloody plane are you going to get on with all that stuff?
Yeah, you can't.
No, you're right.
No, you're 100% correct.
I think we're seeing FOMO.
That's why these metals are going up.
Everyone is FOMOing into it.
It's like brain dead instinctive autopilot reaction.
Like no one's thinking this through.
And it's going to become like your worst enemy,
like your biggest handicap is the very thing
that you thought was going to keep you safe.
So going back to this, because you guys nailed it, right?
Like the beauty of gold and silver is the physical the utility what it can actually do But we know that that that kept it back for 5 000 years right like that why it can be global money well right but that it
can't be because of the beauty of the physicalness it can't be money right so like you can't have
global commerce and so this goes back to agree what you're saying about the clarity act being
theater what if what if again going back to the trump thing at that global level of that being
theater this is like the multi-polar order that you'll wear where it's like the east they have a
ton of gold and silver and they want to revalue the system on that and then trump over here that
who knows we have gold or not or whatever it was but they're like no we're we're rebuilding in this
stable coin we're rebuilding on this so some of these like backroom deals that could be like oh
we're gonna have world war three who knows a year ago these these three russia china and america
could have made a deal and said yeah we're gonna like you know we're gonna create some theater we're
gonna we're gonna have some stuff up but like this is what's going on we know it's going separate
ways so like they all could be theater you could have theater and a global and they can have actually
here domestically too like it could all be theater and probably is yeah all of it and you're right
they got to sell so what they want is for everyone to go into gold and silver to revalue things yeah
and then it gets demonetized because you're doing against the dollar the dollar exactly yeah that's
like the biggest rug pull ever that's when it's gonna take place and they've been buying bitcoin
on the side confiscating it you know and boom here's the new monetary standard and and sailor's
got 700,000. And that's a U.S. company. And the U.S. could be like, hey, it's our national interest.
Strategy is the new bank, not just for America, but for the world. 100%. Look at Brian Armstrong.
He has said, right, we don't agree with much of what he says, but he's honest when he says some
of the things, like what he said this week in Davos, but also fighting the central bank guy.
But also he said, hey, if your shit's here with me, I'm going to give it to the government. If
they come knocking, I'm a U.S. company. I will give them the Bitcoin. So get your stuff off
exchanges and he admitted that five years ago which god love him thank you for doing that but
like he he admitted it but look at the etfs they're all all the shit is that coinbase all this
other stuff is that coinbase so it's like put put it all together what do we see you know it's just
it's wild wild wild wild they're always going to protect their own right this is why the justice
system for me is complete bullshit i i discovered this in lebanon and i'm seeing the same thing in
the US and in every other country in the world. There's a two-tier justice system, which is why
it's complete rubbish, you know, in its entirety. I don't know how this ends, man. Like it's,
I just don't see any peaceful way that this goes down, you know, when things get bad enough.
And that's the part that really worries me, is because regular folks are always the ones that
pay the price right it's like innocent people like in anywhere and uh i don't know i don't i
just don't want to see that happen man i've seen too much of it already um i already don't sleep
because of fucking ptsd like i don't need more on my plate you know going forward but
i can only do you know so much i know that's why i feel like that that's our that's our
generation of bitcoiners like this last each fuck or two is that people like we see the problems
we weren't the cypherpunk necessarily like we weren't in the first five years but it's like
you're in that next 10 years and you're like i just want to help the people around me like you
see the problems you've been studying this shit you've seen it tony's lived it and you're like
i just need to help people around me and then like no one seemingly wants to help and you're
like going insane at least that's that's me dude yeah yeah my life like i don't care if we get
wealthy like we may or may not whatever but like you're just trying to like help everyone you can
into the off the titanic into the life rafts and you're like no one wants to get in the lifeboat
Just get some.
I worry about the folks that have young kids.
How do you deal with them?
How do you protect them?
How do you educate them?
How do you make them as aware as you are and make sure they don't screw up somewhere along the line
or inadvertently get mangled up somewhere where they're not supposed to be, right?
I mean, all of these uncontrollable variables, as a responsible human being,
especially as a responsible parent, they weigh on you, right?
It's not like you can just, oh, well, they'll figure it out.
No, I need to be sure they're going to be okay.
It's not like, oh, well, they're going to figure it out.
Yeah, I don't know.
I've got four kids, so I think about a lot.
Yeah.
All right, dude.
Unbelievable.
This was...
We should record a second session here.
That was...
It's always better offline.
You got to start doing it.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
It may have been better than the original one.
I know. The offline always is.
You can't help it.
The problem is you couldn't say this stuff.
Half the stuff, you get taken down.
It wouldn't even matter. That's part of the problem.
What do you mean? What we discussed here would be
taken down? I don't know if this would,
but generally, offline,
you're talking, everyone's just free-flowing.
Half that stuff would get taken down. You can't even say it.
Yeah, that's true.
You can't say the word Malaysia. That's for sure.
That's true.
No, I think we were okay today,
but it's all good.
anyhow guys it was a pleasure talking to you let's do this again this bent this banter thing is really
uh it's a lot of fun and i think you know we can i think a lot of people will appreciate you know
just you know the give and take absolutely this will be the way all right dudes i'll catch you on
the next one see you boys cheers