Halston Valencia, welcome to the Thank God for Bitcoin podcast.
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
So this is this has been somewhat of a long time coming. We you know, it's been a few weeks since we first chatted.
Again, I'll just let people just let you introduce yourself and then we'll kind of go from there.
Yeah, so my name is Halston Valencia. I work in marketing for Adam O'Brien, who is a CEO and founder of the Bitcoin Well. He also co-founded GetBase, which is a medium production company in the Bitcoin space. And yeah, Jordan and I got connected probably about a month ago over Twitter, but I had actually been following this podcast for a little bit by that point. So full circle moment. And yeah, just so excited to be here.
Yeah, that was wild. So you had this tweet thread that went absolutely insane. I just checked the numbers on it. 529,000 impressions. Staggering. So again, that's kind of when I reached out to you and then found out that you were a fan of the podcast. So let's just start there. How in the world did you find the podcast and what was your initial level of interest there?
yeah so the podcast was actually introduced to me by my boyfriend who found the podcast through a
friend who was wearing a thank god for bitcoin t-shirt no way yeah it's crazy story so i guess
he was at the santa monica like bitcoin okay yeah that outdoor event that they do and she met this
guy i think his name is ryan who was wearing no way shout out to ryan let's yeah ryan from newport
which i'm from newport so like small way yeah so ryan i guess was wearing the t-shirt and my
boyfriend went up to him and was like, Hey, I love your t-shirt. And they chatted it up.
So funny. Yeah. Then I, that's how I learned about the podcast, started listening to it. And then
they actually, I think both were at that Saddleback church event. Um, no way. Yeah. Recently. Yeah.
So that's how I heard about it and have been great. Okay. Now again, we're going to get a
little bit personal here. So was your boyfriend a Bitcoin when you guys met or was this like,
did you precede him or did he precede you in Bitcoin? Yeah, no, he, he's been a Bitcoiner,
I think for a while.
I don't know the exact time period, but yeah, he's been into it for a while, and we've been
kind of on this journey together, so it's been great.
Now, we're going to talk about kind of what you're up to now.
Is he still based in California, or is he...
He is.
Okay.
He's a long distance.
He's back in OC, so we're doing long distance, and it's a little brutal, but actually, I'll
be in California next week, so super sweet to go.
Cool.
My wife and I were long distance for, I mean, well, properly long distance dating for a year.
So we know how that goes.
But okay.
So again, we want to hear, you know, you're here on the podcast.
I want to hear your Jesus pilling moment.
So, you know, you're a believer.
This is just, I was super, you know, surprised and encouraged.
Obviously on this tweet, if you haven't seen it, let me just pull it up here.
I've got it.
Your big viral tweet.
Let's see.
You've got on your, I don't know what the name, what do you call this thing?
that is on your, uh, that you're wearing this red, the sash, the sash. Yeah. You've got this
giant cross on there, which is awesome. Yeah. I know. I love that as he does that, you can kind
of make it super personalized, but that's so cool. My faith is a huge part of who I am and,
you know, I wouldn't be anything without Christ and his redemption. So I thought it was super
important to make that note on my, on my graduation day. But yeah, so I started going to church when
I was four years old. I was raised by a single mother. So my mom kind of was raised like in a
Hispanic household. So very Catholic. Yeah, they went to Catholic church pretty much every week.
And then she, you know, as an adult got older and realized like Catholicism never really
felt right to her. So then she separated from my dad, my parents separated. And she realized when
I was four, like, I can't do this without God. And so she started taking me to church when I was
four. And then I ever since like grew up in church, but you know how it goes. Like I went
to all the Christian camps. I went to Christian schools. Yeah. Yeah. I was super involved and
I kind of just, it became like very repetitive and I just, it didn't feel like it was my own
faith at the time until about probably high school. I realized like I am so lukewarm. I'm not really
bold in my faith. And this all just feels like it's just not my own. It feels like I'm doing
this because this is just how it's always been for my whole life. And I was kind of in this
like Orange County bubble. I don't know if you've, I mean, you've been to Orange County.
Yeah, a little bit.
It's beautiful, but it's such a bubble sometimes. And there's tons of churches. So I realized it
was about my, I want to say either junior or senior year of high school, starting to get pretty rough.
and I was like, I need God.
Like I can't do this anyone without God.
And so I started going to a new church,
started going to a new high school group.
Shout out Compass Valley Church in Aliso.
Yeah, Pastor Rod, that was his name.
He had such a strong impact in my life
because he was the one that really inspired us
and encouraged us to not just be lukewarm,
but to be on fire for God.
and it was during that time where I started like really taking my faith seriously and kind of like
rededicated my life to God because I had um accepted Christ I think as a kid probably about
five or six but I think it takes living um living a few more years in life to act to really fully
understand it because I think when you're little you just at least for me I just didn't want to go
to hell. And so, yeah, it took some years of struggles and understanding how good God is and
how sinful I was to fully understand the gospel. And so, yeah, I was about, I want to say about 17,
18, when I rededicated my life to God and decided no more of living in this lukewarm environment,
no more of just going through the motions. I want to actually go out and spread the good news. And
yeah, that was kind of my moment. And then I got to college and that was like such a shock in and
of itself because I had gone to a Christian high school, was kind of in this like very sheltered
environment. And then... Wait, are you suggesting that USC is not a sheltered Christian environment?
Yeah, totally. So, you know, then, you know, college brought up upon its own set of challenges.
And I think I really leaned on to God, you know, even more in college than I did in high school.
And, you know, there was temptation everywhere. I mean, it's such a secular environment. And, um, but yeah, that, that was kind of my, my Adam calls it the white pill moment.
Let's go. Um, so what is your, uh, okay. I mean, a little bit. So where, where was your mom? Like, you know, as you're in the later years of high school, I have a very similar story, uh, you know, my faith in high school, but so like, as that's going on, it kind of, where's your mom at? Like, what's, what's, what is she thinking about this? Is she kind of, again, there's a stereotype.
about Latina moms, you know, where like they're kind of, they're kind of all up in your business.
You know, we lived in Uruguay for seven years. Uruguayans aren't your typical Latinas in some,
you know, in that like very expressive, open, louder way. But, you know, what was your mom's
role in all of this? What did she think? No, I think the stereotype is there for a reason,
right? It's very, very real. Yeah, she was adamant about, you know, taking me to church and
ensuring that I was always in a youth group and attending small groups and try, she always
provided to, you know, put me in like a sound Christian school, sound Christian church,
and always paid for me to go to these camps. And so she was really hoping that, you know,
I would have that, that breaking point. And I think she had been praying a lot for me. And
obviously as a single mom, she was working a lot. So there was only so much she could do
to, to raise me well. And I think, um, you know, she was wise in that area and knew that it would
be best to keep me in that Christian environment. And I couldn't be more grateful for that.
But yeah, as, as a Latina mom, she was, she was always a little, a little hard on me, but, um,
you know, and then my dad's Brazilian, his, his whole side of our family. Yeah. So it's just like
chaos sometimes, but love it. Wouldn't trade it for anything else.
man that is a lot of latin passion going on there uh my pastor is brazilian so uh
so do you ever get chased with the chancleta and she ever you know can you imagine
yeah i mean when i was little it was like a joke but like she can like whip it up pretty quickly
like i don't know how like like this woman like never played sports but like when it comes to the
chancla so athletic that is hilarious okay so uh real quick so this is a random question how old
are you? I'm 23. 23. Okay. For some reason, I thought I remembered 19, but again, I was like,
did you graduate early or what? No, 23. Okay. You're good. Okay. So when you're in college,
were there, I know there's some like, there's like Reformed University Fellowship, I think is
like one on-campus ministry that is pretty common within California. Were there other,
like, were there some things on campus that you found, some organizations on campus there at USC
that you found helpful or was it just more getting involved with the local church or something along
those lines? Yeah, there was one ministry that was pretty popular called Crew. Crew, yeah. Yeah,
Crew was pretty popular. I only attended like a handful of crimes, but yeah, I was more so
involved in my local church. And I went to Mariners in Orange County for years and loved it there,
loved that college ministry that they had. I mean, it was pretty big. I want to say like about 100
to 150. And now their entire young adults program has grown probably five times that.
And so I found that getting involved in my local church was far more beneficial for me than attending like the university ones.
I think too, part of that was some of the university ones were like secretly LDS.
Oh, really?
It was like very, very undercover.
Like they didn't have like their-
Little badges and stuff.
Yeah, their badge or outfit.
It was like low key.
And so I didn't realize until like probably the second time that this was like, you know, Church of Latter-day Saints.
It is, man.
It is something that I've noticed this a lot.
I found on, I think it was on Facebook.
My boomerism is showing.
But I was on Facebook and found there's some group that was like doing paid ads.
And it sounds just normal evangelical.
And then you start to just realize like, wait, this sounds weird.
And then just some of the language, you're like, oh, this is a secret little Mormon.
They're like, this is a secret little, they don't want to call themselves Mormons anymore.
But that's totally what this is.
I think I've seen those ads.
Yeah.
So, okay.
So what was, I mean, again, there's, there's a lot that's said, a lot that's been said about
there kind of being like a Gen Z.
Who's younger than Gen Z?
There's another one.
What are they called?
Gen Alpha.
Okay.
So like there's been a lot of discussion I've heard online about there, there being like
a greater receptivity among like Gen Alpha and maybe some Gen Z, like two spiritual things.
We've gone through like a period where we like secularism was rampant and I'm sure,
you know, in, at a public school in California or is USC private? I guess it's private.
Private. Yeah. Private. Yeah. But still in California, I'm imagining you can find any,
any, you know, wild thing under the sun in terms of, uh, things that people were into on campus,
but like, did, you know, I don't know what was kind of, what was kind of your impression
of maybe, you know, what is your impression of your, your generation and, you know, throughout
your time at USC, was it something where you kind of sensed there was like an increasing
spiritual hunger or spiritual, you know, willingness to consider spiritual things? Or
would you say it's still kind of maybe not as much? I think, you know, with schools like USC
and UCLA, all these big schools in California, I would say majority of the student population is
desperate to be on the right side of politics. And when I say right, I mean like the left.
Yeah. The correct or, you know, the cool side of things. Yeah, the correct. Yeah. Not literally,
like Republican, but, um, I think in my experience, I unfortunately didn't really feel like there was
a ton of peers or people in my classes that were, um, believers or, or even really curious. But
I did find that the ones that did make the effort to go to these groups like crew
were super passionate. I mean, they were desperate to just seek Jesus.
So it was kind of just like two opposite ends of the stick. There wasn't really like a
ground. My wife was an English major. And so I don't know if you had any friends who were English
majors, but she was in just very, very dark places, some of these classes and some of the
things that they're talking about. And so again, she saw very clearly, she had some friends who
were Christians and it was kind of like you would either go, you either lean into being a Christian,
endure all the scorn, just stay strong and continue to just basically be unapologetic,
or you would just conform and just fold like a cheap chair and do that.
She just basically kind of experienced both.
But yeah, I can just imagine that being in the fire,
being put into the fire is going to have one of two very different consequences, I guess.
I'm so encouraged to hear that it was more of your local church than it was a college ministry
because it's just such a, again, there's lots of things that can happen in churches and people can
have bad experiences, but when, when church is done well, and when, when you have like solid
people, like there is nothing like it on earth. Like there, there's not any kind of college thing
that can, that can even hold a candle to it in my opinion, just because, you know, so much of,
of, I think a lot of the, so much of the temptation is, you know, among younger people
and even among older people is just to kind of stay with your own, uh, people of your own age
or your own culture, uh, and not have to deal with the difficulties and the, some of the
inconveniences of having a multi-generational church and some of this kind of stuff. And yet
it is such a blessing when you have a church where there is multiple ages represented, multiple
stages of life represented. And I just think for so many people, they just miss out on that. So
again, just to hear that you were in a good church situation, did you have some of that
dynamic within the church, some multi-generationalism or was it?
Definitely Yeah I think my home church was you know Mariner Church if to those watching if you don know it kind of like a more I wouldn say it a mega church but it a pretty big church
I mean, it's pretty well known in Orange County in L.A. And there's, yeah, it's multi-generational.
I think in L.A. that the reason why I didn't really attend church to consistently in L.A. was because most of the churches were like probably 18 to 25.
range. And so it felt like a church that was just made specifically for college students.
And like, I, you know, I enjoyed one or two services, but I really preferred the multi-generational
church that I was attending. And yeah, I think like what you said, like it's, there's something
super valuable and beneficial to having like the older generation kind of mentor, the younger one.
And I think that's really important, especially in the faith. And as we're, you know, young kids
trying to figure it out and grow. I think that's critical. Yeah. Okay. So let's, thank you for
sharing that first of all. But let's hear your, let's hear your, your orange pill moment here.
Like how did this, how did this happen? You mentioned, it might've been before we were on
the call, but you mentioned, you know, that you're, you have a boyfriend who's also into Bitcoin,
but how did you come to, you know, hear about Bitcoin? Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So let's, let's
run it back. So I was a business economics major in undergrad and my senior year, I had a professor
who recommended the book Broken Money by Lynn Alden. Let's go. Okay. Yeah. But it was, and I
mentioned this on, on, on coin stories, but it was very subtle. There was like some fear behind
like recommending it, which was now looking back to like, yeah. Yeah. Like, like fear as a
professor. He was like, Hey guys, so there's this book. And you just like quickly like went,
like glided right past it, you know, like anyway, like personal ref like recommendation. I think you
guys should read this. And I really respected this man. And so I read it. And I think the first time
I read it, I was like, Whoa, okay, this is kind of interesting. And then it took me reading it,
me reading it a second time for it to really click. Um, but in, you know, during that process,
I kind of forgot about bitcoin and was just like okay you know focus on my studies my senior year
excuse me sorry to interrupt you how long ago was this this this was my senior year
uh last year okay last year yeah yeah because I graduated in 24 I guess this was in the fall
of 23 it was right about it was when the book came out I remember so okay would have been fall
of 23 cool um was when I read it and then kind of forgot about it and then I read it a second time
in 24. And that's when it like really clicked. And I was like, okay, whoa, this is so interesting.
And then, um, yeah, I kind of just got really intrigued, started reading. Um, you know,
like I read Saifedean's books and then found a bunch of podcasts. I found Natalie Brunel,
uh, D'Vac Maller's and, you know, all these big names and just immersed myself into this world.
And then, um, earlier this year in January, uh, I was finishing up my graduate program at USC
and I started simultaneously working full time.
And I was like really feeling the pain
of the broken financial system.
And so, you know, six months into the job,
I made a decision to start looking for a job in this space
and decided I wanted to be a part of the movement
that I think is going to change the world.
And so that, yeah, that was kind of my orange pill story.
So then I resigned from that marketing job
and now working for Adam and Bitcoin Well.
Shout out to Adam.
Shout out to Bitcoin. Well, yeah. Well, cool. Okay. So then you mentioned your boyfriend was,
is also a Bitcoiner. So this was, what was his story? How did he get involved?
That's a good question. His story, I think is kind of similar. I think he kind of
discovered Bitcoin after college. He's a couple, almost two years older than me. So he,
he graduated before I did, but he, I think he had a family member. I believe that was a Bitcoiner.
And then, and you know, if my boyfriend's listening, I hope I'm getting this story right.
But, um, yeah, I think it was a family member that was a bit pointer and then like mentioned it.
Um, our internet connection is kind of poor.
Can you hear me?
Some technical difficulties.
There we go.
Hey.
Oh my gosh.
Can you hear me?
I can.
No worries at all.
Okay.
I don't know what happened.
And it just, everything disconnected.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Is it still live?
Yeah.
We're still live.
We're still gone.
Just everyone had to stare at me for the last five minutes, but no worry.
I'm not sure what happened.
Sorry, everyone, for having to stare at George.
Yeah, no.
So, all right.
Where were we?
We were discussing, you were talking about your boyfriend.
Yes.
So his Bitcoin story.
So I believe he had a family member who was into Bitcoin and helped orange pill him.
I don't know what that conversation was like, but, um, yeah, that's kind of what I know. And then he actually has a cousin who works for, uh, Robert Breedlove. So kind of a coin family. Yeah. Yeah. Which I actually just found out like more recently. Um, but yeah, that, that's his story and loves that. I found that this podcast through him and Ryan's t-shirt.
So wild.
Yeah, because obviously Robert was one of the authors of Thank God for Bitcoin and is an
investor in TGFB.
So it's a wild, wild story.
Okay, so you guys have Bitcoin in common.
This is, I'm trying to think what else we have.
So obviously you post this thread, you out yourself as a Bitcoiner.
What, I mean, the response is, I mean, just from my side of things, insane.
I mean, 529,000, 539, however much it is, over 500,000 impressions on a thread.
I'm sure this was you were not expecting.
No.
Anything with magnitude.
I was expecting like 15, 20 likes.
So you're not a plant.
You're not like a fed plant.
Is that what you're saying?
This isn't...
The CIA is not trying to...
This is not a PSYOP.
You're raising your level of prominence.
Okay, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
I think I had like maybe like a hundred followers when I tweeted that.
So yeah, I was not expecting that response.
Yeah, you've increased about over 5,000 followers and, you know, been on with a friend of the program.
Not really, but we do know Natalie, Natalie Brunel.
So I've been on Coin Stories with her.
But yeah, so I mean, this is your profile is kind of blown up.
What are some of the other podcasts you've been on?
I remember seeing a couple of...
on coin stories.
And then I did a live stream recently
with Tim Kotzman just for,
what was it?
The Bitcoin Treasuries.
That's right.
Visual conference.
And then he has the Unconference
coming up in New York.
And I recently filmed with Bitcoin Journeys.
That one hasn't come out yet though.
Okay, cool.
And then now here,
thank God for Bitcoin.
Love it.
Man, here we are at the pinnacle.
It is.
The peak in terms of importance.
so okay so where so you're working for bitcoin well right now you're doing your your adam's
assistant um i mean is what else are you working on are there other you know other than your your
day-to-day stuff not that you need to if you're not working on other stuff but are there you know
future going projects that you're you've got you know an iron in the fire or is this something where
right now you're just trying to get your your feet under you with adam and and you know learning
and working on that role yeah i think you know my main priority is working for adam and all of his
his marketing needs. And we're really trying to grow that brand. And we just launched a show
yesterday called the Adam O'Brien show, uh, where we're, we're focusing on Gen Z and we're focusing
on helping them understand Bitcoin, financial markets, economics, true tool freedom. And like
our mission is to inspire the next generation to reclaim their freedom. That's our main goal.
And so that's been kind of the priority right now. Um, but I think, you know, weekends, I like
to focus on passion projects and focus on things that I'm super interested in and I think will
help the next generation. So yeah, I have some exciting things in the works, but.
Let's go.
Yeah. Yeah.
We won't ask. We won't ask. We'll wait and be patient, but we're looking forward to hearing
about those. So, all right. So we do have, I put out a little bat signal or a little Halston
signal on Twitter to basically ask people if they had questions for you. We do have one. Let me share
this. So this is Ryan Finley, who's one of the co-hosts to the Unknown Pod that we record.
Ryan has this question for you. So what are the biggest barriers? This goes along with what you're
talking about with your work with Bitcoin. Well, what are the biggest barriers that you're seeing
with Gen Z and keeping them from saving more? Is it discipline, lack of financial education,
high time preference. I'll just add another couple. Overwhelming student debt.
Yeah.
Just not being able to get jobs that are making money. And then what's kind of the response
you've had from talking about Bitcoin with your peers? So I guess we'll stick with the first
couple up there and then we can go to the second one. I think biggest barrier, I mean, for me,
I just graduated and to be frank, I did go to private university. So I'm right there. I got
student debt and my boyfriend does too. Most of our friends have student debt. So it's
unfortunate because we were we were sold this lie that if you went to college and you know well okay
let's start with we were encouraged at the ripe age of 17 to take out massive amounts of loans
to fund an education that doesn't actually teach real world skills these universities are centers
for uh i mean they're centers for ideology really secular ideology and and i think you know if i
knew then what I know now, I would do everything so differently. But yeah, I think one of the
biggest barriers is student debt. It's jobs are not, wages are not keeping up with inflation and
how expensive everything's gotten. I mean, it's the reason I'm in Austin, to be frank.
Okay. Yeah. I was going to ask you that. Okay.
Yeah. So LA and Southern California has gotten way too expensive. And even in Austin,
the locals are telling me the rent here has gotten very expensive. And as a Californian,
I think it's cheap, but I guess to the local that this is not normal.
But rent, you know, we're spending Gen Z.
I think I saw a stat the other day spends 51% of their paycheck on rent.
And so when you're living paycheck to paycheck, it's I don't even think it's about discipline anymore.
It's just you simply are struggling to make ends meet as is.
And then when you do have some extra, you know, money to spend on on entertainment, that's probably what you're going to do. It's high time preference. You're not you're not thinking about long term. You're not thinking about the future. And I actually think that the more people, the more Gen Zers and millennials that get into Bitcoin and start to see hope, I think the more we'll see people really start to want to to start a family.
Because right now, I think a lot of Gen Z, they're not interested in starting a family.
And I don't think it's that they're not genuinely interested.
I think it's that there's not a way to start a family.
It's gotten simply too expensive.
And we could even go on a whole tangent on health care and how expensive that is.
And so it's just a big, broken system.
And yeah, I think I'm forgetting what the second part of that question was.
But I think.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, we'll stick here.
We'll stick here for a second.
I do think, I mean, one of the things, so yeah, when we, when we live for, uh, in Uruguay for,
for almost seven years and I mean, there, what it felt like when I, when I got into Bitcoin while we
were there and then just coming back to the States, like really what it felt like, I felt like I'd
traveled through time. I was like, I I've seen the future of like kind of where the United States is
going. Uh, and one of the things that was common there was it was totally common to live for people
to live with their parents till they're in their late thirties, uh, you know, and get married in
your late thirties, early forties, and then kind of move out. And because, I mean, the whole time
real estate was so expensive relative to, to your wages and stuff like that. It was just very
difficult to, to get to a place where you can afford to live on your own. Uh, and then, you
know, people wait longer to get married because they want to be settled in their career. They
want to have actually, you know, resources. Uh, and so it really was something that was,
very difficult and has this delayed, you know, this prolonged adolescence in a lot of ways.
And so, yeah, I can totally, totally see that, you know, totally see that being something that
is going to happen. It's going to be more common here as people reckon with, again, to your point,
it's cool to hear you own up to it. Like, you know, you made the decision to go to college,
like, you know, nobody twisted your arm, but it's still, I just remember the time,
the first time I found out that student loan debt is the only kind of debt that you can't
clear bankruptcy with. And it's just staggering that at 17 years old, you can be shackled with
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt. You can't even legally fight in a war. You can't
legally own a gun. You can't legally drink, but you can legally take out crippling lifetime levels
of debt. It's so offensive on a lot of ways. The other side of the question, let's go back to that.
Where was it here? Here we go. The other side of that question was, what's the response you've had
and talking to your peers about Bitcoin?
Yeah, I think right now it's difficult
because a lot of my peers still categorize it as crypto.
And so they see it as like, you know, number go up
and that's all they care about.
But it's hard to like sit down,
like you have to really be intentional
about sitting down with someone
and explaining like the entire broken system.
I think that's kind of the initial step
that's the hardest is helping them understand
because it's humbling because, you know,
you spend four years studying economics and business and finance and then all to realize, like, we haven't even been taught the truth.
It's so ironic because I feel like Bitcoin taught me more about sound money than years of lectures, of economic lectures ever did.
You know, you're not really taught about the consequences of monetary debasement or why we have the Fed.
And, you know, it's almost like they like when I was in college, at least like my economics professors were thankful for the Fed.
And, you know, it's a whole different world.
So is the exception this professor who recommended, what's the broken money?
Definitely. Yeah, I think, you know, I never got to take any of Nick Batia's classes, but I hear he's phenomenal.
But yeah I think this professor was the exception And even then like I think there was a fear of somebody ratting him out and coming after him And I think universities are deliberately designed this way to produce
employees and into a system that is feeding itself rather than the individual.
So have you talked to him after the fact? I imagine he's a big, is he like a proper
Bitcoiner or is he, where's he at? I'm not sure. I've reached out to him,
but I didn't get an email response back.
So I'm not sure.
But yeah, if he happens to be watching,
I would love to, you know,
have a conversation with him.
But I think when you're a proper Bitcoiner,
you're bold about it.
You know, the same way that I try to be bold
about my faith,
I'm also bold about the orange pill
and helping people understand
why they are experiencing such pain in this system.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, it is one of these things.
I mean, do you think that,
I mean, and you're, again, to follow up on the question about you, your conversation with your peers, do you think like unit bias is a real obstacle for, you know, for younger people who are just getting in, who, again, who don't have a lot of expenditure income to necessarily put into, you know, into something like Bitcoin?
Is it, you know, the fact that people are like, oh, I can only buy, you know, one one hundredth or, you know, like 0.0001 Bitcoin or something like that.
Do you feel like that is a harmful thing?
I do feel like that's part of it.
I also think that like, you know, in my college, my undergrad education, we were I mean, we were really encouraged to invest in the S&P 500 and, you know, the stock market and, you know, all that and high says.
So I think it's just when you've been taught something for so long, even in high school, I remember in my economics high school class, like we were taught the same thing.
And so I think, you know, you hear something like Bitcoin and your initial response is just to be skeptical. And so I think, you know, yeah, I think it's just you've been taught something for so long that you're like, oh, you can just buy like a small portion. You don't have to buy a whole coin that doesn't really like click to them.
Yeah, there are so many people. Again, it's just one of the things where it can, the same type of thing that can happen in Christian circles where you can get so, you can be so insular in Christian circles where you just spend all your time listening to Christian podcasts and listening to sermons, all this kind of stuff. And there's just so much, you build up like this level of knowledge and information. There's so many things that just get second nature to you that for other people just are not understood.
And so this question of you don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin, I run into people who think that all the time.
It is people for like, hey, I don't have $100,000.
It's like, dude, you can buy $10 with Bitcoin.
So what is your, you know, I guess, you know, moving along here, what is your experience in Austin been like?
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'll say it's so different from California.
That's for sure.
What are the biggest differences?
Biggest difference?
I think just life here is a little slower in general.
LA is a little bit, I used to think LA was slow, but now compared to Austin, I know, I think Austin
is a little bit slower pace. You're like seven out of 10 people I meet work, work remote from home.
So it's just like a very relaxed lifestyle, which, you know, I work remote too. So I've been enjoying,
but I think biggest thing is I just miss the ocean, miss the beach. Um, but yeah, Austin,
everyone has been so, so friendly. And I got to go to the park the other day, the Bitcoin park.
Oh, cool. Let's go.
Shout out Jack Lesser. Yeah. He's the GOAT and he's been running that with Rod and they're killing it out there. And so, yeah, I love the Bitcoin community here. It's super strong. And I was wearing a Bitcoin hat the other day and had like 10 people compliment it. So that would have never happened in LA.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Man. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm guessing, so you just moved there a month ago, a couple months ago?
It was probably about three weeks ago.
Three weeks ago. Okay. So Marty would have already been gone by then.
marty marty moved away yeah um man so many good shout out to let's see shout to parker lewis
shout to paul miller friends of the program uh man who else is there matt snow have you met matt
yet no i don't think oh matt's the man matt uh he was working for um trammell venture partners
uh and then he plays at the from tvp okay cool zach young shout out okay i don't know i'm not
i'm not familiar with him uh matt plays the guitar so a lot of times at the meetups matt
will play like the national anthem on his on his little kid yeah he's the man but yeah it's so many
so many good people in austin um i'm just trying to think have there been i mean have you been to
any meetups yet yeah i've only been to the um the event at bitcoin park the other day but other than
that haven't um haven't been to any like bitcoin meetups uh i was planning on going to to lit devs
this week they do the the lit devs and bit devs but couldn't make it um what is lit devs i think
that's the one where they focus on like all things lightning related oh okay got it but i got to go
to abdc the the design one that was so fun that would have been paul i think paul paul leads that
um i'm pretty sure hill so yeah yeah paul yeah paul paul um yeah i know i know saheel too but
yeah i think i think paul i know he shared the i saw him tweet about it the other day i don't know
if he was actually there but okay um yeah paul's paul's a great guy fellow fellow believer as well
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, I mean, other things.
What else is going on?
I guess, you know, in terms of things that you're reading, things that you're thinking
about in the Bitcoin space, you know, what's been at top of mind for you the last, I guess,
maybe the last month or so?
Yeah.
I think top of mind has been like, I've gotten a lot of great feedback on, well, one, they
don't really see like a lot of women in this space.
And so that's kind of been, you know, something.
Wait, what?
You're telling me this for the first time?
Yeah.
Gotten lots of messages saying that people are excited to see more girls in this space.
I don't know how to take that.
Sometimes there's creeps.
I was going to say, I was like, RIP your DMs.
When your thread went viral, you pour thick.
Yeah, it was.
Some of them were really disturbing.
I had to close the DMs.
And then I opened them back up now.
But yeah, for a while, it was like asking for feet pics.
Oh my gosh.
No way.
Yeah.
But, you know, from the non-creeps, I've gotten lots of great feedback and they love to see the younger generation get involved in Bitcoin and try to progress this movement.
And I think that's kind of something that's been like top of mind for me is like, how can we get more Gen Zers and the next generation to even to be interested in this and understand like all of the flaws in the system?
because, you know, I look at all of my peers,
I look at my graduating class and it's like,
maybe one person understands Bitcoin like wholeheartedly.
You know, and I think this is so sad
because this is such an opportunity.
You know, the boomers had real estate.
I think we have Bitcoin.
And so I would hate to see my loved ones
and my closest friends miss out on
what's gonna change the world.
And I think I really see this as a moral economic movement.
So yeah, that's really what's been top of mind
and just happy to be working with Adam
and on the new show
to try and help that movement and that message.
What's the name of the new show?
The Adam O'Brien Show.
It was started yesterday.
Every Thursday, we'll be live at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Is there, I mean, who are you guys,
what kind of, are you guys patterning the show off
of like something else that's out in normie world?
What kind of, what style is it?
No, we just do it.
So every week we'll focus on a topic.
This past, yesterday we did
how Bitcoin fixes time preference.
And so we'll just provide
like some really interesting,
staggering stats.
And then he kind of just talks about,
you know, his thoughts
and how Bitcoin changes things.
And his goal really is to help
the next generation question things
and think more critically.
And so, yeah,
that's what we'll be doing every week.
We'll have a new topic and...
Cool.
Go free to subscribe.
Love it.
Go follow them.
Is there a specific Twitter handle for the show itself or no?
No, just Adam O'Brien underscore is his handle.
And then on YouTube, it's just the Adam O'Brien show.
Cool.
Yeah.
I mean, somebody else.
Have you met Ella Huff yet?
I have.
I love her.
She's great.
Yeah.
How did you guys meet?
We, I think it was just she reached out.
She messaged me.
Yeah, there she is.
Love her.
Well, actually, so we'll be at BTC in D.C.
and we'll hang this together.
Yeah, a Genie channel
moderated by John Balcom,
I think is his last name.
Okay, yeah.
But yeah, she just reached out
and then I saw what she was doing
at the Cornell Bitcoin Club
and was super intrigued in her research
and her paper.
I would love to read the whole paper,
her whole thesis.
But yeah, that's how we got connected.
That's great.
Ella's great.
Her mom, Lisa, is great as well.
I'm in a philosophy class with Ella.
There's like this Bitcoin philosophy class that I think there's not, there's like, I think there's like 12 or 15 of us in there.
There's not a ton.
But we ended up in there, just, you know, found each other in there and, you know, hung out at the Vegas conference.
Oh, awesome.
But yeah, it's been super encouraging.
I mean, she's just somebody else who is just like going hardcore in the paint, trying to help Gen Z understand Bitcoin.
She is.
And she's killing it now with, I guess, a strategy starting soon.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, that was wild.
Brilliant on their part.
get on the ground floor of Ella's career because, yeah, there's few people. I mean,
she just is a go-getter to the end of the week. She is, yeah.
But, okay, so beyond that, I'm just trying to think. So that's what you're working on.
I mean, where is Bitcoin well at these days? It's been a while. I mean, I've seen them with
like Adam's Post and stuff like that. Are they still, they're operating in the United States?
they're they're based out of canada um they're in edmonton i believe is where the headquarters
are at and that's kind of where uh adam works from but he's doing a lot of traveling he's going
to be at quite a few conferences coming up so now he's kind of doing the remote thing um and i think
they're they're trying to become more of a remote company so i guess we'll see i i did hear i don't
know if i can say this but i did hear he wants to open another office um in another part of canada
But yeah, still Canadian company.
Love Bitcoin well.
I buy Bitcoin from them.
And yeah.
Cool.
Self-couple.
I love it.
It's fee, right?
Yep.
Man, yeah.
Again, there's very few companies that you can just like full-throatedly recommend,
but I've never heard any bad thing about them whatsoever.
Yeah.
I mean, Adam's been in Bitcoin since 2012 or 2013.
Yeah.
I remember all of his stories about running money,
flying across the country with lots of cash in order to be able to load up Bitcoin ATMs.
Yeah, you got some wild stories. Yeah. He's the most debanked man in Canada. Yeah. You cannot have
a bank account. Yeah. Yeah. Go find that video. He just posted a video about the other day. It was
really good. So what are some of the other things? I mean, are there, when you speak to either,
depending on who they are, what are some of the arguments that you found? I mean, again,
And a lot of us, having success orange-pilling people happens fewer and farther between than we would all like.
But have there been specific arguments or specific issues that when you talk about those things, you find people being more receptive than other things?
Yeah, I think what works for me is I had a friend the other day I met at a health and wellness event who happens to do marketing for Coinbase.
Oh, no way.
Yeah, it was totally random.
I think it was a God thing, but she was asking me about Bitcoin.
She was like kind of lost.
Like she works more so on their like digital marketing and social media sector.
So she doesn't really have to like understand Bitcoin too well.
But she, yeah, she understands crypto, but has never really done studying on Bitcoin.
And so she was asking me about it.
And the way I explained it to her was crypto, like you take, you know, say whatever random
token, like they have a paid marketing team.
They have people like you who are out here advertising these coins, advertising all of these altcoins.
There's no supply cap.
And there's not really like it's not as verifiable.
And so I think what worked with her is she was super intrigued when I told her there's a 21 million supply cap.
There's no CEO.
There's no corporate office.
There's no employees.
A network of people that are coming together to work together and follow these set of rules.
and and and i think helping her understand that was key um she's kind of been on her own bitcoin
journey now this was about two weeks ago um and so she's she's been we've kind of been chatting
texting back and forth and um yeah she she's been really interesting and interested in uncovering
the truth behind like the fed and and just the broken system that we're in and like oh my gosh
is you know are they encouraging us to take out student debt like is this intentional
like why is it that we can we can do that and now be in six figures of debt but you know you can't
can't drink till you're 21 like it's they're preparing you know it's like it's so ironic
you graduate with an economics degree or a finance degree and you've already failed on day one after
graduation you already have all this debt you're already not on the right track and so i i personally
think that's by deliberate design and it's it's breeding employees not not free thinkers yeah
100%. So that was in Austin you guys met?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, we met at a health and wellness event, and she happens to work for Coinbase Marketing.
So very interesting.
Wow.
Yeah. Okay. So we have another question for you here.
We have somebody else.
So this is actually, this is my buddy, JD.
JD is behind the account Cyberpunk Cinema.
He's worked in a long time, worked in Hollywood, worked in producing some of the most well-known shows in the world.
and done a bunch of ad work for Apple, Toyota, a bunch of companies.
But he has this question for you.
Here we go.
So, and again, you can agree or disagree with this,
but Gen Z has grown up with a different mental paradigm than the rest of the world.
What would you say are the biggest markers of the Gen Z paradigm?
And how does this make it,
and does this make it easier or harder for your generation to understand Bitcoin?
Yeah, wow.
There's a lot to say on that front.
I think, and I feel like I can say this because I'm a part of Gen Z, our generation is soft.
Like very, very soft.
Everything has become about me, me, me, me, me, the individual.
And I think we can see that by you know you look at cities like LA and New York and like when I was in university last year there was a protest left and right and people throwing like fireworks at like you know our beautiful university buildings
and everything has become so, I don't know, it's become so distorted. And I think this generation,
unfortunately, has become so brainwashed with, you know, media and just following, you know,
the things that are so far from the truth. And I think it's tough because I think when a majority
of people think like that and they're, you know, I think at the core, these are just people that
need Christ. They don't have a community. They don't have a relationship with God or any other
spiritual being, if you will, something that they believe in. They don't have that.
And so they look towards secular things like, you know, you could say like the LGBTQ plus community,
or maybe they look for like a very niche, like gaming community, or they're looking for these
things to just feel like they're- Wrapped their identity around, yeah.
Yeah. There's such a lack of identity in Christ, I think, ultimately, for the entire world,
I think that's fair to say. But specifically with my generation, there's a lack of identity in anything. And so I think that becomes an issue because then, you know, if you're, you know, if you are questioning the system and you think differently than a majority of the university, you're not likely to be inquisitive or to be obsessed with curiosity. You just want to follow the crowd.
And so I think that's the biggest struggle because if a majority of people are against Bitcoin, you know, my generation, Gen Z, they're not going to be interested in something that goes against the norm.
And so I think that's the biggest struggle.
Thankfully, here in Texas, I feel like it's a more receptive community, especially within Gen Z and millennials.
But, you know, back home in L.A., it was challenging for sure because, you know, everyone just sees Bitcoin as crypto.
So, and yeah, that's all.
Was it, was it something, I mean, what was, this is a whole, I'm sure we could go, this
could go a lot of ways too.
But so you were, you were in college during the, I don't know what's the YouTube approved
way to describe this, but the Rona event, you know, you were, you were in college for
that.
What was, I mean, I just, I just seeing from afar, I mean, it just seemed like, I mean,
the amount of pressure, the amount of fear, the amount of, you know, all of these things.
uh I mean what was that like and do you think that I mean what do you do you think that that
is something I mean do you do you look at that as like a Gen Z uh Gen Z 9-11 moment in terms of
like the effect that it had in a lot of ways or you know how do you yeah what do you think about
that definitely I yeah that's that's our yeah like I wasn't born I was born after 9-11 so yeah
you could say this was our our our event but um my senior year of high school um I actually didn't
have like a graduation because that's when COVID started. And then my, you know, going into that
fall should have been my first year of college, which I did do. It was all online. I didn't go
in person. All the universities, at least in California, were completely shut down.
And so, yeah, I didn't, I think that was a, it was, it was a crazy moment. It was like an
inflection point. I think the world just completely flipped upside down. When I got to college,
I remember feeling so weird.
I felt like everyone was just so different.
People forgot how to socialize.
Like it became like wrong to ask a question, you know, like, and so, yeah, I mean, I think,
you know, the Rona, I don't want to get us banned on YouTube, but.
We're not going to be losing a lot of money, even if we did get demonetized.
So don't worry about it.
You know, the thing that happened in 2020, I think it really changed the world.
And specifically, I think it hurt Gen Z in a lot of ways because I think we came out of it so different and few stood their ground and remain true to their morals.
But I think after that is when we really saw like the decline in humanity.
And you saw all these people protesting and just, you know, you look at that.
And I remember it was, I think it was last year or the year before in college, I was at school and there was a protest and they were like barricading the doors to the lecture halls. And it was like, you look at something like that, I was like, I don't think that would have happened, you know, five to 10 years ago would have been like so different. You would have been, you know, kicked off campus and you can't do stuff like that. And now we live in a world where that's completely acceptable and it's encouraged. Like I had professors that were like, class is canceled. We're going to the protest.
Yeah. And yeah, it's insane. Gosh, man. Yeah. And again, I'm sure I'm sure. Yeah. The California, California schools, that would be even a more, I mean, just a different level of different level of challenge than, you know, some of the the more red state colleges.
I'm sure, again, it's not that it's not an issue because those people, you know, people who share those beliefs are still on those campuses, especially.
But, yeah, I can just imagine the difficulty.
And I really do feel like it's like they – some of those, like the, you know, left wing, you know, and just like fear mongering that went on.
Like they might have won the battle, but they are by far losing the war.
Uh, it can just be just the, again, you can, you can win through force and oppression in
the short term, but it's going to be short lived, especially when the, the, you know,
the, the curtain gets pulled back on, on just how wrong and how ridiculous a lot of this
stuff was.
I think they've done irreparable harm to their, uh, to the attractiveness of some of their,
uh, to the, to their movement in large part because of how they reacted during those years.
which again it's like again you never would choose to go through that again none of us would ever
choose to endure it but listen if the consequence is that you know a lot of people get their get
woken up to and are now now it's like this reverse there's almost like this this pushback where
I mean again you saw it with Trump you saw with a lot of you know like with Trump being elected a
lot of things there are people who would never ever have voted Republican would never have voted for
Donald Trump, uh, four years before that, who were willing to consider it just because of how
insane things got, uh, in some of the places where they were. So, uh, yeah, it, it, yeah, I, I do love
to see that. I think in LA though, it got worse. Like people just got worse. I remember like one
of my last weeks in California, the amount of times I heard this phrase is just absurd, but I
was at a coffee shop and there was like a homeless person outside the coffee shop. And I told the
barista something about the homeless person that I was, you know, expressing some, some fear. And
the barista says, well, we shouldn't classify them as homeless. Like, it was just like, you're walking
on eggshells and it's like, how am I supposed to tell this person about Bitcoin? If I can't even
say, like, what am I supposed to say? Like person of questionable housing status? Like it would,
like, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to tell you. Like this.
Potentially unhoused person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, yeah. It, it's gotten so bad in California.
Yeah, we, man, we were, we were talking about this and it wasn't super recently. It was probably a couple months ago, but just talking about how, I mean, part of, part of the problem with a lot of what's, I mean, a lot of the, the left's approach to, to language is the purpose of language is to enable efficient communication between people.
Like it's designed to be a neighbor loving innovation because, again, we have common terms that allow us to communicate in efficient ways without needing to take the time to explain every single thing.
And now, like when you, when like now language for this whole humongous segment of the country who views language as this tool of self-expression and they, they basically turn language rather than being something that's outward and others focused, they turn it to it.
So it's focused on them and then they get, they get offended over every little infraction.
You know, there's now all these grammatical sins that you can commit for which there is no grammatical salvation and redemption.
Like, it's just like, if you sin against me, then you're canceled forever.
I'm going to work to destroy your life.
And so it is really this really depressing and, again, just impossible way to live ultimately.
And it's exhausting.
And I think that's kind of what you're expressing is it is exhausting to live this way.
It was pretty exhausting. And I think, you know, that's why discovering Bitcoin did wonders for me because it, you know, revealed a community where people actually think critically. And I was just like longing for that. Like my final year of college, I don't feel like I really had any peers that could think on their own. Like everything was just like, well, if this doesn't fit the narrative, then I'm not going to say that I believe in it or will I question it.
And so, um, and you know, and that's part of the reason why I'm in Texas too. Like, I think
a lot, a lot of people here are more open to having like, you know, a normal discussion without any,
uh, fears of, of, of backlash or, or being canceled. Um, whereas in LA, like you just
can't have those conversations. It really, it really is something, it really is something that
you like the, the consequences of living for long periods of time in an environment like that,
it is so it's unhealthy. It really is. Cause you, it changes you like the, the culture that you're
in really, it really does. It can't, there's your culture can promote freedom and it can,
can promote growth and, and, you know, subsidize, which subsidizes other healthy,
you know, healthy, uh, interactions or it can do the opposite of that. And, uh, yeah, I, I, I,
again, good on you for, for going to find a bastion of sanity, uh, where you can, you don't
have to be afraid of getting canceled over, you know, using the wrong word. Uh, well, so, I mean,
I guess we're, we're coming up here on, on an hour. Um, again, if you, if you had somebody,
you know, what would be some of your, your recommendations or something, you know, if
somebody, if you've got people who are listening, I think the, the vast majority, we, we do have
some Gen Z folks. In fact, again, we can talk about this after the podcast. Again, I don't know
if you're going to be at BitBlockBoom, which is going to be the Bitcoin conference in Fort Worth
in early April. But we are, it's Gary, the Bitcoin boomer, does lots of, it's a great conference,
one of the best Bitcoin conferences. We're going to be doing a TGFB event in the day leading up to
that event. And if you're around, if you're around, we'd love to have to do a panel with you.
and I got two other Gen Z folks
who I'd love to have on the panel
that are friends of two of Ryan's kids,
Ryan Finley,
Moses, who's a programmer,
helped Marty build out their,
yeah, build the opportunity costs
and then his other brother, Elijah,
has been making some of the videos.
I saw you share one of the videos,
the gold standard.
He just made one of those for Marty as well for TFTC.
Would love to have you guys come on and talk about
and do a panel
and just kind of talk about your experiences
and just give some hope to Gen Z.
And again, this is something that, you know,
I really think that especially like Christians,
it can be a place where we can shine in this respect
where again, we have this multi-generational appreciation
rather than multi-generational frustration with each other
where we're just constantly pitting the generations
against each other.
I do see this kind of positive interaction with Bitcoin,
which is one of my favorite things about the community.
But I really think this is something that, you know,
we can, especially as Christians, we can, we can do this well and, and, you know, be a, be an example
and a model in this way. So we can talk about the specifics of that later, but, uh, but for maybe for
somebody as a takeaway from this, what would be something that you'd, you'd want to leave them
with, um, you know, about Bitcoin, about your faith, uh, maybe something you're, you're thinking
about and have been reflecting on in that respect. Um, you know, what's something that you'd want to
leave people with? Yeah. I'd say, you know, don't so many people in my generation who, you know,
don't really have a relationship with God say like, oh, I'll do the whole God thing when I'm old.
Yeah, I've heard that countless times. And I, you know, my encouragement to you is my life has been
completely changed since I started really leaning on God and spending time with him and, you know,
diving into the word. I think I always say like the Bible is his love letter to us and it's a
guide for life. And I think if you are just going about life with no like North Star, you're bound
to get lost and feel unfulfilled. And so I think that true identity comes from Christ. That would
be my number one encouragement is find God and put your identity in him. And when it comes to
Bitcoin, I think outside of Bitcoin, like I said this on Coin Stories and I'll say it again,
learn like your freedom depends on it. And I think being obsessed with curiosity will do you wonders
and especially in a time of AI and we have all the tools and abundant knowledge online free for the
most part, like just learn every day, learn something new, uh, listen to a podcast. And,
but I think ultimately like at the end of the day, following God and developing a true relationship
with him is, is critical to, to living a, uh, fulfilling and successful life.
Amen. Yeah. And that is, that is one of these things where I do think we can,
especially as Christians in the space, like we can be, we can be super exuberant about Bitcoin.
And I think, I think rightfully so, right. Cause we can, we can, you know, it's, it's,
it's not impossible, but it's one of the things where we can more easily see it as,
as again, a very good tool, uh, in working towards a larger end. Uh, and, and I do think that is one
of the, I think it's one of the roles that it's one of the reasons why God has put us here is
because it is easy to just maximize Bitcoin, uh, as if it is a means as if it is an end of itself
rather than a means to an end. Yeah. And so again, I think you were seeing, I mean, I just,
I've seen, I mean, dozens, like dozens of people for whom Bitcoin was an on-ramp to,
you know, to other spiritual discussion. And so again, sister, it's great to have you as another,
you know, another soldier in the trenches to help people who are in that situation. So Halston,
thank you so much. I really appreciate you. And hopefully this will not be the last,
your last appearance. We'll have you back very soon.
Well, thank you for having me. I love to see what you guys are doing on this podcast.
awesome and again thank you so much halston we'll we'll have you back and again thank you to all of
you guys who are listening and watching uh if you're sitting here if you're watching this on
youtube like and subscribe it's a way that we can help uh more people find the content go follow
halston on social media you can see her uh twitter handle is right there below her name uh and then
if you're watching this on twitter like us follow share all the anything small things like that add
up and make a big difference so we're grateful for you and we'll be back on the next episode of
the Thank God for Bitcoin podcast.