Money, Meaning, and Metaphysics with Robert Breedlove - Freedom Footprint Show 56


In this episode we are joined by Robert Breedlove, host of the "What is Money?" show - home to some of the best deep-dive series into the world of money and Bitcoin, including the Saylor series with Michael Saylor.
Our conversation today is inspired by many of the books that have defined our personal experiences and bitcoin journeys:
- Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson
- Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
- Economic Science and the Austrian Method by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
- Lila by Robert Pirsig
We also discuss value and its connection to praxeology; we reflect on communication, language and argumentation ethic; And finally we ask Robert for his answer to the age old question “What is Money?”
Connect with Robert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Breedlove22
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:07 - Welcoming Robert Breedlove
00:15:55 - What is Money to Robert Breedlove?
00:22:08 - Communication, Language, and Argumentation Ethics
00:27:54 - Voluntary vs Consensual
00:38:15 - ESAM and Lila
00:47:23 - Ownership vs Possession
00:56:09 - Opting Out With Bitcoin
01:04:38 - Bitcoin Adoption Under Hyperinflation
01:13:14 - Will Bitcoin Ever Stabilize?
01:20:48 - Wrapping Up
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The Freedom Footprint Show is a Bitcoin podcast hosted by Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf.
In each episode, we explore everything from deep philosophy to practical tools to emit freedom dioxide to expand your freedom footprint!
00:00 - FFS056 - Robert Breedlove
02:07 - Welcoming Robert Breedlove
15:55 - What is Money to Robert Breedlove?
22:08 - Communication, Language, and Argumentation Ethics
27:54 - Voluntary vs Consensual
38:15 - ESAM and Lila
47:23 - Ownership vs Possession
56:09 - Opting Out With Bitcoin
01:04:38 - Bitcoin Adoption Under Hyperinflation
01:13:14 - Will Bitcoin Ever Stabilize?
01:20:48 - Wrapping Up
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it's mind bending still to me that it's just this, " just", this monetary
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innovation, which is, I never thought it would be such a philosophical rabbit
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hole in so many different directions.
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And, I don't know, sometimes I catch myself like the things I'm reading about
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or thinking about, I'm like, how did this all, how did Bitcoin lead to all this?
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Welcome back to the Freedom Footprint Show.
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The Bitcoin Philosophy Show with Knut Svanholm and me, Luke the Pseudo Finn.
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In today's episode, we're joined by our friend Robert Breedlove, host of
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the What Is Money show, home to some of the best deep dive series into the
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world of money and bitcoin, including the Saylor series with Michael Saylor.
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Our conversation today is inspired by many of the books that have defined our
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personal experiences and bitcoin journeys.
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Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson, Human Action by Mises.
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Economic Science and the Austrian Method by Hoppe, and Lila by Robert Persik.
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We also discuss value and its connection to praxeology.
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We reflect on communication, language, and argumentation ethics.
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And finally, we ask Robert for his answer to the age old question, what is money?
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Curious?
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Keep listening.
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It would be a big help.
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And finally, we want to thank today's sponsors.
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AmberApp, WasabiWallet, OrangePillApp, TheBitcoinWay, and Geyser.
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We'll be talking a bit more about them later.
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And now, without further ado, here is Robert Breedlove on
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the Freedom Footprint show.
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Rob, welcome to the Freedom Footprint show.
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Thanks for joining us.
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Hey guys, thanks for having me.
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Happy to be here.
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Yeah, happy to have you on Rob.
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Um, I've been on your show three times, I think, so it's
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about time you come to ours.
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Yeah, I think so.
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I'm overdue.
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we met briefly in Riga.
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We were both busy, you a bit busier than us, as usual.
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And you did a bunch of interviews there.
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I mean, you're a...
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You work like a Terminator and look like one as well for that.
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I mean, you've been doing a ton of interviews and I'm really impressed
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by that work ethic of yours.
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Like it's, it's, uh, it's always on, it seems.
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thank you.
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Well, I mean, you know how the podcasting thing is like when
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you're doing it, it's very intense.
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There's, especially when you're at events and everyone's there, you get
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a lot of juice for the squeeze by just really getting all the speakers or
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whoever's attending the event together and knocking out a bunch of interviews.
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But then you get to.
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You know, turned down hopefully for a few days after that.
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So, seems like it's kind of like sprint and then rest
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type of work, work frequency.
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yeah, it's a good lifestyle.
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yeah,
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um, so who did you interview in
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Yeah, we had Adam back.
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talked a little bit about the block size wars with him.
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Uh, in addition to some other things they've been doing over at Blockstream.
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Talked to Dylan LeClair.
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Spoke with, um, I don't want to mispronounce his name now, the
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last Austrian economist in Austria,
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Taghisadigan.
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Rahim, thank you, had a good lengthy conversation with him, uh, and
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a few others, so yeah, it was a good time, and then it looks like,
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this isn't final yet, but it looks like I'll try to go to Lugano,
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Oh, excellent.
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We're coming to Lugano too.
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yeah, so we'll try to do the same thing there, get some people together, have
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some interviews, and then also, uh, I'll be at Jordan Peterson's event
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at the end of October, beginning of November in London, and so I'll be
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interviewing some of the speakers at that event there, so that'll be not,
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obviously that's not a Bitcoin event, um, But definitely a lot of people in
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the, let's say freedom focused universe.
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Um, hopefully having them on for some in person interviews as well.
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So I'm super excited for all that.
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you gave me the perfect segue, Rob.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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so, so, so, uh, I'll just give you like a quick little bit of, of
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background, but like basically you and the you, you were my orange pill.
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Absolutely.
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Oh, nice.
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so.
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You know, first personal thank you for that, but the way I found you was when
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you went on Lex Friedman, and I'd been watching kind of all of his crypto and
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bitcoin related people at the time, but yours was, well, unique, and the
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thing that I latched onto was somewhere in the middle there you mentioned
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Jordan Peterson, and you called Maps of Meaning one of your most use cases.
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Meaningful books, like the books you would recommend the most, I believe it
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was Human Action and Maps of Meaning were the two you mentioned there, and well,
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basically, I've been a Peterson guy for a long time now, um, helped me through
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my younger adulthood, Uh, so to say, I'm still young, but, uh, you know, getting
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there, um, but the, the main thing, I guess, that I wanted to, to ask or to, to
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talk to you a little bit about was, uh, so I'm rereading Maps of Meaning again, and,
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and it just kind of, it's all fantastic stuff, but can, can you tell a little
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bit about what you got out of that book?
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What, uh, Maps of Meaning means to you?
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Thank you.
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Yeah.
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Um, yeah, the, the, the books that I mentioned on the Lex Fridman podcast
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were Maps of Meaning, Human Action, and then Robert Persick's book, Lila.
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And I think reading those three books together is one, a good way
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to dematerialize your worldview in the sense that you'll move away from
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being a materialist into someone that understands the world, uh, just
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through a different framework, right?
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A framework of value, a framework of Praxeology in the case of
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human action, um, and maybe even a different metaphysical framework
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when you use something like Lila, that the book that really posits
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that value is the fundamental ground stuff of reality in a way.
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So I just thought those three books are very interesting to read together, which
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I just happened to do at that time.
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But maps of meaning specifically, I think Peterson, I mean, he's
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drawing very heavily on like Carl Jung and, and others, but he's.
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Basically putting forth, uh, a worldview that's non materialist, right?
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It has more to do with value, um, has more to do with, you know, what
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you value actually determines what, not only how you see the world, but
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what you actually see in the world.
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One of the experiments he often likes to cite is the selective attention
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experiment, where there's, uh, people are charged with the task of counting
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the number of basketball passes between these two teams on a video.
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And When they do that, they fail to see the six foot man in a gorilla costume
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come into the middle of the screen and wave his arms around for a few
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seconds and walk off screen because they're so focused on the task of
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actually counting the number of passes.
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So the point being that when they value achieving the objective of
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counting the number of passes, that you actually fail to see six foot gorillas
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walking into the middle of your frame.
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Um...
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And so value, valuation, or the process of valuation is actually
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determining what you see in the world, not just how you see the world.
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And, you know, the bookmaps of meaning, I don't know that
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I'd recommend it to everyone.
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It's very dense.
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I think Peterson said he spent 15 years and three, three hours
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a day for 15 years writing it.
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Something just...
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You know, just an absurd amount of work went into it.
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The sentences are very dense, but he, he goes down a lot of the,
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the psychological rabbit holes that Jungian psychology gets into.
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I really got, one of the most fascinating parts of that book for me
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was towards the end when he's talking about alchemy, um, and just the
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nature of what alchemy was said to be.
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You know, it was said to like.
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Be a process that paralleled the passion of Christ.
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It was the pursuit of the lapis philosophorum, which was the philosopher's
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stone, which was said to be the incorruptible substance that would serve
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as an antidote for tyranny in the world.
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and I, you know, there were just so many parallels with Bitcoin there.
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Also like by interacting with the philosopher's stone, it
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actually makes you better.
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And so we often talk about Bitcoiners going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and
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experiencing personal transformations.
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You know, I don't, maybe I, maybe I've drank too much of the orange Kool
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Aid, but I definitely saw a lot of parallels between Peterson's discussion
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of alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone to, to Bitcoin overall.
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And then, you know, where I think JBP, I guess, obviously saying maps
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of meaning, you could have also called the book maps of value in a way.
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And there's.
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A lot of talk about meaning and a lot of talk about value, but that, it, it sort of
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doesn't get into, it doesn't, he doesn't have Mises in his worldview, right?
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He doesn't have praxeology, he doesn't have human action, so it's like, it fails
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to see this deep connection, perhaps even, you might even say value and
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action are like the same thing, right?
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All human action is an expression of value.
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Um, I'm not completely convinced it's just human though, like, I
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think purpose might be something that exists beyond just the human domain.
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Obviously that's more of a metaphysical debate.
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but I think that in JVP's work, it keeps the matter of value rather
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abstract and that he doesn't ground it out in the practical realities of,
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of actually, of actual human action.
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And I think that's where you get a lot of value by plugging in, reading
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the book, Human Action and Mises.
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And then, uh, again, with, with Lila, you get this.
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Sort of metaphysical grounding, um, in addition to those two
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books that really just sort of rounds out the counterpoint to the
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materialist worldview, you might say,
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yeah, the density of maps of meaning is, is, yeah, it's, it's quite something.
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I've appreciated his, his lecture.
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series on that topic, uh, which kind of distilled that and made
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it a little bit more accessible.
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But when he, when he came out with 12 rules for life, I, I'd actually been
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hoping for like a, like a maps of meaning light instead, and sort of the rules
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for life series is that, but it's, it's.
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Of course, it's couched in this framing that's supposed
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to make it ultra accessible.
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And yeah, that's, that's had maybe mixed success, I would say.
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But yeah, the, I really like your point, I guess, about the, that
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maps of value could be an alternate.
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And, um, certainly agree that, that his, his, uh, lack of the praxeological
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point is glaringly obvious when you've been looking at that, uh, side of
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things, but yeah, um, that was, that was kind of my, uh, comments there,
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but Knut, any, any thoughts on that?
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Curious.
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When did you last speak to Jordan?
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I mean, we've traded emails about the event, so, just over the past
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several months, but, spoken to him?
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Actually spoken to him?
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I haven't spoken to him since we did our thing in Miami.
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Okay.
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So, so do you think he's properly orange pill at this point?
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You see, we see some hints, uh, back and forth, but then once in a while, he
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says something sort of counter to the Bitcoin ethos in terms of the, you know,
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internet anonymity and stuff like that.
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And he doesn't really seem to grasp the importance of, of privacy, or.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Just have a different, different outlook than on that topic than most Bitcoiners.
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Um, so, so where do you think he is in his, um, rabbit hole journey?
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Well, I would definitely say he is not properly orange pilled yet.
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Um, as we all know, that takes, whatever, X hundred hours to get to that point.
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Somewhere between one and a few hundred hours, I guess, depending on who you
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are, what approach you take, et cetera.
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Uh, I doubt he's spent that much time at all.
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Like it seems like he paid attention to Bitcoin in the bull market.
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And then when bull market ceased, he kind of stopped paying attention.
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Um, he still tweets things out though.
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Like can Bitcoin fix this?
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You know, he'll be tweeting out some
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Yeah.
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That's the last week, right?
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Yeah, something,
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something.
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Oh, Australia moving people to a cashless society.
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I think they were just turning off physical cash, you know, and he's
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saying, Oh, can Bitcoin fix this?
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And we're like, Oh, of course, that's a counterparty, basically
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rug pulling you effectively.
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And so Bitcoin's money without a counterparty.
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So yeah, Bitcoin does fix that.
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no one's going to turn off Bitcoin on you, right?
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Whereas they can basically turn off physical cash.
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So, Uh, his curiosity is there.
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Where is he at on his journey?
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I'm not entirely sure, but he will be the first to admit to
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you that he doesn't have a strong understanding of economics in general.
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even the way he describes money, you know, he describes money as trust.
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And again, I think this is, you get very muddy with the language here
253
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because I would lean more on Nick Szabo's perspective of money being
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the trust minimized asset, right?
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The thing that I can use in exchange with the least need to trust anyone, right?
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Least counterparty risk.
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And so, but again, the trust...
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is an ambivalent term, right?
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Because it's like, okay, there's a, there's the least need for interpersonal
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trust, but it's the same thing as saying you have trust in the integrity
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or credibility of the monetary properties associated with the money.
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It's like saying, okay, when I walk across a bridge, am I trusting an
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individual to keep or individuals to keep the bridge intact?
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Or am I trusting principles of civil engineering that were properly applied?
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You know, so it's, Interpersonal versus impersonal trust.
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And so when he just says money is trust, I think it's very much
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ambivalent and not that useful.
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So there's that.
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And then again, you know, I would love to hear him really try to expand
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upon the question, what is value?
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Because I don't know what value is other than.
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What is expressed in human action, right?
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What else is value other than what is expressed in human action?
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And so for all of his focus on meaning and value, I don't think, I would like to hear
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what grounding definition he has for that.
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Because if you really come to understand that, then, um...
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Uh, you know, a lot of the arguments he's putting forth would just plug
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straight into praxeology and then he would go down the Mises rabbit hole
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and then presumably he would get thoroughly orange pills in the process.
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So I
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we love to see
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Yeah, we would love to see that.
283
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Um, but who knows?
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You know, he's also, he's an older guy, you know, I don't
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know how many more rabbit holes he's, he's got left to go down.
286
00:15:56,277 --> 00:15:59,387
so on that note, what, what is, what is your answer?
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Your personal answer to the question?
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What is money?
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I wish I had only one for you.
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Um, the thing, okay, I'll say, I'll say this first.
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That the most interesting thing for me on this three, almost three year journey now
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doing the podcast, the what is money show, asking this question to, I don't know how
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many we've had 360 something episodes, probably definitely over a hundred guests.
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You know, a lot of the episodes are long form series, so we have the same
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guests over and over, but I'd say we're, we've got to be over a hundred guests.
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And the fact that there are so many different answers to that question that
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make sense in certain contexts, um, it's like asking one of these other profound
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questions, like, you know, what is truth?
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What is justice?
300
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What is beauty?
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What is love?
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00:16:59,514 --> 00:17:06,048
You know, You would think that these very, essential terms that we use
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would have very clear definitions that might be your intuitive position.
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It's like, well, of course we should know what truth is.
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You know, it's like one of the most important things in the world where
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we talk about it all the time, but then when you actually get into it
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and you try to define truth, you see that philosophers have been debating
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it for Many, many centuries and it continues to be a debate and there's
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different forms of truth, right?
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There's pragmatic truths and transcendental truth,
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et cetera, et cetera.
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So money for some reason is one of those terms, apparently one of these
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very potent, uh, essential terms.
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You know, it's an essential tool.
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Obviously everyone, every trading society.
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Has money or some form of money.
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00:17:52,498 --> 00:17:56,008
Uh, you could also say that money's more of an attribute, right?
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Than, than necessarily a thing.
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00:17:58,688 --> 00:18:03,078
Yeah, an adjective is what we said in the last talk we had,
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Yeah.
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An adjective, right?
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Because every asset that is traded in a marketplace has some degree of moneys,
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which is commensurate with its liquidity.
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And the thing that has the most moneys is the thing we call money, basically.
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so the, the very interesting realization that I've had or am having still is how.
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Indispensable, let's say, let's say insufficient languages, first of all,
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for describing this complex fluid world continuum that we all inhabit, you know,
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we're using these little discrete data packets called words and trying to map it
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onto this fluid domain we call reality.
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So it's insufficient.
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Yet, it's also indispensable in that it is the best tool we have for, well,
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thinking, communicating, rationalizing, reflecting, you know, calculating, etc.
333
00:18:58,418 --> 00:19:04,928
So been my big takeaway, I guess, from doing the show.
334
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Not takeaway, I'm not, it's nothing to take away.
335
00:19:07,148 --> 00:19:08,508
It's something I'm still thinking about.
336
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It's like, how do you describe the nature of language itself?
337
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And it's taken me into a lot of rabbit holes.
338
00:19:14,308 --> 00:19:20,868
Um, now to answer your question a little more directly, I still think.
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The most useful conception of money is as a storehouse or reservoir of time,
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you know, you might say human time, you might say lifetime, and it's not just
341
00:19:36,046 --> 00:19:39,566
money though, it's really capital, right?
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00:19:39,566 --> 00:19:44,526
Capital is the result of human spending time, effort, and energy to create
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things That amplify the productivity of others or allow future consumption
344
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for themselves or other people.
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00:19:52,571 --> 00:19:58,681
So all capital is kind of like a, a stored form of human time, but then
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money is just the, the form of capital that is most liquid, most tradable.
347
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And so.
348
00:20:06,341 --> 00:20:12,091
It becomes a very close reflection of time, and you see that in just
349
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people's day to day use of money, right, in that you go to work, you
350
00:20:16,291 --> 00:20:20,901
trade time for money, and then you take that money back into the marketplace.
351
00:20:21,716 --> 00:20:24,136
And you trade that money for the time of others.
352
00:20:24,166 --> 00:20:27,676
So people will serve you at the restaurant or building you a house or making
353
00:20:27,676 --> 00:20:29,476
you shoes or whatever the thing is.
354
00:20:30,346 --> 00:20:35,526
So I think there's a lot of intuitive value in framing it as time.
355
00:20:35,656 --> 00:20:39,496
And then I think it's also very useful for.
356
00:20:40,291 --> 00:20:43,711
Explicating the malevolent nature of central banking, where you're
357
00:20:43,711 --> 00:20:47,421
like, okay, if there's a currency counterfeiting monopoly, everyone's
358
00:20:47,421 --> 00:20:52,641
forced to use this stuff, they're stealing purchasing power through, you know,
359
00:20:52,641 --> 00:20:54,841
arbitrarily inflating the money supply.
360
00:20:54,881 --> 00:20:56,051
Well, what does that equate to?
361
00:20:56,051 --> 00:20:58,231
If money is time, okay.
362
00:20:58,231 --> 00:21:00,301
It's systematic time theft, right?
363
00:21:00,301 --> 00:21:04,291
People are having their time stolen systematically with every dollar printed.
364
00:21:05,201 --> 00:21:10,451
So, um, I guess that is still the answer that I lean on the most.
365
00:21:10,451 --> 00:21:13,361
I also think, you know, obviously Saylor bringing this whole perspective
366
00:21:14,041 --> 00:21:17,971
of money as energy to the table is a big deal because you could equally
367
00:21:17,971 --> 00:21:23,336
argue it's, well, money is time, money is energy, or As we've often
368
00:21:23,336 --> 00:21:25,006
said too, money is power, right?
369
00:21:25,006 --> 00:21:28,556
And power is a product of time and energy, right?
370
00:21:28,566 --> 00:21:33,066
It's the, I think power is the capacity to move energy over time, right?
371
00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:36,529
Or perform work over time, something like that in a physics sense.
372
00:21:36,539 --> 00:21:39,574
So again, you ask this question, what is money?
373
00:21:39,574 --> 00:21:46,439
And you end up in very fundamental domains like physics and, um, You
374
00:21:46,439 --> 00:21:48,229
know, time, like what is time?
375
00:21:48,229 --> 00:21:50,609
Time is probably the most mysterious thing in the universe.
376
00:21:51,209 --> 00:21:55,389
So it's maybe not useful from like a very practical standpoint to say money
377
00:21:55,389 --> 00:22:00,589
is time, but I think it's very useful from a philosophical standpoint in
378
00:22:00,659 --> 00:22:05,679
giving people somewhat of an intuitive explanatory framework to deal with
379
00:22:05,679 --> 00:22:08,409
this very abstract, mysterious notion.
380
00:22:09,228 --> 00:22:13,948
all right, so about communication and language in general, um, there's
381
00:22:13,948 --> 00:22:20,288
some points I have there, um, like, if, if we want to apply the non,
382
00:22:20,288 --> 00:22:24,493
non aggression principle, and if we want to Not use violence in any
383
00:22:24,493 --> 00:22:30,323
shape or form or fetch thereof, then in my mind, at least communication
384
00:22:30,323 --> 00:22:32,063
is the only tool we have left.
385
00:22:32,113 --> 00:22:37,723
Like it's, it's not only, you know, a tool, it's the tool that there, there
386
00:22:37,723 --> 00:22:39,483
are no other tools in the toolbox.
387
00:22:39,483 --> 00:22:46,023
Once, once you, once you, once you do not allow yourself to use force anymore.
388
00:22:46,733 --> 00:22:47,983
So that's the only thing we have.
389
00:22:47,983 --> 00:22:53,323
So we need, so clear definitions of words are crucial to that.
390
00:22:53,343 --> 00:22:58,213
And that's why one of the things I like so much about Mises in particular,
391
00:22:58,213 --> 00:23:03,103
that he's very, very careful with words and the definition of them.
392
00:23:03,593 --> 00:23:10,853
And to, I mean, I do agree that truth is a, uh, a very hard word to define, but
393
00:23:10,983 --> 00:23:13,703
the word true, the words true and false.
394
00:23:14,763 --> 00:23:21,143
In a sense are the binary of any language because we define everything else by
395
00:23:21,303 --> 00:23:26,153
having these, this binary base layer of language, which is that is true.
396
00:23:26,173 --> 00:23:27,053
And that is false.
397
00:23:27,133 --> 00:23:29,773
I mean, is truth hard to define?
398
00:23:30,143 --> 00:23:31,803
Yes, that is true.
399
00:23:31,893 --> 00:23:37,103
I mean, there's always, you can always boil down communication to these yin
400
00:23:37,103 --> 00:23:39,983
yang ones and zeros, true and false.
401
00:23:40,353 --> 00:23:46,428
So, so the word true, is, in a sense, easier to define than the word truth, and
402
00:23:46,428 --> 00:23:50,038
even easier than the word truthfulness, which is very hard to define.
403
00:23:50,488 --> 00:23:56,328
Um, because that implies some form of subjectivity, but what do you say to that?
404
00:23:56,538 --> 00:23:57,228
What are your thoughts?
405
00:23:57,843 --> 00:23:59,843
so there's a strange thing here.
406
00:23:59,893 --> 00:24:00,343
Okay.
407
00:24:01,583 --> 00:24:08,193
First of all, the importance of, and maybe this is why money is so hard to define
408
00:24:08,213 --> 00:24:12,333
as well, but I would say words, right?
409
00:24:12,333 --> 00:24:13,093
Language.
410
00:24:13,153 --> 00:24:14,683
This is a form.
411
00:24:15,728 --> 00:24:20,848
Words are a media of exchange, just like money is a, you know, Mises would say,
412
00:24:20,978 --> 00:24:22,998
money is a universal medium of exchange.
413
00:24:23,668 --> 00:24:25,578
Well, I would say so are words, right?
414
00:24:25,578 --> 00:24:29,058
We're, we're just using them to exchange as a medium to exchange
415
00:24:29,058 --> 00:24:31,558
human conceptions or ideas.
416
00:24:32,443 --> 00:24:35,983
Whereas money we're using to, as a medium of exchange for actual
417
00:24:36,083 --> 00:24:37,973
goods and services, capital, right?
418
00:24:37,973 --> 00:24:39,873
The results of human action, let's say.
419
00:24:40,793 --> 00:24:46,473
So maybe it's because of these, these intermediary devices.
420
00:24:47,353 --> 00:24:49,693
They're a little bit hard to pin down and define.
421
00:24:50,713 --> 00:24:56,723
Um, I do agree with you that absent rationality, all that
422
00:24:56,723 --> 00:24:58,803
really remains is raw power, right?
423
00:24:58,803 --> 00:24:59,703
It's might is right.
424
00:24:59,783 --> 00:25:00,763
If you can't have...
425
00:25:01,456 --> 00:25:04,866
Precise definitions that both people have consensus on, which
426
00:25:04,866 --> 00:25:06,156
is obviously very important.
427
00:25:06,766 --> 00:25:11,076
Your notion of the number 7 needs to match my notion of the number 7 for
428
00:25:11,076 --> 00:25:15,890
us to have rational communication about mathematics, for instance, which
429
00:25:15,890 --> 00:25:18,960
is another way of saying there has to be social consensus on each term.
430
00:25:19,950 --> 00:25:24,820
If you don't have that, right, if you have a lack of consensus or no language
431
00:25:24,820 --> 00:25:29,480
at all, no rationality, no rational argumentation, then what's left, right?
432
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:31,200
It's just pure animality.
433
00:25:31,850 --> 00:25:33,810
Who, who can beat up who?
434
00:25:34,427 --> 00:25:39,257
Well, this boils back to Hoppe's argumentation ethics, which I find so
435
00:25:39,257 --> 00:25:44,337
insanely fascinating, because like, even if we don't have consensus on what the
436
00:25:44,347 --> 00:25:50,767
number seven means, We can allow ourselves to agree to disagree and like, there's
437
00:25:50,797 --> 00:25:55,357
where conversation ends, but as long as there's no, you know, property to fight
438
00:25:55,377 --> 00:25:57,887
over, we can still agree to disagree.
439
00:25:58,332 --> 00:26:01,992
Well, you can, uh, you, you can agree to disagree to the extent that rational
440
00:26:02,002 --> 00:26:03,682
communication is possible between you.
441
00:26:04,112 --> 00:26:05,062
That's the point that I'm trying to make.
442
00:26:05,637 --> 00:26:05,847
Yeah.
443
00:26:05,877 --> 00:26:06,237
Yeah.
444
00:26:06,587 --> 00:26:07,187
Totally agree.
445
00:26:07,187 --> 00:26:13,208
And, um, what's so fascinating here about Bitcoin, Is that it's nothing
446
00:26:13,208 --> 00:26:16,248
but, uh, an agreement to disagree.
447
00:26:16,348 --> 00:26:19,338
Like, that is what Bitcoiners do.
448
00:26:19,348 --> 00:26:26,137
We agree to disagree, and because we know that it's, it's, uh, it's harder
449
00:26:26,137 --> 00:26:30,207
to, it's more expensive to try to cheat the system than to just follow the rules.
450
00:26:30,467 --> 00:26:36,203
And also, like, insanely fascinating that Bitcoin has sort of teared down
451
00:26:36,203 --> 00:26:38,943
that wall between money and language.
452
00:26:39,443 --> 00:26:44,133
It is the same thing now, it is just communication, like we, we, provably so,
453
00:26:44,133 --> 00:26:50,101
we can exchange goods and services for a, for a number, which we can hold in
454
00:26:50,101 --> 00:26:56,061
our heads and, uh, we don't need anything but that, it's just communication and
455
00:26:56,061 --> 00:26:59,621
all the computers involved are just an extension of our mind and all this, uh,
456
00:27:00,231 --> 00:27:05,176
mumbo jumbo, uh, About all the time, like how you are your Bitcoin, like
457
00:27:05,176 --> 00:27:06,996
there's a sense they are information.
458
00:27:06,996 --> 00:27:12,406
There's no nothing separating you yourself from your Bitcoin.
459
00:27:12,416 --> 00:27:12,866
Really?
460
00:27:13,236 --> 00:27:14,896
It's just an extension of your mind.
461
00:27:14,896 --> 00:27:16,466
It's it lives with within you.
462
00:27:16,466 --> 00:27:19,656
And I think that that is what makes it so.
463
00:27:20,626 --> 00:27:22,336
Obvious that it's communication.
464
00:27:22,416 --> 00:27:26,376
And if money is just communication, well, that changes everything.
465
00:27:26,476 --> 00:27:32,686
Like, so this whole notion that we're being robbed by inflation,
466
00:27:33,196 --> 00:27:39,046
is that really involuntary or did we put ourselves in that situation?
467
00:27:39,186 --> 00:27:43,406
Did we, did humanity like choose to trust these things?
468
00:27:43,496 --> 00:27:44,646
And was that a bad choice?
469
00:27:44,646 --> 00:27:47,999
Like how, how enforced were government?
470
00:27:49,749 --> 00:27:51,129
Issued currencies, really?
471
00:27:51,159 --> 00:27:54,459
And how much did we just fall for it, like, en masse?
472
00:27:54,841 --> 00:27:59,531
And back to the very, the importance of precise definitions here.
473
00:27:59,531 --> 00:28:05,291
I would say that, yeah, holding an inflationary currency or a
474
00:28:05,291 --> 00:28:09,721
fiat currency where you can have your purchasing power stolen.
475
00:28:10,051 --> 00:28:18,501
VIA inflation is voluntary, however, it is not consensual, uh, and Mr.
476
00:28:18,501 --> 00:28:21,351
Kinsella, I can thank him for taking me to task on this.
477
00:28:21,381 --> 00:28:25,001
I used to always talk about voluntary exchange, how important it is.
478
00:28:25,001 --> 00:28:29,581
He's like, well, actually the definition of all, like he's the
479
00:28:29,581 --> 00:28:31,401
example of the mugger, right?
480
00:28:31,401 --> 00:28:32,096
When you.
481
00:28:32,256 --> 00:28:36,636
Get mugged in the back alley, someone puts a gun to you and
482
00:28:36,636 --> 00:28:37,906
says, give me your wallet.
483
00:28:38,826 --> 00:28:42,776
Well, you voluntarily hand the mugger your wallet, right?
484
00:28:42,776 --> 00:28:46,716
You control your arm and decide, you know, the cost of me saying
485
00:28:46,716 --> 00:28:50,836
no to this guy is higher than the benefit of me giving up my wallet.
486
00:28:50,836 --> 00:28:53,236
So I'm going to hand him my wallet voluntarily.
487
00:28:54,036 --> 00:28:58,736
However, you're doing it under the threat of violence or coercion.
488
00:28:58,776 --> 00:28:59,606
So you're not.
489
00:28:59,966 --> 00:29:04,626
Surrendering your wallet consensually, although you are doing it voluntarily.
490
00:29:05,576 --> 00:29:09,206
An example of something that's involuntary would be a seizure
491
00:29:09,226 --> 00:29:10,446
or a heart attack, right?
492
00:29:10,446 --> 00:29:12,096
Something that you can't control.
493
00:29:12,306 --> 00:29:17,594
Just your biology just controls you basically in that situation.
494
00:29:17,604 --> 00:29:21,334
So when I look at central banking.
495
00:29:21,574 --> 00:29:27,574
You have a legal monopoly that preserves the currency counterfeiting, um, or
496
00:29:27,594 --> 00:29:31,574
arrogates the currency counterfeiting privilege to one group of shareholders
497
00:29:31,954 --> 00:29:34,574
and allows them to externalize that onto everyone else, right?
498
00:29:34,574 --> 00:29:37,404
The guns are pointed out, as I always like to say.
499
00:29:37,954 --> 00:29:39,254
They're protecting the future.
500
00:29:39,444 --> 00:29:42,324
Uh, central bank currency counterfeiting monopoly, but the guns are pointed
501
00:29:42,334 --> 00:29:45,464
out such that everyone else is effectively forced to use it.
502
00:29:46,332 --> 00:29:50,302
now, again, you're not forced, like, again, it's still voluntary.
503
00:29:50,342 --> 00:29:54,842
We could all just choose to have used physical gold all this time and said, no,
504
00:29:54,842 --> 00:29:56,312
we're never going to use your paper money.
505
00:29:56,895 --> 00:30:00,125
but obviously, as a means of practicality, that doesn't work.
506
00:30:00,835 --> 00:30:03,685
It's hard to buy coffee with gold, right?
507
00:30:03,685 --> 00:30:06,415
It's hard to move gold around safely.
508
00:30:06,425 --> 00:30:07,225
There's all these.
509
00:30:08,180 --> 00:30:14,170
Problems with using gold for day to day transactions, um, in a way that's
510
00:30:14,260 --> 00:30:16,460
not, that's not centrally custodied.
511
00:30:17,370 --> 00:30:17,920
So,
512
00:30:17,950 --> 00:30:19,730
any other commodity for that matter.
513
00:30:20,030 --> 00:30:20,950
yes, exactly.
514
00:30:21,030 --> 00:30:25,270
So to answer the question, it's like, yes, holding an
515
00:30:25,270 --> 00:30:27,590
inflationary currency is voluntary.
516
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:28,940
You're doing it voluntarily.
517
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,900
You could sell all your dollars and buy physical gold and put it in your backyard.
518
00:30:33,260 --> 00:30:35,260
Now with Bitcoin, it's even easier, right?
519
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:36,780
You can just hold Bitcoin.
520
00:30:37,266 --> 00:30:39,486
so every time you do choose to.
521
00:30:39,816 --> 00:30:45,106
Trade something, $4 or hold dollars in an account, you're doing that voluntarily,
522
00:30:45,856 --> 00:30:50,356
but your purchasing power nonetheless, is being stolen from you non consensually,
523
00:30:51,096 --> 00:30:55,476
and that you're participating, even though you've voluntarily put yourself into this
524
00:30:55,686 --> 00:31:02,156
legal monopoly, you're not voting for, uh, the counterfeiting of currency, right?
525
00:31:02,156 --> 00:31:03,836
You're not, you're not supporting it.
526
00:31:03,836 --> 00:31:05,246
You're not approving it.
527
00:31:05,916 --> 00:31:06,576
You're not really.
528
00:31:06,976 --> 00:31:09,156
I guess you could argue you're opting into it if you have the
529
00:31:09,156 --> 00:31:12,546
right level of understanding, but most people clearly don't.
530
00:31:13,388 --> 00:31:18,068
and that level of general level of understanding is intentionally kept low.
531
00:31:18,698 --> 00:31:22,488
I always like to talk about, I have a master's degree in
532
00:31:22,488 --> 00:31:23,738
accounting and finance, right?
533
00:31:23,738 --> 00:31:28,378
You would think I would know something from my mainstream education about central
534
00:31:28,378 --> 00:31:30,058
banking, about the nature of money.
535
00:31:30,608 --> 00:31:31,328
Something, right?
536
00:31:31,328 --> 00:31:33,858
It's literally just the language of business.
537
00:31:34,419 --> 00:31:37,229
everything we learn is about how money moves in and out of
538
00:31:37,229 --> 00:31:39,889
businesses, how taxation works.
539
00:31:39,919 --> 00:31:46,889
My focus was in taxation, yet there was not one single line of education given to
540
00:31:46,889 --> 00:31:51,449
me about Austrian economics, the nature of money, no talk about central banking,
541
00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:56,449
uh, no talk about the trade offs and opportunity costs that governments exist.
542
00:31:56,979 --> 00:32:02,199
And bureaucracies and central banks face, you know, they're just treated as these.
543
00:32:03,309 --> 00:32:05,499
organizations inside of the textbooks, right?
544
00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:08,489
The government just puts new currency into circulation and takes
545
00:32:08,489 --> 00:32:09,899
new currency out of circulation.
546
00:32:10,039 --> 00:32:14,429
Like you don't, there's a black box there that the education system doesn't go into.
547
00:32:15,049 --> 00:32:23,239
So it's pretty clear that, um, the existing paradigm seeks to protect
548
00:32:23,239 --> 00:32:29,079
itself intellectually by not going into the nature of money, where it comes
549
00:32:29,079 --> 00:32:31,139
from, Austrian economics, et cetera.
550
00:32:32,109 --> 00:32:36,569
Um, so, yes, it is voluntary, but not consensual.
551
00:32:38,169 --> 00:32:41,779
Yeah, funny, funny you should give that answer because I, I, uh, I love
552
00:32:41,779 --> 00:32:45,389
the Kinsella series you did, the series you did with Stefan Kinsella.
553
00:32:45,849 --> 00:32:51,019
Uh, and it influenced why I nowadays call myself a consensualist
554
00:32:51,109 --> 00:32:52,389
rather than a voluntarist.
555
00:32:53,229 --> 00:32:54,849
I mean, I think I went from...
556
00:32:55,214 --> 00:33:02,574
Libertarian leaning to anarcho capitalist, which is sort of too aggressive, and then
557
00:33:02,624 --> 00:33:07,955
voluntarist and now consensualist because I think consensualist frames it better.
558
00:33:08,015 --> 00:33:11,885
Like, I'd like as many interactions between human beings
559
00:33:11,885 --> 00:33:13,765
to be consensual as possible.
560
00:33:14,055 --> 00:33:20,656
Like, that should be the The guiding principle for your opinion on
561
00:33:20,756 --> 00:33:23,026
everything else, like if you have that.
562
00:33:23,515 --> 00:33:26,695
It's like the apex of human rationality, right?
563
00:33:26,695 --> 00:33:30,395
It's like, of course, you want to respect that we're all rational
564
00:33:30,405 --> 00:33:33,255
beings and we're all capable of deciding for ourselves, so we don't
565
00:33:33,265 --> 00:33:35,865
need to be coerced into doing things.
566
00:33:36,825 --> 00:33:43,785
And I think this notion is pretty obvious if you look at the dating market, right?
567
00:33:45,445 --> 00:33:49,905
Now, there have been arranged marriages, there still are arranged marriages,
568
00:33:49,905 --> 00:33:53,465
there still is some degree of pressure, perhaps in some cultures, to put people
569
00:33:53,465 --> 00:33:55,935
into certain, uh, marital arrangements.
570
00:33:56,745 --> 00:34:00,975
But in general, I think the moral intuitions in the West are that we
571
00:34:01,105 --> 00:34:03,115
should all be free to choose our own.
572
00:34:03,310 --> 00:34:04,150
partner, right?
573
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:08,080
Or, or partners would date whoever we want, marry whoever we
574
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:09,580
want, if we want to get married.
575
00:34:10,347 --> 00:34:14,317
it would be pretty hard to sell the idea of having a non
576
00:34:14,317 --> 00:34:16,077
consensual dating market, right?
577
00:34:16,157 --> 00:34:21,457
Where someone gets to coerce you into being, uh, their boyfriend or girlfriend.
578
00:34:22,532 --> 00:34:26,092
And you know, another way that I've framed this, and it's not always very
579
00:34:26,092 --> 00:34:32,832
popular, but the difference between a job and slavery is consent, right?
580
00:34:32,832 --> 00:34:36,412
You can quit the job, you can say no, and you can go get another job.
581
00:34:36,892 --> 00:34:40,752
If you're a physical slave in the traditional sense, well, you
582
00:34:40,752 --> 00:34:42,612
can't, there's no opt out, right?
583
00:34:42,612 --> 00:34:45,572
You're, you are enslaved against your consent.
584
00:34:46,432 --> 00:34:50,982
Uh, the difference between a financial transaction and
585
00:34:51,112 --> 00:34:54,252
taxation or theft is Consent.
586
00:34:55,052 --> 00:34:58,652
If I can say no to the transaction, take my business elsewhere, as
587
00:34:58,652 --> 00:35:00,802
can you, then we're, it's good.
588
00:35:00,802 --> 00:35:04,432
We're all consensual, but if I refuse the transaction and there's
589
00:35:04,452 --> 00:35:07,632
a threat of coercion, well, then that's the same situation I'm in
590
00:35:07,642 --> 00:35:09,052
with a mugger in the alley, right?
591
00:35:09,082 --> 00:35:11,782
I don't want to give you my wallet for free.
592
00:35:11,822 --> 00:35:13,462
It's like, okay, well, then I'll shoot you.
593
00:35:13,612 --> 00:35:13,882
Right?
594
00:35:13,882 --> 00:35:16,272
So that's obviously theft we wouldn't call it a transaction ai
595
00:35:22,237 --> 00:35:24,117
Getting mugged or getting robbed.
596
00:35:25,027 --> 00:35:29,087
And in terms of the dating market, you know, the difference between
597
00:35:29,437 --> 00:35:33,007
sex and rape is consent, right?
598
00:35:33,037 --> 00:35:37,407
Both parties need to be willing, able, and consenting to have a
599
00:35:37,457 --> 00:35:40,747
normal sexual engagement between two.
600
00:35:41,082 --> 00:35:45,752
Uh, willing adults, if that's absent on either side, right, if
601
00:35:45,752 --> 00:35:48,632
there's either party that wants to say no but they're forced into it,
602
00:35:48,642 --> 00:35:50,252
well, then we would call that rape.
603
00:35:50,912 --> 00:35:54,842
So, you know, consent is very, very, very important and I think we
604
00:35:54,842 --> 00:35:56,782
should strive to universalize it.
605
00:35:56,912 --> 00:36:01,902
I mean, it's the only way, it's the only rational way to deal with the
606
00:36:01,942 --> 00:36:06,092
reality that we are all rational beings and capable of choosing for ourselves.
607
00:36:07,205 --> 00:36:11,795
Yeah, this once again reminds me of Hoppe's argumentation ethics, which
608
00:36:11,795 --> 00:36:17,720
basically say that if you have to If you argue with someone, you have to
609
00:36:17,720 --> 00:36:21,410
respect their property rights, because property rights are derived from the
610
00:36:21,410 --> 00:36:23,250
fact that you own your own faculties.
611
00:36:23,650 --> 00:36:27,510
If you don't accept that, that you're using your tongue and your vocal cords
612
00:36:27,510 --> 00:36:32,340
and your lungs and so on to talk to, so that you're in possession of them and
613
00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:37,090
you own them, if you don't respect that in the other person, uh, so, so if you
614
00:36:37,140 --> 00:36:43,660
argue about something, the ownership of something, or, uh, who's the rightful
615
00:36:43,660 --> 00:36:46,050
owner of something, and the conclusion...
616
00:36:46,725 --> 00:36:52,665
And you discard the conclusion and then choose to, to take instead.
617
00:36:52,715 --> 00:36:57,235
So like if you argue about taxes with a taxman, for instance, and the taxman
618
00:36:58,035 --> 00:37:04,365
agrees with you about everything you say, but then still chooses to, to, uh, to
619
00:37:04,375 --> 00:37:09,520
force you to pay the taxes, it's That's when the argument turns into mockery.
620
00:37:10,110 --> 00:37:13,310
Like, it's not an argument anymore, it's just, he's just a bully.
621
00:37:14,380 --> 00:37:19,770
So it's not, the argument ceases to be, argumentation ceases to be
622
00:37:19,770 --> 00:37:24,840
argumentation once property rights are violated in any way, shape, or form.
623
00:37:26,270 --> 00:37:30,740
On this notion, like the thing you said about consent, like, I love another
624
00:37:30,740 --> 00:37:34,780
series of yours that I highly recommend is the Hillebrand series with our
625
00:37:34,780 --> 00:37:39,410
friend Max Hillebrand, where you talk about the books, the Rothbard book,
626
00:37:39,780 --> 00:37:44,410
The Ethics of Liberty, which is one of my favorite Austrian economics books,
627
00:37:44,660 --> 00:37:46,114
that one, and Max Hillebrand's books.
628
00:37:46,565 --> 00:37:50,445
Hoppus, um, which is another recommendation from Max, by
629
00:37:50,445 --> 00:37:55,245
the way, the, the, um, economic science and the Austrian method.
630
00:37:55,245 --> 00:37:55,695
I think it's
631
00:37:55,730 --> 00:37:56,265
the title.
632
00:37:56,265 --> 00:38:02,345
It's, uh, yeah, it's, it's not a very click baity title, but, uh,
633
00:38:02,355 --> 00:38:04,455
but it's a great, very dense book.
634
00:38:04,455 --> 00:38:09,434
And those two books, I think they, they, uh, they frame this so well, uh, and.
635
00:38:10,235 --> 00:38:12,735
Just about the things you've been talking about here about
636
00:38:12,905 --> 00:38:14,735
consent and how important it
637
00:38:15,102 --> 00:38:17,582
I have a, I actually have some stuff to say about that book.
638
00:38:18,072 --> 00:38:21,892
Um, I, that's a really, really, really good book.
639
00:38:22,332 --> 00:38:23,982
Hoppe's got a lot of good stuff.
640
00:38:25,182 --> 00:38:27,932
Very unsexy title, as you said, Economic Science and the
641
00:38:27,932 --> 00:38:30,292
Austrian Method, ESAM for short.
642
00:38:30,932 --> 00:38:36,612
very short book, but like most of Hoppe's writing, very dense, very informative.
643
00:38:37,416 --> 00:38:40,496
I, I was blown away actually that he.
644
00:38:41,176 --> 00:38:45,482
One of the points that I took away from that book was that he's saying that,
645
00:38:45,482 --> 00:38:50,752
like, the, the mind matter split, right, the, the Cartesian split that we all
646
00:38:51,072 --> 00:38:55,032
sort of inherited when, when Descartes said, I think, therefore, I am, as if
647
00:38:55,032 --> 00:38:57,562
there's two fundamental realities, right?
648
00:38:57,562 --> 00:39:01,902
There's the subjective thinking mind, and then there is the objective world.
649
00:39:02,535 --> 00:39:04,945
Hoppe makes this point that it's actually...
650
00:39:05,245 --> 00:39:11,015
That perhaps, actually, this distinction between mind and matter, or between
651
00:39:11,015 --> 00:39:17,555
subject and object, is a subcategory of human action, because it is only
652
00:39:17,575 --> 00:39:21,755
through human action where mind and matter come together, right?
653
00:39:22,515 --> 00:39:25,755
It's almost like we're using this distinction is like an
654
00:39:25,765 --> 00:39:29,776
artificial distinction that's useful in many ways, right?
655
00:39:29,776 --> 00:39:31,086
We could say all value is the
656
00:39:35,146 --> 00:39:41,076
mind rather than a matter of the world, but somehow action is like above that.
657
00:39:41,106 --> 00:39:46,116
Even action is the thing that allows subject and object duality to even
658
00:39:46,116 --> 00:39:51,611
come into existence where many of us, I think Western materialist worldview
659
00:39:51,641 --> 00:39:55,191
takes subject object reality to be the most fundamental thing there is, right?
660
00:39:55,191 --> 00:39:58,861
That there is an actual split between mind and matter.
661
00:39:59,511 --> 00:40:03,421
Whereas in fact, it seems to be most things are continuous, right?
662
00:40:03,741 --> 00:40:07,881
I don't know that there's an actual, out there, discrete
663
00:40:08,191 --> 00:40:09,551
split between mind and matter.
664
00:40:09,551 --> 00:40:11,741
So that, that blew my mind.
665
00:40:11,925 --> 00:40:16,085
again, just the, the primacy of human action and how it's...
666
00:40:16,675 --> 00:40:17,455
It's everywhere.
667
00:40:17,455 --> 00:40:22,515
And I think that again, ties nicely back into that book, Leela, where Persig
668
00:40:22,515 --> 00:40:26,805
saying it almost in a different way, that value is the ground stuff of reality.
669
00:40:26,805 --> 00:40:30,845
They're like, there's no substance, like value is the substance.
670
00:40:31,605 --> 00:40:32,225
And it's something
671
00:40:32,305 --> 00:40:36,045
Actually, would you mind giving us a TLDR on that book for anyone
672
00:40:36,045 --> 00:40:36,985
who's not familiar with it?
673
00:40:37,345 --> 00:40:38,615
TLDR on Leela.
674
00:40:38,645 --> 00:40:42,555
Um, yeah, I would mind because I don't know that that's actually possible.
675
00:40:43,247 --> 00:40:44,697
let me just say, so he's the.
676
00:40:45,477 --> 00:40:48,257
The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which was the
677
00:40:48,257 --> 00:40:52,667
most popular or best selling philosophy book in the West, I think in the
678
00:40:52,667 --> 00:40:54,317
20th century, something like that.
679
00:40:54,777 --> 00:40:56,367
One of the best, maybe not the best.
680
00:40:57,187 --> 00:40:59,077
Uh, many people have read that one.
681
00:40:59,137 --> 00:41:00,967
Many people have heard of it, if they haven't read it.
682
00:41:01,577 --> 00:41:04,927
Almost no one's heard of or read the book he wrote 15 years later,
683
00:41:04,927 --> 00:41:06,797
which is Lila, which is much better.
684
00:41:07,637 --> 00:41:08,267
And Persig...
685
00:41:09,047 --> 00:41:11,147
Man, he's just like a next level genius.
686
00:41:11,147 --> 00:41:14,287
He blends fiction.
687
00:41:15,307 --> 00:41:19,337
So there's like a fictional story blended with some elements of autobiography.
688
00:41:19,337 --> 00:41:22,857
He's actually writing about himself and his life and some of his experiences
689
00:41:22,857 --> 00:41:24,417
blended into this fictional narrative.
690
00:41:24,917 --> 00:41:29,977
And then there's a non fictional, uh, philosophical exploration about the nature
691
00:41:29,977 --> 00:41:33,437
of metaphysics and, uh, value and quality.
692
00:41:33,767 --> 00:41:36,177
He distinguishes between dynamic and static.
693
00:41:36,597 --> 00:41:37,957
Value, et cetera.
694
00:41:40,767 --> 00:41:43,566
Um, the TLDR, I don't have a TLDR.
695
00:41:43,776 --> 00:41:47,946
He just gets into like all the things we're talking about.
696
00:41:47,946 --> 00:41:53,406
We're talking about the nature of value, the continuity between, you
697
00:41:53,406 --> 00:41:55,466
know, an organic and organic reality.
698
00:41:55,466 --> 00:41:59,486
Let's say he gives different levels of value is the inorganic layer.
699
00:42:00,274 --> 00:42:04,004
biological, social, and intellectual, there's different patterns of
700
00:42:04,004 --> 00:42:05,474
value that basically interact.
701
00:42:06,244 --> 00:42:12,514
He describes how these layers interact, sort of like a software system, um,
702
00:42:12,514 --> 00:42:16,874
and it gives rise to basically a whole metaphysical framework that he
703
00:42:16,874 --> 00:42:23,914
puts forth that stuff and substance is not real, value and morality is.
704
00:42:24,544 --> 00:42:29,204
So it's a, it's a very strong argument for the, the fundamental nature of, of.
705
00:42:29,919 --> 00:42:33,229
I guess you could say human action or value itself.
706
00:42:33,919 --> 00:42:38,849
And, um, again, the ESAM book just sort of dovetails nicely with that
707
00:42:38,849 --> 00:42:41,519
one, where it's like making the argument that human action is this.
708
00:42:43,109 --> 00:42:46,099
Has this primacy that most people don't understand.
709
00:42:46,099 --> 00:42:49,879
And again, if all action is an expression of value, then we're kind of dancing
710
00:42:49,879 --> 00:42:52,329
around the same topic here, right?
711
00:42:52,329 --> 00:42:56,839
When, when you hear many people invoke the word value is again, why I was
712
00:42:57,419 --> 00:43:00,709
hearkening to Peterson earlier, like, I'd love to hear his like deep definition.
713
00:43:01,159 --> 00:43:04,449
I don't see how you escape human action.
714
00:43:04,499 --> 00:43:07,129
Like it's the, to act is to value, right?
715
00:43:07,129 --> 00:43:08,649
To, to express one's value.
716
00:43:09,739 --> 00:43:10,519
And so.
717
00:43:12,214 --> 00:43:16,144
Yeah, that's, I guess that's what I would say about ESAM in general, and then I,
718
00:43:16,204 --> 00:43:21,684
just to circle back to something you said earlier, Knut, about the tax man, you
719
00:43:21,684 --> 00:43:26,474
know, you're, when you argue with someone, which was Hoppe's point, I think, you're
720
00:43:26,504 --> 00:43:33,584
implicitly acknowledging the reality of individual self ownership, right?
721
00:43:33,584 --> 00:43:37,304
You are using your faculties to try and put forth a point.
722
00:43:38,074 --> 00:43:40,754
You're listening to another person employ their faculties
723
00:43:40,774 --> 00:43:42,424
to put forth their counterpoint.
724
00:43:43,189 --> 00:43:46,679
And the only way that process can unfold is if, indeed,
725
00:43:46,689 --> 00:43:48,339
you both own yourself, right?
726
00:43:48,349 --> 00:43:52,199
Like, you, I own my faculties and I'm generating the points that I'm
727
00:43:52,199 --> 00:43:56,099
putting forth, you're assimilating that information, presumably, and
728
00:43:56,099 --> 00:43:58,189
generating your own counterpoint and putting those things forth.
729
00:43:58,369 --> 00:44:02,639
The only way we can do that is through this implicit acknowledgement of...
730
00:44:03,034 --> 00:44:05,614
Individuals owning themselves, individual self ownership.
731
00:44:06,494 --> 00:44:11,194
And once the tax man says, okay, enough of that, you know, even if he agrees
732
00:44:11,204 --> 00:44:14,684
with you, right, yes, we agree, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but still
733
00:44:15,414 --> 00:44:22,414
pay me, right, pay the tax, you're actually dis acknowledging, if that's
734
00:44:22,414 --> 00:44:24,786
even a word, individual self ownership.
735
00:44:24,806 --> 00:44:26,736
Cause all of a sudden you're saying, well, that's all good.
736
00:44:26,736 --> 00:44:27,546
You own yourself.
737
00:44:27,546 --> 00:44:30,566
We had this argument, we reached a conclusion, but give me your
738
00:44:30,566 --> 00:44:31,616
stuff or I'm going to hurt you.
739
00:44:32,276 --> 00:44:37,366
Alright, so you're, you're, you're, you're actually, um, contradicting
740
00:44:38,656 --> 00:44:41,486
what argumentation confirms, right?
741
00:44:41,486 --> 00:44:43,526
You're disconfirming what argumentation confirms.
742
00:44:43,526 --> 00:44:45,996
Argumentation is confirming that individuals own themselves.
743
00:44:46,256 --> 00:44:50,306
When you result to coercion and violence, you're disconfirming that reality.
744
00:44:50,856 --> 00:44:52,356
And when you do that...
745
00:44:52,626 --> 00:44:57,006
I mean, you unwind the entire process of human civilization,
746
00:44:57,006 --> 00:44:59,116
rational discourse, etc, etc.
747
00:44:59,636 --> 00:45:02,526
Because if people don't own themselves, and it's just a free for all, then
748
00:45:02,526 --> 00:45:03,886
we're back to might is right, right?
749
00:45:03,886 --> 00:45:04,946
Who's got the biggest stick?
750
00:45:05,656 --> 00:45:07,406
Uh, who can coerce who the hardest?
751
00:45:08,146 --> 00:45:13,731
I think in Atlas Shrugged, There's a line, uh, she said, when force becomes the
752
00:45:13,731 --> 00:45:20,611
standard by which men interact, then the, the pickpocket loses out to the tyrant
753
00:45:20,691 --> 00:45:22,361
or the murderer, something like that.
754
00:45:22,711 --> 00:45:26,201
So the race becomes who is the most violent, right?
755
00:45:26,201 --> 00:45:29,631
Who can coerce and commit as much violence as possible.
756
00:45:29,941 --> 00:45:31,011
Well, guess what that happened?
757
00:45:31,031 --> 00:45:32,971
Guess what that does to the world?
758
00:45:33,351 --> 00:45:37,851
Guys, when you commence that race, civilizations vanish in
759
00:45:37,851 --> 00:45:42,301
a spread of slaughter and ruin, I think, as she wrote as well.
760
00:45:42,431 --> 00:45:45,491
So, it's hard to overstate how important...
761
00:45:46,246 --> 00:45:51,816
Rational discourse and respect for universal respect for individual
762
00:45:51,816 --> 00:45:54,996
life, liberty, and property is to the human enterprise.
763
00:45:55,813 --> 00:45:57,823
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766
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769
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786
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789
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794
00:47:23,993 --> 00:47:31,083
Yeah, and on that note, I mean what what happens is that when when you
795
00:47:31,083 --> 00:47:37,995
have this class of people that that are able to Coerce and use force
796
00:47:38,035 --> 00:47:40,325
to extract stuff from other people.
797
00:47:40,415 --> 00:47:46,595
Uh, that's why you get clown world because the race becomes to, to, you know,
798
00:47:46,815 --> 00:47:49,235
look good to these people so that you.
799
00:47:49,665 --> 00:47:52,345
They will pay you or they will hurt you less.
800
00:47:52,748 --> 00:47:59,778
and so, so I think, uh, what Bitcoin did, like, was, uh, just turn that
801
00:47:59,778 --> 00:48:03,138
upside down and, and like give property rights back to the people.
802
00:48:03,448 --> 00:48:06,518
So in that sense, I think Bitcoin is one divided by Clown World.
803
00:48:06,518 --> 00:48:09,968
It's the literal inverse of, of Clown World incentives.
804
00:48:10,688 --> 00:48:12,148
And I find that, that, yeah.
805
00:48:12,663 --> 00:48:13,843
That's my next equation.
806
00:48:13,843 --> 00:48:15,673
I need to put that somewhere.
807
00:48:15,863 --> 00:48:17,983
Bitcoin is one divided by Clown World.
808
00:48:18,333 --> 00:48:23,483
Um, so, so on, um, back to Rothbard and Hoppe because I love them so
809
00:48:23,483 --> 00:48:26,923
much, uh, and, and also, uh, Ayn Rand.
810
00:48:26,943 --> 00:48:30,473
But congrats on that beautiful little video clip you did from,
811
00:48:30,633 --> 00:48:33,603
from that section about money in the book, by the way, it was beautiful.
812
00:48:33,883 --> 00:48:36,103
Oh, I take no credit for that.
813
00:48:36,123 --> 00:48:38,353
My editor is a genius.
814
00:48:38,393 --> 00:48:38,733
I just
815
00:48:39,618 --> 00:48:40,528
Yes, he is.
816
00:48:40,623 --> 00:48:42,573
it to him and he makes it beautiful.
817
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,920
okay, okay, okay, anyway, uh, what was, uh, where was I going with this?
818
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:51,740
Yeah, uh, about ownership, uh, versus possession, because I think
819
00:48:51,740 --> 00:48:57,130
this is, uh, on the same line of, You know, argumentation and mockery,
820
00:48:57,130 --> 00:49:02,860
it's, it's adjacent, like ownership is like a legal, uh, relationship
821
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,480
with, with a, a thing, right?
822
00:49:05,750 --> 00:49:10,440
Because like, you can own a thing, but someone else may possess it, like
823
00:49:10,470 --> 00:49:16,890
the, the gold that is legally belongs to African countries in some central
824
00:49:16,900 --> 00:49:21,330
banks in the West, but the West refuses to give it back or whatever, like,
825
00:49:22,330 --> 00:49:25,853
but Bitcoin, What is owning a bitcoin?
826
00:49:25,903 --> 00:49:28,573
Like, can you even own a bitcoin?
827
00:49:28,653 --> 00:49:29,813
Can you possess it?
828
00:49:29,913 --> 00:49:31,893
Or is it just keeping a secret?
829
00:49:31,893 --> 00:49:36,553
Like, are we on an even deeper level of ownership than, than possession?
830
00:49:36,573 --> 00:49:40,203
Like, is this even, even more robust?
831
00:49:40,468 --> 00:49:44,348
Uh, like, what's, what's your thoughts on that?
832
00:49:44,428 --> 00:49:46,918
Because that's something that's been, you know, tickling my
833
00:49:46,918 --> 00:49:48,058
mind for a long time now.
834
00:49:48,718 --> 00:49:49,028
Yeah.
835
00:49:49,028 --> 00:49:50,818
It's very, very mysterious.
836
00:49:50,858 --> 00:49:54,958
Um, I think it was you, someone that coined.
837
00:49:55,798 --> 00:49:56,768
The whole phrase, right?
838
00:49:56,778 --> 00:50:01,386
Like to with Bitcoin owning and is now knowing, knowing and
839
00:50:01,716 --> 00:50:03,586
Yeah, yeah, knowing is owning.
840
00:50:04,086 --> 00:50:04,456
Yep.
841
00:50:05,701 --> 00:50:08,291
but again, I would credit Kinsella here.
842
00:50:08,771 --> 00:50:10,711
I used to think, Oh yeah, that totally makes sense.
843
00:50:10,711 --> 00:50:16,301
But he's like, well, actually you have to, you've got to, uh, decompose this
844
00:50:16,301 --> 00:50:21,861
terminology a little bit because ownership is actually a legal, a legally, um,
845
00:50:21,861 --> 00:50:25,571
enforceable claim on an asset, right?
846
00:50:25,571 --> 00:50:26,241
On a scarce.
847
00:50:27,261 --> 00:50:31,291
Uh, scarce asset, such that you can exclude others from its use.
848
00:50:32,181 --> 00:50:36,271
you could say ownership is like recourse to the legal apparatus of
849
00:50:36,271 --> 00:50:38,901
coercion to resolve a dispute, right?
850
00:50:38,901 --> 00:50:42,781
If someone steals your car, well, you might not be in possession
851
00:50:42,781 --> 00:50:46,151
of your car after they steal it, but you still own it, right?
852
00:50:46,151 --> 00:50:52,011
You have the title or whatever it may be, and so you can bring to bear force, right?
853
00:50:52,031 --> 00:50:53,871
Legally to get it back, right?
854
00:50:53,881 --> 00:50:55,991
They can pull the guy over and arrest him and...
855
00:50:56,576 --> 00:50:58,276
Take the car and give it back to you.
856
00:50:59,467 --> 00:51:03,667
And that's fundamentally different from possession, which in a strict sense
857
00:51:03,667 --> 00:51:06,407
is just physical custody, effectively.
858
00:51:07,401 --> 00:51:12,151
and so Bitcoin, what can you own Bitcoin?
859
00:51:12,711 --> 00:51:18,341
You know, I, I guess you, it sort of has a foot in both worlds in a
860
00:51:18,341 --> 00:51:22,251
way, because a judge could pass.
861
00:51:23,551 --> 00:51:25,041
A judge could make a judgment, right?
862
00:51:25,041 --> 00:51:28,891
And say, Hey, this Bitcoin belongs, this Bitcoin that's in possession
863
00:51:28,911 --> 00:51:32,731
of Robert belongs to Knut, right?
864
00:51:32,981 --> 00:51:35,131
Knut is the rightful owner of this Bitcoin.
865
00:51:35,161 --> 00:51:41,221
But if I'm in possession of the keys, um, that's, it's hard to enforce that, right?
866
00:51:41,221 --> 00:51:45,871
I can also have all this plausible deniability like, Oh, sorry, judge
867
00:51:45,871 --> 00:51:47,041
had the boating accident, right?
868
00:51:47,041 --> 00:51:48,401
You know, it's, it's all gone now.
869
00:51:49,971 --> 00:51:57,591
So I guess in a strict legal sense, you can own Bitcoin and that a legal
870
00:51:58,891 --> 00:52:05,121
apparatus can tell you, like, who is the rightful owner of a specific private key.
871
00:52:05,959 --> 00:52:09,499
I don't, again, I don't, I'm not saying that this is being done, but,
872
00:52:09,649 --> 00:52:12,869
um, it, it can be done, I guess.
873
00:52:13,309 --> 00:52:20,459
But to possess Bitcoin is something entirely different, right, to actually
874
00:52:20,549 --> 00:52:25,607
have the private key, and even then you don't really have, you don't, you
875
00:52:25,607 --> 00:52:31,567
don't physically custody a piece of material reality, right, you've got an
876
00:52:31,577 --> 00:52:37,467
alphanumeric string, you've just got, uh, information, right, which as you're
877
00:52:37,467 --> 00:52:40,587
saying is like something like keeping a secret, and yeah, it's a great point,
878
00:52:40,597 --> 00:52:45,292
it's not, it's If, if, if possession meant physical custody, then you never
879
00:52:45,292 --> 00:52:47,522
really physically custody Bitcoin.
880
00:52:47,542 --> 00:52:54,932
You're just guarding that secret, which allows you to unlock, the, the ability
881
00:52:54,932 --> 00:52:57,892
to spend from that UTXO set, right?
882
00:52:57,912 --> 00:53:01,612
So it's, it's different somehow.
883
00:53:02,021 --> 00:53:05,511
and I guess in that sense, it's kind of like just guarding a.
884
00:53:08,576 --> 00:53:09,066
Secret.
885
00:53:09,176 --> 00:53:11,236
I, I, yeah, I guess that's the best way to put it.
886
00:53:11,576 --> 00:53:13,086
And so no, can you own it?
887
00:53:13,436 --> 00:53:16,846
Yes, technically, but the ownership is largely unenforceable.
888
00:53:16,846 --> 00:53:17,946
I think in most cases.
889
00:53:18,936 --> 00:53:19,836
Can you possess it?
890
00:53:19,836 --> 00:53:22,686
Not really, because you can't physically possess the thing.
891
00:53:22,686 --> 00:53:24,046
It's just informational.
892
00:53:24,376 --> 00:53:25,746
So what can you do with it?
893
00:53:25,926 --> 00:53:31,186
Uh, you can keep your private key guarded and secret and use it to
894
00:53:31,186 --> 00:53:32,766
the extent that you can do that.
895
00:53:33,318 --> 00:53:35,348
Yeah, because I think we need a whole...
896
00:53:35,488 --> 00:53:42,618
A whole plethora of new laws around this, uh, if, if, or, or no laws at
897
00:53:42,618 --> 00:53:46,948
all, because like the, the, the current legal framework in different countries
898
00:53:46,948 --> 00:53:50,448
have different approaches to it, and they try to enforce like old words,
899
00:53:50,618 --> 00:53:52,928
world stuff onto this new thing.
900
00:53:53,508 --> 00:53:54,908
But, but, but.
901
00:53:55,308 --> 00:54:01,048
Even proving that someone is in possession of a Bitcoin is, is impossible.
902
00:54:01,108 --> 00:54:04,098
Because how do you prove that someone knows something?
903
00:54:04,688 --> 00:54:06,768
Like, uh, you can't.
904
00:54:06,828 --> 00:54:12,518
And, and like, uh, it's kind of vulgar that they, those, these chain anal
905
00:54:12,558 --> 00:54:14,618
companies that, that try to do that.
906
00:54:14,618 --> 00:54:19,758
And they try to set, you know, legal precedents for, uh, for this stuff.
907
00:54:20,058 --> 00:54:26,598
When, when it, you, you, not only can you not prove that someone is in possession
908
00:54:26,598 --> 00:54:32,478
of it, you cannot prove that someone else isn't like you can guess the key.
909
00:54:32,798 --> 00:54:35,958
I mean, it's the, the chances of you guessing the right
910
00:54:35,958 --> 00:54:37,508
key are astronomically small.
911
00:54:37,508 --> 00:54:40,908
And that's why, that's why we trust this thing to, to the extent that we
912
00:54:40,908 --> 00:54:47,039
do, but at the end of the day, there's no real way to prove that someone has.
913
00:54:47,154 --> 00:54:48,604
knowledge about something.
914
00:54:48,904 --> 00:54:52,974
And it's only when you put, when you put this like on a computer, on a
915
00:54:52,984 --> 00:54:57,234
hardware wallet, or, uh, you know, on a steel plate, then you turn it into
916
00:54:57,234 --> 00:55:00,804
a physical thing because then the letters are engraved in that thing.
917
00:55:01,374 --> 00:55:07,004
Uh, and then it becomes physical, but it doesn't have to be physical.
918
00:55:07,004 --> 00:55:11,609
And this is I find this so insanely fascinating because, like, you can think
919
00:55:11,609 --> 00:55:15,919
of all sorts of situations where this, where this becomes problematic, like
920
00:55:15,929 --> 00:55:20,849
if you have, um, if you fly with your 12 words, for instance, and you get
921
00:55:20,849 --> 00:55:24,429
stopped in the security check, what's stopping the security officer from
922
00:55:24,429 --> 00:55:27,469
just, you know, copying those words?
923
00:55:30,314 --> 00:55:36,554
Or, uh, which is a whole new, uh, there's a whole slew of new problems
924
00:55:36,554 --> 00:55:40,914
there that come with, come with this notion of, of, uh, keeping
925
00:55:40,914 --> 00:55:42,434
a secret or not keeping a secret.
926
00:55:42,434 --> 00:55:44,774
And, and, uh, the, the thing.
927
00:55:46,114 --> 00:55:50,954
The thing it does, it invokes responsibility in people, because once
928
00:55:50,954 --> 00:55:55,814
you dive down in this rabbit hole, you realize that you have to keep the
929
00:55:55,814 --> 00:56:02,664
secret, and you have to figure out for yourself what the best way for you of
930
00:56:02,664 --> 00:56:08,664
keeping the secret is, because there's no universal answer to how to keep a secret.
931
00:56:09,414 --> 00:56:15,814
And so, uh, yeah, there's so much to unpack there because now I'm ranting
932
00:56:15,814 --> 00:56:21,344
on here, I know, but if, if it's just keeping a secret, they're a part of you
933
00:56:22,104 --> 00:56:27,684
and that's, so, and how, how big a part of you is up to you because it's opt
934
00:56:27,684 --> 00:56:30,864
in, so you can, you can have a hundred percent of your wealth in Bitcoin,
935
00:56:31,174 --> 00:56:36,124
or you can have 1%, but how much you have in Bitcoin in comparison to how
936
00:56:36,124 --> 00:56:38,174
much you live in the, uh, clown world.
937
00:56:39,100 --> 00:56:43,070
you, you have a tool now where, where you can choose to opt out to
938
00:56:43,070 --> 00:56:47,300
a specific percentage of your being.
939
00:56:47,420 --> 00:56:52,270
Like this, 60% of me can never be coerced into anything.
940
00:56:52,540 --> 00:56:53,950
Like, I can, I can do that.
941
00:56:53,950 --> 00:56:56,140
Literally, I can say, uh, okay.
942
00:56:56,350 --> 00:57:00,940
I, I can put up with some coercion to just to, you know, have a police force and
943
00:57:01,510 --> 00:57:02,980
, you know, a fire brigade and whatnot.
944
00:57:03,430 --> 00:57:07,875
But, uh, I think I'm fine with just paying, uh, 15 percent taxes.
945
00:57:08,685 --> 00:57:09,775
I'll opt out of the rest.
946
00:57:09,785 --> 00:57:10,175
Thank you.
947
00:57:10,395 --> 00:57:11,585
And you can just do that.
948
00:57:12,235 --> 00:57:13,925
And that's true for everyone in the world.
949
00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:19,280
I find it so insanely fascinating and how the question becomes,
950
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,880
how, how far off into the future?
951
00:57:24,500 --> 00:57:27,750
I mean, how long will it take before everyone realizes that
952
00:57:27,750 --> 00:57:29,570
this is, this is already true?
953
00:57:30,344 --> 00:57:32,964
Well, that's a great question.
954
00:57:32,984 --> 00:57:39,304
Um, you know, I think always answering questions about timing is very important.
955
00:57:40,549 --> 00:57:45,339
I'm sorry, very difficult, obviously very important, but very, very difficult to
956
00:57:45,389 --> 00:57:47,429
say when something is going to happen.
957
00:57:48,584 --> 00:57:49,804
Yeah, it's a stupid question.
958
00:57:49,804 --> 00:57:50,104
I know.
959
00:57:50,104 --> 00:57:50,704
I mean,
960
00:57:51,224 --> 00:57:52,234
That's not stupid.
961
00:57:52,314 --> 00:57:53,164
It's very important.
962
00:57:53,234 --> 00:57:53,424
All right.
963
00:57:53,424 --> 00:57:55,914
It's like, well, when would be very useful to know, but I
964
00:57:55,914 --> 00:57:59,614
think it's equally, incredibly difficult to answer that question.
965
00:58:00,334 --> 00:58:05,284
So, uh, a couple of things, just to like things you said there, right?
966
00:58:05,284 --> 00:58:09,684
It's astronomically difficult to guess someone's private key.
967
00:58:10,674 --> 00:58:14,614
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think the right term might even be
968
00:58:14,614 --> 00:58:18,034
it's, it's like beyond astronomically.
969
00:58:18,569 --> 00:58:21,149
Small the chances of actually guessing someone's private key.
970
00:58:22,244 --> 00:58:23,974
it's like the more, what is it?
971
00:58:24,004 --> 00:58:27,994
The chances like if you made a guess every second, you would need longer
972
00:58:27,994 --> 00:58:30,024
than the life of the universe, right?
973
00:58:30,054 --> 00:58:31,624
To guess someone's private key.
974
00:58:31,624 --> 00:58:32,394
So it's actually
975
00:58:32,789 --> 00:58:33,489
on average.
976
00:58:34,324 --> 00:58:34,944
small.
977
00:58:35,439 --> 00:58:36,119
Yeah.
978
00:58:37,309 --> 00:58:41,359
Yeah, so, so infinitesimal that we obviously trust it as if it's
979
00:58:41,359 --> 00:58:44,779
not even possible, effectively, to guess someone's private key.
980
00:58:45,522 --> 00:58:50,532
and then the other like aspect I would introduce is it sounds
981
00:58:50,532 --> 00:58:53,692
like, especially people that don't understand Bitcoin, like, oh my
982
00:58:53,692 --> 00:58:55,312
God, that's a lot of responsibility.
983
00:58:55,312 --> 00:58:56,232
That's scary.
984
00:58:56,232 --> 00:58:58,002
I'm going to carry this secret in my head.
985
00:58:58,002 --> 00:59:02,072
And like, what if I get knocked out or if I get amnesia or someone
986
00:59:02,082 --> 00:59:03,502
tortures me to get the key?
987
00:59:03,502 --> 00:59:04,652
You know, all of these things.
988
00:59:05,732 --> 00:59:07,022
It's not a binary, right?
989
00:59:07,022 --> 00:59:07,422
It's not.
990
00:59:07,662 --> 00:59:11,192
You either trust someone else with your private key, or you hold your
991
00:59:11,192 --> 00:59:12,712
private key between your ears.
992
00:59:12,972 --> 00:59:15,812
There's all these other possible custody schemas.
993
00:59:16,642 --> 00:59:21,572
Um, you know, I think multi key or multi sig is obviously very important here.
994
00:59:21,602 --> 00:59:26,622
You can take that secret, chop it into pieces, into mini secrets, if you will,
995
00:59:26,652 --> 00:59:31,292
and distribute that among different people inside of your circle of trust.
996
00:59:32,142 --> 00:59:35,972
And then you need a certain quorum of those mini secrets to unlock.
997
00:59:36,297 --> 00:59:38,217
Spending ability, right?
998
00:59:38,217 --> 00:59:39,727
A 3 of 5, etc.
999
00:59:39,727 --> 00:59:41,617
So there's ways to like de risk it.
1000
00:59:42,229 --> 00:59:46,669
you know, even take, even ratcheting down the responsibility to some degree that
1001
00:59:46,669 --> 00:59:50,939
you'd still have a lot of responsibility to keep up with 1 of 5, but if you
1002
00:59:50,939 --> 00:59:52,679
lose it, it's not the end of the world.
1003
00:59:52,699 --> 00:59:56,529
Whereas if it's a 1 of 1, well, it is the end of that world, at
1004
00:59:56,529 --> 00:59:58,339
least if you lose your private key.
1005
00:59:59,035 --> 01:00:01,075
And also that gives you some resistance against just the
1006
01:00:01,075 --> 01:00:03,445
whole, against coercion, right?
1007
01:00:03,445 --> 01:00:07,405
Against 5 wrenches or the guy stopping you in the airport, you know, trying to
1008
01:00:07,415 --> 01:00:09,965
copy your, your seed phrase or whatever.
1009
01:00:10,485 --> 01:00:13,445
You're not subject to a single point of failure.
1010
01:00:14,185 --> 01:00:16,735
So I always think that's a very important point when we talk about
1011
01:00:16,745 --> 01:00:21,825
these topics because people get scared when they hear, What do you mean?
1012
01:00:22,285 --> 01:00:24,685
I have to memorize my whole life's worth and if I forget
1013
01:00:24,685 --> 01:00:27,515
or mess up, I'm, it's over?
1014
01:00:27,555 --> 01:00:29,965
And so, important.
1015
01:00:30,155 --> 01:00:33,275
can have all, all sorts of solutions at the same time.
1016
01:00:33,275 --> 01:00:37,845
You can have a multi sig, you can have a single sig hardware wallet and a custodial
1017
01:00:37,845 --> 01:00:42,235
phone wallet for different, different solutions for different purposes, right?
1018
01:00:42,765 --> 01:00:46,695
So, uh, yeah, and I, I think that we need to educate people more
1019
01:00:46,695 --> 01:00:48,775
about that, that aspect of it, that.
1020
01:00:49,385 --> 01:00:54,565
Bitcoin can be extremely simple to use, but then they're somewhat at
1021
01:00:54,565 --> 01:01:02,245
risk, and they can be hard, it can be hard to set up a really, you know,
1022
01:01:02,835 --> 01:01:09,425
theft proof solution, but On the other hand, they're, they're probably, they
1023
01:01:09,425 --> 01:01:11,225
will probably there be there forever.
1024
01:01:12,033 --> 01:01:16,063
Yeah, so it's like, you know, you put a few dollars in your pocket to go out
1025
01:01:16,063 --> 01:01:20,593
at night, you know, that might be your equivalent to your hot wallet, right?
1026
01:01:20,603 --> 01:01:23,093
You might have a few more, if you're traveling, you might have
1027
01:01:23,093 --> 01:01:27,093
a few more dollars hidden inside your suitcase somewhere, right?
1028
01:01:27,093 --> 01:01:30,673
This is kind of like your, uh, little account you'll draw from as you're
1029
01:01:30,673 --> 01:01:34,173
traveling, you'll swap US dollars for local currency or whatever it may be,
1030
01:01:34,773 --> 01:01:39,928
that's kind of like, uh, Maybe like a non custodial wallet, something like that.
1031
01:01:40,718 --> 01:01:45,378
And then, you know, you're the vast majority of your wealth for most
1032
01:01:45,428 --> 01:01:50,368
people, anyone that has, uh, any amount of wealth, you know, like well over
1033
01:01:50,368 --> 01:01:56,208
90%, you'd probably keep in a deep cold storage multi sig device, right?
1034
01:01:56,208 --> 01:02:01,328
And that would be equivalent to, I don't know, uh, A bank account for most people,
1035
01:02:01,328 --> 01:02:04,508
which is not actually a good solution because there's counterparty risk there,
1036
01:02:05,168 --> 01:02:09,088
uh, might be equivalent to gold in a vault or gold buried in the ground for others.
1037
01:02:10,078 --> 01:02:14,208
But yeah, it's just to reinforce your point, it, it, you don't
1038
01:02:14,208 --> 01:02:15,628
need one solution, right?
1039
01:02:15,888 --> 01:02:18,888
You can have different solutions for different use cases and you can
1040
01:02:19,548 --> 01:02:21,888
rebalance and reallocate as needed.
1041
01:02:22,816 --> 01:02:24,636
your earlier question, though, like when...
1042
01:02:25,841 --> 01:02:31,551
When the people realize this, um, you've probably heard me say this
1043
01:02:31,561 --> 01:02:35,691
before, cause I say it all the time, but I just don't think most people move
1044
01:02:35,721 --> 01:02:39,121
until they feel sufficient pain, right?
1045
01:02:40,541 --> 01:02:44,941
There's not a lot of nerds in the world that want to sit here and spend all
1046
01:02:44,941 --> 01:02:50,001
this time going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole that are curious enough, that are
1047
01:02:50,021 --> 01:02:56,270
intelligent enough, patient enough, To, to really try and learn all these lessons,
1048
01:02:56,270 --> 01:03:00,000
right, or try to understand computer science and economics and incentives
1049
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:06,330
and, you know, all the different, uh, disciplines that Bitcoin touches or that
1050
01:03:06,330 --> 01:03:10,210
you touch going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, I don't think a lot of people have
1051
01:03:10,250 --> 01:03:12,655
the patience or wherewithal to pursue.
1052
01:03:12,995 --> 01:03:17,785
Go into that to, to get the Bitcoin, Bitcoin, orange pill epiphany.
1053
01:03:18,855 --> 01:03:26,125
But what most people do have is a tacit experience of pain, right?
1054
01:03:26,125 --> 01:03:30,225
Like if their bank account is frozen or they can't get their capital out
1055
01:03:30,225 --> 01:03:36,515
of a country or their currency is hyperinflating or they're a rich guy and.
1056
01:03:37,110 --> 01:03:41,180
You know, living in Russia and Putin's going to seize their company or seize
1057
01:03:41,180 --> 01:03:46,550
their yacht or otherwise redistribute their wealth forcibly, well, that starts
1058
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:51,130
to really give people the light bulb moments like, Oh shit, okay, my stuff
1059
01:03:51,140 --> 01:03:55,170
is getting taken or my currency is failing or whatever situation I'm being
1060
01:03:55,170 --> 01:03:58,940
subjected to under this duress, right?
1061
01:03:58,940 --> 01:04:03,980
This actual pain, painful experience I'm living through kind of forces people
1062
01:04:03,980 --> 01:04:05,680
to start evaluating their options.
1063
01:04:05,750 --> 01:04:07,170
And as we've.
1064
01:04:07,765 --> 01:04:15,275
Discussed and laid out, there seems to be only really one viable option for an asset
1065
01:04:15,315 --> 01:04:20,685
that cannot be forcibly taken from you, um, assuming you've custody it properly.
1066
01:04:20,695 --> 01:04:24,615
So, I think, unfortunately, we have to go through more pain.
1067
01:04:24,625 --> 01:04:28,355
We have to go through more hyperinflations, more forced
1068
01:04:28,365 --> 01:04:34,554
asset seizures, more statism, before we see Bitcoin really
1069
01:04:34,554 --> 01:04:36,394
start to shine in the eyes of.
1070
01:04:37,184 --> 01:04:37,874
the majority
1071
01:04:38,426 --> 01:04:42,056
just to play the devil's advocate here for a while, um, if I were to make a
1072
01:04:42,056 --> 01:04:46,776
counter argument to that, that would be places like Lebanon or Argentina
1073
01:04:46,776 --> 01:04:51,156
or Zimbabwe, where Venezuela, where hyperinflation is a real thing.
1074
01:04:51,696 --> 01:04:59,451
I mean, Bitcoin adoption exists there, but it's not big, like, uh, so, and
1075
01:04:59,451 --> 01:05:03,521
that might be because these countries started to hyperinflate way before
1076
01:05:03,801 --> 01:05:05,581
people knew about Bitcoin at all.
1077
01:05:06,479 --> 01:05:13,299
Can we, can we trust that pain will turn people into hyperbitcoinization mode?
1078
01:05:13,379 --> 01:05:17,989
Like it's, it's hard to formulate this question, but
1079
01:05:18,129 --> 01:05:19,809
just curious about your thoughts.
1080
01:05:20,093 --> 01:05:24,733
Well, I mean, the other thing is we have to keep in mind where we are in
1081
01:05:24,733 --> 01:05:28,203
Bitcoin's monetization process, right?
1082
01:05:28,253 --> 01:05:28,483
Like
1083
01:05:29,795 --> 01:05:33,325
Bitcoin will not be purchasing power stable in the short
1084
01:05:33,325 --> 01:05:35,935
run for a long time, right?
1085
01:05:35,935 --> 01:05:39,925
It's just, just too small of a market cap at this point.
1086
01:05:40,535 --> 01:05:44,955
Maybe when it's in the tens of trillions of dollars in market cap, it's, it's short
1087
01:05:44,955 --> 01:05:47,405
term purchasing power will be more stable.
1088
01:05:48,115 --> 01:05:49,605
And that really tends to be what.
1089
01:05:49,900 --> 01:05:53,890
People are looking for, particularly in hyperinflations, right, they want
1090
01:05:53,890 --> 01:05:58,190
to get out of the purchasing power unstable currency, the currency that's
1091
01:05:58,330 --> 01:06:01,820
plummeting in purchasing power day over day, week over week, and they
1092
01:06:01,820 --> 01:06:02,585
want to get into a week over week.
1093
01:06:02,915 --> 01:06:07,935
Short term purchasing power stable currency that tends to be the U.
1094
01:06:07,935 --> 01:06:08,065
S.
1095
01:06:08,065 --> 01:06:08,835
dollar, right?
1096
01:06:08,835 --> 01:06:11,555
When Zimbabwe hyperinflates, people want to get into dollars.
1097
01:06:12,005 --> 01:06:17,455
So the pain, I'm not saying it's like you feel the pain once and then all of
1098
01:06:17,455 --> 01:06:20,285
a sudden you're like orange pilled and you're all in on Bitcoin, but if you
1099
01:06:20,285 --> 01:06:25,215
could imagine going further into the future, sure, currencies that hyperinflate
1100
01:06:25,215 --> 01:06:27,275
today, maybe they want to dollarize.
1101
01:06:28,135 --> 01:06:31,535
Um, and I would expect this to, this pattern to continue to play out,
1102
01:06:31,535 --> 01:06:36,815
actually, as weaker currencies fail, you would see more of these economies or
1103
01:06:36,815 --> 01:06:40,295
individuals in those economies looking to move their savings into dollars,
1104
01:06:41,035 --> 01:06:46,125
um, just, again, as a means of gaining short term purchasing power stability.
1105
01:06:46,965 --> 01:06:48,105
But what happens when the U.
1106
01:06:48,105 --> 01:06:48,375
S.
1107
01:06:48,375 --> 01:06:52,515
dollar, which is also being counterfeited rampantly, you know, I
1108
01:06:52,545 --> 01:06:54,345
think we've increased the supply of U.
1109
01:06:54,345 --> 01:06:54,455
S.
1110
01:06:54,455 --> 01:06:54,855
dollars.
1111
01:06:55,275 --> 01:07:00,305
To the tune of 50 percent or more in the past three years, I, I, the
1112
01:07:00,305 --> 01:07:03,825
number 50 to 60%, I think of the numbers that I've heard over the past
1113
01:07:03,930 --> 01:07:10,840
The best, the best number I've seen there is in 2021, 21 million
1114
01:07:11,210 --> 01:07:12,980
were printed per Bitcoin mined.
1115
01:07:13,965 --> 01:07:19,695
So 7 trillion, like, uh, divided by the number of bitcoins printed.
1116
01:07:19,735 --> 01:07:20,105
Right.
1117
01:07:20,175 --> 01:07:22,075
And so that was in one year.
1118
01:07:22,355 --> 01:07:23,605
And that was when the U.
1119
01:07:23,605 --> 01:07:23,845
S.
1120
01:07:25,230 --> 01:07:30,630
What M2 is probably in the neighborhood of, I don't know, 15 to 18, 20
1121
01:07:31,460 --> 01:07:32,770
trillion, something like that.
1122
01:07:32,770 --> 01:07:34,530
I'm actually not sure, but
1123
01:07:35,125 --> 01:07:36,815
7 trillion were printed.
1124
01:07:36,845 --> 01:07:41,005
I mean, it's kind of hard to define because M2 and M1, they're
1125
01:07:41,005 --> 01:07:43,085
sort of diffuse terms, right?
1126
01:07:43,245 --> 01:07:45,795
It's not the money in circulation, really.
1127
01:07:46,295 --> 01:07:48,695
So it's kind of hard to describe it.
1128
01:07:49,116 --> 01:07:55,326
what I wanted to get at is, is that it's a, call it a 50 percent increase
1129
01:07:55,376 --> 01:07:57,811
in the money supply, whatever your.
1130
01:07:58,011 --> 01:08:01,251
Gauge you're using and someone can check my math, but I think roughly over the
1131
01:08:01,251 --> 01:08:02,771
past three years, we've expanded U.
1132
01:08:02,771 --> 01:08:02,891
S.
1133
01:08:02,891 --> 01:08:06,471
dollar supply 50%, 5 0 or more.
1134
01:08:07,341 --> 01:08:12,011
So, all these other countries that are dollarizing and um, you know,
1135
01:08:12,011 --> 01:08:14,371
people would say, oh, this bullish dollar, this dollar is going to
1136
01:08:14,371 --> 01:08:15,631
last forever, blah, blah, blah.
1137
01:08:15,631 --> 01:08:16,321
It's like, okay.
1138
01:08:16,861 --> 01:08:17,851
Well, what is the U.
1139
01:08:17,851 --> 01:08:17,961
S.
1140
01:08:17,961 --> 01:08:18,401
dollar?
1141
01:08:19,121 --> 01:08:19,291
U.
1142
01:08:19,291 --> 01:08:19,411
S.
1143
01:08:19,411 --> 01:08:22,181
dollar is just the best of the worst, right?
1144
01:08:22,181 --> 01:08:24,521
It's just another fiat currency that weaker fiat
1145
01:08:24,741 --> 01:08:26,311
currencies are collapsing into.
1146
01:08:27,001 --> 01:08:31,061
So what happens, and when you study the nature of fiat currencies, I think
1147
01:08:31,061 --> 01:08:35,381
you'll quickly determine that they really only head one direction, right?
1148
01:08:36,041 --> 01:08:38,801
There are massive incentives to counterfeit them into
1149
01:08:38,861 --> 01:08:40,211
worthlessness over time.
1150
01:08:40,871 --> 01:08:43,021
So the big question becomes what happens when...
1151
01:08:44,196 --> 01:08:46,296
Major currencies or even the U.
1152
01:08:46,296 --> 01:08:46,476
S.
1153
01:08:46,476 --> 01:08:48,346
dollar start to hyperinflate.
1154
01:08:48,726 --> 01:08:50,136
Where do people run then?
1155
01:08:50,146 --> 01:08:51,666
You can't dollarize out of a U.
1156
01:08:51,666 --> 01:08:51,836
S.
1157
01:08:51,856 --> 01:08:54,726
dollar denominated hyperinflation.
1158
01:08:55,166 --> 01:08:56,246
So what do you do then?
1159
01:08:57,051 --> 01:09:00,981
that's where I think the pain, the real pain that's going to wake
1160
01:09:00,981 --> 01:09:03,401
people up uh, is going to come.
1161
01:09:03,401 --> 01:09:09,381
And a lot of people will say, You know, uh, Santiago capital, Brett Johnson.
1162
01:09:10,321 --> 01:09:12,261
He will just tell you this never going to happen.
1163
01:09:12,261 --> 01:09:14,061
The U S dollar is going to last forever.
1164
01:09:14,071 --> 01:09:16,591
We're just such a bad ass imperialist country.
1165
01:09:16,591 --> 01:09:20,371
There's no way we'll ever let the dollar fall and blah, blah, blah.
1166
01:09:21,061 --> 01:09:22,791
Um, I just don't buy it.
1167
01:09:23,011 --> 01:09:24,131
I just simply don't buy it.
1168
01:09:24,131 --> 01:09:25,861
I think human beings follow incentives.
1169
01:09:26,191 --> 01:09:31,391
The incentives of having a U S dollar fiat currency as a central
1170
01:09:31,401 --> 01:09:35,281
bank is to just keep producing it and using it to extract wealth.
1171
01:09:36,151 --> 01:09:40,391
Um, that ultimately leads to the debasement of the currency and
1172
01:09:40,391 --> 01:09:43,891
eventually hyper debasement or hyper inflation of the currency.
1173
01:09:44,711 --> 01:09:48,801
And I think there's also major incentives for foreign counterparties
1174
01:09:48,841 --> 01:09:50,461
to dump dollars over time.
1175
01:09:50,501 --> 01:09:53,631
And we already see the BRICS countries, right?
1176
01:09:53,781 --> 01:09:57,270
Uh, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
1177
01:09:57,496 --> 01:10:01,826
talking about launching a currency that's orthogonal to the U S dollar, right.
1178
01:10:01,826 --> 01:10:04,606
And, and commodity based and all of these things.
1179
01:10:04,976 --> 01:10:10,206
So we've already moved from this kind of unipolar dollar world to much more of
1180
01:10:10,206 --> 01:10:13,276
a multipolar world with especially the.
1181
01:10:13,566 --> 01:10:18,876
The beginning of the Russia Ukraine conflict, I would expect that to continue.
1182
01:10:19,516 --> 01:10:22,416
All of that results in diminishing demand for the U.
1183
01:10:22,416 --> 01:10:22,546
S.
1184
01:10:22,546 --> 01:10:25,166
dollar, which is going to mean more dollar printing.
1185
01:10:25,756 --> 01:10:28,916
and I, you know, I think we see U.
1186
01:10:28,916 --> 01:10:29,026
S.
1187
01:10:29,026 --> 01:10:30,096
dollar hyperinflation.
1188
01:10:30,146 --> 01:10:34,836
Now, again, timing, very scary to talk about here, but I already put out a
1189
01:10:34,836 --> 01:10:36,946
public prediction, so I'll stick with it.
1190
01:10:37,636 --> 01:10:42,136
I think by the year 2035, we see the US dollar going into hyperinflation.
1191
01:10:43,456 --> 01:10:46,606
And so the big question for me is like, what then?
1192
01:10:46,786 --> 01:10:50,406
What, what do you dollarize into at that point, right?
1193
01:10:50,406 --> 01:10:54,336
There's, there's no, you've, you've used up all the options in
1194
01:10:54,336 --> 01:10:55,796
the fiat currency stack, right?
1195
01:10:55,796 --> 01:11:00,246
You've been scurrying up the liquidity hierarchy to the most liquid fiat currency
1196
01:11:00,246 --> 01:11:02,636
to escape your local hyperinflation.
1197
01:11:02,636 --> 01:11:06,736
Well, what happens when the point of escape becomes the point of failure?
1198
01:11:07,626 --> 01:11:08,696
Where do people go then?
1199
01:11:10,376 --> 01:11:12,816
Well, take the orange pill now or be forced to take the
1200
01:11:12,816 --> 01:11:14,346
orange suppository later.
1201
01:11:14,506 --> 01:11:14,706
That's
1202
01:11:15,336 --> 01:11:15,896
That's right.
1203
01:11:15,976 --> 01:11:19,656
Yeah, you could take the orange pill orally now, or it'll be forced
1204
01:11:19,656 --> 01:11:22,026
as a suppository later, perhaps.
1205
01:11:22,096 --> 01:11:22,836
exactly.
1206
01:11:23,041 --> 01:11:26,461
The show is also sponsored by, Orange Pill app, the Bitcoin social layer
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1208
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1209
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1210
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1211
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1212
01:11:43,441 --> 01:11:45,861
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1213
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1214
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1217
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1218
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1219
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1221
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taking self custody of your bitcoin.
1222
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1230
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1232
01:12:38,351 --> 01:12:40,561
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1233
01:12:41,162 --> 01:12:43,062
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1235
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1238
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1239
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1240
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1241
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1242
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1245
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okay, let's, let's, let's just a weird thought.
1246
01:13:17,097 --> 01:13:21,967
Uh, I love to try to extrapolate the thought vectors as far off into
1247
01:13:21,967 --> 01:13:23,867
the future as possible as you know.
1248
01:13:23,897 --> 01:13:28,917
So, so we talked a bit about volatility and.
1249
01:13:29,692 --> 01:13:33,032
In your mind, does Bitcoin ever become stable?
1250
01:13:33,142 --> 01:13:38,552
Because imagine a hyperbitcoinized world where everything is priced in Bitcoin
1251
01:13:38,552 --> 01:13:40,292
and all the fiat currencies have died.
1252
01:13:41,012 --> 01:13:45,012
And you have, I mean, we're, us three dorks here, we're like the
1253
01:13:45,012 --> 01:13:46,352
first generation of Bitcoiners.
1254
01:13:47,512 --> 01:13:52,452
And people like us are going to lose a lot of Bitcoin along the way.
1255
01:13:52,472 --> 01:13:54,832
We're not going to be able to like...
1256
01:13:56,102 --> 01:14:01,402
Store them properly and so, so, so I think people are underestimating the SAT squeeze
1257
01:14:01,432 --> 01:14:06,432
because of just people losing their keys here in their boating accidents and so on.
1258
01:14:07,292 --> 01:14:12,602
So, so if that is the case and you get into this global sound money free
1259
01:14:12,602 --> 01:14:16,542
market with increased productivity everywhere and purchasing power go
1260
01:14:16,542 --> 01:14:23,372
up, like there's a point where like technology is adopted in an S curve, but.
1261
01:14:23,992 --> 01:14:27,862
I don't really ever see the top of this in necessarily in Bitcoin,
1262
01:14:27,872 --> 01:14:31,452
because what would be the top like when all the people are on board?
1263
01:14:31,522 --> 01:14:32,922
Well, there's still more money.
1264
01:14:33,312 --> 01:14:36,902
Well, when all the money is on board, well, there's still more productivity.
1265
01:14:37,312 --> 01:14:38,522
Like, does it ever end?
1266
01:14:38,552 --> 01:14:44,682
And combine that with more and more bitcoins lost, like, This thing is, you
1267
01:14:44,682 --> 01:14:50,972
know, it's the forever Laura thing, but the, the, the, the weirdness of the, the
1268
01:14:50,972 --> 01:14:53,702
rate of forever Laura ness, if you will.
1269
01:14:54,532 --> 01:14:56,512
Well, what, what are your thoughts on that?
1270
01:14:57,014 --> 01:14:58,234
Oh, man, this is great.
1271
01:14:58,734 --> 01:15:03,204
This is the infinity divided by 21 million, right?
1272
01:15:03,284 --> 01:15:05,114
It's like, where, where's the top?
1273
01:15:05,284 --> 01:15:07,314
Well, we just call it infinity, right?
1274
01:15:08,144 --> 01:15:08,744
So...
1275
01:15:09,444 --> 01:15:15,064
It's very interesting to me because what you have, you know, assuming the Bitcoin
1276
01:15:15,074 --> 01:15:23,314
thesis plays out is you have a guaranteed fraction, like to whatever degree money
1277
01:15:23,314 --> 01:15:30,504
is being demanded as, uh, to be held as savings, as cash balances, right?
1278
01:15:30,504 --> 01:15:36,044
It's going to be a reflection of the capital that's
1279
01:15:36,044 --> 01:15:37,734
available in the marketplace.
1280
01:15:38,982 --> 01:15:43,092
That capital is a reflection of how productive we actually are.
1281
01:15:43,982 --> 01:15:49,082
And, um, I actually just listened this morning to, uh, Guy Swan
1282
01:15:49,082 --> 01:15:52,922
read Alan Farrington's piece on the killer app of Bitcoin being.
1283
01:15:53,287 --> 01:15:55,287
It properly pricing capital.
1284
01:15:56,077 --> 01:15:57,757
And I thought that was really interesting.
1285
01:15:58,397 --> 01:16:02,747
Um, so Bitcoin is going to improve productivity a number of ways.
1286
01:16:02,757 --> 01:16:08,767
One, and this would be Hoppe's point in a theory of socialism and capitalism.
1287
01:16:09,947 --> 01:16:15,847
The degree to which private property is made less viable, which is to
1288
01:16:15,847 --> 01:16:20,557
say that theft is more expensive, difficult, or risky is the same degree
1289
01:16:20,557 --> 01:16:25,477
to which we are incentivizing people to produce rather than steal, right?
1290
01:16:25,487 --> 01:16:25,897
It's like.
1291
01:16:26,232 --> 01:16:30,442
There's two roads to wealth acquisition, I can make it or I can take it,
1292
01:16:31,142 --> 01:16:34,472
and if taking is very difficult, if stealing is very difficult, well
1293
01:16:34,472 --> 01:16:37,902
then I'm left with only the other option, which is making, right?
1294
01:16:38,602 --> 01:16:42,502
Creating things of value, trading with other people, consensually, etc.
1295
01:16:42,972 --> 01:16:45,912
We've already talked about how Bitcoin sort of tilts the scales
1296
01:16:45,912 --> 01:16:50,582
away from making and towards, away from taking and towards making, and
1297
01:16:50,582 --> 01:16:52,902
that because it's expensive to steal.
1298
01:16:53,752 --> 01:16:56,492
And if you start stealing people's stuff, right, if you start stealing my
1299
01:16:56,492 --> 01:16:59,352
yachts and houses and whatever, well then maybe I'll just start selling
1300
01:16:59,352 --> 01:17:03,092
everything else and putting it into Bitcoin and moving elsewhere where
1301
01:17:03,102 --> 01:17:06,512
the government doesn't steal my stuff or have stronger property rights.
1302
01:17:07,012 --> 01:17:12,442
So you get this self organizing dynamic in the world where people are going to be...
1303
01:17:12,652 --> 01:17:17,802
More likely to engage in consensual trade, long term trading relationships,
1304
01:17:18,492 --> 01:17:21,102
making in general, and less so in taking.
1305
01:17:22,652 --> 01:17:28,892
Now, Alan's point in his paper was interesting too, that we have a really
1306
01:17:28,892 --> 01:17:34,242
hard time pricing capital appropriately under the current fiat paradigm.
1307
01:17:34,512 --> 01:17:38,252
Um, and when you start to price...
1308
01:17:38,627 --> 01:17:42,517
Capital appropriately, you actually increase productivity that people
1309
01:17:42,517 --> 01:17:47,217
are actually able to figure out, you know, through a, a sound and
1310
01:17:47,217 --> 01:17:52,867
reliable price signal or profit signal, which uses of capital are
1311
01:17:52,867 --> 01:17:55,537
satisfying the most human wants, right?
1312
01:17:55,637 --> 01:18:00,147
You get a very clear signal about where that capital needs to go, whereas
1313
01:18:00,147 --> 01:18:05,467
in a fiat paradigm, you have more of this short termism, um, Just trying
1314
01:18:05,467 --> 01:18:08,907
to generate the quarterly profit, you know, long term results be damned.
1315
01:18:09,607 --> 01:18:13,387
So I think Bitcoin, you know, again, I only listened to this once today and I
1316
01:18:13,387 --> 01:18:19,907
can't expand upon it super intelligently, but to the extent that Bitcoin allows
1317
01:18:19,947 --> 01:18:24,647
the proper pricing of capital, I think it also increases human productivity.
1318
01:18:25,297 --> 01:18:30,587
And so all these expansions that Bitcoin's providing via its incentive system, To
1319
01:18:30,587 --> 01:18:35,377
human productivity are, interestingly enough, also accretive to the purchasing
1320
01:18:35,377 --> 01:18:38,467
power that Bitcoin represents over time.
1321
01:18:38,987 --> 01:18:43,687
So it's like, uh, you know, the, the Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail.
1322
01:18:44,137 --> 01:18:45,637
This is like the inverse of that, right?
1323
01:18:45,637 --> 01:18:47,977
It's like the snake feeding its own mouth or something.
1324
01:18:47,977 --> 01:18:50,367
You know, Bitcoin's actually creating more human productivity
1325
01:18:50,367 --> 01:18:51,367
through these incentives.
1326
01:18:51,862 --> 01:18:55,582
And then just fattening the snake and the purchasing power that Bitcoin itself
1327
01:18:55,582 --> 01:18:57,552
is a reflection of as it monetizes.
1328
01:18:58,422 --> 01:19:00,102
So what is the top of that?
1329
01:19:00,102 --> 01:19:02,172
I mean, how can any of us possibly know?
1330
01:19:02,192 --> 01:19:05,922
It's like asking what is the pinnacle of human development, right?
1331
01:19:05,922 --> 01:19:08,342
What is, what's the final stage of human evolution?
1332
01:19:08,342 --> 01:19:09,452
How far are we going to get?
1333
01:19:09,472 --> 01:19:10,672
Are we going to the stars?
1334
01:19:10,672 --> 01:19:11,952
Are we going to other dimensions?
1335
01:19:12,747 --> 01:19:14,677
Where does human ingenuity hit a ceiling?
1336
01:19:14,747 --> 01:19:16,807
You know, it's like the equivalent question.
1337
01:19:16,907 --> 01:19:21,757
So I, I really have no, no clue, but it is certainly fun to think about.
1338
01:19:21,757 --> 01:19:26,137
And if you, and if you frame it that way, it's like, okay, to hold,
1339
01:19:26,147 --> 01:19:27,997
this is why Bitcoin is legacy.
1340
01:19:28,447 --> 01:19:29,677
I don't want to say it's wealth, right?
1341
01:19:29,677 --> 01:19:32,677
Money is not wealth necessarily, but it's, it's legacy.
1342
01:19:33,162 --> 01:19:41,612
Purchasing power preservation, because you hold a, a basically a claim on all
1343
01:19:41,622 --> 01:19:47,002
the successful entrepreneurial enterprises that have occurred and will ever occur
1344
01:19:47,412 --> 01:19:49,352
in human history for the rest of time.
1345
01:19:50,812 --> 01:19:54,887
And you can own, you know, one, one 21 millionth of that, or 10 21
1346
01:19:54,887 --> 01:19:58,152
millionths of that, or 121 millionths of that, whatever fraction you want.
1347
01:19:58,192 --> 01:20:00,782
And to your earlier point, obviously the.
1348
01:20:02,157 --> 01:20:04,297
The denominator is decreasing, right?
1349
01:20:04,297 --> 01:20:05,347
It's not 21 million.
1350
01:20:05,367 --> 01:20:06,657
What, how many coins are there really?
1351
01:20:06,657 --> 01:20:08,287
17, 15, whatever.
1352
01:20:08,937 --> 01:20:14,827
Um, so that's very, like, it's a very powerful framing for just how
1353
01:20:14,837 --> 01:20:17,457
legacy altering Bitcoin can be.
1354
01:20:18,852 --> 01:20:21,092
Everything there is and everything there ever will be
1355
01:20:21,092 --> 01:20:23,407
divided by That was, well, well,
1356
01:20:23,867 --> 01:20:24,767
At most, 21
1357
01:20:24,807 --> 01:20:25,547
21 million.
1358
01:20:27,197 --> 01:20:27,577
Yeah.
1359
01:20:28,248 --> 01:20:31,238
Rob, I absolutely love the conversations we have.
1360
01:20:31,268 --> 01:20:35,028
And I, I, uh, sincerely hope that we get to do more of them, uh,
1361
01:20:35,498 --> 01:20:37,378
preferably in person, but also online.
1362
01:20:37,378 --> 01:20:40,108
I mean, we just need to keep this conversation going.
1363
01:20:40,108 --> 01:20:42,018
I think that's, that's the way forward.
1364
01:20:42,478 --> 01:20:44,358
So thanks very much for coming on.
1365
01:20:44,388 --> 01:20:48,398
Um, Luke, do you have any final questions for Rob before we round this out?
1366
01:20:49,338 --> 01:20:55,198
Uh, well, I, yeah, I was just going to say that, uh, the last, yeah, I don't
1367
01:20:55,198 --> 01:21:00,738
know, hour or so here, very bullish, uh, enjoying the energy, um, to,
1368
01:21:00,738 --> 01:21:03,668
to be honest, I don't have anything specific, uh, anything else would
1369
01:21:03,678 --> 01:21:08,928
be into a rabbit hole, but, uh, I've appreciated your, uh, your time and, uh,
1370
01:21:09,068 --> 01:21:13,108
take on this, uh, any final thoughts, anything else on your mind these days?
1371
01:21:13,588 --> 01:21:13,828
what
1372
01:21:17,278 --> 01:21:20,728
Rob, sincerely, you should have Luke on and, uh, on your show
1373
01:21:20,728 --> 01:21:22,198
and talk about maps of meaning.
1374
01:21:22,608 --> 01:21:23,898
That's, um, that's my
1375
01:21:23,928 --> 01:21:24,388
I would love
1376
01:21:24,558 --> 01:21:24,978
for the day.
1377
01:21:25,658 --> 01:21:26,658
Yeah, I would love to.
1378
01:21:26,698 --> 01:21:28,758
Um, I would definitely love to.
1379
01:21:28,768 --> 01:21:31,288
So please feel free to like email me.
1380
01:21:31,298 --> 01:21:33,808
What we usually do is a conversation outline beforehand.
1381
01:21:34,678 --> 01:21:38,168
And then I'll just go through that and we can get a time to talk on the books.
1382
01:21:38,718 --> 01:21:42,708
Um, and yeah, Knut, thank you for having me.
1383
01:21:42,878 --> 01:21:43,508
Um.
1384
01:21:43,968 --> 01:21:45,908
Always enjoy our conversations.
1385
01:21:46,611 --> 01:21:51,111
I, you know, this it's mind bending still to me that it's just this,
1386
01:21:51,741 --> 01:21:55,601
just this monetary innovation, which is, I never thought it would
1387
01:21:55,611 --> 01:22:00,091
be such a philosophical rabbit hole in so many different directions.
1388
01:22:00,121 --> 01:22:05,351
And, um, I don't know, sometimes I catch myself like the things I'm reading about
1389
01:22:05,351 --> 01:22:09,141
or thinking about, I'm like, how did this all, how did Bitcoin lead to all this?
1390
01:22:09,971 --> 01:22:10,211
Yeah.
1391
01:22:10,401 --> 01:22:16,366
uh, I feel very grateful, but um, also maybe even overwhelmed at times is how
1392
01:22:16,366 --> 01:22:21,633
many different directions, Bitcoin takes the mind and so always really like,
1393
01:22:21,733 --> 01:22:24,683
really like talking to you because it seems like you're on a similar path and.
1394
01:22:25,153 --> 01:22:26,833
We always have fun things to talk about.
1395
01:22:27,488 --> 01:22:27,758
Right.
1396
01:22:27,758 --> 01:22:29,468
By catch you and, yeah.
1397
01:22:29,498 --> 01:22:30,368
Came for the Lambo.
1398
01:22:30,368 --> 01:22:31,658
Stayed for Zen, I
1399
01:22:31,855 --> 01:22:32,108
guess.
1400
01:22:32,763 --> 01:22:33,573
exactly.
1401
01:22:34,423 --> 01:22:35,013
Exactly.
1402
01:22:36,843 --> 01:22:39,293
Yep, I think I think that's a perfect way to end it on.
1403
01:22:39,293 --> 01:22:42,743
So thanks again, Rob, for joining us on the Freedom Footprint show.
1404
01:22:43,633 --> 01:22:44,133
Thank you guys.
1405
01:22:45,325 --> 01:22:45,585
Yeah.
1406
01:22:45,585 --> 01:22:49,115
Like, subscribe and brush your teeth and click the little bell for notifications
1407
01:22:49,145 --> 01:22:50,605
and follow Rob's channel as well.
1408
01:22:52,055 --> 01:22:55,547
Actually, did you want to do an official where you want to, where do you want to
1409
01:22:55,557 --> 01:22:56,157
to find you.
1410
01:22:56,817 --> 01:22:59,637
Uh, yeah, I, I'm whatismoneypodcast.
1411
01:22:59,677 --> 01:23:05,057
com, uh, or Twitter's my biggest social platform at breedlove22.
1412
01:23:06,211 --> 01:23:06,711
Perfect.
1413
01:23:07,151 --> 01:23:07,841
Thanks again.
1414
01:23:08,081 --> 01:23:09,321
This has been the Freedom Footprint show.
1415
01:23:10,350 --> 01:23:12,180
So what did you think of that episode with Robert?
1416
01:23:12,810 --> 01:23:15,940
I really enjoyed digging into Maps of Meaning with him and his explanation
1417
01:23:15,940 --> 01:23:18,830
of Leela has sent that book right to the top of my reading list.
1418
01:23:19,640 --> 01:23:20,710
What was your favorite moment?
1419
01:23:20,990 --> 01:23:21,610
Let us know.
1420
01:23:22,050 --> 01:23:25,140
You can send us a boostogram on Fountain, leave us a comment on YouTube,
1421
01:23:25,150 --> 01:23:27,200
or get in touch on Nostr or Twitter.
1422
01:23:27,940 --> 01:23:30,060
If you're watching on YouTube don't forget to like the episode
1423
01:23:30,060 --> 01:23:31,150
and subscribe to the channel.
1424
01:23:31,680 --> 01:23:35,530
Our show's sponsors are Amber App, Wasabi Wallet, Orange Pill
1425
01:23:35,530 --> 01:23:37,850
App, The Bitcoin Way, and Geyser.
1426
01:23:38,550 --> 01:23:42,850
Check out their details in the That's all for now, see you next
1427
01:23:42,860 --> 01:23:44,710
time, and thanks for listening.




