Previewing BTC Prague 2024 with Martin Kuchař - FFS #98

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we really work hard to curate every single speaker, every single partner.

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we really love people and the energy and the positive vibe of having people around

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so we really think how people will Move how they will flow in the venue.

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is beer close enough?

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If not, let's put another beer stent there.

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You know?

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Praxe is in the middle of Europe.

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It's like easy to access from anywhere.

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It's really wonderful.

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. The beer is good.

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Summer is really nice.

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And that great Bitcoin history of Prague and our non giving shit policy in Czech

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Republic is unprecedented and it's, it's hard to describe it, but people really

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need, need to live it, I would say.

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Martin, welcome to the Freedom Footprint show.

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Thanks for joining us.

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Thank you for having me on your show, guys.

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It's an honor.

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Uh, it's an honor for us too, Martin.

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Uh, yeah, we last saw each other on Madeira, and you are, uh, one of,

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of the two brothers that are sort of the, the colonel of, uh, the Bitcoin

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Prague, BTC Prague conference.

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So, uh, but But that's not the TLDR, that's the, that's the TL, uh, that's

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the very short, what's, what's it, what's that description called, Luke?

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Uh,

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Uh, I don't know what you're getting at.

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Maybe, maybe get to the first

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no, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's get to the first question.

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So Martin, tell us a bit about yourself and, um, Uh, your, your backstory.

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Yeah, okay.

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Um, I would say that the story of my, of me being a Bitcoiner is more like

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straightforward and quite obvious and it's, It doesn't like stand out from the

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majority and the clouds, but, uh, crowds, but still, you know, I was introduced

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into Bitcoin from few friends of mine.

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And it was just a coincidence that like for, for few random people, not like

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really random people, but randomly told me about something like Bitcoin in one week.

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And, uh, as I was always like IT guy, I was interested in hardware, you

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know, and I tested a GPUs and CPUs and motherboard and stuff like this.

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So, um, I've.

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I got interested even from the technology perspective, so I said, okay, okay, I

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shall maybe do some research and after like a few days, my wife approached

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me in the evening, uh, with some Bitcoin too, so I said, okay, so, uh,

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both of us heard about something like Bitcoin, it's definitely something

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worth exploring, so we said that, okay, let's buy some, that's the only

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otter.

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ai Some, some small portion of it at the beginning of 2017, still before that, uh,

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that crazy, uh, spike, which we, which we saw at the end of the year and, and yeah,

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it got my attention like immediately.

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And of course, uh, there were like, that, that was the age of ICOs and a lot of

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shit coins, which we haven't heard since then anymore, but I thought that there's

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even something better than Bitcoin.

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So I did a lot of shit coins.

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I've, uh, Lost a lot of money.

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Then I mined a lot of shitcoins and I mined a bitcoin too.

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It was actually great because I hit it.

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And all my house from the waste heat.

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And I've, oh, and I've learned so much, so it was actually great.

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And then I earned some money on shit coining, but that

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was like nothing serious.

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I was basically just lucky one.

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And I, I fought for myself, Hey, why the hell I'm risking so much while the gains

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aren't like bigger while hodling it.

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Yeah.

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So I've realized that there's actually no like proper reason for it.

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So I've realized that the only thing I really need is Bitcoin and.

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Try to stack more.

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And it was like in the year of 2019 when I had discussions with my brother Matthias.

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He used to live in Bali back then.

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He had his business there.

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And he, just from another coincidence, was introduced into Bitcoin in the

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same age, uh, in the same year.

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So we realized that, okay, that that's really funny that we, two brothers

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living on opposite sides of the world, reached into the Bitcoin in year 2017.

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And we, both of us were thinking for ourselves, like, what

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can we do more in Bitcoin?

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Because We are not developers, not the tech guys, so before, like, what

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we really like and what we did for, uh, all our lives and it was basically

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that we organized events, you know, like, not really like early events,

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but more like parties for our friends.

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So, when we used to live together, there was always someone.

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Hanging with us at our place, having a good time, you know,

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or we were doing some parties in the clubs, et cetera, et cetera.

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So we thought for ourselves, like, okay, how about we do a Bitcoin conference

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or like bigger Bitcoin meetup?

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Because there was none of it in Czech Republic in 2019.

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And We did some research.

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We realized that the observation was actually valid.

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So we've created a brand, which is called Chaincamp.

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It's our check only, Bitcoin only conference, and we kicked it out.

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But then COVID appeared, you know, so we had to postpone it.

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And we were lucky that we picked one week during the autumn season of 2020.

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When the restrictions were down for some reason, you know, I still don't

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understand why, but we were lucky that we fit into the timeframe.

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So basically, as we were the only ones who organized anything back then,

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we got like huge traction, attracted 450 visitors on the first year of it.

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Doubled the number year after, still in the COVID, actually.

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Doubled it again in 2022, which reached, uh, which reached us to 2, 000 visitors,

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still on check only conference, basically.

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So considering, like, country of 10 million inhabitants,

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it's, uh, not, not really small.

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And somebody actually told us that, Hey guys, are you aware of the fact that

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you are the biggest, like, non English speaking conference in the world?

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And we said, oh, like, really?

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Okay.

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That's interesting.

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So, and we saw even some like demand from foreign speakers and from foreign

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partners, uh, who are interested into, to contribute into our conference somehow.

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So we thought, you know, like how to do it, because that would require us

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to move from, uh, Ostrava to Prague to switch from Czech language to the

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English, which would probably ruin the brand of our local conference.

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So we decided to create another one, internationally

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focused, which BTC Prague is.

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And, uh, we saw the opportunity of like creating like real strictly Bitcoin only

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mass adoption focused conference here in the mid Europe, because it's like easy

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to access and Prague has a great history of Bitcoin, probably gonna get there.

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But the conditions weren't really good because, you know, we were in the

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bear market, the sentiment was down.

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It looked like the Bitcoin gonna die again.

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Luckily it didn't.

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And, um, yeah, we managed it.

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So BTC Prague happened last year.

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I'm a bit biased to say that it was a great success, but it turned out

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to be a good idea, you know, to, to organize events for us, basically.

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No, uh, BHC Prague was amazing last year.

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Uh, it is one of my absolute favorite conferences, uh, and I, I think,

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uh, by the way, the first question here before I forget, uh, it's, do

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you still do the Czech language, uh, conference or is that off the table now?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We still do it.

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It's going to happen again in September here in city of Ostrava.

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And we are in close touch with, uh, University here, as they are interested

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in Bitcoin, but you know, the university and academics, it's more like politics,

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so it takes a long time before they can really adapt and accept it into

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our, into their learning system.

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So they are happy that we get the traction and the publicity into the

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campus around the Bitcoin, and they do not really have to do a lot about it yet.

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And are you expecting the same number of attendees, like, uh, uh, is, is it still

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a big conference, the Czech language one, or is B2C Prague sort of eating the,

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Yeah, we are, we are self cannibalizing ourselves, to be honest, so we've decided

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that we're going to change the focus of our chain camp for this year, so we're

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going to scale down a bit, targeting like 900 visitors, and we're going to

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skip the beginners topics, so it's not going to be like a newbie focus, and

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we're going to focus on the advanced bitcoiners, so as we see that community

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grew a lot here, Um, we want to provide them like, uh, advanced topics, advanced

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content, uh, and actually they are asking us if we can do a bit more on this side.

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So hope you're gonna, hope it's gonna fit again.

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that's very cool, since, especially since Prague has turned out to be the

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Bitcoin capital of Europe, sort of, like, uh, it's the most Bitcoinized

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big city, I think, uh, in, on the

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Yeah, it definitely is.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Uh, so, so like I love BTC Prague and I think we should be proud as

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Europeans now because we have three of the most high signal to noise

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ratio conferences in the world.

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And those are Prague, uh, Madeira, where I'm a bit biased, of course, and of

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course also, uh, Baltic Honey Badger Riga.

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Yeah,

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So, and, and I, I love that.

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Uh, with the, the collaboration between the three, because there's

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no, uh, there's no rivalry.

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It's, it's just friendly competition and collaboration.

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Uh, because we're, we realize we're all in the same, in the same boat here.

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So it's, uh, it's beautiful to see.

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And, uh, yeah, looking forward to those are, those three are the ones that we,

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we will show up at every one of those.

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I think going into the future, Luke, isn't, isn't that right?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And, uh, again, exactly.

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Europe, we're, we're just, we're so in such good shape.

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I mean, like, I come from North America and they, and they have Good

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conferences, even one now is getting some traction from my hometown in Calgary,

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but I love being based in Europe now.

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I think we've got the best conferences.

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Yeah, with Prague coming up, I can't wait.

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And Martin, I think, uh, The main reason we wanted to bring you on, not

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only just to tell us more about what's going on this year at BTC Prague,

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but, uh, but you have some, some, uh, history of, of Czech Republic and, uh,

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and before it was the Czech Republic and, uh, uh, how that relates to how,

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how Czechia is so, so, uh, good for freedom now, for freedom minded people.

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So, so.

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Just go ahead, please tell us the story, we're fascinated waiting to hear, yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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And, uh, actually.

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I'm quite surprised that, you know, even Czechs aren't aware of the fact

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that we can really be proud of something else than the beer and the hockey is.

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And hockey is actually not relevant anymore, even here in Czech Republic.

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And it's, of course, it's Bitcoin, but, you know, to put everything in the

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right context, uh, It kind of requires me to give you like a short lesson of

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our national history, and I don't want to dive really deep, so I'm gonna, I

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will try to make it like short, but, uh, the most important thing is that

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Czechs and Czechoslovaks, you know, we were always like freedom fighters, you

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know, but as we live in the middle of the Europe and we are a small nation,

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we weren't Free and we still aren't like really free, you know, we need to

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decide we want to be part of the West or the East as we are too small to be

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really free, but we fought for it a lot.

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And like the first moment, which is kind of a popular happened

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happened already in 15th century.

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And it was, it's called like defenestration of Prague when

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really like plebeians went and threw corrupt officials out of the

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town hall in Prague to the streets.

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Some of them died, actually.

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And this was like very first mark and early struggle for our religious and

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civil liberty here in Czechoslovakia.

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And I don't know if it became like some kind of our national hobby, but

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it happened again 200 years after the second deforestation of Prague in the

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17th century, when people again grabbed officials, those were Habsburg monarchs,

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and threw them out of the Prague castle.

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It wasn't actually a good idea at all because it turned, uh, and

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escalated into the war here in Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia.

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Uh, but again, like in 19th century, 200 years after that moment, we worked,

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uh, for our Czech language and Czech language identity, which ended in a

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revolution in 1848 when Prague was finally, uh, Independent from the

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German monarchy and not later after it in like, it was year of 1918.

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We finally was established as a Czechoslovakia as a free country when

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Austro Hungarian Empire collapsed.

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After World War I, but not, we weren't really free for a long time because,

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you know, then World War II happened.

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So we were fully occupied by Nazis.

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We lost a significant part of our land and had to strive again.

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And as it look again, like positive after World War ii.

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And I dunno if like history likes to repeat or rhyme itself, uh, in

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the year of, uh, four, uh, 1948.

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We officially became, by political patch, part of a Sunnian communist party.

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And, it wasn't easy, mostly because of the fact that, like, 20 years after,

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in 68, Soviet Unions and their troops invaded our country even with armed

231
00:15:19,633 --> 00:15:25,093
forces and pushed us to follow their communist rules, like, in a very strict

232
00:15:25,123 --> 00:15:29,493
and direct way, like, diplomatically said, I would say, you know.

233
00:15:30,018 --> 00:15:32,558
And, uh, there were like even escalations on this side.

234
00:15:32,558 --> 00:15:38,698
So in year 77, manifesto called Charta 77 was signed by Václav Havel.

235
00:15:39,158 --> 00:15:43,268
And it was like first official and public demanding, uh, to the government that

236
00:15:43,668 --> 00:15:47,478
we want to recognize at least some basic human rights here in Czech Republic.

237
00:15:47,508 --> 00:15:51,628
And that was basically the first like official peaceful symbol of our Velvet

238
00:15:51,728 --> 00:15:53,598
Revolution, which happened in year 77.

239
00:15:53,993 --> 00:16:00,423
89, basically a few weeks after the Berlin Wall went down and, uh, I believe

240
00:16:00,423 --> 00:16:04,693
that, you know, Bitcoin, of course, there's some gap between that moment

241
00:16:04,713 --> 00:16:08,293
and when Bitcoin was invented or born.

242
00:16:08,373 --> 00:16:12,783
Um, it was just a natural escalation, you know, it's another tool which Czechs

243
00:16:13,153 --> 00:16:19,743
can use to fight for freedom and to be free, even here in like middle Europe.

244
00:16:20,058 --> 00:16:21,228
being so small country.

245
00:16:21,228 --> 00:16:25,138
So it's a kind of a natural escalation as, as I said, I think.

246
00:16:25,158 --> 00:16:25,368
Yeah.

247
00:16:25,660 --> 00:16:27,380
Yeah, so how old are you, Martin?

248
00:16:27,682 --> 00:16:29,152
I was born in 84.

249
00:16:29,597 --> 00:16:30,387
In 84.

250
00:16:30,977 --> 00:16:35,837
So, so you lived through this revolution, even though you were small, but you, you

251
00:16:35,837 --> 00:16:39,567
did, uh, uh, yeah, this, this is amazing.

252
00:16:39,963 --> 00:16:44,003
I mean, the, the, the things I know about Prague's history, I, I mostly

253
00:16:44,003 --> 00:16:47,823
got from Rahim, uh, Rahim's, uh, history lesson last year at the

254
00:16:47,823 --> 00:16:49,413
conference, which was excellent.

255
00:16:49,423 --> 00:16:53,273
So that Prague, uh, Prague is rich because of the silver mines around and

256
00:16:53,273 --> 00:16:58,203
that they had the small city states that grew bigger and also that, uh, became

257
00:16:58,203 --> 00:17:04,097
the, the center of many, empires in many eras where, where the, the silver

258
00:17:04,097 --> 00:17:06,317
and gold flowed into, into Prague.

259
00:17:06,527 --> 00:17:08,237
And it's, it is a beautiful city.

260
00:17:08,237 --> 00:17:11,327
It's like the, the, it, there's so much history.

261
00:17:11,642 --> 00:17:16,912
I mean, me and Luke went to the absinthe bar last time we were

262
00:17:16,912 --> 00:17:19,872
there, and we just stumbled upon it.

263
00:17:20,132 --> 00:17:23,292
We didn't have the intention of ending up there, but it looked so cool, the place.

264
00:17:23,302 --> 00:17:26,692
So we ended up in a cellar in a basement that was 500 years old

265
00:17:26,872 --> 00:17:28,312
and smelled like it, by the way.

266
00:17:29,722 --> 00:17:33,312
Yeah, but this Velvet Revolution, I'm interested in that and Vasslav Havel,

267
00:17:33,312 --> 00:17:40,187
because I only know I only have surface level knowledge about this, but To my

268
00:17:40,187 --> 00:17:45,047
knowledge, it was more violent than, than East Germany and, and how that,

269
00:17:45,347 --> 00:17:50,537
uh, the, the Berlin Wall and all that was kind of, kind of un violent, uh,

270
00:17:50,837 --> 00:17:57,602
that whole transition, if you will, and this was a bit more Uh, defenestration

271
00:17:57,602 --> 00:18:03,762
y, again, uh, and also that Václav Havel and, uh, Charter 77 and all this,

272
00:18:03,772 --> 00:18:07,952
that there was some sort of underground movement for, for quite some time, right,

273
00:18:07,972 --> 00:18:12,692
where, where there was, like, a parallel society, and that's where Parallelini

274
00:18:12,722 --> 00:18:14,412
Police has gotten its name from.

275
00:18:14,572 --> 00:18:15,504
Have I got that right?

276
00:18:15,504 --> 00:18:17,217
Can you, can you go

277
00:18:17,432 --> 00:18:17,632
Yeah.

278
00:18:17,672 --> 00:18:17,872
Yeah.

279
00:18:17,872 --> 00:18:18,262
Yeah.

280
00:18:18,262 --> 00:18:22,202
Um, like, honestly, I'm not really aware of like, Every detail, and

281
00:18:22,212 --> 00:18:25,712
it's quite interesting that, uh, we haven't been teached about this in

282
00:18:25,712 --> 00:18:29,542
history, history lessons in, uh, in our private, at my primary school,

283
00:18:29,892 --> 00:18:31,452
and it's still not really present.

284
00:18:31,462 --> 00:18:35,755
You know, it's quite, quite absurd that I know that, uh, Greece,

285
00:18:35,985 --> 00:18:39,985
Philosoph, or was it Roman, Diogenes actually lived in a barrel.

286
00:18:41,075 --> 00:18:46,455
You know, but I know nothing about, like, our Czech and communism history at all,

287
00:18:46,485 --> 00:18:50,625
which is, which is quite absurd, because, uh, I don't know if our teachers were

288
00:18:50,635 --> 00:18:54,755
still, like, feeling it too present or too painful to talk about it, because it

289
00:18:54,775 --> 00:19:00,995
actually was really painful and, and yes, that movement of Charter 77 and Vaclav

290
00:19:00,995 --> 00:19:07,185
Havel, he was a dissident, so he was forbid to speak publicly, but, uh, yeah.

291
00:19:07,645 --> 00:19:13,765
The artists, uh, students, and some free and open minded people work like behind

292
00:19:13,765 --> 00:19:20,302
the curtain, and they build like parallel society, which has signed the Charta 77.

293
00:19:20,312 --> 00:19:22,182
They were prosecuted for it.

294
00:19:22,212 --> 00:19:24,492
Most of, some of them really died for it.

295
00:19:25,087 --> 00:19:29,617
Because they weren't, uh, open to tell who stands behind it.

296
00:19:30,327 --> 00:19:33,817
And, uh, it was actually very, the intention was very

297
00:19:34,187 --> 00:19:35,977
peaceful on the first sight.

298
00:19:36,257 --> 00:19:38,847
But of course, you know, the intention was obvious just to get

299
00:19:38,897 --> 00:19:41,327
rid of the communism system at all.

300
00:19:41,687 --> 00:19:44,667
And it took, like, basically 20 years, you know.

301
00:19:45,733 --> 00:19:48,453
I should maybe study more before going into the real details.

302
00:19:48,453 --> 00:19:53,847
Maybe we can get discovered on, on another call, but, uh, it's quite interesting that

303
00:19:53,867 --> 00:19:58,297
all I know about the communism is, you know, from my parents, parents and from

304
00:19:58,307 --> 00:20:02,627
my grandfathers, because, you know, one of my grandfather, he was a dissident,

305
00:20:03,287 --> 00:20:05,417
so he wasn't really allowed to do work.

306
00:20:05,417 --> 00:20:08,607
He wants my mother and her brother.

307
00:20:08,637 --> 00:20:11,747
They weren't allowed to go to the university of their choose.

308
00:20:12,318 --> 00:20:17,758
So it was like really not, not, uh, not good at all, but on other

309
00:20:17,758 --> 00:20:21,068
hand, my second grandfather, he was a Dean at the university.

310
00:20:21,118 --> 00:20:25,048
So of course he had to be part, part of the party to be able to

311
00:20:25,048 --> 00:20:27,018
work on such a prominent position.

312
00:20:27,508 --> 00:20:32,128
But that was kind of a price to be paid so he can focus on his work and, uh,

313
00:20:32,178 --> 00:20:37,188
and do the science as he worked on the nuclear reactors and, uh, Science, uh,

314
00:20:37,258 --> 00:20:41,998
science program and invented a few alloys of aluminum and et cetera, et cetera.

315
00:21:35,950 --> 00:21:39,280
and maybe I, maybe I can even tell, like, that if you have, have

316
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:43,190
you heard of, like, uh, Wexel and Tuzex and our second currency?

317
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:45,320
That's actually even quite, like, interesting, yeah.

318
00:21:46,110 --> 00:21:47,790
And that's another thing, uh, which.

319
00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:51,440
Explains why we are so into Bitcoin here in the Czech Republic, basically.

320
00:21:51,995 --> 00:21:56,805
Vexel, is that where the now Bitcoin company Vexel got its name from?

321
00:21:57,350 --> 00:21:57,640
Yes,

322
00:21:57,845 --> 00:21:58,215
Yes.

323
00:21:58,495 --> 00:21:58,815
Okay.

324
00:21:58,815 --> 00:21:59,795
Tell us a bit about that.

325
00:22:00,700 --> 00:22:00,960
Yeah.

326
00:22:00,990 --> 00:22:01,330
Okay.

327
00:22:01,330 --> 00:22:04,854
So, um, I'm going to give that example on my grandfather again.

328
00:22:04,854 --> 00:22:08,674
So as he was a dean, so he traveled a lot across the whole

329
00:22:08,694 --> 00:22:10,184
Europe and the world, basically.

330
00:22:10,594 --> 00:22:13,684
But to be able to travel back in the communism, it required

331
00:22:13,714 --> 00:22:15,574
everyone to get like official stamp.

332
00:22:15,910 --> 00:22:20,577
So he's allowed to travel, to leave the country, and, uh, on top of that

333
00:22:20,587 --> 00:22:25,837
stamp, usually that person got some, uh, foreign currency so he can, uh,

334
00:22:26,127 --> 00:22:30,227
pay for the accommodation, buy a dinner, or do whatever he wants abroad.

335
00:22:30,577 --> 00:22:35,127
But as soon as he gets back, he had to tell what he did there, and give

336
00:22:35,217 --> 00:22:40,627
all that foreign currency, the unspent currency, back to the officials.

337
00:22:41,092 --> 00:22:45,792
And they received like nominal amount back, not in Czech korunas, but in

338
00:22:45,842 --> 00:22:48,032
second currency, which was called bonds.

339
00:22:48,352 --> 00:22:52,822
It was our like second currency unofficially available on

340
00:22:52,822 --> 00:22:56,512
the market, only available in exchange for the foreign currency.

341
00:22:57,197 --> 00:23:01,117
And, uh, it's not actually coincidence that we weren't allowed to keep

342
00:23:01,127 --> 00:23:04,877
any foreign currency because then it would be easy to, uh, cross

343
00:23:04,877 --> 00:23:06,267
the border and run away, right?

344
00:23:06,670 --> 00:23:07,670
west, mostly.

345
00:23:08,194 --> 00:23:13,389
But as that second currency wasn't officially accepted in any stores, Which

346
00:23:13,429 --> 00:23:18,249
wasn't really a problem because they were either completely empty, uh, so

347
00:23:18,299 --> 00:23:23,725
the only place to go and spend them were Tuzeks, officialist, official stores

348
00:23:23,805 --> 00:23:30,545
run by, uh, government where Western goods was available, like electronics,

349
00:23:30,595 --> 00:23:36,215
uh, jeans, even like luxury items, not elevator, not available in normal

350
00:23:36,235 --> 00:23:40,595
stores for normal people, which is quite absurd that the communist party

351
00:23:40,595 --> 00:23:45,000
was saying, Hey, We want everyone to be equal, we will take care of your wealth.

352
00:23:45,405 --> 00:23:50,205
Everybody will get everything, but if you are privileged enough, you can get, you

353
00:23:50,205 --> 00:23:54,615
can get like capitalist Western good in special stores we take care of, right?

354
00:23:55,205 --> 00:23:56,115
So what happened?

355
00:23:56,185 --> 00:24:01,595
Uh, and that's where the Wexel application, peer to peer marketplace, uh,

356
00:24:01,835 --> 00:24:04,775
Bitcoin trading application got its name.

357
00:24:05,255 --> 00:24:06,065
It's Wexel.

358
00:24:06,355 --> 00:24:09,255
It actually originates from the people who took care of the

359
00:24:09,255 --> 00:24:10,785
dark market back in the day.

360
00:24:11,075 --> 00:24:15,712
In those days, you know, so there were like, uh, or how to say it?

361
00:24:15,712 --> 00:24:15,842
Yeah.

362
00:24:15,852 --> 00:24:20,105
Because yeah, there, there, uh, wasn't an official price for that second

363
00:24:20,105 --> 00:24:24,325
currency called bonds, which was the only way how to buy Western goods.

364
00:24:25,035 --> 00:24:27,945
Dark market grown under it.

365
00:24:28,125 --> 00:24:28,475
Yeah.

366
00:24:28,815 --> 00:24:32,705
So around every two secs, there were like people standing on the streets.

367
00:24:32,725 --> 00:24:35,495
They were called vexlax, like traders.

368
00:24:36,715 --> 00:24:41,145
And they had a price for like foreign currencies, for korunas,

369
00:24:41,155 --> 00:24:42,825
for bonds, and vice versa.

370
00:24:43,175 --> 00:24:49,245
So if you had dollars, uh, German marks, Austrian shillings, Italian liras, or

371
00:24:49,255 --> 00:24:55,105
name it, you were able to sell it or buy it from those wexlacks on the streets.

372
00:24:55,765 --> 00:24:59,385
They were actually experts in selling and buying foreign currencies.

373
00:24:59,526 --> 00:25:07,945
And, uh, it's actually quite, quite, uh, funny or maybe absurd too, that

374
00:25:08,445 --> 00:25:15,275
when, uh, Velvet Revolution happened in, uh, 89, our official Czechoslovakia

375
00:25:15,285 --> 00:25:19,985
National Bank was established, but they knew nothing about the exchange

376
00:25:19,985 --> 00:25:23,575
rate, about the foreign currencies, because they weren't set before.

377
00:25:23,945 --> 00:25:27,275
So, the officials from the National Bank went to the streets.

378
00:25:28,125 --> 00:25:32,655
Approach those VEX slugs and ask them how much shall they charge for a dollar,

379
00:25:32,875 --> 00:25:34,935
for a markup, for shilling and for lira.

380
00:25:35,315 --> 00:25:38,175
And thanks to those answers, they were able to set our like

381
00:25:38,175 --> 00:25:42,735
first official national exchange rate when people were willing to

382
00:25:42,805 --> 00:25:44,915
exchange their own korunas there.

383
00:25:44,965 --> 00:25:48,895
So like really market told our national bank what the price

384
00:25:48,925 --> 00:25:50,895
is of, of the money back then.

385
00:25:50,955 --> 00:25:51,235
Yeah.

386
00:25:51,705 --> 00:25:55,095
that's just another example why Bitcoin is so strong here, right?

387
00:25:55,135 --> 00:25:59,645
And it's so deeply in our history, in roots, when government was

388
00:25:59,705 --> 00:26:04,075
trying to fuck with us, that it's so easy to explain to anybody what

389
00:26:04,075 --> 00:26:05,515
freedom of the money means, yeah?

390
00:26:06,037 --> 00:26:08,984
Yeah.

391
00:26:09,034 --> 00:26:14,404
like the, the privileged were still able to get the, the, the, the good stuff from

392
00:26:14,404 --> 00:26:19,634
these special stores, that reminds me so much of Havana, Cuba, where, uh, and I

393
00:26:19,634 --> 00:26:26,529
visited Havana, um, when on the tall ship like years back, uh, but before I was

394
00:26:26,529 --> 00:26:33,209
there like four or five times before Fidel died, and, uh, uh, they, I remember, um,

395
00:26:33,639 --> 00:26:38,719
a place in Havana called La Coppola, which is where they, uh, and it's a fame, it's

396
00:26:38,809 --> 00:26:42,619
a famous place because of, it's one of the first things the communist government

397
00:26:42,629 --> 00:26:47,119
did, they made ice cream free to the public, so La Coppola is an ice cream

398
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:51,919
place in the middle of, uh, an ice park in Havana, and, uh, uh, so they had this,

399
00:26:51,919 --> 00:26:54,469
uh, Oh, now we have a communist utopia.

400
00:26:54,509 --> 00:26:55,649
Ice cream is free.

401
00:26:56,209 --> 00:27:00,829
And if you go there now, it's, it's a perfect example of what communism

402
00:27:00,829 --> 00:27:04,929
does to a country because there's the ice cream is almost free.

403
00:27:04,959 --> 00:27:06,509
I mean, it's just a couple of cents.

404
00:27:07,109 --> 00:27:11,009
Uh, so there are 200 Cubans in a line waiting to get

405
00:27:11,009 --> 00:27:12,709
their almost free ice cream.

406
00:27:13,209 --> 00:27:17,429
But if you're a tourist and you pay like four bucks for the ice cream instead

407
00:27:17,429 --> 00:27:20,459
of four cents, you can bypass the line.

408
00:27:22,579 --> 00:27:24,009
So there's almost no line at all.

409
00:27:24,469 --> 00:27:28,399
Uh, so if you're rich enough, you don't have to be with the poor people.

410
00:27:28,439 --> 00:27:31,459
So like, and that's how all communist systems end up.

411
00:27:31,519 --> 00:27:33,749
There's, there's a, a, a small wealthy elite.

412
00:27:34,289 --> 00:27:38,609
And, uh, the more efficient the communist system is the, the, the

413
00:27:38,609 --> 00:27:40,479
less wealthy, even the elite becomes.

414
00:27:41,089 --> 00:27:45,119
Because, yeah, there's a story about Gorbachev coming to the U.

415
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:45,439
S.

416
00:27:45,489 --> 00:27:54,079
and seeing a supermarket full of more food than he ever saw anywhere in the Soviet

417
00:27:54,129 --> 00:27:57,289
Union, even though he was the president.

418
00:27:57,619 --> 00:28:03,039
So, yeah, sooner or later you're going to run out of other people's money.

419
00:28:03,039 --> 00:28:04,959
That's what happens.

420
00:28:05,469 --> 00:28:10,479
And yeah, it's quite, quite interesting to, to see that people are, and mostly

421
00:28:10,479 --> 00:28:14,969
younger generation are calling for communism and socialism, even nowadays,

422
00:28:14,969 --> 00:28:16,319
you know, I don't understand it.

423
00:28:16,689 --> 00:28:20,469
Why can anyone still think that we can all be like, oh, yeah.

424
00:28:20,999 --> 00:28:25,039
Like equal from this perspective, uh, no, from the perspective that

425
00:28:25,039 --> 00:28:28,369
government will take care of the, of the fair equality, you know, that

426
00:28:28,419 --> 00:28:29,879
it doesn't work like this, right?

427
00:28:30,341 --> 00:28:36,521
No, and it's a very naive position, and then again, there are immense inequalities

428
00:28:36,521 --> 00:28:39,981
in the world, and there are people who are billionaires and people who barely

429
00:28:39,981 --> 00:28:47,491
have anything to eat, but the real thing that people don't see at all is that

430
00:28:47,501 --> 00:28:53,696
billionaires is very much a product of Of fiat currency, like gaming, the

431
00:28:53,706 --> 00:28:58,456
system is rigged to make the wealthier even wealthier, even faster, and the

432
00:28:58,456 --> 00:29:02,296
poorer even poorer, it's very expensive to be poor in a fiat monetary system.

433
00:29:03,426 --> 00:29:03,736
Yeah.

434
00:29:03,986 --> 00:29:07,506
And life becomes super cheap when you reach some kind of

435
00:29:07,506 --> 00:29:10,086
level of, of being rich, right?

436
00:29:10,751 --> 00:29:11,421
Absolutely.

437
00:29:11,501 --> 00:29:14,751
I mean, yeah, lower interest rates and everything.

438
00:29:14,751 --> 00:29:19,451
And if you, if you don't have a big mortgage to pay off all day, then

439
00:29:19,521 --> 00:29:21,261
of course your life is cheaper.

440
00:29:21,271 --> 00:29:22,961
It's, it's as simple as that.

441
00:29:23,721 --> 00:29:26,091
The more assets you have, the more you can leverage them.

442
00:29:27,026 --> 00:29:31,326
Yeah, like Michael Saylor got a loan with interest rate 0.

443
00:29:31,386 --> 00:29:33,326
68 percent a year.

444
00:29:33,726 --> 00:29:34,636
Wonderful, yeah.

445
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:35,240
Yeah.

446
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:39,470
And even if he lost all his bitcoins in a tragic boating accident.

447
00:29:39,875 --> 00:29:43,355
It wouldn't be hard for Michael Saylor to, to make ends meet anyway,

448
00:29:43,385 --> 00:29:45,075
or, or anyone in that position.

449
00:29:45,175 --> 00:29:50,855
Uh, I mean, being poor is expensive is the gist of this.

450
00:29:51,699 --> 00:29:58,299
uh, anyway, so, so like, if we go into more recent history, um, how, how did the

451
00:29:58,299 --> 00:30:01,789
Bitcoin movement, uh, start in Prague?

452
00:30:01,789 --> 00:30:05,924
And like, what, what are the big, like, landmarks there and

453
00:30:05,924 --> 00:30:07,892
historical events, uh, talking

454
00:30:09,935 --> 00:30:11,675
Yeah, I'm quite proud of it.

455
00:30:11,675 --> 00:30:17,075
And we use this in our mission and our line when we talk about BTC Prague a lot.

456
00:30:17,125 --> 00:30:23,000
And it again goes, With our history, and as I told about the communism and that

457
00:30:23,210 --> 00:30:29,440
two sex era, when nothing was in store, people, uh, people were used to create

458
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,480
stuff by themselves, you know, that, uh, kind of dark age of our history cultivated

459
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:40,410
kind of a craftsmanship in our country, you know, and people were used to build

460
00:30:40,410 --> 00:30:46,255
like everything, like furniture, sport equipment, electronics, like, Uh, anything

461
00:30:46,255 --> 00:30:51,185
because it was simply needed, you know, and this culture of craftsmanship actually

462
00:30:51,185 --> 00:30:58,715
brought people together, uh, in the year 2009 in like very, very, it's, I'm, I'm

463
00:30:58,715 --> 00:31:00,155
not sure if it still exists in Prague.

464
00:31:00,155 --> 00:31:01,305
It was called Bermlap.

465
00:31:01,365 --> 00:31:03,760
It was like a hacker space in Prague.

466
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,140
A few people met and talked us about something new, which is

467
00:31:08,140 --> 00:31:11,710
happening in online space, and it's something like Bitcoin, you know?

468
00:31:12,190 --> 00:31:15,970
And as they spend time together talking about Bitcoin, that they realize that

469
00:31:15,975 --> 00:31:21,640
they have, that they have some problems with Bitcoin and they were trying to, uh,

470
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,750
using their craftmanship skills, create a solution for those, those struggles

471
00:31:25,750 --> 00:31:29,350
and problems they had with Bitcoin by themselves back then, you know, so.

472
00:31:29,935 --> 00:31:35,955
In early 2010, uh, Slush from Satoshi Labs, uh, actually created very first

473
00:31:35,985 --> 00:31:41,025
Bitcoin mining pool, uh, in, from Prague, you know, uh, it, it still exists.

474
00:31:41,045 --> 00:31:42,845
It's, uh, run by Brains.

475
00:31:43,265 --> 00:31:46,715
They renamed it to Brains Pool now, and, and it mined already more

476
00:31:46,715 --> 00:31:48,325
than 1 million Bitcoin actually.

477
00:31:49,157 --> 00:31:54,977
two years after, again, Slash and Stick, second co founder of Trezor Wallet, they

478
00:31:54,977 --> 00:31:58,747
were wondering how they can actually protect their Bitcoin in a better way than

479
00:31:59,037 --> 00:32:01,267
Electrum Wallet is in their computers.

480
00:32:01,817 --> 00:32:04,237
And they thought that, like, Hardware Wallet might be something

481
00:32:04,247 --> 00:32:05,357
interesting for that purpose.

482
00:32:06,232 --> 00:32:09,352
They came up with the Treasure Wallet, you know, again in 2012.

483
00:32:09,796 --> 00:32:14,266
And, uh, one year after they realized that we probably need some better way

484
00:32:14,266 --> 00:32:20,043
how to store our private keys, so they came up with idea of seed phrase, BIP39.

485
00:32:20,591 --> 00:32:22,311
Again, Slash and Stick in Prague.

486
00:32:22,971 --> 00:32:26,571
And, uh, in the same year, General Bytes, uh, was born.

487
00:32:26,771 --> 00:32:31,291
The biggest, uh, Bitcoin ATM producer and manufacturer in the world.

488
00:32:32,011 --> 00:32:36,491
And of course, like last but not least, uh, Brains, mining company,

489
00:32:36,551 --> 00:32:38,786
uh, which runs, uh, Brainspool.

490
00:32:39,176 --> 00:32:45,506
Slashpool back then, uh, and creates, uh, auto tuning, uh, ASIC firmware, which gets

491
00:32:45,576 --> 00:32:51,086
as much as terahash as possible from every single, uh, mining, uh, mining machine.

492
00:32:51,686 --> 00:32:54,546
And of course, like, and you mentioned it already, like, that's a cypherpunk,

493
00:32:55,066 --> 00:32:59,486
uh, hackerspace called Paralini Police, which, uh, Operates for, yeah, more

494
00:32:59,486 --> 00:33:04,626
than 10 years in, in Prague and they haven't been accepting fiat any time, you

495
00:33:04,626 --> 00:33:08,466
know, they were only powered by crypto and Bitcoin from the very beginning.

496
00:33:08,776 --> 00:33:14,286
So they were like, uh, innovators of that, uh, fuck the state movement, I would say.

497
00:33:14,326 --> 00:33:14,596
Yeah.

498
00:33:15,496 --> 00:33:18,516
And, uh, I believe that this is like unprecedented.

499
00:33:18,526 --> 00:33:21,296
We still need to understand that we are talking about a country

500
00:33:21,296 --> 00:33:22,446
of 10 million inhabitants.

501
00:33:23,056 --> 00:33:26,636
So, uh, yeah, I'm quite, quite proud of when I'm saying it.

502
00:33:27,081 --> 00:33:30,291
Every time again, because Prague is like real capital of Bitcoin,

503
00:33:30,291 --> 00:33:32,961
I would say, yeah, at least, at least from this perspective, yeah.

504
00:33:33,587 --> 00:33:35,747
No, it's super cool, and uh, yeah.

505
00:33:36,517 --> 00:33:38,077
And it's a fantastic city.

506
00:33:38,397 --> 00:33:42,037
Uh, Luke, what do you think about all this?

507
00:33:42,363 --> 00:33:43,033
Yeah, it's great.

508
00:33:43,033 --> 00:33:49,923
And I mean, I think I'm also interested in another angle here, not just of Prague.

509
00:33:50,683 --> 00:33:55,353
Lots of great things from Prague, but you're also, Ostrava is like the

510
00:33:55,353 --> 00:33:56,943
other side of the country, right?

511
00:33:56,943 --> 00:34:00,953
So you're also involved throughout Czech Republic.

512
00:34:00,963 --> 00:34:01,403
Is that right?

513
00:34:02,353 --> 00:34:02,683
Yeah.

514
00:34:02,683 --> 00:34:07,667
And, um, it actually, COVID actually slowed down this movement a lot,

515
00:34:07,677 --> 00:34:12,227
to be honest, like, uh, mostly the small meetups, you know, but now,

516
00:34:12,247 --> 00:34:15,907
you know, we have like, uh, some kind of Bitcoin meetup or gathering

517
00:34:15,947 --> 00:34:18,177
or like small event happening.

518
00:34:19,162 --> 00:34:21,472
Almost every day, somewhere in Czech Republic.

519
00:34:21,582 --> 00:34:26,482
So like, there's like our local I know it's fancy or 21 world community called

520
00:34:26,502 --> 00:34:29,772
yet not what set in already 30 cities.

521
00:34:29,942 --> 00:34:35,212
And they are organizing the regular meetups on a two week or monthly basis.

522
00:34:35,672 --> 00:34:35,932
Yeah.

523
00:34:35,932 --> 00:34:40,702
Like for example, here in Ostrava, we actually kicked it off with Mattias

524
00:34:40,732 --> 00:34:45,692
two years ago and it now works like automatically, you know, like plebs

525
00:34:45,762 --> 00:34:50,002
took over, they just kick it out every first Wednesday in a month.

526
00:34:50,712 --> 00:34:53,172
At the same place in, in the same pop.

527
00:34:53,172 --> 00:34:58,312
And you know, sometimes there's, uh, some speaker to talk about something.

528
00:34:58,642 --> 00:35:00,382
Sometimes it's just a beer session.

529
00:35:00,382 --> 00:35:05,742
Sometimes there's like a Bitcoin quiz and uh, like more than 30 or even 50 people

530
00:35:05,742 --> 00:35:07,782
gets together, like on monthly basis.

531
00:35:07,782 --> 00:35:09,772
So, uh, it, it's great.

532
00:35:09,772 --> 00:35:13,792
And that's like even more important though than those like big conferences, you know?

533
00:35:14,142 --> 00:35:18,952
Uh, as mostly now when we are reaching like another bull run, or we probably

534
00:35:19,232 --> 00:35:24,832
already are in one, uh, it's interesting, it's like important to have such a places

535
00:35:24,842 --> 00:35:30,392
where bitcoiner can take his friend and say, Hey, just join me for a beer.

536
00:35:30,392 --> 00:35:31,737
I'm going to introduce you to Bitcoiner.

537
00:35:31,927 --> 00:35:36,687
to few friends of mine and we do not need to push you into anything.

538
00:35:36,687 --> 00:35:39,587
Just ask a question or you can just have a beer, you know, it's

539
00:35:39,587 --> 00:35:41,797
a great proof of concept, I think.

540
00:36:58,887 --> 00:36:59,487
Fantastic.

541
00:36:59,487 --> 00:37:04,057
And yeah, yeah, I think, I think it's great to see this, uh, this growing

542
00:37:04,067 --> 00:37:10,907
and, uh, now maybe the, the natural, um, next step is, can you tell us more about

543
00:37:10,917 --> 00:37:17,667
BTC Prague and, uh, um, yeah, like the, the conference was fantastic last year.

544
00:37:18,617 --> 00:37:20,117
What's going on this year?

545
00:37:20,507 --> 00:37:23,262
Uh, anything you want to tell us about BTC Prague?

546
00:37:23,782 --> 00:37:25,042
Yeah, I gonna, thank you.

547
00:37:25,042 --> 00:37:31,122
I'm gonna continue with the 21 world mission, you know, and, um, we are

548
00:37:31,122 --> 00:37:35,622
empowering that bottom up approach in Bitcoin, basically as much as

549
00:37:35,632 --> 00:37:39,792
we can, you know, we like plebs, so we are, you know, Pleb focus first.

550
00:37:40,002 --> 00:37:43,922
I would say, of course, there's like industry day, so businessmen and

551
00:37:43,982 --> 00:37:47,872
entrepreneurs can get together and create and do something like, uh,

552
00:37:47,892 --> 00:37:52,582
interesting and nice, but I, I really believe that the plebeians are the

553
00:37:52,592 --> 00:37:54,252
most important ones in the space.

554
00:37:54,872 --> 00:37:59,652
So we've decided to create like a 21 world community booth, which

555
00:37:59,662 --> 00:38:01,872
will be in the expo section.

556
00:38:02,402 --> 00:38:07,862
Besides another 99 booths there, uh, having like small chill area around,

557
00:38:07,872 --> 00:38:11,812
having a coffee spot, having like a lightning powered beer tap machine.

558
00:38:12,212 --> 00:38:16,142
Because, you know, we still need to, uh, keep in mind that we are talking

559
00:38:16,152 --> 00:38:20,302
about the Czech Republic and Pilsner Urquell and our beer, you know, uh,

560
00:38:20,322 --> 00:38:22,612
just don't forget this guy, guys here.

561
00:38:22,957 --> 00:38:25,017
No, no, no, it's impossible to forget.

562
00:38:25,267 --> 00:38:29,227
Like, I didn't think beer could get any better until I visited Prague for the

563
00:38:29,227 --> 00:38:32,947
first time, and it's like, holy shit, there's another level of this thing.

564
00:38:34,037 --> 00:38:35,407
It's truly next level.

565
00:38:36,342 --> 00:38:36,702
Thank you.

566
00:38:36,702 --> 00:38:37,412
I appreciate.

567
00:38:37,972 --> 00:38:38,212
Yeah.

568
00:38:38,212 --> 00:38:41,112
So there's going to be like huge 21 world community booth.

569
00:38:41,222 --> 00:38:45,957
Uh, we have like, uh, Some kind of a runner or a member from every

570
00:38:45,957 --> 00:38:50,867
single European 21 world community, basically a representative who takes

571
00:38:50,887 --> 00:38:55,177
care over of sharing the information in their own communities, inviting

572
00:38:55,177 --> 00:38:56,847
people so they can gather there.

573
00:38:56,907 --> 00:38:59,797
So it's going to be like pretty packed meeting point, I think.

574
00:39:00,484 --> 00:39:07,364
And yeah, and, uh, but talking about BTC Prague in general, I believe that, uh, we

575
00:39:07,364 --> 00:39:12,904
have decided to divide the venue into two sections last year in like a good way.

576
00:39:12,904 --> 00:39:14,124
So it worked pretty well.

577
00:39:14,154 --> 00:39:16,664
People were, uh, it was easy to orient there.

578
00:39:17,074 --> 00:39:17,914
And it worked.

579
00:39:18,234 --> 00:39:21,544
So we're basically going to copy paste the layout from last year.

580
00:39:22,416 --> 00:39:26,526
of course there were like troubles or maybe you can say even fuck ups here.

581
00:39:26,566 --> 00:39:30,696
Like for example, audio quality on the main stage wasn't really good.

582
00:39:31,291 --> 00:39:38,021
Uh, there was like a huge echo because it's like a square concrete, uh, hall.

583
00:39:38,211 --> 00:39:41,981
It's more like a logistic Amazon, uh, Amazon logistic center than,

584
00:39:42,011 --> 00:39:43,901
than a place for a conference.

585
00:39:44,791 --> 00:39:48,771
So this is going to be solved and other smaller or bigger things, which we were

586
00:39:48,771 --> 00:39:51,441
mostly able to keep behind the curtain.

587
00:39:51,551 --> 00:39:51,861
Yeah.

588
00:39:52,541 --> 00:39:55,201
And, um, we're going to make it a bit bigger.

589
00:39:55,271 --> 00:39:57,661
So we are targeting eight and a half thousand visitors.

590
00:39:57,921 --> 00:39:59,441
So this is like the maximum.

591
00:39:59,876 --> 00:40:04,796
That the venue can hold still being sure that everybody will feel comfortable there

592
00:40:04,906 --> 00:40:07,336
because we do not want to go over this.

593
00:40:08,176 --> 00:40:13,916
And the goal is to have like 100 Bitcoin focused companies, uh, Bitcoin only

594
00:40:13,916 --> 00:40:15,966
focused companies in the expo section.

595
00:40:16,806 --> 00:40:22,101
And, uh, I'm quite, I'm quite proud about this because it's like

596
00:40:22,101 --> 00:40:23,871
a great proof of concept again.

597
00:40:23,871 --> 00:40:29,621
So when some newbie comes to, to the BTC Prague and sees the size of it and

598
00:40:29,621 --> 00:40:33,861
the amounts of the, of the companies working on something like software,

599
00:40:33,861 --> 00:40:39,271
hardware, whatever, name it, it's usually hard to say that, okay, the

600
00:40:39,441 --> 00:40:43,216
Bitcoin is that, you know, they will, Mostly and probably understand it.

601
00:40:43,256 --> 00:40:43,666
Okay.

602
00:40:43,666 --> 00:40:45,496
Like that's like a complete industry.

603
00:40:45,496 --> 00:40:47,066
It's like a whole ecosystem.

604
00:40:47,696 --> 00:40:51,866
And what we believe is that we will be able to force at least some

605
00:40:51,906 --> 00:40:56,906
of newbie visitors, or maybe even advanced ones, actually, to start

606
00:40:56,906 --> 00:40:58,916
to contribute into Bitcoin somehow.

607
00:40:58,956 --> 00:41:00,436
You know, quit Fiat job.

608
00:41:00,746 --> 00:41:06,916
Find a Bitcoin one or maybe stay in Fiat job and have a Bitcoin part time job or

609
00:41:07,156 --> 00:41:13,206
do Bitcoin art or do whatever, you know, because it's not only about the developers

610
00:41:13,206 --> 00:41:16,616
as people usually think, but it's, as I said, it's like complete industry.

611
00:41:16,616 --> 00:41:22,036
So it needs and requires like project managers, account managers, marketers,

612
00:41:23,476 --> 00:41:28,006
video, AV, whatever, actually, like, like any other industry accountants.

613
00:41:28,116 --> 00:41:28,396
So.

614
00:41:29,196 --> 00:41:33,696
We want to challenge people to come, to see it, and to think for themselves

615
00:41:33,696 --> 00:41:35,506
that, hey, this might be interesting.

616
00:41:35,506 --> 00:41:40,506
It's like the fastest growing industry these days, so I want to be part of it.

617
00:41:40,506 --> 00:41:41,306
What can I do?

618
00:41:41,506 --> 00:41:45,096
Yeah, you can come meet the companies at the booths, ask them if they

619
00:41:45,106 --> 00:41:48,916
have some free position, which they have now in the bull run.

620
00:41:49,701 --> 00:41:51,611
It's a great fit from my perspective.

621
00:41:51,671 --> 00:41:51,891
Yeah.

622
00:41:52,473 --> 00:41:54,053
Yeah, it's super cool.

623
00:41:54,483 --> 00:41:58,353
I heard another, uh, conference organizer, let's just call it

624
00:41:58,353 --> 00:42:04,643
that, who, uh Accused BTC Prague of just copy pasting their templates.

625
00:42:04,663 --> 00:42:05,783
Did you hear about this?

626
00:42:05,928 --> 00:42:06,208
Yeah.

627
00:42:06,208 --> 00:42:07,768
I've, I've heard, of course, of

628
00:42:07,993 --> 00:42:10,173
what's, what's your thoughts on that?

629
00:42:11,433 --> 00:42:12,453
what can I say, man?

630
00:42:12,503 --> 00:42:15,953
Uh, I don't really consider it being valid.

631
00:42:15,993 --> 00:42:19,783
So, you know, you can then say that there's like an IT conference.

632
00:42:19,803 --> 00:42:22,453
So is Bitcoin conference copying?

633
00:42:22,853 --> 00:42:28,553
The concept of IT conferences, uh, whatever, man, I'm more like try to

634
00:42:28,563 --> 00:42:32,833
stay focused on our work and the way we do it and the way we like it than,

635
00:42:33,593 --> 00:42:39,053
uh, considering like an ending up with in such a like, it's not fighting,

636
00:42:39,073 --> 00:42:42,093
you know, to be like 100 percent honest, but it wasn't really fair.

637
00:42:43,208 --> 00:42:48,948
I understand his point, but, uh, come on, you know, Bitcoin is so huge.

638
00:42:49,518 --> 00:42:52,068
We are talking about America, like whole continent.

639
00:42:52,108 --> 00:42:54,428
We are talking about Europe, whole continent.

640
00:42:54,438 --> 00:42:58,328
There's definitely a space for, uh, many events.

641
00:42:58,368 --> 00:43:02,958
And I believe that we share the mission of like getting the world orange pill.

642
00:43:03,308 --> 00:43:07,318
So unless we are doing, as long as we are doing it like in a proper and right

643
00:43:07,348 --> 00:43:12,023
way, Being like, because, you know, I, for example, I feel responsible for every

644
00:43:12,023 --> 00:43:18,033
single visitor of, of ours, you know, so I try to consider if, uh, that partner

645
00:43:18,033 --> 00:43:23,413
is legit or if it's not, we even got sued by Italian scammers, you know, because we

646
00:43:23,413 --> 00:43:26,278
forbid them to be part of the BTC Prague.

647
00:43:26,698 --> 00:43:30,798
Uh, so I said, then, hey, you know that you are, you basically proved

648
00:43:30,798 --> 00:43:34,458
yourself to be scammers because you're trying to sue us that we are

649
00:43:34,458 --> 00:43:36,068
not allowing you to come, right?

650
00:43:36,678 --> 00:43:39,178
And, uh, but this is a, like a different story.

651
00:43:39,468 --> 00:43:42,238
So I believe that as long as we stay on this, like first side of

652
00:43:42,238 --> 00:43:46,343
it, trying to be responsible for our visitors, It's okay, right?

653
00:43:46,343 --> 00:43:47,383
The market will tell.

654
00:43:47,603 --> 00:43:48,623
It's not us.

655
00:43:49,883 --> 00:43:54,003
I do not feel like being in a position to tell what's right or what's not, right?

656
00:43:54,488 --> 00:43:54,978
No, no.

657
00:43:55,008 --> 00:43:59,688
And, uh, uh, for those that don't know, it's actually easier to copy a

658
00:43:59,698 --> 00:44:01,948
JPEG than it is to copy a conference.

659
00:44:02,373 --> 00:44:05,853
Uh, some people don't know this, but it's, it's actually true.

660
00:44:05,853 --> 00:44:09,483
You can, you can just right click on it and copy it and you can make it into

661
00:44:09,483 --> 00:44:13,343
your own by putting it in an editing program and then you can copy that.

662
00:44:13,963 --> 00:44:15,083
It's fantastic actually.

663
00:44:15,803 --> 00:44:17,493
What you, the computers are great.

664
00:44:17,750 --> 00:44:18,140
Yeah.

665
00:44:18,260 --> 00:44:18,490
Yeah.

666
00:44:18,490 --> 00:44:19,600
Computers are great.

667
00:44:19,750 --> 00:44:21,690
We won't be here without the computers, right?

668
00:44:22,631 --> 00:44:28,671
Now, we've got this lovely technology that lets us connect virtually.

669
00:44:28,671 --> 00:44:32,911
I mean, I think the thing is, it's great that so many conferences are

670
00:44:32,971 --> 00:44:39,161
cropping up and again, just back to how great we have it here in Europe, it's

671
00:44:39,161 --> 00:44:44,731
always like seeing your friends every three to four months, something like

672
00:44:44,861 --> 00:44:49,501
that, everyone who goes into the same conferences and to me, it doesn't get it.

673
00:44:50,591 --> 00:44:54,581
Because I think that the main point here, right, is to connect, right?

674
00:44:54,881 --> 00:44:59,051
And the, the, the talks are fantastic.

675
00:44:59,051 --> 00:45:01,471
It's, it's a great way for, for, for people to.

676
00:45:01,896 --> 00:45:06,696
Uh, get a lot of knowledge all in one place, uh, and, and, uh, the expo was, was

677
00:45:06,706 --> 00:45:09,106
my, my favorite part last year for sure.

678
00:45:09,686 --> 00:45:13,906
Uh, I spent most of my time hanging out in the, the expo area, just, yeah,

679
00:45:13,946 --> 00:45:17,426
meeting people and, uh, and, and seeing all the great things going on there.

680
00:45:17,426 --> 00:45:19,546
And so it's just all the, all the connections.

681
00:45:19,546 --> 00:45:24,136
I mean, I, I think this is, this is why to, to do these, uh, to do these

682
00:45:24,136 --> 00:45:25,766
conferences is to set up these hubs.

683
00:45:25,766 --> 00:45:30,146
And so, I mean, you make the contrast between, um, so to say, uh, uh, a

684
00:45:30,146 --> 00:45:38,356
meetup, um, the local community and every sort of a regular basis and all this.

685
00:45:38,946 --> 00:45:42,936
Um, and yeah, that's fantastic as well, grow the local community,

686
00:45:42,936 --> 00:45:48,076
but it's also fantastic to pull in the international community.

687
00:45:48,296 --> 00:45:53,516
And so have you seen, have you seen, um, uh, sort of an effect, uh,

688
00:45:53,556 --> 00:45:58,246
after, after BTC Prague on, on, on sort of the Prague is becoming a.

689
00:45:58,671 --> 00:46:01,731
A hub for international bitcoiners, uh, that sort of thing.

690
00:46:02,244 --> 00:46:05,694
I would say yes, that it's much easier now.

691
00:46:05,694 --> 00:46:08,104
And I give an example, for example, on the Anut Svansic

692
00:46:08,104 --> 00:46:09,464
community in Germany, you know.

693
00:46:10,034 --> 00:46:13,354
As like Germans are Germans, you know, they are like a

694
00:46:14,404 --> 00:46:16,114
privacy object in the good way.

695
00:46:16,404 --> 00:46:17,184
I love it.

696
00:46:17,614 --> 00:46:20,934
And that's just one example of like being, uh, or having like

697
00:46:20,934 --> 00:46:22,024
different approach on Bitcoin.

698
00:46:22,234 --> 00:46:24,974
Like for example, checks, they are non KYC.

699
00:46:25,659 --> 00:46:32,449
Freaks, Germans, they don't care about KYC, but they do not want to get their

700
00:46:32,449 --> 00:46:34,339
phone numbers spoiled first, right?

701
00:46:34,769 --> 00:46:39,239
And just do not, do not picture them without, without the consensus, uh, and,

702
00:46:39,329 --> 00:46:44,209
and it, and other countries follows, uh, and I, I believe that, and that's our

703
00:46:44,209 --> 00:46:48,089
mission actually to build the Bitcoin bridges across the Europe, because yeah.

704
00:46:48,564 --> 00:46:53,664
Um, before I get to the answer, like for, for us, it's so easy, you know,

705
00:46:53,984 --> 00:46:58,404
or actually much easier because if you want to run a Bitcoin startup in the US.

706
00:46:59,594 --> 00:47:03,424
You do it in English and you target like 300 millions at one shot.

707
00:47:04,584 --> 00:47:07,864
Doing this in Europe, you know, you need to follow the regulatory

708
00:47:07,864 --> 00:47:09,064
of every single country.

709
00:47:09,474 --> 00:47:12,404
Then there are language barriers, uh, cultural differences.

710
00:47:13,474 --> 00:47:17,944
Like I gave you a few examples, uh, just from the Bitcoin perspective.

711
00:47:18,364 --> 00:47:21,704
And we want to bridge those people together to let them understand

712
00:47:21,704 --> 00:47:22,834
that of course we have differences.

713
00:47:23,454 --> 00:47:28,405
We probably won't, uh, won't maybe argue on like one point, but we're

714
00:47:28,405 --> 00:47:33,565
going to agree on Ten others, nine others, you know, and I want them to,

715
00:47:33,625 --> 00:47:36,725
to understand that we are basically the same and that we can cooperate

716
00:47:36,755 --> 00:47:38,575
and like make Europe great again.

717
00:47:39,035 --> 00:47:43,885
Uh, as, as it is quite needy seeing that nonsense, which European

718
00:47:43,895 --> 00:47:45,705
Union is approaching us with.

719
00:47:46,391 --> 00:47:50,621
but yeah, I can see it, you know, it's, uh, it's easier when I, when

720
00:47:50,621 --> 00:47:54,551
we get in touch with BlockTrainer or LunaticCoin, they are telling us, hey,

721
00:47:54,731 --> 00:47:58,331
please, we definitely want to be part of BTC Prague because it was great.

722
00:47:58,736 --> 00:48:04,596
For us to come to learn, to share our knowledge and to understand what are

723
00:48:04,596 --> 00:48:09,616
the differences so we can maybe adapt somehow to enlarge our, our reach and

724
00:48:09,646 --> 00:48:13,706
audience and orange pill may be faster and more effective because, you know,

725
00:48:13,706 --> 00:48:18,496
we do not need to reinvent the wheel in every single European country.

726
00:48:18,496 --> 00:48:24,081
And, uh, mostly now, you know, when we are heading into the AI era, And

727
00:48:24,081 --> 00:48:28,521
probably in like one year, or maybe two years, I don't know, I would be

728
00:48:28,521 --> 00:48:33,111
able to do such a recording like we are having here now, and nobody would be

729
00:48:33,131 --> 00:48:35,321
able to recognize if it's true or not.

730
00:48:36,066 --> 00:48:39,286
But meeting and seeing people face to face on the conference, you

731
00:48:39,286 --> 00:48:41,106
know, there's like a huge trust.

732
00:48:41,426 --> 00:48:45,410
It's another level of, which people are usually complaining, hey, why, why

733
00:48:45,410 --> 00:48:46,850
shall I spend money on the conference?

734
00:48:47,260 --> 00:48:50,040
Because there's like overhead expenses of getting there, getting

735
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:51,870
yourself accommodated and everything.

736
00:48:52,435 --> 00:48:55,435
But come on, you can be sure that you are meeting the people, when you

737
00:48:55,435 --> 00:48:59,135
are meeting the people face to face, that they are, they are real, right?

738
00:48:59,135 --> 00:49:04,515
That they are not, uh, AI created, uh, deepfaking you or, or whatever.

739
00:49:04,575 --> 00:49:08,905
So, uh, there are like many layers, like events, conferences.

740
00:49:09,807 --> 00:49:15,577
mostly smaller meetups and, uh, all that stuff are so important basically.

741
00:49:15,697 --> 00:49:15,897
Yeah.

742
00:49:16,566 --> 00:49:18,486
yeah, that's so true.

743
00:49:18,486 --> 00:49:22,286
The thing you said about, like, we agree on, on nine things out of 10,

744
00:49:22,596 --> 00:49:24,836
like that's what I think separate.

745
00:49:24,896 --> 00:49:29,076
One of the things that separates Bitcoiners from, from, uh, other people,

746
00:49:29,396 --> 00:49:34,696
uh, is that instead of, being hostile against people with other opinions,

747
00:49:35,356 --> 00:49:37,336
uh, we know that we align on 90%.

748
00:49:37,336 --> 00:49:41,316
So we try to find that 10 percent we disagree about because we know

749
00:49:41,316 --> 00:49:42,466
there's something to learn there.

750
00:49:43,251 --> 00:49:45,841
we, we know that that's, that's the interesting discussion.

751
00:49:45,851 --> 00:49:49,491
It happens right there because that other person has done the

752
00:49:49,491 --> 00:49:51,231
work to understand this thing.

753
00:49:51,521 --> 00:49:55,211
So obviously it's not a dumb person that is not worth talking to.

754
00:49:55,221 --> 00:49:59,501
This person is worth talking to and we can learn something here.

755
00:49:59,801 --> 00:50:03,421
And I, I think that's just a fantastic aspect of hanging out

756
00:50:03,451 --> 00:50:06,471
with other Bitcoiners and especially in real life, you can get into

757
00:50:06,471 --> 00:50:10,401
these deep, deep conversations that are so rewarding to just.

758
00:50:10,956 --> 00:50:13,206
It's very rewarding to be around Bitcoiners, it's,

759
00:50:13,236 --> 00:50:14,396
it's, it's the best thing.

760
00:50:14,849 --> 00:50:16,959
And that's the best on Bitcoin, Ross.

761
00:50:16,959 --> 00:50:19,649
On Bitcoin, the people, you know, that's, that's definitely the best.

762
00:50:19,659 --> 00:50:19,929
Yeah.

763
00:50:20,004 --> 00:50:21,624
Because we are, are bitcoins.

764
00:50:21,879 --> 00:50:22,089
Yeah.

765
00:50:22,434 --> 00:50:24,464
There's two aspects of the same thing.

766
00:50:25,359 --> 00:50:27,699
Yeah, I cannot agree more, Knut.

767
00:50:27,779 --> 00:50:28,109
Yes.

768
00:50:28,590 --> 00:50:29,280
Fantastic.

769
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:33,750
Well, so, uh, with, with BT c Prague, uh, coming up here, I, I mean,

770
00:50:33,755 --> 00:50:35,760
uh, it, it's gonna be about, uh.

771
00:50:36,295 --> 00:50:41,395
Uh, two months at the time we released this, uh, anything important you can,

772
00:50:41,395 --> 00:50:46,315
uh, you can tell our listeners, uh, about, about BTCProg, and by the way,

773
00:50:46,315 --> 00:50:51,535
we, uh, we have a code if you want to get tickets, uh, code FREEDOM.

774
00:50:52,015 --> 00:50:57,945
Uh, for a discount and, uh, yeah, so, uh, but any other, uh, key information and

775
00:50:57,945 --> 00:51:01,375
make sure to, uh, leave a comment, let us know what you think, uh, like, subscribe

776
00:51:01,375 --> 00:51:02,985
and brush your teeth, uh, all that stuff.

777
00:51:02,985 --> 00:51:04,095
I love when I get to say that.

778
00:51:04,545 --> 00:51:08,985
Um, yeah, Martin, can you tell us any more, uh, key information about,

779
00:51:09,295 --> 00:51:11,665
uh, about the conference, uh, coming up here in a couple of months?

780
00:51:12,325 --> 00:51:12,715
Yeah.

781
00:51:12,725 --> 00:51:16,935
Uh, the basic and the most important thing is, uh, is the people, you know,

782
00:51:16,935 --> 00:51:23,245
and we've talked it through already that you cannot learn, share, network, and

783
00:51:23,245 --> 00:51:26,575
have fun as much as on the conference.

784
00:51:26,665 --> 00:51:31,285
And, uh, I'm biased, you know, I don't want to talk about BTC Prague itself.

785
00:51:31,315 --> 00:51:33,275
Of course, for me, it's like a no brainer.

786
00:51:33,835 --> 00:51:35,715
But, uh, Okay.

787
00:51:35,865 --> 00:51:37,515
Like a small sales window.

788
00:51:37,515 --> 00:51:37,765
Yeah.

789
00:51:39,385 --> 00:51:41,105
It's the best conference in Europe.

790
00:51:41,115 --> 00:51:44,595
Basically, like, really, we, we really work hard to be curate every

791
00:51:44,595 --> 00:51:46,925
single speaker, every single partner.

792
00:51:46,995 --> 00:51:50,855
We really, we really love people and the energy and the positive

793
00:51:50,865 --> 00:51:55,275
vibe of having people around and together for like tens of years.

794
00:51:55,745 --> 00:51:57,985
So we really think how people will it.

795
00:51:58,740 --> 00:52:01,050
Move how they will flow in the venue.

796
00:52:01,230 --> 00:52:04,110
Is there something important involved of spending a minute?

797
00:52:04,110 --> 00:52:05,820
If not, let's put something there.

798
00:52:05,820 --> 00:52:08,510
You know, is beer close enough?

799
00:52:08,540 --> 00:52:10,970
If not, let's put another beer stent there.

800
00:52:10,975 --> 00:52:11,420
You know?

801
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:13,520
And we are really thinking about like.

802
00:52:14,385 --> 00:52:15,115
People first.

803
00:52:15,355 --> 00:52:16,725
That's the most important.

804
00:52:16,725 --> 00:52:19,755
And I believe that that's the reason why we were able to deliver

805
00:52:19,755 --> 00:52:23,315
such a successful, even on the first shot, actually last year.

806
00:52:23,865 --> 00:52:29,395
And, uh, so that's like a theory, but, uh, come on, you know,

807
00:52:29,395 --> 00:52:31,055
Praxe is in the middle of Europe.

808
00:52:31,085 --> 00:52:33,185
It's like easy to access from anywhere.

809
00:52:33,975 --> 00:52:34,885
It's really wonderful.

810
00:52:34,935 --> 00:52:40,345
So, uh, people who were there can probably confirm and, uh, if they haven't been

811
00:52:40,355 --> 00:52:42,115
there, it's good to give it a try.

812
00:52:42,485 --> 00:52:45,305
It's quite, the prices are quite reasonable.

813
00:52:45,335 --> 00:52:46,225
The beer is good.

814
00:52:46,335 --> 00:52:47,345
Summer is really nice.

815
00:52:47,385 --> 00:52:51,095
It's not really hot, but it's like still okay to wear shorts and t

816
00:52:51,095 --> 00:52:52,745
shirts for, you know, Whole day.

817
00:52:53,145 --> 00:52:59,315
And that great Bitcoin history of Prague and our non giving shit policy in Czech

818
00:52:59,315 --> 00:53:04,335
Republic is, uh, is unprecedented and it's, it's hard to describe it, but people

819
00:53:04,355 --> 00:53:06,275
really need, need to live it, I would say.

820
00:53:06,947 --> 00:53:09,827
Yeah, Prague, Prague is amazing in itself.

821
00:53:09,947 --> 00:53:12,677
The food is great, the beer is spectacular.

822
00:53:12,957 --> 00:53:17,557
And, yeah, so it's worth visiting anyway, but especially if you're

823
00:53:17,557 --> 00:53:18,647
going to the Bitcoin Conference.

824
00:53:18,927 --> 00:53:23,612
Like we talked about, uh, what's the name of that other city?

825
00:53:23,992 --> 00:53:26,082
where you had the Czech consul, Ostrava.

826
00:53:26,382 --> 00:53:27,032
Uh, yeah.

827
00:53:27,102 --> 00:53:29,462
Halfway to Ostrava is Brno, right?

828
00:53:29,712 --> 00:53:30,042
Yes.

829
00:53:30,042 --> 00:53:30,342
Bruno?

830
00:53:30,502 --> 00:53:31,932
so here is a final question.

831
00:53:31,942 --> 00:53:36,632
Do you know, uh, what kind of event happens in Brno on a yearly

832
00:53:36,632 --> 00:53:38,932
basis on the 4th of January?

833
00:53:39,529 --> 00:53:40,159
Oh, wow.

834
00:53:40,219 --> 00:53:42,019
I have no idea, to be honest.

835
00:53:42,279 --> 00:53:47,249
It's the International Silly Walks March, where people dress up as

836
00:53:47,249 --> 00:53:51,599
young cleats in a suit and with a suitcase and does the silly walk.

837
00:53:51,599 --> 00:53:54,599
So there's a bunch of Czechs doing a silly walk march.

838
00:53:55,199 --> 00:53:59,779
Uh, yeah, uh, I thought the ice were taking care of the walks being

839
00:53:59,779 --> 00:54:02,479
silly anyway in January, but yeah.

840
00:54:02,609 --> 00:54:04,739
Anyway, haven't been yet.

841
00:54:04,899 --> 00:54:06,629
That's another event we should go to, Luke.

842
00:54:07,569 --> 00:54:07,779
Yeah.

843
00:54:08,109 --> 00:54:09,609
Let's go there next year, guys.

844
00:54:09,609 --> 00:54:09,879
Yeah.

845
00:54:10,149 --> 00:54:12,219
And, and Bruno is, Bruno is great.

846
00:54:12,399 --> 00:54:13,299
Really great city.

847
00:54:13,299 --> 00:54:16,989
Really wonderful and not so crowded, uh, with tourists.

848
00:54:17,989 --> 00:54:19,129
Really enjoy everyone.

849
00:54:20,599 --> 00:54:22,049
Yeah, I want to go there.

850
00:54:22,129 --> 00:54:25,899
I want to explore Czechia more, Czech Republic.

851
00:54:26,625 --> 00:54:26,805
Yeah.

852
00:54:26,805 --> 00:54:27,825
Chicks are great guys.

853
00:54:27,825 --> 00:54:28,485
Uh, I dunno.

854
00:54:28,545 --> 00:54:28,695
Uh.

855
00:54:29,325 --> 00:54:32,855
Uh, I saw that there was some kind of experiment on the YouTube.

856
00:54:33,405 --> 00:54:38,565
I can, I can Google it later, but, uh, there were like two guys, uh,

857
00:54:38,585 --> 00:54:42,725
driving around the Europe stopping in every major capital and doing the

858
00:54:42,745 --> 00:54:45,185
experiment with like fake cocaine.

859
00:54:45,235 --> 00:54:49,795
So they've found like the biggest, most famous park in every single

860
00:54:49,795 --> 00:54:52,015
city, sat there on the bench.

861
00:54:52,540 --> 00:54:57,140
They took a cell phone and did like the few lines of that fake cocaine

862
00:54:57,750 --> 00:55:02,170
and stop and measuring the time until the police will come, you know, and

863
00:55:02,170 --> 00:55:07,400
in Sweden it was like two minutes or kind of, and in other countries it was

864
00:55:07,410 --> 00:55:12,650
usually like below five minutes and in Czech Republic it took 25 actually.

865
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:17,440
And when police came and just looked like this, uh, and they turned around

866
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:21,720
and walked away again, yeah, so we really do not give a shit unless you

867
00:55:21,720 --> 00:55:26,290
really bother someone, which is really great, and nobody really cares about

868
00:55:26,290 --> 00:55:30,510
Czech Republic, so it's really nice place to spend some time and even maybe

869
00:55:30,510 --> 00:55:35,770
consider living here because it's a calm place, uh, Really hidden of everything,

870
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:37,860
you know, but still, still quite nice.

871
00:55:39,075 --> 00:55:43,645
Yeah, there's something to be said there for, like, Sweden has some of the most

872
00:55:43,655 --> 00:55:46,825
harsh drug policies in all of Europe.

873
00:55:46,985 --> 00:55:51,595
So the prison sentences are long if you're, if they catch you with drugs.

874
00:55:52,125 --> 00:55:56,635
And also Sweden has the highest number of deaths from overdoses.

875
00:55:57,385 --> 00:56:01,465
So there's something to be said there for the efficiency of prohibition.

876
00:56:02,260 --> 00:56:02,820
So I mean,

877
00:56:04,770 --> 00:56:09,570
Yeah, I used to live in Finland, so I still remember how it was actually, okay,

878
00:56:09,570 --> 00:56:14,970
the beer is not worth of buying, like at least the local one, but I remember how

879
00:56:15,010 --> 00:56:19,020
crazy they drank then, you know, and, and those, and those drinking cruise,

880
00:56:19,140 --> 00:56:23,240
cruise ships, that was actually quite, quite interesting to, to experience once.

881
00:56:23,600 --> 00:56:25,070
How long did you live in Finland?

882
00:56:25,070 --> 00:56:25,110
I

883
00:56:25,299 --> 00:56:28,469
Yeah, for, for six years when I was kid, I even attended

884
00:56:28,469 --> 00:56:30,359
primary school there in, in Espo,

885
00:56:30,885 --> 00:56:31,245
Wow.

886
00:56:31,245 --> 00:56:31,725
Okay.

887
00:56:31,725 --> 00:56:32,145
Okay.

888
00:56:32,195 --> 00:56:32,645
Well, yeah.

889
00:56:33,695 --> 00:56:34,255
Okay.

890
00:56:34,385 --> 00:56:35,515
Um, interesting.

891
00:56:35,645 --> 00:56:36,985
How did, how did you end up there?

892
00:56:37,679 --> 00:56:40,159
Yeah, my father, uh, he worked and did science.

893
00:56:40,159 --> 00:56:44,429
He followed my grandfather's steps and he was invited to finish his

894
00:56:44,479 --> 00:56:49,889
PhD in Helsinki and he worked on some, uh, steel improvement, uh,

895
00:56:49,939 --> 00:56:52,049
quality proposal with sweets.

896
00:56:52,594 --> 00:56:57,684
With Sweden, uh, in, uh, University of Alvar Aalto in, in, in Helsinki.

897
00:56:57,854 --> 00:56:58,094
Yeah.

898
00:56:58,544 --> 00:57:00,644
So we've moved there as a whole family.

899
00:57:00,804 --> 00:57:01,034
Yeah.

900
00:57:01,084 --> 00:57:05,864
is the grandfather who just casually invented a couple of aluminum alloys.

901
00:57:06,144 --> 00:57:06,554
Yes.

902
00:57:06,584 --> 00:57:06,854
Yes.

903
00:57:06,944 --> 00:57:07,214
. Yes.

904
00:57:07,854 --> 00:57:08,564
Yeah.

905
00:57:08,564 --> 00:57:09,274
Yeah.

906
00:57:09,704 --> 00:57:10,464
Cool history.

907
00:57:10,674 --> 00:57:10,984
Yeah.

908
00:57:11,375 --> 00:57:11,745
Oh, yeah.

909
00:57:11,745 --> 00:57:13,195
But, uh, no, I agree with you though.

910
00:57:13,195 --> 00:57:17,795
I mean, like the, uh, the beers are, are definitely no, no comparison, but

911
00:57:18,115 --> 00:57:21,175
there's some other, uh, interesting, interesting things, but the

912
00:57:21,175 --> 00:57:23,069
community isn't nearly as, uh, yeah.

913
00:57:23,550 --> 00:57:29,270
As big in Finland as it is in Czech Republic, there's some work to do up

914
00:57:29,270 --> 00:57:31,980
here, but lots of great people, though.

915
00:57:32,550 --> 00:57:37,610
I think there's usually a lot of Finns make it to all the conferences as well.

916
00:57:37,630 --> 00:57:39,380
So that's, that's pretty good.

917
00:57:39,380 --> 00:57:43,740
And I actually have another question about coming to, since you mentioned

918
00:57:43,740 --> 00:57:46,280
living in the Czech Republic.

919
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:50,010
Yeah, like, I guess this is this is a topic that comes up more

920
00:57:50,010 --> 00:57:51,550
with with Bitcoiners these days.

921
00:57:51,550 --> 00:57:52,040
This sort of.

922
00:57:52,515 --> 00:57:54,455
So-called flag theory thing.

923
00:57:54,455 --> 00:57:57,875
That, that if you can, if you can live somewhere else or get another

924
00:57:57,875 --> 00:58:00,485
passport or, or something, uh, yeah.

925
00:58:00,490 --> 00:58:02,225
That, that can be beneficial.

926
00:58:02,545 --> 00:58:06,555
Um, and I think there are some, some prominent bitcoiners, I won't dox 'em or

927
00:58:06,555 --> 00:58:08,505
anything, but, but to who, who have moved.

928
00:58:08,505 --> 00:58:09,195
So yeah.

929
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:14,985
I, I Is it, is it a good, good place to, um, to, to move as a, as a foreigner?

930
00:58:14,985 --> 00:58:15,975
Is it, is it easy to.

931
00:58:17,085 --> 00:58:21,155
Live, uh, would it be only in Prague, uh, or other places?

932
00:58:21,675 --> 00:58:22,315
Tell us more.

933
00:58:22,674 --> 00:58:23,404
good question.

934
00:58:23,404 --> 00:58:28,789
I believe that, like, being like European Union, Habitant, it's actually

935
00:58:28,789 --> 00:58:33,439
easy for you to travel anywhere in the European Union and get a job and get an

936
00:58:33,439 --> 00:58:37,119
accommodation and do basically whatever.

937
00:58:37,769 --> 00:58:42,639
Finding a job while being a foreigner in Prague is not a big deal, you know.

938
00:58:43,039 --> 00:58:46,029
Many, many foreign companies have their headquarters there.

939
00:58:46,544 --> 00:58:51,264
And, uh, like even working with English first is, is, is easy

940
00:58:51,464 --> 00:58:55,434
and, but it's definitely not a standard in, in other cities.

941
00:58:55,604 --> 00:59:00,684
Like, for example, here in, uh, Ostrava, like being a non Czech speaker

942
00:59:00,904 --> 00:59:05,324
living here and trying to find, uh, like, Um, relevant or proper job

943
00:59:05,714 --> 00:59:07,744
might not be really easy, actually.

944
00:59:07,864 --> 00:59:12,824
So Prague, of course, other cities, maybe I would start from different perspective,

945
00:59:12,824 --> 00:59:15,774
maybe find a job first and move after.

946
00:59:16,184 --> 00:59:21,974
But if you just can do Bitcoin and work remotely and work online without having a

947
00:59:21,974 --> 00:59:25,864
need to go to the office, like physically, oh, come on, like Czech Republic is

948
00:59:25,864 --> 00:59:27,604
a really nice place to be, to be in.

949
00:59:27,614 --> 00:59:27,734
Yes.

950
00:59:28,451 --> 00:59:29,201
Fantastic.

951
00:59:29,481 --> 00:59:29,971
Good to hear.

952
00:59:29,971 --> 00:59:34,761
I mean, uh, more people, uh, should, uh, just come to BTC Prague, use,

953
00:59:34,921 --> 00:59:38,821
use code FREEDOM for your tickets and, uh, check the place out and,

954
00:59:38,821 --> 00:59:42,711
uh, and, uh, yeah, so, uh, great.

955
00:59:42,761 --> 00:59:47,171
Uh, Martin, can't wait to, to come see you again in, uh, in a couple

956
00:59:47,171 --> 00:59:48,981
of months in your home territory.

957
00:59:49,426 --> 00:59:52,996
Uh, BTC Prague, fantastic last year, can't wait this year.

958
00:59:53,416 --> 00:59:58,876
Uh, anything else you'd like to, uh, to, uh, direct our listeners towards

959
00:59:58,876 --> 01:00:02,616
or, or, uh, mention about, uh, the conference that you haven't already?

960
01:00:03,621 --> 01:00:08,561
Yeah, just, uh, take some of your friends maybe with you, but, no, no, come on,

961
01:00:08,601 --> 01:00:12,941
yeah, like, just, first thing, guys, I like what you do, and Freedom Footprint,

962
01:00:12,941 --> 01:00:18,151
it's, uh, just that saying is, uh, prove that you are on the right track, we

963
01:00:18,151 --> 01:00:23,161
should, we should really take care of the freedom of the, uh, Self, we should be

964
01:00:23,161 --> 01:00:29,031
self sovereign, we should take our private data safe as in the name of the freedom.

965
01:00:29,041 --> 01:00:31,021
You know, that's what we are losing the most.

966
01:00:31,241 --> 01:00:31,571
Yeah.

967
01:00:32,631 --> 01:00:35,661
So just, uh, stay strong on, on that mission.

968
01:00:36,373 --> 01:00:38,013
You can count on us to do that.

969
01:00:38,063 --> 01:00:39,123
Like, that's what we do.

970
01:00:39,123 --> 01:00:41,133
We try to release freedom dioxide here.

971
01:00:41,863 --> 01:00:47,243
Uh, yes, to prevent global laming, uh, because that sucks.

972
01:00:47,623 --> 01:00:48,123
So,

973
01:00:48,338 --> 01:00:48,648
Yeah.

974
01:00:49,863 --> 01:00:50,733
yeah, all right.

975
01:00:51,093 --> 01:00:52,623
Well, Martin, this has been great.

976
01:00:52,693 --> 01:00:56,493
Uh, me also, like, I, I can just echo what Luke said.

977
01:00:56,533 --> 01:01:00,483
I'm looking forward a lot to seeing you again in Prague and seeing everyone

978
01:01:00,483 --> 01:01:04,623
else and stumbling upon those beer taps that you have planted everywhere

979
01:01:04,778 --> 01:01:05,048
Yeah.

980
01:01:05,173 --> 01:01:06,013
In the conference.

981
01:01:06,023 --> 01:01:08,763
So like, uh, yeah, truly looking forward to it.

982
01:01:09,343 --> 01:01:13,813
Uh, all the best and good luck with all the preparations and, uh, yeah.

983
01:01:13,813 --> 01:01:17,313
Use code, code freedom, and we'll start chilling that a lot more.

984
01:01:17,453 --> 01:01:17,823
Uh,

985
01:01:18,848 --> 01:01:18,988
Yeah.

986
01:01:18,988 --> 01:01:20,588
Thank you very much for the invitation.

987
01:01:20,588 --> 01:01:22,628
It was a great, uh, to talk with you guys.

988
01:01:22,628 --> 01:01:24,758
Thank you once again and see you soon in Prague.

989
01:01:25,373 --> 01:01:26,173
Right back at you.

990
01:01:26,363 --> 01:01:26,503
See

991
01:01:26,563 --> 01:01:27,283
Likewise, Martin.

992
01:01:27,288 --> 01:01:27,398
Bye.

993
01:01:27,398 --> 01:01:27,418
Bye.

994
01:01:27,418 --> 01:01:27,808
Bye.

995
01:01:28,403 --> 01:01:30,013
This has been the Freedom Footprint Show.

996
01:01:30,393 --> 01:01:31,283
Thanks for listening.