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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
And now Capital Chat on KINY, where we connect you with Juneau and Southeast Alaska's community organizations only on KINY.
Speaker 2:And good morning, Juneau. KINY ninety four point nine FM and always 800. I'm Justin Miller coming at you for capital chat this morning from the Goldbug Tram Studio. And this morning, we have Wade Hook who is part of the Bitcoin Alaska conference, which is a big thing going on here very soon in the coming week and a half I wanna say. I don't have a calendar in front of me but Wade, welcome to the studio.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:So first off, I know earlier when we had you on Cap Chat the last week or so, we kinda jumped in a little bit. But for those that might have missed that episode or tuned into that day, what's kinda the basics of what sparked the idea of this conference going on here in Juneau?
Speaker 3:So I just see Bitcoin as being the the next big thing in the state of Alaska. It gives us the ability to monetize energy without having to export it. So when you're looking at things like a traditional gas line or hydro, like, you have to build the rails to get that energy to to whoever's gonna use it. Mhmm. So if you're looking at exporting it from the state of Alaska to another country down south or or any other use case, Bitcoin provides you the ability to monetize that energy as a buyer of last resort on-site.
Speaker 3:Okay. So when you're looking at if you're looking at building out a hydro plant or a geothermal, you're able to harness that energy. And before you build the rails out to the user, you're able to start monetizing that energy so you have the the invest so you have the money to build out the rails to businesses, residences, or even down south.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's definitely one way to think about it. I'm trying to like wrap my head around that for so like monetizing Bitcoin as far as like energy per se, how would we go about that?
Speaker 3:So if you have excess water hydro, you don't have to just run the water over the spillway and not have a buyer of that energy.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:You hook up a Bitcoin miner on-site and you'll be able to monetize all the energy that goes over the spillway. Oh, Did the dam.
Speaker 2:That's that's definitely really interesting. So how do we think Bitcoin matters to Alaskans as far as like folks that might not stay up to date with things that goes on with Bitcoin or how do they like, especially those who might not fully understand or follow things, but how how can that matter to us everyday Alaskans?
Speaker 3:So if you want to get ahead in this world, you have to you're you're battling monetary debasement. You're battling inflation.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So if you look at the cost of a home in dollars in 2017, it was I think it was the mean the median was $350,000 for a home. Yeah. You look at it, you know, today, we're looking at $550 plus. Whereas back then, it was I think it was 1,150 Bitcoin.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And now it's under 20 Bitcoin. So your home isn't going up in value. It's going up in price because there's all of the the things that happen to your home over time and no longer has a new roof. It's not like you're you're probably gonna have mold in your walls if you live in Southeast Alaska. And Alaskans, especially in the remote areas, are affected disproportionately by monetary debasement, by inflation.
Speaker 3:So this gives people the ability to opt out of inflation and store their value in something that is absolutely scarce. Because scarcity is what actually derives value.
Speaker 2:And I think that's probably one thing that many homeowners have that fear or like that worry. So having something to kind of have a little more faith in, as I want to say, towards a financial stability for someone. And I think that's a great kind of segue to folks that who have only heard about Bitcoin in context of like hype or other senses. I hate to use the word influencers like that kind of push Bitcoin, but how would you explain a real world use? Cannot talk this morning, I didn't have my coffee this morning but it's potential for anyone, whether it's be a home buyer or a small business owner, what could be the potential behind that?
Speaker 3:So if you store your money in your pillowcase, even if you're storing your money in your pillowcase, it goes down in value. The value is stripped away when more money is created. So if you if you wanna get ahead in this world, Bitcoin's not a get rich quick scheme, though though we are on the early adoption phase. So yes, you're going to disproportionately benefit from an investment in it, know, as far as I believe based off the scarcity and the adoption. But it's not a pump and dump scam.
Speaker 3:It's a set of rules that people have accepted in the mining and the node node community so that it is very hard to change how it functions, which is good from an investment standpoint because you don't want something that anybody can change, you know, at any given time, which is basically how our financial system in The US works. Mhmm. So with a fixed set of rules, it gives us the ability to invest over time. The dollar, I think, lost 99.8% of its value over the last hundred years. And with Bitcoin, as we're in the early adoption phase, it goes up in value against the dollar as we have more adoption.
Speaker 2:Okay. As far as I know we've talked about this last time when we had you on Cav Chat, but like as far as a dollar equal to a Bitcoin, what was that again?
Speaker 3:Right now, I think it's so when Bitcoin hits a million dollars and I have no doubt it will, it'll be 100 Satoshis will be equal to a dollar. Right now it's a thousand Satoshis to a dollar. So Satoshi is one one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin.
Speaker 2:Okay. I think. Yeah, I remember you showing me that little wallet app and kind of explaining that to me last time we were on the show. And yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to learning a little bit more about how Bitcoin can influence not only a personal life, but as far as community wise and looking at the lineup of, I was looking at your website for this conference. And if you're interested in learning more about this conference, go to bitcoinalaska.org and it could give you a lot more information.
Speaker 2:So you have a quite the impressive lineup of speakers and we're kind of talking about that last time you're on Capital Chat. But tell me about how you kind of got connected with all these different speakers that are being involved in this conference.
Speaker 3:So initially I was, I joined, I've been in Bitcoin for a decade. And initially I began communicating with a gentleman by the name of Alex Stanzik through Cafe B. He's a managing director of Swan Bitcoin. He's just a good human. He's also a military veteran.
Speaker 3:And through that, some veterans came together and formed the Bitcoin veteran community. Okay. Military veterans who who disproportionately, it seems that military veterans fall into this space. Probably, it seems like we didn't know, realize how many until they had formed the group, but I think some 20% or 25% of Bitcoiners
Speaker 2:Are veterans.
Speaker 3:Are military veterans. I guess when you they see the need and they understand the value of it more than other people because Bitcoin actually disincentivizes things like war. Mhmm. So if you can't print money to infinity to fund war, it it disincentivizes people from fighting those wars. Vets gravitate towards it.
Speaker 2:All right. And I noticed that you had representative Nick Baggage delivering some speeches during this conference as well. What can we look forward to as far as what Senator Baggage might be talking about during this conference?
Speaker 3:He's been in the space since 2014. Oh, I think he's been in Bitcoin longer than I have. He understands that at a fundamental level. It was Senator Lummis of Wyoming who introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act before the Senate side of Congress. And it turns out our lone Alaska representative understands it better than any other representative across the country, it seems.
Speaker 3:As Bitcoin goes up against value, in value against all other assets, the ability to pay for things, if you were to, if anybody out there is interested, just plug in ChatGPT and ask if you dollar cost average $5,000,000,000 a year over the course of four to five years, what the value of that Bitcoin would be today. And you can plug in any segment of time anywhere from say 2016 through today. And you could see what would happen if we'd invest $5,000,000,000 a year, dollar cost averaging the same amount every day over the course of that period of time. And whether or not that would actually pay for the services that we have to offer here in the state of Alaska. Things like that are important for us to realize so that we can better our state and provide jobs and value to the world.
Speaker 2:Wow. So definitely I think, would you encourage like local, like to say assembly members or is that legislative folks here in the capital city to attend this conference as far as to kind of maybe gain a little more insight or more knowledge about Bitcoin that they might not have really thought of? Is that something that you're kinda encouraging local folks to attend as far as like if they're affiliated in some sort of local government to learn more about this?
Speaker 3:This asset benefits everyone. So they should definitely be from a from a worldview, the humanity viewpoint of banking six and a half billion people and providing energy to to villages across Africa or South America. Or if you wanna look at it in community level, can fund city government or state level state government, federal level, the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act, the goal of it is to to tackle the deficit. And if from a personal standpoint, it it's gone up faster than I believe any other asset over the last decade. So if you wanna better your life, or if your community wants to better the lives of its citizens or the state, this is a very important conference.
Speaker 3:Bringing these speakers here was not easy. These are, you know, the head of the Human Rights Foundation bringing them to Juneau, Alaska. And we have a lot of people who can talk about many different topics of this asset. So you can learn about whether it's monetizing energy, human rights, you can understand how it can pay for the deficits. This is or just betters your life, allows you to store your value.
Speaker 3:And so at some point you'll be able to buy a home because in this climate, the younger generation, it's getting disproportionately more difficult for them to be able to ever own anything.
Speaker 2:And I'm kind of part of that demographic, sadly to say, but I totally understand that. And kind of we've talked quite a bit about is Bitcoin. What is Bitcoin? How can it positively affect our local life or our personal life? But this, I kinda wanna shift gears and remind folks that this conference is going on from July 1 through the sixth and there's but your main kind of conference like highlights of fifth and sixth, but you have such so many different little events going on during this conference.
Speaker 2:Can you break down maybe your most favorite one that you're looking forward to attending during this conference?
Speaker 3:So the goal was to create kind of a mixer element rather than a conference where people have to spend a lot of money to attend. You'll be able to get out there and meet the people who are speaking at the conference at these free mixing events. The first one is Tuesday, looking forward to the run up to the glacier. We're just gonna start at the visitor center, do a run to the glacier, do a plunge in the water if you're if you're interested.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice.
Speaker 3:We have a no fire range day event. It's basically firearms education on that day as well, Tuesday the first. The run's free. The training is put on by Paladin Tower Tactics out of Tennessee. They're coming up here to teach it and it's only a $100.
Speaker 3:Then on the second, we have the all day picnic out at Akret. Come grab a burger, walk the beach, meet the speakers. Commissioner Krum won't be there. Congressman Baggage won't be there at the picnic, but the other most of the other speakers will be. And then karaoke that night at Squires.
Speaker 3:So I wanted to create an element where people actually got to get to know the people on a personal level and not put this conference in a bubble like you'd have in other cities where people in the city it was funny. I went down to Nashville for the conference not last year, where it was last year. And I was at the airport talking to the person at the rental car counter, and they didn't know who was coming to town at the time. There were some really big political names coming to Nashville for that conference. But they had no idea because that's the bubble that's created around conferences in the big cities.
Speaker 3:And I wanted to break that bubble here.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like sneaky, like, oh, we're going to throw a conference in here and no one's going to know about it except for those that are kinda involved in it. But I'm glad that you're taking that approach with this conference. Like, hey, I want everyone to meet everyone and mingle with them. It's not don't totally treat them like celebrities. They're human beings, like be friends with them.
Speaker 2:And I love that aspect of the conference that you're trying to throw forth. And it's like, I think that's more gravitating in itself to be able to personally link up with these people, have a conversation, have a beverage with them, drink a beer with them. I don't know. But it's just like actually get connected with these folks and learn and pick their brains, which not a lot of conferences give you that opportunity. Like I've seen similar things go on across Alaska and Juno here.
Speaker 2:And it's like, show up, hear them talk and that's it. You don't get to like ask them questions or anything like that. So I think it's really great that you're doing it that way for this whole it's almost a week, I wanna say a week of Bitcoin.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The the conference down in Vegas that we just the Bitcoin magazine just had the biggest conference in the world. And for that conference was $12,500 for a well pass. So you'd be able to go backstage and meet these these speakers. And then for the premium well pass, it was $25.
Speaker 3:Okay. And for here, I'm bringing in most of the same speakers, sure it doesn't have Michael Saylor or Jack Mollers, you know, we tried. But we do have like Alex Gladstein and some other incredible speakers. For us, like I picked up the cruise up Tracy Yarn for $800. Go on a cruise with these people.
Speaker 3:That's the whale pass. You have all day to pick their brain out on a beautiful tour or just go to one of the free events and see him speak. It's a $150 to go to Centennial Hall. It's a two day pass. So there's gonna be we're gonna be teaching everything from basic economics with free market kids to Gabe Lord.
Speaker 3:He's got operation Bitcoin and Bitcoin veterans. We're gonna be pulling military vets. We're gonna have classes on how to buy and store Bitcoin on a cold storage wallet off offline. So Okay. You're safe.
Speaker 3:And then all the speakers.
Speaker 2:That's always been a thing I've always heard about Bitcoin, as long as as long as Bitcoin's been around, have your Bitcoin on separate hard drive, like have a totally separate and totally locked away. Like like that's your safe, like put it on your hard drive, lock it away. And it's like, I think that's, can you kind of break that down for me as far as why folks that involve with Bitcoin do it that way as far as a security risk or is it more so just like access to it?
Speaker 3:There's a lot of different things about it. The I suggest that if any for those that really wanna take it seriously, you know, you wanna start by purchasing, you're gonna have to purchase from somebody or mine it, which is it it costs you more to mine it than it does to just buy it.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because the people who do mine it have virtually zero cost energy. And how much do you pay for your energy at home? Right. So if you once you have Bitcoin, you wanna get it off an exchange. So you move it over to a cold storage wallet.
Speaker 3:If you leave it on the exchange, there's no telling what they're gonna do with it. You a lot of places, we've heard of all the scandals with FTX. But even before FTX, there was there've been so many exchanges that have gone under from Mt. Gox to FTX. There's I think it's been like 20 or 30, like a massive amount.
Speaker 3:Those exchanges generally dealing coins besides Bitcoin, other tokens that
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:That I don't believe hold any value.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:So with FTX, I think when they finally went under, they only found one Bitcoin on the exchange. Oh, wow. And of all the hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins they were supposed to be holding, they'd take that Bitcoin and they'd never buy it. They just put your name on a spreadsheet and buy other things with your money and can it in different ways. So it was real nefarious.
Speaker 3:I don't know exactly what happened, but it wasn't good. So in order to keep that from happening to you, if you take your Bitcoin and you move it off their platform and on your cold storage wallet, there is Bitcoin there.
Speaker 2:You are,
Speaker 3:you know, it is now custodied by you. So you force them to buy it. If they're not, you now have custody of it. Nobody can take that from you. It's you're the only one with the keys to that Bitcoin.
Speaker 2:That's great. And that's a great way to do it. A little more security as far as your finances go. And I feel like, obviously, you won't have to throw a bank under the bus, but you put your money in a bank that you're still paying interest on stuff or something you gotta maintain a relative like amount within your thing or sometimes you have to pay more. And so like this definitely gives you a little more security as far as your own finances go.
Speaker 2:So I I think that's a great way for folks that are looking to get into Bitcoin and have a little bit more security as far as, like, how their money is gonna be managed because they're gonna be managing it. No one else is, no one's gonna touch it, have access to it. So I think it's definitely a great way. I might be a way to like pitch Bitcoin to someone's, hey, you want a little more security? But I think if you were to pitch to someone like why they should either join the conference or look into Bitcoin or how would you like say, I'm a person that wants to get into Bitcoin.
Speaker 2:How would you kind of talk to me to look into that?
Speaker 3:So if you're an advocate of the technology and and you just don't understand it, this conference is geared to take you from zero to hero in two days. Everything from the basic of the economics and how Bitcoin revolutionizes the whole industry. Or if you are anti Bitcoin, come listen to these people and come with an open mind to understand this. The only people that are gonna be hurt by fighting against adoption are the ones that don't understand what it is. And maybe they don't understand why they're fighting.
Speaker 3:Bitcoin was attacked by a lot of what we call FUD fear, uncertainty and doubt. But when you dive into the topics and you start under what it is and how what it does for humanity at a fundamental level, how it monetizes energy, which is a good thing because it incentivizes the building out of renewable energies. You you don't you don't make a lot of money by mining Bitcoin by, you know, pulling oil out of the ground. I'm sorry to say that's expensive. But for geothermal or dams, when you can build out those renewables that have a lower carbon footprint and connect those energy grids, which is especially an important thing here in Alaska.
Speaker 3:We have a whole bunch of microgrids, not like other states. So it's good for the state of Alaska. It's good for humanity. And if you are anti Bitcoin, that's fine. But just take a look, come to the conference and find out what the other side of that argument is so you can really make a an aware decision.
Speaker 3:And and as this is being adopted, in the end, if if you disagree with the premise of Bitcoin, I fully support your viewpoint. But I just want people to understand what it is that they're fighting fighting against.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's like get educated before you start fully throwing out a thought or I hate to use the word opinion on something, but yeah, get some knowledge about something and then form more of like your thought about that certain thing. I think that's a great segue to like jump into a little more about the conference. So if you're more if you're interested in learning more about what's going on in bitcoinalaska.org, you could get yourself some tickets. They have general admission tickets about a $150 and then the Whale Pass, which gets you into the conference, but also gets you on that cruise tour as well going up where, Tracy?
Speaker 2:Tracy Arm. I was about to say talk. Talk. So I have Tracy Arm. So definitely a lot of stuff to be had.
Speaker 2:It gives you more information on the schedule of events kicking off July at the conference. Main two days are the fifth and sixth. A lot of different fun events to be had before the conference actually hits and kinda get more of a get your feet in the water before you get all the information from all the different speakers. So is there anything else you wanna throw out there before we wrap things up, Wade?
Speaker 3:Just come on out, come hang out, come down to the picnic at Auk Rec on next Wednesday and just meet the speakers and walk on the beach and grab a burger.
Speaker 2:And then you can learn more about the speakers as well. Like, can I click on someone's face or no? I was looking at the website. So you can see the list of speakers and then get yourself some tickets. And then as well, if anyone has questions specific towards you, how could they get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:Shoot an email to infobitcoinalaska dot org and we'll respond to everything.
Speaker 2:All right, so again, that website is bitcoinalaska.org. The conference is going on from the first to the sixth. It's definitely going to be quite the event if you're looking into learning another way of keeping financially stable for yourself or just want to learn a different trade and maybe a different outlook on life in general. So Wade, thank you so much for joining me here on Capital Chat. We definitely dove quite deep on the program, but definitely get out there, get yourself some tickets, join in on the satellite events.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be an event to be had. And I look forward to maybe more of these events down the road. And it's gotta make this one a banger so we get keep it going and keep it happening. So Juno folks, definitely reach out and look at the website for more information. And again, thank you, Wade, for joining us here on Capital Chat this morning.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Alright. That's been Capital Chat
Speaker 1:here on KINY. You've been listening to Capital Chat on KINY, your connection to the people and organizations making a difference in Juneau in Southeast Alaska.