The Honest Money Show

🎙️ Welcome to Episode 2 of The Honest Money Show!

Our guest, Michael Dunworth, dives deep into the evolution of Bitcoin, the cultural roadblocks to adoption in Australia, and why community is the secret weapon in Bitcoin’s long-term success.

We unpack the historic block size wars, the underappreciated role of Bitcoin nodes, and how mental health, relationships, and identity are shaped through the Bitcoin lens. Michael also shares his experiences at the Bush Bash — a grassroots Bitcoin gathering that captures the spirit of the movement like nothing else.

From the differences between Bitcoin and "crypto" trading, to the existential questions raised by quantum computing, this is a wide-ranging conversation on Bitcoin’s power to reshape individuals and institutions alike.

🔗 Featured Links:

Michael’s X account: https://x.com/MichaelDunwort1
GitHub account: https://github.com/MikeD123/Energy

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Australia is lagging behind in Bitcoin adoption.
Companies are waking up to Bitcoin treasury strategies.
Bitcoin is a cultural shift, not just a financial one.
The block size wars proved the importance of decentralisation.
Nodes matter more than brands.
Bitcoin gives structure, clarity, and purpose to many people.
Quantum computing is a potential risk, but the community is prepared.
Bitcoiners form deep, fast connections through shared values.
The Bush Bash is proof that grassroots Bitcoin is alive and well.
Bitcoin fosters critical thinking, financial literacy, and emotional resilience.

⏱️ Chapters:

00:11 – Introduction and Current Events in Bitcoin
03:01 – The Evolution of Bitcoin Narratives
06:12 – Bitcoin Treasury Companies and Market Dynamics
09:16 – Bitcoin Adoption in Australia
12:00 – The Bush Bash Experience and Community Engagement
15:03 – Cultural Factors Affecting Bitcoin Adoption
17:56 – The Role of Traditional Finance in Bitcoin Understanding
21:17 – The Difference Between Bitcoin and Crypto Trading
26:25 – From Finance to Bitcoin: A Journey Begins
28:03 – Aha Moments: Understanding Bitcoin's Impact
31:55 – The Block Size Wars: A Turning Point
39:33 – Bitcoin's Fragility: The Importance of Nodes
42:02 – Bitcoin as a Precious Resource
45:04 – Cultural Connections: The Bitcoin Community
50:29 – Bitcoin: A World Group Project
56:21 – Navigating Relationships in the Bitcoin World
58:05 – The State of Mental Health and Community Connection
01:01:44 – Bitcoin as a Tool for Mental Clarity and Community
01:06:20 – The Role of Youth in Financial Innovation
01:11:56 – The Importance of Social Dynamics in Bitcoin
01:19:46 – Quantum Computing and Its Implications for Bitcoin
01:20:57 – Practical Steps for Newcomers to Bitcoin

📌 About The Honest Money Show:

The Honest Money Show explores the forces shaping our financial world, from monetary expansion and policy to Bitcoin. The podcast features in-depth conversations with thought leaders, economists, innovators, and everyday people who challenge mainstream narratives and offer grounded, actionable insights. It’s built on the belief that understanding money is key to understanding power, freedom, and the future, and that financial literacy can empower people to take control of their lives in uncertain times, offering a sense of agency in a world that often feels out of their control.

🔗 Connect with Us:

Subscribe for weekly deep dives on economic truth and financial freedom.
Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn: @HonestMoneyShow

Disclaimer: 

This podcast is for general information and educational purposes only and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. The views of the host and guests are their own and do not represent any organisation or regulatory body. Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are highly speculative and volatile. You should seek independent professional advice before making any investment decisions. By listening, you accept that all decisions are your responsibility, and neither the host, guests, nor the podcast accept liability for any loss or damage.

#Bitcoin #BitcoinCommunity #BitcoinAdoption #BlockSizeWars #FinancialLiteracy

What is The Honest Money Show?

The Honest Money Show is your guide to understanding what money really is — and why today’s system isn’t working. Hosted by Anja Dragovic, this show cuts through the noise to explore how money shapes our lives, where it’s gone wrong, and what a better future could look like. Along the way, you'll discover how Bitcoin fits into the bigger picture — not as hype, but as a serious response to a broken system. Whether you're curious, skeptical, or already down the

Welcome to the

Honest Money Show.

Thanks to our sponsor Bitaroo

for making today's

episode possible.

Australia's biggest Bitcoin

on the exchange.

Hi, Michael.

Hi. How are you? Anya?

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for coming on.

My pleasure. G'day.

Good, good.

Wendy as hell.

Like Wendy as anything.

Sydney is, like, blowing.

I don't know, like 49

an hour winds at the moment,

so it's nuts, but it's sunny,

so I'll take that.

Nice.

And your recent trip

to North Queensland.

How was that?

Oh. Is awesome.

Yeah, I went up to.

It's actually near

where the bush bashes

near Palm Cove. Unbelievable.

Like it's beautiful weather.

Like in north,

like the tropic,

like the top end of,

Queensland or like Australia.

It's like basically

nice weather, 24 seven.

You know, it's summer.

It's like 48

degrees or something.

So you don't really

want to be there in summer,

but in winter, it's like,

you know, 26 to

30 or something.

So it was it was awesome.

And now I've come back and

Trump's

dropped bombs

on the nuclear side.

Then they retaliated

after the pace and Bitcoin's

ripping on the back of that.

And everything is turning

into a Bitcoin

treasury company.

And yeah my head is spinning

right now.

Like absolutely spinning.

Yeah.

It's hard to sort of

open up Twitter

or look at the news

without something new

popping up in that space.

Yeah,

I feel like

I mean,

I've only I've only new

to Bitcoin,

so I haven't done a few cycles

and it seems like every day

there's so many good news.

Was this always the case

like back in the day? Nope.

So back in the day

the way that things went is

there's always been these

different narratives

through time right.

With Bitcoin's arc.

And so,

you know, right now you hear,

Microsoft is adopting

a Bitcoin treasury strategy.

Oh my God.

And everyone gets excited.

Oh that's

the announcement right.

They're waiting

for the brand name adopts

XYZ it whatever XYZ

that is today it's

Bitcoin treasuries

back in the day in 2014.

You know

it was the biggest thing

that people would announce

and they'd ride

the Bitcoin community for it,

which was like

get a real

big promotion from them

that was similar

to, Steak and Shake,

that burger place that started

accepting Bitcoin in America,

basically accepting bitcoin

as merchant,

as a merchant form

of a form of payment

to merchants.

And that was a big one.

So Overstock.com,

I don't know

if you've ever heard of them,

but they were like

the CEO was like

the Michael Saylor

before Saylor was Saylor.

Do you know what I mean?

Right.

They said

they were a massive,

massive distributor

or a massive online store,

and they started accepting

Bitcoin for payments.

And then I think

his name was Patrick,

who is a CEO.

At the time

he went on to be like,

yep, Bitcoin

and fully leaned into it.

He wanted to build like

an exchange

and really evangelized it.

And that was the

big brand coming into Bitcoin.

So this company

accepts Bitcoin,

this company accepts Bitcoin.

And it was a race

to kind of try and find a way

to get the real estate

of which brands

will be accepting,

you know, Bitcoin

for payment at the time.

Actually Ethereum

didn't exist.

Ethereum had it launched yet.

That's how early that was.

So it was like so

many moons ago.

I think it was actually

the year

that Ethereum launched

or maybe the year before that.

But yeah,

we see these ebbs and flows

and that happens

with everything

that's a community

orientated product

or protocol.

Because Bitcoin is a network,

we're all on the same team.

So that's why

you feel this rising

tide lifts all boats.

And then,

you know,

if one person gets a black eye

we all get a black eye.

And that was the thing

that would happen quite a lot,

which was

good news

would lift everyone

and bad news

would pull everyone down.

And it's sort of like that

at the moment,

just at a different scale.

But, you know, directly

back to your question,

it was never always like this.

Right now,

every company is a

the buying bitcoin.

Every company is either

raising money to buy bitcoin.

Every company

is trying to figure out

how to accept bitcoin.

It's just it's everywhere.

And I've noticed as well

that Bitcoin's had a chance

to position itself

from crypto.

Like do you know how

you know what I mean?

Where it's like

it's like crypto is like the.

Little tiny little.

Like a circus almost as well.

Yeah, yeah it did

bit like it's

almost like Bitcoin said.

Nah, I'm boring.

And everyone goes

yeah, yeah, Bitcoin's boring.

The crypto

and but

that's been

a really good thing.

Like sovereign wealth

funds and nation states.

They don't mind coins.

They're in the circus.

They're going for

like the big Moby Dick

kind of thing.

And that's like, you know,

they're going to kill it.

Like going for the kill shot

bitcoins.

It you know, they don't

they don't like, oh,

how can we make,

you know, 10

million today pumping

penny stocks.

They're not really into that.

They're like,

how do we build

the foundations

for the next hundred years

of wealth for this country?

And that's like

such a bigger question.

And when you think about it

at that scale,

you realize that

half the circus doesn't

matter, basically.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, it's

like these guys are

a different level.

Oh no, they get a pump.

My coin pump. My god.

No no no no no,

they're fucking

they are astronomically

further along.

And they are trying to

build like

real primitive foundations.

That's why you got a Bitcoin.

You can't really use

any other asset.

It's just a circle Jack.

They're not. Yeah.

Not liquid enough.

Not big enough,

not secure enough.

Not enough track record.

So yeah I think it's

yeah there's heaps of meat

on the bone in the industry

right now.

Like it's just there's

so much to go through.

It's hard to be sure. Yeah.

I've also noticed, like,

you would have heard

in the news

that Australia has

finally joined the party.

So we have

a first publicly listed

company who,

locate Technologies.

Have you heard?

Yes. Which one?

Technology.

Locate technologies.

They're in ASX

local companies.

Right? Yes. Yeah. Yep.

So they have announced

a bitcoin treasury.

Basically they go

I think they've

already acquired ten Bitcoin.

I saw that on Twitter.

So I haven't verified it.

But it's very interesting

because you know

the US is very much

leading in this space.

And then

I wondered how

when it was going to happen

in Australia,

it's already happened.

And I think they're going to.

Yeah, definitely,

hopefully

set an example for others

I think.

So I think there's

two sides to it.

And I do think there'll

be a lot of those

treasury companies

in all different markets.

But I definitely think

we'll see lots of them

just springing up everywhere.

The opportunities to

big and companies

are too bad

at doing what they do.

Do you know what I mean?

Like

they they're like

companies are run

by human beings as well.

Human beings,

just like you and me.

They get lazy

and like

if there's a way

to make way more money,

way easier,

the companies

will flock to that.

Well, oh, what?

Organize 38 insurance

providers for supply chain

factoring to sell 10,000

rubber duckies with

a 3% margin on it.

Yeah, like

it's even hard

saying that sentence.

People won't even bother.

So I think actually

it's quite interesting

because you'll see this like

narrow concentration

of products

from these companies.

So basically right now

everyone does

lots of things

like Apple's got hardware,

software, vision,

that's to increase revenue.

They build more product lines

to increase revenue

as revenue

or the wealth starts

growing for these companies.

They're going to look back

and be like, okay,

we can sell.

We can spend

three years in R&D

making the Apple TV two,

and then we can try and sell

10 million of them.

And that'll net us

10 billion in profit.

Or we could buy 10,000

bitcoins and wait for them

to appreciate over

the eight years

that it would take

us to go from R&D

to shipping the product

and selling it that time 5000.

If there's 5000

CEOs of public companies,

there's 5000 people

that will think

exactly that way.

They've got a fiduciary

responsibility, basically.

And so,

yeah,

I think I think

we're going to see a lot

of these zombie companies

that were zombies

basically pop up

and just be placeholders

for Bitcoin holding Bitcoin

and that's

been a value actually.

So I,

I think I think directionally

it makes sense.

There's obviously community

like parts of the community

that have got

the shits with it.

And they think it's a bit

scam, pointy and all pointy.

And it does have

an element of that to it.

The premise

of Bitcoin treasury

companies is powerful,

but in their current state,

if you're.

Here's a message

for every Bitcoin

treasury company CEO.

If you guys are using Twitter

as a mechanism for gaining,

you know, traction and

and momentum

and intercepting

the idea of your,

you know, the stock

ticker code

and starting

a group on Twitter

and getting all the hype.

If you do that,

that's a cheap win.

And so what will you get

is all those people

that love you for that second,

the moment

the next similar comes along,

or smart aware

or Meta planet,

they'll rotate their

capital straight out of yours

and into that new one

because they know

the trade works.

If you invest in MicroStrategy

pre and post Bitcoin,

the trade works

meta planet the trade work

smarter web.

The trade works

so they know the trade.

But if

meta planet's too big

now I can't make enough money

trading their stock.

I don't want that.

And so

I want to go to the new one.

Oh it's $0.01 a stock.

Oh cool.

And then have got

no bitcoins yet.

But they're planning to buy

let's me fuck yeah.

Like that is almost like

kind of like a no brainer

in a way.

You know, like that pay

plays out

in any market always.

And so people are watching

now, they're like,

oh my God Salah just announced

he bought 10,000 bitcoin.

Nothing's happened

to the price.

It's like

well firstly there's so liquid

now you can't dent the price

that easily.

But people

are rotating capital

out of that

into fold smarter web

sem la meta planet.

And you know the list

just goes on.

But the

every company

will sort of be

one of those companies

in the next eight,

eight years.

That feels way

too long though,

so I'd probably go with them.

Yeah.

For sure is. Far too long.

Yeah.

Do you think that Bitcoin is

well understood

in Australia

but particularly in the

the traditional

finance sector?

Do you think people know

this terribly?

I'll speak to those guys

all the time.

Smartest people

you've ever met.

They don't know anything

about critical.

Not not literally,

but it's just

not it's not people.

A lot of people haven't

wrap their head around it.

And we have an ETF,

you know, monochrome,

which is doing awesome.

I think they're about to hit

a thousand BTC,

which is,

you know,

a lot of people look at that.

And they used to the US

numbers.

BlackRock's got 600,000 coins

having a thousand coins

in the monochrome ETF

like as a product,

it is actually a really decent

product from memory

like they're doing

really well.

So the market is

not really understanding it

right now.

Australia's got you know,

we've got tall poppy

syndrome or whatever

it's called.

Sometimes people go

oh what now

screw that you made money for

I'm not listening to that.

Not screw that.

And so there's some,

you know, some,

I don't know,

may you think

of it as complacency,

but I actually don't

think of it like that.

I think of it more like just

varied interests,

like our economy.

Like we're

we're not in a good spot

right now,

like in terms

of housing and shit like that,

but I don't know,

we just haven't

had the exposure

to Bitcoin in

general hasn't

hit in Australia

as much as it's hit

in, I'd say

like the US

and stuff like that,

but where it has hit

it is transformed.

So like, you know,

maybe like

80% of people

that find out about Bitcoin

and learn about it

become hardcore,

very knowledgeable people.

Like we've got some really

brilliant minds.

You've got like Stefan Lavera

podcast, he's

got a huge

following kitten

Ministry and notes

tremendous following.

And like,

these guys are real

subject matter authorities

at their craft in this sub

niche of the industry.

And like I think,

you know, there's just a

there's a lot of people

in Australia

that have got really

powerful voices,

I think for the community.

And I think that's cool.

We, I love like the Bush

bash is by far the best.

My favorite here.

Is, oh, the thousand percent.

It is the best thing ever.

It's there's nothing

there's nothing like it.

I love the concept.

And every time

I travel overseas

I share it with like,

the local organizers.

And when I went to Bali,

I actually visited Bitcoin

Bali house

and I told them

about the concept and I like

I know they

they've rejigged

the way

that they organize

the Indonesia conference

makeable grassroots.

And I wonder how

much I had to do with that.

Like hey guys,

they've gotta be like pussies.

Me visit me?

Yeah.

And then you can collect

your royalty check. That's.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's

that is the thing.

Like and

I mean like the Bush

bash, right.

Like it's so good

because it's very casual.

It's relaxed like it's chill.

Know what days you walk

in, you're not paying a

big fee to get in there.

Yes.

You've got to drive

very far to get there.

So for the audience

that doesn't know,

the Bush bash

is an Australian

sort of Bitcoin.

It's not a conference

and it's not a meet up.

It's like the perfect hybrid.

It's like a three day

meetup almost.

But the proof of work

to make sure.

So when the organizers

created it,

they wanted to make sure

that everyone there

was really there

for the right reasons.

So they put it

basically a six hour

drive from everywhere.

It's like,

yeah, but it's like,

that means that

if you are there,

you've

given a shit to get there.

Do you know what I mean?

It's not like is sweat.

People in off the sidewalk

in Darling Harbor and said,

hey, come in here

at a conference.

It's really like 150

or 200 people

or 100 people

of just straight signal like,

yeah, really

brilliant thinkers.

I find I learn so much

when I go to those things,

like you go to a dinner

and you sit next to what

you just think, like far out.

Some of these cats

are so bright,

like just the stuff

they think of is just

I don't know,

it's just it's different,

but it's always encouraging

when you hear

and see that you're like,

oh, nice.

You know,

if you saw a bunch of idiots,

you'd think,

oh shit, I'm going to start

selling my Bitcoin.

But it's a complete

antithesis.

I love it.

Yeah, I completely agree

with that.

It's it's

almost like the most

unassuming group of people

that, you know, you

just your everyday person

you cross on the street,

you wouldn't really think,

you know, they're there.

Anyone special, so to speak.

Yeah. And.

And then you pick up.

Yeah.

And it's like, whoa.

Yeah. Yep.

The most amazing

minds,

the most amazing speakers

and storytellers and.

Yeah, yeah.

Just just like

I agree with you, high signal.

I learn so much every time.

I remember the first time

I went,

after the three days

I was exhausted,

I was

my brain was exhausted

because my brain, like, just,

you know, took up

so much energy.

And I learned so much,

and I took so many notes,

you know, for podcasts to,

to listen to

and books to read. And.

Yeah, the,

the quality of conversations

you have there on like,

anywhere else.

And yeah,

I highly recommend it

to anyone.

That. Yeah.

But I wanted to ask you

a little bit more about the,

the Bitcoin adoption

in Australia

and why you think

we are lagging

behind the rest of the world.

Is it like a cultural thing?

Is it like.

Yeah, some of things.

I'll tell you why.

So in Australia

one of the biggest things

property is being our store

of value basically.

And because we have such a,

educated property market,

like everyone's

thinking about,

you know, buying property

and property

probably, probably forever

probably.

It's almost like this

saturated, like it's

so ingrained into us

with with property in general.

I think, that it

feels like that

it's it's not mean.

It means like

Australia is punching

well above its weight

in this industry

by light years.

But I mean, like, would

traditional finance

people get it right now?

It doesn't feel like

there's much of a flavor

or appetite. It's still,

or you know, like there's

no hey,

how do we get on top of this?

And because if

there was someone like that,

they will shoot a rocket

out of the

like out of the ASX.

Like they will be so far

in front of everyone else.

And I think that'll happen.

I think you get Bitcoin

treasury companies

to Australia

and that will start

lighting the fire on.

Oh my god,

what is this thing

and why is it smoking

every other asset on the

on the market.

Well it's smoking it

because it doesn't

use the same assets

as everything on the market.

It uses the other thing.

Oh the other thing

looks pretty damn

good at the moment.

Yeah.

Many planets number one

in Japan,

Microstrategy's number one

in the US and Australia

is waiting

to have something like that,

you know,

and I think it'll come in

probably the next 3

or 6 months.

It should be

actually quite interesting

because Australia's

market is a bit different

because we've

got superannuation,

which is like a guaranteed

funnel of liquidity

that goes into the market

because those super funds

have to buy

and spend their money.

So I think that's

quite interesting.

On how that changes

the dynamic.

Yeah, I don't know.

But I think,

I think we're

definitely punching

above our weight.

I just think that

the non Bitcoin people

feel further away

than they do

in other countries

or something.

I don't know,

it's hard to explain.

Yeah. No I completely get it.

It's something that

I always wonder.

It's like how can I help

these people.

Get curious

enough about it

to want to go down, you know,

the path of studying it,

understanding it more

rather than just

dismissing it.

And yeah,

like I have a background

in marketing.

So one of the sort of facts

that I love is,

you know,

before you purchase

a product or service,

you may typically have a 16

to 20 interactions

with that product or service

before you make

the decision to buy.

So yeah,

so it doesn't help that

like the mainstream media

is largely negative.

Has a negative

sentiment towards Bitcoin

and that all the, all the,

experts in the space

are really drowned out by,

I guess, some of that

mainstream media

that doesn't

quite understand

the technology

and doesn't understand

the value of it.

So yes.

Yeah, for me, I feel I mean.

Yeah, as well

the reserve Bank, they said,

oh yeah,

we're not looking

at that right now

and we don't find it

interesting or something.

It's like,

yeah, you guys are broke.

Do you understand that?

Like, you know what I mean?

Like all these people

telling me, like, bankers,

institutions and stuff,

they're like,

we don't really like.

It's like,

you guys have cooked

the entire financials system

multiple times.

In fact,

the the current

financial system is so bad

that they have broken it

like they break it

once every 20 years.

In 2008 it broke.

So we get a bailout

breaks again bail them out.

It's like

I don't want like

that's just not like

that's like saying, hey,

do you want to eat this

moldy sandwich?

It's like,

no, it's got mold on it.

It's like,

oh, do you want

to put your money

in this financial market?

No, they're not good

at what they do.

Like, you know,

that's just

a common sense thing.

Oh, they've never successfully

finished the game

and the game's been restarted

multiple times.

Okay.

Someone doesn't know

what they're doing there.

I don't I'm

not saying

every person's an idiot.

They're just getting in

and cashing in.

That's what

everyone in finance does.

But is it a good system?

No. It's terrible.

If it was good, it

be persistent.

And that's why Bitcoin is good

because it's persistent.

It won't change whether it's,

you know,

the stock

market in 1939 69 and 19 2020,

it's still the exact

same mechanics underneath it.

And that's

what Bitcoin will be

in the future.

It'll be something that we go

wow it hasn't changed in

like 50 years.

All them holy moly.

And that will be the outlying

kind of

feature of it

is its resilience I think.

But yeah it's it's

pretty crazy.

I think there's a lot of

ignorance to it as well.

Because

I think there's two fold like,

yeah,

I think there's

a lot of ignorance to it.

Just like with people,

if you're making money

in property, it's very hard

for me to convince you

to come to Bitcoin

and learn about it

and blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah.

You know,

when you've been saving

for five years,

you just bought

your first investment

property or whatever it is?

That's awesome.

But it's very hard to like,

you know what they say.

It's like it's harder to teach

someone who already

knows something than it is

to teach a blank canvas.

And so I think it might be

a bit of that

where people

have kind of

already got this conceptual

way of developing and building

wealth through

acquiring property

or something like that,

which is totally fine

and makes complete sense.

I'm just lazy.

I don't want to go in

and have to meet a tenant

and try and

get the plumber in,

and then wait

for the carpet guy to come fix

the damaged water damage

from the wall.

Like whatever the fuck it is.

Too busy, too much

Bitcoin way easier. Buy it.

Yeah, don't do anything

and then that's it.

And I suppose

it comes down to our ability

to not do anything,

you know,

which is quite hard

because in this day and age

we're always

fidgeting with shit.

And so it's like, oh,

maybe I'll just sell this

or sell that, like,

you know, so

it becomes

like a cerebral challenge

where you've got to do

all the cerebral work.

But no physical work.

And so, yeah.

Yeah,

I've recently started

an Instagram account

for this podcast.

And yeah,

because the algorithm

doesn't recognize,

you know, treats

Bitcoin as crypto.

It's all under

the same bucket.

So it's clearly

serving me content

that is in this space.

And,

and I've come across recently,

you know,

across some Australian,

influences on crypto

and the messaging

that they're providing,

is very different

to what

the messaging

you hear from Bitcoin

is, is like for example,

I came across a guy,

he had like 50,000 followers

on Instagram

and he's selling courses.

And he's very much making.

Yeah, he's

he's making it seem like,

you need a strategy.

And I'm

the only person who knows

how to give you the strategy.

Kind of.

Yeah.

That's the approach

that they're taking.

Whereas, yeah, Bitcoin is

almost like

you don't need a strategy.

You just need to learn

about about it, hold it, learn

how to hold it for

at least four years.

And and you'll

definitely make money in it.

So just for the time.

Yeah.

With those courses,

like with those courses,

join my trading course.

Two outsmart the market

with this one simple trick.

Like, dude,

most of those,

cash grabs

for the creator of the course,

that doesn't mean

that the course is bad.

I'm just saying

that they're a cash

grab for the creator.

They need

the creator needs money.

That's that's the first thing.

So it's like, oh,

you need money.

And you're telling me

how to make money.

Something doesn't

add up right there.

Like in, in my opinion.

So it's like,

oh, if you're so good

at making money,

give it away for free.

Like if it's that beneficial.

And that's why Bitcoin is

don't have that insecurity.

I don't think

because they buy bitcoin

and it's like dude,

if I get you to buy

bitcoin or whatever

that's what's good for

the game is good

for the gander kind of thing.

And so yeah,

there's much less

gatekeeping of knowledge

or whatever.

It's more just like,

yeah, man, let me lift you up.

Here's how I got started.

And I think that's such

a healthier approach

to something

that is so intimidating.

You know,

I think Bitcoin is a typically

trying to preserve wealth.

Crypto

people are trying

to make money.

And I think that's

very different.

That's a huge distinction.

Yeah, yeah, it's

a very big distinction.

And I think

encoded in those distinctions

is the mindset, the behavior,

the discipline, the value,

whatever it is.

But the focus is different.

One is trying to make money

to pay bills

or acquire bitcoin,

which is why, you know,

we all work in fiat land

to make money

to buy Bitcoin

to increase our stack.

So a lot of people do crypto,

try ever

heaps of friends that do that.

Yeah,

they make a bag on that stuff

and they convert it

to Bitcoin.

And that's how they

accumulate bitcoin.

And it's like

okay well that's not

the right approach but okay.

Sure.

Do you

you know

and so I think it's like

I don't know,

I just feel like there's

there's a distance

between the two.

And that's

actually a healthy thing

because, you know,

I don't want

I mean, I

everyone can do

what they want,

but I don't think it's

a good branding thing

for Bitcoin

in general

to be encouraging trading

basically.

Like, that's not how you win

with this game.

The game's not about trading.

In fact,

the best traders

performance typically

have one entry

and that's like buying Bitcoin

and that's it

because their performance

is going to be

so good relative

to trades and trade size.

They're just going to be like,

yeah, I bought bitcoin

once and I haven't touched it.

My portfolio is up 30,000%.

It's like or whatever

it is right.

Like whatever the thing is.

But that's much more powerful

I think.

But yeah it's to their own.

I've no problems.

Everyone can do themselves

and do them,

but yeah,

I just think specifically

for Bitcoin,

there's less to know.

You know, like.

In, in my,

in my stalking adventures of

of your profile.

Yeah.

I can't remember

what school you went to,

but you're from a, like,

a traditional

finance background.

Yeah.

Well, like, yeah,

basically I worked in, like.

Oh, I'm like a shit student.

I'm the kid that, like,

dropped out of uni.

All that kind of stuff, like,

not like,

you know,

some of these cats

are real smart,

and they're like, yeah,

they went to Harvard

and then they went to Google,

and then I went to

fucking MIT.

I'm the turtle.

Not that, I'm

the drop kick kind of thing.

So for me, I went to

I went to high school

in College Hill.

And then I went to college

at University of Technology

in Sydney, which was

oh, and I went to

Ba'athist University,

which is another

like out in the States.

But yeah,

I didn't finish my degrees.

But then after that,

I got a job in finance,

which is a software.

It's like a financial

software company

that did portfolio management

and rebalancing

for financial advisors

and their clients.

And so you know, basically

it's like, hey, this client's

75 years old,

but they're in a really high

risk portfolio.

We need to rebalance that.

And it was all the

software around that.

And yeah, but I didn't

my approach from Bitcoin

like you know, the way I did

it wasn't

it wasn't like oh cool.

Finance and Bitcoin.

This is a perfect match.

It was more like finance

was just sort of where I was

because I enjoyed it

working with numbers.

But finance but yeah, I do.

I think that my or like

where I came from

was more around video games

because I really like

video games.

And I was like,

oh, mad and online

currency suite.

Now every game can have

the same currency

instead of like,

you know, paying

for one thing in one game.

And then you go

to the new game and, you know,

the sold that you just paid $9

for is an in-app purchase

or whatever isn't there.

And so it's like, well,

that'd be cool

if all the games

ran on the same currency,

and it'd be even cooler

if the internet ran

on this currency.

And so that's what I was like,

oh, sick Bitcoin.

I just like looked around

and at the time

there was no exchanges.

I don't think so.

Me and a couple

of other dudes

chipped in some money

to buy some coins and,

and that was sort

of the first entry into it,

just as like, whoa.

What's this? So.

You know,

magic internet money.

Which literally

it was much more in know,

it was much more in line

with that magic

instead of money

and all that sort of stuff.

Yeah.

Well, I was going to ask you,

but you might not remember,

because I even, I,

even I forget

and I went

into last year, but like,

do you remember what

some of those critical

moments were in your journey

to understanding

some business?

I feel like the biggest,

the biggest

by a billion years.

The biggest moment

that I had was,

the block size was in 2017.

So I was a CEO wire

and we were really big company

and we had

a lot of infrastructure,

that was powering

a lot of the other

like other liquidity

providers or wallet services

and stuff.

And the Blocksize

wars came about,

which was in 2017.

And it's where bitcoins

basically bitcoin split

into two groups.

Those that wanted

to increase the block size

and those that wanted to make

the block size not change.

And my not my

initial reaction was,

I guess, wait, that's mad.

That doesn't bother me.

And then I got like

the resident maxes

in our company,

the Bitcoin maxis basically.

And I asked them,

I was like, guys,

what's your take on this?

And which way should we go?

You guys are closest

to the protocol.

What's your opinion on it

and can you help me

understand everything

and the email?

They drafted the email back

to one of our investors

who was asking for us

to participate in saying,

yes, increase the block size.

But I didn't want to do that

unless the Maxis approved it,

because they know

more than I do

just in general.

Like they're closer to it

and more passionate

at the time.

And what happened

was I saw 657 or basically

all but three companies

in the industry approve it.

And I was like, oh, okay.

Well, I guess

it's going ahead then.

And then all the node runners

on the network said, nah,

we're not doing that.

And it became like, whoa.

Even though Coinbase

has got 20 million users,

BitPay had,

you know,

1 million merchants

or whatever,

that doesn't mean shit.

Like, you mean like that

didn't matter

because the nodes

are the one that vote on

whether we're increasing

the block size or not.

And then you realize, okay,

so Coinbase well,

it's got 20 million users

and a lot of influence.

It doesn't run

20 million nodes.

It only runs one or you know

eight or something like that.

So their voice

isn't as loud as their brand

when it comes to the network.

And that was a big

moment for me.

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O right the nodes matter.

Not your brand,

not the size of your startup,

not your investor roster,

the nodes.

And that was a

tremendous learning

curve for me

because that's when I go,

these guys

are the backbone of the

whole network,

which means the

entire industry

rests on these nodes.

And that really showed me

the dynamic

of who's in charge,

not who's in charge,

but more like,

what do you have

to delicately manage?

You know, that

that is the critical thing.

Like that's the,

the red button

for the nuclear warhead

or whatever is the nodes.

They're the they are the,

the first class

citizens of the, the,

the network.

And so that was huge for me

because it might

sound technical, but

it basically is like,

you know,

the people's voice

comes through.

That's what the nodes are.

Nodes are like one vote,

one person basically,

and saying that overwhelm

these humongous brands

with incredible distribution.

That's what I realized, okay,

that that's the conversation.

We're not in startup land.

This is a network

for the whole world.

And if you're a node running,

you get a say.

It doesn't matter

if you got a podcast,

doesn't matter if you've,

you know, raised

100 million, doesn't matter

if you

got a billion in revenue.

You run a node.

That's your vote.

Whether you're a ten foot

tall, two foot tall,

300 kilos, 100,

it doesn't matter

nodes, a node.

And so I think that was a real

big eye opener for me.

I was just like, whoa.

And since then

I've been really hung up

on that same premise.

Maybe I'm

just like a trauma injury

from the Blocksize Wars

or something like,

it's like, I think now

I just don't want change

because I saw how divisive

it gets.

And the problem is with things

that have tensile

strength like networks,

it's like networks

are held together

by the strength

of the connections. Right.

In the same way,

think of a glass panel

in the exact

same way as a network.

But just instead

of the nodes being sparse,

they're very,

very close together.

So, you know,

when you break glass

in those shock movies,

a shock

will swim into the glass.

It'll put a crack down it

and it's like, oh,

the shock crack.

And then the next crack start.

And then they all basically,

once you put one crack

in the tensile

strength of the canvas,

the next crack

is much easier to

to basically come.

And that's what we saw

once Bitcoin had

forked in 2017,

we saw it

go to Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin

and the Bitcoin Cash people

that then split again

to Bitcoin cash

in Bitcoin

ABC or SVR or something.

And so what it goes to show

is that,

it's less about the argument

itself and more.

Some people want more

and some people

want to keep it

as is

in general,

because the people that wanted

the change

went to another protocol.

They split off,

and then they got

more change

than they bargained for,

because then that split

split itself.

So it was like,

you know,

one into two into frame

to eight into six or whatever.

It is

basically just kept halving

or splitting.

And so that's why

especially lately with like

Bitcoin Core

and Bitcoin nodes,

I think

my side is more on

the not conversation,

but that leans mainly because

if I had to pick 1 or 2

like between

either of them, I'd pick nodes

purely out of simplicity,

like the

simplicity of the message.

This is Bitcoin.

It's a monetary network.

Use it to store value.

That.

Core to JPEGs.

Yeah.

And of course

sort of saying no, no, no,

it's not our decision to make.

It's like

that's like a parent

saying to their child

like, you know,

we can't tell our child

what to do.

We're not going to say

no to them having ice cream

for breakfast,

like anyone with their head

on their shoulders

goes, yeah, I understand

you don't want to

send to your kids. No worries.

Do you think there's

a difference between

censoring and educating?

Like, obviously,

I think that's the thing,

but what it showed me was

there's a huge divide

in understanding the protocol.

And I'm not saying

I understand it.

I'm not saying anyone does,

but I'm just saying

there's a division

in the outlook

of the protocol.

And I think

when you add complexity

in any distributed system,

it doesn't matter

if it's a group of people

or a network of nodes.

When you add any complexity,

you add

risk of

undoing all the hardness

that you've already got.

You know,

Ethereum is a

really good example.

Everyone does

everything on Ethereum,

but Ethereum is a protocol

and as money is

getting cannibalized,

it was at 2104 years ago.

It's a 2300 now.

It's three. It has. 21.

Yeah.

It doesn't catch the upside

and that doesn't

catch the upside

because there's so much

cannibalizing behavior

happening on it.

Like the L2 is a bleeding eath

dry like as a

as the network in my opinion.

And then you've got Solana

which is a

like not attacking it

but competing against it. So

this lack

of focus

is really bad in general

because when you make rules

for everyone,

which means you make a product

for everyone,

you make a product for no one.

And if you have a product

for no one,

then you have no alignment.

If you have no alignment,

you have no direction.

If you've got no direction,

you start staying stagnant.

And that's exactly what

the economic activity and,

Ethereum's price

sort of says.

It says it's

just spinning its wheels

almost like a loading sign

just going around in circles.

20, 120, 100.

I'm not saying

obviously it's

going up and down,

but I'm just saying

in general,

it hasn't caught

its new big leg up.

Like if it was matching

Bitcoin and running

in the same way,

it would be,

you know, 8 to 12 K right now.

And so I think

I don't like risking

confusion.

Bitcoin is hard to understand

for the smartest people

in the industry,

let alone

the person that's

just coming in.

If I get to talk to someone

about bitcoin,

I don't want to have to say,

yeah, you can do money or

but you can do JPEGs all

but you can also do this

and it's like you've lost me.

Like people,

people click off your video

like ask any content creator

if you don't have a book

to get people straight away

by, you're

at the end of the river.

I got a thousand other useless

bits of content waiting for me

that will give

me entertainment

straight off the bat.

And if you're a hook

in the first like one, two,

three seconds of like,

let's say it's a real

on Facebook or it's a TikTok,

that's the audience.

So in the moment

you had any confusion by

byte like, no,

I've got too many options

by I'm over it.

Like, so

any person that,

evangelizing to that,

they may have self-interest

for it.

Like as in

that might be very beneficial

to them.

But, you know,

I think Bitcoin's power lies

when people put the network

before their self-interest.

And that's where

it gets really gnarly,

like in terms

of a powerful thing.

Imagine every single person

had the same answers

for Bitcoin questions.

That is like

a maximum alignment.

And that is really strong

because it's very,

very hard to break.

It's almost like trying

to break a religion.

You can't really break

a religion

because the core value

system is so strong

and so widely distributed.

Christianity doesn't

come out slapping new rules

on the Ten Commandments,

like they don't come out

with the 2020 version

of the Ten Commandments.

So I think, you know, a lot of

the people in the space

are hung up on Bitcoin

as a product.

Yeah.

You know, like, oh, cool,

it can do this.

It's like, well, it is that.

But think of it more like,

I don't know,

like an ethos or something.

I don't know,

that's just my take

from things I've seen.

I'm not saying I'm

right at all.

But I just find, like,

a feels like what's happening,

you know, like it

feels like, well,

you know,

if you've evangelized,

for one thing,

so aggressively,

you know, a few years ago

and now you're

not evangelizing for it

and you're actually opposing

what you're evangelizing for.

That's confusing.

So what happens is 20, 30, 40,

50 people

in the industry waste

their time arguing,

wasted time debating about it.

And da da da da da.

It's exhausting.

Like the you're

all on the same team.

Shut the fuck up

like part of my language,

but shut the fuck up. Like

it's like,

how bored are you

that you need to figure out

problems?

Like,

people also don't

respect the old system enough,

and that's a really bad thing,

because it's like

going into a,

like a sport

where you're one on one sport

and you don't respect

your opponent's abilities.

Like, that's a terrible recipe

for preparation.

It's a terrible recipe

for execution.

You should plan for the worst

and hope

for the best in that context.

And I just think that

that's kind of been

I miss it a bit,

where people think

Bitcoin's race escape

velocity can't be blah

blah blah.

Oh no, it absolutely can.

The only reason why

it hasn't been attacked

so aggressively

is because the incentive

is actually more

to not attack it.

You make more money

by just buying it

and holding it.

And that's one of the biggest

deterrents is like

people are like, well,

why would I want to

break this thing?

This thing is given me,

you know,

a whole new lease on life.

It's opened my brain up

if I didn't do anything.

But I could assure

that everyone else that used

it got the same level of

awesomeness from it.

That's a huge win

that is leveling up

the whole planet.

So if Bitcoin is under 5%

of the total adoption

rate of the world,

right, let's cool.

Let's be generous

and say there's 250 million

people holding bitcoin.

Okay.

There's 250 million

people holding bitcoin.

That's less

than 5% of the earth.

Or maybe it's like what

200 I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. It's about yeah.

It's like less than

5% of the planet probably.

I don't think we know

how to fix anything

when we haven't even gotten

the total market

into the thing to fix.

So when people say,

oh, we're adding

features, we're adding value.

It's like to who?

Like to, you know,

what about the other 88%

or 95% of people

that are coming in

to the market?

Will they want what you want?

Oh, I don't know.

But like I hope they do.

It's going to be really cool.

And it's like

you already lost.

Like it's already

just so cool.

But every time you're

making decisions in Bitcoin,

I think it should be

thought of as,

will this be useful

for someone in 25 years?

Basically,

are you going to add

a feature?

Is that useful

for someone in 25 years?

Oh well, it's

really useful for us now

because let's say

NFTs are really hot

or stablecoins are really hot,

and this allows Bitcoin

to capture that

blah, blah, blah.

That's fine, but

it's not really relevant.

We should always

think about it

as like public infrastructure.

Like if the highway works

and it's not broken

and it helps millions

and millions of people

go from one place

to another in their life,

don't break it.

Don't add a fucking McDonald's

on the way.

Don't add that shit

like we don't need that shit.

Keep the highway, the highway

and keep everything else.

Like let's focus.

Let's focus on something.

And if you don't

focus on something,

you can't go forward.

And so when people

like to say, oh,

Bitcoin's for everything,

that's the B,

that's just lose the chat.

It's not for everything.

It's money.

Like it's not even a debate.

It's money.

And it's

okay to say

that is just sort of

like trying

to define ice cream

to your children

and saying, well, it's

actually food.

So I'm not bad person

feeding my kids.

It's like, you know, better.

Like that's a good analogy.

Yeah.

There's no

there's nothing else to say.

You know better.

And your ego will have

that conversation with you

when you're ready than.

Like me,

you're a Bitcoin conservative.

The way the mechanic

would describe it.

You can eat.

He's like

Bitcoin conservative.

I just

with big shit that's

very expensive

and very precious

and very fragile

and very,

very important to the future.

I don't want it. Yeah.

I'm conservative.

Keep keep the national parks

green and keep

bitcoin the same.

That's

we preserve things

that are really valuable

that are really hard

to reproduce.

And the hardest thing on earth

to reproduce

about Bitcoin isn't

it's not

how to hash a transaction

or how to get consensus.

Well, it's basically

yeah,

basically

an unchanged protocol

for 16 years.

Show me something

that has not changed

in the past 16 years

in this environment like wild.

And so when we

think about that, it's like,

oh shit,

we need to be treating this

like,

you know, like it's

a precious resource.

You know,

this is a watering hole

for the whole planet

to drink from.

Just like you see in Africa,

zebras are drinking next

to the hyenas who are drinking

next to the leopards

or whatever.

They put the tools down

when everyone needs water,

and then they get back

to killing each other later.

But they all they don't shit

in that thing

basically, right?

Yeah.

Like I don't want to

litter on my chain.

I don't want fucking toilet

paper rolls in the ocean

or chip wrappers

like it's common sense.

And you know, you can

argue it all you want, but

arguing it

just means that

you're sort of dignifying,

you're sort of illuminating

a lack of common sense,

like you're

trying to argue with me

whether Bitcoin's

money or not.

I'm not arguing with

can it technically possibly

be this being maybe

with eight changes

in six years,

anything can be anything

that's not smart.

To identify

something is like a problem.

Identifying

solutions is smart.

Everyone can identify

problems.

That's not a hard thing.

It's very easy to be negative.

It's very easy

to understand, like

what could be better.

But if you don't

provide solutions

with your chat,

I find it pretty.

It's sort of like you're

just letting your

inner voice talk out loud,

but it's not really

a constructive value adding

come back.

Yeah,

I say

that is like someone

who just

absolutely yaps

their head off.

So yeah,

I think like

I mean, like I'm a,

I'm talking to myself

in this case to.

I was

actually going to ask you,

about Australian bitcoiners.

If on your travels

you've noticed a difference

like cultural differences

between Australian

bitcoin is and Bitcoin

is from overseas

in other countries,

doesn't that away from

I mean I've heard some

interesting things,

but I'm keen to know

what your take is.

No, I reckon

that's probably the most

refreshing thing.

Everyone is speaking

the same language.

Yeah.

You know, like for me

that's been the easiest.

You find alignment so quick

and after realizing

like after this, I'm like,

damn, now I get why

religion is massive.

Like it fully makes sense.

Hey, I don't know,

you had no idea.

But you're religious.

Yeah. Same religion. Hey.

All right,

we got that in common.

And you follow the same

ten value,

ten values

or ten commandments that I do,

whatever it is.

So it's

sort of like helps

expedite alignment.

Yeah.

Why was the

question originally.

Oh, if you've noticed that

like Australian

bitcoin culture.

Yeah. Not personally.

No. Yeah.

I like

having worked in America

and spent most of my time

with the American

Bitcoin community

and then coming

back to Australia,

I didn't think that

was much different.

Everyone's got the same

same things

that make them happy,

same things that give them

the shits, you know, like it's

all it's

the same conversation.

And most of that's

got to be the case

because we're all

getting information

from the same sources,

you know? Yeah.

And that is

what community is,

but it keeps the alignment

like.

Yeah,

I think it's really powerful

when you feel like

you are with your people,

it's like,

oh my God,

this is what having friends

feels like, right?

You know.

I love

I love that you said that.

Make friends as an adult.

And it's interesting

because I've engaged

in so many

different activities

as an adult,

whether it's like free

diving or salsa dancing.

Like until I got into

Bitcoin,

I didn't really feel like

the sense of community

that I feel,

in any other

sort of interest group.

And, and I can,

I feel like I can travel

anywhere in the world

and join a meet up

and just strike up

a conversation

and really connect

with people

unlike anywhere else.

It's it's 100. Percent, 100%.

And one of the things I heard

at the Bitcoin Bush bash was,

you know, it was buy it

from Wiz,

Wizard of Oz Aussie guy.

And he started he

great guy, smart guy.

And he started

he started the Bush bash

and he said

Bitcoin is

everyone is 80% the same.

But there's these 20% edges

where you're Bitcoin

and I'm a bitcoin.

But I'm a bitcoin owner

who is obsessed with

rock climbing.

And you're a Bitcoin

who is obsessed with

plumbing or something.

I don't know

like some different thing.

Right.

Like totally unrelated

or whatever it is.

Yeah. Salsa dancing.

So you're obsessed

with salsa dancing?

I'm obsessed

with rock climbing.

But having that common ground

and that common alignment

that makes for super

interesting, fast

paced conversations,

because you've got 80% of,

oh, you're the same as me

kind of thing, basically,

but mostly now,

what's your other like, quirk?

What are you into?

Well, my thing is,

you know, your thing.

Whatever. Salsa dancing.

But that brings these kind of.

It's like sprinkles

on the cupcake.

It's like all

the cupcakes are the same,

but there's a different

frosting on some of them,

and you're like,

oh, this is the cherry

frosting one.

And you talk to the guy

that's obsessed

with cherries or,

oh, they've got a rock

climbing cupcake.

It's a little rock

climber guy on the top,

whatever it is.

But it's sort of like that.

It's just like different,

different flavors

of the same thing, basically.

But it means

that when you talk to them,

you can translate information

much faster,

because I can use Bitcoin

as an analogy to things.

And you know

that to the depths

of your knowledge.

And so we can sort of

fast pace

connecting the dots

between different

parts of society,

whether it's YouTubing,

being salsa dancing

and someone being into

rock climbing,

you guys

can connect all the dots.

It's like,

yeah,

you can just understand the

the mechanics

of HowStuffWorks.

Yeah, I love it,

I love it,

yeah, I love it

because you can immediately

skip the small talk and.

Yes, yes.

Sorry.

Yeah,

I can meet like a brand

new person

I've never met before.

An instantly connect with them

and going to conversations

that you wouldn't

typically have with

people say at work,

I can bring up politics,

I can bring up taxation,

I can bring up all these

different things

and hear their perspective

without either party getting,

angry or defensive about it.

So I really appreciate yeah,

I really appreciate

that element

in our community as well.

Oh, and healthy,

healthy discussion. Yeah.

I think that's

one of the coolest things.

Like,

I think it's awesome

because you get to listen

to these,

you know,

really clever

people with lots of experience

going back and forth.

And then they shake hands

and they go for a beer.

I like that.

I think it's great

because everyone's

only arguing

for the same thing

usually,

which is bitcoin to win.

And like

if you think about it,

Bitcoin is very like a

it's like a world

Group project.

Basically

you remember a university

as like you get guys

who everyone get into

teams of four.

You're going to be doing

your group assignment

for the term.

It's like that buffer ever.

So the group

assignment is Bitcoin.

And it's got a

we've got to make it

last forever.

So I think people know that.

And we sort of carry

a certain responsibility

almost like

I think it's like

humanity's child

and we need to raise it.

And so we want to give it

good values.

We don't want it to inherit

all the dog shit

that we are as human.

It's like

it's a chance

to create a greener pasture,

not bring all the

dog shit again, as I said, but

like, bring the old stuff

that's trash

and put it onto Bitcoin.

It's like, yeah,

that's that's lose

a town dude.

Like get out of here.

We got a high bar

high standard

you know I think

but I also think Bitcoin's

been like

I literally personify

it like like

you know

like Michael

Jordan or something.

I think of it

like Michael Jordan.

It's like a 16 year old

or a 17 year old dude.

And like,

I think about it like that

because it's like, well,

it's our responsibility

to protect it or him

because it's out on its own.

It doesn't have parents,

it doesn't have family,

it doesn't have friends.

It has people

that want it to win.

And that's all that matters.

And so,

like if everyone took

that same approach

that they have with Bitcoin,

which is wanting it

to succeed,

imagine if we did that

with our friends and,

you know, colleagues

and stuff,

like we went out of our way

to make sure

that people succeed.

I think that's incredible.

It is like that's cool.

It's cool

that we've all got that

soft spot for Bitcoin.

You know, I think it's

Yeah, it's it really is.

And what I love about it,

like I'm

going to take

some surfing classes.

And I overheard a school today

and the instructor

was talking to the students

about weather conditions

and giving these really

comprehensive lesson

on, on weather.

So I thought about this

for a second.

It's like you go

to learn about surfing,

but then you have

this secondary benefit

of learning

about weather conditions

and understanding

how how different

types of winds work.

Yeah.

And I feel like

I thought about this

because for Bitcoin,

it's like

I feel that's one area

that just expands

your interest in.

So many

different vast areas of, of,

interest that

that you can just forever

keep going down

different rabbit holes.

And that's

what's so most

beautiful thing about it,

you might start with,

I guess, I don't know,

Austrian economics

and then really get

into cryptography

and then get into

protocols and.

100%, that's literally me.

I'm like, oh, cool.

Because then you get

all these different

like little avenues

that because it's

a dependency, right?

I've had I try to think about

why is it

why is it

when you get into Bitcoin,

you start seeing

everything differently.

So what it is,

you start realizing

how money flows, I think.

And the

in the traditional system

and why Bitcoin is good

because to understand

why bitcoin is good,

it means you

have to understand the problem

that it was trying to fix.

And so when you understand

that problem,

what happens is

first you put on your critical

thinking cap.

So you like

chalk it on

you like write

piece by piece

what's going on.

And you go through it.

And as you start

forcing yourself

to do critical

thinking like

great example wallets,

or I put it on the this,

then I put it into that.

Like every time you move

your private key,

you are like,

is there anything else here?

Nope.

Step like,

you're so paranoid about it.

Almost.

And that's

because like that teaches

you critical thinking.

So when you're like, oh,

I can't put it onto that USB,

my mum use that

for the family photos

and it got infected

and maybe it's going to room.

You got to be really,

really cautious

in that regard.

So the critical thinking

it opened your mind

to critical

thinking and

understanding how

the frame by frame going

step by step will benefit you.

So what you do,

you've got critical thinking.

And now you understand

the power of incentives

because that's

a Bitcoin revolves

around this incentive models.

So now you look at Bitcoin

you're like okay cool

that's Bitcoin.

Then you look back

at the old system

and you're like

it's like you've just woken up

from a dream or something.

You're like, oh my.

How like

how did I not see

this already?

And it's just like

you just see the machine,

the cogs in the machine,

they're paying them

to make them vote for that.

And that's

getting there and that.

And

and you start understanding

incentives and critical

thinking so much

that it's

almost as if you see

everything in a new light.

So you start

looking at everything like,

oh my God.

So you look at politics,

you look at business,

you look at

finance, you look at

history like.

And that's why

a lot of people

can go into the like, crazy

conspiracy valley

because it's like, well, I'm

thinking and I see

all these incentives

of the old system

and they just

basically immediately

go, well, okay, basically

the entire system is cooked.

And then they think, well,

they've been lying about that,

so maybe they're lying

about all the other stuff.

And then it's like,

now then, then it goes one.

Then people just don't

let the thread go

and they're like, okay,

the moon landing was fake.

This was fake.

That was fake.

Everything's fake.

And it's kind of like,

you got to get

to the other side of the

the rabbit hole, almost,

where everything becomes fake.

But I'm not really there yet.

I don't

I try not to

give too much thought to that.

Like my feed pumps

me with, like,

it's like it's

trying to make me more

of a conspiracy theorist

or something.

The only thing you can do

and it's too

noisy is just check out

any final. Yeah. Like the end.

Yeah.

The way I think about it,

it's like to me

it's almost

the truth is crazier

than the reality.

And and when you understand

the global financial system

as it is,

you don't really

need to go down

conspiracy theories

because the way

you understand it

is it already

sounds like a

conspiracy theory.

Yeah.

You know, just a true

standard. It's.

Yeah.

Like when you tell

your friend to.

Verify

all information, that's.

Yes. That's it.

You tell anyone?

Sounds like a

conspiracy theory. Yeah.

It's really.

Yeah. It's just so bizarre.

But I think

one of the hardest

things about it

actually is

maintaining relationships at a

meaningful level.

We've

people around you

in your life that aren't

in the same journey.

It's challenging.

Like, you know, people

call them normies or whatever.

But like,

you know,

I do like the idea of

just hanging out my friends,

talking about sport

and doing stuff like that.

Like it doesn't

have to be Bitcoin 24 seven.

I think there's

some healthy balance there.

But I definitely

yeah, I definitely find,

sometimes people can feel

quite alienated,

you know,

because they're like,

oh my god.

But no one wake up, wake up.

It's like you're

trying to yell at everyone

to wake up or whatever.

And so sometimes

people can feel alienated.

They can feel like

they're sort of crazy,

because they're like,

oh my God,

if I just

knew to my whole life

going all in on this thing

and maybe I'm overthinking it

and blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, but it's it's it's

I wouldn't say courageous, but

yeah, you got to

you got to put it you.

Yeah.

You got to,

you got to play the game

basically and go for it,

I think.

And so

yeah, I just,

I think that a lot of people

have had these experiences

at one point

in their journey

where they feel

quite alienated

or they don't feel like

they're old social circles,

serving them or something

like that.

But but yeah, I don't know.

I think it's

I think it's interesting.

I just think

we're really lucky

to have it, to be honest.

Like, yeah.

The world is so cool

right now. Like, it's

like bonkers.

Like everyone

is cheating on everyone.

Everyone's bombing everyone.

Everyone hates each other.

Everyone's pissed off.

Everyone's

overworked, underpaid,

two anxious mental health

issues like mental health.

Right?

It was men's

mental health month.

June, I think.

But listen to this.

The stats

like this is how cool

the world is.

One dude every three hours

and for every three hours

and 40 minutes,

one guy in Australia

will kill himself.

That's insane.

And tequila raw.

Western Australia

has a very bad problem

with this.

Oh. It's so bad.

It's like,

you know,

this is half the species.

Guys, girls,

if you don't like guys

and you're feminists,

no worries.

You can't have kids.

Like.

Like we need guys,

we need girls.

We need both of them in men.

And I'm

under the age of 40 in the UK.

Oh, my God.

The number one cause of death

isn't stabbings.

It's not diabetes,

it's not car accidents.

It's people tapping out.

And that is just like if

I always think about this,

but like, man,

I just wish

sometimes

these people got bitcoin.

Like because it is

honestly the

the biggest declutter

for your mind.

And it can give

a lot to your brain

and your mental health

at the same time.

It can obviously spend

you, send you into a tizzy

like what

the hell is actually going on?

Sure,

but that's more

enjoy that part.

But you know, like,

life isn't meant to be,

you know,

sitting on the edge

of your bed,

questioning everything

you've ever done

and then topping

yourself like,

you know, like

that's not the way to do it.

And I don't think

I think Bitcoin

has got

a breath of life in it.

That will change

a lot of people

that are currently like that.

It's not about like, oh,

I got Bitcoin at 100 grand

and now it's 10 million.

Yeah I'm rich.

I'm not

that I'm not unhappy anymore.

I think they'll get more of

a sense of belonging.

Community and also like

something to cheer for

because one of

the problems with

when we have access to

everything is individuals.

All of our, like,

everything delivered.

I want a TV

delivered in two hours.

I can literally press,

like, five buttons.

And it happens.

But like that isolation

and that individualism

kind of thing with, you know,

everyone's empowered.

Everyone can do themselves,

everything themselves.

Yeah, that's fine.

You need to

depend on your community

and you need to give

to your community.

So it's like, you know,

you buy your shit

from the local

butcher, cold day,

and you get your coffee

from the local coffee

shop from the,

you know, the guy called Tim,

and that's what they do.

They had the coffee guy

that's a butcher,

and you got your plumber

and you got these.

But as people

get more individual

and not community orientated,

we lose a higher purpose

or a goal.

And typically

before that is like holding

a responsibility over us,

you know, God and Jesus

and stuff like that.

Religion does a very

has a very powerful way

of doing that.

It makes you realize that

it's not you

and it's something

bigger than you.

And now you

start working towards

that bigger thing,

and you do your best work.

When you're not

working for yourself,

you're working

towards something else

as part of a team.

And so,

I don't know,

I think that's a big,

that's quite interesting

just to me, just in general,

the amount of declutter people

have had in their lives.

And yeah,

I think there's a

lot of

residual effects of Bitcoin

and going on a

Bitcoin standard.

But you have to do the work

and that's

where it gets

harder and harder.

So every single day that you

you don't start

looking into Bitcoin.

Not only

the Bitcoin

is running away from you now

but also your dopamine center

is getting worse

and worse as we age

and as we use screens more.

And as we mix

those two behaviors together,

aging and screen time,

it will only get harder

to understand.

You know,

it's like saying, hey,

you're ten years

old, get

in a really good habit

of brushing your teeth

every morning

and every night and showering

before you go to school

because when you're old,

you want to do that.

And if you don't

have a habit of it developed

when it's easier,

it's only going to be

like it's it's always harder

as you get older

to change things

like change your habits,

change your carrot

or whatever.

So I think that's

quite a thing where,

people can use it as a

it's like a

I don't know,

people can use it as a source

of responsibility almost.

And it does become

quite religious in that way,

because you're

operating for something

beyond yourself.

And the moment

you start acting

truly with the intent

like that, it becomes like a

a reshaping of your brain

where it's not,

you know,

it's not about me and me

trying to be like,

how do I do this?

This is like,

oh, I've got this thing

that I'm working on.

It's like people

that collect model trains,

they go to their model

train, meet up and everyone,

and they have that, you know,

that one hour a month

where it's

just nothing but straight

model train conversation

and everyone loves

and it fills the cup up

because they see

all these other people

that are like minded.

And I think when you

have like minded people

all together,

it provides

like a boost of confidence

individually for each of you.

Like even you, right?

You said

you go to a Bitcoin meetup,

you know,

you can find a conversation.

You know

you'd be able to slide

right in.

It's sort of like,

it's like a, I don't know,

an express path.

It's like taking the elevator

instead of the stairs,

you know, a

lot of conversation.

You'll be able to skip

the walking up the stairs.

I just took the elevator.

I'm with Bitcoin. Hey, great.

Did you see that thing

the other day?

Yeah I did how she.

It's like it doesn't matter

what country you from.

You're all looking

at the same things

because these are

all the same things

concerning your baby

or you know the baby. Bitcoin.

Yeah. Yeah

yeah.

It doesn't

doesn't matter

what age the person is.

Doesn't matter

what gender they are.

What nationality exactly.

It's just yeah

a fast track to

to that conversation.

Yeah I think that's cool.

I tell you what's really cool.

Like seeing like,

so the guy from Meta Planet,

Dylan LeClaire

or Dylan

LeClaire or something. Yeah.

Dylan LeClaire, I think it is.

He's on on planet board.

He's like super young, right?

And you never see

these finance cards

that I ever see beyond.

And I think that is, like,

just cool.

I think it's cool

that a 20 year

old is excited about

money and,

like, and changing money

like that means that there's

so much hope coming through,

you know?

And also,

like when I was 20,

I didn't give

a shit about money,

like financial markets

and stuff.

Idiot.

Like,

I was trying to drink

a liter of vodka

a day or whatever it is.

You know,

like when you're 20 at uni,

like you're doing everything.

So it's like, yeah,

I got that. By the way.

Later a day for one year

now, I didn't,

I have cirrhosis of the liver

or septicemia,

poisoning of the blood.

But yeah.

So I think that's

super encouraging.

I think that's really cool

because I'd like to see

more people

that are young,

whether they're 18 to 30,

making an impact

in things that matter, like,

but don't be fucking don't

go do this and do that.

Like you like

they should be the ones

making the change.

Because when they're 40,

they'll have had

20 years experience.

Like that's insane.

And not like,

oh, we've got to give it

to the 65 year old dude

because he's

the oldest guy in the room

and he'll know it's best.

No, like I'm over that.

Like, look at the decision

making we've got.

This is what we've got.

The best thing made by

humanity was built

by someone anonymously.

That's how bad

that system is.

They can't

make something

better than that.

And so we did that.

It was.

Yeah. Oh, what a blessing.

Can you imagine?

You would

you be

in a fucking

mental institution

without Bitcoin right now?

I mean I was

just going to ask you like

can you imagine your life

now without Bitcoin?

Because to me

that would be

the most scariest,

scariest thing. Terrifying.

Yeah. Petrifying.

Absolutely petrifying.

And I get scared every day

that I'm like

what if it goes away?

Oh my god what happens?

Oh my god no.

And and then that

when you think about that

that's when you actually go,

now I've got to run a node

or I've got to take action

and you want to take

some sort of action,

you go buy a big beat ax mine

or whatever it is.

I've got my bit ax.

It's actually off

at the moment,

but the hashrate

dropped materially

because of that Iran bombing.

So I'm actually like now

like, oh,

this is a great value capture.

I could possibly mine

for a more efficient thing

now that the

the difficulty has gone down.

So do you run.

It but.

Do you run not.

Yeah of course. Yeah.

Well no. No no.

Like I, I think

I support the not conversation

I do and I don't

obviously core was fantastic.

So with the Jordan

like some

of the 95 Bulls in the NBA.

But it doesn't mean I'm

going to bet on the end

like the Bulls

to win this year

because Scottie Pippen

and Michael

Jordan used to play for them

like if Coors

had a material rotation

of developers

and community members.

Since that

really awesome work,

then I'm just going to judge

them.

I'm not going to judge them

by the people

or just judge them

by the work.

And so I think the work

seems contentious.

Like they said,

they said, notice

something two years ago

and they just

they made their own

sort of mess.

I think they fumbled the bag.

Basically it looks like,

but you know, a

lot of people go, oh, Bitcoin

not is maintained

by one developer.

Yeah.

And it's a fork

of Bitcoin Core.

Well you want 30 developers

maintaining a fork like

no I don't think so.

But also if you've got

if you have 30

developers on a product

that is to run

a distributed system,

that's the perfect way

to attack it in my opinion.

Like if I was send,

someone said, hey,

you got to break Bitcoin.

I'd be like,

okay, sweet,

well, let's go compromise

the developers.

So when people go on,

you know

not is run by one

person, great.

That's one person

that can be compromise.

That's one person

value system.

I have to understand

that's one person who

can be paid or not paid,

but it's one

like the attack

vector is social in Bitcoin.

All I do is trust him a lot.

Well, you trust him a lot, but

that's okay

because if it's wrong,

you know exactly who to shoot.

Like not literally,

but you know what I mean.

Like, you know the person

who's eating the shit sandwich

who did this, you know,

if you're at work,

who did this?

But I was the only person

on that project, right?

Account ability.

That is perfect

when you've got to see

a fucking half

assed conversations

going on and like, oh,

we got 30 developers. Great.

That's terrible news.

I don't want 30 developers

because that's 30

human beings,

which are the weakest link

in every single system.

You're telling me like,

that's a good thing.

Hey, I've got 30 weak links.

You've only got one.

It's like, but

I'll take the one

every day of the week

because I know

if you're attacking them,

the attacker doesn't

want one guy to compromise.

That's not good.

You want 30 people

because that's 30

shots on goal.

Hey, man,

I need you to put

through this code review,

but I need you

to update the code.

Okay, cool.

If the not guy says

no, there's no other

there's no other way to do it.

But if you've got

30 people on a team

or ten people on a team,

you can plan with one guy

for six months before

to bring in the third guy

three months in.

So then you plot your course.

That's what people do.

That is

what happens

in the real world.

And people are looking at it

like, oh,

that's so ridiculous.

The thing,

no is a $2 trillion asset.

Like, we're not pulling

your dick in your basement.

Like, this is real.

This is as real as it gets.

And I'm not, like,

going

to not overthink something

because there's a

there's 500 million

people or billion

people

waiting to have this same

beautiful experience

in Bitcoin that I have had.

You have had

you had, you know,

so do you think we just

maybe just just keep it down.

And that's how

I think about it

because I think,

I think

everyone does

really good work.

And I think we're really lucky

to have everyone doing

good work and everyone

bickering and arguing,

because that's good.

That's healthy discussion,

especially when

people are passionate.

Nothing more dangerous

than apathy.

That's the only thing

that can kill.

Bitcoin, in my opinion,

is apathy, which I love. This.

Yeah I love this. Yeah.

Which Bitcoin is.

That was so disagreeable.

Yeah. Super disagreeable.

And like I'm all for it.

I'm happy

for the conversation.

But like when it becomes

you're

just, you know,

when it becomes sort of,

you know, they try and hero

speak where it's like,

this is too technical.

You wouldn't understand.

You better start

helping me understand then,

because I'm

the guy that's voting.

So you don't have to. But.

And then the long story short

is that no matter what,

division is

the worst thing possible.

And some people like

thriving on that,

but they don't realize

this isn't a product,

this isn't tech.

This is a social experiment.

Because if the

social layer breaks,

everything else breaks.

Oh, will it technical?

It's still up and running.

No one gives a shit

about bitcoin anymore.

The social layer broke it.

It's not immutable.

It keeps changing.

The social layer is

the defense system.

So when people sort of bring

technical nuance to a

conversation about social,

I don't think that adds value.

And I think it also misses

their on like, it sort of

speaks

more to their understanding

than their misunderstanding,

or speaks

more to their misunderstanding

than their understanding.

Again, I'm just one, literally

one other node on the network

and I don't

I genuinely don't know

what's best for Bitcoin.

But I think

when you do not know

what something is

safe, safest

bet is to always stay put.

You know,

if it's not a hell yes,

it should be a hard no. Yeah.

And so like

that's pretty straightforward.

And people are trying to think

like, oh, it is a hell yes.

You guys are the minority

or whatever.

It's like no one's

the minority.

There's no consensus

on anything.

But the moment people start

getting frustrated is

then that's

when they start

taking more action.

It I don't know,

but it's been interesting.

I haven't seen something

make Bitcoin look

as mortal as that.

Recently that

not conversation.

Just because

it was so polarizing,

everyone thought they had

the same baseline of

this is what Bitcoin

this is

what we're working

to make Bitcoin ours.

And then sort of

through that discussion

a lot of that

those assumptions broke.

And it's like

well did they break

or did opportunity

interrupt them.

Like so did that person

really not understand

what was going on with money

and thinking it was money,

or as a new opportunity

presented themselves

where they're happy

to compromise on that?

But you know what I did?

I lost heaps

fucking buying these terrible

BRC 20, you know, ordinals.

I lost heaps of money

doing that.

I shouldn't have done that.

I will

I'm going to make it back

by trading this coin.

That's how people

lose their stock.

They have one bad trade,

and then they try

and trade out of that.

And I lose that whole stack.

Yeah.

And so when I see people

switching, switching gears,

I'm like,

how just how bad

is your gambling problem.

Like that's

what all I think

when they're like,

no, no, no Bitcoin is money.

Because they're like, oh.

Actually we should

yeah, I'm

going to be the I'm going to.

Launch a token.

And then it's like,

how badly down are you?

Like, you know,

because you should

you should have been following

the manuscript this whole time

by five bucks,

whatever you can afford

per day, and you'll be okay.

But anyway.

But I think

either way, it's nice

that people, you know what?

It's a privilege

to have a community

that gives a shit, you know?

Yeah, at least I give a shit.

And that's

that's the

everyone gets a gold star,

in my opinion,

for just giving a shit.

So, you know,

that's better than nothing.

But I also love

the contrast

between normies

or regular people

thinking what they assumed

to be

the risks in Bitcoin,

and then the conversations

that we have internally

like so different.

Yeah. Right. Like yeah.

It's very different.

We don't talk

about volatility.

Like no.

No that and that's

that was obviously you know

that was the conversation

at the beginning

because you needed

to explain it.

But now a lot of people go

yeah Bitcoin is volatile.

But they sort of

they default is like

yeah but it keeps going up.

So that volatility fear

is actually not

as common anymore.

I feel like like

it used to be

what they lead with.

But now everyone

sort of knows

that Bitcoin just keeps going.

And that's what it should be

known for.

It keeps going. Yeah.

Because you might be spending

a bit too much time on Twitter

because that's not

my experience.

Like oh. Really?

Some time. Yeah.

When I spent some time

on LinkedIn.

Just posted

things here

and there about,

you know, Bitcoin and you get

it was interesting

because he did

draw a lot of attention

from traditional finance,

really criticizing it

and then subsequently

criticizing me personally.

And some like quite,

you know,

big names or not,

not so much names,

but titles like

CEOs of company CEOs

of ASX listed companies.

Yeah.

Had a lot to,

you know,

negative things to say.

So it's it is

eye opening

to see how early

we are

still in this conversation.

Asian,

especially in Australia.

I don't think like

I had a look at Natalie

Brunel's LinkedIn.

I was like people giving her

the same sort

of criticism in there,

not because in America,

I think the landscape

and the climate is very,

very different.

People are a lot

more accepting

and understanding of it.

And, and obviously,

like the adoption is a lot

higher there.

Yeah.

But it's science further along

I think. Yeah.

We, we,

we are behind because the

I still keep

getting questions

about volatility

is like the main one.

Bitcoin

has no intrinsic value.

This one gives me

an eye twitch

every time I hear it.

And then

do you think quantum

computing is a threat?

Yeah.

And it's like, oh yeah.

What's funny

is quantum computing.

The last thing I will go for

is bitcoin because exactly.

With bitcoins it's all.

Worry about.

Like other than someone

trying to break it

out of principle for notarize.

But yeah,

any person like Alan

Turing during the war

when they broke Enigma,

they didn't come out and say,

fuck you, we broke Enigma.

They were like,

we can't tell anyone

because then they'll keep

sending messages,

you know, like

so I think

quantum would be the same.

They would make sure

that they're just taking

from domain addresses

or whatever.

But

but yeah, it's, Bitcoin's

the last place

you want to probably, try and

like, hack or compromise

because that's going to be

the thing feeding you forever,

you know, going like. Yeah.

So that's how

I think about that.

Banks,

all those systems and stuff,

they just get totally wiped.

Not even wiped.

Just deformed.

It's like someone having

access to your quarterly

financial statement in Excel,

and you get to go to bed

and you give

10,000 people write access

so they can write in

whatever they want.

When you wake up

in the morning,

odds are it's

going to be very different

to what you left it.

Oh hey guys, here's

my quarterly

results spreadsheet.

Can I leave it with you

and not touch it

even though

you got access to change it?

Can I guarantee. Yeah, yeah.

When you

wake up in the morning,

be every totally different.

And that's,

that's exactly

what a quantum computer

will do to

our timeline of internet.

It'll just keep it

just going through everything

and change it all, like change

whatever it wants.

Which basically means that

when you've changed

everything,

you don't have

anything anymore.

And so you kind of

just sort of say farewell

to this big data set,

you know,

that gets

put on pause from there.

And there's post quantum

cryptography and stuff.

But post-quantum

cryptography is still not

the answer.

That's like a bandaid

on a broken arm.

The and like

the bigger problem

is that all this stuff

comes back to the same thing,

which is prime numbers.

And so

all cryptography is dependent

on prime numbers. But we know

very little about them.

And that means like

we don't know why

they show up

or how they show up

or where they show up,

but they keep showing up.

And so that mystery becomes

the perfect place

to use as identity.

Like, if I want uniqueness,

prime numbers unique.

So I make sure I use prime

numbers in RSA

cryptography, in,

elliptic curve

cryptography key fields.

Prime. Yeah.

Basically

they show up everywhere.

But if one mathematician knew

something that

the rest of the world didn't,

they own the world

like own it.

Not even like, like,

this is what keeps

me up at night

because there's so many smart

cats out there.

It's like someone's

going to get these problems on

hard enough to not be solved.

Like, that's what I mean.

It's sort of like,

it doesn't feel hard enough

that they can't be solved.

And it feels like

the only reason

they're not solved yet

is because a lot of people

haven't

put their attention to it.

But once you have

everyone running

on cryptography,

which is, you know,

digital assets

and shit like that,

Bitcoin, everyone's

going to know

about cryptography.

And then people get greedy

and they go, oh,

how do I break cryptography?

And it's like,

well what's it made out of?

And they go,

well prime numbers.

And they go,

well how do we break

prime numbers?

Well, let's get some maths

nerds into focus on this.

And they put resources to it.

You know,

these things happen

on the times

of real critical duress.

So yeah,

you know,

they split the atom, right?

With the nuclear bomb.

They figured out how

to split the atom.

But just before it,

I thinking,

you know, if

we had another war,

the next big win

would be splitting the hash.

Basically,

who can break a hash or a key?

And that will grant access

to the world, basically.

So whoever's in charge,

whatever countries

are fighting or whatever,

that's the new atom bomb

because it steals

everything instantly

and it's just a math equation.

And so that is like

that's fascinating to me.

You know, all these things,

they're real threat.

That's a real threat.

Quantum, I just

I get it, it's cool.

Like it's exciting, but

I just

it's the wrong direction.

Quantum everything.

I just think quantum

mechanics is a broken, like,

approach to physics,

statistical and probabilistic.

So I just never any time

you hear the word

quantum, I'm like,

it's probabilistic

somewhere down there,

which means it's

not mechanical,

which means it's

probably flawed.

But yeah, other than that,

that's all I got.

I love it.

And last question

for you, Michael. Yeah.

Do you have

any recommendations

for people

who are new to this space

and want to, you know, you've

you've got their curiosity

now, what are some of the

practical next steps?

I definitely think

getting some bitcoin

in from like

podcasts in your diet.

So if you're listening

to this fantastic.

Thank you very much

for listening.

But other ones as well

that you might want to listen

to as a primer to understand

if you're,

you know,

if you just want to

get the building blocks

like what's the

welcome to Bitcoin?

I usually look at Robert

Breedlove Silas series.

I think that's

really powerful.

And I think Michael Saylor

is such a fantastic,

he's such a fantastic speaker

and he's very elegant

with how he frames things

for the most part.

So I think

he's very easy to learn from.

He's a great, great educator.

And I think that's probably

like one

of his biggest superpowers,

in the space

and the contributions

that he's made.

So I always send people

that direction

because I feel safe

sending them there.

I don't feel like

they're going to come back

and be like,

Mike, what was that dog

shit that you gave me?

That was a waste

of three hours, you know?

I was like, sorry.

Yeah. Anyway.

But that's what I'd say.

And I'd say, as well,

don't worry

about stupid questions.

There is no stupid questions.

And if you needed

to hear from me or anyone,

trust me on this one.

I've asked

more stupid question then.

If you heard

some of these questions

that I would have asked,

you'd be like, oh,

that guy needs

to be in a hospital.

He has no brain in his name.

Like, seriously.

And so

everyone has been there.

Everyone.

This is forum stuff.

This isn't made in China.

It's not made in America.

We don't know where it's

come from.

So until then,

we call it alien tech.

And now

there's no stupid questions

when it comes to that.

Everyone is a beginner

and the best part is,

everyone's story arc

is usually the same

or similar,

just staggered differently

in different time

intervals or whatever.

But everyone has been

in your shoes before.

If you are new

to this industry,

everyone is willing to help

you understand

because everyone

has gotten so much from it.

And it's not about

a Ponzi scheme

where they're getting paid.

It's more like

their life cup

has been filled up from it,

and it's really supported them

as an individual

on a personal level

and emotionally

and stuff like that.

And so I'd say go

easy on yourself, but,

you know,

put yourself under the in

the mix,

go to a meet up, start

listening to some podcasts.

Hey, if you're not listening

to shit about this,

how to fix your money

I don't know what you

what you're learning about,

but it's probably a good idea

because no matter

if you're 20 years old

or 40 years old,

if you don't understand

money,

you're going to have

a very challenging

next 20 or 40 years.

The person

who understands money

the best,

we'll figure out

a way to get it and move on

with life first.

But yeah,

you need to be investing

your time

and your mind into this.

Not yeah,

don't need to be paying

for stuff and buying courses

or anything like that.

Everything you need is free

and every person

that you need to speak to

is probably willing

to speak to you about it.

And I find that's quite cool.

A lot of people are waiting

for people to come around.

They waiting like,

hey man, look, okay,

can you just tell me

about this Bitcoin thing?

And you're like,

oh yes, they're coming.

You know, they're interested.

You know,

because interest

is such a big part of it.

If you're not interested

you can't make anyone

do anything right.

Like interest

is what separates

the persistent

from the non persistent.

You know, people

that train 20 hours a day

for gold versus

someone who trains three hours

a day.

I'm more persistent

because I'm more interested.

I don't feel

like I'm training.

I feel like I'm

out in the fresh air

doing the exact thing

I'm obsessed with.

I could

I the only reason I'm

not training right now

is because I have to sleep.

You know, it's

almost like kids

with video games, like,

imagine going out

to a kid being like,

hey, how would you like

to get paid to do this

all day, every day?

I'm doing it all day,

every day.

Anyway,

thanks for the free money.

That's what

purpose feels like.

It feels like

you're getting paid

to do something

that you do not think

you should be

getting paid for,

and it feels way too easy

for getting like

for the money,

you're getting bitcoins

a lot like that.

It will be good to you

if you take the time

you owe it to yourself.

Basically. Yeah.

It's the single

best investment

you can you can

make is first

learning about Bitcoin and

one accordingly.

100%.

Oh yeah definitely great.

All right thanks Michael.

That's it for this week

on the Honest Money Show.

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