Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Markma Show,
Speaker 1: where we talk about the decentralized revolution, talking about the
Speaker 1: way the world is changing and we look at through
Speaker 1: the lens of politics, finance, and technology. Now, I say
Speaker 1: it all the time, I'm gonna say it again. You
Speaker 1: might just be tuned in, maybe you don't know, but
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna say it anyther way. More than anything,
Speaker 1: what changes the world through thousands of years of history
Speaker 1: is technology. It's always technology that changes the world, whether
Speaker 1: it's something as small and meaningless as a horse stirrup,
Speaker 1: h the gunpowder revolution. Uh, we can go all the
Speaker 1: back with the creation of fire, right. I mean, all
Speaker 1: these things change the course of humanity, and we're witnessing
Speaker 1: one right now, and that is the biggest catalyst to
Speaker 1: change the world. Now. The world is swinging from centralization
Speaker 1: to decentralization. This happens on a two and fifty year
Speaker 1: political time frame. But it's interesting that on a fifty
Speaker 1: year time frame we have a technological revolution that's bringing
Speaker 1: us exactly what we need for the two and or
Speaker 1: fifty year political revolution cycle, which is a decentral technology.
Speaker 1: It's pretty interesting, and of course I believe that is
Speaker 1: bitcoin now. A lot of people want to challenge me
Speaker 1: on that. I go speak around the country and even
Speaker 1: the world. As a matter of fact, that you've spoke
Speaker 1: in Mexico City like two weeks ago, and uh man
Speaker 1: at the end of my talk, uh, the people crowd
Speaker 1: around me and they want to ask me about all
Speaker 1: types of things cryptocurrency because I talked about bitcoin and
Speaker 1: I've heard all these things that but bitcoin is backed
Speaker 1: by nothing. This is what I had to deal with
Speaker 1: with someone who's a big fan and he and he
Speaker 1: made this comment that it's not backed by anything. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's too volatile, it's too risky, it's outdated technology,
Speaker 1: it was started by the CIA. We don't know who's
Speaker 1: to do shooting acomotive is we're gonna poor bitcoin? Uh?
Speaker 1: People say, you know ethereum is better because it has
Speaker 1: this like so I hear all these things all the
Speaker 1: time and so um. I bet if you tune in regularly,
Speaker 1: you probably have the same questions because I say, here
Speaker 1: talk about bitcoin, and I don't talk about all this
Speaker 1: other supposedly technologically advanced crypto currencies because they do smart
Speaker 1: contracts on layer one or something like that, and so
Speaker 1: or they have faster throughput, faster transaction times and all
Speaker 1: these types of things. UM. And so you know what
Speaker 1: I thought coming back from this conference I was at
Speaker 1: last week in Mexico City, and I had to deal
Speaker 1: with a bunch of these questions. UM. I took I
Speaker 1: took down a bunch of these ones that I was asked,
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know what, UM, let me just
Speaker 1: answer some of these for you here, and uh maybe
Speaker 1: they'll be helpful. M hmm, it should be helpful. UM.
Speaker 1: I would highly recommend listen to him because if you don't,
Speaker 1: you could miss out on one of the biggest life
Speaker 1: rapps that we have. All right, UM, so let's let's
Speaker 1: go through some of these. So the first one is,
Speaker 1: as I said, at this at the at this Nomadic Capitalist,
Speaker 1: someone came up to me and they said, but mark
Speaker 1: bitcoin is backed by nothing. It has no intrinsic value.
Speaker 1: It's not backed by anything. And I said, let's stop
Speaker 1: for a second and think about what that says. Right now,
Speaker 1: it's not backed by anything. What does that mean? Backed
Speaker 1: by anything? So I'm asking you the question. I'm asking
Speaker 1: you to ask yourself that question. What does that mean
Speaker 1: to be backed by something? You probably haven't thought about it.
Speaker 1: You just recite that over and over. Well, let's let's
Speaker 1: break that down. So what does that mean to be
Speaker 1: backed by Well, the dollar was backed by gold, right,
Speaker 1: So I had gold. Gold was too slow, right, It
Speaker 1: was slow for me to move gold from you know,
Speaker 1: New York to Germany, for example, or from New York
Speaker 1: to California. So the gold went into a bank. When
Speaker 1: I put the gold in the bank, the bank would
Speaker 1: give me a piece of paper, an IOU, a claim,
Speaker 1: a paper goal certificate that said I this paper is
Speaker 1: redeemable for the gold I have in there. It's like
Speaker 1: a claim check. And then what I could do is
Speaker 1: I could send you or I could hand you that
Speaker 1: piece of paper, and now you have that claim and
Speaker 1: you could go redeem that gold whenever you want. So
Speaker 1: that piece of paper that I handed you was backed
Speaker 1: by gold. It was backed by it was debt. It
Speaker 1: was an IOU. This paper is backed by the gold
Speaker 1: that's in the bank. So debt is backed by the
Speaker 1: underlying asset. What was gold backed by nothing? Gold is gold.
Speaker 1: Gold isn't backed by anything. Gold is gold. Only the
Speaker 1: debt only, the claim on the asset has to be
Speaker 1: backed by something. So when you ask yourself what is big?
Speaker 1: What is bitcoin backed by? Bitcoin is backed by the
Speaker 1: same thing that gold is backed by. It's backed by gold.
Speaker 1: It's backed by bitcoin the same thing that any other
Speaker 1: real world asset is backed by. It's backed by that asset.
Speaker 1: That's it. Now, if I have a gold coin in
Speaker 1: my hand or a silver coin in my hand, I
Speaker 1: have the silver coin, what is that backed by nothing?
Speaker 1: It's just the silver coin in my hand. If I
Speaker 1: hand it to you, you have the silver coin, only
Speaker 1: an ioure written on top of it. Now. Um, but
Speaker 1: gold has intrinsic value, right, That's what Peter Schiff would say, right,
Speaker 1: because gold, you know, it has interns of value. You
Speaker 1: could use it for a filling in your tooth, and
Speaker 1: you could make cuff links out of it. And I'm
Speaker 1: here to say that there is no such thing as
Speaker 1: intrinsic value. So okay, sure you can take gold to
Speaker 1: make a cuff link out of it, and you can
Speaker 1: make you can take a gold and make a filling
Speaker 1: out of it, So there's there You're able to use
Speaker 1: it for something, So there's there's usefulness to gold, is
Speaker 1: probably what you're saying. So it's not intrinsic value, because
Speaker 1: what's the value of a cuff link. I mean, I
Speaker 1: can make a cufflink out of aluminum, I can make
Speaker 1: it out of steel, I can make it out of anything.
Speaker 1: I mean most fillings aren't gold either. I can do
Speaker 1: filings with things as well, porcelain or whatever. Right, So
Speaker 1: what is the intrinsic value of gold? There there is
Speaker 1: no intrinsic value of gold. There's usefulness to gold, I'll
Speaker 1: give you that. So there is no such thing as
Speaker 1: intrinsic value. All value is subjective, and it's really broken
Speaker 1: down by two factors. One is scarcity put off. Also
Speaker 1: also the need. So, for example, I use this story
Speaker 1: all the time. You've heard me say it. If I
Speaker 1: was on a desert island with a with a billion
Speaker 1: dollars of cash, billion dollars of gold, billion dollars of bitcoin,
Speaker 1: but I had no food, no no boat, no phone,
Speaker 1: nobody to get off the island, no way to eat
Speaker 1: or whatever. None of that. The billion dollars in gold,
Speaker 1: cash or bitcoin is all worthless because I have nothing
Speaker 1: to exchange for that. So all of that is worth
Speaker 1: that gold is worth nothing. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: it is worth less than nothing, because it's probably dangerous
Speaker 1: for me because how what am I How am I
Speaker 1: going to secure it? I can't swim with it whatever? Right,
Speaker 1: so there's no value to that. Now, let's say scarcity
Speaker 1: drives value, not necessarily. What if there was one black
Speaker 1: rock on the whole island. It's the only one, but
Speaker 1: it's of no value to me, so who cares it? Scarce?
Speaker 1: But so what, I don't need it. Now, Let's say
Speaker 1: that last night I had dinner and I didn't finish
Speaker 1: my dinner, and I threw my leftovers away, those leftovers,
Speaker 1: that little bit of water in my cup. I poured
Speaker 1: it out. That water had no value to me because
Speaker 1: there's just more water right there, so I just dump
Speaker 1: it out, no value. But if I was on that
Speaker 1: deserted island and there was a little bit of leftover
Speaker 1: food scraps and a little bit of water, I would
Speaker 1: probably give you the billion dollars I had in cash, gold,
Speaker 1: or bitcoin for those leftovers. Now, those leftovers and the
Speaker 1: water were worth nothing last night because they weren't scarce,
Speaker 1: and they didn't have any utility or value to me
Speaker 1: at that point. But on that island, I would they
Speaker 1: were scarce and they have massive value and utility to
Speaker 1: me because I'm dying of food or thirst, of hunger
Speaker 1: or thirst. Right now, back to the usefulness of gold.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure gold could be turned into a cuff link,
Speaker 1: and gold could be turned into a filling or gold
Speaker 1: gold works really well for connectivity, for like audio, video,
Speaker 1: things like that. Right, So gold does have usefulness. But
Speaker 1: bitcoin also has usefulness. So you may not think so
Speaker 1: living in your posh you know, um downtown apartment, drinking
Speaker 1: your twenty dollar cocktails at the bar. But if you're
Speaker 1: in if you're one of about four billion people in
Speaker 1: the world today living under a double digit inflation and
Speaker 1: authoritarian regime, bitcoin has a lot of usefulness. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact. Let's say that you live in uh,
Speaker 1: you know, so you live in a country that's in Lebanon.
Speaker 1: We were talking about Lebanon earlier. Let's say you live
Speaker 1: in Lebanon and they have such high inflation that you've
Speaker 1: lost all the purchasing power of your money and you
Speaker 1: can't even get out whatever money you have out of
Speaker 1: the bank. They're literally breaking into banks with weapons to
Speaker 1: steal their own money back out. If you live there
Speaker 1: and you have the ability to move your money into
Speaker 1: bitcoin that the government cannot inflate away and cannot steal
Speaker 1: from you. There's massive value there. Let's say that I'm
Speaker 1: in North Korea and um, I need to get this
Speaker 1: good or service. I need to get this food the
Speaker 1: government hasn't given me enough food, or I need to
Speaker 1: pay someone to get me out of the country or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I don't have any way to pay for that
Speaker 1: because they've blocked that. But now I have bitcoin and
Speaker 1: I can pay for that. There's massive usefulness there, massive utility.
Speaker 1: You may not see the utility being in New York,
Speaker 1: but they do in North Korea. Just like I don't
Speaker 1: see the value of cufflinks because I don't wear suits,
Speaker 1: but some people do. Hopefully that makes sense. Backed by
Speaker 1: nothing is only for debt, not for assets intrinsic value.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing is intrinsic value, and all value
Speaker 1: is subjective. Now, once you understand those things, you can
Speaker 1: start to understand what money is, and you can start
Speaker 1: to understand the entire financial system and all the other
Speaker 1: assets that we have. Hopefully that it helps out. You're
Speaker 1: listening to the Markmas Show, we're talking about the decentralized revolution,
Speaker 1: the way the world is changing through the lens of politics, finance,
Speaker 1: and technology. The technology being of course a bitcoin, de
Speaker 1: centralized technology for a decentralized world. And I'm covering some
Speaker 1: of the biggest objections I hear to bitcoin every day.
Speaker 1: Hopefully that helps. I'll be back with more in a minute.
Speaker 1: Don't go away, all right, welcome back. You are listening
Speaker 1: to the Mark Ma Show. We talk about the decentralized revolution.
Speaker 1: The world is changing through the land, and we look
Speaker 1: at through the lens of politics, finance, and technology, the
Speaker 1: technology being bitcoin. In my opinion, that's the technical technological revolution.
Speaker 1: It's my opinion, but I believe I can back it
Speaker 1: up with factual data and I do all the time.
Speaker 1: But I know that when I talk about it, especially
Speaker 1: in terms of other cryptocurrencies and things like that, I
Speaker 1: hear lots of objections. And that's fine. It's brand new.
Speaker 1: It's very misunderstood. And um, I was just speaking at
Speaker 1: this conference in Mexico City nomad Capitalist, and it was
Speaker 1: a perfect Um it was a big one. Is a
Speaker 1: perfect asset for a nomad capitalist? And what's the nomad capitalist?
Speaker 1: I mean, these are people who basically are trying to
Speaker 1: diversify internationally. You wouldn't put all your money in one
Speaker 1: count or I'm sorry, you wouldn't put all your money
Speaker 1: in one stock, would you. I mean, you shouldn't. Um,
Speaker 1: So why would you have your whole life in one country.
Speaker 1: It's a good idea. Why not diversified? Um. The United States,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is still probably the best country to
Speaker 1: live in in the world today. Best is a relative term,
Speaker 1: you know, best is different for different people. But I
Speaker 1: still think the US still the best country in the world.
Speaker 1: The US passport has been one of the best passports
Speaker 1: to have in the world, but during the pandemic, the
Speaker 1: US passport became one of the worst passports you could
Speaker 1: have because the US, you know, with its uh high
Speaker 1: numbers of COVID and et cetera, most countries didn't want
Speaker 1: to allow Americans to come in and so all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the US passport was was was a horrible
Speaker 1: and have um in addition, Um, In addition, a lot
Speaker 1: of places in the world don't allow Americans to open
Speaker 1: bank accounts. So let's say that you did want to
Speaker 1: move to Bali or Thailand or Venezuela or Argentina or
Speaker 1: Brazil or Um, Turkey or whatever name the country. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that they may not allow you
Speaker 1: to open bank accounts. And the reason they don't allow
Speaker 1: you to help to bank accounts is because the I R.
Speaker 1: S is so crazy and so restrictive they don't want
Speaker 1: to deal with it. So no, sorry, you can't have it. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of places in the world. If you
Speaker 1: haven't traveled, this may come as surprise to you, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot of places in the world that don't
Speaker 1: really like Americans. It's a sad fact. Now, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not anti American, I'm I'm making the case. I
Speaker 1: still think it's the best place to live, which is
Speaker 1: why I still live in America. But I'm just saying
Speaker 1: there's reasons why you might want to diversify. So these
Speaker 1: nomatter capitalist you know, they may want to move to
Speaker 1: another part of the world to lower their tax liability
Speaker 1: or to have a higher quality of life because it's cheaper. Um,
Speaker 1: they want to have multiple passports, just so if one
Speaker 1: of their passports doesn't work, they have other passports. Things
Speaker 1: like that, and then you can see opportunities. So for example,
Speaker 1: I did want to go live in Bali or Thailand
Speaker 1: or whatever. But I can't open a bank acount. I
Speaker 1: could use my other passport, or I'm in a part
Speaker 1: of the world where they really don't like Americans. I
Speaker 1: could just travel on my other passport and things like that.
Speaker 1: So it gives me options. And so for somebody who's
Speaker 1: doing that, Bitcoin is a perfect asset for them, because
Speaker 1: the problem with our money in the bank is we've
Speaker 1: come to find out that the Trucker rally in Canada,
Speaker 1: We've come to find out with with Russia, money in
Speaker 1: the banking system is not your money. It can be
Speaker 1: frozen and sees at any time period. Uh And And
Speaker 1: unfortunately many people around the world have to find this
Speaker 1: out all the time. And we talked about Lebanon. They're
Speaker 1: finding this out. They can't get their money on the bank.
Speaker 1: What about people in Ukraine? People in Ukraine and they're
Speaker 1: they're fleeing for their lives. What what do They can't
Speaker 1: take their real estate on their back, they can't carry
Speaker 1: their gold, the banks are shut down. They their money
Speaker 1: at the bank, there's capital controls, like, what are they
Speaker 1: gonna do? Well, let's say in Russia there now they're
Speaker 1: trying to draft people into military I heard lots of
Speaker 1: people are trying to escape Russia because they don't want
Speaker 1: to go into the military, which I don't blame them.
Speaker 1: Um and uh, they're leaving Russia, but have to leave
Speaker 1: all their all their assets. They have to leave all
Speaker 1: their real estate and their stocks and their money in
Speaker 1: the bank, and once they leave Russia, they'll probably never
Speaker 1: able to get that money back out of the bank again.
Speaker 1: So for somebody who's in one of these regimes, you're
Speaker 1: in North Korea, you're trying to escape to South Korea
Speaker 1: where it's free, or you're escaping in Ukraine's you don't
Speaker 1: get blown up, or you're trying to escape Russia so
Speaker 1: you don't have to go into the draft, or you're
Speaker 1: in Lebanon trying to get your money out before the
Speaker 1: bank sees it. All. Like, there's lots of situations happening
Speaker 1: in the world right now today that you may or
Speaker 1: you just want to be a nomad capitalist and just
Speaker 1: you know, I want to set up residents in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean and set up residents in in Brazil and Thailand,
Speaker 1: and I like to move around and that's cool too.
Speaker 1: So what you want is you want the ability to
Speaker 1: have of your assets with you all the time in
Speaker 1: a way that can't be seized or stolen or manipulated.
Speaker 1: So with bitcoin, I can secure it cryptographically and I
Speaker 1: have a key. Now, the cryptographic key is very long.
Speaker 1: It's a long string of characters and numbers, and um,
Speaker 1: think about it like this, Like, UM, I'm sure most
Speaker 1: of you know what a locker is. You went to school.
Speaker 1: You have a locker, right, and your locker at school
Speaker 1: was like C. Nineteen and so, um, hey my locker C. Nineteen,
Speaker 1: Go put this envelope in there. So I give you
Speaker 1: my public address C. Nineteen and you can go there
Speaker 1: and you could stick an envelope in my locker. That's
Speaker 1: my public address. But then I only have a key
Speaker 1: that I can open that locker and move stuff around.
Speaker 1: So I have the private key. So there's a public
Speaker 1: address in a private key. Now the private key, Um,
Speaker 1: for a locker might be a combination, right, I have
Speaker 1: to remember the combination. It might be a key. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: now for a bitcoin, is a is a cryptographic case.
Speaker 1: It's very long, very long string of numbers. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna remember it, not like a three digit combination. Right,
Speaker 1: So what you typically do is you have a device
Speaker 1: we call it a wallet that that would sign that
Speaker 1: transaction for you. So you could download one on your phone,
Speaker 1: like from the app store, UM, and then when I
Speaker 1: use the app, I say send. The app basically works
Speaker 1: just like venmo. Right, it's just like Venmo. So I
Speaker 1: have a bitcoin I want to send it to you,
Speaker 1: just like if I have Venmo and I want to
Speaker 1: send you money. So I would need two things from you.
Speaker 1: I need your address on venmo or cash ap. It
Speaker 1: might be your user name, UM, and I would say send,
Speaker 1: and I would plug in your user name and I'd
Speaker 1: put the amount in and I'd hit send simple. If
Speaker 1: I want to send to you a bitcoin app bitcoin
Speaker 1: wallet be the same thing. I'd put your address in
Speaker 1: there and I would put the amount and I say
Speaker 1: send simple. But that that app, that phone, all it
Speaker 1: does is hold my private key, so that's also it
Speaker 1: signs the transaction for me. Now there's a way to
Speaker 1: back up that key, so I can back it up,
Speaker 1: and I can use twelve words to back it up.
Speaker 1: So there'd be twelve random words monkey, banana, ocean, ranch, uh,
Speaker 1: steak whatever, right, twelve random words, and so then I
Speaker 1: could I could delete that app I could destroy it,
Speaker 1: I could get rid of it whatever, and then I
Speaker 1: just no twelve words in my head. Now. The importance
Speaker 1: of this is that I don't need any physical device.
Speaker 1: All I know is twelve words in my head. So
Speaker 1: let's just say that I'm in Russia or I'm in
Speaker 1: Ukraine and I'm trying to run for my life. So
Speaker 1: I don't get blown up. I don't need to run
Speaker 1: into my house and grab anything. I don't need to
Speaker 1: go get a device. I don't need to worry about
Speaker 1: losing my phone or not having access to my safe
Speaker 1: or carry something with me. I can literally just run.
Speaker 1: I carry it with me in my head. I could
Speaker 1: literally walk through a border or swim to another island naked,
Speaker 1: and when I get there, I could get onto a computer.
Speaker 1: I could enter my backup and boom, have my entire
Speaker 1: key back with me right now. If that doesn't sound revolutionary,
Speaker 1: and then I don't know where you're from. It solves
Speaker 1: the oldest problem in humanity. It allows me to take
Speaker 1: my property in a way that can't be stolen, and
Speaker 1: I can take it with me everywhere with no cost.
Speaker 1: Imagine if you had a million dollars or a billion
Speaker 1: dollars of gold. How do you move that? How how
Speaker 1: how hard is that to move a hunter million dollars
Speaker 1: of gold? How much does that cost you? How long
Speaker 1: does that take? But I can take a hundre million
Speaker 1: dollars a bitcoin with me. Nobody even know I know
Speaker 1: twelve words in my head. No border guard knows. I
Speaker 1: just have twelve words in my head. The government's gonna
Speaker 1: make it illegal for you to custody your bitcoin. Really,
Speaker 1: they're gonna make it illegal for me to know twelve words.
Speaker 1: I know way more than twelve words right now, Like
Speaker 1: how they're gonna make that illegal? It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: So think about this in get out of your US
Speaker 1: centric viewpoint and think about what's happening in Lebanon, in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: in Russia, in North Korea, think about what's happening in
Speaker 1: the world, and think about the massive demand that they
Speaker 1: have for this right now. With the most amount of
Speaker 1: pain comes the most amount of action. With an addict,
Speaker 1: they typically don't take action until they reach rock bottom.
Speaker 1: When in the United States we may not be at
Speaker 1: rock bottom yet, but other parts of the world, I
Speaker 1: certainly are, And that's where the action, that's where the
Speaker 1: adoption of bitcoin is needed, and that's where it's happening.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Mark mo Show. We're talking about
Speaker 1: bitcoin and the decentralized revolution, talking about the way the world.
Speaker 1: It's the way that it's changing the world. To be
Speaker 1: back with more in a minute, don't go away, all right,
Speaker 1: welcome back. You are listening to the Mark ma Show
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the decentralized revolution that bitcoin, the
Speaker 1: technology is pushing the adoption. We talked about from the
Speaker 1: lens of politics, finance, and technology, because they're all really connected,
Speaker 1: or I'd like to look at the intersection of those
Speaker 1: three things, but really it's the technology piece that moves
Speaker 1: the world. And of course that technology is bitcoin. Now
Speaker 1: when I say that, I automatically get a million questions,
Speaker 1: UM and challenges and and all these other things and
Speaker 1: so UM, I just spoke at a conference. I got
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them, and so I'm kind of
Speaker 1: running through some of the ones that UM that that
Speaker 1: keep coming up. And so again, politics, finance, and technology.
Speaker 1: So we talked about in these other nations where there's
Speaker 1: political systems and financial regimes that are that are very
Speaker 1: uh extreme authoritarian dictators and then we have failing financial systems.
Speaker 1: Then we need a technology. All three come together. Now,
Speaker 1: one objection that I hear all the time is that
Speaker 1: bitcoin is too volatile or too risky, kind of the
Speaker 1: same thing. So bitcoin is way too volatile to be
Speaker 1: used as a medium exchange. And because it's volatile, because
Speaker 1: the price goes come down, it's too risky. It's too
Speaker 1: risky for me to put my money into bitcoin because
Speaker 1: the value could go down. It's volatile, risky. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: talk about that for a minute. Let's look at it
Speaker 1: from two angles. So again, if you're in the United States,
Speaker 1: is it too volatile and risky, Well, you could buy
Speaker 1: it for forty thousand or um. Last November was sixty
Speaker 1: nine thousand, and today it's a twenty, So you could
Speaker 1: have bought some sixty today it's worth twenty. Is that
Speaker 1: too volatile? Is it too risky? Well, it depends. It depends.
Speaker 1: Now it depends on the US person. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: it from another standpoint. Let's talk about from the global standpoint.
Speaker 1: If you're in North Korea where you're not allowed to
Speaker 1: have money, but of course people need money, and so
Speaker 1: the government doesn't give them enough food to survive, So
Speaker 1: they have all these black markets, and people trade in
Speaker 1: these black markets, and then they have to hide the
Speaker 1: money somewhere in their mattress or in their wall or something,
Speaker 1: and then the North Korean police come through, the military
Speaker 1: come through all the time and search people's homes, and
Speaker 1: if they find anything, of course they steal it. So
Speaker 1: if you're there in North Korea where you're not even
Speaker 1: allowed to have money, and you're hiding it wherever you can,
Speaker 1: but anytime, anytime they any chance they get, they'll come
Speaker 1: and try and steal it from you. And if they
Speaker 1: steal all your money, then you're back to square one
Speaker 1: and you could die because you don't have enough food
Speaker 1: if you're in North Korea. Is it too volatile? Is
Speaker 1: it too risky to put your money into bitcoin and
Speaker 1: asset that they can't find because it's digital and they
Speaker 1: can't steal. Is it too volatile or too risky? Then
Speaker 1: I would say that it's too risky not to try
Speaker 1: something like that. That's an extreme example. What about Lebanon?
Speaker 1: What about Turkey and the Turkish lera has dropped almost
Speaker 1: to the U. S. Dollar. They've lost almost nine of
Speaker 1: their wealth and because of strict capital controls. They can't
Speaker 1: get out of their currencies, so they just lost the wealth.
Speaker 1: No big deal, right, well, worse than the six that
Speaker 1: bitcoins down. So is it too volatile and risky if
Speaker 1: you're in Turkey or Lebanon, where now they literally have
Speaker 1: to break into banks with weapons to steal their own
Speaker 1: money out, is it too risky or volatile to try it?
Speaker 1: If you're in Lebanon, I would say the answer is no.
Speaker 1: If I was in North Korea, Turkey or Lebanon, I
Speaker 1: would be dying to get into bitcoin or anything that
Speaker 1: you could get into. Of course, it's hard to get
Speaker 1: into anything, which is why something like bitcoin works because
Speaker 1: it's completely anonymous and digital and there's no way to
Speaker 1: stop it. They can stop the flow of US dollars, right,
Speaker 1: they can stop gold, but they can't stop bitcoin. What
Speaker 1: about in the UK? The UK just had to get
Speaker 1: bailed out by the Bank of England. They developed the
Speaker 1: pension funds and their pounds sterling crashed against the dollar
Speaker 1: and people are trying to get out of the bound
Speaker 1: pound sterling as fast they can. They went into gold.
Speaker 1: They bought all the gold out in UK. They've been
Speaker 1: buying lots of bitcoins, So is it too volatile and risky?
Speaker 1: If you're there? So, I think people that ask that question,
Speaker 1: we'd be asking it from a US centric viewpoint without
Speaker 1: understanding that the US only makes up about like four
Speaker 1: percent of the world's population. I hate to tell you
Speaker 1: that if you're an American, I'm not sure if that's
Speaker 1: the exact data. Is that right down? Four percent? Three
Speaker 1: and thirty million people of about eight billion or nine billion? So, um,
Speaker 1: it's about four percent I think. So we have this
Speaker 1: US centric viewpoint, bitcoin has no use case. It's too
Speaker 1: volatile risky. Well, it is for you, but you make
Speaker 1: a four percent of the population. What about the other
Speaker 1: of the population of the world? What about half of
Speaker 1: the world that live in these authoritarian regimes for double
Speaker 1: de guitiflation? Is it too risky for them? Now, let's
Speaker 1: talk about it from a US centric viewpoints. So it's
Speaker 1: two volatible, is too risky for what? For what? I
Speaker 1: would agree I'll agree that bitcoin is too volatile to
Speaker 1: put my rent money in that I have to pay
Speaker 1: in two weeks. I'll agree with that. Is it two
Speaker 1: volatile and two risky to put five cent of my
Speaker 1: investible net worth in so there's are different questions. So
Speaker 1: bitcoin is volatile. The price goes up and down, and
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. How could bitcoin have gone from
Speaker 1: zero dollars to twenty dollars if it wasn't volatile. Volatile
Speaker 1: works both ways. It goes up and down. Um, so uh,
Speaker 1: you could buy bitcoin at right now if there's no volatility.
Speaker 1: That means it never goes up, never goes down ever again,
Speaker 1: which would be fine because then at least the network
Speaker 1: still works. But back to the point, So, um, it's volatile.
Speaker 1: Could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. Again,
Speaker 1: it depends on your viewpoints. So again, if I put
Speaker 1: my rent money into I need to pay in three
Speaker 1: weeks and all of a sudden the price crashes. Let's
Speaker 1: say it's a twenty day I put, I put my
Speaker 1: rent money in, and when I need to pay my
Speaker 1: rent in three weeks, it's at ten thousand. That's risky,
Speaker 1: it is. That's too risky. I would agree with you
Speaker 1: on that. So don't do that. Don't do that. Think
Speaker 1: about it in a long term perspective. Now, I kind
Speaker 1: of got to benefit the world that really has a
Speaker 1: short term mentality today. But I benefited because when I
Speaker 1: started my career when I was eighteen years old, I
Speaker 1: started buying real estate, and at first I was fixing
Speaker 1: and flipping homes and that would be a six eight
Speaker 1: month process. But still that was six or eight months,
Speaker 1: So I was kind of looking at projects, you know,
Speaker 1: six eight months, sometimes a year out. But then I
Speaker 1: started building from the ground up. I'd buy a piece
Speaker 1: of dirt, I have to resone it and build, and
Speaker 1: those who take five years, So I kind of look
Speaker 1: at the world in these like five year periods. I've
Speaker 1: started a bunch of businesses. Businesses to take three or
Speaker 1: four years to kind of really get up and stabilize.
Speaker 1: So I kind of had like this five year viewpoint
Speaker 1: on things. Uh. Hear Michael Saylor talked about bit when
Speaker 1: he talks about in a ten year time frame. So
Speaker 1: he's like famous for like buying Apple in twelve and
Speaker 1: making all this money on Apple he called like this
Speaker 1: whole mobile revolution. So he looks at things in a
Speaker 1: ten year time frame. He's a billionaire. I'm not. I
Speaker 1: need to I need to get up to a ten
Speaker 1: year time frame, and you need to GetUp to a
Speaker 1: five year time frame. The further ahead, we can look
Speaker 1: the more money will make, the better will progress. So, um,
Speaker 1: in a five year time frame or let's go to
Speaker 1: a three year time frame. There's never been a three
Speaker 1: year period where bitcoin has been down. So if you
Speaker 1: would have bought at the peak of December before it crashed,
Speaker 1: if you would have held three years, you would have
Speaker 1: gotten back to that value. So is it too volatile
Speaker 1: for my rent money in the next three weeks? Yes?
Speaker 1: Is it too volatile for money I need in five years? Well,
Speaker 1: history says no. Now as to the too risky part, again,
Speaker 1: if you're in Lebanon, or you're in North Korea, or
Speaker 1: you're fleeing for your life in Russia, Um, it's not
Speaker 1: too risky. It's too risky not to try something else.
Speaker 1: If you're in the United States, is it too risky? Well,
Speaker 1: maybe would I put one of every single penny I
Speaker 1: have in it and I'm just gonna roll the dice
Speaker 1: and hell marry it. Well, it's probably too risky for that.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely not advising that. I think a five
Speaker 1: percent allocation is a is a good allocation. It gives
Speaker 1: you enough because of the volatility, because of the volatil
Speaker 1: to the upside, the way the bitcoin rises. If I
Speaker 1: have a five percent allocation, it allows me to capture
Speaker 1: all of the move But if I lose five percent,
Speaker 1: or let's say that, the cuts in half, so it
Speaker 1: goes from five. If I lose that, it doesn't really
Speaker 1: affect me that much. It doesn't really change my life.
Speaker 1: Does that? Does that? Does that put too much risk
Speaker 1: on me? If I would potentially lose two percent of
Speaker 1: my net worth? No? Not really, So the too risky.
Speaker 1: You can manage that now, Like I said, if you're
Speaker 1: in North Korea or Russia, um, it's too risky, not
Speaker 1: too But in the United States we have a different situation.
Speaker 1: So it's too risky if you put all of it
Speaker 1: in and it's too volatile for your rent money in
Speaker 1: two weeks. It's not too volatile if you look at
Speaker 1: over a three year, five year, ten year time frame. Now,
Speaker 1: as bitcoin continues to get more adoption and the market
Speaker 1: cap continues to go up, the volatility will inevitably go down.
Speaker 1: We've already seen it. So the bitcoin volatility has gone
Speaker 1: from drawdowns to draw downs, to eight percent draw downs
Speaker 1: to percent drawdowns. Now we're at seventy percent drawdowns, so
Speaker 1: it's already getting less volatile. We're seeing it and that
Speaker 1: will continue. So just because something is it that today
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it won't be that in the future. So
Speaker 1: bitcoin could. I'm not saying guarantee it will. I think
Speaker 1: it will, but we don't. We don't have a guarantee.
Speaker 1: I think that over the next five and by the
Speaker 1: end of the decade, the bitcoin market cap will be
Speaker 1: big enough where the volatility will have slowed way down.
Speaker 1: Still probably not to put my rent money in for
Speaker 1: the next three weeks, but much much, much more slowed
Speaker 1: down volatility. You're listening to the Market Mos show. We're
Speaker 1: talking about bitcoin and the decentralized revolution, talking about the
Speaker 1: way technology is changing the world, looking at through the
Speaker 1: lens of politics, finance, and technology. And I believe that
Speaker 1: technological revolution is bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, but bitcoin, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about why. Of course, when I make that statement, I
Speaker 1: get lots of pushback, lots of objections, and so I'm
Speaker 1: covering those big objections for you right now. I'm let
Speaker 1: me be back with more in a minute. Do not
Speaker 1: go away, you don't want to miss him. I'll be
Speaker 1: right back, all right, Welcome back. You are listening to
Speaker 1: the Mark Moa show. We're talking about the decentralized revolution,
Speaker 1: the way the world is changing, of course through the
Speaker 1: lens of politics, finance, and technology. The technology being bitcoin,
Speaker 1: which is a d centralized technology, which is exactly what
Speaker 1: the world needs as it's leaving centralization, central planning and
Speaker 1: going to a world of decentralization. Now when I talk
Speaker 1: about this, when I speak about it, I was just
Speaker 1: speaking on a stage in Mexico City and m I
Speaker 1: talked about bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin, and everyone says, what about crypto,
Speaker 1: what about a theory and what about the merge? What
Speaker 1: about Cardano and Salona and blah blah blah, And I
Speaker 1: have to go stand in the back for like an
Speaker 1: hour and answer and answer all these questions. And I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, let me just answer them for you here.
Speaker 1: Um So, coming back from this conference and being fresh
Speaker 1: on some of this, I thought I'd talked about some
Speaker 1: of these big ones, and so let's let's talk about
Speaker 1: a couple more. So, UM I love this one because
Speaker 1: this one just shows you have not been paying attention
Speaker 1: at all and you're like still pulling out arguments from
Speaker 1: six years ago. But I love this argument that bitcoin
Speaker 1: is too slow. Bitcoin is too slow Bitcoin is too
Speaker 1: slow for what. Well, it's too slow to be used
Speaker 1: for everyday transactions. So bitcoin is like gold. You know,
Speaker 1: gold is good for like big transactions, but then we
Speaker 1: need like a silver. Silver is used for like smaller transactions. Right,
Speaker 1: So like bitcoin could be old, but then maybe ethereum
Speaker 1: could be silver, or x y z x RP could
Speaker 1: be silver or or whatever. Right, um, And so there's
Speaker 1: that argument bitcoin is too slow. Well let me let
Speaker 1: me talk about a couple of things there. So first
Speaker 1: of all, um, the world has a lot of problems
Speaker 1: and solutions are supposed to come to problems. Hopefully solutions
Speaker 1: solve some of these problems. Now there's some problems that
Speaker 1: like you know, if they get solved or not, it's
Speaker 1: not a big deal, and some problems could change the world. Okay,
Speaker 1: the world does not have a problem because our money
Speaker 1: is too slow. It's not a problem. The world doesn't
Speaker 1: need faster money. It's a matter of fact. Papal venmo
Speaker 1: cash app like they're pretty dang fast. So the problem
Speaker 1: that the world is trying to solve is not faster money.
Speaker 1: So first of all, saying that bitcoin is too slow,
Speaker 1: it's not the problem is here to solve. Okay, we
Speaker 1: can talk about the problems here to solve, but that's
Speaker 1: not it. So first of all, that argument I think
Speaker 1: is a little wrong. But the second all, let's let's let'
Speaker 1: let's take it. Let's take it, We'll take it. Come on,
Speaker 1: Bitcoin is too slow? Okay. So bitcoin on the base layer,
Speaker 1: on the blockchain, it takes about ten minutes for every
Speaker 1: block to go through, so it can take um time
Speaker 1: for that to go through. So if I'm at the
Speaker 1: store and I want to buy my Starbucks, karmo makiato, Um,
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit there and wait for ten
Speaker 1: minutes for that transaction to get full confirmation. Now, typically
Speaker 1: you don't have to get you know, full confirmations. You
Speaker 1: could leave earlier. But let's just go with that. So
Speaker 1: I don't want to wait ten minutes. Okay. Well, um,
Speaker 1: what you may not have heard if you're making this
Speaker 1: argument is that bitcoin scales all technology skills in layers,
Speaker 1: just like our financial system scales and layers. Remember on
Speaker 1: a gold system, gold was very slow to settle, and
Speaker 1: so we'd add a debt instrument on top of it,
Speaker 1: a paper certificate, and that was faster and easier to move,
Speaker 1: but it was a layer two, and then we added
Speaker 1: checks on top of it layer three, and then we
Speaker 1: had credit cards on top of it layer four, and
Speaker 1: then we put Vendom on top of layer five. So
Speaker 1: it's scales and layers. Each one of those has a
Speaker 1: trade off. So um, we can choose what we want
Speaker 1: to do. Now Bitcoin has its base settlement layer, and
Speaker 1: then we can scale on top of it. Now here's
Speaker 1: why I wanna do that. Now, now you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: going yeah, but other base layers don't need a second
Speaker 1: layer to scale. So other base layers like Slona or Um,
Speaker 1: even Ethereum, they're faster than Bitcoin or bitcoin cash. Bitcoin
Speaker 1: cash is the true uh so Totial's vision, it's faster. Well,
Speaker 1: the problem is that in order to get more of
Speaker 1: one thing, and this is a metallic beat in the
Speaker 1: founder of Ethereum came up with something he calls a
Speaker 1: try lemma, a dilemma as I have to choose to
Speaker 1: get more of one to give up more of another.
Speaker 1: Try limma is similar, but it's it's three. So to
Speaker 1: get more of one, I give up the other. And
Speaker 1: so we have um speed, decentralization, and security. So to
Speaker 1: get more of one to give up more of the other.
Speaker 1: So bitcoin cash or ethereum or on the blank which
Speaker 1: everyone x RP, which everyone's faster. In order to get
Speaker 1: more of the speed, they've given up something from the
Speaker 1: other side of the two, security or decentralization. And here's
Speaker 1: the problem is that those trade offs should be made
Speaker 1: on layer two, not on layer one. The reason why
Speaker 1: is because I can make that trade off on layer two.
Speaker 1: So if you're not aware, if you're making this argument
Speaker 1: that Bitcoin is too slow, you maybe don't know about lightning,
Speaker 1: which is a layer two application on top of Bitcoin.
Speaker 1: I can send Bitcoin faster and cheaper than any other
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency out there using lightning. But but that's that's lightning,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter. I'm still sending Bitcoin faster and
Speaker 1: cheaper than any other cup of currency, any other cyp
Speaker 1: of currency out of the whatever that are out there,
Speaker 1: let's say, but they're faster or cheaper. Very irrelevant. Now now, um, yes,
Speaker 1: this works. It's worked for a long time. It's been
Speaker 1: working since abouteen I have used extensively. I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of work in else Salva or you can go
Speaker 1: to my YouTube channel search Mark Moss Mark Moss El Salvador.
Speaker 1: You can see some videos I put together. Um and
Speaker 1: you can walk around and you go to your coffee
Speaker 1: shop and that you can go to Starbucks or McDonald's
Speaker 1: in El Salvador. It's a legal bitcoins, legal tender, and
Speaker 1: they'll ring up your you know, your McDonald's and they'll
Speaker 1: show you the little point of sales system with a
Speaker 1: QR code. You open up your bitcoin and wallet, you
Speaker 1: scan the QR code. It tells you, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: four dollars you hit send. Before your finger even comes
Speaker 1: off the button, they already have the transaction for for
Speaker 1: for like a penny less a fraction of a penny.
Speaker 1: So it works. So if you're saying it's too slow,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a twenty seventeen argument that that that
Speaker 1: problem has been solved years ago. Uh, there's lots of
Speaker 1: transactions happening on it. A whole nation's running off of it.
Speaker 1: And I've personally used it many times. And go search
Speaker 1: Mark Moss on YouTube search Mark Moss El Salvador and
Speaker 1: you can see the videos of that working. So it's
Speaker 1: not too slow, and and and and remember this slow
Speaker 1: wasn't the problem. Now back to the trade offs. So
Speaker 1: what what bitcoin cash and other ones have done is
Speaker 1: to get more speed. They've given up decentralization, but the
Speaker 1: revolution is decentralization, so they've given up on what the
Speaker 1: revolution is. So we make the trade off on the
Speaker 1: second layer. So let me explain this to you. So
Speaker 1: big using lightning is less, less decentralized, and less secure
Speaker 1: because it's centralized the transaction. What it does is it
Speaker 1: batches them sort of like when you if you're a
Speaker 1: merchant and you accept visa or debit cards, it runs
Speaker 1: the transactions all day. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it batches them up and puts them all together at once. Right,
Speaker 1: So lightning does the same thing. It batches the transactions
Speaker 1: and puts them all at once, and that creates some centralization.
Speaker 1: So there could be some manipulation there. Potentially, it gives
Speaker 1: a weak point maybe if somebody wanted to steal that
Speaker 1: and manipulate or change it. There's a there's a there's
Speaker 1: a small potential risk there. Okay, But I'm okay with
Speaker 1: that trade off. If I'm buying afford all or a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee, I don't need that to be censorship
Speaker 1: resistant and immutable for all of eternity sufford all a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee. So I'm happy to make the trade
Speaker 1: off and sacrifice security and decentralization for the speed for
Speaker 1: the coffee. That's a good trade off. But if I'm
Speaker 1: um selling you a car, selling you a collector UH
Speaker 1: for GT that's worth a million dollars and you're gonna
Speaker 1: pay me on bitcoin, I want that to be on
Speaker 1: the main chain, and I'm more than happy to wait
Speaker 1: ten minutes for that to go through. So I get
Speaker 1: to decide do I want the security and I'll spend
Speaker 1: the time, or do I not need the security and
Speaker 1: I won't have the time. I can make the trade off,
Speaker 1: and then we can make all types of trade offs
Speaker 1: on on other layers, second layers, there layers for and
Speaker 1: there's all types of trade offs we can make, but
Speaker 1: we don't sacrifice the base layer. The problem is if
Speaker 1: we sacrifice on the base layer, you can't go backwards.
Speaker 1: So if I make the base layer less decentralized and
Speaker 1: less secure to get the speed on layer two, three,
Speaker 1: or four or five, six, I can't reverse. I can't
Speaker 1: make it go backwards. I can't make it more hard.
Speaker 1: And so that's why we don't sacrifice on the base layer.
Speaker 1: Big coin is not too slow. Anyone who says it's
Speaker 1: too slow hasn't paid attention for at least five years. Um.
Speaker 1: And anyone who says it doesn't work hasn't ever used
Speaker 1: it and has certainly hasn't gone out of the country
Speaker 1: to use it like I have. And again you can
Speaker 1: go watch those videos on YouTube search Mark moss El Salvador. UM.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so bitcoin is not too slow. You're listening
Speaker 1: to the Mark Moa show. We're talking about the decentralized Revolution,
Speaker 1: talking about the way the world is changing. And I
Speaker 1: really believe it's bitcoin that changes the world. It is
Speaker 1: the It is the technological revolution, not a new technology.
Speaker 1: Technological revolutions are different. Technology is cool. It takes an iPhone,
Speaker 1: takes a computer on the phone, puts them together. Cool.
Speaker 1: I got an iPhone. A technological revolution changes the way
Speaker 1: the world works, and it drives financial markets, industrial revolution,
Speaker 1: steam engines and railways, steel and electricity, oil and automobiles,
Speaker 1: microprocessors and telecommunications. And now we have bitcoin and the
Speaker 1: decentralized revolution. And I might just say, I mean maybe
Speaker 1: a shock to you. Not everything needs to be decentralized.
Speaker 1: The money needs to be decentralized. Um, but anyway, that's
Speaker 1: what I got. You listened to the Mark Mos Show.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you listening. Hit me up on a message on
Speaker 1: social media at one Mark Moss let me know you're listening. Uh,
Speaker 1: ask me your questions and that's what I got. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening.