BTC Sessions - BREAKING: Dubai Cracks Down On ILLICIT Crypto Companies! ep444

Starting point is 00:00:31 What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the show, another Thursday, another episode of Simply Sessions. I am fresh off a recent trip down to Nashville and Toronto on the way home. We'll chat about that a little bit later on the episode, but very excited once again to be live with my brother from another mother. Mr. Nico is waiting in the wings to give you the latest and greatest in Bitcoin. Hope you guys are all having a wonderful week. Of course, this is live. anything can happen. So I defer to my friend Bill here. We'll do it live.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Do it live. I can, I'll write it and we'll do it live. The thing sucks. If you have not already, please do like, subscribe, share, all those things. They help a ton getting this content in front of more eyeballs. I am Ben with the BTC sessions. This is your Simply session. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at where we are, in the market right now. I am pulling up time chain, if I can get my screen, I'm pulling up

Starting point is 00:01:57 timechain calendar.com and simultaneously, I'm going to get that live chat up on the side here. Everything you say in there from here on in, we'll be live for the world to see. We're sitting at $60,016 per coin. A single U.S. dollar will grab you 1,666s. Sats, we did have a little dip to go and revisit 58K gang. I'm sure they enjoyed that taste. But in terms of fees, six sats next block and in terms of Bitcoin mine, 19.76 million of them. That's 94.1.2% of the total supply.

Starting point is 00:02:33 We're going to give a quick shout out to our show sponsors. And we'll be right back to give you the news. See you guys in a sec. Bitcoin Well is on a mission to enable independence by being one of the easiest and quickest ways to purchase Bitcoin in Canada and the U.S. And the best part about it, every buy goes directly into your own self-custody. They never hold your coins. You can add a Bitcoin address as part of onboarding.

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Starting point is 00:03:38 And on top of this, they have plenty of other goodies including the Mark 4, the tap signer, open dimes, the block clock, and much more. If you head over to their website, make sure you use code BTC sessions at checkout to get a nice discount. Links are in these show notes down below. All right, here we are. I'm going to bring in. Oh, you look small. There you go, man. How you doing?

Starting point is 00:04:03 Yo! Dude, a little bit of juggling there. Live from Amsterdam. Yeah. Interesting city. And yeah. Yeah, going back to Paris tomorrow. I'm excited.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Damn. How's Europe life? It's good, man. They threw it. It's a really cool event. that they have for Bitcoin Amsterdam and all the lights and just it was nice seeing everyone and you know, it's rock star and, you know, all the Bitcoiners, all the 100 Bitcoiners that we've seen across the world at different events.

Starting point is 00:04:36 A hundred or so, right? Yeah. And yeah, it was just nice to get to hang out with everyone and, you know, and it's a beautiful city too, bro. Like Europe is interesting. Europe's interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Europe. I do have a soft spot despite the direct. draconian governments and the ECB. It's still a nice place. Pretty neat. Yeah, I talked about that today, actually. I just chat on that. I thought I was going to get arrested.

Starting point is 00:05:00 I was like calling out Christine Lagarde on stage and I was like looking around. I was like, is that allowed here? I don't even know. I'm surprised she wasn't present. So, but yeah, it was pretty cool, man. It's pretty cool. It's awesome. It's my second podcast today.

Starting point is 00:05:16 That's not simply related. So I'm excited. Well, that's awesome. And hey, we're going to, we're going to be seeing each other in person. in Lugano coming up pretty quick here too. Yeah, touching tips in Europe. It's going to be crazy. Yeah, that's the best place to touch tips.

Starting point is 00:05:32 I saw here. That's the queue. Yeah. That's the cue to segue into the news. So what's been going on, man? What's top of mind? Okay, so my dad sent me this article. Hey, dad, if you're watching.

Starting point is 00:05:51 And he thought he was like, this is very important. So I gave it a little bit of a read, a read. And to be fair, it's not exactly Bitcoin related, but I did find it quite interesting. So the FBI secretly created a coin to investigate crypto, pump, and dump schemes. Now, my opinions here, like, so the FBI created a shit coin, essentially, DLDR, which I find hilarious. the FBI created a cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into price manipulation in the crypto markets. The government revealed on Wednesday, the FBI's Ethereum-based token, Next Fund AI, was created with the help of cooperating witnesses. As a result of the investigation, the SEC Commission charged three market makers and nine people for allegedly engaging in schemes to boost the prices of certain crypto assets.

Starting point is 00:06:45 The DOJ charged 18 people and entities for, quote, widespread fraud and manipulation. in crypto markets. The defendants allegedly made false claims about their tokens and executed so-called wash trades. To create the impression of an active trading market, prosecutors claimed the three market makers, ZMQuant, CLS Global, and My Trade allegedly washed traded or conspired to wash trade on behalf of Next Fund AI and Ethereum-based token they didn't realize was created by the FBI. Quote, what the FBI uncovered in this case is essentially a new twist to old school finance crime. Quote, what we uncovered has resulted in charges against the leadership of four cryptocurrency companies and four crypto market makers and their employees who are accused of

Starting point is 00:07:32 spearheading a sophisticated trading scheme that allegedly blinked honest investors out of millions of dollars. Leo Zhu, a market maker working with My Trade and Me, allegedly told promoters of Next Fund AI that My Trade and Me was better than its competitors because they can, quote, control the pump and dump, allowing them to, quote, do insider trading easily. I mean, that's fascinating, bro. So the DOJ has reportedly secured $25 million from fraudulent proceeds that will be returned to investors. That's pretty freaking crazy, if you ask me. I know it's not exactly Bitcoin related, but very interesting.

Starting point is 00:08:15 I mean, this, I suppose. is a perfect example of why you don't trade shit coins to try and make more Bitcoin, right? Like, there's always going to be, unless you're the person doing this illegal shit and milking other people for their sats, you know, you're the one that's going to end up being targeted by it. Right. And so, like, trying to trade crypto to get more Bitcoin is just going to be a volatile path to eventually owning less sats. Yeah, 100%. You are the equity, right?

Starting point is 00:08:57 And I love how they, like, proved that here. And then just, they just created their own token. And then they use it. It's so crazy that, like, because, like, they kind of uncovered, like, how this all works, right? So it's like, you can just create your own token, manipulate the trading of it. And then that shows on the other side that somehow, you know, that's like it's legit. It has momentum. People buy into it.

Starting point is 00:09:26 But in reality, it's just people just wash trading. You know, it's like what's the deal with Bitcoin cash. The same shit. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not really funny. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Brutal. Well, don't trade, everybody. Don't trade. Stay humble, stacks. Anyways, moving on. So here we have a demon. I mean, Hillary Clinton, talking about... Demonatized.

Starting point is 00:09:52 Have you seen the Alex Jones clip of that? No. Dude, it's so funny. I don't know if I have it, but it's totally worth it. But anyways, here's Hillary Clinton. And, oh, here it is. Let's do it. I got it ready.

Starting point is 00:10:10 Oh, yeah, yeah. Here, let me pull that. Hold on. I gotta love some. Just like the Bible says, it's basically an intergalactic invasion into this space through people. I'm telling you, it's what all the ancients said,

Starting point is 00:10:24 it's what they warned of, it's what we're dealing with. They're demons. They're freaking interdimensional invaders, okay? I'll just say it, make fun of me all you want on CNN or wherever, but everyone already innately knows this. These people are not freaking humans, okay?

Starting point is 00:10:38 Hillary Clinton is a goddamn demon. All right. Well, that was, that's great. I'm glad we could inject that to the show. Oops, my. It was giving much needed context. So, anyways. But okay, so all the jokes aside, right? Which is, this is crazy. I mean, this is something that we've been covering over the last couple months, which is Hillary Clinton, you know, calling for what John Kerry called for, which we played on last week's episode. is the censorship of social media. But Hillary Clinton actually says the quiet part out loud towards the end, which I find quite interesting. Check it out. There should be a lot of things done.

Starting point is 00:11:23 We should be, in my view, repealing something called Section 230, which gave, you know, platforms on the internet immunity because they were thought to be just pass-throughs, that they shouldn't be judged for the content that is posted. But we now know that that was an overly simple view, that if the platforms, you know, that if the platforms, whether it's Facebook or Twitter X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don't moderate and monitor the content, we lose total control. There should be a lot of... If they don't moderate or censor the content, we lose total control. I mean, that's nuts. And then here's a point by Gigi on Noster that I think is like very applicable here.

Starting point is 00:12:08 because, you know, the fighters against free speech would make the argument that you need to censor and moderate, quote unquote, moderate content. Because if not, you know, there's going to be hate speech and there's going to be misinformation. But I think Gigi explains it beautifully here. He says, who defines hate, who defines truth? All centralized platforms will inevitably be forced to be the arbiter willingly or not. It's an impossible problem. The only solution is to remove central control and push it to the edges. It's messy.

Starting point is 00:12:43 It's imperfect. What is much more preferable to the alternative. And what is the alternative? The alternative is people like Hillary Clinton getting to decide what is the truth and what is not the truth. And that sounds like a terrifying place in society to be there. Yeah. 100%. It's so worrying to me when I see people saying, oh, we can't have.

Starting point is 00:13:07 have that person say something because their ideas are dangerous. Ideas are only dangerous to those who wish to prevent people from thinking for themselves. And we should all be pushing to, even if you disagree with ideas, to have them openly shared and refuted not by shutting them down, but by meeting them with better ideas. Like, that's kind of like the founding. principles of of America. I would like to think of Canada. It seems it seems that many have forgotten that and have just fallen into my team versus their team. Yeah, 100%. I 100% agree with you, man. And it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a crazy place. But this is like, this is why Noster is so important, right? You know, this is why Bitcoin is so important.

Starting point is 00:14:01 Whereas these boat up protocols, they don't allow either side of the aisle to control the speech. and the narrative and the money for political purposes. And I think the world would be a much better place if that were the case. 100%. So, yeah, anyways, HBO released a documentary, which I still have not watched yet. In fact, I did a show on Wednesday with Opti and another Bitcoinser. And we were like talking about the show. And like, have you seen the show?

Starting point is 00:14:36 I have not I've solved a conclusion that's my point right I have not seen it Opti hadn't seen it and the other Bitcoiner hadn't seen it either so this is the point I'm trying to make

Starting point is 00:14:47 none of us have seen this freaking documentary and I'm getting and I'm getting texts from like my normie friends like hey dude have you seen this like this is crazy

Starting point is 00:14:57 and I'm just like nodding my head I'm like okay you know and what's really interesting too is who owns HBO I believe it's like Warner Brothers or something And you know who owns like 20% of Warner Brothers? Black Rock.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Right? And you know what? Black Rock? Black Rock loves their ETF. So, you know, this doesn't surprise me at all that they, that they make a documentary. And apparently it was quite popular and a lot of people liked it. But the way that they went about like kind of collecting information, so to speak, to do the episode was quite interesting.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Germano and he said, obviously Adam and Samson thought the doc was about nation state adoption when they requested Bitcoin magazine footage. They claimed it was for a documentary called BTC behind the coin but refused to share the director's name or any of the details that's raised red flag for me. It's funny how they go about doing these things. It's like sketchy, you know. HBO documentaries suggests Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto's developer Peter Todd. I wish to play you a clip of it, but it's just going to get copyrighted, like, crazy. So we're not going to do that. But the way that he said it was like, look, I always say the documentary relied on circumstantial evidence such as posting from an earlier Bitcoin forum to guess that Todd is

Starting point is 00:16:20 Satoshi Nakamoto. When confronted in the film, Todd shrugged off the idea and called the suggestion ludicrous. Like several people in the film, Todd said at one point, I am Satoshi Nakamoto while seemingly laughing the idea off. I mean, like, we're all Satoshi, right? Except for Craig right. So a couple points here. So point number one is, and like here he is confirming it again. Like Peter Todd, I'm not Satoshi. Here's Jesse Powell, founder of Cracken. He said, if you know this, but I once shared a room with Peter Todd while he was sleeping. I heard him guggle. It has to be Craig. What does he mean? A little bit. But the point I'm trying to make is like even if these people knew who Satoshi was, I would say it's better that people don't know who Satoshi is. I would say that it's

Starting point is 00:17:11 very dangerous that there's a human being behind the identity of Satoshi. And I hope it's a secret and it's never revealed until the end of time. I think it would be better for Bitcoin. I think it's important to value what Satoshi has given us rather than, you know, try to try to. to put a personality or identity behind it because that's not what he wanted. And he disappeared. And he hasn't been back. And no one's ever heard of him since he disappeared. So why is it so important to find out who he is?

Starting point is 00:17:46 He did the world of favor by disappearing. And that's because you can't assign values in terms of like left or right or, you know, like you can't assign political values. to the ecosystem itself. You can assign it to the protocol because it's an open protocol. Anybody can use it. And by, again, I echo what you said. I hope we never, ever find out who Satoshi is because as soon as you do, of course,

Starting point is 00:18:20 humans are fallible. There's always going to be some type of dirt to dig up on somebody. Everybody has things in their past that they've done that they're not proud of. And while it won't impact how Bitcoin works, it will be used to say this tool is this because the person who created is that. And it's just, it's an absolute blessing that we just have this kind of pristine protocol that just works how it works and there's no attachment to it and people can use it as they see fit. And I hope it remains that way.

Starting point is 00:18:54 Yeah, 100% agree. I think it's, you know, he left for a reason. Who invented the wheel? Does it matter? Yeah, exactly. And I would even make the case that Satoshi discovered Bitcoin, not even invented. You can even make a very, very strong case for that. In the comment, someone else said, Bitcoin's immaculate conception is critical.

Starting point is 00:19:14 I hope we never find out who he is. Yeah. I agree with that, 100%. It's not important. I think if you've been in the industry long enough, you kind of have some ideas. But, you know, it's like, doesn't matter, right? Anyways, moving on to the headline article. for today. And again, I love to see the thesis from the sovereign individual, which I'm totally

Starting point is 00:19:37 going to read again on the show. I just love seeing it play out in real life. So UAE exempts crypto transactions from value-added tax. It says the United Arab Emirates has exempted crypto transactions from paying VAT, bringing the industry into line with several traditional financial services. The change, which takes effect November 15th, applies retrospectively to transactions far as back as January 1st, 2018. The Arabic version of the Federal Tax Authorities Update was made public on October 2, 2024, and the English Translation was made public on October 4th, 2024. The exemption makes clear for the first time that the tax doesn't apply to digital assets.

Starting point is 00:20:20 It covers the exchange of and transfer of ownership of those assets, which means all cryptocurrency transactions and conversions will now be exempt from paying the 5% levy. Quote, the UAE has essentially classified virtual assets in the same bucket as traditional financial services. Several of which are already exempt for VAT. This legitimizes virtual assets. So what's really interesting about this is you're seeing kind of the game theory play out because this is in stark contrast to what's happening in the West. So if person A sends person B a transaction in the West, you're supposed to report a capital game.

Starting point is 00:20:59 or capital loss or whatever. You're supposed to essentially report the transaction. Here is a nation state that is basically saying, okay, it might not be money on paper, but yeah, you don't, like, there is no tax from you transacting, you know, Bitcoin and crypto from party A to party B. And the reason that I'm bringing up the sovereign individual

Starting point is 00:21:23 as it relates to this matter is this is the thesis playing out. So you have a very small, wealthy country in the Middle East basically saying that, hey, you know what? Like, we're going to incentivize people to come here. And you have a huge amount of expats leaving the Europe and the European Union to go to Dubai and set up shop there. To the point that there's some European countries, like I believe the Netherlands and Norway, that are trying to apply, they're trying to impose exit taxes now. Similar to the United States, the United States, like if you give up your citizenship,

Starting point is 00:22:05 you have to pay an exit tax. And essentially, that's exactly the case that the sovereign individual was making, which is so fascinating that they predicted this. So they say lacking their accustomed scope to tax and inflate, governments even in traditionally civil countries, will turn nasty. As income tax becomes uncollectable,

Starting point is 00:22:25 older and more arbitrary methods of extraction will resurface, the ultimate form of withholding tax, the de facto or even overt hostage taking will be introduced by governments desperate to prevent wealth from escaping beyond their reach. So think about that for a second, right? Isn't that what an exit tax is? So it's like, we're going to hold you hostage unless you pay us 40% of your net worth. Like, is that not, like, a form of hostage? And it's like, if you don't do that, then you remain a citizen. Bitch.

Starting point is 00:23:03 Yeah. Yeah. Is it not? Like, is that not hostage taking? Is that not a form of hostage taking? And, you know, you guys are lucky in Canada because in the U.S., like, it doesn't matter where you are. Like, you can be, you know, in, like, you can, like, be halfway across

Starting point is 00:23:21 the world, you better pay the IRS your taxes, right? It doesn't matter. It's a, it's a citizens-based tax rather than a residency-based tax. And what is that but not hostage-taking? Like, you know, they see you as essentially like tax cattle, but I suspect that you're going to see more jurisdictions like Dubai pop up all across the world and start competing for, for people's business. And And I suspect that this trend is going to accelerate over time. And, you know, I think that what governments have been getting away with for so long, I think that that, I think it's going to slowly end. And I actually, I remember seeing a, yeah, exactly.

Starting point is 00:24:11 Here's the tweet from Turtum Easter. And he actually tweeted this out yesterday. Politicians in the West think that they can raise taxes forever under the illusion that all capital was corralled with nowhere to go. Bitcoin is an escape hatch, however, and its emergence creates a huge opportunity for smart states around the world to attract tomorrow's Bitcoinaires. And that's exactly what Dubai is doing. And guess what's happening? A lot of people are moving to Dubai, you know, and what's that going to do for Dubai's economy? All those people are going to spend money there, right? So, you know, it's just like really messed up, like, view.

Starting point is 00:24:50 point that like politicians somehow feel entitled to, you know, a percentage of your wealth, even though they provide no value in return. That world to me is nuts. Again, I'm so a couple things. I can totally agree. It's not like you get to opt into these services, quote unquote services, like completely inefficient. You're just forced into it. It's like, like, well, what if I didn't want that particular thing? Tough. We're taking 20, 30, 40 more percent of your income, and that's just ours now. Also, if you try to escape our predatory hidden tax of inflation and you do successfully

Starting point is 00:25:38 do so, there's a tax on that as well. That's literally what they're telling you. Like, hey, we want to be able to print money all we want and devalue the currency. And if you find a way around that by dumping the currency and purchasing, something that retains its purchasing power and thus goes up in nominal terms, we want a slice of that too because you're not allowed to escape inflation. We need to tax you on that escape. And so, you know, you talk about sovereign individual in that quote about, you know,

Starting point is 00:26:09 people finding ways to escape, but governments getting more and more dirty with their, how they handle this and trying to hang on to the capital that's fleeing. I mean, this is what we saw in Canada earlier this year. This is controversial capital gains change now in effect. So there's the inclusion rate, which means when you have a capital gain, you know, the gain, how much of that is included as taxable income. Well, Canada used to be if you make a gain, 50% of that is taxed at your income tax rate based on your income. Well, they just changed that to 67% this year. That's a crime.

Starting point is 00:26:52 Yeah. So, like, it's before it'd be like, oh, you know, like, I'm just going to use big numbers. But like, let's say, yeah, you bought a house and, again, the crime of it, like, yeah, you buy a house for $500,000. And because of inflation over the money sprinting pre, a spree that we saw over COVID, all of a sudden it's a million dollar house. you've made $500,000, but have you? Because everybody that has a home, those assets were just inflated by debasement. And so they consider that you've made $500,000. Well, before they would have said, well, $250,000 of that,

Starting point is 00:27:35 we will tax at your regular income tax rate. But now they're saying, no, we're going to tax instead of 50% of that we're going to tax 67% of that as if it were regular income and the income tax rates here like if you're getting over a certain amount which you surely would surpass with this threshold you're you're looking at 40% tax on income it's insane and these are the tactics that they are resorting to in order to again claw back and and canada we have an exit tax as well there's a number of the number of countries that do, a number of countries that do in the world. But I will say that the U.S. is one of, I think only two nation states that if you move abroad and you live somewhere else

Starting point is 00:28:27 and you have a job somewhere else, they will still tax you on your international income as well. Yeah, dude, it's, it's gnarly. It's gnarly. And I'm telling you that that law for the U.S., I guarantee you that you're going to start to see that law being applied to other Western countries as more and more people leave. Right. Like the reason that they're implementing these exit taxes is because they're, and it's again, it's so like ironic. It's like we're going to rate like wealth tax, you know, like, you know, pay your fair share.

Starting point is 00:28:59 And then Pikachu face meme, all the wealthy people just get the fuck out of the country. And then they're like, what? What happened? For sure. What's going to. The crazy thing, though, the funny thing about it is that as people. flee, they will have less and less money to extract from others to fund the enforcement of their completely corrupt taxation system.

Starting point is 00:29:27 100%. It's, dude, it's gnarly. I think this is one of the things that Bitcoin will fix in the long term. But I think they're going to fight tooth and nail for a very long time in order to keep the system of control and taxation alive and well. And again, it's unjust. Not the income tax, you can have a whole debate about that. But there's a, there's clearly an established social contract there. You could say they sci up to people into believing it and you're not getting what you're putting in return, whatever. You can make all those arguments. But what I can guarantee is that no one has agreed on the inflation aspect. No one has agreed on the inflation taxation. And that they're just relying on the uninformed populace to go away to go with it. I remember there is a video of Trudeau and he was just making fun of someone when they brought up inflation. Like he just

Starting point is 00:30:25 completely gaslit that person and you're seeing the questions like when they asked Trump or when they ask Kamala what are you going to do about the grocery prices? Like that is a naive question. It's like they are the ones that cause this like it's the government that cause this grocery prices to go up. And then you see the different tactics by different politicians, like what you're seeing from the Democratic Party right now is that they're just saying like, oh, price gouging. So they're blaming corporations. And if like it's economics 101, bro, it's Thomas Seoul. Like if a company raises their prices that creates an opportunity for another company to just come in and say, hey, you know, we're going to sell the same thing at lower prices.

Starting point is 00:31:09 and the free market kind of figures things out. So you can't really price gouge it too much because that just creates a market opportunity for your competitor. But they're basically making the case that all these companies are colluding and raising the prices to screw you over where in reality these companies are raising the prices

Starting point is 00:31:29 as a reaction to the debasement of the currency. And it reminds me of like when they raise the minimum wage in California, they raised it to like $21 and then all of a sudden all the fast food restaurants they started becoming like ridiculously expensive and people are like hey what the fuck it's like yeah that's what happens when you raise you know what I'm saying like there's unintended consequences to when politicians start to meddle in economics and more more and more people should be aware of that yeah there's there's no free lunch and uh you know if you if you move one dial another one's gonna

Starting point is 00:32:06 I'm like if you push on one side of a scale, the other side will go up. So like, you know, there's always an equal reaction on the other side. 100%. So speaking of interesting individuals, Peter Schiff finally said the quiet part out loud. So this is a very popular podcast impact theory. And they asked them something. I hope hopefully it's in the beginning. Let's check it out.

Starting point is 00:32:34 Oh, I don't have audio from me. Oh, really? It's not working the audio? Sometimes it does that for clips. That's right. Anyways, I'll just read it. But basically, I'll narrate it. So basically they ask him, like, if you can go back, if you had a time machine, would you buy Bitcoin?

Starting point is 00:32:56 And Peter Schiff literally responds. He's doing it right now and he's laughing. He's like, of course, I'm not an idiot. So then, like, so the whole thing is a schick. It's a, it's a, it's a Fugazi. It's, it's fake. Like, he's just butt hurt that he didn't get in at an earlier price. Like, he's not arguing on the fundamentals of Bitcoin. He's arguing on the fact that no, bro, I just didn't get in at a thousand. So I'm just going to double down and say, you know, gold is the way. Right. So, you know, he was bullshitting the entire time. The hilarious thing about this is at any point in the past 10 years of him shitting on Bitcoin would have, you know, he was. have been back in time. But today, still, in the future, will be the back in time that he could have bought Bitcoin and enjoyed the benefits of doing so. He will look back on this for years to come

Starting point is 00:33:48 and always be like he's just in this perpetual loop of like it, you know, I missed it. And he's going to continue missing it because now he's just too stubborn. 100%. And I think that like we've been stuck at 60K for quite a while, but, you know, if history is a teacher, you know, when price of Bitcoin is trading at half a million dollars per coin or, you know, 10 years from now, a million dollars, whatever it is, you're going to be looking at 60K, you're like, you know, that was a pretty good deal. Like that, that, you know, that what type of investment is going to give you that type of return? Nothing. So, or nothing that is, that is, you know, a relatively, a relatively, a relatively sure bet type of thing, right?

Starting point is 00:34:35 I was just going to say a nice way for Normies to think about it is when Bitcoin is a million dollars and a dollar will get you 100 sats, being able to buy 1,600 sets for a dollar is going to look super attractive. It's going to look amazing. It's basically like you're buying $16 for $1. dollar, except for we won't care about dollars at that point, but just to put it into perspective. Absolutely. No, I think I think you absolutely hit the nail on the head. Anyways, so I found this part really interesting. So Black Rock actually held a, what's it called, digital asset conference

Starting point is 00:35:20 in Brazil. And they just, they kind of go through, like, they just make, it's a very long presentation, but they go through, you know, trying to make the case on, you know, Bitcoin being this emergency emerging technology. Its adoption rate is higher than the internet or the mobile phone. So, you know, they're making the case that the opportunity to capitalize on this and getting into the industry is right now. But what was really interesting to me about this part is there was a point where the guy making the presentation started talking about the newer generation. So he started to do. So he started to do. talking about the millennials and the Gen Ziers. And he said that four out of five millennial

Starting point is 00:36:05 millionaires have some of their net worth in digital assets. Now, the reason he's bringing that up is because he is a wealth manager. And wealth managers, their whole business model, and I'm going to read you a piece by Parker Lewis that he wrote for Unchained, their whole business model relies on the fact that if you have some type of wealth, because of the Fiat system, you're forced to become a part-time investor just to maintain your purchasing power. So when I heard that speech, I was just smiling and I was like, oh, really? And then it reminded me of a friend that, a very close friend of mine. and there is six out of seven of my high school friends that I've been able to orange pill. And there was one that I have not been able to orange pill.

Starting point is 00:37:00 And this particular friend works at a very well-known, established and respectable wealth management bank. And I have not been able to orange pill him. And I was like, this makes no. Like, I'm like, look at the, it's like Peter Schiff, but the guy's younger. And I'm like, what, why? This doesn't make sense. and when I saw the argument from the Black Rock guy and how he was essentially worrying about his future employment of not being able to rent seek essentially, I was like, oh, that makes perfect sense.

Starting point is 00:37:32 And here's like Parker Lewis explaining what he calls the great definationalization. So he goes on to say, have you ever had a financial advisor tell you that you need to make your money grow? this idea has been so hardwired in the minds of hardworking people all over the world that has become practically second nature to the very idea of work. The line has been repeated so many times that it is now a de facto part of working culture. Get a salary position, max out your 401k contribution, select a few mutual funds with catchy marketing names, and watch your money grow. Most folks navigate this path every two weeks on autopilot, never quote,

Starting point is 00:38:15 questioning the wisdom nor being conscious of the risks. It is just what, quote, smart people do. Many now associate the activity with savings, but in reality, financialization has turned retirement savers into perpetual risk takers, and the consequence is that financial investing has become a second full-time job for many, if not most. Financialization has been so arraintly normalized that the lines between saving and investing have become blurred to the extent that most people think of the two activities as being one and the same, believing that financial engineering is a necessary path to a happy retirement might lack common sense, but it is the conventional wisdom. Over the course of the past several decades, economies everywhere,

Starting point is 00:39:01 but particularly those in the developed world, specifically the United States, have become increasingly financialized. Increased financialization has become the necessary companion to the idea that you must make your money grow. But the idea, it's that you must make your money grow only really emerge in the mainstream consciousness as everyone similarly became conditioned to the unfortunate reality that money loses its value over time. So the only reason, you know, that, and this is so, this is such a tough pill to swallow, but the only reason that you have wealth managers in the first place and people offering those services is because the money is fundamentally broken and there was a market need in a world

Starting point is 00:39:51 where the currency is constantly debasing. But what happens in a world where all you have to do is buy, earn, mine Bitcoin and put that Bitcoin into self-custody and that's it. Where do those, where are those banks going to get those fees? Where's the justification? And that's why he was mentioning the millennials. Because if you're looking at me, and I'm expecting Bitcoin to, like, moving forward to grow on an annualized basis between 50 and 30 percent, what wealth manager in the entire planet is going to be able to offer me those types of returns, while also simultaneously allowing me to keep the custody of my wealth. Zero. So what incentive do I have to not only give up the custody of my wealth, but also pay you a small percentage every year

Starting point is 00:40:52 of what is what you have in the pot, regardless of whether it goes up or down? You make money regardless, right? And think about it. This is an enormous industry, the financial industry. And Now all of a sudden, Bitcoin comes in and let's say you're a plumber or you're a dentist and you make good money, right? Now all of a sudden, you don't need to put your money in a 401k in an index fund and what Parker Lewis said, speculate because that's essentially what you're doing. Now you could just put that money in Bitcoin, have full custody of it. And to use the article's own words, watch your money grow, literally, or watch your purchasing power grow over time. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:39 It's the other thing that came to mind as you were reading Parker's article is it pairs nicely with an article by Jesse. I'm forgetting his last name, but he went by Kreis before Jesse Myers. Yes. And he wrote a piece called Why the Yuppie Elite Dismiss Bitcoin and the premise of it. It's so good. The premise was basically that when the existing system, has directly impacted your life in a good way.

Starting point is 00:42:11 And you are one of the people that has basically been able to extract value from others through the existing system. You're directly incentivized not to understand or help the incoming correction to that corrupt system. And, you know, I see that again and again with certain types of people. that, yeah, they recognize, hey, I'm the, my livelihood is based on the fact that this system exists. And so if it stops existing, I'm out a job and I got to figure out what the hell to do. So, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's a very tough pill to swallow.

Starting point is 00:42:55 It's a very tough pill to swallow. And one of the experiences that I've seen, like dealing with like older high net worth people and they're transitioning their assets from, you know, traditional assets. putting it out of the system to Bitcoin, and you see the bankers, like, tell you everything that they can tell you in order for you. And it reminds me of the scene from Wolf of Wall Street, where Matthew McConaughey was, like, talking to, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio. And it was, like, right when he was just getting in. And he was like, yeah, like, the way that it works is, like, you just got to keep them

Starting point is 00:43:32 in the system. And then, like, Leo's like, but wait a second, like, what if they make money? And then Matthew McConaughey is like, no, that would make it real. What you do is that you sell them on another great idea because you keep them in the system and you make commission. You know, so it's like it's so blatant in your face and it's a misaligned incentive structure because you're not like you're supposedly managing the wealth of your client, but your incentive is for that commission. Your incentive is not the what is best for the wealth of your client because if it if you're if it was really what is best for your client, you would say, just buy Bitcoin, put it in self-custody, and, you know, forget about it. But then you wouldn't make commission doing that, you know?

Starting point is 00:44:17 So it's quite interesting. That's awesome, man. Well, dude, thank you for everything today. Thank you for, I know you're up late. I know you're not on, you're not on U.S. time. And you made an effort to get here regardless. this. So I appreciate it. Get some sleep. Enjoy gallivanting about Europe. And I'll be seeing you in a little bit less than two weeks here, man. Very, very soon. Anyways, guys, this was your

Starting point is 00:44:51 simply sessions. All right. Peace out, Ben. Cheers. All right. Everybody, stick around. Why? Why do you want to stick around? Well, first off, I'm going to be given away some sats here. So you're going to want to stick around for that. Did you see how much I gave away last week on Bitcoin? Well, 210,000 SATs ended up being the prize. Wild. I'm still not over that. That was pretty cool. But we're going to take a quick break. We're going to give a shout out to our sponsors. And then we will be right back with the Sats giveaway and your tech updates. So we'll see you momentarily. Be right back. See you soon. Speed wallet is a Bitcoin Lightning wallet built with simplicity in mind.

Starting point is 00:45:37 Spend and receive with ease, claim your own lightning address, shop your favorite gift cards, and even earn rewards when you spend. Head over to speed.app to download the app on your mobile or desktop today and use the link down below to get 5,000 sats for free and have the chance to win even more. Debify.com allows you to borrow against your Bitcoin in a non-custodial way. Collateral is held in a three of four distributed multi-sig with trusted parties. It provides institutional liquidity providers, loan periods of up to five years with flexible conditions and the best rates. Best of all, no rehypification of your funds.

Starting point is 00:46:19 If you want to check them out today, head over to debify.com or hit the link in the show notes down below. Keeper is a fully open source Bitcoin app created to help you stack Sat's long term. Easily use your hardware devices or assisted keys to create multi-executive. SIG wallets and plan your inheritance. Head over to Bitcoinkeeper. dot app to download the app and use code BTC Sessions 30 to get a 30% discount

Starting point is 00:46:46 on your first subscription. All right, we are back in. I have pulled up the Bitcoin Well dashboard. If you're unfamiliar with them, they are in Canada and the U.S. excellent place to be stacking stats. And you can, of course, win some Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:47:06 So, of course, you earn points as you sign up, as you purchase Bitcoin, as you refer friends. And then you can use those points to toss a coin into the Bitcoin wishing well, where you can win anywhere between 500 and a million sets. So what do you need to do? Get your lightning wallets ready because we're about to toss a coin in the well. And whoever scans a QR code first gets to claim the prize. We'll see if we get another 210K this time going around.

Starting point is 00:47:38 Either way, some free sats for you. So I'm going to redeem 500 points. Off goes the coin. And unfortunately, not 210,000 sats, but 500 sats for whoever snags it first. Congratulations to whoever does get it. And let me know in the chat wherever you're watching this, if you did manage to snipe those sats. But with that, let's go ahead and dive into our tech updates for today.

Starting point is 00:48:07 Phoenix wallet version 2.4.0 and server 0.4.0. So what is this? Quote, today we have moved our lightning service provider to a new open protocol with an open source implementation replacing the previous proprietary closed source LSP or lightning service provider protocol that we have been using since the beginning of Phoenix. The new protocol is a thin layer on top of the Lightning Bolt standard, leveraging recent features like dual funding, splicing, and liquidity ads. It is specified in Blipp 36, reviewers and implementers welcome. Upgrading to mobile version 2.4.0 and Phoenix D version 0.4.0

Starting point is 00:48:57 is required for liquidity features such as on-the-fly liquidity, on-chain deposits, and manual liquidity requests. Outgoing on-chain and off-chain payments should still work without upgrading. There's some minor UI differences, but no functional change. Fee schedule is unchanged. New protocol will allow for even more on-chain efficiency

Starting point is 00:49:18 in the future. Stay tuned. That's awesome. Love what Phoenix is doing. By the way, if you're in the U.S. and you wish you had Phoenix, I'm pretty sure you can just go if you're on Android and just download the APK file from their website.

Starting point is 00:49:30 And I don't even think, you would necessarily need a VPN, but don't quote me on that. I don't know. Let me know in the chat. Moving on, AlbiGo version 1.6.0. Security settings, link handling support. So key features of AlbiGo, it is a simple lightning interface. The app makes it super easy to send and receive lightning payments,

Starting point is 00:49:53 making it a top option for operating subaccounts created for your friends and family. You have a contact list. Multiple Noster Wallet Connect. wallets can be connected. Currency conversion, dark and light themes. So what's new this time? Security settings, you can now protect your wallet with biometrics, face

Starting point is 00:50:12 lock, face unlock, pin. Link handling support. You can use lightning links and BIP 21. It improves LN URL handling, including fixed amounts and also various other

Starting point is 00:50:28 bug fixes and improvements. Love to see. AlbiGo is awesome. Awesome. Like if you haven't used it, it's incredible. I've got the plugin for my browser here. There you can see. And you can see I've been playing around with it. But all my, like for people that are watching on Noster right now, when you zap me on the stream, it literally goes to my own lightning wallet managed by Albi Go. Not the custodial. Albi used to be a custodial option. No, this is like directly to my start nine server that's on my shelf behind me. own lightning node through Albi Go. I have access on my phone. It's awesome. You should check it out. Moving on. Nunchuk Android version 1.9.52 and iOS version 1.9.55 decoy wallets. So decoy wallets that store small amounts of Bitcoin to protect against attackers to facilitate this. Nunchuk implements two separate pins, a decoy pin and a security pin in a threatening situation. You can enter

Starting point is 00:51:32 decoy pin to access the decoy wallet and hand it over potentially diffusing the threat use the security pin to access your main wallet nunchuck for android also supports reproducible builds uh this ensures that your devices binary matches rather the published source code uh so that's super awesome really really cool uh guys keep on innovating that's awesome uh and this is again super useful if you're traveling around, you're using Nunchuck on your mobile. You might want to implement that just to have plausible deniability. Moving on. Okay, so this is just something that came across my purview.

Starting point is 00:52:17 Wasn't really familiar with these guys until recently, but I kind of came to understand that there's a payment processor called Cryptimus. I think they're Canadian-based. And so this is like a checkout for companies that want to be able to accept Bitcoin, but I think it's just swapping them to dollars in the background, like a custodial service type thing. Anyways, so they'll accept Bitcoin payments without any kind of preamble about what needs to be done. But like it'll be like a QR code, hey, here, pay your invoice type thing. But then afterwards, if they see fit, they may suddenly do.

Starting point is 00:53:00 just require extensive KYC. So like after already having sent money. And so what this ends up looking like is that they'll be like, yo, we got your money. Your payment has been blocked and you've got a couple of options. Number one, we can process your payment, but we're going to require extensive KYC and AML and you're going to need to submit. and sign up and all this kind of stuff. Option number two is we can refund your payment, but you still have to do all the same shit that we just said. So it's pretty much like KYC or KYC and go through this whole rigamarral with them.

Starting point is 00:53:47 And the crazy part about it is it's like there's different KYC thresholds depending on the jurisdiction. But in Canada, the KYC threshold for, it's. Bitcoin and we'll say just crypto-related stuff is $1,000. And so what I've come to understand is payments well below that threshold, like a hundred bucks is what I saw. They'll still trigger this. Like if they don't like your payment for whatever reason,

Starting point is 00:54:18 they'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah, 100 bucks. It's well below the KYC requirements. Tough shit. You're going to have to hand over all this info. Otherwise, we keep your money. And so that's super shitty. So maybe if you see that as a checkout option, reconsider and go to a different merchant. That's what I probably would be doing if I see it pop up.

Starting point is 00:54:42 So yeah, PSA, feel free to share that around. I think people should just be aware that that's a potential thing, especially for those that value privacy that maybe don't want to be in a situation where they're either losing money or giving up their personal details. then yeah, you should be privy to that. Anyways, let's move on. Just receive this little guy in the mail. Very excited to get playing.

Starting point is 00:55:07 This is the future bit. The Apollo 2. And this is a home miner and node. So pretty cool. I'm excited to play with it. Have not plugged it in yet. I've seen these around quite a bit before, but we'll be doing a full video in the coming weeks, I imagine.

Starting point is 00:55:27 I've got one more trip ahead of me, so it'll probably be after Lugano. But, yeah, after I get home, then this will be a project for me. If you do have a future bit, let me know what you think. I would love to hear. We already talked about, quote-unquote, Satoshi, aka Peter Todd. I just wanted to give him a big shout out. It was special thanks to Satoshi for taking the time to join. Why are we bullish a couple of weeks back?

Starting point is 00:55:56 I mean, between creating Bitcoin and trying to be in hiding and not reveal his identity, it must have been a very busy schedule to fit in, you know, another podcast. So, you know, hats off to Satoshi. We are all Peter Todd. Again, obviously, this isn't just. Peter Todd is not Satoshi, but good job to the HBO documentary maker. Absolute clown. Let's move on.

Starting point is 00:56:28 Another fun thing, if you haven't seen it yet, I'm a cartoon. This is a screenshot from the Tuttle Twins' upcoming episode. It is a sequel to their Bitcoin episode that they did a couple years back. And I'm beyond excited to be in cartoon form for this episode. Yes, I did know about it before it happened. I actually recorded a brief voiceover when I pop up in the episode. I'm in there just for a little bit. But I love this.

Starting point is 00:57:02 I've showed it. I think I have like a, my favorite thing is that my daughter is over the moon about it. She's been so excited. She's been, daddy's a cartoon. He's in a Bitcoin cartoon. And she's trying to show it to everybody. And yeah, it makes me happy. Now she's like super keen to start watching Tuttle.

Starting point is 00:57:23 twins and everything. If you're unfamiliar with Tuttle twins, by the way, they're awesome. It's just like a kid show based on the principles of like Liberty and Austrian economics. And it's just, it's just a solid, solid piece of kids content. And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it. I've watched a lot of episodes. And it's just, it's just great content. I think it teaches good values. Anyways. And they have been dropping little clips recently about, the upcoming episode and I'm just yeah that I mean they're teaching kids about the dangers of central bank digital currencies and how when you control the money it becomes corrupted what a fantastic foundational idea to have our kids recognize how important money actually is uh as as a mechanism for

Starting point is 00:58:17 um free speech and association anyways awesome I love that they but they animated Jerome Powell too. Okay, moving on. I said I just got back from a trip. I was in Nashville for the Human Rights Foundation Global Bitcoin Summit, which was incredible. I talked a lot about it on the last Why Are We Bullish with both Rockstar and Rod co-founder of Bitcoin Park. So if you want to go back and hear more about that, please do check it out. But I did want to also bring attention to one other thing, which was on the way home from that. I stopped in Toronto. And there's these two guys that run a company called Rockstar Real Estate. So I basically went to a real estate event and got to speak there because these real estate investors are orange-pilled as hell. And they've been

Starting point is 00:59:10 busy orange-pilling all of their members of this real estate company because they've realized, hey, the only reason that we have a business model, much to what me and Nico were talking about, is because the money is broken. And so people have to become professional investors on the side just to maintain their standard of living and hope to make it to retirement. And so they have been busy telling their clientele about Bitcoin for a few years now. And so they had me come out and speak and give kind of some live demos in and around the practical. Like people have heard a lot about Bitcoin through their workshops and everything, but they wanted to see some of the practical stuff. So I got to do a little demo on stage.

Starting point is 00:59:53 I showed how to like get Bitcoin, put it into a wallet, how to delete a wallet and recover it. And then I talked a little bit about hardware. And then the team at Bitcoin Mentor, we had Jesse Berger and we had Nathan Fitzsimmons. And they were both there running a booth for Bitcoin Mentor for those. that wanted some one-on-one help. They were swamped. We had so many awesome people come up asking really good, clever questions, just curious about how to get started, how to properly secure things.

Starting point is 01:00:26 It was fantastic. It made me bullish as hell, super excited. So again, I got to tip my hat to everybody over at Rockstar Real Estate. Those guys are absolute rock stars. And myself and the Bitcoin Mentor team were so happy. to be a part of it. And I think it's the beginning of a beautiful relationship because, yeah, these guys are putting out the right message. And if we can help in any way, then yeah, absolutely love to be there. Let's move on, though. So I said I'm going to be traveling around

Starting point is 01:01:00 and I'm going to be in person with Nico again coming up pretty soon here. I'm heading to Switzerland for the Lugano Plan B forum. If you're unfamiliar, Switzerland. the town city of Lugano, they have adopted a, I guess, quasi-Bitcoin standard. Like you can go in a lot of stores, most stores, I suppose, in the region and pay in Bitcoin, which is awesome. They're like all except lightning and everything. It's crazy. So I get to see it with my own eyes for the first time.

Starting point is 01:01:33 So I'm going to be heading out there in October 20, I think I fly out on the 23rd, if I'm not mistaken. And I believe the forum is the 25th and 26, as it says here. But yeah, if you're going to be in Lugano, please do let me know. Hope to bump into some of you. Furthermore, if you are looking at going or think you might make the trip down, you can head to their website, planb lugano.ch, planb.lugano.com. dot CH and you can use code BTC sessions to get yourself a discount on tickets. It's coming up quick. So make sure you snag them before time is out. A couple last things.

Starting point is 01:02:17 I've been mentioning this for a couple weeks now, but I finally finished the edit on the tutorial for Blitz Wallet. Super awesome kind of, how would I put it? It uses multiple networks to simply navigate in the background. how to send and receive payments without having to fully, you know, like without having to get like inbound liquidity at small amounts and all that stuff. It's basically trying to figure out the perfect balance of different networks based on how much you're dealing with. And so it uses a mix of cashew e-cash, liquid Bitcoin using swaps in the background to facilitate lightning transactions,

Starting point is 01:03:02 and full self-custody lightning channel opens when you have enough Bitcoin to make that action justifiable or economically sound. And so it's really cool. I've been playing with it a lot over the last little bit. And yeah, so check it out. I believe, yeah, the video, the tutorial

Starting point is 01:03:25 will be dropped tomorrow morning early in the a.m. So if you're not already subscribed, please do subscribe, hit that little bell notification, and you will see when it comes out. And then finally, tomorrow evening, we have, why are we bullish? Now, unfortunately, there's been a change here. World of Rusty and Dennis are still going to be there, 58K gang. I'm sure held plenty today to say about today's little price dip. But unfortunately, I don't believe Greg will be joining us because he is smack dab in the middle of Florida

Starting point is 01:03:59 trying to navigate a hurricane right now. So last I heard, he's safe and sound and everything, but he may not have reliable internet connection at the time. So again, Greg, hope you're staying safe. Again, sincerely, hope he's staying safe. And we may have Mr. Selly pop in his stead, who actually himself couldn't get online last time for the other hurricane. So we're having some hurried.

Starting point is 01:04:29 Hurricane vetoes pop up a couple of times here. So anyways, Sally will be on to fill out a great spot, but encourage you guys to join in tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. And so with that, I'm going to wrap up. Thank you guys so much for watching. As always, like, subscribe, share, all those things. They help a ton getting this content in front of more eyeballs. If you want to help the show in another way,

Starting point is 01:04:53 hit up the previously mentioned sponsors. They are in the show notes down below. And finally, if you've been prepared, cruising the channel, you've been sorting through tutorials, and you've hit a snag, and you need some additional handholding, or you're just a biter that feels like you've become a little bit of a Bitcoin Luddite. Maybe you've learned your initial setup, and that was years ago, and you haven't made any changes or you haven't leveled up since then, but you're feeling that you might need to. Reach out to my team at Bitcoin Mentor.io. We've got an incredible group of educators.

Starting point is 01:05:25 You can get a free 15-minute session just to chat about kind of where you're at and see if there's anything that might make sense to continue your learning journey. And if it does, then you can book sessions and move forward and learn anything from wallets to hardware to multi-sig to lightning to other layer twos like liquid or cashew. Or maybe like running a node or hobbyist home mining, whatever it may be, you can reach out to the Bitcoin Mentor. and they will get you on the right path. So with that, I'm out. Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening, wherever you may be. I'll see you guys next time for your daily session.

BTC Sessions - BREAKING: Dubai Cracks Down On ILLICIT Crypto Companies! ep444

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