BTC Sessions - BREAKING: IRS Changes Tax and Accounting Rules for Bitcoin! ep464

Starting point is 00:00:39 Yo, what is going on? Everybody, welcome and happy New Year. I hope you all had a great end to 2024. And are excited for 2025. I have a feeling there may be some melted faces. It's going to be a fantastic year for all of us. Of course, we're going to be diving into the news in just a moment here. We've got the greatest voice of Bitcoin News to ever exist. we've got Nico from Simply Bitcoin that will be joining us for our Simply Sessions today. And yeah, maybe we'll chat a little bit about the fun that we had just the past couple of nights ago here. It was quite the time. But of course, this is live. Anything can happen.

Starting point is 00:01:26 I'll defer to my friend Bill here. We'll do it live. Okay. We'll do it live. Do it live. Fuck it. Do it live. I can.

Starting point is 00:01:36 I'll write it and we'll do it live. If you can, like, sub, share. All those things super important to help get the show in front of more eyeballs. I'm Ben with the BTC sessions. This is your Simply session. All right. Let's bring in my co-host with the most. Niko, man.

Starting point is 00:02:15 How you doing? Welcome. Yo, dude, we had such a incredible time in my side of the town. And, dude, that was an epic end of the year. We got to spend time with you and your beautiful wife and, you know, spend time with my better half as well. And we went on some island adventures. We went on some, you know, billionaire estate adventures at the legendary 100K party. But, dude, you're too kind, man.

Starting point is 00:02:46 If I'm the best Bitcoin news guy, you're the best Bitcoin educator, bro. We're peanut butter and jelly. We just go together so well. It's gross. Touching the tips. It's there. It is. Well, I mean, yeah, we had a hell of a time.

Starting point is 00:03:03 I'll leave it at that for now, but I'll share some photos later on in the show. But let's get down to the meat of what we want to talk about today. It may only be January 2nd, but there's always shit going on. and Bitcoin. So I'll let you take the lead here. What is going on? What is top of mind today? Yeah. So huge, huge news coming out of Switzerland. So a little bit of providing a little bit of context. So Switzerland is a very fiscally conservative country. In fact, if like the way that fiat is supposed to work, you should look at Switzerland. They have a relatively stable inflation rate throughout their history, they remain neutral in both world wars, where people open bank accounts

Starting point is 00:03:57 and want to have the security that they know they know they're not going to get rugs or they want to store their gold or whatever. You always hear the thing. It's like you go and open a Swiss bank account. So Switzerland, again, very fiscally conservative, very responsible with their monetary policy. This is how central bank should be run. The problem is that, that human beings can't help themselves. Now, I have to provide that context because I think it's extremely important when you hear stuff like that specifically coming out of Switzerland. So the headline for the audio listeners is Switzerland moves to add Bitcoin to Constitution.

Starting point is 00:04:38 It goes on to say, this isn't just a pipe dream. This initiative is now up for signatures in the Federal Gazette. To make it a reality, supporters need to gather 100,000 signatures. if successful, the initiative will progress to a national referendum. This will give Swiss citizens the chance to vote on whether Bitcoin should become a constitutional right. It goes on to say Switzerland's push to add Bitcoin to the Constitution. Switzerland has long embraced financial innovation, earning its nickname as the Crypto Valley of the world. Adding Bitcoin to the Constitution could solidify its position as a leader in descent,

Starting point is 00:05:19 centralized finance. Proponents believe this move would provide, this move would provide Swiss citizens with financial independence and align with the country's value of self-determination and security. But this isn't just about Bitcoin enthusiasts. The initiative reflects a broader push for economic freedom and digital sovereignty. By embedding Bitcoin in the constitution, Switzerland could set a global precedent for how nations handle digital currencies. Now, it goes to say, this initiative is no small feat. Gathering 100,000 signatures will require full community support and a lot of legwork. From local Bitcoin meetups to online campaigns, every signature will bring this vision closer to reality. As the saying goes, it takes a village and in this

Starting point is 00:06:07 case it will take an entire crypto community. If the required signatures are gathered, the initiative will move to a national referendum. This would make Switzerland one of the first countries to consider such a monumental step. Whether or not it succeeds, this initiative sparks a conversation about the role of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in our daily lives. As well as this, also the Central Bank of Switzerland is also being petitioned to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet. And that is being pushed by give. Give is part of the whole tether crew. So on two fronts, historic news coming out of Switzerland to add Bitcoin to the Constitution, which, you know, again, historic, talk about the Overton window shifting. And also here is, which I find so poetic,

Starting point is 00:07:04 Barack Obama talking about Bitcoin and talking about how Bitcoin is essentially, you know, having like a Swiss private bank account in your pocket. Let's check it out. In fact, you can't crack that at all. Government can't get in. Then everybody's walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket. That sounds like a wonderful idea. That sounds like a great idea, President Obama. So, you know, again, like it's very fitting just to kind of give you, like, even you had

Starting point is 00:07:41 a former president talking about Switzerland, how they value privacy, how they value, you know, sovereignty in a way, you know, and here they are basically saying, you know what, we might add Bitcoin to our Constitution. So, I mean, imagine all those like, you know, collaborative custody companies and all of a sudden they set up shop in Switzerland. That sounds like, it sounds like I would trust them a lot more. I know Proton Mail, which is like, you know, one of my daily drivers for email, like they're set up in Switzerland, you know. So I think this is definitely a step in the right direction and, you know, a continuation of the trend that we're seeing worldwide. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:08:24 So a couple things. Again, excellent pitch from Obama there. He really sold me on Bitcoin with that one. Really, really great for the marketing team. But just in and around this, the idea that, again, the country that was best known for being able to bank privately and for citizens to be able to just hold on to their wealth in a way where and not everybody could just like take a magnifying glass to them for them to be making this move makes a ton of sense of course and i also wonder if one them moving away from that like the it was

Starting point is 00:09:08 the fiat system allows that to happen and and the pressures and the powers that be of course probably force that. And maybe this is a bit of a way for them to retake that mantle of, hey, like, you know, we're going to enshrine our citizens with the ability to keep their wealth as they see fit, which would keep them as a wealthy country that people desire to be in. It is beautiful there. And the other aspect of this that pops out to me is once again, we see this idea of the sovereign individual thesis playing out where, you know, countries are making moves in different ways to rather than treat their citizens as cattle advertised to potential citizens. Here's the benefits of coming here and being a part of our nation. And so I think this is bullish as hell. And I hope we

Starting point is 00:10:02 see more of it. Absolutely. I 100% agree, man. I think this is extremely bullish. And, you know, I hope to echo your statement. I hope we see this continuation of the trend. And I think we will. I think we will. And that's a perfect segue to my next point, which is, you know, there is some interesting interviews that were conducted at the 100K party. And they are related to the incoming Trump administration.

Starting point is 00:10:37 and they're about to be sworn. He's about to be sworn into office on January 20th of 2025, so 18 days from now. And what that could mean for Bitcoin. And at least from a price perspective, it seems extremely, extremely bullish. And it seems like there's a possibility of that happening. Now, here's some interviews from the grounds of the Michael Sailor Party. Let's check it out. Here is Samson Mao.

Starting point is 00:11:15 Speaking of, you know, politicians and everything, do you think Bitcoin, well, Trump would do his conquest and keep his promise of reaching, you know, and having a Bitcoin reserve? I think so. It's really that they have no choice. They have to create the Bitcoin Reserve. They need to buy Bitcoin simply because they need to shore up the US dollar and strengthen it. And I think they view it more as a measure to boost the dollar, but ultimately, I think it ends up killing the dollar. And you enter the hyper-bitonization phase. Speaking of, you know, politicians.

Starting point is 00:11:51 So moving on to the next video here is the Metaplanet CEO or the owner. And again, once again, talking about what will happen if Trump adopts. a Bitcoin standard is particular to how other countries are going to react to it. Slowly but surely seeing Bitcoin becoming a topic of discussion at the highest levels of government. Corporations around the world beginning to adopt it as a Bitcoin. Just shout out to Matt Crater from Bitcoin University walking in the background. In April for us, that's when we decided that we wanted to adopt Bitcoin. and now all we want to do is accumulate more Bitcoin over time for our shareholders.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And so 2024 will go down as the year where it all began. The year where it all began and also sort of like Donald Trump following your footsteps because now he's saying he's going to have a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Do you think that's actually going to happen? Absolutely. You know, being a non-American, perhaps I can say this. Definitively, I do think that the Bitcoin community in the U.S. helped elect the president. And so hopefully President Trump will do what he has said that he will,

Starting point is 00:13:09 which is to make Bitcoin a strategic reserve. And then countries around the world will follow. Japan is one of those countries where they do look to the U.S. as sort of their big brother and follow in their footsteps. And so I think if President Trump does adopt it as a strategic reserve, then Japan and many other countries in Asia will do the same. In a way, it's sort of like we're going to see this, the game theory play out in full circle. We're going to see like what countries would you say will follow the United States footprints? Good question. Is that Japan?

Starting point is 00:13:46 Yeah, I think Japan, I think a lot of the countries in Asia, I think a lot of the third world countries in particular that see, you know, perhaps adopting Bitcoin will be a way to show up their own currencies. It's going to be interesting to see. I mean, coming, you know, out of the Dubai Abadabadi Conference, we got to hear from a lot of the, you know, governments in the region. And I think it's definitely something that is a topic. And they are secretly buying kind of behind the scenes and hopefully they will announce, you know, quite soon. I think a lot of them are being deferent to the U.S. So after President Trump announces the Strategic Reserve, I think a lot of other countries will say, actually, we own Bitcoin as well. Yeah, so absolutely. I mean, again, and then there's the other thing that I want to address, right, which is, you know, does he actually have the votes, right? Because for anyone who's not familiar with American politics, if you want policy to remain in place, regardless of which administration is in office, it can't be done by executive order. So executive order is essentially when a president makes a command, right? thing is that the executive orders only stay in place until the next president. Most likely, the next president, specifically if he's from the other party, usually like repeals those executive orders and then he makes his own executive orders. So if Trump does a strategic reserve through executive order and not through the legislative process, meaning going through the lower house of Congress, which is called the House of Representatives, and then the upper

Starting point is 00:15:22 House of Congress, which is called the Senate, then it's not something that is long term, right? So that's the only thing. It's the only concern that I had, which is like, okay, he does something via executive order, sweet. The United States government is not going to sell Bitcoin for four years. They potentially might buy some. But how are we going to make this long term, right? And of course, that's by getting legislation passed.

Starting point is 00:15:47 Here's Anthony Scaramucci. He's pretty well known with a lot of his, like, political takes and whatnot. And he says that apparently Trump has the votes. So here's the video and then we'll talk about it. You think we'll get a strategic Bitcoin reserve? I do, actually. What does that look like? They've got the votes.

Starting point is 00:16:06 Haggerty wants it. McCormick wants it. They have the votes in the Senate, do you think? I think so, yeah. Really? I do think so, yes. For like to her bill to get a million Bitcoin, right? That was her full bill.

Starting point is 00:16:18 Yeah. This stuff gets horse traded. So you'll probably have, 200 won't get sold. They'll probably buy another four or 500,000 Bitcoin over the next. You don't think this is going to happen? Let me tell you why I think it will happen. Okay. Trump wants it to happen.

Starting point is 00:16:39 And he's got the Senate banking committee. Tim Scott wants it to happen. He's going to be the chair of the Senate banking committee. But sent wants it to happen. if you're telling me there are no Democrats, and I don't believe this because a lot of Democrats voted for the Saab 121 bill. If you looked at the dispersion of vote, it was a bipartisan approval of that bill. And by the way, Ryan, it was if you were 40 or 50, let's say you were below the age of 60,

Starting point is 00:17:11 you voted for the bill if you were a Democrat. If you were a fossil like Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown, you voted against it. So if you're telling me there are no Democrats that are going to vote for that, then I'll say, okay, then we're not going to get it. But I don't see that. I think Rochano would vote for it. I think there's a lot of Democrats who look at it and say, if Bitcoin is digital gold and we have $600 billion of gold on reserve at our bank,

Starting point is 00:17:43 in the Federal Reserve Bank, you're telling it $75 to $100 billion of Bitcoin. reserve? So I mean, dude, like insane insanity. And I'll tell you this, you know, and the polymarket odds gives it a 24% chance. So, you know, that's what the betting markets are saying. But I'll tell you this, you know, like the fact that there's a non-zero chance, I said the same thing about the election last year. The fact that there's a non-zero chance that the United States is going to have a strategic Bitcoin Reserve next year is absolutely crazy. and if that does happen, like we're going to see half a million dollar Bitcoin. I'm going to say that very confidently because it's just going to start a global Bitcoin accumulation fomo race.

Starting point is 00:18:30 Ben, what do you think? This is crazy to me. Again, I have in my head and publicly been a little bit dismissive about the idea that this would actually happen. but so many people that I consider to be very knowledgeable and very intelligent have been very convinced that this is about to happen. Even on the Christmas show, the opening panel that I had was, you know, I had I had Parker Lewis, I had Larry Lepard, and I had, had Peter Saint-Aange and all of them were like, yeah, this is this is happening in the first year of Trump's presidency. And I was like, really, really?

Starting point is 00:19:26 Like you guys actually are thinking that this. And so I'm like questioning myself, like, should I be this hesitant? And again, Pollymarket, you're right. The fact that there's a one and four chance that it's pricing it in for. actually happening is even in and of itself astounding and denotes that it almost certainly will eventually happen. But if this were to happen, the snowball effect that would be felt around the world, you know, you had the head of Metaplanet there saying that he believes that there's been some low-key stacking happening already and that it would become very overt after the U.S.

Starting point is 00:20:14 announced that they were moving ahead. That type of snowball effect, not only would it happen with like just accumulation, but the hash war that would result, like in terms of mining and the change to energy infrastructure as a result of that would be absolutely insane.

Starting point is 00:20:37 This isn't just Bitcoin price going crazy. This is like everything about energy infrastructure going crazy and completely being rethought and actually done in a way where it's like where are we most efficient, which can also help with a lot, a lot of stuff. So I don't know, man. Like, it's wild to think that we're having this conversation, but it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting year regardless. So I mean, with that, again, we'll continue on here. I do want to do. a quick shout out to sponsors of the show before we move on to the next story here.

Starting point is 00:21:21 So everybody stick around and also grab out a lightning wallet because we'll give away some sats before we dive into the next story. So Nico, we'll see you in one minute. Bitcoin Well is the best place to be buying and selling Bitcoin in Canada and the US. And now with Bitcoin Well Infinite, it's also the best place to be making large buys at their OTC desk of over $50,000. Their white glove service gives you fast transactions, no slippage, and the lowest fees. You can scan the QR code on the screen or simply head to Bitcoinwell.com slash BTC Sessions to sign up today.

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Starting point is 00:22:40 All right, we are back in. Let's give you guys some sats real quick before we move on to the next story. first off off to the right of the screen all uh nico's going to snag him i hope you get it i hope you do but there's a sign up code for bitcoin well if you don't already have an account but that doesn't stop you from snagging these sats even if you don't uh but i do encourage you of course to check out bitcoin well so i'm here on the page uh when you sign up you earn points when you buy bitcoin you earn points when you refer friends you earn points and those points can be used to throw into the coin wishing well to win up to potentially a million sats. So I'm going to hit the button right here.

Starting point is 00:23:26 If you got a lightning wallet ready, you can scan the QR code when it pops up and the first weren't one to do it will steal the sats from everyone else. So here we go. Get ready. And 210 sass to whoever scans it first. Did Nico get it? It would be really funny if you did. Is it gone?

Starting point is 00:23:48 No, no, I wouldn't do that. Well, congrats to whoever gets it. Let us know over in the chat or in the comments if you snagged the stats from everybody else. And you can scan to sign up for Bitcoin well off to the right. And I'll swap that out again if you want to check out Coin Kite over there as well. But Nico, without further delay, I will get your screen back up here. And I'll let you continue on. What else has been going on as of late that is top of my?

Starting point is 00:24:19 mind. Yeah, man. I mean, I think we, you know, we just had this insane, uh, kind of evening in Miami. And here's some of the drone shots from, uh, Michael Saylor's estate and, uh, you know, Bitcoin magazine teamed up with my sister's company, Zemo Media, did a, uh, just kind of recap of the event. And, uh, you know, the, all the different places, it just, there was like the best foods, you know, the best, uh, things. They had interviews, you know, going. on the whole night with some of your favorite podcasters. I'm just going to scroll through some of this. You had Ruzzo.

Starting point is 00:24:55 You had Larry Lepard. Ben, you were up there, Tone Vaze. We got Brandon from Bitcoin Magazine. Interviews from the floor. You know, McShane, Ruzzo, again. Isabela just doing interviews. I think that's actually Isabel's boyfriend. He's real.

Starting point is 00:25:13 You have David Bailey, of course. You have this super famous actor from the show Silicon Valley and of course Samson Mao and I know Ben you're somewhere in there. So yeah, it was just this magical evening. Here's some drone shots. I think just kind of show things. There we go. It's from the top of the party. Just the red carpet in the beginning. Here's Sailor's Yacht, you know, off to the right. And it was just amazing. It was an incredible evening. Good times. You know, for me, the highlight was definitely like the little podcast. casting desk and then spending some time

Starting point is 00:25:51 on Sailor's Yacht. I believe our wives, Ben, put their feet in Sailor's Yacht Jacozy, which was, you know, absolutely awesome. So yeah, just a little kind of quick recap of, you know, Michael Sailor's 100K festivities, which I think were absolutely awesome. Yeah, it was, it was such a good night. I enjoyed it so much. So many awesome people to chat with. like I mean this must have cost obviously a fortune to put on but like just the the sheer size of the place

Starting point is 00:26:25 walking around like how much went into the decorating and the food which I thought was delicious and like you know it was just so well run and yeah the stream was really cool to be a part of and see and yeah it was it was just something else and something that I didn't expect to be invited too, but was happy to have attended. And Lisa was just over the moon when we got there. She was very excited about it. So yeah, hell of a time. Hell of a time. Hell of a time. I didn't think I was going to get invited either. To be honest to do you. And then just like a random email. And then Ben were like, Ben and I were like exchanging messages in a cryptic way. And it was like, all right, what are you doing for New Year's in Miami? I'm like, bro, are you going to sailor party? He's like,

Starting point is 00:27:10 yeah, I'm going to the sailor party. I'm like, do you want to go together, hold hands? He's like, yeah, I want to go together and hold hands. So we and, we and Ben, we and Ben, we and Ben, we and Ben didn't end up holding hands, but our wives did. Anyways, moving on to the next set. Oh, I messed up because that was a full screen. That was hard. That was a hard transition for me. So moving on to the next piece of news, which I thought was interesting.

Starting point is 00:27:37 And now I don't know where you are, Ben. Oh, there it is. Okay. Give me one second, guys, why I organize this in the background or I will get lost? Okay, so Putin signs bill legalizing cryptocurrency mining in Russia. So that's kind of like old news. We covered it a couple weeks ago. Specifically the date is August 8th.

Starting point is 00:27:58 And then shortly after, Russia enacts six-year blanket ban on Bitcoin mining in 10 regions. So, yeah, I find that interesting. It goes on to say Bitcoin mining will be banned in 10 region and territories, including Dagestan, Enguestia, carbinino blakia. Good luck with these, man. Let's just say 10 regions in Russia. Russia will also enforce partial restrictions on mining operations in three

Starting point is 00:28:26 Siberian regions are Kusk, Buryatia, Zabiliska, during the winter, aligning with high energy consumption periods. These restrictions are set to start from January 1st to March 15th for the initial year. The ban affects both mining pools and individual cryptocurrency mining activities. The list of regions and territories is not final and is subject to change based on the decision made by the commission responsible for the development of the electric power industry. These restrictions aim to balance and energy consumption while considering the needs of various

Starting point is 00:29:00 industries. So a Russian mining pool by the name of E4 pool shut down its operations earlier this month citing regulatory restrictions. It goes on to say, quote, to be a legitimate mining pool in Russia, you must register yourself in a special government list of mining operations. So it goes from, hey, we're going to, we're going to, you know, unbanned this thing. Here is Putin. I believe it's originally in Russian, basically saying, who can ban Bitcoin, nobody? Apparently, you know, he doesn't believe that, which I find funny. And then simultaneously, while all this is happening, here we, We got Katie the Russian of founder of the Plan B passport.

Starting point is 00:29:47 And she's translating, you know, this interview that's happening. And it goes on to say, has Russia started to utilize alternative payment instruments in international trade? It goes on to say we've passed new laws. As an experimental policy, you could now utilize Bitcoin, which we mined in Russia. As mining has been legalized as well, these do these transactions take place. So, you know, I get what a lot of people are thinking, like, wait a second. Like, you know, did they, did they like legalize it? That they not legalize it?

Starting point is 00:30:19 Is it legal? Is it not legal? Like, I'm so confused. Like, they legalized it. Putin says you can't ban it. Then they're, like, banning it in a bunch of provinces. And now this guy's basically saying, yo, we're using this for international trade to circumvent American sanctions. And it reminds me of this very, very influential article that,

Starting point is 00:30:39 Alex Gladstein wrote three years ago. And it's called Bitcoin is a Trojan horse for freedom. I'm going to read some of it. The Trojan horse has been popularized in computer science as a malicious program disguised as a helpful update. But it is also an effective metaphor for how Bitcoin stealthly co-ops actors who do not care about or do not like freedom to promote it anyway. The meme begins with wealthy individuals, corporations, and soon governments. Alex was right. This was written in 2021. Look at where we are now in 2024, which see Bitcoin as glittering digital gold. Out of self-preservation, right, circumvent U.S. sanctions and greed, they're incentivized to buy mine or one day tax this new prize to accumulate the soundest money and gain advantage over their rivals.

Starting point is 00:31:31 Bitcoin does, after all, on its exterior, look very appealing. It is the best performing financial. financial asset in the world over the past 12 years. It goes on to say, but Bitcoin is not just number go up technology. Hidden behind the eye-popping gains is a powerful freedom go-up technology, that it's in new adopters are knowingly or not pushing forward. Now, I think here's the key phrase of this entire article, and I think a lot of totalitarian countries don't understand this. number go-up technology and freedom-go-up technology are inextricable, meaning you cannot disconnect to, hence why the article is called Bitcoin is a Trojan Horse for Freedom. And that is exactly what I think is happening in Putin's Russia as they try to separate the freedom from the NGU,

Starting point is 00:32:29 which is, you know, it's glorious to see. They're like flip-flopping on everything. They're like, it's good, it's banned, it's not banned, it's good. It's actually international transactions. No, you have to get a license. It's great to see this. But at the end of the day, ultimately, Bitcoiners are going to win. They let the Trojan horse inside of Russia, and we'll see what happens.

Starting point is 00:32:49 Yeah. Yeah, it's so right. Like, this is the exact type of behavior you'd get out of, you know, totalitarians trying to control something and let it only benefit them but not their constituents, right? Like it's the fact that you can't ban that. And then they ban that. And then they're trying to say that it's to protect like the grid and certain energy conservation in certain areas,

Starting point is 00:33:20 as if they don't understand that Bitcoin is a grid balancer in practice. Right. And all they would need is like just basic outlines with contracts that they take from local energy providers. They know that. Of course they know that. And so to me, it seems like a given

Starting point is 00:33:40 that they're basically just trying to prevent competition while they as a nation state actually do mine and just just take, you know, try and stack so many sats through that as possible. But that's my take on it. And I can't wait to see more flailing. I think the more flailing we see

Starting point is 00:33:59 and the more narratives and actions that completely conflict with one another, the more we're going to know that we're winning. Even though it'll seem very chaotic, it's a sign that they don't know how to handle this and that they can't contain it. 100%. Yeah, 100%. I think.

Starting point is 00:34:18 And again, I think it's going to show, because I think I forget who said this, but it was so spot on. I believe it was booth. But no, no, no, no. It was from the sovereign individual. Okay. So essentially what people have to understand is that like we have this, this site of government that is all powerful, right?

Starting point is 00:34:43 That you believe the government is, first of all, legitimate. It's powerful. It essentially has the monopoly on violence. Therefore, you know, you either do what they say or, you know, suffer the consequences. but what happens when that veneer, what happens when the curtain gets pulled, and you realize that it's not so powerful. And what reminds me of is when the Canadian trucker's protest happened,

Starting point is 00:35:12 and Ben, you were a part of that. The response from Nunchuk was phenomenal. It was basically, Nunchuk, for anyone who doesn't know, got like subpoenaed. I don't know what the Canadian equivalent of that word is. But essentially they got like, requested by law enforcement in Canada. And they're like, yo, hand over the keys from the Canadian truckers.

Starting point is 00:35:33 And Nunchuk was like, look, we couldn't even do that if we wanted to. But when you eventually go bankrupt, we'll be here to serve you too. And there was nothing they could do, right? And this is like the power of cryptography. This is the whole theory behind the book to sovereign individual when they make, they make the case that the theory of violence is going to completely change with the adoption of information technologies, first being the internet, now being Bitcoin. And, you know, we're seeing this and we're seeing this starting to happen worldwide. And it's, and it's a great awakening for the

Starting point is 00:36:15 human race to really wake up and realize like, look, if I take self-custody, if I write down these 24 words and I do it properly, theoretically, I could take this to my great. if I wanted to, right? And no one will touch it. Yeah. It's an amazing thing. It takes the ability to take the fruits of your labor and store them in one of the most secure possible ways. Like you said, to the point where you could secure them against anybody ever using those funds in perpetuity for the rest of time. That's unbelievable. Absolutely. 100% agree.

Starting point is 00:36:57 All right. Moving on to the next bit. Of course, we have the Orange Man. And the Orange Man is still, you know, he's still talking about Bitcoin, right? He wished Bitcoin happy birthday. He took credit for 100K Bitcoin. Here's a Forbes article basically saying, you know, tipping point crypto braced for 280 trillion price Bitcoin reserve after Trump picks.

Starting point is 00:37:24 And of course, it's talking about all the pro Bitcoin slash crypto people that are going to be part of his administration. We played you guys the video of Anthony Scaramucci in the beginning saying that, look, there's a high probability of this happens. You know, the betting odds give it almost a 25% chance. It reached a high of 40. It reached a high of 45% at one point. And now it's currently sitting at 24. But yeah, I mean, it's still on his mind. This is, he was giving a speech.

Starting point is 00:37:59 This was after, by the way, he won election. So he didn't, you need to pander to anyone at this point. He was already, you know, elected. And let's check out what he has to say. We're going to stop. Woke. Woke is bullshit. I thought that was the clip of Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:38:22 But point, point. Great clip, though. still a whole area's clip point stands but anyways in somewhere in this speech and which i totally mixed up uh opti um we i'll he mentioned bitcoin by name at this uh campaign rally which was uh which was again he doesn't need to say this anymore he's already president uh he doesn't need to pander to uh voters he already won the election which i think was interesting how much time we got left we got enough for one more story okay um the next uh bit is uh uh Again, not a coincidence that both these things are happening.

Starting point is 00:39:00 There was two rules that were happening in the United States. One was that every small business, doesn't matter how small you were, you had to register with the FinCent. That got reversed by a court. Also, in today's news, which Ben, we covered this on last week's episode, the IRS delays its Bitcoin cost-bating reporting rules. This was, for anyone who watched last week's show, we went through a thread, and it basically basically explain that you have to take screenshots of your Bitcoin balances, consolidate them into one UTXO, and then send those screenshots to the IRS, as well as exchange balances, right? And the deadline for that was December 31st, 2024. Coincidentally, I actually

Starting point is 00:39:46 wrote a tweet about this. I love how the IRS delayed the new Bitcoin tax reporting rules just two days after the supposed December 31st deadline. Imagine all the people, including myself, who scrambled to ensure compliance, must be a coincidence, of course. So imagine all the people, they got roped in to send them screenshots of their Bitcoin consolidating this, and they knew, what do they know, that Trump is going to be sworn in in 18 days?

Starting point is 00:40:17 Dude, like, that's not a coincidence, bro. That was by design. So, yeah, I mean, absolutely insane. But two big victories. You don't have to register with the FinCEN if you're a small business. And with the IRS, they delayed it a year. My, what I anticipate, Trump's going to strike that down completely. And he has the power to do so as being part of the executive branch.

Starting point is 00:40:43 The executive branch controls the IRS. It controls the FBI, controls the CIA. So he has total authority to do so. But it's interesting how they try to pull a fast one, you know, right before, you know, Trump getting into office, right? Yeah. Yeah. And of course, yeah, like you said, of course they're going to try and pull some BS right before that. And it's also worrisome in that, you know, he gets, he gets a term.

Starting point is 00:41:10 Who knows who gets in next election. They were just information fishing for when their next guy gets in or when, you know, should they need the. information. Scary. That sucks. But yeah, let's hope this next four years, there's less of that bullshit. Yeah, if you don't mind, Ben, pull up that comment. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:41:35 Yeah. I spent one case scrambling to purchase the right software and get my CPA on call to ensure I was in compliance. IRS is a scam. Yeah, isn't that the story of the center? country, right? It's, and they did it all on, it was by design. It was like 31st, you know, because that's the end of the taxi or two days later.

Starting point is 00:41:59 They're like, yeah, probably Trump's going to strike this down. We're going to delay it a year. Like, that is some political maneuvering bull. You know what I'm going to say. Anyways, this was your simply sessions. Ben, I will see you next week. Hell yeah. See you later, man.

Starting point is 00:42:15 And everybody, make sure you give a follow to simply. Bitcoin on YouTube as well. And on Twitter or on X, they just had 100,000 followers on X. So congrats to the Simply team. We are still going. We have some quick tech updates to let you know about some really, really cool and interesting stuff that you're going to want to know

Starting point is 00:42:39 in and around wallets and multi-sig that are brand, brand new that are just kind of coming around the corner. We're going to give a quick shout out to, our remaining show sponsors, and then we're going to give away some sats before we do that. So get those lightning wallets ready one more time, and we'll be right back. Debify is the best and easiest way to borrow against your Bitcoin in a non-custodial way. Funds are held in a multi-sig escrow where you hold a key, and the platform allows for excellent hardware like the cold card Mark 4 and the Q.

Starting point is 00:43:18 You have access to flexible conditions, the best rates, and institutional grade liquidity. If you're looking to make use of your capital, don't sell your Bitcoin, borrow against it. You can head over to debify.com to check them out, or simply scan the QR code on the screen. Speed wallet is the easiest to set up and use Bitcoin wallet out there. When you sign up, you can, of course, buy Bitcoin within the app.

Starting point is 00:43:45 You can send and receive Bitcoin transactions via the Lightning Network, and you can also send, receive, hold, and swap between stable, aka EUSDT via the Lightning Network. They baked in a ton of other great features as well where you're able to earn Bitcoin. This can include referring your friends, shopping your favorite gift cards, or playing fun games via the Speed Arcade. I encourage you to sign up today. There's a QR code on the screen to do so, or you can hit the link in the show notes down

Starting point is 00:44:15 below. And when you do, you will earn 5,000 sats as you create your first app. All right, we're back in. are going to of course give away a few more sats here so let me just pull up my screen and grab bitcoin well so again we're back on the dashboard we're going to toss another coin in the well whoever scans the QR code on the left when it pops up first we'll get the sats so we'll hit redeem off goes the coin into the well get your lightning wall it's ready whoever gets it first takes it 210 sats again uh congratulations

Starting point is 00:44:55 to whoever snags those sats. And that's not the only way that you can get some free Bitcoin. Of course, we're steadily in a bull run here. It's been an exciting 2024. It's going to be a more exciting 2025, it feels like. So you can become an affiliate of a Bitcoin mentor. This is my educational company where you can book one-on-one educational sessions with my team of...

Starting point is 00:45:25 incredible, incredibly knowledgeable Bitcoiners that I've aggregated here. So again, if you feel like you need some additional knowledge, some help with wallets or multi-sig or hardware or nodes or whatever it may be, you can reach out over at Bitcoin mentor.io. But more importantly, if you feel that you're going to have a lot of friends, family, or acquaintances asking for advice on Bitcoin and you may not have either the skills or the time to be doing so, but you would like to point them in the right direction. You can scan the QR code on the right of the screen,

Starting point is 00:45:59 sign up to be an affiliate of Bitcoin Mentor. You'll get your own special link. You can simply put that in your social media profiles. You can send that to anybody that comes your way asking. And every time that they sign up for a session with us, you earn $21 worth of Bitcoin to be paid. out at the end of each month. And that's not just for their first session. It's for every single session the person books. So for instance, if somebody books 10 sessions with us, you make $210.

Starting point is 00:46:32 So encourage you to scan that QR code and get yourself a link. And you can passively stack sats while new Bitcoiners stack up some skills. But with that, we're going to move on to some quick tech updates here. First thing I wanted to highlight was this, the Bull Bitcoin Wallet, version 0.4.0. And the title here, serverless, asynchronous pay join V2, send and receive. What in the sweet lord does that mean? Let's describe. So I'll read a little bit here and then I'll fill in the blanks for you guys. The Bull Bitcoin Wallet has made a notable advancement by becoming the first end user mobile mobile wallet available on the Google Play Store to adopt BIP 77 pay join V2 protocol. Thanks to the efforts of the pay join DevKit team, let there be lightning team and the

Starting point is 00:47:29 Bull Bitcoin team. Quote, Bull Bitcoin becomes the first mobile wallet that allows you to send and receive asynchronous pay join transactions without needing to run their own server using BIP 77. The wallet has introduced asynchronous pay join payments, allowing transactions to be paused until both the sender and receiver are online. It enables the mobile phone to be turned off during the payment process, seamlessly resuming the pay join session once the recipient's device is powered back on. This enhancement marks a major improvement in the user experience for pay join transactions.

Starting point is 00:48:03 Pay join enhances privacy by breaking common input ownership assumptions, benefiting all network users. This collaborative protocol also opens up new opportunities for the Lightning Network, channel creation and unlocks transaction batching efficiencies. We would like to thank the HRF, Human Rights Foundation, for allocating a generous bounty for the development of serverless pay join protocol and its implementation in a mobile Bitcoin wallet, as well as OpenSats and spirals for supporting the work of pay join DevKit, which made this all possible.

Starting point is 00:48:37 Again, to receive pay join payments in bold Bitcoin wallet, hit the receive tab using the Bitcoin network will you'll find a pay join invoice share this invoice or display the QR code to the payer the sender can choose whether to use pay join if their wallet supports it to send payments via pay join paste the receiver's invoice or scan the QR code into the bull bitcoin wallet if you prefer not to use pay join off the pay join toggle in the app according to dan gold he's a pay join developer, the implementation is backwards compatible with version one in Blue Wallet, Sparrow, BTC Pay Server, and other wallets. So if you're not quite following, effectively what this does is within the Bull Bitcoin

Starting point is 00:49:21 wallet for now and hopefully more to join in soon, this allows you to do a regular transaction to somebody which becomes a coin join between you and the individual, which mass. not only the amount sent, but who the sender and receiver even was. So what it looks like is there are different pieces of Bitcoin that all kind of combine into one, and then it splits it into two equal amounts and then two random change amounts. And there's no indication how much was actually sent and how much was actually received. and the receiver actually adds Bitcoin into the transaction to help obfuscate that. So in the end, it's just a confusing mess of a transaction where nobody can actually say what was spent

Starting point is 00:50:20 and who was spending it versus who was receiving it. So really, really cool. The problem with it before was that you would get in a situation where if the other person is offline, it's just not possible. You both had to be offline online at the same time. This fixes that. You can send the transaction to the person in question. Then the next time they're online, they will contribute to the transaction and it will complete, which is awesome.

Starting point is 00:50:48 So I'm very excited to see this development. This is such a cool thing. And it's going to continue to get easier and easier as time goes on. And with the way that these transactions are structured and with the introduction of something called schnor signatures over time. It could make it so that transactions like these, which preserve even more privacy, are actually preferable and lower in fees.

Starting point is 00:51:17 So that's super cool. Anyways, hats off. Hats off to the Bull Bitcoin team. And Dan Gold over at Pay Join, as well as lightly, what was the team there? Anyways, I'm missing them there, but all the people involved in putting this together, hats off to you.

Starting point is 00:51:39 I did want to say I dropped a new video just a few days ago here. It is my favorite, not just wallets and hardware, but general Bitcoin tools for 2025. So I basically outlined all of my favorite stuff right now that I am constantly using and are integral to my setup. So I highly encourage you check that out. You can just find it on the channel. It's the most recent tutorial that I put out. So it should be right in the list there. But yeah, go check it out.

Starting point is 00:52:14 And, yeah, you know, everybody's going to have their own preferences for tools. But these are mine. And this is what I really love. So, yeah, check it out. If you're unfamiliar with any of the things, I link to tutorials on literally every single thing that I mention in that video. Now, I wanted to bring attention to Anchor Watch here. This is something that I've, you know, I've been familiar with, but they just before the end of the year went live with their offering.

Starting point is 00:52:48 And Anchor Watch is they are using multisig, but they're doing it with miniscript. And there's other solutions that are doing this as well. But these guys have a very, very interesting offering. And right now, I believe it's only available to like bigger institutions, things like that. But I wanted to outline what they're doing so that you guys have an indication of where this stuff is heading over time. So what a multi-sig is basically is a regular Bitcoin wallet is you have a digital vault. You have one key. and your key can open the vault so you can remove money.

Starting point is 00:53:29 A multi-sig is you have a digital vault. It has many keyholes, and you require at least a few of those keys to be used simultaneously to open it. So you have three keyholes. You require two to open the vault. So that would be a two of three multi-sig. With Mnisccript, you can get very, very granular and specific with how that functions so you can do all these crazy configurations,

Starting point is 00:53:56 which really, really help in the ability to set things the way you like them, but also have them become easier over time. So if you screw up and start losing things, then you can gradually require less things to unlock the money. And so I'm going to describe my best go of how Anchor Watch will currently work with their first offering. You as a user have a two of three multisig. Anchor watch as an entity has a two of three multisig, a separate one. The two of the you and Anchor Watch together must both successfully use a two of three multi-sig

Starting point is 00:54:43 to combine to unlock funds and move them. However, after six months, your two of three multi-sig, is degraded to a one of three multi-sig, meaning if you start losing a bunch of stuff, you can just have one of your keys and then combined with Anchor Watch, you can unlock your funds. And then after another five months,

Starting point is 00:55:10 so 11 months in total, there becomes an opportunity where Anchor Watch and an impartial third party can combine their two of three multi-sig and this other two of three multi-sig that was invalid up until this time to together move funds for you in the event that you have lost everything

Starting point is 00:55:34 or in the event that your funds need to be bestowed upon perhaps somebody that you're passing on an inheritance to. So you have, and in all of that, even at the end there, you still have the ability to use the previous configurations beyond that. It's not like your keys are no longer valid. They still are.

Starting point is 00:56:02 But if you start losing things, it can get to that endpoint. And then finally, the crazy thing about this is that they've gone through and done all of this work to get it to the point where this can actually be insured. So I think the way that they have it right now is you can be insured. to the point where if for some reason something went sideways in there and there was a loss of funds, 90% of them would be covered by insurance or maybe 75% depending on the policy that you went with. But this just hadn't existed before. So I'm looking at what they're doing with the miniscript here, and it's amazing.

Starting point is 00:56:52 and the fact that they've paired that with insurance is very compelling. And I think that this is really, really going to throw a huge wrench. I don't want to say a wrench. Actually, no. It introduces a very, very compelling competitor into the space that is going to force all other multisic providers to step up and add this type of function. and really just I think the amount of

Starting point is 00:57:26 innovation that's about to happen in the multi-six space is insane. This is so cool. So I gotta say hats off to Becca and Rob over at Anchor Watch. Super awesome to see what they're doing. And yeah, best of luck in 2025, guys. You guys have been working hard.

Starting point is 00:57:44 And let's just finish this off with some fun photos from the party, the the sailors new year's eve party uh i again felt very happy to attend it was a hell of a time um i got to see a lot of people that i really really like and enjoy spending time with and so i figured i'd just uh i'd pull up a couple quick shots so you can see this is uh my lovely wife lisa aka mrs sessions and that's as you were walking in uh i of course ran into pierre and morgan richard dj val tomer stralite

Starting point is 00:58:21 We've got the one, the only Canute's fan home there. Afrat Fenningsen, she is awesome. I also ran into the guy who's read the most about Bitcoin, the guy you know who's read the most about Bitcoin, Guy Swan. Punter Jeff and Samson Mao ran into Pete McCormick, ran into all of these. And speaking of Anchor Watch, there's the team right there, Rebecca and Rob. Of course, Danny Knowles, who's now what Bitcoin did, along there with Michael

Starting point is 00:58:57 Saylor himself, Carlin Walker and Samson again, also got to run into American Hoddle and Ali from Tahini's, the wonderful and lovely Daniel Prince and his wife Claire, as well as Val again. And of course, I got to meet Ross Stevens. If you haven't seen him talk, he's just so. so, so good. And he doesn't do a lot of interviews, but he should. And then, of course, there's me and Nico sharing a cigar. And then this guy, T.J. Miller of, of, well, I mean, he was, he was Weasel in Deadpool one and two. And he was also on Silicon Valley. But funny guy actually knows his shit. We got talking about stuff, and he knows what's up when it comes to Bitcoin. I was quite impressed with him.

Starting point is 00:59:55 He's coming to Calgary. He's doing his comedy tour right now, so I think I'm going to give him a little visit when he's in town. But super nice dude. Had a good chat, and he was nothing but gracious all night. So awesome, awesome chatting with him. Had a lot of fun. Anyways, enough of that, I just wanted to kind of let, give a little hat tip to everybody that I got to see and spend time with.

Starting point is 01:00:23 It was a wonderful evening. Really enjoyed it. I was able to duck, dodge, and weave around some of the, you know, little bits of riffraff that were there. And regardless, it was a, it was a fantastic night. So, but with that, I'm going to round out here again. Thank you guys so much for being here. Of course, if you want to help the show, like, subscribe, and share. I loved having you guys in the chat today.

Starting point is 01:00:53 It was popping today. Thank you guys for being a part of it. Of course, hit the previously mentioned sponsors in these show notes down below. They're all there for you to check out. And of course, with this bull market on the run, you can scan that QR code. You can sign up to become an affiliate of Bitcoin Mentor. And you can put your specialized link into your social profiles. and share it with whoever you need to help them on their Bitcoin journey.

Starting point is 01:01:19 And you can earn Bitcoin in the process. With that, I am out. Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening, wherever you may be. And we'll see you guys next time for your daily session. Hottle the Bitcoin.

BTC Sessions - BREAKING: IRS Changes Tax and Accounting Rules for Bitcoin! ep464

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