BTC Sessions - NEW: Central Banks Just Revealed SHOCKING Move Into Bitcoin! ep434

Starting point is 00:00:30 What's going on? Everybody, welcome to this show. Another Thursday, another episode of Simply Sessions. I'm still on the road. August is not yet finished. So I've been out and about with the family and, of course, doing a little trip over to Rika coming up here. But we're still here bringing you the news. And of course, Nico's waiting in the wings to give us the latest and greatest in what's been going on in Bitcoin. Of course, this is live. Anything can happen. So I defer to. my good friend Bill here. We'll do it live. Do it live. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:21 I am Ben with the BTC sessions. This is your Simply session. Before we bring in Niga, let's take a quick look at where we are in the market right now. This is timechain calendar.com. And we are currently sitting at $57,566. Dollars per coin, a single US dollar will snag you, 1,737 SATs in terms of fees. Seven stats per byte for next block,

Starting point is 00:02:03 four stats per byte anytime. And we're currently in terms of Bitcoin mine, 19.74 million, which is 94% of the total 21 million supply. We're gonna give a quick shout out to our sponsors. And then we will dive right in. We'll see you in just a moment. On a mission to enable independence by being one of the easiest and quickest ways to purchase Bitcoin in Canada and the U.S.

Starting point is 00:02:30 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. There's a transparent 1% spread, no hidden fees, no withdrawal fees. Plus, they have KYC free sales and bill payments on. their website. They're also a publicly traded company under the ticker BTCW on the TSXV. Check them out over at Bitcoinwell.com. Check out my full tutorial on how to use them. And you can check out the links in these show notes down below and sign up today. Mobile Bitcoin application for managing

Starting point is 00:03:06 and securing your funds for the long term. You can set up hot wallets for day-to-day spending or create digital vaults for deep cold storage. They also offer assisted multi-sig options as well as inheritance planning. And on top of that, Keeper boasts a long list of support for Bitcoin hardware, longer than I've seen for any other mobile application. You can check them out today by searching Bitcoin Keeper in your app store or heading to Bitcoinkeeper.com. All right, we are back in and let's get Nico up here with me. Yo, how you doing, man? Yeah, man, crazy week. Crazy, crazy week. There's never a dull week in Bitcoin, man. So I'm doing good. another day working in the industry can't complain I'm alive my daughter's six months old

Starting point is 00:03:56 six months man holy I know time flies time flies by the way her first trip was to Canada north of the wall you made it over the ice wall you got back unscathed mostly other than a bunch of flight delays that was a rough one for you but you made it yeah it was a lot of fun had a great time and I just got to say for anyone who hasn't been to the national parks in Canada, that's where Disneyland gets their inspiration. Because it's just beautiful. It's set up really nice. It's a very pleasant experience overall.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Pretty wild. We're both celebrating some milestones today, by the way. You've got six-month-olds now. And Mrs. Sessions, it is her birthday today. So we've been we rented a jet ski and we've been ripping around all morning. So I'm a little crispy from the sun, but it's it's been fun. Nico's backstage was like Adam, like Adam Bitcoin well. Adam says he can't get tanned.

Starting point is 00:05:01 He just like gets red and then his skin flakes away. Yeah, that's a thing. Is that a thing? Yeah. Yes, us white people from Canada are incapable of sunshine. It's it that is so like obviously you guys know my complexion but like if I go in I don't go on the sun off But if I go in the sun I get just very very dark. Yeah, it's strange strange we don't I don't get too much of that Yeah, I know but you know this what it is so we're bad so what's what's going on what's what's top of mind this week? What's new?

Starting point is 00:05:36 Someone in the comments fixed it there dude dude this looks like some kind of liberal will cook fast eat a steak and David D, I'm going to retouch my tips just for that comment, bro. Thanks, David. I'm going to, I'm going to, just because of that comment, I'm going to wear this hairstyle for fucking ever and never change it. And then I'm going to start eating bugs. Exactly. So, dude, historic moment.

Starting point is 00:06:06 One of the themes that we talk about on Simply Sessions is the, like how the internet is disintermediating thing. So it's obviously disintermediating information, allowing mass scale, kind of peer-to-peer communication. And you're seeing essentially the new form of media, independent media, via social media platforms, overtake legacy media. And there's a couple implications for that. Implication number one is it's a lot difficult for governments to control the official narrative if there's millions upon millions of people discussing freely amongst each other via the internet. And problem number two is it allows, for example, people that you might not necessarily agree with, I'll be the first person to say that, you know, Donald Trump is potentially a divisive

Starting point is 00:07:03 figure to some people. It allows them to speak directly to their audience. And what happened on Monday, 8 p.m. was just another kind of historic moment in Bitcoin's history. So, I mean, not Bitcoin's history, the Internet's history, better said. So what happened? So Elon and Trump had an interview. It garnered one billion views. That's like one eighth of the planet. For the first 30 minutes of the interview hosted on Twitter spaces,

Starting point is 00:07:35 they DDoS attacked the spaces and he wasn't able to host the conversation. Now, this always reminds me of this article that we reference a lot by Naim Bukele. Nain Bukele initially wrote this article as it relates to the Bitcoin law, but a lot of the things that he's saying here, I think perfectly apply to why the legacy media

Starting point is 00:08:00 and honestly, some members of the European government even actually wrote a letter to Elon Musk asking him not to host the interview. Think about how crazy that is for a second. Whatever you think of Trump, half the country likes him and wants to put him in office. And here you have the European Union asking an American company not to host an interview with a potential U.S. president. That is insane. That is insanity.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Now, you have to ask yourself, why is this happening? And again, this is where the Naim Bukele article just holds true. It says, at the very bottom, they're willing to fight, lie, smear, destroy, sensor, confiscate, print, and do whatever it takes to maintain and increase their control over the truth and everything and everyone. And that's really what it's about. That's really why they're freaking out. and here's some graphics here of CNN.com over the years and CNBC, they continue to just lose traffic. Elon says citizen journalism from actual domain experts and people actually on the ground is much faster and more accurate

Starting point is 00:09:17 and has less bias than the legacy media. Here is the legacy media's response, you know, and this is how you know you're winning, to the article. Here's a great comment as well, right? The number one, news app and take a look at all these countries where Twitter is just the number one news app. So people aren't going to traditional media sources. They're going straight to Twitter and they want to do their own research. They want to hear it from other people. So just these reactions are insane. First up, USA Today, Trump rambles slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster. Fox News. Kamala Harris campaign criticizes Trump for serving self-obsessed rich guys

Starting point is 00:10:04 after interview with Elon Musk. Newsweek says Donald Trump's Lisp during Elon Musk interview raises questions. The Guardian says, so Donald chatted with Elon and here's the future as they see it. Losers win incompetence rules. New York Times.

Starting point is 00:10:22 Musk's talk on X after glitchy start, a two-hour ramble. The Guardian, the Musk-Trump X interview, a surprisingly dull meeting of two planet-sized egos. So you guys get the general just, it just keeps going. It's like Reuters, CNN, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Financial Times. Now, I got to say, whatever you feel about the guys, you might not like Elon, you might not like Trump, right?

Starting point is 00:10:50 But none of those articles address the actual substance of the interview. All they did was just like, don't even bother read, don't even bother listening. to it. It was just, it was, it was, it's just annoying. It was useless. I got to say, I listened to the entire thing. Um, you know, there's some moments that it was quite dull. There's some moments that Trump did Trump. There's some moments that Elon did Elon. But overall, I thought it was a great conversation because it felt like a phone call. You know, it's like as if Trump and Elon just had a phone call. And like, those are some of the most influential, powerful people in the world. And they just kept talking about certain subjects. Now, this is a Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:11:29 show after all. So I think it's important to address the Bitcoin topic. But before I get to that, take a look at this. Here is a legacy media journalist actually asking the White House press secretary if they could somehow stop this interview from happening. Elon Musk is slated to interview Donald Trump tonight on X. I don't know if the president's feel free to say if he is or not. But I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue. It's an America issue. What role does the White House or the President have in sort of stopping that or stopping the spread of that or sort of intervening in that?

Starting point is 00:12:23 Some of that was about campaign misinformation, but, you know, it's a wider thing, right? Yeah, no, and you've heard us talk about this many times from here. about the responsibilities that social media platforms have when it comes to misinformation disinformation. I don't have anything to read out from here about specific ways that we're working on it but we believe that that they have the responsibility. These are private companies so we're also mindful of that too. But look it is I think it is incredibly important to call that out as you are you're doing i just don't have any specifics on on that is nuts that is crazy could never could i've

Starting point is 00:13:04 imagined that a million years you have a journalist asking the white house if they have any plans to censor an interview with the leading political opponent that is absolutely insane and last bit because this is like i get like i said a bitcoin show um let's talk about the elephant in the room which i think is the most important part here, they did talk about inflation. And in regards to moving the Overton window, it's incredibly important to bring up these types of topics. You want to know why they want to censor this type of stuff is because they were talking about these certain types of topics. And this is something that the Kamala campaign, I mean, the Kamala campaign and the Biden administration have just been absolutely gaslighting the American people on. So let's check out this clip.

Starting point is 00:13:55 As you're saying, a lot of people are concerned about the economy, a lot of people concerned about inflation. And inflation is effectively a tax on people that save money and for people that are working day to day. It's just a form of taxation. And if we can solve the government spending problem, we'll solve the inflation problem, which means people will have a better standard of living. And that's a really big deal. Well, the people that got hurt worse are the people that did it the way they were taught to do it all through you know, their younger life and their young life and their whole life. The people that saved money

Starting point is 00:14:31 and then they got no interest on their money and inflation destroyed them. And frankly, they were almost better off if they didn't do anything like that. I mean, those people have been absolutely decimated and we're going to bring those people back and help those people. We've got to get the prices down. Okay. They just, you know, get sent into like the political rhetoric. And essentially, this is the issue and this is what I want, I guess, people to take. take away from this, which is the way that you solve inflation is, yeah, maybe you get Elon in there and you get Elon on the government efficiency committee and you get Trump in there. But that doesn't solve the root problem.

Starting point is 00:15:12 The root problem is trusting that the government won't overspend. Bitcoin fixes this because there is no trust. It's absolute scarcity, right? There's $21 million. You can't move the supply. Bitcoin is a solution. to inflation. So anyways, I kind of want to cover that. I think it was a historic moment in the history of the internet. It broke the internet and just the reaction from the legacy media

Starting point is 00:15:36 tells me that a lot of the things that were discussed during that phone call or interview were right over to the target. It's almost like it reminds me a lot of how they reacted when El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender. Yeah, again, this is, it's absolutely wild. Number one, numbers insane insane a billion people one eighth of the planet that's crazy secondly again the the reaction and the people that the same people that come and say oh it was like useless and it was a ramble and there's no no substance or anything like that are the same people trying to prevent the conversation from happening and so like either it's it's you got to kind of pick a lane here like either it's a useless ramble that was of no substance whatsoever or something of substance was spoken about

Starting point is 00:16:32 and you're really worried about people hearing that conversation. You know, you can't really say that something was useless and I'm worried about people hearing it. And so it's it's I mean, it's par for the course for the time that we're living in, right? It's very much nobody on either side, it's just kind of more dependent on who happens to be in power politically at the time. But, you know, like in another world where, you know, in this time, the Republicans had both control of the government and were in favor with a lot of the country, at least like we're buddy, buddy with the legacy system up to this point. then the inverse would be happening as well. So again, I think it's trying to reduce that influence and allow people to go about finding information on their own

Starting point is 00:17:35 and how to discern that. I think we've been babysat for so long that people have a difficult time sorting through information and coming to conclusions on their own. They want to be told because that's what has happened pretty much until we had the internet. and humanity is still very much grappling with the fact that you have instant global communication everywhere the second something happens.

Starting point is 00:18:00 And so people are learning how to navigate the flow of information and figure out what's real and what's not. I won't say that we're great at it yet, but it'll come as long as we don't get censored by these people that don't want conversations to happen. for sure 100% man it's uh and and i got to say like you know like this is where nostir kind of functions as like the alamo right uh like Elon is like you know playing in the analog world and he's trying to hold it strong but like you know like eventually it could be co-opted you know something twitter could be bought again and then we'll go back to twitter 1.0 and then we're back in the

Starting point is 00:18:50 censorship route where, you know, in Nostor, it's, you just can't de-platform anyone, period. So if you can't de-platform anyone, period, like, it forces you to respond to what they're saying, right? And, you know, it's, it's just a kind of like a really interesting moment in history. And what I'm really excited about is, like, the next stage, which is the disintermediation of money, which I think is going to be even, like, the ramifications of that are going to be even greater than what has happened on what has happened with with information so far. Anyways, in other news, Max Kaiser went on Alex Jones show.

Starting point is 00:19:31 But before I get to it, kind of want to talk about like the human condition and the hierarchy of needs and love this pyramid. The bottom, it's physiological. So it's like food, sleep, you know, basic stuff, safety, belonging, social connection, esteem, self-actualization. I think what Bitcoin allows you to do, it allows you to get to the top. And the reason for that is I think most people are down here in regards to the pyramid. Why?

Starting point is 00:20:01 Because they're living paycheck to paycheck. So instead of going to this one, let's go and focus on the hierarchy of financial needs because you can't really get up here if your financial needs are not met. all you're doing is you're spending time focusing on, you know, just making Ed's meat, putting food on the table, housing, transportation, daily expenses, you know, emergency funds. And here's some statistics, right? Only 29% of Americans over 50 feel very prepared for retirement. Just 47% of adults would have enough savings to cover three months of expenses. So most people, they're experiencing this type of reality.

Starting point is 00:20:51 Cash flow and basic needs, and they could barely, look at the number here. They can even barely break into the financial safety aspect. So they're still here. So they're literally just treading water and that will never allow you to gain self-esteem. That will never allow you to belong and have social connection.

Starting point is 00:21:12 And that won't allow you for self-actualization, which is like legacy. financial freedom, thinking about your children's future, right? What Bitcoin allows you to do is it starts to allow you to think about the future. Now, why am I saying all this? I'm giving context to the Kaiser clip because the Kaiser clip is phenomenal. Talking about moving the Overton window. He goes on Alex Jones show, which has been brought out of the shadows since Elon led him back on X.

Starting point is 00:21:42 He's like one of the most popular broadcasters on there. Again, he's quite a divisive figure and he says some interesting things, but I'm going to focus on what Max is saying, not what Alex is saying. But take a look at the truth bombs that Kaiser dropped this video. It's about a two minute and 30 second clip. Let me put it at 1.25. Here we go. Bitcoin, the economy, what are you betting on? Any other key points you wish you would have added after you leave? Well, everything goes to zero against Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:22:14 What do I mean by that? I mean that in terms of purchasing power. So your purchasing power of your dollar, obviously, is going to go down versus Bitcoin. But your purchasing power in terms of gold, property, fine art, your business, stocks, bonds, everything. The purchasing power of everything relative to Bitcoin is going to go down. Because it's only a $1.2 trillion asset in the world of $400 trillion worth of financialized assets. And just like software ate the world during the 70s and 80s. And every company in the world became essentially a software company.

Starting point is 00:22:41 You know, car companies are a software company. Airlines are a software company. All value will become priced in Bitcoin. Everything will be priced in Bitcoin, particularly energy. I would say the next big prediction, I'll make a prediction here, is that within 24 months, all the major global energy contracts will be priced in Bitcoin, not dollars. And that will be the end of the Fiat Money world, as we know it officially, in the beginning of the Bitcoin epoch.

Starting point is 00:23:03 What comes after Bitcoin? Well, what comes after it is the demonetization of violence and the monetization of love. Not to get too freaking over-the-top crazy, Alex, but I really do liken it to like a Christ 2.0. It's a story about love where if you cannot steal somebody's wealth through violence because Bitcoin is unconfiscatable, you can only approach people within the intention of fair trade. And that demonetizes violence and the profound quality of this is what happened in El Salvador.

Starting point is 00:23:32 They made Bitcoin legal tender. And within three months, the president put 70,000 gangsters in jail because Bitcoin makes you think differently. You know, you don't change Bitcoin. Bitcoin changes you. And this is what the world has on the other side of this, Fiat money collapse, if we get there. If we survive the next 24 months and the Fiat money

Starting point is 00:23:48 collapse, we will wake up as a global Bitcoin standard and a moment of Christ-like universal love. If we can get there. We've got to get through the next 24 months. We've got to get Trump in office. We have to defeat the global bankers. So Max Kaiser absolutely dropping the bombs. And I love the word love.

Starting point is 00:24:05 I love that he's using that. And I agree. You demonetize violence. You make the ROI on violence doesn't make sense with unconfiscated wealth and all of a sudden the only way to transact with people is through fair transactions and all of a sudden people are going to be able to save for a future and all of a sudden if they're able to save for the future they start thinking long term they have hope for the future and you

Starting point is 00:24:32 compare that it's a very big contrast with how the world works today where the majority of the world is living on this nihilistic fiat mindset that enables violence if anything um If, you know, not to be any like doom gloomer, but like, you know, what's going to happen in the next 12, 24 months, Max? That's exactly what I'm thinking. It doesn't sound very reassuring. Yeah. Yeah, again, like is the general premise here I very much agree with, right? Like it's it it takes a world where, you know, even when it comes to like global conflict and war,

Starting point is 00:25:15 It's very difficult to, you know, when the ultimate resource is this monetary network that is very easily secured and very, very difficult to take away people's funds, it disincentivizes a currency ruled by violence. And as he said, it very much harkens in a new era of fair to. trade and mutual respect, right? Like, you know, you, even if you have disagreements with, with different groups or whatever, you know, if there's an economic benefit to dealing with each other, it's far better to do that than to have physical conflict. And so I do hope we see more of that as we lean towards a Bitcoin standard. It's not that there won't be conflict. in terms of disagreement. But I think that violence can be heavily reduced,

Starting point is 00:26:23 like global violence can be heavily reduced on that. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that timeline, though, 24 months in all energy markets, price in Bitcoin, that'd be sweet. I think it might take a few additional months on top of that, perhaps. Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. But in terms of moving the Overton window, going on the Alex Jones show, dropping those Bitcoin truth bombs to an audience that's like, what the hell is he saying?

Starting point is 00:26:58 It's definitely moving. It's moving the envelope. Like, you know, a small percent, even if it's like one or two percent of that audience and Alex Jones gets millions of views, just asked the question, like, what is he talking about? What is this Bitcoin thing? Like, I bet you new Bitcoiners were minted during that interview. So we need more of that. It's a very positive message, and I think people are open to that now. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:27:24 All right, so moving on to the headline of today's show. The institutions are here. One of the coping mechanisms that we used back in 2018, when the price went from 20K, peaked at 20K in December of 2017, and it went back down to 35. $500 and it took a year to do that. It was extremely painful. One of the coping mechanisms that we used was the institutions are coming. The institutions are coming. Do you remember that, Ben? The ICO age and The institutions are coming. Well, the institutions never came, but they got here and the reason that they got here now is because Daddy Fink, also known as Larry Fink, you know, push through the Bitcoin ETS. you know, kind of strong armed the American government into approving it. And that put a giant stamp

Starting point is 00:28:20 of, you know, approval in the eyes of the institutions or legacy financial institutions because Larry Fink is bullish on Bitcoin. And I'm going to go through like four or five articles. Just going to give you guys a general picture of how bullish this is in terms of the different financial entities that are interested. So first up, we're going to start with Marathon. Marathon's one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners, and they followed the Michael Saylor playbook. They offered a $250 million private note sale to fund Bitcoin mining. It was so successful that they were actually able to sell $300 million worth of notes. Again, using Michael Saylor's infinite money glitch. Once Marathon stopped,

Starting point is 00:29:11 goes up as the price of Bitcoin goes up, you know what they're going to do? Rinse and repeat and continue the so-called speculative attack on the dollar. Next piece of news, Goldman Sachs, one of the most conservative wealth management banks in the United States. For you to be a client of Goldman Sachs wealth management division, you need a minimum of $10 million. Anyways, Goldman Sachs, a major U.S. financial institution, has a major U.S. financial institution, disclosed holding $418 million worth of the Bitcoin ETF, marking a significant step towards

Starting point is 00:29:49 institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. The move has sparked discussions and excitement among crypto enthusiasts and investors, highlighting the growing interest in digital assets from traditional financial players. Other major banks and financial institutions are also reporting increasing their exposure to Bitcoin ETFs. further emphasizing the trend towards cryptocurrency acceptance in the mainstream financial sector. Incredibly bullish. But ladies and gentlemen, it's not only Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan,

Starting point is 00:30:24 report holding Bitcoin ETFs. Even though it's like, you know, just dipping their toes in the water, those are also two major banks in the United States. Also, joining the party, we have two central banks coming out of Europe, the Norwegian Central Bank and the Swiss Central Bank that have gotten indirect exposure to Bitcoin via Micro Strategy. The headline is Central Banks Acquire Microstrategy Stock. Central Banks from Switzerland and Norway have disclosed significant holdings in Microstrategy, a company known for its substantial Bitcoin investments. The Norwegian Central Bank has acquired

Starting point is 00:31:01 1.1 million shares, while the Swiss National Bank has purchased half a million shares. This move is seen as an indirect investment in Bitcoin by these central banks. Additionally, Barclays, the largest bank in the UK, holds over 60 million in micro strategy stock. These investments are viewed as a significant endorsement of Bitcoin by major financial institutions. That's right. Now you have central banks holding or having exposure to Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:31:35 The micro strategy stock performs essentially like a, a leveraged Bitcoin ETF. Let's be real here, right? That's why you buy micro strategy to get exposure to Bitcoin. So the fact that we have Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, the Norwegian Central Bank, the Swiss Central Bank, by the way, is known for its fiscal discipline, I might add. That's massive. But it's not over. We also have the state of Wisconsin Investment Board increase BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holdings. So now you have individual states in the U.S. They're putting part of their, you know, investment funds that they do that for state employees that want to tap into their pension. They say, you know what? Actually, we want even more exposure to Bitcoin. So this is huge, man.

Starting point is 00:32:26 The institutions are here. These are big names. These are big players that are getting involved. They're dipping their toes. They're increasing the size of their holdings. You have central banks. of major wealth management banks, you have retail banks, you have marathon falling in the footsteps of Michael Saylor. Like dude, maybe not bullish for the revolution because the revolution is self-custody, but in terms of price, man, this is a giant stop stamp of approval. Bitcoin isn't going anywhere at this point, in my opinion. Yeah, this is that list that you just read. I'm thinking back to the days, you know, in like 2015, 2014, and it would be like some tiny online shop would start accepting Bitcoin. And it would be like front page Reddit and like it would be losing their minds.

Starting point is 00:33:21 Oh my God. This is like, you know, Jim and Jerry's jelly factory accepts Bitcoin. Adoption is here. And then hearing what you just said there, like how far things have come, how much of the world is waking up to how important this thing is. And whether or not you like some of those entities is completely immaterial because Bitcoin is for everyone. Bitcoin is for friends and enemies. The one thing I'd like to point out there, the one that stood out to me is Norway. because, pardon my French, but what a bunch of fucking hypocrites.

Starting point is 00:34:02 Because those guys over the course of the year were like, oh, we want to ban Bitcoin mining. We want to ban Bitcoin mining. Meanwhile, Central Bank is like, but let's load up on some micro strategy because we need those sweet gains, yo. Like, come on, you guys. Like, yeah. So that's the one that was in my mind. But again, it shows the incentives. Not what, watch.

Starting point is 00:34:25 Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. And they're, you know, they want price exposure to Bitcoin, whether that come through micro strategy or actual Bitcoin. That's what they're doing there. They're not buying micro strategy because they're into tech firms, clearly. Like that's not what Norway's central bank is doing. They're buying micro strategy to get exposure to Bitcoin maybe because they recognize the hypocrisy of the country's stance on Bitcoin mining. and they thought they could slip it under the rug there.

Starting point is 00:35:00 But no, I see you. I see you, Norway. I see what you're doing. You're full of shit. I totally missed that, but you're so right. They totally just met Bitcoin mining. And the central bank's like, you know what? Let's buy some micro-striety.

Starting point is 00:35:15 Oh, man, it's hilarious. It's so funny. Incentives, though. Incentives. It is what it is. It's incentives, man. No one's better than their incentives. Anyways, another news.

Starting point is 00:35:29 Guys, this is an election year. This is a topic that we've been covering for the last couple of weeks. Donald Trump made history making a speech at the Bitcoin Conference and, of course, RFC. Now, what the Democrats have done over the last couple of weeks is that they have been signaling that they are interested in supporting the industry. So they've held two town halls so far, one last week, one this week. And it's been with Mark Cuban, industry executives. And essentially, a lot of the industry executives are pretty disappointed in the Democratic Party and how they've been handling the industry.

Starting point is 00:36:12 Now, the thing is, and I dropped into a Democrats for Bitcoin space yesterday, and shout out for Dennis Porter and the progressive case where I love those guys. I truly believe that Bitcoin is a bipartisan issue. So I love how they're moving the envelope forward. However, I got to say from just like something that we've been covering this for quite a while now, what I got to say is like, look, Bitcoin over party, not party over Bitcoin. And what I've seen over the last couple of months is pretty simple. Like, if you want us Bitcoiners, us single issue voters like myself, to be like pro Kamala,

Starting point is 00:36:58 what you got to do is pretty simple. Support Ross and support Bitcoin publicly. And that's what you got to do. And what I'm going to say is vote for the parties that have done that. Don't vote for the parties that have been hostile towards the industry. They've done so many things, Operation Choke Point 2.0, the proposed 30% Bitcoin mining tax, the arrest of the tornado cash developers, the samurai wallet developers, the attack on Bitcoin self-custody, the denial, Caitlin Long's custodia federal banking charter

Starting point is 00:37:33 with custodia bank. The list literally goes on, right? So my message is, don't vote for the party that has been hostile towards the industry. And because it's an election year, they're running on a, trust me, bro, we've changed our minds on the, we've changed our minds. But again, what Ben was saying, don't pay attention to what they say, pay attention to what they do, and their actions haven't pointed otherwise. That's not to say that things haven't happened.

Starting point is 00:38:04 Here is Mark Cuban. He was part of the town hall that was hosted for the Cryptofer Kamala thing. Here's Cameron Winkelvi, who was, you know, a staunch proponent of a, of, of, you know, a Donald Trump donating to his campaign. By the way, his bank that Gemini uses customers bank is one of the banks that got sued the same day they hosted the crypto town hall by the FDIC. So it's kind of like, guys, we want to talk to you guys, but at the same time, they're hitting us with the two by four. Cameron Winklewey says, crypto advocates for Harris, together we can kill crypto. So I find the whole like kind of situation hilarious. Here is Mark Cuban,

Starting point is 00:38:56 shitting on us bit bit. Let's check it out. When Donald Trump spoke in Nashville at the conference and said that he was going to support crypto, he did us one of the biggest favors. Because supporting crypto is not about increasing the bags of elite Bitcoin maxis. Crypto is not about the elite. It's about egalitarianism. It's about the the opportunity, as Fester was saying, for the unbanked and others to participate and to have the opportunity to create wealth. That's such a huge opportunity for us because the rest of us need crypto and the Republicans can care less. They just want to see the Bitcoin maxis get richer. I mean, the Republicans made it part of their official party platform to protect self-custody,

Starting point is 00:39:46 protect the right to mine, and be pro-industry. The Democrats have literally done the exact opposite. So, like, this is just gaslighting. What I said in the space last night, what I said over Twitter, is like, enough talk, show me action. And as a single issue voter, I'll be happy to change my mind. I'll be happy to, you know, say, hey, I'm pro Kamala. Sweet. This is great.

Starting point is 00:40:11 This should be a bipartisan thing. But hosting these town halls and nothing actually gets done from a regulatory perspective, I think it's cheap, like, it's just, just talk. And then, of course, taking cheap shots at the party and the candidates, RFK and Trump, that like literally made it part of their platform. I think it's just cheap politics. And one last thing, Kamala right now is in the executive branch. If she wants to take the momentum out of the crypto-bitcoin issue out of the Trump campaign,

Starting point is 00:40:49 All she has to do is if I get elected, I'll free Ross. In fact, she can talk to Biden and free Ross right now. That's something that she has the power to do, right? So I just find this interesting. I think what they're trying to do is what's that expression, eat your cake and have it too? I don't know how to say it. Have your cake and eat it too.

Starting point is 00:41:08 They want the votes without spending any type of political capital. And yeah, it's just I've personally lost my patience on. this. I want to see action at this point. Talk is cheap. Actions are expensive. Yeah. Also, what he's saying there about, oh, they just want they want the the maxi elite to get richer. That's that's a crock of shit because like, again, both both sides of the aisle, the ones that are trying to appease, you know, the crypto people. Again, they're addressing crypto people in general because they see that as a wider audience. But at the end of the day, like, what's the difference between fiat, crypto, and Bitcoin? Fiat is the elites can print money. Crypto is everyone can

Starting point is 00:42:00 print money. And that's what Mark Cuban here wants. He's saying create wealth. No, he wants to print some money himself. And Bitcoin is no one can print money. And that's the whole point that there is no elites. Nobody has that elite privilege to go and print their own money. It's just this is the layer of value. And in order to get some of it, you have to create value for others. And he is the exact opposite of that. He wants to go and make whatever token. And obviously, he's probably a fan of like having some regulations so that only him and his cronies can buddy up with the government and be able to.

Starting point is 00:42:42 to print their tokens and fleece the American public. So I don't believe a lick of what he said there. And again, like Bitcoin is that layer to get rid of all this bullshit at the end of the day. So I don't know. It's just ignore all these clowns and, you know, it's just, it's so maddening to see it all. But it's going to continue for quite some time. For sure. You're spot on. He wants to create money for free that the rest of us have to work for. And the whole part of being lectured by a multi-billionaire about the elites is insane.

Starting point is 00:43:25 And I think you hit the nail on the head. Like, what's awesome about Bitcoin is Michael Saylor has to buy spot Bitcoin just like everyone else. He doesn't get a special deal. What is that but like the most equal equitable money? the world has ever seen. Like Michael Saylor literally had to DCA slowly over a long period of time not to move the price up. He didn't get a special deal from Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan, you know, getting a discounted rate, right? So yeah, man, I think it's a bunch of gaslighting. I do believe, though, I think it was David Bailey that said this earlier on the week, but it's basically making the case that like being against Bitcoin is like being against the internet. I don't think.

Starting point is 00:44:10 think this is a long-term political stance. But that's not to say that, look, if the Democrats win the election, you heard Max Kaiser saying earlier on the show, it could potentially become a hairy situation for Bitcoin businesses in the U.S., you know? So until I see something actionable from the Kamala campaign, like, I just can't help but to endorse Trump and RFK that have publicly come out and said they're going to free Ross and they're going to support. the industry and the other guys maybe they're saying different things but their actions are saying that they're still hostile towards the industry yeah yeah exactly um don't trust verify uh and obviously you can't verify what somebody's going to do uh before they get into office but you can verify

Starting point is 00:44:59 but what somebody has done while they've been in office and there is nothing to verify there in fact it's the exact opposite of what you want to see so yeah it is what it is Exactly. Anyways, guys, this was Your Simply Sessions. I'm Nico. Subscribe to Simply Bitcoin. Go check it out. Ben, have a great show.

Starting point is 00:45:19 I'll see you next week. Hell yeah. Later, man. All right, everybody, stick around. We are going to be giving away some sats. We're going to be hitting the tech updates before the end of the show. Thanks to the nearly 4,000 people that have tuned in so far for the episode. We'll be back momentarily.

Starting point is 00:45:38 We're just going to give a quick shout to our remaining sponsors. Get your lightning wallets ready because when we come back, we're going to be given away some Bitcoin, and you're going to need a lightning wallet to do it. So we'll see you in just a moment. Some of the best hardware on the market today to secure your Bitcoin. The cold card queue is an absolute powerhouse and is my daily driver. And on top of this, they have plenty of other goodies,

Starting point is 00:46:03 including the Mark 4, the tab 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 the show notes down below. In lending, instant self-custody and no KYC, Hoddle-Hoddle is the place to be. You can sign up with just an email address, and once you're there, you can start browsing offers immediately, whether you're looking to buy and sell,

Starting point is 00:46:30 or whether you're looking to lend or borrow. You can check them out today at the links down below. Coin Lightning Wallet built with simplicity in mind. Spend and receive with ease, claim your own Lightning address, shop your favorite gift cards, even earn rewards when you spend. Head over to speed.app to download the app

Starting point is 00:46:51 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. All right, we are back in and we're gonna be giving away some sats right now. This is the Bitcoin Well dashboard, and we're gonna be tossing a coin into the well to give you some free sats. One lucky person will win.

Starting point is 00:47:17 If you're unfamiliar, Bitcoin Well, Again, you can buy and sell Bitcoin on the website here. They're available in Canada and the U.S. And as you sign up, as you buy Bitcoin, as you refer friends, you earn points, which can then be redeemed for a chance to toss a coin in the well and potentially win some Bitcoin. And by potentially, I mean, every time you do win, but the amount can vary from 500 sats all the way up to potentially one million sats. And we're going to do that right now. So I'm going to hit play now.

Starting point is 00:47:46 We're going to toss. We're going to use 500 points to toss into the wishing well. Geez, I can't speak here. I'm going to blow this up. And you're going to need a lightning wallet to be able to scan this 500 sats. Whoever scans it first will be able to redeem it directly to their own wallet. So I'll give you a few more seconds here to get that thing scanned. If you do win, let me know on the chat or on X or on Noster.

Starting point is 00:48:11 And yeah, thank you guys so much for tuning in. and we're going to get into the tech updates now. There you go. That's your time limit there. And we're going to dive into our updates. And the first update actually isn't a tech update, but I always love pointing out some of the grants and everything and education in the space as well. So me premier Bitcoin, they're raising five Bitcoin to reach 100,000 students.

Starting point is 00:48:39 They're the world's leading organization and community-led Bitcoin-only education, announced a new fundraiser in effort to teach a total of 100,000 students about Bitcoin. So since 2021, they've educated 35,000 students so far in El Salvador about Bitcoin, creating open source resources like the Bitcoin Diploma Program. The curriculum is used in over 20 countries by 30 plus projects. Side note, I got to see a graduation when I was there back in April, and it was fantastic. I got to quiz kids on their knowledge of not just Bitcoin, but fiat currency and how it works and how it differs from Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:49:18 Really, really cool. So anyways, me prepare Bitcoin aims to expand its graduates from 35K to 100,000 through various strategies, including classroom settings at the MPB House in San Salvador. The education team consisting of dedicated Salvador and teachers will conduct the Bitcoin Diploma program in 90 classes targeting 2,700 students. They also plan to partner with 10 public schools reaching an additional 10 and a half thousand students aligned with the Bitcoin ethos, all me premier Bitcoin educational materials are open source.

Starting point is 00:49:51 Their comprehensive curriculum is set to reach over 50,000 additional students globally through a network of nodes, educators, and Bitcoin enthusiasts. So of course, they rely on community funding to scale. The newly launched Geyser campaign aims to raise five Bitcoin to help educate again 100,000 students. Donations can be made as a participant supporter, ambassador. or game changer with different thresholds for each. So if you're curious, head over to geyser.fund,

Starting point is 00:50:21 and you'll see their campaign there and you can contribute. Please do. It's an excellent, excellent resource for the world, and I hope to continue to see it grow. Moving on, Russia and Venezuela have blocked Signal Messenger. Russia blocked access to the Signal app to prevent the messenger's use of terrorist and extremist purposes. uses. User access to messenger signal is restricted due to violations of the requirements of the Russian legislation whose fulfillment is necessary to prevent the use of messenger for terrorists and extremist purposes. This is Russia's telecommunications watchdog. The messenger was blocked in Venezuela following the disputed presidential election from late July. President Nicholas Maduro has ordered a block on social media platform X as well. Signal confirmed that some countries block its services.

Starting point is 00:51:14 and advise user to enable built-in censorship circumvention feature. We are aware of reports that access to signal has been blocked in some countries as a reminder signals built-in-censorship circumvention feature might be able to help you if your connection is affected. Go to signal settings, privacy, advanced, and censorship circumvention on. So, this is interesting. We've seen more and more censorship around this type of stuff. We've talked about X and, you know, Noster being a potential solution.

Starting point is 00:51:44 for that. However, when you're dealing with messages that you may not want read, as opposed to like open forum stuff, then you might not want to rely on Noster for private messages. You might want to rely on something else. And Signal has been an option out there. But if it's getting blocked in your country, you can't get access to it. You can't find it. Of course, check out your secondary app stores. If you're on Android, there's lots of different ways that you can obtain apps, you don't just have to get it from the app store. If you're an iPhone, you're kind of pigeonholed into using their app store, unfortunately. However, some other options, Simple X.

Starting point is 00:52:23 I've done a video on this before, and I'll show here if you just search on YouTube, SimpleX, decentralized and encrypted messaging. This is something that you can actually self-host or rely on their servers as well, but you've got both options. Anyways, SimpleX just raised $1.3 million from Jack Dorsey and Asymmetra BC, and it released chat version 6.0. So this is a free and open source messaging platform that has no user identifiers and is private by design. It's available on Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Quote, we're happy to announce we have now have funds to move faster.

Starting point is 00:53:00 We raise 1.3Mill from Jack Dorsey and Asymmetric Capital. the support will allow SimpleX to make significant product advancements expand its team and secure medium term funding for the next stage of growth. The investment comes without control or board set provisions, ensuring SimpleX remains committed

Starting point is 00:53:18 to our Privacy First Communication Network Vision. We will also launch long form email like Messenger over SimpleX network this year, together with optional short public addresses that show profile you are connecting to before the connection. This is important for any public users and businesses. The project has also announced this begun collaborating with legal experts to establish an open source governance model similar to that of Matrix.

Starting point is 00:53:46 So super awesome to see that. Again, people need these tools, especially living under tyrannical regimes, which we've kind of seen the blurring of lines of that when you have people in Western nations calling for censorship of interviews. And so even more relevant to have tools like this built out so that if that type of censorship continues to rear its ugly head in jurisdictions around the globe, you have options to fully circumvent them. Moving on, Zeus announces Olympus integrations

Starting point is 00:54:21 with lightning.pub and mutiny wallet. Lightning.pub is a nostril powered lightning node that simplifies the Uncle Jim model, allowing users to connect friends and family to their node. Pub introduces a Nostor native account system, making node management easier than ever. This free open source software is available under the GNU AGPL version 3.0 license. In Pub, node management happens all under the hood.

Starting point is 00:54:50 Multiple providers are available with Olympus being the top provider for channels in excess of 3 million SATs under current fee conditions. Smaller channels will leverage other service providers. That's from Evan Kallutis in his blog post. The Mutiny team will shut down its wallet at year end, but users can self-host it indefinitely. Mutiny allows users to manually deploy a node on any server or platform. The Olympus by Zeus LSP will continue to work with Mutiny wallet regardless of where it is deployed. If you're using the self-custodial lightning wallet in Mutiny,

Starting point is 00:55:28 it will default to using Olympus by Zeus LSP. Developers looking to integrate Olympus into their app can explore the API documentation for Olympus by Zeus LSP services. Awesome. Love to see this, and that gives hope for me, because I love what Mutiny was doing. You know, obviously it's going to, if it continues to exist,

Starting point is 00:55:52 the community is going to need to help support it, but this integration and the ability to self-host is fantastic, and I hope people continue to iterate upon it. And in the same realm, we'll say Bankify. This allows you to turn Cashew Mintz into Lightning Wallets with NosterWallet Connect. Quote, Bankify is a response to a frustration I've had. Not enough custodial Bitcoin wallets support Noster Wallet Connect, aka NWC. The only ones I'm aware of until I release this app are Get Outer.

Starting point is 00:56:22 Albi.com, cashew.me, and Mutiny Wallet, if you configure it to use a federation first. But Mutiny wallet is shutting down and Albi Wallet stopped opening new accounts for the custodial service. So only cashew.combe will work in the near future. Bankify to the rescue. This is from Super TestNet. Cashew Mints offer a standardized API for melting and minting eCash tokens similar to receive and send functions in other custodial wallets. The melt option allows users to pay a mint with eCash settling a lightning invoice on their behalf. The Mint option lets users request a lightning invoice from the Mint, which, once paid, provides an equivalent amount of eCash tokens.

Starting point is 00:57:04 Quote, so I made a simple storage service that does those things automatically in the background, including managing eCash, and just gives you a nice easy send-and-receive button. The app also runs a NostraWallet Connect server in the background so that NWC clients can connect to it and give it, commands using that standardized API. So essentially, this app just translates between the two custodial API standards. Warning, though, I made this app for testing purposes, and I warn you, don't put any money in it unless you're happy to lose your money for the pursuit of science and the enrichment of someone

Starting point is 00:57:40 who isn't you. The wallet stores private keys and eCash notes unencrypted in local storage, making them vulnerable to browser extension attacks and deletion during cookie clearing. Additionally, e-cash wallets carry custodial risks such as theft by mint, loss of the mint is arrested, hacking incidents, all of that. So tread carefully, be careful. This is early days for everything cashew-related, all of the e-cash stuff. But this is also an awesome, promising development. Just to make, again, the interoperability part of whether it be cashew or fetaments or just lightning or liquid swaps with bolts.

Starting point is 00:58:20 in the back end, all these different things, the fact that they all interoperate using lightning as a glue to stick them together is incredible, and I'm here for it. So anyways, guys, with that, I'm going to start rounding out. By the way, I am headed to Riga very, very soon here. I'm going to be heading over to Riga for Baltic Honey Badger in no time at all. Maybe I should pull that up just so we have it. Baltic Honeybadger. is. So yeah, I can't wait. It's been years since I've been there. 2019 was the last time.

Starting point is 00:58:56 So anyways, I'm going to be getting into town there on August 21st. Nostriga happens to the 22nd, 23rd, and then the 24th and 25th for Baltic Honey Badger. It's going to be blast. If you're going to be in town, please do let me know. And of course, if you do need tickets, then you can use code BTC sessions and get 10% off. It's going to be a blast. So yeah, come join us. It's a high, high signal event and I couldn't have missed it for the world this year. I'm glad to be back. Of course, if you haven't already, like, sub, share. Those things, they help a ton.

Starting point is 00:59:34 You can hit up the previously mentioned sponsors in these show notes down below. And of course, if you're sorting through some of the tutorials on the channel and you're needing a little bit of additional help, reach out to my team over at bitcoinmentor.io, So we've created an incredible group of educators or brought together, rather, an incredible group of educators that can help you through anything when it comes to key management, wallets, hardware, multi-sig, running a node, lightning, home mining, even, all of that kind of stuff. You can head over to Bitcoin Mentor.io.

Starting point is 01:00:08 You can reach out. You can book a free 15-minute session to chat about what you would like to learn. And if it sounds like the right path for you, then you can dive right in and go. get into your official sessions or series of sessions, depending on how much you want to learn. And again, it can be very helpful for those that need a little bit of additional assistance or those that have gone into their Bitcoin learning cycle and feel like they're kind of stuck. Like they've become a Bitcoin Luddite. You learned your few things and you haven't progressed since there.

Starting point is 01:00:40 Well, you can level up with Bitcoin Mentor. Anyways, with that, I am out. Have yourselves a way. wonderful day or evening wherever you may be. Make sure you don't miss. Why are we Bullets tomorrow? I'll see you guys next time for your Simply session.

BTC Sessions - NEW: Central Banks Just Revealed SHOCKING Move Into Bitcoin! ep434

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