BTC Sessions - Satoshi Coins Not Moved, Bitcoin Pizza Day, Fed Gold Standard EP060

Starting point is 00:00:12 Wasabi wallet and fairly private. What's up everyone? I'm Ben with the BTC sessions and this is your daily session. Before we dive in, I just want to give a quick shout out to sponsors of the show, leaden.io. This is where you can use your Bitcoin for a bunch of different services, actually. They've got their Bitcoin back loans. This is the first thing I ever used of theirs. And this is where you can use your Bitcoin as collateral to get a Canadian or US dollar loan. So in my case, I was in a pinch. I wanted to get dollars, but I didn't want to sell my Bitcoin, so I was able to put in a dedicated

Starting point is 00:00:57 address, audit it 24-7. I got a loan within 24 hours, and as soon as I paid back that loan, I got back all my Bitcoin. Now, they've also got Bitcoin and USDC savings accounts where you can earn up to 7.5% interest yearly. And then they've also got their B2X offering, and this is where you use the same loan mechanism to instantly buy more Bitcoin, essentially doubling your Bitcoin on the spot. If you want to check out any of that, there's a link in these show notes down below. And if you use that link, they'll actually give you a 50 bucks worth of Bitcoin for free if you opt to get a loan.

Starting point is 00:01:32 And secondly, if you want to help with this shown another way and you're not already currently storing your Bitcoin on a hardware wallet, number one, you should be doing that because, again, with these price swings, you can suddenly find yourself with Bitcoin sitting on a phone or a computer. that's far more valuable than what you initially had put in. And it can be worrying and it's good to have that extra level of security. So I do recommend that you check out getting any hardware wallet, but one that you can do to help out the show is the ledger, the nanoX or the nano S.

Starting point is 00:02:03 These work either with your computer or your phone, depending on the device, and they keep your keys off of internet-connected devices, helping you protect yourself from digital attacks from somebody getting into yourself via getting into your wallet via a hack and sending out your funds. Very important to have extra security with your Bitcoin if you're holding any sizable amounts. So do look into that. I've got a link in the shown us down below. They've got lots of deals on some of the packs. They've got deals where it's like 27% off. If you get a three pack, the one that I have is the,

Starting point is 00:02:43 Ledger Nano XNS Backup Pack, I believe it's called. But anyways, check that out down below, and if you end up getting one, it does help the show. With that, let's dive into the news. So I was away yesterday. I'm prepping for a move, actually. I'm moving tomorrow, but I

Starting point is 00:03:01 wasn't able to get on this yesterday, but some very early Bitcoin moved from an address that had received mine coins just a month after the creation of Bitcoin. So these coins were originally received into this wallet in February of 2009. And so 50 Bitcoin were moved, which is around in the realm of $500,000 worth.

Starting point is 00:03:30 So it's not a large amount that was moved. But the worry was over whether this was Satoshi himself moving these coins for the first time. that theory has I won't say it's been totally debunked but most people are not really convinced there was a lot of worry about that we saw a lot of movement in in the market because of that so the the market we were up in kind of the 9600 range and as soon as that news broke we saw kind of a massive dump and and I mean that's it's kind of bounced back since then we did go as low as kind of like the 8800 range and now we're back up above 9,000 whether or not that holds, who knows. But it was largely caused, it seems, by this news. Now, again, people have

Starting point is 00:04:25 come out and said this probably isn't from Satoshi. One of the best refutations of this was from Jimmy's song. And what he said was that essentially there's a marker for individuals when you're mining Bitcoin. It's called an extranes. And the extranants on these Bitcoin were not associated with any known miner associated with Satoshi himself. So it appears to be somebody else's coins. And at that point, the protocol, again, Satoshi had mailed out news of this protocol back in October with the white paper and so it could have been any number of people jumping onto the network we don't really know it still does mean that coins that have not been moved for 11 years have finally moved which again can cause worry but it's it to me it's not exactly much of a worry

Starting point is 00:05:19 in worst case scenario sure there could be a sell-off if somebody wanted to liquidate these coins although it doesn't seem like that's what they're doing with them but they if if that were to happen if somebody very early on who has a lot of coins started selling the thing about it is they've got limited ammunition and while it may be the case that it causes a drop in the market if some way they were to do that eventually all that's happening is those coins are going from the hands of somebody who does not want to hold them anymore to somebody who probably wants to hold them longer term and it again it can be limited in its scope of moving the Bitcoin price. So for me, not much of a worry. Also not the first

Starting point is 00:06:04 time this has happened. This has happened many times in the past. Now, out of this, an interesting thing has happened. This wallet in question was actually part of Craig Wright, the individual who's pretending to be Satoshi Nakamoto. It's part of a trial that he's involved in and he said that he was the owner to said wallet, but that he did not have any access to the keys to move these funds and has since said that it was not him who moved the funds, although he tried to deflect and said it was somebody from the Klyman camp who is currently suing him to get these Bitcoin. And all of this hinges on the fact or the assumption that he is Satoshi. The trial in question is not even questioning that fact, it's just, it's the whole premise of it is if he was indeed Satoshi, which is why he's

Starting point is 00:07:02 kind of in this legal catch-22 right now. So essentially, the address, I'll read a bit of this from Coin Telegraph, the address in question is among the 16,000 addresses listed in court, in a court document in the Kleinman v. Wright case that Wright claims to own. The catch-22 in this situation is that Wright has denied in court that he has access to the private keys to the addresses. So if he said he moved 50 BTC, he would be in trouble. However, if someone else moved the coins, that would indicate the address does not belong to him, again leaving him in a potentially sticky legal situation. Calvin Eyre, one of his associates, he is believed to, sorry, if Calvin Air is to be believed regarding rights not denial because he did come out on Twitter and said, hey, it wasn't him, I talked to him, he said he didn't move the coins.

Starting point is 00:07:59 The latter could face serious complications in the ongoing trial. The judge has already questioned rights credibility on more than one occasion. So it looks like no matter what way you slice it, in some way, shape, or form, Craig is lying. Number one, he does have access to the coins, in which case he would be kind of screwed. Number two, he doesn't have access to the coins and they were never his, in which case he would also be screwed. My guess is the latter because he's definitely not Satoshi. And the whole trial is hilarious because it hinges on that being just a given, which it is clearly not.

Starting point is 00:08:40 Anyways, enough about Craig Wright. Screw that guy. Let's move on. In relation, I guess, kind of in the realm of price, people are removing the most Bitcoin from exchanges since the 2018 bottom. So, a little bit about this here. So let's see here, compiled by monitoring resource, crypto-quant, the figures show that over the past five days

Starting point is 00:09:07 combined outflows from Bitcoin mining pools spiked 600% from just over 1,000 Bitcoin to 7,400 Bitcoin on May 20th. Now, beyond this, as of Wednesday, reserves across 17 major exchanges totaled 1.18 million Bitcoin, which is the lowest value, lowest number of Bitcoin held in those major exchanges since November of 2018. So what I take from this story is that people are no longer kind of playing around with their Bitcoin and trading it, or less people are doing so, but rather pulling it into their own personal custody. So people have moved money onto exchanges, have by and large whatever they've done with their capital, they've ended up with Bitcoin and then removed it and put it in whether it be hot or cold wallets. It doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:10:02 it's off exchanges, so not readily available to be traded. So in my eyes, that's a positive sign that less people are wanting to give up their Bitcoin. It could indicate that people are expecting some sort of move in the price. It could be that people are kind of looking longer term and want to hold onto their Bitcoin longer than rather than trading it for other shit coins or for Fiat, which, again, could be an excellent sign. Moving on from there, excellent article from Nick Carter. He dropped this one over on Coin Desk, and he's talking about Bitcoin energy consumption. Now, I've covered this in the past and a lot of the clapbacks that there are to people, I don't know, whining about the energy

Starting point is 00:10:53 consumption of Bitcoin. And Nick does an excellent job of summing it up here with a number of points once again. And so he talks about number one, energy. And one of the main arguments about Bitcoin energy consumption is the opportunity cost, as if Bitcoin is stealing energy from other use cases, which is largely not the case. As with most energy, when you go to transport it, you lose some of that energy. In fact, globally, in the article here, it says globally about 8% of electricity is lost in transit. Now, what this means is when you get things like hydropower in very remote locations, other than supplying the local communities around these hydroelectric dams,

Starting point is 00:11:43 if you're overproducing, which is very much the case, especially in regions in China, where they're doubling the needed supply of electricity, well, they can't really sell that electricity to the grid because they're so far away from any place where it actually get to the grid and be meaningful. And so in that instance, it just gets wasted. If you can harness that wasted energy and make money with it, then it's very much a godsend to a lot of these small towns and an excellent source of revenue from them. And that's very much what's happening.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Same thing here in my home province of Alberta. There's a lot of waste when it comes to natural gas wells and vented methane, things like that. if that can be captured rather than just vented into the atmosphere or flared, well, then you can funnel it into Bitcoin mining. You can turn a negative, which would be the carbon taxes associated with it, into a positive, which would be the Bitcoin you're now mining. So he does a very good job of kind of breaking this down. He also talks about the energy mix where the energy is coming from and whether it's a surplus or not, which we kind of just discussed. but in the end he broke it down very concisely with this last paragraph here. What he said, and I quote, ultimately it's just a matter of opinion as to whether the existence

Starting point is 00:13:03 of a non-state synthetic monetary commodity is a good idea. The truth is that block space is a service which is paid for and that's where its resource cost is derived. Something duly purchased cannot by definition be a waste. its buyer derives benefit from its existence, regardless of anyone else's subjective opinion of the merit of the transaction. These same arguments have been made countless times about the perceived costs of the gold standard and rebutted on similar grounds before. Fundamentally, millions of individuals the world over still value banking independent savings, so it still gets pulled out of the ground with regularity.

Starting point is 00:13:49 As long as people value Bitcoin, so too will the block space auction continue in perpetuity. So I do recommend you go read out this entire thing. Again, excellent breakdown by Nick Carter. And yeah, I enjoyed this one. Let's move on. Bitcoin WalletMaker Satoshi Labs, these are the guys that created the Treasurer, which is the world's first Bitcoin hardware wallet. They are open sourcing secure element.

Starting point is 00:14:19 chips or rather working towards doing so. So I'm not going to go through the whole article here. They kind of have a good summary video on YouTube about what's going on. But in constructing their hardware wallets, they did look at adding a secure element, a chip that secures certain data and is separate from the rest of the infrastructure of the hardware wallet, which is where your private key, the keys to your money, the keys to your Bitcoin would typically reside. But in trying to incorporate these, they found that a lot of this hardware infrastructure was closed source. And so they either could get a chip that was manufactured in closed source and not really be able to audit it, or they could get them specifically made for them by somebody, but then have to

Starting point is 00:15:06 sign extensive NDA, non-disclosure agreements, and be able to get more insight, but then not be able to reveal any of the flaws to any of the community or have any third-party audits or really have anybody peer review anything that they're doing. And so what they're trying to do now is they're trying to spur more developers to come in and to help them build these open source secure element chips that will be utilized not just in their hardware wallace, but in a lot of different things in security in general. So cool to see. I don't think that they have anything solid yet. They're still working on it. They called the project Tropic Square. A reason being it's kind of a play on truly open integrated circuit. And so you can check them out on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:16:02 I believe just at Tropic Square. And they do have a website. But anyways, I'll link to this this article down below. In kind of, I guess, geopolitical central bank news, Trump has a Fed nominee and that person is advocating for a gold-backed currency, potentially cryptocurrency in nature. So I'm just going to read a few of the quotes from this nominee who goes by the name Judy Shelton. It says, I don't see so much as,

Starting point is 00:16:39 I don't see it so much as returning to the gold standard, more like back to the future. I think that what a gold standard stands for is monetary discipline for its own sake. Money is supposed to be a unit of account, a reliable measure, and a dependable store of value. It really shouldn't be subject to who's the chairman of the Federal Reserve. And then she goes on to say, how can a dozen people meeting eight times a year decide what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically market supply, some kind of, sorry, what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically market supply determined rate. The Fed is not omniscient.

Starting point is 00:17:20 They don't know what the right rate should be. How could anyone? If the success of capitalism depends on someone being smart enough to know what the rate should be on everything, we're doomed. And then finally, she said, a linked system could allow currency. convertibility by individuals as under a gold standard or foreign central banks as under Bretton Woods. Either way, it could redress the inflationary pressures. And what she's talking about is some sort of, again, gold-backed digital dollar, perhaps.

Starting point is 00:17:54 Now, while I do appreciate the sentiment of a Fed nominee talking about returning to a sound money standard, I honestly don't think a gold standard is the way to go. And the reason I think this is because the gold standard is how we got to where we are today. And the reason for that was a lack of auditability and a lack of divisibility leading to centralization of ownership or centralization of just, I guess, holding and securing all of the gold, which then led to people taking advantage of that system and printing more banknotes than gold that existed in the vaults. and so when you get into a system where you need to audit a real world good in this case gold and have some sort of a a digital equivalent backing what gold is there there's no way to feasibly and provably show that every token is is backed by a real world ounce of gold because it again it takes a real world auditor to do so and there's

Starting point is 00:19:05 always kinks in those armors, you could get accidental bad input, in which case, if you put shit into the blockchain, you get shit out of the blockchain. And I just, again, it has the same failings as the original gold standard did. The only difference is whether it's paper or whether it's digital. And so that's why I think that, again, I know I'm biased because I run a channel called BTC sessions, but Bitcoin doesn't have those issues. It's auditable 24-7 around the world by anybody that all of the Bitcoin is there. It's just a superior system. And so I think Bitcoin addresses the issues that cause the gold standard to fail. But regardless, hey, I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. I'm happy to see anybody looking at the current

Starting point is 00:19:59 monetary system, especially one that's potentially a Fed nominee and seeing how ridiculous it is. Rounded out with a couple Academy posts that went up recently. Again, trying to build out as much good Bitcoin content as possible. So if you do enjoy Bitcoin-only content, do support this stuff that I'm trying to pump through the Bitsy Academy and give it a share. Anyways, number one, how to save on Bitcoin transaction fees. So the guys over at Verify, Hardcore Maximilus, they are starting to do some articles for the Academy. And this is another such one where it's a follow-up to the importance of Bitcoin transaction

Starting point is 00:20:41 fees to the Bitcoin network and how they will subsidize minors in the long term as the block subsidy, the 12.5, now 6.25 Bitcoin every 10 minutes rewarded to miners to secure the network. as that diminishes every four years, miners are going to become more and more reliant on transaction fees. However, as a user of Bitcoin, you also want to ensure that you're being as efficient as possible in utilizing Bitcoin and make sure you're not overpaying for your transaction fees. So this article here goes through, yes, the importance of Bitcoin transaction fees, but also how to make sure you are being as efficient as possible and the ways that you can do so.

Starting point is 00:21:23 things like, number one, understanding how the Mempool works, all of the transactions waiting in line to be put through on the main network and added to the blockchain. You need to be able to look at that and kind of understand what fee point is going to take how long to get through and added to the blockchain. Secondly, using wallets that support things like RBF and Segwit, which again ensures one that you're using an efficient amount. of data when using transactions, but also being able to bump your fee if you find that it's not going through as quickly as possible. This allows you to pay a lower fee and then only pay more if you realize that you need it a little bit quicker than you thought. Transaction batching, if you know you have to deal with a lot of individual parties and you need to transact with all of them, then you can send out a single batch of transactions which saves in the long

Starting point is 00:22:19 run on fees on the network because it's less data intent. to do so, then making an individual transaction for all. And then it also talks about, of course, layered scaling solutions, things like Lightning Network, Liquid, and other things coming down the pipeline. So be sure to check that one out. And finally, another one on the Academy today from a new writer, Emmy, thank you for writing this. This was excellent.

Starting point is 00:22:44 But tomorrow was Bitcoin Pizza Day. Are you celebrating? I am. I am. I'm moving tomorrow and I'm ordering pizza for the move. So I'm very excited about this. This is actually one of the first Bitcoin Pizza Days where I anticipated it in advance, not just kind of missed it, and actually we'll be able to order pizza for it. So I'm excited about it.

Starting point is 00:23:07 This is the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day. Now, what is Bitcoin Pizza Day? That's what this article is about. But 10 years ago, as of tomorrow, Laslo, I'm going to butcher the last name, Hanyaks, I believe. he was the first person to ever make a real-world purchase using Bitcoin. And what was that? Well, it was pizza. He bought two Papa John's pizzas.

Starting point is 00:23:30 He had to go on Bitcoin talk an online forum and ask somebody to accept his Bitcoin and then order the pizza for him. Now, the price tag is the interesting part here. He spent 10,000 Bitcoin on two Papa John's pizzas. I hope it was good. Just to let you know, at the time of record, recording this video, there is an excellent page called, let me pull it up here, the Bitcoin Pizza Index.net. And at current time, as of today, I think this was an earlier price point, but at current time, the Bitcoin Pizza Index shows that those 10,000 Bitcoin

Starting point is 00:24:11 would now have been worth $93.7 million. Those are some expensive fucking pizzas. And I'm still going to buy pizza with Bitcoin tomorrow and I may be looking back another 10 years out at my purchase of Bitcoin tomorrow, uh, pizza with Bitcoin tomorrow going, man, that was a lot of money to spend on two beats. I've already had that feeling buying things like coffee in the past. Um, but this is tradition and I want to partake in the tradition and, uh, what I'll do is I'll spend and I shall replenish as I too. But anyways, yeah, let me know if you are celebrating Bitcoin Pizza Day, if you have in the past, and be sure to check out the article because it goes a little bit further in depth into what happened with this, where Laslo is now, and some more details about some other fun Bitcoin

Starting point is 00:25:05 traditions. But anyways, with that, I'm going to wrap up, you guys. Thank you so much for watching and or listening. If you're here on YouTube, of course, hit like, subscribe, share. Those are very important. But also, check out. the other platforms I'm on. If you can just subscribe to one other platform, just so I don't have to rely on YouTube, that'd be great. I'm on Facebook Live. I stream live to Twitter via Periscope. I'm on D-Live and Twitch and library, a bunch of other things. I'm also audio only at pretty much any podcast platform that you want to find me at. So just search BTC sessions there. If you want to help the show in another way, you can hit the link below for Ledin, my sponsor. Check them out.

Starting point is 00:25:44 You can also hit the link down below in the show notes to pick up a ledger hardware wallet, and that helps this show as well. If you really loved what you saw, or if you want to buy me some pizza, you can always drop me a tip at my tippin.mee page via the Lightning Network. That's tippin.combe slash at BTC Sessions. With that, I am out. Have yourselves a wonderful rest of the day, wonderful evening, and a good Bitcoin pizza day tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:26:10 and I'll see you guys actually after the weekend after I move for your next daily session.

BTC Sessions - Satoshi Coins Not Moved, Bitcoin Pizza Day, Fed Gold Standard EP060

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