BTC Sessions - The SHOCKING Connection Between Coinbase and BlackRock

Starting point is 00:00:27 What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the show. Another Thursday, another episode of Simply Sessions. We've got Nico waiting in the wings for us to bring us the latest and greatest in everything Bitcoin. I'm going to follow up with, number one, some free sats and, of course, your tech updates. Of course, I hope you guys are having a great week and plenty to talk about, as always. Of course, this is live. Anything can happen.

Starting point is 00:00:54 I defer to my friend Bill here. We'll do it live. Do it live. I'll write it and we'll do it live. If you have not already, please do like, subscribe, share, all those things. They help a ton getting this content in front of more eyeballs. I am Ben with the BTC sessions. This is your Simply session.

Starting point is 00:01:39 Before we dive in, let's take a look at where we are in the market right now. This is TimeChane Calendar.com. simultaneously I'll pull up the chat everything you say in from now on will be live for the world to see but we are sitting at 65,121 per coin a single US dollar will snag you 1,536 sats in terms of fees next block 10 sats per v byte anytime four sats and bitcoin mine 19.75 million of them that's 94.09 of the total supply we're going to give a quick Shout out to our sponsors. We will be back in just a moment.

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Starting point is 00:03:25 make sure you use code BTC sessions at checkout to get a nice discount. Links are in the show notes down below. All right, we are back in. Let's bring in Nico. Yo, how's it going, man? Yo, dude, we just spent this glorious, glorious time in Las Vegas. We room together the real world suite. We saw some things the first day that we shouldn't have seen.

Starting point is 00:03:51 And things happened. now we're remote yeah it's stuff got weird uh but you know we survived we survived to talk about bitcoin another day and uh and here we are so yeah man um how is how is your trip back you're you're uh weathering a hurricane right now yeah currently in a hurricane right now but i'm a florida man so just the the the normal you know run of the day just hurricane day uh but uh yeah man it was i got the midnight flight um midnight flight on the way back so it was like a red eye got back to Miami at like 7 a.m. slept the whole day.

Starting point is 00:04:31 It wasn't as crazy as when I got that flight leaving Canada, Calgary because bro, I think you were getting me like you were getting me nice and toasty with those drinks you were giving me, brother. Yeah, there was a few. There was a few. We,

Starting point is 00:04:48 I make a mean, smoked old fashioned. and I think you had three, maybe four, and those were like double shots of whiskey, and it was not, it was not weak whiskey. They were delicious, and no, it was not weak whiskey. I think I woke up, like midway through that second flight with a hell of a hangover, but it was a lot of fun.

Starting point is 00:05:14 That's awesome. Well, dude, I'm glad to have you here, and let's figure out what's been going on. Oh, man, I saw this clip. So I'll let you preface this. But it just made me, made my blood boil. Yeah, dude. It's just crazy.

Starting point is 00:05:30 You know what? Like, I, there's two sides of media. There is independent media, which is, in my opinion, the future. We're getting the vast majority of the views. Tucker, Alex Jones. um canis owens uh timpool if you take a look at their numbers they're absolutely like they're destroying the legacy media numbers so the legacy media is just continuing to write ride on these coattails that they built over the last century and it gives them this like air of legitimacy

Starting point is 00:06:16 with these professional studios and HBO and CNN and et cetera, et cetera. But the reason that I believe that independent media has taken off the way it has is because, dude, we're telling the truth. We're not bullshitting. And this is the latest round of bullshit by a very, very popular broadcaster from the legacy media world, Bill Mayer. And I can't actually play you this video with the audience. because it will get copyrighted.

Starting point is 00:06:48 So I'm going to play the clip without audio and talk over it. But essentially, Bill Mayer is making the clip, making the case that a huge percentage of Bitcoin mining is a waste. And that 8% of the world's global energy right there, it's in the captions, is actually being used by Bitcoin miners. That is utter BS in totally different way, in 10 different ways. Now, what I find extremely suspicious also is that this was community noted a couple days ago. That community note is gone now, right? So I think it's just a power, like it's a testament to the power of the legacy media.

Starting point is 00:07:38 He's also making the case here in this clip that all the quote unquote emissions that these, you know, so-called Bitcoin miners use. I mean, this is the power of social media. This is why they want to censor stuff because if you just scroll, like so many people are just, like, debunking this. Of course, we remember the Pierre-Richard video where he literally goes to a Bitcoin mining facility

Starting point is 00:08:07 and he takes a CO2 counter. He puts it right behind the Bitcoin miners. And he's proving that Bitcoin miners don't emit any type of CO2. Bitcoin miners are like toasters. They emit a lot of heat. So this argument by Bill Mayer, he's not stupid, right?

Starting point is 00:08:28 Like, this is a propaganda attack by the legacy media that I think we've learned over the last five years is really an extension to the approved narrative of nation states. So, you know, this is just, this is just bullshit. And I just want to read some of these. Here's Troy Cross. As Bill, I share your concerns about emissions, potentially erasing the gains we were making, but your facts are wrong and highly misleading. Bitcoin is not 8% of electricity use.

Starting point is 00:09:04 It's 0.57%. And it only consumes the cheapest electricity, most of which is stranded in time or space. Using it helps to finance and balance the operation of a highly renewable. grid. By the way, I also want to say that most of Bitcoin energy is, but most of Bitcoin miners are powered by renewable energy sources, the main being hydroelectric. Here's Safedine. He says, make sure you stay away from Bitcoin. I can't read that next part. Preston Pish says, what a cloud show. Dennis Porter says, Bill, the real secret is that Bitcoin mining can be used to reduce methade emissions. We have, we have the peer-reviewed research in a top two

Starting point is 00:09:45 percent journal to back it up. So it just keeps going. Here is Bob Burnett, CEO of Barefoot Mining, and he says, your figures on Bitcoin mining and its electricity consumption and its impact on in green media are grossly wrong. I'm happy to talk privately or publicly with you or your staff to review the facts. I don't think they're interested in reviewing facts. No. Because again, we've combated this in 10 different ways. This was community. noted and the community note got taken down, right? So I would say the legacy media is a very, very, very effective propaganda arm of the official approved narrative. That's why you're seeing the rise of independent media and that's why nation states all around the world are so hell

Starting point is 00:10:40 bent on deplatforming and censoring independent media because as long as independent media exists, then this isn't going to be believed. Where people aren't going to believe this. People are going to call out the bullshit. So anyways, you know, shame on Bill Mayer. He knows better. They know better. I don't think they're interested in the truth.

Starting point is 00:11:03 I think they're interested in selling the public on a narrative. Yeah. Yeah. I think one of these comments here outlines it perfectly. The internet has democratized journalism, and no longer is there a monopoly on narratives. We're watching a species go extinct in real time. And yeah, that species is the people who used to be the singular source of truth.

Starting point is 00:11:28 And now there is no more singular source of truth. People have to parse through many different places where they can get their information and decide what sounds to be the most right to them. And yeah, can individuals get it wrong? Absolutely. But in instances like this, again, you no longer get to stand on a soapbox with a megaphone and have everybody just silently listen. You have real-time reply guys everywhere debunking you when you're wrong.

Starting point is 00:11:59 And you have an entire new set of media. individuals as well as organizations that are more than willing to create rebuttals to exactly this and take the opposite stance and say, hey, like, this is where he's wrong. And yeah, and that's great to see. Also, side note that Pierre Richard video is so beautiful. And I loved how angry some people got in the comments. he drew out the perfect the perfect rebuttals from people

Starting point is 00:12:35 because everybody said, hey, it's not that the miners are emitting CO2, it's that the energy source that they're pulling it from might be emitting CO2, which then begs the downstream question of, why is an electric car better than a gas-powered car?

Starting point is 00:12:56 Right? It's like, if you get, And angry at the grid. Don't get angry at the people using the grid if you're going to get angry at anybody. 100%. 100%. And this whole thing is deadpan, deadpan comedic genius.

Starting point is 00:13:14 Because Pierre was just like just complete serious face. You know, like let's actually take these emissions. And I just can't believe how he held in his laughter. And by the way, put in the cereal, I'm definitely going to steal that for a tweet. because that was a really great comment, just letting you know. But yeah, like Pierre Rashar just dropping the hot fire. But yes, this is the power of social media.

Starting point is 00:13:37 This is internet. This is narrative trench warfare on the battlegrounds of the internet. Anyways, to address the title of today's video, here's Tyler Durdin, Bitcoin OG, a huge following on Twitter. And he says, eight days ago since I called out the CEO of Bald Base. When he says ball base, he means Coinbase. Seven daily candles scents and not a single BlackRock ETF buy. This is because you, the people, now break the range and vertically teleport to $100,000.

Starting point is 00:14:10 Now, the case that was being made was that Coinbase was re-hypothicating the Bitcoin that the ETFs were buying. Meaning when people were buying the ETFs, Coinbase was just selling them paper Bitcoin. Therefore, there was no upside buy pressure, right? And a lot of people were speculating that that's the reason as to why Bitcoin was chopping sideways, even though you had this tremendous amount of volume that was coming in. Do I think it's a coincidence that as soon as this was called out? And by the way, just to kind of give you guys an idea of how,

Starting point is 00:14:50 serious this was. BlackRock amends Coinbase custody agreement to require 12-hour withdraws amid debt rumors. So BlackRock actually put pressure on Coinbase to say, hey, guys, you know what? We're going to have to be able to withdraw that Bitcoin within 12 hours. We got to, you know, so it takes away their ability to sell Bitcoin that they don't have because they're on the hook every 12 hours or so. And of course, BlackRock is doing the right thing because they're protecting the legitimacy

Starting point is 00:15:29 of their product in the eyes of the public. So I find this fascinating. And you know what caused this? It was Bitcoin Twitter. You know what caused this whole thing with Bill Mayer and him getting community noted? And actually, the New York Times getting community noted, Bitcoin Twitter. So when I say, and look at that ratio, beautiful ratio. Huge beautiful ratio.

Starting point is 00:15:52 When I say narrative trench warfare on the battlegrounds of the internet, I am dead serious. Like this is the power of social media. You have your ability to make your voices heard to these otherwise very powerful legacy media institutions that we're all supposed to take super seriously. You now as an individual have the right to speak up. And that's why they want to censor you in the first place. Anyways, back to this. So here we have just an. and on on Bitcoin Twitter, supposedly a Bitcoin OG by the name of Tyler Durdin referencing

Starting point is 00:16:25 the Fight Club movie, calling out, hey, is Coinbase rehypothicating? And within eight days, Black Rock steps in and says, hey, Coinbase, we're going to have to modify some of the, some of the operational frameworks and improve liquidity amid recent allegations. And, Incidentally, look at what has happened to the price over the last seven days. Isn't that quite interesting, right? And again, today's pump, you know, what exchange went down? Coinbase, right? So, you know.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Tradition. And I don't want to docks part of the sessions crew, but you know who you are. We're no longer friends anymore because you put a bald head on the thumbnail, okay? You did not put a tip. You put a bald head. And I blame me for that. That's, that's, we're going to, there's going to be some reprimanding in the background here. Some, some severe consequences.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Oh, man. So yeah, any comments, thoughts on this, Ben, before I move on? I mean, when you entrust an entity with so much Bitcoin, with. with so much, when there's so much responsibility, I mean, look at Coinbase's track record. I, a few years ago, how many years ago, three, four, maybe four years ago or more, I made a video when everybody was saying hashtag delete Coinbase. So I made a video on why.

Starting point is 00:18:10 And I was just going to outline a few of the things, like the reasons why people were mad at Coinbase. That video was 30 minutes long for me. to explain why people were so mad because there was so much stuff and I missed a bunch of things. And that was four years ago. And so there's a long list of behavior of Coinbase. That's not great. And to trust them to be cussing as much as they are is unreal.

Starting point is 00:18:39 And so, yeah, you play stupid games. You're going to win stupid prizes. You know, obviously BlackRock doesn't want to get jerked around either. but I mean, I think while it would be horrendous in the moment, one of the best things that could ever happen is a coin-based rugpole, like for them to either intentionally or like probably not intentionally, but just like screw up bad enough and then try hiding it and then just having an implode, it would once again prove that there's just like a cascading.

Starting point is 00:19:12 I mean, Odell's been in the, in the, uh, the, uh, the Noster chat here. One of his quotes that I quite like is we're just going to see a series of larger and larger rug pulls until people figure out how the fuck to act, right? Like how to actually custody their own shit and like it's important. And so yeah, I mean, it would be horrible if all the Coinbase Bitcoin got rugged or a huge portion of it. The market would absolutely tank for a period of time. but more people would learn.

Starting point is 00:19:46 So I don't know if we'll see that or not at some point, but... It would be the ultimate lesson, bro. It would be like the ultimate, the ultimate... It would be... Yeah, exactly. Someone put in the chat, Coinbase, the final capitulation. Also to Odell, yes, you finally peer pressured us to stream on Oster, simply and PTC sessions.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I've been doing it for a while, man. Oh, you've been doing it for a while. Simply, I started doing it when we got the platform. I was like, okay, Noster is like a real deal. And I made the effort to learn and how to do everything. The Noster chat's bumping too. Everybody's, I'm getting zapped. There's like zaps coming through.

Starting point is 00:20:29 Odell popped in to say, hey, he put an interesting emoji in there that I won't talk about here. But yeah, anyways, it's, yeah, I mean, it's only, natural that people are going to move to stuff like that when when shitty platforms like youtube are constantly trying to rug pull you people are need to start examining their options there so more of those emojis i appreciate those things odell 100%. um so another thing also that i want to bring up as well is uh the how much black rock uh continues to just uh continues to just uh continues to promote coin. And what I mean by that is they released a report.

Starting point is 00:21:21 They released a report last week. And the name of the report was Bitcoin, a unique diversifier. You know how many pages that report was, Ben? I don't. Nine pages. You know what? you know how many pages the Satoshi white paper was?

Starting point is 00:21:46 Nine pages. Yeah. Do I think that's a coincidence? No. Now, moving on to my next point. Here is Robbie Michnik. He is the head of digital assets. Now, there is something in this one minute and 42 second clip that really stuck out to me

Starting point is 00:22:05 and played at 1.25 the speed. Let's check it out. How hard is the sell when you think about the retail investor base that can get into this? If you're trying to tell them it's a digital gold, yet the volatility is still so high, and many people don't understand exactly what it is at the end of the day. Is it something that will eventually be used as more payment methods moving forward across different parts of the world? Is it something that you hold and never sell, right? How do you then make that case to a generation of people who have not gotten into this asset?

Starting point is 00:22:31 Sure. Well, when you think about Bitcoin, we think of it primarily as an emerging global monetary alternative. It's a scarce, global, decentralized, non-sovereign asset. And it is an asset which has no country-specific risk, has no traditional counterparty risk. So these are interesting properties when you think of it from an investment perspective, particularly in a world where there's growing concerns over money printing, currency debasement risks, political, fiscal sustainability challenges in the U.S. or elsewhere. And so that resonates frankly with a lot of investors. It goes back to what we talked about earlier with the risk-on piece.

Starting point is 00:23:05 It confuses investors when people talk about it as risk on because based on the properties that I just described, you would think of it as risk off. And that's where I think. It has a marketing problem. You could say that. Okay. So I'm going to pass it. I'm going to pause it right there because we've heard a lot of that other spiel many, many times. But the point that I want to focus on is the fact that you have the head of digital assets, Robbie Mnichnick, he mentioned, he said the quiet part out loud.

Starting point is 00:23:32 And you guys know the deal. This is about the separation of money in state. It says that Bitcoin is a, quote, non-sovereign alternative asset. And if you take a look at the report that BlackRock dropped last week, the nine-page report, coincidentally the same amount of pages as the Bitcoin white paper, it says it again. Bitcoin is the first to centralize non-sovereign monetary alternative to gain widespread global adoption, has no traditional counterparty risks, depends on no centralized system,

Starting point is 00:24:09 it is not driven by anyone country's fortunes. I find this fascinating. Because essentially, for the first time, now all of a sudden, the incentives of BlackRock are no longer aligned with the incentives of central banks and governments. it's actually their incentives are more aligning with Bitcoin, right?

Starting point is 00:24:39 And I'm going to reference Alex Gladstein's article, right? Bitcoin is a Trojan Horse for Freedom. Can't resist the NGU technologies, but people forget that the NGU technology is inextricably linked with the freedom enabling technology. And here you have Black Rock basically admitting that this is a non-sovereign money a non-sovereign alternative, it's a better money.

Starting point is 00:25:06 And could you imagine if you're coming from the government's perspective when you had BlackRock in your pocket the entire time promoting ESG for the better pass of the last decade? And then all of a sudden they're just coming in and they're saying, you know what? This Bitcoin thing is awesome. Inflation is a scam. You know, the governments are preting way too much money.

Starting point is 00:25:27 This Bitcoin thing is fucking awesome. So we're going to drop a nine-page report, is coincidentally the same amount of pages as this is a Sosha white paper. And we're going to admit that this is a better, non-sovereign monetary alternative to Fiat currencies, which are a scam, and Bitcoin is a flight to safety.

Starting point is 00:25:45 That is crazy because it's coming from the world's most powerful, largest institutional asset manager in the world. That is where it's coming from. And this report is getting sick. to every single large institutional investment bank on the planet and investor on the planet. And they're reading those same words, man. And these words read as if BTC sessions put this report together. I mean, check this out.

Starting point is 00:26:18 What Bitcoin made possible. Fix maximum supply, 21 million units before money was prone to inflation in the basement. That's very inconvenient that they're admitting that. difficult to transact across borders digitally native and borderless permitting near instantaneous global transfers of value three access limited to one particular country controlled by essential authority first truly open access global monetary system i mean like dude if you're a government like it is not a good day for you when you see this what are your thoughts bet yeah i mean there's again, it's all the incentives, right?

Starting point is 00:27:00 Like these, Black Rock is not outside of the incentives of Bitcoin itself. And neither are nation states. You know that you said it's like I put together the report. They missed the part about self-custy being super important. Yeah, that's true. Maybe they'll, maybe they'll add that in the next report. I doubt it. I doubt it.

Starting point is 00:27:25 But maybe they'll put something. about diversifying custody because they've got to get that shit out of Coinbase, man. Like at least like, okay, when it comes to institutions, I feel like perhaps something like, well, there's two things that come to mind, on-ramp. So on-ramp is multi-sig that is, you know, multiple institutions holding keys so you can't have a single institution rugpole. So you'd have like a two of three and there's three companies involved and like no one company can rug. the other one would be what's being worked on with minisccript and i'm trying to remember the name of the company oh god i'm completely losing any um anyways uh becca uh from god i'm forgetting the name

Starting point is 00:28:12 of company anyways what they're doing with minisccript and some of these like insurance products and everything like that is incredible and i think a lot of that's going to be baked into the financial system that does choose to utilize Bitcoin because it's going to have to, because we're going to get, again, larger and larger rug pulls as people trust singular entities to be the stewards of their coins. When realistically, like, if you're legally required to have a custodian, why not split the custodianship up amongst multiple entities? So nobody, no one entity can rugpole that shit.

Starting point is 00:28:47 Anchor watch. Thank you, Odell. Fuck. Oh, anchor watch is dope. What they do with the, with the, what they do with the, like, all the different multi-sig capabilities where like, like the CEO has like different privileges and whatever, the anchor watch is dope. Very, very, very cool. I sat down.

Starting point is 00:29:07 I was in Madeira. I sat down beside Becca and I was like, explain to me what you're doing. And she like, she talked at me for an hour and I loved every second of it because she was so passionate about it and again she's just such and again Rob is great. Rob Hamilton is awesome great dude and great and it also just again like it's kind of needed because the whole the whole the way that you look at handling your company's treasury under a Bitcoin standard is very very different than how you would handle it with a bank account right and I think that's where anchor

Starting point is 00:29:46 anchor watch comes into play. Also breaking news. It's not Bitcoin related, but I do find it absolutely hilarious. Costco calls out Diddy's lawyer for lying about buying baby oil in bulk at their store because they don't sell baby oil in bulk. Anyways, moving on to the next thing. That just popped up randomly on my Twitter. I don't know why that was recommended to me, but I thought it was freaking hilarious. Baby oil sessions now.

Starting point is 00:30:13 That was actually real. Yeah, a lot of things happened in Vegas. Anyways, so I usually don't play with the the the the the the Grock 3d image thing, but I was I was I wasn't I was emboldened I was I had a what's it called I I felt compelled no No, it's not compelled I have no idea when when you're an artist and you feel inspired I was inspired when I heard about this this news. And why, why, why was I so inspired? So the Bhutan, the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan apparently has one third of their fucking GDP and Bitcoin. That is nuts. That is crazy. That is like, holy shit. Talk about balls deep. Okay. So here's the actual news.

Starting point is 00:31:12 $828 million worth of Bitcoin. By the way, one of the things that I love about, about this. Quote, unlike most governments, Bhutan's BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures but from Bitcoin mining operations, which have ramped up dramatically since early 2023. So they didn't steal this Bitcoin. They mined this Bitcoin, which is awesome. Now take a look at this.

Starting point is 00:31:37 And again, I don't think this is a coincidence. Here's the traditional legacy media report covering this. Let's check it out. Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom known for prioritizing happiness over wealth. has quietly emerged okay did you hear that part i'm gonna play it one more time boutan the himalayan kingdom known for prioritizing happiness over wealth come on now the the himalyan kingdom known for priority prioritizing happiness over wealth puts one

Starting point is 00:32:06 third of their fucking gdv in bitcoin like you can't like you can't write it better than that bro like yes they're prioritizing happiness because they have their wealth in fucking bitcoin For sure. Anyways, check out the rest of this report. It's about two minutes. Has quietly emerged as a major player in the cryptocurrency world. With $780 million worth of Bitcoin, which is nearly a third of its GDP, Bhutan has become the fourth largest government holder of Bitcoin. Now, what's fueling the country's ambition is to become a leader and green crypto mining? Here's our report with answers.

Starting point is 00:32:44 Nestled in the Himalayas, Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist kingdom with fewer than 900,000 people, has emerged as an unexpected yet powerful player in the world of cryptocurrency. Known for its serene landscapes, happiness-centric philosophy and commitment to sustainability, Bhutan has quietly amassed a significant treasure. Over 13,000 Bitcoin worth approximately $780 million. For a country with the GDP of just under $3 billion, this is a staggering sum, making Bhutan the fourth largest government holder of Bitcoin globally. The Himalayan Kingdom is only behind the United States, China and the United Kingdom as it overtook El Salvador, Ukraine and Germany. Unlike the United States and China, which gained their cryptocurrency through seizures and legal battles,

Starting point is 00:33:49 Bhutan took a more proactive approach by investing directly, in Bitcoin mining. And the nation's journey into the digital asset world has been led by its state-owned investment arm, Drukholdings. Now, even though Bitcoin, the world's first decentralized digital currency was created in 2009, it has since evolved from a fringe internet experiment into a globally recognized financial asset. All right, you guys get the general gist of it. By the way, I did the math real quick. If you divided the 13,000 Bitcoin evenly between the 900,000 people, each person would get 1.5 million Satoshis.

Starting point is 00:34:36 Nice. I mean, like, if you divide it all Bitcoin globally, equally, it's like 200 and something thousand stats per person. So, like, they're already, they've already quintupled the per person allotment. It's crazy, man. I'm bullish. I'm bullish on Bhutan, man. Bullish on Bhutan, the Zen kingdom. Anyways, I do want to cover this because it is extremely important. And I do want to give credit where credit is due. Shout out to Nick Carter. He's done an incredible job, like kind of covering this in Operation Shook Point 2.0. And essentially for anyone who hasn't been tuned into Simply sessions, essentially it's been a combined effort by elements of the U.S. government to isolate the industry from the traditional financial system. So this includes the proposed 30% Bitcoin mining tax on Bitcoin miners.

Starting point is 00:35:31 This includes Caitlin Long's denial of a federal banking charter, making her bank non-competitive with banks that do have a federal banking charter. This includes the arrest of the tornado cash developer, which set the precedent for the inevitable arrest of the samurai wallet developer. This includes the flight of lightning wallets leaving the union. United States. That's Operation Choke Point 2.0. Well, a smoking gun was uncovered. This is nuts. Check this out. Bombshell relevation that Silvergate was liquid and solvent when the Fed forced it to close changes. Everything when analyzed the March 2023 bank failures. Look at the dates. March 8th, Silvergate

Starting point is 00:36:15 voluntarily liquidates. March 10th, Silicon Valley fails. March 12th, signature fails. It goes on the highlighted section says, however, the increased supervisory pressure on Silvergate and the other banks focused on servicing crypto asset businesses for Silvergate to a point where it would have to, it would have needed to remake its business model away from its focus on crypto asset businesses. It was a literal hit job, and I'll get to more in a second. Stop and think about that timeline. Think, would Silicon Valley Bank have failed had Silvergate not been forced by the Fed to closed just two days earlier. Recall the bank run at Silicon Rally really got started on March 9th.

Starting point is 00:36:57 The day after Silvergate announced it would liquidate. Reminder, Silvergate cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund nothing, but the subsequent bank failures cost the FDIC dearly. Silicon Valley cost $20 billion. Signature cost $2.4 billion. First Republic cost it $15.6 billion. Oh, and regarding the latter, J.P. Morgan bought First Republic and its stock price went up 4% on that news. The bigger got biggerer. But zoom out. Would any of the above happen had the Fed not done to Silvergate what it did just days before?

Starting point is 00:37:32 Who at the Fed did this to Silvergate? Who at the Fed is responsible for Operation Shoke Point 2.0? Below is Nick Carter's Fed 2020 list from his Pirate Friars post. The Fed's names Michael Barr and Michael Gibson. So here's basically the architects of Operation Shoke Point 2.0. here's Elizabeth Warren, here's members of the Fed, and also something that the Winklevoss twins uncovered because there was a recent enforcement action on Customers Bank, which was one of the last crypto-friendly remaining banks in the United States, the Fed went after them and basically said, hey, you can't onboard more Bitcoin and crypto-friendly businesses unless you get our approval.

Starting point is 00:38:18 right so operation choke point 2.0 is still alive and well and now we know for a fact that this is a hit job they lit they sign this bank wouldn't have failed if it wasn't for the u.s. government stepping in and sabotaging it and what makes matters worse is now we know that there is collusion between gerry gensler and the cc and elizabeth warren check out this clip senator elizabeth warren and and her office coordinated testimony with the Security and Exchange Commission ahead of a Senate hearing. The Heritage Foundation Oversight Project, of which I'm associated, through a FOIA request, obtained emails from Warren's office to the Office of Chairman Gary Ginsler two days before his Senate testimony back in September of 2021. The email from Warren's Economic Policy Advisor includes a list of questions.

Starting point is 00:39:16 Get this, a list of questions that Senator Warren planned to ask, along with suggested answers for the chairman of the SEC. The advisor also wrote, quote, let me know if you're okay with the questions as currently written. Two days later, she sent a follow up, quote, let me know if it's looking like the chair has any issue with the framing of the questions. definitely don't want to put him in a tough spot, end quote. And it appears the chairman didn't have any issue with these questions because Senator Warren asked almost verbatim from the email. Check this out. Chair, Counselor, advocates say crypto markets are all about financial inclusion,

Starting point is 00:40:03 but the people who are most economically vulnerable are the ones who are most likely to have to withdraw their money the fastest when the market drops. does this sound like the path to financial inclusion, do you? Does it? I mean, I'm going to leave it at that. Like, what was the point of asking, it was all the play? It was all Fugazi.

Starting point is 00:40:26 He knew that he was going to be asked that question. She asked that question. She gave him the question beforehand. And it was all to make the industry look bad. It was all a play. It was all fake. And again, these are supposed to be people that are holding these governments. bureaucrats accountable, but they're not holding them accountable.

Starting point is 00:40:47 They're literally giving them the answers and the questions that they're going to ask them. Nuts. I mean, this is, this is it, though. As with the prior story, again, like, they, the government goes and fucks around and then, like, causes more headaches for themselves as banks implode. And I think this is kind of where we're headed, where it's going to look like Bitcoin, it's, Bitcoin's tendrils kind of. get everywhere. And Bitcoin's going to seep its way, it's already seeping its way into the legacy

Starting point is 00:41:19 financial system to the point where it won't be able to be extracted without toppling a lot of institutions in the process. It's getting to that point. And yeah, there's still other issues. There's still like attacks on self-custy. There's still all of that. But they won't, I think we're past the point of trying to kill Bitcoin the asset. And now the next. the next big boss is Bitcoin, the currency, which I'm very much in line with championing and wanting people to use it in their day to day. Because when you, again, you came to the sat market, when you can go to your local butcher or you can go to your barber or you can get your, you know, your beef and your eggs and

Starting point is 00:42:06 your milk and whatever else you're getting, if you can get the necessities of life from people you know and send them sats and nobody can stand in between that's when you're truly resilient and i think that's important i saw a comment um from citadal's dispatch uh should we address it i don't know i think it's just geese i'm pretty sure the geese right are you sure there's many many geese in a row we could bring it up i mean i'll leave that to you uh you're you're the uh you're the spicy news So I just I'm the tech update guy. Okay, off the top of my head. Breaking news, Swan sues their, their mining division, which apparently broke off.

Starting point is 00:42:56 And there's a huge lawsuit going on right now. Joe Carlisari is going through the details. But it seems quite interesting if you look into some of their finances and the whole lot of it. Yeah. I just got to want, last thing that I'll say is the day that Odell said that on Nostre was the day that I resigned. Time that trade, baby. Anyways, guys, this was Simply Sessions for September 26, 2024. Ben, I'll see you next week. Cool later, man. Awesome. Everybody stick around. Of course, give Simply Bitcoin a follow if you're not already following them. Number one, go hit up their Zabstream because they've been streaming

Starting point is 00:43:38 on Noster. And I think, again, it's the time that it was always the time, but you know, support your Noster, streamers and let's peel away from some of the legacy platforms, of course. But go check them out.

Starting point is 00:43:54 Also, everywhere else they stream. They're on Rumble. You know, they're all on the legacy platforms as well. So where you are, check them out. But, of course, go check out the Noster. I'm going to be hitting you up with the tech updates. We've got a whole bunch of cool shit that has come out this past week.

Starting point is 00:44:12 We got a samurai wallet clone that has just reared its head in the wild, which is very interesting. And yeah, we'll be covering that in a second. We're going to do a quick shout out to our sponsors. And when we get back right away, we're going to have a SAT giveaway over at Bitcoin Well. So get those lightning wallets ready. And you can have the chance to win some stats as soon as we're back. So we'll see you in just a moment. Keeper is a mobile Bitcoin application for managing and securing your funds for the long term.

Starting point is 00:44:51 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. When it comes to peer-to-peer trading and lending, instant self-custody and no K-YC, 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,

Starting point is 00:45:30 whether you're looking to buy and sell or whether you're looking to lend or borrow. You can check them out today at the links down below. Speed wallet is a Bitcoin Lightning Wallet built with simplicity and my wallet. spend and receive with ease, claim your own lightning address, shop your favorite gift cards, and even earn rewards when you spend. Head over to speed.app to download the app on your mobile or desktop today and use the link down below to get 5,000 sats for free and have the chance to win even more. All right, we are back in.

Starting point is 00:46:07 And before we give away some sats here, I got to address something. Yellow wants to know. are you ready for tomorrow? Or am I sure for tomorrow? Yellow is going to be on the show. Yellow and Selly and Barry. There's going to be a clash of 58K gang versus Yellow, who just for the love of Christ wants it to get over $99,99999.

Starting point is 00:46:39 $1,000 yellow. The day will come. The day will come. But it's going to be a slap fight tomorrow. Anyways, we're going to dive in. We're going to give away some sats. Get those lightning wallets ready. This is Bitcoinwell.com.

Starting point is 00:46:56 They're in Canada and the U.S. Great place to be stacking sats. And you can hit them up in the links down below. But we're going to be giving away some sats. Basically, the way it works is, you know, when you sign up for a well account, when you buy Bitcoin, when you're going to run. refer friends. You earn points and you can use those points to throw a coin in the Bitcoin wishing well, which can win you somewhere between 500 to a million sets. So we're going to do that.

Starting point is 00:47:20 We're going to play now. We're going to throw a coin in the well, redeem 500 points. And let me expand this so people can scan a bit more easily. There's 500 sats for the first person to scan it with an LN URL enabled wallet. So congrats to whoever snipes those sets. If you do snive those sets, be sure to let me know in the comments wherever you are watching the show. Love to see it. But with that, let's get into the tech updates. And actually, I'm going to stick here for a second because there's an update on Bitcoin Wall. That's kind of cool.

Starting point is 00:47:53 So if you are a user of Bitcoin Wall, they have swaps now. And swaps are if you want to get from on chain to lightning or lightning to on chain, they just have a quick functional thing here where you can add a destination address. want on-chain and then it'll prompt you with a lightning invoice or vice versa lightning. And then if you want lightning, you provide like a lightning wallet address, like an LN URL. And it will do the rest of the work for you. So cool to see new features coming out here. Jumping over.

Starting point is 00:48:29 OpenSats. Distributes seventh wave of Bitcoin grants. I'm going to rattle them off really quick. Kyoto, mini-bits, DLC, DevKit, Kov, Nutmix, A.S. ASMAP, Floresta, and Assume UTXO in Bitcoin Core app. Congrats to the new grant receivers. Awesome to see. Bolts has now announced we've been cooking today.

Starting point is 00:48:58 We are launching the Bolt's BTC pay plugin enabling merchants to accept lightning payments without the need to run a node powered by liquid Bitcoin swaps. This is super awesome, actually. I'm really happy about this. So I, especially when we were getting fee spikes and everything, I defaulted to using things like bolts and Aqua Wallet and other items like that to be able to use off-chain, you know, like use the liquid network, which is a side chain of Bitcoin. There are trust tradeoffs there to be clear.

Starting point is 00:49:36 But when you're in a pinch and you don't already have like a fat lightning channel and have all your liquidity set up, this can be a trust minimized option for you in lieu of on-chain transactions. So I think that's kind of an awesome, an awesome plug-in. So basically, again, as they said, if you're a BTC pay merchant and you're like, oh, God, managing my lightning node is really hard. and maybe you don't want to do like the strike plugin or the blink plugin that they have for full custodial, then this can kind of be your go between where it's like, okay, I'll accept lightning payments. It will go into a liquid wallet, which liquid you can have secured by hardware. And the same kind of like expub type setup. So you can do that without having to mess around with lightning channels.

Starting point is 00:50:29 So that's awesome. And then you can swap to lightning whenever you see fit. So awesome. Awesome to see that. And then Wasabi Wallet version 2.2.0. Tapert receive addresses, free coordinators, and more. So what does this mean? This version of Wasabby Wallet comes with new features such as taproot receive addresses,

Starting point is 00:50:49 faster transaction broadcasting, improved child pays for parent fee estimation, help with coordinator setup, and the ability to use a prune known in the back end. And more, a significant change in this release is the discontinuation. This is the important part, the discontinuation of paying fees to coin join coordinators to avoid unknown incentives and limit user risk. Only fee-free coordinators are now supported. To outline this a little bit better, this is a fantastic improvement because the protocol is now safer and cheaper for everyone. No more. Trust me, I am a reputable coordinator. No more plebs don't pay. Whatever that means. No more remix don't pay. No more friends don't pay. One-hopps don't

Starting point is 00:51:34 pay none of that nonsense. Now it's simple. You don't pay, period. This closes all the doors for malicious coordinators to try to trick the client into paying more than what they would want. Interesting. Okay. They also have, again, you can drop down, choose tap or receive addresses, faster transaction broadcasting. It also has some guidance on how to set up a coordinator before it was just like, input your info now. It's like, how do I find a coordinator? Yeah. And then again, free coordinators only. Interesting. So I did recently do a video on the newer version of Wasabi now that they've gone to 2.0. So I actually used to be, the show used to be sponsored by Wasabi Wallet when they were running their own coordinator and their business and they had a whole bunch of revenue and everything.

Starting point is 00:52:25 And then they started on-chain, basically on-chain surveillance prior to allowing people to, coin join. And I didn't know in the background when they were going to do that. I had no idea was coming. And so one day I'm getting, you know, people tweeting at me, what the fuck is this? And I had no idea. So that day, I parted ways with Wasabi Wall. Not only did I kind of fired them as a sponsor, but I also stopped using Wasabi. Now, a lot has happened since then. We had the samurai team arrested and the whole world pool coordinator just shut down. We also had wasabi wallet had preemptively again started doing the on-chain surveillance prior to allowing you to use their coordinator. They just sunset the whole thing. I think they just saw what happened with Samurai

Starting point is 00:53:20 and they're like, we want no part of this. Now they have no revenue or source or anything. But in the wake of that, what happened is you started to see alternative coordinators pop up in the wild. So I wanted to re-explore now that these different coordinates were popping up. And some of them are being referenced on Noster as like a way to be able to paste that information and not have it taken down. I wanted to explore that. So again, this isn't commenting on the efficacy of the implementation of the coin joint protocol itself, but just kind of what has happened previously with the whole wasabi debacle. And with the software itself, by default, there is no coordinator.

Starting point is 00:54:04 So you're no longer using the ZK Snacks coordinator because it doesn't exist. You are forced to go and use the coin joint coordinator of your choice at that point. And so that's what I outlined in the video. However, in also the privacy realm, this is very interesting. the game of privacy whackamol has indeed begun, as I alluded to with the Wasabi and the coordinators that are popping up in the wild. We just saw a fork of samurai wallet pop up. I'm not sure how to say it. Hashigaru?

Starting point is 00:54:46 I'm not sure. Anyways. So this is very, very interesting. I'll just outline a little bit here from no BS Bitcoin. The first release of Aishigaro Open Source Project's mobile wallet builds directly from Samurai Wallets 0.99.98 app release and their development work carried out up till the 24th of April 2024. Ashi Garo Wallet version 1.0.0 comes with Payn M or Bit 47 reusable payment codes support. Onion routing over Tor, ricochet transactions, encrypted key recovery, post-mix and batch spending, stealth mode via decoy launcher, peer-to-peer coin joins, stowaway and stonewall, coin control features and an advanced fee algorithm for determining a rate from unconfirmed transactions in the mempool.

Starting point is 00:55:43 The first release, developers focused on familiarization with the code base, assessing and testing the development change. made by Samurai up to April, removing all dependencies on Samurai wallet infrastructure, tailoring the UI and UX for Dojo only usage. This is important. Dojo only. So the criticisms of Samurai before came from the fact that if you weren't running your own dojo, your own basically like node and all of the infrastructure necessary in the background. If you weren't running that on your own hardware natively, then you were trusting the their coordinator. And in the process there, it was necessary for them to at least one time view your ex-pub in order to be able to proper coordinate and pull addresses for which you would

Starting point is 00:56:35 receive the subsequent coin joins. So if information, you know, the worry was that that information was being relayed at all. If you're running a dojo, it was not being relayed. Well, with this one, this app requires you to run a dojo. You cannot use it without running a dojo. Now, I did look through, and the way that they kind of explain setting it up and everything, it is not super simple. But I'm going to try my hand at it.

Starting point is 00:57:18 I do. I'll just, I've got an Intel nook here that I'm going to repurpose. And I'm going to turn it into a Linux machine and try my hand at some command line, which I haven't really touched in a long time. But here we go. So that's going to be a new little project for me. But nonetheless, I think this is super awesome. I do actually have a Ronan Dojo over you. I don't even know if that is, that's.

Starting point is 00:57:45 project is still continuing to move forward or if it's just quiet. It's been super quiet since May. I haven't seen anything. So I'm not, I'm kind of unsure, but I want to do it from scratch. I want to do the command line stuff. Just kind of see, see how it is. Hopefully there's like a GUI that comes out eventually. Anyways, really cool. My main point in and around this story, or I guess both of these when it pertains to wasabi when it pertains to samurai and things popping up that were taken down before um i feel like bitcoin privacy tools are are in the midst of moving from their napster moment to their bit torrent moment where um you know napster could easily just be shut off you guys stop doing what you're doing whereas bit torrent pops up and sure you can kind of like

Starting point is 00:58:39 oh, shut down this website, this website, but it keeps migrating and people keep on building the same tools for people to utilize. So, yeah, I think that's kind of entirely necessary. This was anonymously forked, the samurai wallet. And so, yeah, I mean, that's great. And don't forget that there's other tools out there when it comes to coin join as well.

Starting point is 00:59:06 You've got, God, I'm totally forgetting what it's even called. I have it here. Join Market. Jam. Jam app. You can get that on your Start 9. Of course. Check that out if you haven't already. Anyways, moving on. Bolt 12 offers officially merged into Lightning specification. Big news. Today, Bolt 12 has officially been merged into the Bolt's repo and is now part of the official Lightning specification. Currently, three implementations support it. Core Lightning, LDK, NIClair, slash Phoenix. This is the first new Bolt added since 2017. I love Bolt 12. It just makes it so much easier to do a number of things,

Starting point is 00:59:43 but some of the main things here. Onion messages, blinded paths, snore signatures, BIP 340, pair proofs, Merkel trees, wire protocol, extensible, native. More or less, you can have a reusable payment code and anybody can just use that QR code or that string of text to pay you at any point in time. Super convenient. Makes it a lot better.

Starting point is 01:00:07 More private. Awesome. Moving on. I was experimenting the other day, and this is something that I was playing with. So I sent a lightning, a transaction from my Start 9 Lightning Node using Albi Hub, and I linked it to their AlbiGo app. And so explaining a little bit about what that is, maybe I'll just bring it up here. Here's Albi Hub. Okay, so Albi Hub is basically an interface to be able to,

Starting point is 01:00:37 interact with your node. And so here is a node. I've got a giant channel that I got from Olympus. And then, you know, I've got some on-chain left over here. I've got some lightning funds, which I'll probably swap into on-chain because a larger payment just came through there. And then I have a large receiving capacity. But basically, you've got a wallet. You can send and receive, I can link it to my Albi right up here in my browser. It's all self-custodial. And so the long and the short of it is, I can also link my wallet on my phone, so like Zeus or the new Albi Go app. And you can just use this as however you see fit. And you can also do connections. I've got connections to Stacker News and Amethyst and my primal app and zap. And zap dot stream,

Starting point is 01:01:27 where this is streaming on Noster right now. As a matter of fact, I've been getting Zaccount. zapped like crazy here throughout the show. And look at this. These are zaps from people on Noster, like right now. That's O'Dell. That's O'Dell right there. But like these are being zapped over my Albi Hub directly to my start nine, my nodes sitting on my shelf behind me.

Starting point is 01:01:57 And then I can instantly access it on my phone. How fucking cool is that? That's so cool. And it works. It works amazingly. Like it's just smooth. It's not like it doesn't take forever to load. I hit the button on the app and it's just in front of my face.

Starting point is 01:02:09 Why? Because it uses Noster wallet connect. It's instant. It's beautiful. I'm so, again, I've ranted about this over the past couple of weeks, but fucking hell. It's so awesome. So anyways, if you haven't tried Albi Hub, you should probably check it out. But yeah.

Starting point is 01:02:27 So what did I do here? where was it? There we go. So I sent a lightning transaction from this setup, again, a fully custodial self-custodied setup, and I sent it over to the FETI app with a mint that the Bitcoin mentor team, my team over at Bitcoin mentor.io, all of the Bitcoin educators, we set up our own Fed a Mint the other day and got plugged into a lightning gateway and I was able to send from my full setup to a community setup that I did with all the gentlemen and ladies over at Bitcoin Mentor into a setup that then instantly pegged in and received basically e-cash from that and anybody in the Mint could send to and from each other with near perfect privacy, instant no fee.

Starting point is 01:03:24 and it's great for like small communities to maybe like initial onboard or or again add privacy add like native apps but the point is that all of this infrastructure was either set up entirely by me or set up in the context of a community altogether and that that is super cool I was pretty excited about it so yeah anyways I'm going to be diving more into building mints and all that kind of stuff over time. I just, I think it's super exciting. Last few things, I just did a video on the brains mini-miner, home mining. More as a hobbyist type thing, don't expect to make profit, but is a great learning tool. And you can solo mine and have a bit of a forever lottery ticket on your shelf, which I do now. So I'm solo mining with this thing. But it was a

Starting point is 01:04:16 good time. I enjoyed it. And so you can check out that video. I've posted on Noster. It's on YouTube. It's a bunch of places. And then tomorrow, Of course, it's going to be a showdown. Yellow, Sally, other berry. Why are we bullish? We've got 58K gang versus Yellow. Yellow's fighting for his life as he has been for three and a half years now. And maybe one day, don't stop believing will come to a triumphant end.

Starting point is 01:04:47 You know the real bullish thing about this bull run is the sweet, sweet release that Yellow is going to feel on that final don't stop believing. God. I mean, if we ever get there, it could be, you know, 58K of gang forever. Who knows? But nonetheless, I hope that yellow one day tastes sweet, sweet release. But I won't be celebrating 100K. I'll be celebrating the salvation of yellow. That's, that's where it'll be. Anyways, check that out tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern time. And finally, I'm going to round it out. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you to everybody that enjoyed the stream, of course, like, sub, share. Everybody over in Noster, this was my most live viewed Noster stream ever. And that's huge. And I've noticed a big uptick in the last few

Starting point is 01:05:36 episodes. So I really do appreciate it. You guys. Thank you so much. If you're over there on Noster, make sure that you hit that little notification button and you follow the channel, which will help you again see future streams. And I'm trying to, again, put more effort into utilizing that platform because I do think it's the future. I just think that we're very early and I guess we got to bootstrap it. So again, everybody that came in and crashed the show and we're commenting over there really, really do appreciate you. Also, everybody that's been here in the live chat as well and various other platforms,

Starting point is 01:06:17 appreciate you guys. Please do like, sub-share. It really, really does help. If you want to help this show in another way, you can hit up the previously mentioned sponsors down below in these show notes. And finally, if you've been perusing the channel through the tutorials, you're working on leveling up as a Bitcoin or you're trying to not be a Bitcoin Luddite, you don't want to just learn a couple things and stand still. You're trying to build your knowledge. But maybe you need some additional help, some handholding. Reach out to my team over at

Starting point is 01:06:42 Bitcoin Mentor.io. I've got aggregated an incredible group of Bitcoin educators and they can help you through with anything when it comes to wallets, hardware, multi-sig, lightning, running your own node, home mining, whatever it may be, they can help you through, they can help you figure it out. So again, just reach out Bitcoin mentor.io and you can book a free intro session to discuss what you would like to learn. And you can go from there. Anyways, guys, with that, I am out.

Starting point is 01:07:14 Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening, wherever you may be. I'll see you guys next time for your Simply session. Bitcoin.

BTC Sessions - The SHOCKING Connection Between Coinbase and BlackRock

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