BTC Sessions - Trump Vows to Free Ross ep418

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

**Simply Sessions** - Stay updated with Bitcoin news. On May 29, 2024: Trump vows to free Ross and protect self-custody, nations boost Bitcoin mining, ETFs hit 1M Bitcoin milestone, companies adopt Saylor’s strategy, and Riot Platforms' acquisition news. BOOK private one-on-one sessions with BITCOIN MENTOR! Learn self custody, hardware, multisig, lightning, privacy, running a node, and plenty more - all from a team of top notch educators that I've personally vetted. https://bitcoinmentor.io/ 💪 SUPPORT THE SHOW: BITCOIN WELL is the quickest and easiest way to get Bitcoin directly into self custody. They also offer non-KYC sells and bill payments. Transparent 1% spread, no additional fees and no withdrawal fees. Check them out today! https://bitcoinwell.com/btcsessions COINKITE offers the BEST Bitcoin hardware on the market. Use this link to get 5% off anything in their store: https://store.coinkite.com/promo/BTCSessions NUNCHUK WALLET and their Honey Badger plan is a best in class assisted mutisig setup with built-in inheritance planning and NO KYC. Check them out today! https://nunchuk.io/ HODLHODL is a NON-CUSTODIAL, ANONYMOUS solution to stack sats peer to peer! Buy and sell Bitcoin while maintaining privacy. Sign up and try it out today! https://hodlhodl.com/join/BTCSESSION DEBIFI is a non-custodial Bitcoin backed lending platform with institutional grade liquidity providers and no rehypothecation of your funds. Find them at: https://debifi.com/

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the show day early this week, Wednesday for Simply Sessions. We have The Man, the Myth, the Legend in the Wings, ready to bring you the latest and greatest in everything that's been going on in the Bitcoin space. We're going to be talking all about that special day as well. You'll find out. But nonetheless, we're going to dive in. This is live. Anything can happen.

So I defer to my friend Bill here. We'll do it live. Fuck it. Do it live. I can write it and we'll do it live. The fucking thing sucks. If you have not already, please do like, subscribe, share all those things. They help a ton getting this content in front of more eyeballs. I am Ben with the BTC sessions.

This is your Simply session. Before we bring in Nico, let's take a quick look at where we are in the market right now. I'm bringing up timechain calendar.com and simultaneously. Now the live chat will be on the right side of the screen for the rest of the rest. the episode for the world to see for better or worse. Time chain calendar, we're sitting at $67,594 per coin. A single U.S. dollar will snag you 1,479 sats in terms of fees. Next block, 30 sats per byte, anytime 12 sats per byte.

And in terms of Bitcoin mine, 19.71 million. That is 93.84% of the total supply. We're going to give a shout out, a quick shout out to our sponsors and we'll dive right in. on a mission to enable independence by being one of the easiest and quickest ways to purchase Bitcoin in Canada and the U.S. 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 and these show notes down below and sign up today. Finkeye.com has 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 including the Mark 4, the tap signer, open dimes, the blog, clock and much more. If you head over their website, make sure you use code BTC sessions at

checkout to get a nice discount. Links are in the show notes down below. All right. And we are back. I'm going to drop my screen down here. We got to welcome in the man himself. Dude, how are you doing, man? Yo! I mean, I'm always hyped, bro. I'm always hyped to do simply sessions and crazy week of news and feeling good, man. It's been wild. There's a lot of very important things happening this week, but the most important of all is that it's your birthday. Oh, man. And we opted to have a little, I know you're a tequila man. You've given me a taste for it now. Yeah. Mine is not as fancy as yours, but I've got some tequila here. So I wanted to give you a cheers for your birthday, man. So, cheers. Cheers. Cheers, man. Happy birthday.

Ooh. Yes, wonderful. Now, I do have to say that there is, there's one other thing that I wanted to, I wanted to share to you on, on this special day. And this is, um, and this is, um, actually, Actually, it's not so much me, but a few people wanted to wish you a happy birthday. So a few people put their heads together, and I just wanted to show you a little something, if that's cool with you. I don't know what to say. All right. Well, let's just dive in.

Let me know if you can hear. Nico, happy birthday, bro. Older and wiser by the day. Can't wait to keep doing this for 10, 20, 30 more years. We got a long road ahead, but I couldn't have picked a better partner. Let's go, bro. Happy birthday. Nico, happy birthday, brother. Love you, man. Good morning!

From the great state of New Hampshire, or should I say Hong Kong? I guess what, everybody. Today is Nico's birthday. Nico brother, happy birthday. I wish you all the best this year and all the best to Sophie, say hello to her, and to your family and to all your loved ones. It was great seeing in Montreal. It was great seeing in Montreal. Look forward to seeing again soon.

And Bon, on behalf of your Bitcoin family, thank you for everything you do for the space. We got your back no matter what, brother. All the best, happy birthday. Hey, Nico, thank you for everything that you do. Happy birthday. Nico, buddy, happy birthday from the Great White North and Len and I here at CBP.

What's up, Nico, happy birthday to you, man. All the best. Nico, my friend, so I'm almost completely. completely off grid here, but Ben somehow found me. Let me know how important a day it was today. So I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and let you know that I am sincerely thankful to know you and have your voice in this space.

I hope it's a great day. All right, brother. What's up, Nico? It's Chris Alemo. I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday dude. You know, I wish you all the best to Sophia and your beautiful daughter. Stack, sats, builds families, and grow the future you want to see. Simply Bitcoin for life dude. Have a good one.

Well, happy birthday brother and like what are the odds on the thousandth episode day? Simulation confirmed! Simply to the moon, baby. Dude, I hope you have a great one. Thank you for everything. Happy birthday, Nico. Here's for another year of dodging fud, stacking sats, and keeping the meme craft strong. May your day be filled with as much joy as a perfectly balanced lightning channel. Nico, what's up dude? I hope you have a happy birthday. I hope you get all the air horns from Opti and I hope you feel super celebrated. I love you bro. Happy birthday, Nico. I hope you have a wonderful day man. Hi, this is yellow. Obviously. I want to say happy birthday to you, Nico. I wish you the best to you and your family.

And also, you're out of Red Bull. You should stock up. It's not like I drank it all. But you're right or friend, okay? Okay. Love you, buddy. Cheers. Nico, happy birthday dog.

Thank you for being who you are fighting this silent revolution. Nico Jones always bringing the heat. And thank you for everything you've done for me. Thank you for believing in me, bringing me on Simply Bitcoin, being so hospitable and welcoming. I really hope that our relationship continues.

for epochs. Can't we drop our between two ASICs? Haven't do a lot of editing and talking to sponsors because that episode was a little more, you know. But happy birthday, live it up, dude. Hey, Nico, happy birthday. Let's go. Nico, it's your birthday, so we're gonna sing you a song. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,

and happy birthday, dear Nico, Happy birthday to you! Woo! Happy birthday, mate. Hope you are having a fantastic day. See you very soon. Pretty good voice. What's up my brother Nico, happy birthday to you.

What a big year it has been for Mr. BitVolt. Started out by giving Swan the secret YouTube sauce, juicing our growth, then you and Sophie did the most important thing, staying humble and stacking brats, and now it's your birthday, marking another year in the development. year in the development of a bitcoiner. Keep kicking ass my friend and I will see you on the Bitcoin battlefield. Happy birthday, Nico. Thanks for everything you do in Bitcoin. Have an awesome one. Happy birthday! I love you so, so much. I hope that you have had an amazing day. I can't wait to

celebrate with you later. I made you some cookies and I know that this year is going to be one of the best ever yet. I'm so proud of you. I love you. I love you. love you so much. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, buddy. I don't know what to say, man. I was, dude, that all came together in like, like I was sending out messages

just today and people were more than happy to drop a happy birthday message to you. So there's lots of people that very much value you, and what you do. So glad that they could come together and do that. I'm not a lost for words, man. That was one of the nicest things someone's ever done for me, Ben. I really appreciate it, dude. Like, I don't know what to say, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for everyone for, you know, all the kind messages and the birthday wishes. And I really, really made my day. That was extremely special, man.

I'm kind of blessing right now. I need another shot of tequila. Oh yeah, let's do it. I'm going to pour one on the spot. But cheers, man. Once a year, we get to celebrate, you know, the people that contribute the most to this crazy world. So, cheers. Cheers. And happy birthday.

Oh. I have family pictures after this. All right. Well, don't feel pressured to lengthen. the news i figured this was uh was more important but uh we'll dive into the news here and you can you can fill us in on what's been going on man so i'll talk to you so sorry for the the pressure no not at all i mean i got two shots of tequila in me so let's fucking hit the news all right here we go all right um don't try i mean bro ben i am that was so nice man holy pal

don't man thank you so much bro seriously that that really meant the world to me I consider you a brother in arms at this point. And thank you, Ben. I really appreciate and thank you for everyone for the very nice messages. I am turning red. Okay. All right. So over the weekend, all right, three, two, all right, over the weekend, Donald Trump at the Libertarian Conference dropping, completely shattering the Overton window, like one million percent.

And it's not because, I have to emphasize this, it's not because Donald Trump is, you know, loves Bitcoin or, you know, he's a politician at the end of the day. But I think it's a representation of how strong our movement has become that there's a large demographic in the United States, about 50 million voters that feel very passionately about the industry. And that's a huge voter block to the point that they, that the opposing party, the Democratic Party, in an attempt to save face, they rammed the Bitcoin,

they ran the Ethereum ETF, right? They accepted it. And I believe that was because of the political pressures. They saw the polling numbers and they saw, holy cow, maybe it wasn't a good idea to, maybe it wasn't a good idea to, you know, be so hostile against the industry. Obviously, Donald Trump, a politician, it's an election year. He saw that as a good idea. He saw that as a good idea to, you know, an opportunity and he completely shattered the Overton window in every single way over the weekend at the Libertarian Conference or Convention. And he said two of the right things. And I also do want to give a shout out to our friends over at Bitcoin Magazine because

they were kind of instrumental in this in terms of telling him, you know, advising him on what topics are really resonating with people. So here is Donald Trump referencing Bitcoin, referencing CBDCs. Let's check out the clip. Oh, I think we're needing audio there. Oh, is it not? Here. Let me try that one more time.

Take two. Here we go. All right. Let me get it up here. And there we go. Crusade to crush crypto. We're going to stop it. I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin.

will be made in the USA not driven overseas. I will support the right to self-custody to the nation's 50 million crypto holders. I say this with your vote. I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin. And I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.

So a couple things, right? He differentiated between crypto and Bitcoin. He emphasized, he was pointing out the central bank digital currencies and how he won't allow that that puts i'll be honestly to you guys bitcoin is bipartisan this is not a partisan issue can't emphasize this enough it is a unifier it brings people together from all walks of life it doesn't matter whether you lean left or right in the traditional sense bitcoin is for you bitcoin helps you um they made it partisan the moment they locked one of us in a box they gave this opportunity to you

to Trump. And now they have an opportunity to walk it back, right? And that opportunity is, don't be against the industry. Don't. Like, and, you know, I think Trump as a politician who wants to get elected is capitalizing on them dropping the ball. But he didn't just stop there. He also mentioned, I cannot believe this, but I think it's a testament to the power and strength of our industry. He dropped Ross Ulberg. Let's check out the clip because, I mean, I can't even explain better. And if you vote for me on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbric to a sentence of time, sir. I mean, I can't, I don't know what to say, dude. Like, that's insane. Um, I think David Bailey says at best, put your personal politics aside, help free Ross. Last night, Donald Trump pledged to

commute my sentence on day one. If reelected, thank you, thank you, thank you. After 11 years in prison. It is hard to express how I feel at this moment. It is thanks to your undying support that I may get a second chance, right? David Bailey goes on to say, politicians just want your money, your votes and money. No shit, but now we have the votes and we have the money. So I think that's a really important point. And last point here to put the bow on top, Trump inquired if Bitcoin could aid in solving the $35 trillion dollar U.S. national debt problem. And of course, he asked this to, to David Bailey. So I mean, dude, shout out to the Bitcoin magazine crew. This is insane. Ben, I mean, we were talking about this,

brother. Weren't we? We were talking about the CBDC stuff and the thing. And I'm like, dude, like, he's awfully close. He's very, very close. And then all of a sudden, fast forward to three months later, he's like, vote for me. I'll protect Bitcoin. You know, this is crazy. We were covering it with RFK, we were covering it with Vivek, we were Cromer, Ronda Santis, but I could have never have imagined that this election cycle, Bitcoin is on the ballot in November, and so is Rosh Ulbrick's freedom, which is absolutely insane to me. It's, I watched these clips, and I felt like I was in a simulation because, you know, we've obviously been covering it with with kind of you know candidates that were never going to win the presidency

but that were you know still it brought a light to it and i kind of thought that was going to be more or less it for this cycle in terms of it being on the ballot for a presidential election I did not expect it to be thrown right into the public eye on this level, this soon. So again, I guess another example of gradually than suddenly. And the thing that stands out to me the most is just the fact that it's a major point of discussion. and that not only that, but yes, it seems to be like a, it was like a partisan issue where it was heavily Republican-leaning support and Democrat-leaning pushing back against, but as you noted, there's a kind of a division within the Democratic Party where people are realizing like this

is, we're not going to win on this issue as we're posturing right now. And so you've seen this split where even like high ranking officials in the Democratic Party are like, no, we've got to we've got to change on this because it's going to cost us votes, not gain votes for us. So that Overton window has completely shifted in a very unexpected way for me. and what I thought was going to be a top-down kind of crack-down style like let's outlaw it and then maybe go back the other way with a Republican president it's now kind of both

both ends of the spectrum are looking like hey as I guess as David Bailey put it where are the money in the votes and and that's where it seems to be And what I think we're in for, realistically, is just a speculative free-for-all, shit-coinery, you know, election cycle, like a four-year epoch, in which lessons will be learned. And maybe of the other side of that, there might be some negative stuff. But we've got some runway now, I think.

I think we've got some runway to build the tools to make sure that top-down no longer matters. I 100% agree. And again, you hit the nail on the head, Ben, like, they're in a very tough spot. And this is why I believe that they accepted the Ethereum meteor, that you approved the Ethereum ETF as quickly as they did, even though they literally were dragging their feet on the Bitcoin one, is because, like, how do you admit that you don't want in a democracy, right? Like, how do you admit that you don't want people holding Bitcoin? you know and to be fair crypto right people want to buy you know meme tokens whatever like whatever you know

that's well i guess but like how do you how do you how do you how do you admit that like how do you go out as a politician because that's unpopular like the the the thing with elizabeth warren man like that is and and donald trump capitalized on this he's like we're gonna build a pro bitcoin army like what when what world does she think that's a good idea specifically because of of the millennial generation, the Zumer generation, that has gotten absolutely effed because of the Fiat system. In what world did she think that that was a good stretch? That's, I bet you she will, as popular as she is in Massachusetts,

I bet you she will lose reelection in 2028, if you're, I think for senators, it's six years. So four plus six and 2030, if she runs on that platform, right? There's absolutely no way. way, in my opinion. I really think they dropped the ball, but again, it's a forcing function. Like, they're going to have to change tune. Anyways.

I was just going to say, like, to your point, the upcoming generation, again, they can't use the same tactics that their parents and their grandparents use. They can't just, like, go out and buy a house and have it depreciate in the same amount because they can't afford a fucking house. And a lot of people are, you know, a lot of the younger generation, they align with like Wall Street bets and like all of the like the meme you know in their old their only chance at maybe making it what they view is going against the establishment like going and and buying like game stop and crap like that and then they kind of see crypto as a whole as that solution they haven't

honed in on like why Bitcoin specifically but they're on that pathway they're in that funnel to get there and when they see politicians be like oh no we need to make this. illegal they're going to be like oh you're going to make illegal the one thing that might be my ticket out of this this crap heap um and they're not going to take kindly to that i 100% agree man so it is the next segment and because it's the next segment i'm going to take another shot here you're really twisted twist of my arm here man don't worry we only have six more I love G, man. I love G.

All right. You can, you can, you can, all right, well, cheers, man.

These family photos are going to be epic. Oh, man. Yeah, that's going to be funny. I'm sorry, Lisa. Okay.

All right. So another thing, this was huge news. And you guys know the deal on Simply Sessions. One data point isn't enough. You need to pick up on the pattern. The pattern is the key.

Without the pattern, it just, like, you can say it's a coincidence. You can say it's a nothing burger. But now we have three data points, and now that you have three data points, it's a big effing deal. So what are those three data points? First, Bit Deer, Bitcoin mining triples, triples in September, driven by new Bhutan Data Center. Now, you guys remember the article, or if you don't remember, or give you a little refresher, there's an article by Forbes that we've covered on Simply Sessions. It's called The Kingdom of Bhutan has been secretly mining Bitcoin. The reason that that didn't come out

publicly is that the only reason that came out publicly was because of the Celsius bankruptcy. Without the Celsius bankruptcy, we would have never have known. Like, they didn't make that public and they didn't do it on purpose because obviously, you know, the legacy. media isn't a big fan of this. So we have the Kingdom of Bhutan partnering with BitDeer, publicly traded company, expanding their mining operations, not by double, by triple, bro. And this is heading into the halving, okay? Like, that's a big deal. So that's, again, one data point, not a big deal. Second data point, of course, the Bitcoin country. Shout out to Max and Stacey, Naim Bukle, and what they're doing down there.

El Salvador mined nearly 474 Bitcoins adding to state crypto holding in last three years. Big deal. Of course, you have another nation state mining Bitcoin. Okay, it's two data points. You see Eniko, you're seeing shit. You're drinking too much tequila. I don't trust you. No.

That's not the case now because now you have another publicly traded miner. This is the big news of the week. Second to the Trump news, because I think that was absolutely block. Kenya partners with Marathon to monetize underused energy by mining. It goes on to say Kenya has signed a deal with Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings to monetize the countries underutilized energy resources. This partnership announced by Marathon CEO Fred Teal on X marks a significant step towards leveraging Kenya's surplus energy for Bitcoin mining and technological development.

Here's the actual deal. Here's Fred Teal. Fred Teal is the CEO, Fred Teal is the CEO of Marathon at the moment. Quote, Kenya has a special spot in the history of digital currencies. It is the home of M. Pesa, which in 2007 was one of the first ways for people in Kenya and now across Africa to transmit value digitally by using mobile phone credits. Today, tens of millions of people across Africa use M Pesa for branchless money transfers. Marathon is proud to play a part in the next phase. It goes on to say earlier this month.

Kenya and Marathon Digital Holdings initiated their partnership with President William Routou, confirming that Marathon is in consultations with Kenya's National Treasury and Ministry of Energy regarding the mining operations. This collaboration aims to harness Kenya's abundant, underutilized energy, and monetize it via mining. Kenya's geothermal energy capacity is substantial with the country being one of the leading producers of geothermal power into Africa. Despite this, a significant portion of the energy remains untapped. If you guys want to know what the most important part of this article is, it's right here.

Why? Because Bitcoin monetizes stranded energy, energy that was already going to waste. You couldn't, as much as the New York Times would want you to believe that you could just set up a shop in the middle, set up a mining operation in the middle of Manhattan and just take away everyone's energy. Like, that's like the narrative. No, that's uneconomical. You want to go to where the electricity is cheap. You want to know where electricity is cheap? Unstranded energy. Untapped energy. Why? You can't store energy efficiently. If you guys have an iPhone or an Android, even if it's at 100%, you leave it on the table. The next day, it's at 99% or 98%. Battery technology doesn't hold energy over a long period of time. Number two, you can't transport energy over long distances. Why?

Because it loses efficiency, just like the battery. So the longer, the bigger the length, or I don't know if that's the right term. Sorry, guys, I've had four shots of tequila. The larger the length, the more efficiency it loses, right? So you kind of have to use it on the spot. Now, Bitcoin for the first time in human history, it monitors. gives that stranded energy that otherwise like energy that's not being used value that's the signal this entire article that's a signal right there you know what's happening in el salvador same thing

geothermal you want to know why boutan is so popular with bit dear bitier's not doing this out of the kindness of their heart bouton is has enormous hydroelectric capacity to the point that it literally it's like a big portion of the country's GDP. They export that electricity. They have so much power that they're generating off this hydroelectric production off of, it's a country in the Himalayas, man, that ice melts. The river goes down. And it just powers all these Bitcoin miners.

So it's three countries. I don't know if I could say this. No, I can't say this because Mike Germano said it on Monday. or on Tuesday. Sorry guys fucking tequila. No, I don't know if I can say this. Fuck. I think he said this off air. But anyways, let's just say that more countries are going to, I believe, I believe that I'm just,

it's my personal belief. I believe that more countries are going to follow in the footsteps of this because there's many places around planet Earth that have excess energy, right? And Bitcoin gives that excess energy value. Yeah. It's inevitable, right? Like it's, it only makes sense if you're wasting something, then why aren't you going to capitalize

on that and turn it into a profit? You know, here in Alberta, we have a lot of oil and gas. And every time that you drill for oil, there's there are gases that are admitted. Methane, natural gas. There's a number of things. And so a lot of time with a natural gas, when it's a really remote well, they don't have pipelines to get the natural gas out. It doesn't make sense to build them. And then if they were to like barrel it or whatever and then get it out that way, it's it just is not economically viable.

It would cost more to ship it out than then they would make back and selling it. And so the only viable way of doing it up till now was was burn it. Like basically just set fire to it and then you see those flares. They flare it. Or worse, vent those things into the atmosphere. which is way worse for the environment. But now with Bitcoin miners, they'll pull up a skid and put a bunch of, put a little unit, and they'll utilize those gases and convert them into energy and mine Bitcoin on the spot.

They'll reduce the state-imposed carbon taxes because they're no longer emitting as much as they were. But also, now they're making a profit on something that was literally complete waste, and that was actually a liability before, because of the taxes. So, I mean, it just makes sense that this stuff is going to start to happen everywhere on the planet. 100%.

You hit the nail on the head, Ben. This is completely inevitable. No other commodity. Like, they're going to approve the Ethereum ETFs, but Ethereum doesn't do this. Bitcoin does this, right? Bitcoin is unique. It's it monetizes strength. It gives stranded energy value.

And there's so many places. This is why I'm so hyped because you have entire countries and you have cities that are relatively isolated that have tremendous, they have abundant, you know, resources, energy resources. And all of a sudden, Bitcoin miners could just go in there and be like, yo, what's good? And that's exactly what these power companies are doing. Anyways, it is the third news block. So I'm going to take another shot. Here we go. It makes it funner because I slur my words.

Okay, I'm doing a halfer for this one because once again, I have family photos, but cheers, man. All right, we got two more. Okay, so a big deal. I actually want to get your opinion on this Ben specifically, because you're more in tune with just kind of like the community and how they feel about this. Because this is kind of a big deal. A sailor even coined the term one Nakamoto.

One Nakamoto basically means one million Bitcoin. And Bitcoin ETFs see significant inflow, surplus one million held. That's right. And the ETFs combined, the black, by the way, for anyone who's not in the know, the BlackRock ETF surpassed the gray scale ETF, even though it had like a 10-year head start. But the ETFs combined with, off the top of my head, gray scale, black rock, fiduciale, Black Rock, Fidelity, Veneck, Bitwise. They surpassed over one million Bitcoin that they have in custody.

But before you get your panties in a bunch, I don't know. Oh, I don't have this pulled up. That is unlike me. Here we go. No, I can't pull it up in time. Fuck. Okay. Yeah, but the point that I'm trying to make is the, I don't have a graphic to support this,

but you're going to have to take my word for it. Individuals hold about 11 million Bitcoin. There's governments hold about half a million. There's estimated between 4 million lost. The reason it's called one Nakamoto is because it's estimated that Satoshi holds one million Bitcoin. So just to kind of compare, right, if the largest asset managers in the world hold 1 million Bitcoin, The lion share Bitcoin held is held by individuals. Individuals still hold 11 million of that 21 million supply.

So that is a big number. And that is a testament to Bitcoin, the way that Bitcoin was introduced, right? This is a grassroots movement. You had someone literally buying two Papa John Peaksas for 10,000 Bitcoin. In hindsight, you look at that, you're like, that's absolutely ludicrous. but that gave Bitcoin value. Satoshi originally emailed this to a handful of Bitcoin, a handful of people and he said,

hey, this is an interesting project. A lot of people kind of turned him away too. They're like, this is kind of crazy. So this is a testament to Bitcoin's grassroad. This is an bottom up movement. So and because of the bottom of movement, the majority of Bitcoin holders till this day are individuals. So if you're selling Bitcoin for whatever reason at this moment,

you're selling it to an institution and you're selling it to an asset manager or you're selling it to a government. So it's probably not a good idea to sell your Bitcoin because you're probably selling it to Larry Fink and you want more individuals holding Bitcoin. You don't want

less individuals holding Bitcoin. Yeah. Yeah. It's at the end of the day, the nice thing about Bitcoin is holding a lot of Bitcoin doesn't guarantee you more Bitcoin, nor does it give you control of the protocol. And so, you know, like, unlike Ethereum, holding a lot of Ethereum does guarantee you more Ethereum. And it does also give you some control over how things are, are done via the protocol. And so, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, I'm not a fan of

people selling their Bitcoin to large institutions, but you know, you got to put on your big boy pants and figure that shit out on your own and make sure that you're not doing that. But if you do, I mean, I guess you're touching the stove and at some point you will kind of realize what you've done as people before us have and as people ahead of us will continue to do. 100%. 100%. And by the way, I managed to pull up the graph, Bitcoin ownership distribution.

this is a graph according to river minors 714,400 and holy shit 714,000 Bitcoin Satoshi at 1.1 million lost Bitcoin by estimation 3.7 individuals 11.97 million businesses 758,000 funds 818,000 governments 565,000 Bitcoin to be mined 1.38 million. So the lion's share of Bitcoin is still held by individuals. We have about four minutes left. This is the last new segment. So it means Ben, another tequila shot. All right. This one will also be a hafer, but I will. I'll join you in the half because someone in the comments.

The numbers are moving. Yes, the numbers are moving. Your eyes are bigger than your liver. All right. You only turn 32 ones, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, cheers, man. Cheers, brother.

Ben making me cry on air with that video. Dude, that was so nice, man. I don't know what to say. That was, it was good. It came together quicker than I thought. That was really, really, really thoughtful and kind, Ben. And I really, really appreciate it, dude. I never forget that, man.

Thank you. All right, cheers. Yeah, the half shot is the way, right? Maybe we probably should have done that. That would have been good. All right. Here we go. Big news. Another company follows Michael Selaer's footsteps. The name of the company is Semler Scientific. I'm going to read some of this, obviously not all of it. Quote, our Bitcoin Treasury Strategy and Purchase of Bitcoin underscore our belief that Bitcoin is a reliable store of value and a compelling asset. Bitcoin is now a major asset class with more than one trillion of market value. We believe it has unique characteristics as a scarce and finite asset that can serve as a reasonable inflation hedge and safe haven amid global instability we also believe its digital architectural resilience makes it preferable to gold which has a

market value of approximately 10 times of bitcoin okay do you realize how big that guys listen this is a publicly traded company in nasdaq and they literally just told you gold is a shit coin peter schiff tier somewhere. And they literally said it's a superior asset and this thing is going to 10x. This isn't Bitcoiners, right? This isn't just people on Bitcoin Twitter.

This is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ saying that. It goes on to say, given the gap in value between gold and Bitcoin, we believe that Bitcoin has the potential to generate over outsized returns as it gains increasing acceptance as digital gold.

It continues. Furthermore, we are energized by the growing global acceptance and institutionalization of Bitcoin reflected most recently by the SEC in January 2024 approval of 11 Bitcoin ETFs. These funds have reported more than 13 billion in the inflows with estimates with investments from nearly 1,000 institutions including global banks, pensions, endowments, and registered investment advisors. It is estimated that more than 10% of all Bitcoins, Bitcoin's,

are now held by institutions. Very interesting, why are they doing this? Obviously, because of Michael Sailor. Michael Sailor has proven that the micro strategy, Bitcoin strategy is the way to go. Holy cow, I just found out that Michael Sailor is following simply Bitcoin. I did not know that.

That's pretty badass. Anyways, so since micro strategy adopted Bitcoin strategy back in August 10th, 2020, it, It's outperformed everything. Micro Strategy up 166%. The S&P up 24%, the NASDAQ, up 11%. Apple up 51%, Microsoft up 48%, Google up 45%, Oracle up 72%.

Micro Strategy has outperformed everything because it has adopted a Bitcoin strategy. And it seems like other publicly traded companies on the NASDAQ have followed suit. And also this is a worldwide phenomenon. Japanese company Metaplanet, which Dylan LeClair, I believe he's an advisor to, or I don't know the correct term. I'm sorry, guys, is buying another 250 million yen worth of Bitcoin. So it seems like everyone is, you know, following the Bitcoin strategy.

This is a testament to Bitcoin's incentives. This is the game theory playing in real, playing out in real time. And, dude, we're winning. I can't believe it, bro. This is something that we've talked about. theorized. We know the game theory, Ben, but we just like, it's one thing to think about it, but it still surprises you regardless when it happens. It's also wild that the average person has no idea any of this is happening. It's crazy to me that like, so you've met Mike

co-founder for Bitcoin mentor, but he was, and where was he the other day? He was somewhere and he was, you know, he was talking to somebody and, and they asked what he did. And he was like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm running a Bitcoin advisory or like a Bitcoin educational company. And they're like, that's still a thing? Is that like, what's it at right now? Like, what's it doing? And it's just like the average person has no idea that Bitcoin is even still a thing. Like it's barely in their view. And we're basically like, we're just chilling out at previous all-time highs. Like we're just, we're just hanging in around like, you know, close to 70K.

And everybody's like, nobody noticed. Can you imagine how crazy it is when when people start to notice and like, yeah, I don't know what to expect. Yeah, man, it's no price predictions, but, you know, things might get wild, man. So anyways, that was this week's news. I got to say the Romans had a saying in Latin, which is in Bino-I-Ritres, which means in wind there's truth. Ben, you're my brother.

I love you. Thank you so much for making that video, man. That really, like, I was about to tear up, man. That really meant a lot to me. And I can't wait to see you and your beautiful family in Calgary, which is an amazing city. in July. And, you know, it's an honor to do this with you, SimplySessions. But guys, this was your Simply Sessions.

I'm gonna take another shot. I got a poor, I got a poor. Hold on, I'll do a halfer. I'm running out. All right, it's a piss-pour one, but it's in there. Cheers, man. Cheers. Happy birthday. Thanks, brother.

This was your Simply Sessions. Ben, I will see you next week. Peace out, everybody. Everybody. All right, everybody. everybody. Stay tuned. We are just going to quickly recap the tech updates to round out the show. But a quick shoutout to our sponsors before we do. Multi-sig and inheritance planning is hard to beat Nunchuk.io and their Honeybadger program.

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And best of all, no rehypification of your funds. If you want to check them out today, head over to debify.com or hit the link in the show notes down below. All right, let's dive into the tech updates to round out the show. Just a few things I want to touch on here. Number one, mini-bits wallet. So this is a cashew wallet, so e-cash on top of Bitcoin via lightning. They have a new update, 0.1.8, the beta. And so it introduces new mini-bits architecture for receiving zaps, aka via Noster,

and all lightning payments to minibits.comash addresses. So you can have your own lightning address to receive into your e-cash privacy-focused wallet. This concept replaces current sending over Nostr relays. That works only when the app is open and tend to be very slow for heavy Zap collect. E-Cash is now claimed encrypted over TLS, leaving no footprint on relays. Notifications are optional encrypted and carry no e-cash. Notifications are disabled by default for new installs. Be sure to enable them in settings.

So yeah, again, optional push notifications, more logical navigation in around send and receive based on user feedback. And there's a new recovery tool to recover wallet address only from settings for cases where balance recovery is not necessary, such as moving a wallet to a new device. Moving on, Zeus, this is the Alpha, so it's not like on the App Store or anything yet, but Alpha, this, lots of cool stuff here. So rolling out, they've got a new purchase channels in advance LSP service. So you can purchase any incoming channels, like if you don't have enough liquidity,

It supports all self-custodio back-ins so you can get auto channels going to your own lightning node if you're hosting that. It supports multiple Lightning service providers. Bolt 12 offers, this is huge, and Lightning addresses for core lightning. So basically static codes for receiving Lightning payments via Bolt 12, and if you're running C Lightning. Numerous layout and navigation improvements. They've got a new camera with significant performance. gains and then some of these other features from the previous release, which is awesome. Hardware wallet signing device support, cold cards, seed signer, passport foundation,

and more. Batch channel opens, batch on-chain transactions, closed channels to external addresses, improved payment path view, all that great stuff. Awesome. Again, Evan Kludis with Zeus is killing it. Love to see what they're doing. Zapp.com. Store, really cool, version 0.1.2 categories and latest releases. So if you're unfamiliar,

it uses NOSTER to establish identity linking release artifacts to social profiles validated by a web of trust. This enables secure installs new app discoverability layer and develop monetization via ZAPs. Basically, an alternative app store for you. You can now discover apps of the latest releases, which is really cool. And then add categories, added categories, latest releases. They have tablet-tablet landscape support. And then lots of just UI fixes. Pretty awesome.

I played around with it. Again, it's very early days, but just the idea of having a nice, easy-to-navigate alternative app store for your phone. I think that's super cool. Passport now has integration with Thea, Zeus, as we previously mentioned, and coin bits, rather. So yeah, they have a whole bunch of new compatibility with mobile wallets, which is super awesome to see.

BISC version 2.0.4. So this is peer-to-peer Bitcoin buying and selling. They've been around for quite some time. I did cover BISC version 1 way back when I do have version 2. I got to play around with it a little bit more so that I can do a tutorial. but they've rolled out some updates. We're thrilled to announce the release of our latest version. These improvements are part of BISC's ongoing effort to provide secure, efficient,

and user-friendly platform for trading Bitcoin without relying on central authorities. They added an offer book list. List and markets are collapsible for minimized layout. They added green and yellow dot indication for user profiles recently seen online. They also have a last column search filter and export to CSV feature. Lots of awesome stuff. Anyways, excited to play around with BISC some more. Now, on the not-so-awson side, SpeedWallet, and again, this is more on the U.S.

than it is on SpeedWallet itself, but they implement KYC for U.S.-based users. Now, it was a little preemptive, but I think this is just far for the course if you're in the U.S., if they keep on being as adversarial, which me and Nico talked about, may not be the case eventually. But for now, you know, companies and software providers are worried. So, quote, as an immediate measure, speed Bitcoin Lightning Wallet will implement KYC

for all users based in the US. Our new update will go live soon. Any information collected during KYC process will be handled with confidentiality in accordance with applicable data protection regulations. So, yeah, again, they're just feeling the pinch of the scary regulatory environment in the U.S. And, you know, some have attacked it with this by just being like, well, we'll just K YC and everybody there.

And then others have just said, we're just not even going to deal with the U.S. We're going to leave. Hopefully that there's a U-turn on that soon, given the charged political environment. But if there's not, check out Mutiny Wallet. I am currently splicing together and editing a new tutorial for Mutiny. I did one back in the day, not that long ago, but there's been so many updates and so many new cool things that I figured it warranted a new walkthrough. And I tried to do it in a way where it starts pretty basic for brand newcomers because I think this is a viable option for people in the U.S. who don't have good lightning wallets in the app store because you don't need an app store for this one. but then later in the tutorial,

it gets into some of the more advanced bits as well. Anyways, keep an eye out for that. I'll be dropping that Friday morning. And then coming up, I'm heading to the Oslo Freedom Forum. I'm going to be flying out this Friday to Oslo. And the Freedom Forum kicks off on June 3rd through the 5th. So if you're in Oslo, Norway, for that. Let me know that you're going to be there.

Would love to catch up and say hey to you. And then right from there, I'm going to be headed to BTC Prague, which is absolutely epic. I loved it last year. It's going to be very excited to be back. I'm going to be speaking there as well. So if you're in Prague, please also do let me know. And if you're looking to get tickets to BTC Prague,

I do have a code BTC sessions and that'll get you a discount off tickets if you have yet to grab them. There's only two days left before ticket prices go up again. So if you're looking at going, you may as well grab them now before they go up a little bit. Yeah, so be sure to check that out. And then, of course, coming up, Bitcoin Rodeo in Calgary, head to BitcoinRodeo.com. Very excited for that.

I'll be listing that on my website here in the next couple of days. And finally, just to round out again tomorrow, we're going to have Why Are We Bullish? Normally on Fridays, but again, because I'm flying Friday, it's going to be tomorrow. Excited for the guests, you shall see them pop up on socials who it's going to be tomorrow. And be sure to tune in tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern time. And I'll round out by referring you guys over to Bitcoin Mentor. This is the company that I just launched recently. So if you're sorting through some of the tutorials on the channel and you need a little bit of additional help, some handholding, some one-on-one help via video call, you can reach out at Bitcoin Mentor.io.

We've got an awesome team of people that I have personally selected and trained that can help you through anything you need. wallets, hardware, multi-sig, lightning, liquid, fettomints, all that great stuff, running a node, all that. You can come over, check them out, and they will help you through seamlessly. So bitcoinmentor.io. With that, I'm going to round out again before I do a very happy birthday to Nico. Awesome dude. Super happy to be doing this show with him and super happy to be shoulder to shoulder with him in the battle that is, you know, making sure people can access and use Bitcoin. And I hope you all do also wish him a very happy birthday out there in the Twitter and Noster sphere. That would be awesome. And make sure that you do comment on his videos

to let him know that he's much appreciated. But with that, I'm out. Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening. See you guys next time for your daily session. Hoddle their bit, mine.