BTC Sessions - What We Learned from the TOP Bitcoin Events of 2024 ep463
Episode Date: December 28, 2024FOLLOW TODAY’S PANELISTS: https://x.com/theBTCmentor https://x.com/OptimistFields https://x.com/BITVOLT FOLLOW BTC SESSIONS on X/Nostr: x.com/BTCsessions btcsessions@getalby.com 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/ JOIN OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM, EARN BITCOIN FOR REFERRALS! https://bitcoinmentor.io/affiliate-registration/ 💪 SUPPORT THE SHOW: Use The Bitcoin Well - my favourite self custody bitcoin platform in Canada and USA! They offer KYC free accounts, 1% spread, no on-chain fees and tons of other incredible features. Check them out at: 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 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 Speedwallet - your one wallet to send, receive, shop & earn. Simple, fast and convenient! Download now, use code BTCSESSIONS10 via this link & get 5,000 SATs on your first transaction. https://speedbtcwallet.onelink.me/cGph/ssbtcsession DEBIFI is a non-custodial Bitcoin backed lending platform with institutional grade liquidity providers, loan periods of up to 5 years, and no rehypothecation of your funds. Find them at: https://debifi.com/ #bitcoin #btc #crypto
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is the year end.
What's good, bro?
This is the year end.
Why are we bullish?
Opti takeover show.
We have me, the Opti that you know.
We have Canadian Opti over here.
So we have kicked out Nico and Ben.
This is going to be the Opti Takeover show.
Of course, a like and subscribe.
Make sure you hang out.
Comment in the chat.
We do this show live.
You already know what that means.
Anything can happen.
So, uh,
Yes, actually, you weren't supposed to put that on there because that's low key.
I'm not going to say it, but you already know.
All right, all right, Ben, producer Ben, play the video.
We do this live.
I defer to my friends.
We'll do it live.
Okay.
We'll do it live.
Do it live.
I can, I'll write it and we'll do it live.
Dude, you did that off the top of your head?
That was impressive, man.
I'm a professional, bro.
We need to do some shuffling here.
We need to swap a roo there.
We have the ice and fire going on.
There's all kinds of things happening here.
Of course, everybody's got like like and sub and all that good stuff.
But we're here.
It's the year-end show.
And I'm excited to have not only Nico and Opti from Simply Bitcoin,
literally the best news show on Bitcoin on the planet,
but also here from the,
education front, myself, and new addition to the show, Mr. Nathan Fitzsimmons, aka My Opti,
but also from a Bitcoin mentor.
What is your title?
I don't even know what your title is.
I think currently I'm head of operations director.
That's what I am.
I'm the operations director.
I'm taking care of everything that you and Mike don't want to.
I don't have the time for.
That's true.
That's a lot of things.
It's a lot of getting coffee running around town.
It's not bad.
It's good gig.
It's good.
Your copy, it does arrive piping hot when you bring it, I will say.
Well, this is going to be a good time, gentlemen.
We're here to reminisce on some of the most bullish things that happened in all of
2024, which there was a lot.
And so, yeah, this is going to be a hell of a show.
I think maybe quickly, let's just take a look at kind of where we're kind of rounding
out the year.
Obviously, there's a few days left here, but here's timechain calendar.com.
And we can peek up at the bottom here.
But we're sitting at, what, $94,339 per coin.
We started the year off.
Where were we?
God, let's go.
We started the year off at 46K.
Did we actually?
Yeah, January 1st was around 46K.
Even like year to be low, the low was 387.
And we're at 94.
And everybody's like, I feel bad.
Bull market's over.
It's done.
It would be nice to buy Bitcoin.
add those prices.
That'd be nice.
Dude, a 3X is so bearish on the year.
We should wrap it out.
Why are we, Bitcoin?
It is funny because there's been some tweets.
Like, I saw one that like literally zoomed in on like this last, what, a couple of weeks or
something.
And it was like absolute collapse.
What are you looking up?
We're up 122%.
We're up almost 52K on the year.
That's insane.
Like a single dollar only buy.
you just over a thousand sats, which is crazy.
I mean, like, it's just, it's been a hell of a time.
And I love over on time chain calendar, you can just, like, look up certain dates.
And if you look, if you look back in the COVID crash in, like, March, it's like,
the amount of sats you could get for a dollar back then is actually depressing.
You could get 16,000 for a dollar.
And it was, it got worse.
At one point, it was over 20,000 stats for a dollar in 2020.
Yeah, that is just ridiculous.
Do you guys remember the $100 to buy a million sats?
Me and Nika say that all the time.
I still do $100 math for a million sets.
Yeah, it's like, what, 10x?
Like if I knew that was the case, I would have done, I think I did as much as I could,
but I would have done more.
Yeah.
Well,
we all believe in sat sent parity coming.
Yeah.
Oh,
that's inevitable.
Yeah.
So every sat you buy,
like right now,
you can effectively buy,
because a sat sent parity is a million dollar Bitcoin.
Yep.
And so if,
if you look at right now,
you're basically for,
now if I can reload the time junk heller,
or we're sitting at, yeah, like a thousand and sixty SAT.
So basically you're buying, if you're still in a Fiat mindset, right now, you can buy $10 for a dollar.
Yep.
It's basically what you need to be thinking of.
You can buy $10 for a dollar.
How often and how much money would you pile into that deal?
All of the money.
Yeah, all of the money.
All of the money.
Everything you've got and your neighbor's money.
Yeah.
And that's just stat sent parity.
I believe we go beyond that, obviously.
because there's infinite money and there's finite Bitcoin.
It's going up forever.
It is.
This is already so bullish.
Okay, well, we're going to.
We're being called Simply Bearish Sessions today.
Simply Barish Sessions.
Thank you, Matthew.
You're right.
You're right.
I think one of my favorite clips ever was Pierre Richard,
and he's interviewing somebody.
And they're like, yeah, a trillion is is not outside of the realm of possibility.
And he's like, yeah, trillion per coin.
Wait, didn't he say a trillion per cent?
I thought he said a trillion per cent.
Like Preston was like very stoic and serious.
And he's like so.
And this was like, mind you, this was like 2016.
Like it was like, you know, like.
And he was like interviewing Pierre Richard.
So like, what do you think is going to like happen with the price?
And it's like, yeah, a million per coin.
And then like shortly after Peerrera's like,
One trillion.
Like it was like, but he was, he said it's so seriously like deadpan.
Like remember that a video he did for the mining operation in.
Yep.
Oh, yes.
We're looking for the CO2?
Yeah.
Like it was the same deadpan humor, but he was totally serious.
It was hilarious.
And then somebody put in the like the shades and the cigar of life over top.
It was great.
It was super funny.
Yeah.
Well, gentlemen, we're here to reminisce on the most bullish moments of,
of 2024 and I mean, I guess, overarching, you know, things that that happened or it can be very
specific. But I mean, I think each of us kind of have our, you know, our own thoughts on,
on what is uniquely bullish about 2024. And there is no shortage of stuff. And so, yeah,
we're going to dive into that and we'll kind of each cue up what we're excited about.
So before we do, we're going to give a quick shout out to the sponsors and then we'll start
diving into all the most bullish stuff of 2024.
So LFG, I guess I'll play the jingle and then we'll do the ads.
So we'll see you guys in a sec.
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All right, we are back.
Wait, wait, wait, sorry, Ben.
I have a bone to pick here.
Guys, do not go to whatever that trash link was.
You go to Bitcoinwell.com slash simply DTCC.
No, simply BTC.
I repeat.
No, don't scan this.
Wait, don't scan that one.
You go to the better affiliate link.
Simply BTC.
Okay, I'm done.
Perfect.
Perfect.
I'll just keep that cute up on the side there.
Just in case there's any riffraff on the show.
Well, Jets, let's get bullish about this year.
I'm going to kind of start us off with one of the things that started the year that was actually bearish as fuck and really scary.
But I think Bitcoin in and of itself just has this immune response to anything trying to hurt it, aka Bitcoiners.
They build tools to route around any roadblocks that we come up upon.
And so there was a lot of attacks on privacy this year from the state, which was scary to see.
So we had samurai wallet founders arrested and charged with money laundering.
There's been lots of developments in and around that.
But basically they said, hey, you guys are running a service that gives people the ability to coin join.
even though they didn't custody any of the funds, they still basically said, hey, you're money laundering.
And some of the comparisons were like, well, a, what was it, like a frying pan doesn't hold heat.
Oh, yeah, the transfer of heat crap.
Yeah, they compared, you know, money laundering to a USB cable transferring data, enabling people.
Like, the comparisons were insane.
But this is kind of what they picked him up on.
That had a chilling effect.
not only did Samurai Wallet and Whirlpool go down, but shortly thereafter ZK Snacks,
aka Wasabi Wallet, their coin joint coordinator, they just voluntarily sunset it.
And they said, yeah, screw that.
We're not doing this anymore.
If they're a target, we're a target.
And so that was two-thirds of the major coin join implementations that existed, really, at the time,
and they were suddenly unavailable.
But what's the bullish part?
In the wake of that, first we saw the rise of alternative coin join coordinators for the Wasabi wallet on desktop, which you could always sub in, but now you're actually getting decent amounts of liquidity in them.
So the largest coin joint coordinator that you can use for Wasabi right now, just in this past 24 hours, it's had 56 and a half new Bitcoin.
enter into coin join rounds, and it's currently remixing around 555 Bitcoin.
So, like, lots and lots of liquidity there to be able to help yourself.
Now, there are some worries in and around, like, how sound are these coordinators?
There's been some stuff in and around, like, oh, you know, if you get a malicious coordinator,
then they can deanonomize stuff.
And so there needs to be updates to protect against that.
But nonetheless, seeing the rise of coin join coordinators that are done anonymously and that people can continue to use is awesome.
Furthermore, so this is the coordinator, this is the biggest one that's currently around K-R-U-W.io.
I don't know how to pronounce it, but.
And then also we saw somebody anonymously forked Samurai wallet into Ashi Garo.
And so this is basically the same layout with big they continued on from where the project ended and then added on on top of it.
Now, unfortunately, there is not yet a coordinator that you can use.
But I would be surprised if we didn't see one that you could plug into in the near future.
But all of the other privacy features in around this, including pay join with other people.
So two person coin joins.
all of that's available in there.
They've got Payneems.
They've got a whole bunch of the other privacy tools.
And you can run your own dojo node.
It required you to do so for this one,
which was actually one of the privacy worries before.
But now there is a possibility where you can download the wallet
and you can connect it to a general dojo node.
But they do obviously say,
like, if you're incapable of running one,
then you can use this one, just be aware there are privacy risks there.
And that's not even to speak of join market never stopped humming away.
So that still works.
And you can just get that on like a Start 9 or on Umbrol or on I think my node and probably
Raspberry Blitz, if I'm not mistaken.
Beyond that, you've got coin joins that are starting to be coordinated via Noster,
which is crazy.
And then outside of that with some tradeoffs, you have things like Fint, which has been making waves this year, as well as eCash using the cash protocol.
So in general, I'm just super bullish that out of something so horrible to start the year off, we're seeing all of these things pop up where it's like, no, fuck you, you can't control this.
look at it's it's it's it's whack a mole but they whacked one and then 10 more popped up and so it's
just it's like bitcoin it's going to be very very difficult to control and i liken this to
the napster moment where they went in and said hey napster you're dead uh we'll shut it down
and then what do we get from there torrenting and you know you get you get pirate bay and
Pyra Bay 2 pops up and 3 and 4
and all these different websites
where you can download Torrance. So
I think we're hitting that
moment right now
and I hope that it continues.
It doesn't look like it's slowing down.
So yeah, I don't know. I think that's pretty
excited. I'm curious what you guys
think in and around
the then they fight you
like aspect of this.
I mean
yeah, I mean
the the
The Samurai Fork, that is so badass.
I didn't even know, like, I didn't even, like, the open source aspect of Bitcoin and the ability to just like, like, it reminds me of the first Silk Road.
The first kind of, like, it was like the first Silk Road, Ross went to jail.
They tried to make an example out of him.
and then like shortly after four or five other Silk Roads, you know, popped up. And it just like reminds me of like the, you know, no one can kill an idea whose time has come. Something like along those lines is like the saying. So yeah, I mean like it's so badass that they were just able to like kind of keep going. And then the like the mixing like the, I don't know what it's what the specification, the specific wording or the technical know how that's up your alley, Ben. But. But.
the fact that you're able to do some of this stuff through Nostr is so freaking cool. And you,
you pulled up a Start 9 OS thing. So that means that that was running locally on Start 9 and it
wasn't some cloud service. Yeah, this is, this is all, this is why we're going to win. I mean,
they locked up the samurai guys. And then shortly after, they're like, you know what, F you,
we're just going to fork this slightly change the name. And then we're just going to keep
going. And then in regards to like the, you know, Samurai Wallet case, I mean, Opti and I have been
covering this the entire year. And it was like, it was a Sega. It was like an odyssey. It was like
it was first tornado cash, tornado cash setting the precedent, then coin center sued. The lawsuits
got struck down. Within three weeks, they arrested Samurai. So it was like this slow creep.
They couldn't go for Samurai first because it was too big. So they went for like a
smaller mixing, quote unquote mixing service that no one else uses to set a precedent. Once the
precedent was set, that made, that gave them the justification to go after the bigger fish.
And also they tried to, the treasury tried to, this got struck down recently, elections
have consequences. But they tried to set a precedent that open source software is able to be
sanctions by a government, which is super. It's like, Samurai didn't commit a crime.
Like the software they commit the crime.
You can say that people that use the software commit to the crime, but you can make the same argument with guns, right?
It's like, you know, a gun is a gun.
It's just a tool, right?
It's a very dangerous tool.
But the gun doesn't fire itself.
Like, that's someone who did it and used it inappropriately, right?
So, you know, it's, it's a, I have a variety of reasons, like a variety of feelings.
The samurai stuff, like, I think we're winning on that front.
again, elections have consequences.
All the forks that came out, that's so badass.
It's like a, we're like a hydra, this decentralized movement of open source community
and all these individuals all around the world, like continuously seeking freedom,
which is absolutely awesome and badass.
So, yeah, man, I'm really excited.
I think 2025 is going to be even more exciting than this year.
Even though this year was phenomenal, dude, like so many things happened.
It was a historic moment in Bitcoin's history for sure.
Yeah.
Well, even just to jump off that, Nico, it's like not even just a hydra,
or like some sort of weird beast that as soon as like someone use a move against us,
we learn it, we use and we move forward, right?
It feels like the Bitcoiners and the Bitcoin community is getting so much faster
at responding to these.
They know exactly the tactics that are going to be played and they know how to skirt around
him.
Like, actually, Garu, I think that was up in like no time flat.
It felt like it was instantly here.
And same with the other coordinators that we know the moves that they've made in the
past. We know how to get around it and we're faster, better, stronger than we ever have been
before. With every previous hit that Bitcoin has taken, it's gotten better, right? And as they
continue to try and ramp these things up, it's just ultimately making us stronger, which I think is
very, very bullish for the way things are moving, the way they're progressing. This whole
this intermediation, too, right, with the coordinators, with the software, with everything, I think
that's the powerful move that ultimately nobody can stop. Other Opti, I'm curious, your take on it.
Yeah, well, this year, I was literally thinking about this.
I'm going to go on a tangent here.
I was literally thinking about it this morning.
I was taking a shower, getting ready for the show.
Or maybe it was after I went to the gym.
I took two showers today, cleanly opti over here.
Anyways, I was thinking about it.
And I could barely remember what the beginning of the year was like.
It felt like it was, you know, five years ago.
Just the journey that we've been on throughout this year, I think in particular,
seemed like a very long journey from the very beginning to where we are now.
And it seems like the conversation has fundamentally shifted.
And Nico famously crashed out on our show at Simply Bitcoin when the Samurai Wallet guys got
arrested.
And that was like the defining moment on Simply Bitcoin to where we took a lot of heat talking
about Trump and, you know, the Republican stance on Bitcoin.
And that was like the defining, defining conversation at the moment.
When Samurai finally got arrested, we were talking about the,
tornado cash stuff on our channel and everyone's like, this is about Ethereum.
Like, why are we even talking about this?
And we basically said, you know, this is setting the precedent for things to come down
the pipeline.
It happened weeks later.
And I think around that time is when someone in the chat coined the term, what's the
saying, Nico, tomorrow's Bitcoin news today or whatever it was.
And we've been covering this for so long.
And as a Bitcoiner, it's very funny that you have very good predictive powers once you
understand Bitcoin, even if it's just like, you know,
Nico and I, which I like to joke where like 65 IQ bit corners over here, we're still able to
predict what's going to happen. And that's because we just have good first principles. And so it's
very easy to see what's coming down the pipeline. And when you talk about them in the moment,
you do take a lot of heat. And a lot of people look at you like, what are you guys even talking about?
Why are we talking about this? This has nothing to do with Bitcoin. And then weeks later,
it happens. And so throughout this year, there was a very, very, you know, real moment throughout the
journey of simply Bitcoin. You know, we go live every single day. There was a point throughout the
year where Nico and I, well, more Nico than I, because I'm very staunch, like I'm not leaving the
U.S. But we were like actively every day, like, man, are we going to have to go to El Salvador?
Like, this is getting crazy. Like, they are attacking us very obviously. And everyone, it was like
watching a slow motion train wreck. And everyone's like, no, bro, like this isn't happening.
Why are we talking about this? And that's when it became like a very pivotal.
conversation on Simply Bitcoin where we have to actively talk about this because it is getting
pretty scary. Like it is getting pretty hairy. And now looking back on the year, where we are right now,
it seems like a totally different development. Where at the point we are right now, not only is there
people out there building stuff. And, you know, PSA here, we're talking heads. You know, I am not a
builder. So I give the utmost respect to everyone out there that actually builds this stuff, that codes
it and makes it. No, well, different type of builders. We're talking heads, bro. We talk,
we just talk crap on the internet and we cover Bitcoin. Like, we're not in the weeds making the
code. And so the people that are making the code that, you know, the Cypherpunks write code, like,
those are the real heroes here. We're just trying to advocate for Bitcoin and get more people
to hold Bitcoin. But looking back on the year, it's, we've come so far. And it feels like we
finally get to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Obviously, I'm cautiously optimistic.
I think there's still a lot of things to keep our heads on a swivel about, but like seeing new
coin joint spin up and or new coin joint implementation spin up, it just makes me so hopeful on the space
and everyone that's out there actively building stuff. And it's like, like you guys were saying,
you know, it is whackamol here. You try to stop Bitcoin. Bitcoin will route around you. We're going to
build the stuff or rather, you know, you guys out there coding are going to build the stuff that
becomes human friendly and that we can use so that we can go out there and share with everyone
else that, hey, there is an alternative here. There is technology and tools to basically
nullify all of this crazy stuff that these politicians are doing. And we're starting to see
throughout this whole year, if there is a theme, I think the theme is, you know, the powers that be
begrudgingly bending the knee to Bitcoin and realizing that, holy shit, we can.
can't just fight these people. They're no longer just this niche fringe internet minority. It's
becoming a real global movement that can't be ignored. And I think that is so bullish moving into
2025 because if what we think is going to happen with this parabolic year that we think is on the
horizon, it's going to be damn near impossible to stop. It's going to be damn near impossible to
not talk about it. And with that, I think comes more attacks, but I am just very bullish on the
people building the stuff because, hey, like, we not only have the first principles and the mindset,
but we have the tools now. And it just, it really comes down to do people have the willpower to
build them. And obviously, we'll be here every single day, you know, talking about them and explaining them
and showing them to a bigger audience. And I really do think that this is how we win. I don't like to say
we've already won yet, because it still doesn't feel like that, but it does feel good to be winning this
tired.
Yes.
Nice.
I like the concept of, and I think it might be interesting if we end up going this route where
the expected attacks become more and more just acts of self-preservation to get in before
the rest of society can, right?
Like even so far as, and I don't want to trample on anybody else's topics here, but
like the Russia story of the banning Bitcoin mining in certain regions, but they're also saying,
like, oh, we want to use it for international trade. So like, what the fuck do you think they're doing?
They're getting an unfair advantage against their own populace to mine in regions where they won't
let anybody else to it, right? Like, that's clearly something that's happening in the background.
Like, we're going to try and mine as much as we can before we allow others to do it.
I think there's going to be a lot of that kind of shit where it's like, oh, you're not allowed to do this.
You're not allowed to do this when it comes to Bitcoin.
But then the rules for the higher-ups are going to be like, yeah, but we're the state.
It's literally going to be Brad Sherman being like, well, maybe we do mine all the Bitcoin,
but we're the U.S. government.
Like, you're going to bear it.
My favorite politician.
Yeah.
He actually knows what's going.
He's like, these guys are trying to ruin.
the Federal Reserve and
Fiat currency and we're kind of like
I mean yes yes yes
absolutely
this guy gets it I love that guy
yeah no it's perfect
I love it anyways so
again in general I'm just
bullish on the fact that
when when attacks happen
coders get to work when a tax
happen we end up
getting more resilient
in the wake of it it's it's never
a positive thing, of course,
for the people involved
when shit like this happens.
It's horrible.
But I'm bullish on the people
that remain and say
we need to be more robust
and thus build things in a way
that can't be clamped down upon
as they previously were.
So anyways, with that,
I think it's time to do a little rotation here.
Nathan, I'm going to toss it to you next.
and yeah man
what do you bullish about in 2024
what was top of mind for you
so building off of what we've already kind of talked about here today as well too
the idea that I had in mind was kind of that classic
cycle or path of first they ignore you
then they laugh at you then they fight you then you win
and looking back on the year it very much so feels
at least to me like we're kind of in the middle
and maybe even passed a little bit of the then they fight you stage
which kind of the way we're getting it I can see the
light on the horizon. And it's nice that we're starting to chalk up a couple wins here as well, too.
So like even reflecting back, of course, we had the samurai case, right? The arrest and everything
that happened there. But like you said, we had Ashigaru. There's even the recent tornado
cash court held up immutable smart contracts don't qualify as property ruling as well too, which is
very optimistic for their situation as well too. So fighting us, but looks like we got a couple
wins there. It's looking good. Also looking back, I was reminded of, I'm not sure Opti if
you and Nico remember, but your channel was banned.
at one point in time. You guys got shut down
there, right? They just like it.
Did you remember that moment?
Looking over at my notes here, I
have it as August of this year.
And so to go from like August of this year, we got
YouTube kind of censorship cracking down
on you guys pre-election, no surprise is there.
But then what was it? We had 1.3
million views this last month for
simply Bitcoin. Like, holy shit, guys,
well done. That's another
win for the team. Again, they're fighting us, but we keep
just throwing them back in the corner.
Ben, you had that little shadow
band there for a while.
But I'm not sure if you recall,
you were crossed 100K this year in subscribers.
That was February.
I had to look back and check it out.
So since February,
you've gone from 100K to almost 360K subscribers.
Right?
Like, we just keep, like, they're fighting
and they're coming at us,
throwing everything out as we keep chalking up these wins.
A few others that came to mind,
like even just mentioning in Tools too,
Phoenix wallet getting removed from the U.S.
That was back this year as well too.
But now we got, like, again,
I wish that they still had that too,
You see great things like Elbe Hub, right?
Popping up on your start 9.
Disintermediate, run your own lightning note.
It's actually really, really easy comparatively to do now.
We had the filings from the, I think it was the Silvergate banking shut down that kind of showed that the regulars basically came in,
took him back outside the Woodshipper and shot him.
But then later this year, we had their allowing BNY Mellon to custody Bitcoin.
And beyond that, so again, it's not a straight line.
There's going to be a lot of things that happen along the way.
we're clearly still doing some battles, but we're chalking up these wins. And again, like we also
mentioned there too, we got the heads of state of Russia and the heads of state of the U.S.
that are either now pandering or catering or admitting they can't control Bitcoin or just using,
whether it be for financial transactions or for like potentially a strategic reserve.
And to even say that, because it's not like I fully expected it was going to be like El Salvador
and Bhutan and then we'd have a couple smaller countries along the way. No, fuck that. We're just going
right to the big ones that are battling it out. Again, Bitcoin is just money for enemies.
You cannot say that is not a major win in global adoption and recognition of the soundest best
neutral money that's ever existed. We had Julian Assange was released, right? I'm chalking that up as a
win for Bitcoin as well too. All the love and Merry Christmas to him and his family. We got
pending Ross Ulbrook. That better happen. There were a lot of people that I think would have been,
they're going to be wrong. I wasn't in the U.S. so I couldn't have voted. I'm pretty sure if I was,
I could have, but regardless,
regardless, Ross, free
day one, I hope to God that it happens,
and that is a major, major win.
And yeah, I mean, there's so much more
a good jump off of, but the major thing
that I was thinking about while preparing for this,
while getting excited to come and chat with you guys,
was we're definitely in the then-they-fight-you stage,
and it looks like we're winning.
Dude, God damn, bro.
I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
Opti's so impressed he just disappeared.
Just drop Mike and leave.
Okay, so much to impact there.
All right, let's go through some of them.
All right, so the Simply Bitcoin ban, holy jiggages.
That was frightening.
Appreciate Ben's support.
I talked to him a couple times throughout the process.
He was spot on.
He's like, you're going to get your channel back.
But yeah, I mean, for like four days straight, I was like non-sense.
stop calling in all the favors I had, you know, managed to get published on Forbes, managed to
get published on Zero Hedge. The whole Bitcoin community like came to our, you know, calling on X,
which was extremely humbling. And yeah, it was, but it was a hell of a fight, man. That was
pretty crazy. And, you know, you mentioned like Ross, man. I think that's, that's like a huge
thing that I think we're all anticipating as a movement.
as a community because he he like represents like essentially this you know cypher punk type of you know
like and again i'm not trying to like it's it's an interesting he didn't deserve a life's two life
sentences right they try to make an example out of him and that's what it was about it had nothing
to do with justice meanwhile you know i i always remember the example of t d bank they recently got like
find 3.3 trillion or 3.3.3 billion for money laundering for the Mexican drug cartels.
And when our industry does it, like, you know, are accused of doing it, like CZ or Arthur Hayes,
like they just put them in prison, right? But when the banks do it, they get a slap on the wrist.
You know, so it's a, it was a freaking crazy year, man. Like lots of, lots of ups and downs,
lots of like historical events like yeah dude that was and and also too i'm just so impressed by
uh canadian opti bro that's opti that was that was impressive bro he he had no he had notes
you take this is a this is a big coffee cup well people don't know the secret the secret weapons
but me and i mean canadian opti know the secret weapons so they they have packages of them
Yeah, here, I'll jump in.
I don't know if Ben jumped in there if you're going to.
Anyways, yeah, first of all, I almost forgot that this was the year that we got simply Bitcoin
banned.
It was pretty fun for a few days on Rumble.
That was a fun two days.
But yeah, it got crazy.
And that's kind of the conversation that I was saying earlier.
Like the middle of this year was absolutely nuts.
And it does seem like we are in the then they fight each day.
And I love how Nathan was kind of framing that.
You know, first they make fun of you or what is it?
First they ignore you, then they make fun of you, and then they fight you.
And we are definitely in the Then They Fight You Stage.
We were saying this for a long time on the show that we are entering in the Then They Fight
You Stage.
They were doing a lot of sly roundabout attacks.
They weren't directly attacking Bitcoin per se.
They were kind of attacking everything around it.
And further, we saw just how big of a new story of the Operation Chokepoint 2.0 was.
And we were covering that every single day.
Bitcoiners have been talking about that for a long, long time.
And now that also came out and it's very public.
And we have the receipts and the data to prove that this is actively happening.
They're actively attacking the Bitcoin industry.
They're trying to stop the adoption of Bitcoin.
And so as bullish as I am on that, and I really love the framing you had, Nathan,
where it's like you can very clearly see this year that they have progressed along that first
they ignore you, then they laugh at you and then they fight you.
though I'm still cautiously pessimistic about it because I think the then they fight you stage might last a lot longer than we think it will.
Though we are entering into potentially an era where the then they fight you stage might end sooner than we think it will.
Because as you were mentioning, you know, Trump came out with the strategic Bitcoin reserve just rhetoric.
And now it seems like every world superpower is starting to follow suit and the dominoes are falling.
So maybe we already live through the Then They Fight You Stage.
And that might even be more bullish than we can even imagine because maybe it's already over.
Obviously, the people in power aren't going to give up their power because it all comes down to the money printer after all and the international banking cabal, et cetera.
But you're starting to see that even them giving tacit approval to Bitcoin really goes to show everything we've been saying has been correct for years now.
The fact that they have to bend the need of Bitcoin is, you know,
much as we don't need the approval of the suits, but if the suits are bending the need to us,
then that definitely gives, you know, legitimacy to Bitcoin to all the average people out there
that think we're the crazy ones. Like, my family still thinks I'm like the crazy one, even though
I've been right for, I don't know, the last seven, eight years, you know, like I make fun of them
all the time. It's like, yeah, I may be the crazy one, but I've been right here. And I constantly
tell you I'm right. And, you know, not to gloat about it, but like, guys, just listen to me.
family and you will do better like it's that simple but you're starting to see that the the average person
out there is kind of looking at bitcoin as a legitimate thing and hey we are in the then they fight you stage
it's very clear now especially throughout the year i remember in the beginning of the year a lot of people
were kind of still i don't know if naive is the right term but they were still kind of believing that the
people empower you know the politicians the bankers etc the the huge financial asset managers out there
they were still believing that they didn't understand Bitcoin.
I remember in the beginning of year, a lot of people were like,
oh, no, they just don't get Bitcoin, man.
They're not smart enough to get Bitcoin.
And the whole year we're kind of like, guys,
they very clearly understand what the stakes are.
They understand Bitcoin,
but it's their duty to ensure that more people don't get into Bitcoin.
So how do they do that?
They just fud Bitcoin and they quietly stack Bitcoin.
And now they're like, you know, Uncle Larry's out here like,
Yeah, Bitcoin's going to, I don't know, a $100 trillion market cap and, you know, buy my
ETF.
It's the best performing ETF on the market.
Actually, the best performing ETF ever.
Like, yeah, I think we are winning.
But with that, I think comes the responsibility of, you know, the stay humble aspect of this.
It's like, yes, we are winning, but we also have to be very vigilant here because we are in
the then they fight you stage.
How long will this last?
I have no clue.
Will it, you know, be done?
quicker than we even think it will, hopefully.
But I think the attacks are still coming down the pipeline.
And you're starting to see some of these attacks start to, you know,
percolate out there, whether it's in the EU.
Like the EU is, I don't know what they're doing over there.
They're constantly shooting themselves in the foot.
They really want to keep their citizens having fun, staying poor.
And so you're seeing these attacks happen.
And obviously, the way I always looked at is like, they can't directly attack Bitcoin yet.
because if they attack Bitcoin directly, then it really exposes their fears here.
And if they expose their own fears here, then the jig is up.
And so they have to kind of attack things around Bitcoin for their paranoia to seem legitimate.
But if they actively attack Bitcoin, it's like why, you know, the average person is going to ask.
So why are they attacking Bitcoin?
I thought it was going to die.
I thought it's backed by nothing.
I thought it was hot air.
You know, I thought it's for criminals.
And now we're starting to see they are attacking us.
and, you know, the price is still just ripping upwards.
And I'm like, okay, maybe you guys are wrong.
What's going on here?
I love that.
So Europe, I mean, they're just doing, like you said, they're doing everything to just keep the average person down.
Like they've got a dual slogan now.
Do you hear about the new slogan?
Of course, they've got have fun, have fun staying poor as an official EU slogan.
But they pair have fun staying poor with good luck staying warm.
Yeah.
You got to get an air horn Canadian opti or else.
I'm not an opt-y without a soundboard.
I keep pushing buttons over here, but nothing's happened.
Make Ben buy you a soundboard.
Yeah.
It's coming.
It's coming.
Don't worry.
Damn Canada Post.
I know.
I know.
Yeah, we don't have a post office right now.
It's deprecated.
But yeah, like the the fact that they're fighting so hard.
and that they've thrown so much and that it's still just, again, like just flying off the backs of Bitcoiners and we're able to weather this.
And I think to your point about Larry think, oh, I was wrong about Bitcoin.
No, you were right about Bitcoin, but you were publicly wrong about Bitcoin purposely in the early stages to cue that up.
Because they were still shitting on Bitcoin publicly as they were getting ready.
Yeah, the ETF.
Yeah, like there was overlap there for sure.
Like, they knew what they were doing.
I love how right bitcoins can be over such extended periods of time
and still have people saying, well, you know, I don't think you'll be right again.
Like, that's the most you get.
I like Jesse Schrader in the chat here.
he said, don't argue with me, argue with my returns.
Wisdom, jester for wisdom.
Yeah, yeah.
And again, even that extends to don't argue with me, argue with my results.
Because it seems like society as a whole just wants to dismiss everything.
And you have people, like you have health experts that are like morbidly obese,
telling people that, you know, lucky charms or fruit loops are more nutritious.
than a pound of beef.
You know, like, you're getting these insane.
And you're like, but look at your results versus this group of people that is doing the
opposite and they look like Greek gods.
Like, what the hell are you talking about?
Like, it's, and it's so blatant across so many facets of society where it's like,
this is what you do to get good results.
And you look at the people following that advice and their lives are in shambles.
And then you look at these options.
And Bitcoin is that kind of, it's like that gateway knowledge to get you to question everything else.
Because when you see how poorly Bitcoin is reported on in the early days, it makes you go like, well, what else is being poorly reported on?
Now that I know a little bit about Bitcoin, I know that's 100% wrong.
What else might I be misinformed about?
And so you start to look at things a lot differently.
and again, people approach life in a different way.
And so, again, I try to, as a general life rule,
when I want to improve something,
I look at the person that's getting the results I want,
and I try to exude what they're doing.
And I think that's a good general rule.
Never take advice from somebody you wouldn't trade places with.
Nice.
I like that.
Wait, he is sounding like,
Opti now.
Make meritocracy
great again.
Yes.
Like make merit great again,
which I think has been demonized
in this Fiat field world.
But I think that's,
you know,
that's how things are run the most efficient, right?
Like it's,
you know,
I see a lot of,
and maybe I have this thesis
where like,
I think certain political
ideologies are driven by Fiat.
And I think,
And I think they're also driven by envy.
And I think what Fiat allows governments to do is redistribute wealth on a massive scale.
And they could promise a lot of things.
But if you take away that mechanism and all of a sudden people like the likes of Brad Sherman, like are essentially powerless because they can't offer their constituents free things essentially.
Or like in their eyes it's free.
And reality it's not free.
you're paying it via inflation but you know the only way these politicians are able to like
actually raise funds because the government is parasitic by definition like it doesn't make anything
it doesn't produce anything it just takes um is via direct taxation that is i think extremely scary
to politicians right like think about it they can't go on the campaign trail and say hey you know what
like free college for everyone everyone everyone to be like
No, you're going to raise my taxes 15% to pay for that. It ain't free, bro. Like, let's have a
different conversation. But they're able to like sigh up the world into thinking that, you know,
like all this stuff is free. And I think it's, and I think that inherently, uh, inherently
inherently generates envy because, you know, people kind of see people that have things and people
that have achieved things. And they inherently feel like they don't deserve those things.
or they didn't work for those things.
And then they turned to the government and they're like,
hey, make this right.
Right.
And it's, and it's a really, I think it's like really, really dangerous because it,
you know, and then the whole welfare discussion,
which is a whole other rabbit hole, like they give you enough where you don't starve,
but they don't give you enough where you can thrive.
It's just enough where you make the calculation in your head.
If you had to work, maybe you would make 20, 30 percent more,
but then you would pick up the inconvenience of
working, let me just get this quote unquote free thing, this free handout, and I could just
stay at home and just, you know, do nothing all day. And, you know, it's, it's, I think fiat is the
root of all evil, man. You go down this rabbit hole, all the unintended consequences of, of inflation,
of the ability for government to print money. I mean, Larry Lepard just wrote a book about this.
Like literally his central thesis of that book is how many things inflation breaks. How many things,
How many things the government printing money inconsequentially breaks, like shrinkflation, right?
Like how many the quality of products around us have degraded because of that, right?
Like you go to what the F happened in 1971.
Like all these things that you would think are not correlated whatsoever.
For one reason or another, something happened in 1971 and all these things started to go in bad directions.
And, you know, I think that society plays an integral role in the human condition and human society.
And people kind of look away from it and they say, you know, money's not that important.
That's bullshit.
Money is half of every transaction.
And if that money's corrupted, there are very, very deep consequences to that that I think the majority of the world are still asleep too.
Yeah.
Dude, honestly, the topic of quality of products, speaking of which.
I moved into my home that I'm in right now four years ago.
It was a new build.
The whole thing was like appliances, all of that, brand, brand new.
Context before, the old place myself and Mrs. Sessions were in, the stove in it we replaced at one point.
It had been in that place for 25 years or something like that.
Hadn't had to fix it once.
Same with the fridge.
Like we had a freezer that I don't know when it was.
was put in there was just forever ago. We move into this new house. I'm just going to list some of
the shit that has broken inside of these first four years. We move in immediately the oven's broken.
They come to fix it one. It breaks again. We replace it with a newer, better model. Our floor,
our flooring is literally like lipping up and then shipping off. There's like pieces of floor
missing right now. All up the stairs, it's like separating and cracking. We're,
We already had them come and cover it once.
Our, we've had nothing but problem with, like, internet connection and all that kind of stuff.
We've dealt with like home security systems and like the amount of garbage we've gone through with them just in four months, like shit breaks.
And then they go, oh, yeah, we'll send you a new one.
And then Canada Post is out so we don't get the replacement piece for a month and a half.
and like multiple cameras are having problems and sensors are broken and shit.
Then most recently, the frigate, oh yeah, and then the carpet upstairs is all rumpling and shitty.
I had to get my friend to come and like stretch it and like staple it down and like fix it.
Like this is a brand new house.
And then our dishwasher already wants the rack, like they do the high efficiency, low water.
Who asked for this?
Because what ends up happening is it, it cleanses.
fucking nothing and then I run it two or three times because I don't want to manually do the dishes.
And then all of the racks in there that slide in and out are made of cheap plastic, which just
broke and snapped off. So we bought metal replacement parts. Then the water wasn't working.
So my father-in-law like did his plumbing thing and fixed it up. And then the pump in it broke the
other day. So I paid $600
between
parts and labor to replace the pump
and now it's not doing the drying
function.
This is a brand new
house. Everything is brand new
and everything is
breaking all of the time.
This did not happen
before. It is the
vibes. Like when you study
like Soviet Russia
in middle school,
they talk about
how the quality of products in a communist state just goes to shit because you get paid the same,
no matter what job you're assigned.
And so they had like examples of like cans of tuna would just be filled with sand because
they're like they don't give a shit.
They just fill it with something and send it off.
Whatever.
I go home at the end of the day, I'm going to get paid the same.
I'm not going to get a promotion.
I'm not going to get a demotion.
I'm just going to get a paycheck.
And low key, I think this is what's happening in, like in spades when it comes to people.
People no longer value the quality of their work because they feel they're being cheated and they are, but they don't know how.
And so the finger pointing goes to wherever the pain point is.
I just bought groceries, the groceries are more expensive.
The grocer is the problem.
My paycheck doesn't go as far.
I get my paycheck from my boss.
My boss is the problem.
But in reality, it's that everybody's trying to fight for their own purchasing power because it's being
siphoned away at breakneck speed by the government and those closest to the money spigot.
So it's just everything is crappy and is getting crappier because it's just people need to
cut corners wherever they can to try and scrape back their purchasing power.
And it's just this downstream effect where everything is getting shittier.
That's my rat.
I thought we were supposed to be bullish here.
I'm feeling kind of down.
I'm really bitter.
But actually.
Machine right now.
I also do kind of want to rant about it.
I am, I think
the laminate wood flooring is like a bigger shit coin than ether or XRP.
Like, can we bring back wood floors again, please?
Like, I'm so tired of laminate wood flooring.
It's insane.
It's a, it's a representation of fiat itself.
That's what that's what they represent.
That's what it represents.
Do you guys remember the school desk, the desks?
Yeah, yeah, a little one's in the drawer.
Yeah, but like it's like, it's like wood.
It's like a fake wood on top, but it once a wood starts peeling off.
It's like literally like cork underneath.
Like, damn, you know.
It's just a facade.
It's a pitcher on top of something to look like it's what's supposed to be, right?
And even even just to jump off that a little bit too,
there's kind of the mirror image when Nika was ranting there a little while back,
before Ben's washer issues,
but same sort of same sort of thing.
Why we're forced on old time washer and dryers?
Bring back the good stuff,
but there's the top side of the coin.
You make fun of Ben, too.
You're great.
It's in my contract.
I have to get a laugh out of them.
Otherwise,
I don't get paid.
No,
my contract says just troll Niko constantly.
I don't even care if you laughs.
Yeah,
clause A.B.
That's the one to go.
The thing that I was thinking about
is I find my way back to this train
is that like on the one,
side you have everything getting worse and everyone's hurting the can't buy anything so they're feeling this
constant pain but on the flip side too with the money printer is that they're not realizing that the two are
related but they look at anybody who has the money printer right and they look at things as as free they think
that they're free they don't realize that the cost on their lives is related to what's going on over here
so it unfortunately results in like an army of automaton that will fight to protect the system the reason
being if you come in and go hey don't do that don't print that money to make that
that stuff happen, they look at it like you're just taking it from them. They don't think there's
any cost there, right? That you're just being mean, that you're withholding essentially something
that's free and available for everybody. There is no cost of this. If you want to stop it, if you want
to interrupt it, if you want to end this benefit or that, all you're doing is taking it away
because you're just a mean old grinch, right? Which makes them so fired up. They have no idea that the
hand that's giving them this fake cheap crap is the same one that's stealing from them and beating
them and all we're trying to do is get in the middle and make it stop.
Yeah. Yeah. It's and and we will. And actually you see this. You see this from if you actually
begin to obtain goods and products and resources from other Bitcoiners. There's a care that
goes into it when you're purchasing something with Bitcoin. And there's a recognition that if you
offer a crappy product to somebody who pays in Bitcoin, they're never going to spend their
Bitcoin with you again. And so that's, that's, um,
that's coming to fruition. It's going to take some time.
And again, people that still earn in dollars are going to want to dump their dollars first,
quite obviously. And that makes total sense.
But then you're going to also get crazies like myself who just say,
I don't even want to get paid in dollars anymore.
So we'll get there slowly. It will happen.
But hey, so gents, we're going to do a rotation.
We're going to go to Opti next for his reason for being bullish.
before we do, I'm going to give a quick shout
to final sponsors of the show, and we'll be right
back with other
Opti, with
state side opt. Hey, I am the
original Opti.
With one of the... How do we know?
Yeah. And we'll be right back. See you guys in a sec.
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Greg is a potato.
What was that?
He's getting ready.
Yeah, yeah.
I just had somebody.
That doesn't mean.
Through my rant there, I had somebody, one of the nostrils over at Zabstream.
was saying,
hey, do you need a timber-framed home in 2025, Ben?
He said beef, cast-iron, animal fat,
and timber-framed homes, bullish on those.
I won't argue with that.
Maybe I'll get somebody's services.
I mean, Nick, are you going to be moving up to Banff
and getting some sort of timber-framed log happening?
How to that feeling?
Yeah, dude, I mean, bro, like, this is the thing with Ben, okay?
This is the thing with Ben.
It's a very humble, humble man, but the part of Canada, Ben lives in is filthy rich, okay?
I'm not really rich.
You know, the, the bases of the, you know, like stop signs and, you know, the entrance to the parks, it literally
looks like fucking Disney World.
Okay. Disney World copied the entrance to the national parks in Banff and this part of Canada.
It literally like Disney World, you go and you knock on the like the ticket houses or whatever and it's like it looks nice on the outside but it's a facade.
It's fiat.
You click on you knock on it's plastic.
It's like actual stone and timber.
And then you go to the Banff Hotel where Ben took us.
us and we went to go see this mountain that literally looks like the mountain from Grinch.
Like Colorado Rockies are like fake, you know?
Canadian Rockies are like the real deal.
And it looks like the Canadian Grinch Mountain.
And then when we walked back from this hyper luxurious hotel after seeing this pristine Canadian
river, there was a guy literally playing like a bagpipe.
And I think he goes out at the same time every single day.
to salute like the founder of Banff and there's a statue of him just pointing to a mountain like
that and you read the plaque and it was like I had a dream to find it bro it there's a lot of money
up there man I didn't think so I didn't think like you know I've just never been to that part
of Canada but like you know it's it's pretty pretty crazy bam is nice and Alberta does have a lot
of resources that's why it should be its own country all I heard was Nika
say, I thought Canadians were poor.
No, really.
No, it's not, it's not, it's not that Canadians are poor.
It's that like, it's, okay, usually like, they don't have money, guys.
They don't have money.
Okay.
Can we get me go off the pedestal here?
The wealth is concentrated in the big cities, but like, this is like literally
luxury in the middle of nowhere.
It's, it's, wow.
That's true.
It is, it is quite nice.
Optio, are you coming up for the Bitcoin Rodeo, by the way?
I don't know.
Yes.
My sugar daddy gets me there.
You should probably come up.
Yeah, Opti's coming.
Actually, I'm actually there, Ben.
I remember the DM.
I got some fans there, so I'm going.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, is that, the Calgary Bitcoin meetup, the Christmas party.
They're like, I can't remember what the comment was.
I DMed Opti, though.
I'm like, you should be here.
The ladies of the Calgary Bitcoin meetup,
think you're haughty.
Hello,
Calgary Bitcoin girls.
Hello to you.
One of them was Pritia Freeland,
the deputy prime minister.
Opti has a thing for very
powerful women in positions of
Epi or like peanut butter and jelly.
I love silk scarfs on a lady.
Okay, Opti,
I'm just going to toss it to you here.
What was the bullish part of
2024 for you? What is
exciting in your mind. So, I mean, without all of this weird sidetrack that Nico went on about Canada,
it was going to be a perfect segue based on the conversation we just had. So obviously, without
kind of rehashing everything, because maybe Nico will do that. I don't really know what his topic is,
but someone mute, Nico. We saw this year in 2024. So many bullish things happen. Obviously,
Bitcoin being accepted, you know, Bitcoin maturing.
people starting to see bitcoin as something more than just a speculation or a gambling, you know,
vehicle.
And so my bullish thing is, is obviously I don't want to do what I did this time because I went on this rant and someone said like,
oh, so Opti's just bullish on the price.
And I'm like, no, like literally not what I said.
But okay.
Anyway, the thing that I think I am most bullish going into 2025 is just a foundation that was built in 2024.
And from all of the signal that I've seen this year, obviously we covered it every single day.
So we are kind of, you know, like we have our thumb on the pulse of what's going on with Bitcoin news and also how the normies are looking at Bitcoin.
And so we were just kind of talking, you know, kind of trolling about how bad appliances are, et cetera.
But what I'm most bullish on going into 2025 is the mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin.
I don't know if you guys are still on Instagram or, you know, TikTok, et cetera.
but I'm starting to see a lot of people in Normie world talk about Bitcoin, whether it's them being kind of envious and jealous of the Bitcoin gains or even, you know, as much as I hate meme coins, but meme coins kind of going into the cultural zeitgeist.
And so my most bullish take for 2025 is essentially just the foundation that was built in 2024.
And I'm starting to see that we are entering in like Nathan was saying, we are in the then they fight you stage.
but I think what we are starting to see is Bitcoin starting to enter into the behavioral zeitgeist.
And it's, I think, slowly but surely changing the behavior.
And as we like to talk about on simply Bitcoin all the time, is Bitcoin fundamentally changing the culture.
Obviously, we're still very early in that journey.
But I'm starting to see signs, whether it's Joe Kernan on Fox News being the most bullish Bitcoin podcaster period,
or, you know, Bitcoin tickers on all of the corporate press, or Uncle Larry, you know,
pumping our bags and dropping the ETF, or what we just saw this week, you know, the,
the vague and Bitwise essentially giving a pat on the back of Michael Saylor and micro strategy.
We're starting to see that Bitcoin is becoming normalized.
And with that comes not only the price rise that we think is going to come in 2025,
but with that comes what we love as Bitcoiners is the behavioral and cultural change of Bitcoin,
like fundamentally changing who you are as a person.
Now, I think this is going to play out obviously for a long time.
It's not going to happen in 2025 by itself.
It's probably going to be more of like a decade or two, in my opinion.
It could be five years.
Who knows?
But I'm starting to see that slowly but surely, even amongst my friends, like a lot of
my friends are now not just looking at me as like the crazy Bitcoiner with crazy ideas.
They're, you know, they're low-key trolling of like, oh, I wish I bought Bitcoin at whatever.
Like, you're super rich, bro.
So we're getting to that point now where Bitcoin is so.
fundamental to the culture that it's going to be extremely hard to ignore. And with that comes,
obviously, the behavioral and cultural change that we all Bitcoiners love and think is coming down
the pipeline. Like, we were just talking about the superficial nature of just the status quo of
the modern world and how fake everything is and how everyone's starving for truth. And I think,
especially for, you know, Nico and I and Sessions and Nathan being Bitcoin content creators, you know,
we're on the front lines here and I think we're going to see a huge influx. And I'm kind of speculating
and betting that we might see something similar to 2017 where just a whole horde and tsunami
of people come into Bitcoin. And with that comes obviously them learning about Bitcoin,
but them fundamentally being changed into Bitcoiners. Because as much as I think I'm,
you know, was born to be a Bitcoiner, there is still a behavioral change that happens when you
start to holdle Bitcoin. And I think we're starting to see that.
Obviously, talking about Bitcoin constantly, it's on everything.
You know, I was here, I'm here at my parents' house right now.
And I, you know, I always joke with my mom about, like, why do you still read the Wall Street Journal, etc.
And, you know, it was there on the couch.
And so I opened it up.
And, like, on page three was this big expose about how Bitcoin's dominating 2024.
And so you're starting to see the cultural shift and the mindset around Bitcoin fundamentally changing in real time.
obviously it's slow at first and it's just kind of trickling down and you're starting to see people bend the knee and capitulate to Bitcoin.
But I think 2025 with a massive bull run, I think people are going to fundamentally fall a lot faster.
Like the dominoes, I think that have fallen in 2024 and will fall, it's like that exponential move here.
So like at first it was a small domino and then they get bigger and bigger and bigger.
And I think we're getting to the point now where some really big dominoes are going to fall in 2025.
And it is going to be that suddenly moment.
Like if the U.S. and Trump and the Republicans right now do pass some kind of strategic Bitcoin reserve law and they are actively holding Bitcoin and we get some favorable regulation, you know, very specifically ending capital gains on Bitcoin so we can use it as money.
Like this stuff can happen very quickly.
And these watershed moments just fundamentally change the game.
Now, on the one hand, I'm super bullish on it changing individuals.
And on the other hand, I am a bit skeptical because with the coming win and just the dominance that we are going to be a part of in the victory that we will live through, I think will come new attacks here.
And I think for a lot of us Bitcoiners, like keeping our head on a swivel here and understanding like, look, we have the biggest institutional asset managers in the world.
We have potentially the nation with the World Reserve currency embracing Bitcoin.
Now, with that comes new attacks and new ripples of them trying to find sly roundabout ways of controlling Bitcoin.
I don't think that's fundamentally possible.
But it is important for us to keep our head on a swivel and be vigilant here and not just be naively optimistic that we are constantly winning.
So there is things to be concerned about.
But I just fundamentally think that Bitcoin has so easily infiltrated the culture that we are just like it's becoming.
very, very normal for people to talk about Bitcoin, for people to embrace Bitcoin. And I think that is
going to be a massive W in 2025. Now, again, one secondary thing that maybe Nico and I in Sessions
and Nathan should be a little worried about is now that Bitcoin's becoming popular, we're going
to have to like double down on our efforts because now we're going to get every influencer
in talking head talking about Bitcoin. And with that comes its own concern.
earns, you know, one, are we still going to have a job?
Two, do what Bitcoin is?
Are they actively educating the masses in what we would say, you know, a correct and healthy way?
Because there's a very real danger for them to kind of lead the masses down the wrong path.
And so with that, I think it's more important than ever for us to kind of keep beating the drum that we've been beating for the last year, two or three or four or five or however long.
Bitcoin journey has been, but I fundamentally see that Bitcoin is taking over the culture.
We're still kind of like niche internet nerd money, but we're starting to enter into like
Chad Alpha Superior Money Mode. And I'm just here for this. So like I'm very excited to see what
Bitcoin does to the culture in 2025. Obviously with a huge price run, it's going to it's like it's
it's it's going to be a no-brainer here. But I think we we find, we find.
fundamentally have entered into the Rubicon into mainstream consciousness.
And now it's about kind of winning with style.
And I think with that comes the importance of everything that we do, you know, day in and day out.
And I'm just super excited to see what happens in 2025 and beyond because obviously I got into Bitcoin because I fundamentally think that we are here to change the system.
And with that comes, I think, a bright, beautiful future.
And I was literally here with some friends.
And one of my friends, he's low-key collectivist and he doesn't even know it.
And so we see the same problems, but we just have different solutions.
And he's literally very pessimistic and cynical.
And we literally like went around the table and we were eating tacos.
And we asked each other like, you know, what's your thoughts in the future?
And basically everyone else was like cynical and pessimistic and like, man, the future is going to suck.
And I'm like the only guy at the table like, no, dude, the future is going to be fucking awesome.
Like this the future is going to be so great and they're like, why do you say that?
I'm like, dude, do you really want me to go on like a 10 minute rant about how how great the future is going to be?
And so I just, I just think that like changing the cultural fabric of planet Earth is how we win.
And we are starting to do that in real time.
So it's not going to happen in 2025.
But I do see that just with more publicity around Bitcoin, like people are starting to realize that things are
broken, but it's not, it's not just this, like, nihilistic views. Like, there's something that can
change this. And all you have to do is really just be a part of it and start stacking and saving
and protecting yourself. And your future is going to be that much better. And I really think that
when you break down human psychology, it's, you know, with one of two things. You either chase pleasure
and avoid pain, or you chase something you love and avoid something you fear. And I think all of us
Bitcoins are chasing that love and that good life.
And I think this is how we win is by showing people,
hey, you want to live a good life.
All you got to do is stack Bitcoin and eat a good diet and have good relationships.
And I think more people are needing that.
And this is how we are going to win by just fundamentally changing the culture.
Nice.
I want to see an AI generated image of Opti in 2035 when he gained Chad Alpha Superior
Money.
Wait, wait, wait, I might be able to find it real quick.
Someone else go and I have a picture here that Nico likes.
I also was going to say the cultural shift, I think that will begin to permeate,
but we're in for a bunch of fiat-minded people that are going to come to Bitcoin first.
Yeah, exactly.
A lot of us kind of came in.
We're seeing number go up.
Ooh, that's exciting.
And then you get in.
And then your brain gets rewired.
And you're like, oh, oh, this is why it's so important.
and this is why it needs to change.
So like the cultural shift doesn't stop those fiat tendencies entirely,
but it creates a culture where you call out those tendencies
and there's a stigma to them within the group.
So if you're coming in and you're hawking like meme coins and shit like that,
it gets called out early.
If you're shipping a product or a service or something that maybe doesn't make sense
and is more predatory, it gets called out.
quicker because the Bitcoiners appreciate value, not making a quick buck.
So I think there's going to be this weird kind of coalescing of like Fiat-minded people
that want to make a buck and the Bitcoiners that have been around for a while.
But the stronger culture is going to win out.
And when we're shifting from Fiat to Bitcoin, the stronger culture is going to be Bitcoin
as Bitcoin is the stronger money.
So it'll take some time, but we'll get there.
And the resources to level up as a Bitcoin have never been more plentiful.
So it's super important.
All right, Ben, there's a picture here.
Pull it up real quick.
I won't tell anyone I'm winning, but there will be signs.
This is Opti with million dollar Bitcoin.
I think I've already seen address like this.
This is literally me.
You said what, 2035?
Dude, this is me in 10 years.
Yeah, this is the Opti last week.
He's just missing a gold chain and then that's it.
And then like for Canadian Opti, all you got to do is just change the sand to snow.
Yeah, that's a snow leopard, not an average jungle.
And then the snow leopard becomes a polar bear, but the exact same stance.
Yeah.
And that's it.
And maybe like a hat.
You can dress the same, just weathering the cold, not giving a shit.
Yep.
Yep.
That's perfect.
Awesome.
Awesome.
I'll let you, gents, uh, jump in on the topic of hand.
as well.
Nico, go for it.
Yeah.
So there was one key point that really interested in me, which is Opti said that people are
in desperate need of seeking the truth.
And the reason that really resonated with me is because I think right now this year in
history was really when we truly completed the disintermediation of information in
the state.
you know of course Elon buying Twitter how consequential that was for this recent election
the death of the legacy media like it's it's over it's done like they're still talking
and they're still saying their things but you live in a radically different world if you consume
your media on X and Nostor and YouTube from your rumble and your favorite content creators
than the world that you live in if you consume your media through legacy media outlets.
And I don't think that there was a way 10 years ago for people to seek truth other than like,
you know, like Alex Jones was so outside of the Overton window.
It was like, that guy was a kook, right?
Essentially, in the eyes of most people.
Now we've gotten to the point where the Overton window has shifted to the thing where
like Tucker's like bringing him on stage during his tour and basically saying stuff like
Alex Jones was right. Joe Rogan's basically like Alex Jones was right. And of course,
you know, he's not right about everything. But I think that's that shows where the information
is now coming from these days. It's coming from the people. Like Elon is saying it, you know,
when he goes on, he's like, we are the media now. And then there's there's this very famous clip,
which we played on Simply Big One and on Simply Sessions of the AxiO CEO freaking out and saying,
like Elon is going on there and he's basically saying that like, you know, we are the media.
And that's not true.
We're the media.
And then like all the journalists like in the crowd are like, yeah, that's true.
We're still the media, bro.
Listen, if you have to say that you're the media, you're not the media, right?
But again, like, it's crazy that we're in this moment in history and this year because like this, you know, this system has existed.
for the last 100 or something years.
And this year and the year before
was really when that system has come to an end.
And now we are seeing the beginning of the transition to,
if you look at the sovereign individual,
the complete transition into the information age
and what the implications are for media in that age,
which is just the rise of independent media, independent content,
which is great for us, right?
but you can never have conceived that world.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, it's crazy to say this, but some of these channels, like, you know, they don't,
they get like 20, 50,000,000 views a day.
And these are like full-fledged channels with like full professional producers,
media things, like fully fledged.
And there's independent concert creators that are getting twice, triple is that.
There's a video of Megan Kelly basically saying like,
oh, you guys fired me from Fox?
Well, guess what?
I'm getting three times more views than you guys.
As an independent creator with my own camera, with my own microphone,
no one could tell me what to do.
And I think you saw how the government reacted to this
with the exposure of the Twitter files.
They freaked the F out.
They tried everything to try to stop the free flow of information.
But now that cycle has completed,
and I think the world is going to be a much better place for it.
It's extremely exciting.
I couldn't agree more, Nico.
Looking back even too, I feel like the Trump-Rogan interview was like the death nail.
Like that was the death of corporate media.
You're done.
You're finished.
And they tried to censor it.
They tried to censor it.
They tried to censor it.
But you can't stop it.
And even going to Opti's points about the culture, I think it reflects where the culture is
and where it's shifting to and how that's actually aligning with Bitcoiners as well, too.
in the sense that we have a general population
that is learning the hard way,
don't trust, verify.
But it's not even about Bitcoin.
It's about the things the politicians are saying
what the government's telling them.
They're ready for this information.
They're hungry for the truth like you mentioned.
And so everyone's going to make mistakes as they come in,
but I think you have a new cohort
that will either get through those mistakes a lot quicker
or seek out the signal because they know how to seek out the signal.
They know where to go and find it online,
and know where to find those independent content creators,
provide the right information and get to where they need to go.
Like even briefly, I was talking about considerations of people coming on board.
You mentioned like meme coins and stuff as well too.
Yeah, they're going to happen.
It's probably going to have a whole shit coin fest as normally does.
But the nice thing is that they're meme coins.
They're inherently not serious, right?
They're a little bit of that nihilism.
But if they start to venture into this world,
they start to get a little bit more that opti pessimism,
Opti optimism, right?
They're going to look to take themselves more seriously.
They're going to find Bitcoin quickly.
And they're going to already distinguish the two, right?
This is me speculated, nihilistic finances, and this is me saving and planning for my future.
And then on top of that, if they're fortunate enough to see Bitcoiners online or have them in their life, there's a whole group of people who are already, they're already head of the curve.
They're already living in this Bitcoin world.
They're already fully embracing this Bitcoin culture.
And there's nothing better than just, again, going back to like look at the results.
I mean, it could be just selection bias, but I saw so many like marriages and babies and fitness and health improvement and self improvement and stacking skills and stacking Bitcoin.
Like these are the people that have the life that you want that are hopeful for the future.
They're the example of how to be.
And the more that come in, they're ready for the message.
They're looking for it.
And I think they're just going to, I think there's a good amount of them.
they're going to take it and run with it.
Absolutely.
I want to touch on the meme coin thing briefly.
It's so funny this cycle, the proliferation of meme coins, it's basically an overt admission
that crypto has always been nothing but gambling.
It's like an ethos of throwing in, like fully throwing in the towel on any form of fiscal responsibility.
It's like everything's fucked.
as well buy a coin from a girl that got famous for talking about spitting on dicks.
And everybody's like, oh, I got rug pulled.
You got that one?
What?
But you're right in that the few people that kind of come through that and then realize,
oh, there is something to the beginnings of all of this.
There was a reason that Bitcoin was created and they get down the right rabbit holes and they get reading the material that shows them why Bitcoin is different from everything else.
That is a positive.
And nothing is a better teacher than touching the stove.
Like pain is a very effective teacher.
And unfortunately, some people will just learn the lesson like, oh, I just won't touch anything ever again.
and I'll just go back to my nihilism,
but other people will get on that Bitcoin-only train
and realize what's up.
So, you know, with the bad comes the good.
Well, Ben, as you're saying, you know,
I think the most effective way to being,
becoming a Bitcoin maxi is by losing everything in shitcoins.
So, you know, there's hope for them eventually.
That's, I mean, that's where it was born from, right?
Like, especially the 2017 ICO bubble, like that,
that was the very creation, maybe not the creation, but like that's what gave it its legs.
The bear market of 2018 was when the Bitcoin standard came out.
Like, Stafidine, that's when it was published.
And so like there hadn't really been a decisive piece of work that you could look at and be like,
oh, this is why Bitcoin's different from other things.
And that's only continued to grow.
So like there's so much more material to put people on the straight and arrow nowadays that it's super bullish, I think.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
And I even just want to throw like one more thing out because I keep seeing it pop up and I promise I'll stop hogging the mic because I do love it.
The like lately I've seen a whole, thank you.
I've seen a whole bunch of like self custody fud as well too, right?
People like kind of discouraging self custody, which get out of here.
But the thing that kind of gives me a little bit of peace of mind on it as well too is.
is that the group, if you would have told the new entrance coming in, like a good portion of them,
hey, don't learn about firearm safety. You don't want to have a gun. Just call the cops. Just call
the cops, right? They would just laugh you out of the room. People don't want to defer their
responsibility as much anymore. They want to take it on themselves. They're going to be charged
with their own finances, their own protection, their own health, everything. So even while I'm seeing
this kind of bubble up and be maybe one of the topics of the day, I don't think it's going to last.
I don't think people, I don't think people want to defer things anymore. That's how we got here
the first place. Yeah. It's a dissolution of trust in all of our, of all of our institutions.
And speaking of, speaking of self-custasy only, never leaving your money with another person,
everybody here should check out Bitcoinwell.com.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, boom.
But we are going to rotate to NICO. And I am going to give him a chance to say why
is bullish on 2024, but we're also going to give away some stats right now.
Get your lightning wallets ready because we've got Bitcoinwell.com slash BTC sessions pulled
up on the screen right now.
You know why I'm bullish.
I am bullish on simply Bitcoin.
Oh, wait, sorry, Bitcoinwell.com slash simply BTC.
Anybody unfamiliar, Bitcoin Wall, obviously awesome.
They're in Canada and the U.S.
Great place to stack stats.
They never hold your coins the second you hit the buy button.
you must have your own wallet to send it to, and then you take self-costs.
You write out the gate so you can scan the QR code if you do want to sign up.
But we're going to give away some stats right now.
When you do sign up, when you buy Bitcoin, when you refer friends, you earn points.
You can use the points to throw them in the Bitcoin wishing well and have a chance to win up to a million sats every single time.
So we're going to do just that right now.
Get those lightning wallets ready.
Whoever scans at first snags the sats from everybody else.
and we got 210 sats.
Congrats to whoever snags them first.
Give that a scan and let us know if you snipped it before everybody else.
Wait, wait, sessions.
Do a double jackpot and do the unclaimed sets.
See if you got any unclaimed sets in there.
I just learned about this.
Oh, really?
Okay.
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
So close it out and at the bottom.
Go down at the bottom.
Yeah.
Are you claimed sats?
Oh, my goodness.
500 unclaimed. All right. There you go. There you go. Whoever scans that is going to get it too.
It'd be really funny if it was if it was the same person that won it twice.
And you know what? Just for fun, I'm going to do it once more.
So here we go. We'll do one more roll. Let's, oh, do I need to refresh there.
It doesn't like me. He's like, stop rolling. Stop keeping our points.
All right. One more there. And.
And boom, 21.
Nice.
Oh, there we go.
All right.
Well, congrats to whoever snags that.
You are, that's generational wealth.
You just got a way to generation.
So there you go.
Okay.
Everybody, we are, we're on to Nico's bullish topic of 2024.
Dude, I'm very curious to hear what you think was some of the most important.
impactful stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, so like it was a extremely historical, significant year for Bitcoin because essentially
we had the approval of the ETF in the beginning of the year, January.
And then you saw this process of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 being exposed left and right.
And essentially, you know, that woke up the.
Bitcoin industry, including, the Opti was mentioning it earlier, including, you know, people that
otherwise would be like, I don't care about politics, I got Bitcoin, like, this stuff is irrelevant.
But because of the actions of the current administration, like, you know, going after banks that
would facilitate, you know, Bitcoin on ramps and off ramps, going after Bitcoin privacy
developers, going after, you know, lightning wallets leaving the United States, which is supposed to be, like, you know, the top of the list for capitalistic countries, you know? And like one of the most powerful things that I saw was like, wallet of Satoshi is illegal in North Korea, China, and the U.S. Right. You know, Caitlin Long, she was revealing all this information about essentially they just, they targeted her bank and they didn't allow her bank to get our federal banking charter.
the attacks by Elizabeth Warren using the tragedy that happened in Israel to like, you know,
propagate this false narrative that, you know, terrorists were using Bitcoin in order to
launder money.
Then you have like a press conference by, you know, you have Merrick Garland, you have Janet Yellen,
all basically saying CZ and terrorism.
They used the word terrorism like 24 times in the CZ press conference case.
Like CZ didn't facilitate terrorism.
That's like saying like TD Bank facilitated Mexican drug cartels.
Like it's crazy, but they didn't do this because, you know, of money laundering and crime and whatever.
They did this because they fundamentally fear the technology, I think.
They fear what the implications are, you know, as government continues to lose their control,
their control and monopoly over money.
And what they did unintentionally was create an opportunity.
for the opposing political party.
And the opposing political party,
you know,
specifically the figurehead, which is Trump,
was a victim of this same type of lawfare
by the same party, right?
To the point that, you know,
the first quote unquote Bitcoin president
was almost assassinated.
Do you think that's a coincidence, right?
Twice.
And, you know, you saw,
and,
Simply Sessions covered this.
Simply Bitcoin covered this.
We saw the initially, it was Vivek that told Trump about the dangers of central bank digital currencies.
And he said that at a rally.
And he said, if you elect me as president, I'm going to stop central bank digital currency.
And the crowd going, ooh.
And he was like, whoa, okay.
I will ban central bank digital currencies.
Like, I was like, yeah.
And the next speech, I will ban.
central bank digital currencies and then literally two or three weeks later you know and he and
me and ben were speculating about he's like dude he's going to say bitcoin he's like and i will
protect the right to bitcoiners to take self-custy crowd's like yeah and trouble's like oh shit okay this is
cool and then we hear you know elements of our industries start to become part of the donor class in
washington dc the american politics are run by the donors so you had david bailey step in you had the
the Winkleweye Twist,
the twins step in.
They held a fundraiser around the Nashville conference.
And now all of a sudden,
we are in the room now.
Bitcoiners are in the room.
And if you're not in the room for the negotiation,
you're not going to be part of that deal that's been made.
But now we're in the room.
We have a seat at the table.
And this wasn't on purpose.
They attacked us.
They chased after us.
We reacted.
And now we're in the political discussion.
to the point that a mainstream political party in the United States
has made protecting Bitcoin self-custody
and the right to mine as their official party pot form.
And they just won a trifecta in the government.
It was a landslide.
Republicans usually never win the popular vote in the U.S.
And he did after they try to kill him,
after legacy media tried to do all this stuff.
And he promised to,
free Ross. And he wished Bitcoin happy birthday. And he wished Bitcoiners, congratulations on Bitcoin
reaching 100K. And I find it hilarious that he took credit for it. He's partly right because he did
expedite the product. This pump started because Trump won the election. Like, let's be real. Right.
So, you know, what has me excited is that at least for the next four years, I know that specific in the
United States. And I'm assuming Canada as well, because it doesn't look like Trudeau has a
really good shot at winning. It looks like we have a high probability that two governments
are, it's not even they're going to be pro-Bitcoin. They are because a lot of it, like that we
know for a fact that the vice president, J.D. Vance, holds Bitcoin. But we know for a fact that they're
just going to leave our industry alone, at least at the minimum. And Ross is going to be free.
and at the worst, you know, they're going to pass favorable shit coin regulation, right?
Like, that's what has me really excited because once you start heading down that road,
it leads to one inevitable question, which I think everyone's going to inevitably ask one day
and we're making progress to that point.
And the Fed, inflation is a scam, right?
And once we get to that discussion, they don't really have a good response to it.
So all they could do is gaslight you and manipulate you into thinking that none of that is important.
But I think the more Bitcoin goes up, the more what Opti was saying, that it seeps into mainstream culture and consciousness.
Like, this is an unstoppable train, which inevitably is going to lead to what we all call the peaceful Bitcoin revolution.
That's what I'm really excited about.
That all happened this effing year.
and 365 days, all of that happened.
If I told you in January that the president of the United States was going to be wishing Bitcoin happy birthday, you would not have believed me.
Right.
So, you know, that's pretty, pretty crazy.
And Ross is going to be free, hopefully very, very soon.
Yeah.
That'll be a hell of a way to start off the year.
Oh, yeah.
That would be so, like, just, again, to have him get out.
A person who was so integral, and like that we're at that point, you're just stacking wins.
It's like when Snowden, pardon, at that point.
It's like, okay, we've got Assange freed.
We've got Ross.
I'm very much.
And people are going to hold them to that too.
Like people are going to be like, yo, what the fuck?
Like, what's the deal?
Where's Ross at?
Like, if it's time starts passing.
But yeah, like, I think if it goes down that,
road. You're right. Like we've at least got runway. Now, the most important thing is that people
don't squander the time, right? Because there's always another election. You're always just,
you're always just moments away from a new hostile administration or a change of heart of the current
administration. So, like, use every iota of time that you have to either learn the best tools that are
available to you right now or if you're a builder, build something better that is resistant
to government. I think that's the most important thing there. And I'll take every little bit of
runway I can get when it comes to that. It's so important and it's important to also build
communities where you know other bitcoinsers, where you can lean on each other. And again, like just
create ways. Like if you get a shit administration that's like tomorrow, hey, you know, we have
have unrealized capital gains and it's illegal to transact, you can't spend it, you can't do all
of these things, you're going to need, like if you know no other bitcoiners and you're trying
to figure out how to use your Bitcoin and the government says you're not allowed to do that,
you're going to need to know ways to do that. And the best thing is to build a good community
around you because even they can't decree that your money is worthless because it will continue
to hold value regardless.
So yeah, I'll let you guys jump in.
I was going to say shout out to the sat market on that as well too, right?
If you haven't gone out there and met Bitcoiners in your local area, do it, right?
And just start exchanging goods and services amongst yourselves.
And then you got that safety net.
Like there's the, you know, we think about the protection on the cartography side and the
digital side.
We think about our operational security.
But one of the best things you can have is that preparation in advance of like,
okay, where can I get beefing things for Bitcoin?
I completely agree.
And even just going back to Nico's point there too,
maybe this is hyperbolic, but you're right.
Like it's a peaceful revolution,
and it feels like we're starting to bring some of the POWs home.
Like it feels really impactful in terms of how important Assange, now Ross,
and then moving on to Snowden would be as well too, right?
And the samurai guys as well.
Like we're going to get them out.
We're going to get them back as well, too.
Other Opti, I'm curious, your thoughts.
Yeah, well, I think the most bullish thing,
I've heard Trump say is 150K day one.
So I fully back this message.
No, he didn't actually say day one.
But, you know, I like to troll on that front.
But no, yeah, I mean, I think to Nico's point,
what we did see this year is that there is a literal giant movement around Bitcoin,
you know, decentralized peer-to-peer payments.
And it is fundamentally becoming the people's money.
And now we're seeing, look, I've been very,
adamant about this. And I think anyone that watches simply Bitcoin knows what my views are on politics.
I literally came to Bitcoin because it was a political money. But with that comes the fact that,
hey, we are living in a status quo right now where politics does matter. Niko has been harping on the
quote, elections have consequences for the last what, like six months or something like that.
And so Niko, you know, was I wrong?
You were right. You were right. And that and that's the point. And, you know, Nico kind of got me in a
frenzy around politics for the first time, though I am still very apolitical. I still believe,
you know, Fiat politics as we see it is broken. But what we did see throughout the year is that
there is a giant cohort of population out there that are adamant bitcoins. And if you fight Bitcoin,
then you might not be elected into office ever again. And I think this is a beautiful,
beautiful thing that we are seeing kind of grow in the meantime, is that Bitcoin, as a
unit, a cohesive unit around the world, is probably one of the biggest movement right now, period.
And yes, a lot of us are quiet.
You know, we appreciate our opsack.
You know, we try to just kind of hide behind the scenes and, you know, let our Bitcoin do the talking.
But you're starting to see that Kaiser meme of he who holds the Bitcoin makes the rules
actually play out in real time.
And if you fight Bitcoin, then you are going to lose, whether that's, you know, being a
skeptic on Bitcoin on just simply holding it.
you know, in your personal treasury or your balance sheet or as your savings, you are going to
become poorer than Bitcoiners. And now we're seeing that it is actually a political movement.
Because Bitcoin is so apolitical, that means it is political by its nature. And we're starting to see
that play out. We're starting to see that the politicians are recognizing what we're doing and what
we're trying to do. And that just makes me even more bullish. Like this year has been a crazy year,
just kind of wrapping up everything we've been talking about throughout the whole show.
you know, we got the Bitcoin ETFs at the beginning of the year. We have nation states talking about
strategic Bitcoin reserves. We have, you know, the Czech Republic eliminating capital gains tax on
Bitcoin. Like, we have so many things. We have some of the wealthiest people in Bitcoin starting
to shill Bitcoin. We have even those very same people in Wall Street talking about the debt spiral.
Inflation was one of the biggest hot button topics in the American elections. Like everything
Bitcorners have been talking about for years now, it's starting to become a mainstream
conversation. And with that comes the fact that these are the fundamental problems that we are
seeing in the world. Yes, there's a lot of problems everywhere. You can probably point to your
favorite political flavor of the day. But the main problem is the fundamental meme of fix the money,
fix the world. We are living in a broken money system. And as a Bitcoin, you are on the front lines.
Like you are ahead of the curve.
Even if you have what, like a thousand sats right now,
the fact that you understand Bitcoin means you are ahead of the curve.
You are living in the future right now.
And with that comes the fact that, hey, as a Bitcoiner, you are going to win.
There is a fork in the road right now.
You are either going down the hellscape and the dystopian future of Fiat money
or you're going into a more bright orange future that is Bitcoin.
And I think we are fundamentally seeing a fork in the road.
Like we are going to see two different civilizations play out in the, in the short term and the long term, those who hold Bitcoin and those who don't.
And I'm here for it.
Like, I love to see, you know, as much as I'm a cynical bitconer and I'm like, oh, they're bandwagoning Bitcoin.
Like, I love to see everyone capitulate and be like, actually, I was wrong about Bitcoin.
And even if they don't say that much, they're just like, actually, yeah, like, you should be buying some Bitcoin.
Or rather, you know, don't listen to what I say.
Just do what I do.
and everyone is buying Bitcoin.
It's like, hey guys, remember,
65 IQ Bitcorners over here.
We were right.
Mom, dad, brother, sisters, friends, and family.
We were right.
And you should probably be buying some Bitcoin
because we are taking over the world.
That was awesome.
I thoroughly enjoyed that.
Gents, I think this is a good point
in the show to begin putting a bow on it
with all of the bullishness that has happened here.
It's been a hell of a rip here.
It's been a lot of fun.
What I would like to do as we wrap up here is do a quick round of suggested
Bitcoiner resolutions for next year.
So if you've got one that you think a Bitcoiner should get on the train for,
then we're going to toss it out here.
I'm going to, I guess my suggested resolution for Bitcoiners
is again to, I would say,
look to your local community.
And if there isn't one, then start building one.
If not you, then who?
And you can have a lot of impact on your,
just your local group,
just by being that person to encourage people to do more.
Again, one of the most rewarding things this past year has been kind of starting and seeing
the sap market grow and the people that I've met through that.
And we've got an awesome little community that is being built here in Calgary and in
outlying areas.
It was crazy.
This last one, we had people come in from Edmonton, which is like a three-hour driveway,
but also from Vancouver people flew in.
There were people from Montreal and from Toronto,
which is like a five-hour plane ride to get here.
So like we had people come in from across the country to be a part of the sat market
or just to see it.
Like one guy just flew in just to check it out like from Montreal.
That's crazy.
And so you can you can build something and have a community to lean on.
and you become very resilient with that community
because you can learn from each other.
You can begin to transact with one another.
You have like values,
and you just have awesome people to chill with too.
You can build a friend base there.
So highly encourage, and I'm going to do a show for it here.
I'm going to just, we have a website now, Bitcoin satmarket.com,
and yeah, you can scan that.
And then if you give a little scroll to the bottom, our socials are there.
We're on X and Noster.
And then there's also, you can start to check out.
Not all of them are up there, but some of the vendors are up there.
And there's links to websites and other socials for them as well.
And we're going to build that out more as time goes on.
But we had like 40 vendors at the last, at the market we did like two weeks ago.
And it was awesome.
So highly encourage you.
you guys check it out, check out what we're doing, and then replicate it. I'd love to see more
stat markets pop up around the globe. So Nathan, I'll toss it to you. Any recommended resolutions?
Let's see. I think the one that I'm just going to lean on is kind of a good and a classic in the
sense that just don't stop learning. Don't get, don't get necessarily comfortable, complacent
with where you are. And even like for me personally, like my personal Bitcoin resolution is I
got to spend more time on Noster and investigating the tools and things that it empowers.
I've slept on that too much
and I've got to spend more time there and diving deep
but there is a plethora of privacy tools,
security tools, things like tangential to Bitcoin as well too
that really is worth the
like Ben said we have some time now
we have a cooperative regime
so make sure that you're learning
all the different skill sets and resources
you have available to you on that
and I did also want to slip two more things
because I thought they were interesting and I wanted to make note of them
one other reasons I was bullish on 2024
is Bitcoiners are now
famous cartoons.
And so I thought that was really worth mentioning.
I expect to see some more in the coming episodes.
And then the other one that we never even got a chance to touch on,
but I was thinking about the N2
was that I've been playing around with,
want to learn some more as well, too,
is just the disintermediation of mining.
We saw the rise of the bidaxe and we had datum from Ocean.
I think those are other great things to be bullish about from 2024.
Hell yeah.
Learn to learn to solo mine.
Learn to solo mine.
It's a great hobby project and nothing else.
Yeah. Opti, how about you?
Yeah, my takeaway for everyone right now is basically, guys, make sure you guys have some good
UTXO hygiene. I think right now is the time, yes, it's 100K, but you should be looking
into consolidating your UTXOs. The fees are pretty low. And with that, you know, thinking
about your cold storage right now and maybe 10xing whatever your holdings are right now. And that's how
you should be storing that Bitcoin.
So again, with that comes UTXO hygiene where maybe you don't want a bunch of little
UTXOs out there that will eventually become unspendable.
You think of this like a large sum of money that you eventually want to use at some point
to better your life and you don't want to get in a position where you just get absolutely wrecked
in the future.
And right now the fees are pretty low.
Yes, you know, Bitcoin's at 100K.
But if we are correct, next year we might be in the...
the mid six figures here.
So things could get crazy.
Damn.
I let's go check out some mid six figures next year then.
Nico, how about you?
Yeah, man.
I mean, I'll say a couple things.
I say, you know, I think we are in the verge of heading into a parabola year.
And I think it's important for everyone to remember the inevitable euphoria.
that comes with it and just to stay humble and, you know, don't time the market.
Time in the market beats timing the market.
So, you know, the old age phrase, stay humble, stack, sat, stay solvent.
And the only thing that you should really, like, everything is noise.
What you should really be paying attention to is, do you have more Bitcoin today than you have
the day before?
If the answer is yes, then you're doing the right thing.
It's really as simple as that.
There's going to be all these distractions and incentives to try to change that.
But if you just continue to stack more Bitcoin every single day, your life will improve.
It's really as simple as that.
And also, I have another one hour live stream after that.
So probably check that out because they'll make me feel better.
And then I'll be done.
Third show for the day, which is great.
This is awesome doing this way.
with Canadian Opti. Of course, my two, Canadian Opti, you're not quite there yet, but my two brothers, Ben and Ben and, Ben and Opti.
Give it a cycle. Yeah, I'm sure you'll be, I'm sure you'll get there. This was an absolute honor.
And super, you know, this is awesome, man, that you invited us to be part of the last why are we bullish of the year, man.
So appreciate you having us, Ben. And I think 2025 is going to be.
amazing for all of us. I'm really looking forward to it.
Love you, bros.
Lots of love all around.
What do you guys think? Should we come back here and reconvene this time next year?
Yes, absolutely.
Sounds great.
It's a great idea.
Sounds great.
All right, awesome.
We'll see you.
We can see whose Bitcoin prize predictions were correct.
Ooh, yes.
Nice, nice.
All right, gentlemen, thank you so much.
Have a fantastic evening.
I'll see you guys.
probably in person sooner rather than later.
Oh, wait, we have something to do.
Hold on.
There we go.
Get in there.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, great way to end.
All right.
Gentlemen, have a great evening.
We'll talk you soon.
All right.
Bye, everyone.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for joining in.
I hope you had fun.
I know I did.
What an awesome group of,
gentlemen to cap off the year with for the final why are we bullish of 2024 the year recap.
What a great time. Of course, please do like, subscribe, share. All those things are super important
to get this content out there. You can also hit up the previously mentioned sponsors in the
show notes down below. Now I did want to say good opportunity to be earning Bitcoin over
this coming bull run is to sign up as an affiliate for the team that both myself and Nathan are a part of,
and that is Bitcoin mentor, where we do one-on-one video calls to help people level up their
Bitcoin game through self-custy, hardware, multi-sig, running a node, you name it, we can
teach you how to do it. Obviously, feel free to reach out if you feel that you've kind of reached
a point in your Bitcoin journey where you're like a Bitcoin Luddite, you know a few things,
haven't leveled up in quite some time, we can help you out with that. But more importantly,
there's going to be a lot of people. If you're that Bitcoin person and your group of friends,
there's going to be a lot of people coming your way asking, how do I self-custody? How do I do all
of these things? And if you don't have the time and or energy to guide them through yourself,
you can sign up as a Bitcoin mentor affiliate by scanning that QR code. You'll get your own
link. You can put that into your social media profiles. You can share it to friends, family,
whoever comes your way asking for help.
And when you do, if somebody signs up for a session with us,
you earn $21 in Bitcoin to be paid out at the end of each month.
And that's not just for their first sessions,
for every single hour-long session that they book.
You earn $21 worth of Bitcoin.
So sign up there and you can stack sats while new Bitcoiners stack skills.
And with that, we're out of here.
Thank you guys so much for being here.
It's been a hell of a year.
I believe there'll be one more piece of content dropping in the coming days before New Year's,
kind of my top tools of 2024 or top tools going into 2025, stuff that I love using.
So keep your eyes out for that.
But I'm out.
Have yourselves a wonderful day or evening wherever you may be.
I'll see you guys next time for your daily session.
Oh, my bitch, mine.
