Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 159 | What’s Happening With Bitcoin? | Guest: Erik Finman

Episode Date: July 27, 2019

Erik Finman will present before Congress the first-ever official briefing on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The session is co-hosted by US Congressman, Paul Gosar, and will focus on current and future opportunities to normalize and regulate cryptocurrency in the United States. Main talking points include: Full legalization and designation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a commodity Clarity around the concept that cryptocurrencies arenot securities and thus not subject to the same laws Finman’s current vision is to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and bitcoin. He believes that America is on the cutting-edge of this technology and with adequate understanding, protection, and support, the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency in the US can change the way companies, government, and citizens operate in the future. In conjunction with Congressman Gosar, Finman has an opportunity to speak directly with House representatives about major obstacles Bitcoin faces currently, as well as benefits to legalizing the currency both within the Nation and globally.  Finman states: “I am so excited to have the first ever opportunity to brief the concept of Bitcoin to Congress. It’s truly an honor to stand among these representative figures in our government to educate and promote the tremendous capabilities cryptocurrency has for the US both nationally and globally.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, so how many times have we talked about our political powers that be that don't really understand the next generation of cryptocurrency and what's happening in the world with Bitcoin and all the other cryptos? Well, Eric Feynman, who we've talked about and talked to here on Chewing the Fat before, the Bitcoin expert. And, of course, you know, the world's youngest Bitcoin millionaire was called in to the congressional panel. to discuss and let them know what the heck is going on with crypto. Bitcoin update. Oh. Bitcoin update. Bitcoin update.

Bitcoin update. Wow. We've got a sounder and a sound effect for Bitcoin now, too. Eric, your greatness is brushed off. Even chewing the fat is getting sound effects now for you. That's good stuff. So, Eric, you went before the congressional panel and to give them an up. update. How long, first, let's talk a little bit about how working up to getting in front of this panel.

How long was it before they actually said, you know, we probably should talk to you. Were you trying to get in front of them prior to this? Actually, it was interesting. No, I just happened to be at a dinner with Representative Gosar's chief of staff. And then, you know, he kind of heard my story and all that stuff. And then they invited me to kind of co-host this with them. Excellent. So, and then that was, what, like, how long ago? About a month ago.

Yeah, I'm fascinated to see how long, I want to relatively. Yeah, I'm fascinated to see, you know, the process of timing with these because, you know, we've, you know, so many people are, you know, I guess scared because they don't know about it and don't quite understand it. And I can understand the frustration that people have with not knowing about it because I, I pretend that I know about it. it but I really kind of don't understand all of it and so I understand the frustration with it so when you how many people were on your panel to to give

this update absolutely so there was yeah so represent Gossar and I we co-hosted this and then we got this we kind of arranged some people in a panel like format together we got a person from the Department of Commerce to kind of talk about it and what kind of the Department of Commerce is thinking someone from the Congressional Research Service. So they kind of do all the all the research for kind of Congress and all that stuff. And then I brought in two people. One was Tamelo Ramaphosa and he is the son of the South African president. He does a lot of blockchain stuff. I love Tamala Ramaphosa. Yeah. It's a fun name to say. I love him.

Debella Ramaphosa and me, man, we are tight. No, I'm just teasing. Go ahead. Best friend. No, he's like the real life. I don't know if seen that Eddie Murphy movie coming to America. He's exactly like that in real life. Seen it?

That's one of the best greatest movies of all time, Eric. I love that movie. He's the real life version of it. Wow. And he's very smart. So anyway, so he was actually, he created this blockchain product to save endangered animals. in South Africa, and he can't do it in the U.S.

for the current, you know, because of the current regulation. Wow. So, you know, it's kind of unfortunate. So he came to speak about that. And then I brought somebody else in. He started the Metal Foundation, which is a multimillion-dollar crypto kind of philanthropy, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Philanthropy Foundation, which is using cryptocurrency, using Bitcoin, you know, gives,

Scholarships to people encourage financial literacy. That's great. Et cetera, et cetera. His name was Marshall Hainer. He's a genius. I love him. And I brought him in to kind of see like, look, like we're just doing, we're using Bitcoin for a tremendous amount of good here.

And we wouldn't be able to do this otherwise because he made his money off of kind of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in that whole world. As you did. Kind of just showcasing. Yeah. So rather than showcase, you know, blockchain is a blah, blah, blah, complicated thing. It's to say, hey, look, we're able to save and, injured animals using this and you know hey look we're able to fund people's

scholarships because of this right you know and I think that's that's what I want people to know the real world applications of these things so your your top discussion was obviously did we I mean we just it was kind of like Bitcoin for dummies and cryptocurrency for dummies for this panel I mean I'll say Bitcoin 101 because I don't want to okay right now you don't want to call people dummies. Okay. I'm sorry to all the people that got offended. I'm calling them dummies. I got to be PC in D.C. Thank you. We'll give you a rim shot later for that. All right. So, so, you know, crypto 101, Bitcoin 101. So what do you think was the big takeaway from the panel

after you guys had wrapped up? And then we'll go to a little bit about what you talk to them about. What do you think the big takeaway was? Absolutely. Absolutely. So, again, I would say that our main goal is going to this. So again, just going over what it was one more time, Bitcoin 101, we got Co-Costed that with Congressman Gosar, a bunch of people from the financial services groups of the people that regulate this type of thing, senators, a bunch of staffers and names, like literally we got

the best of the best of people that write legislation in Washington. in this room together, here to hear and learn about Bitcoin and how they should go about it. And what I really wanted to stress was, you know, I know this is kind of boring legalese, but it's designating Bitcoin as a commodity. And I know that doesn't sound like the biggest thing, but that actually can change the whole game so that everybody is free to kind of build what they want to build, make it easy for startups in this country to build on this technology. Blockchain is really the next internet.

And, you know, imagine if we were regulate, the United States was trying to regulate big time, the Internet with bad regulations, back in the early 2000s, mid-2000s when it was just kind of getting going. Imagine if, you know, Google couldn't have gotten started in the United States but got started in China or Russia instead. But, you know, the way that we all navigate the Internet, imagine if that was in a country that maybe wasn't so nice to the United States. And I feel like that could be what might happen here in the U.S. if there's some bad regulations about it. And, you know, we won't be, you know, we won't take advantage of all the jobs that get created from this. We won't take advantage of, you know, the whole next kind of technological revolution in the world

not being in the U.S. And that's something we have to worry about. And designating Bitcoin and kind of other cryptocurrencies, the Bitcoin, as a commodity, that fixes that. So that way in the United States, we can become, you know, the next technical revolution can happen to the United States. And it will happen that way normally if people just don't get in the way or people don't make bad regulations about it.

And that's an easy thing to say in today's world. But let's hope that your discussion with this panel leads to that because we have plenty of people that want to get in the way in our government these days. That's for sure. Exactly. So the others that you brought along, Did they have an opportunity to speak as well or do you just bring them off to show them off? I brought them, no, I brought them to speak about their world.

Do both. I brought them to speak about their kind of world applications, you know, like how some guys saving, you know, an endangered whale. Yeah, there's specific names for these exact endangered animals, but literally how he's saved examples of how he's been able to save animals using blockchain technology and endangered animals. and just how we can't do them in the U.S. right now with the current regulatory framework. So we brought them in just to kind of showcase the world world applications of these things. So they spoke. So we're talking to Eric Feynman, a Bitcoin expert, who gave a congressional panel discussion, you know, Bitcoin Cryptocurrency 101 this past week, this past Wednesday in D.C.

And he went before this panel headed up by Congressman Paul Gosar. do you think that once you guys wrapped up and again I want to get back to what the big what you think their big takeaway was because I feel like I feel like the leader of the country President Trump really isn't a big fan

or it doesn't appear to be a big fan and that might be a stepping stone block that you're going to have to walk over and that's a big block well I think I think well one in this briefing I think we changed a lot of minds. And then so that way, I think a lot of people left that briefing with a whole new perspective on things

and how to kind of, you know, have the government's role be in a much better way than I think where it was headed. So I think we changed a lot of minds. And the ripple effects from this briefing will be great. And yet, Trump, I, you know, I think Trump has valid concerns. You know, I think, you know, he thinks Bitcoin isn't a currency. I absolutely agree with that. I think it's a commodity. And Bitcoin acts like a commodity on.

all that stuff that you said, you know, oh, Bitcoin's used for black market stuff. Actually, Bitcoin is, I don't know why criminals use it. It's a terrible mistake. Bitcoin is the most trackable thing in the world. You know, using blockchain technology, you can kind of see all the transactions that happen. Me handing you a $100 bill is much less trackable than if I were to send you Bitcoin, because everybody can see that I sent you Bitcoin. That's so strange because that was, you know, that was the big selling point in the

beginning, right? Is that Bitcoin wasn't that way. But it absolutely was. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I think it's very, it's very trackable. You know, like you can do it in a way where, you know, just like you can hide cash in a way. But yeah, hiding, um, a, uh, you know, a bunch of cash under your mattress is much less trackable than Bitcoin is. That's very fascinating. Hiding a bunch of cash under your bed is much more trackable than Bitcoin is. Bitcoin is, is the way to get rid of, I think, money laundering. that is fascinating because we did i i could remember having conversations you know i i don't know how long ago but you know i can remember having conversations about how you couldn't you know how bitcoin was

uh you know not trackable and that it was good to be used in the black market and then it wasn't but two or three years ago we find out that it absolutely can't be i mean it was just so it was such it was just a crazy thought i don't know why i don't know how it got sold the opposite of what it is Very strange. And I think the thing is, is people confuse trackability with, it's hard to seize your money, you know, with Bitcoin and all that stuff. It's hard to seize it. So that way, that's why a lot of people use it in places like Venezuela is, you know, they can't just go into, you know, normally you have a government can go to a bank and say, you know, give me this person's money, you know, or we're going to ruin you. So, yeah, they can't do that with Bitcoin.

So it's hard to seize your money. It's a lot safer to use it that way. but, you know, no, it's very trackable. Very strange. Okay, so you did the panel discussion and you, you know, went out for drinks after and had a big party, you know, after the big night, had a big party with all the, you know, with all the featured panelists and the congressman and the big DC party. Do you think it was a, do you think it was productive enough that we're going to continue on a positive course? I think you're going to see legislation that comes from this briefing and not too long in the next in the next month or two or something that actually is because of this briefing that is a whole new that is a whole new kind of take on I think how D.C. is currently approaching this world that actually makes everybody happy, I think, in a bipartisan way, makes the president happy, makes Democrats and Republicans happy. And I feel like that's what that is what is coming out of this briefing. I think you're going to see some legislation come out of this.

What would the whole bill? What would the piece of legislation look like that would make Eric Feynman, Bitcoin expert, world's youngest Bitcoin millionaire, congressional panelists, wrote the book on Bitcoin Cryptocurrency 101. What would the legislation look like to make you happy? I mean, again, it's very simple, just designating Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a commodity. and I think that that is good. It's a simple thing.

Like we're not, I think a lot of people, they think it's, oh, it's we have to write this whole, you know, Obamacare size, you know, a bill type thing, you know, to regulate this. No, it actually can be done in one or two pages with the main point being, and I know this kind of sounds actually not that interesting, but it actually is a huge deal. It's a designating Bitcoin and other crypto kind of crypto. I like to call it crypto commodities rather than cryptocurrency, designating Bitcoin and other cryptos as commodities. And I feel like that's, that, that is huge. And it's very simple. I know it doesn't sound simple, but that could change the whole like law of the land and how it all goes, just with one simple phrase. And I made sure I looked through all the laws. I looked at how do we do this? That way it's not 500 to 1,000 pages. That's unreadable. How do we do this in one to two

pages where it's easy. And I think you're going to be hard pressed to find that too, my friend. Really hard pressed. So the last time we had, you. you on. Eric, we talked about your new app for people to invest in Bitcoin. How's that going? Yeah, I mean, it's going great. Going great. We got too many users. I almost don't want to say the name just because we've been getting too many users. It's been too much. I mean, that's what business is. You want customers and then you want to tell customers to go away. That's not the way it's supposed to work, Eric. I just say, I mean, when you open the doors, You open the doors to a store.

The store is supposed to accept the customers. But really, if there's too many customers, the fire marshal could shut you down. So for people's safety, you don't want them to come in. Exactly, exactly. Well, with the, it's like an Apple store, it's like, sorry, you know, we sold out of iPad. Yeah, sorry.

It's that big. Well, I'll talk about it. Yeah, I mean, CoinBit is the name of the company. And then, yeah, we just make it super easy for people to get into Bitcoin. And it's wonderful. And then, yeah, no, but the only problem we've, been having as we've been getting too many people. I mean, that's a good problem to have.

It's amazing. It's a good problem to have. It's an amazing problem to have. Yeah, no question. I'm very glad to hear that it's going well. All right, Eric, I really appreciate your time. And I appreciate you turning into Mr. Big Shot and coming back to, you know, chewing the fat and give us an update.

And I'd love to talk to you again in the future. I would love to actually, a serious business, I would love to have you come back and give a Bitcoin cryptocurrency 101 class for my audience. Yeah. When you do it on chewing the fat, it will be Bitcoin cryptocurrency for dummies. Yes. Yeah, it will be. That's no question.

But I would love to, I would love to, you know, maybe you think about that, maybe think about putting something together and we'll do that. I would love to have that happen because I really do think that part of the frustration from many people is they really don't understand it. And I think that that would help a lot. Absolutely. No, I'd love to. That'd be my pleasure.

Great. Eric Feynman, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.