From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Fighting Back Against Big Tech: Freedom Phones and Cryptocurrency

Episode Date: September 25, 2021

This week, Sean and Rachel invite Erik Finman, the world’s youngest Bitcoin millionaire and founder of Freedom Phone, to The Kitchen Table. Finman discusses how he turned a one-thousand-dollar gift from his grandmother into millions, as well as his advice for new crypto investors. Plus, he reveals why he made the Freedom Phone, and how he hopes to use it to fight big tech’s censorship war on conservatives. Follow Rachel on Twitter: @RCamposDuffy Follow Sean on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey, everyone. Welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I am your host, Sean Duffy, along with my partner for the podcast, but my co-host in life, Rachel Campos Duffy.

That's right. I'm so excited to be back on the podcast this week. We have a really exciting guest. His name is Eric Finman. He's the founder, creator of the Freedom Phone, something a lot of us have been wanting to have, a phone that isn't controlled by the Chinese and by big tech. Well, I thought this was an interesting topic because I had read an article from somewhere about the Freedom Phone because I have a lot of concerns about what big tech is doing with the censorship of just free speech. And I'm a conservative and we're at the forefront of censorship. And then I know you had Eric on Fox and Friends. We did. And then Fox and Friends moves quick, but I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could bring them to the podcast and talk

about kind of what the freedom phone does, because it's based on the Google Android platform, which I thought were kind of screwed as conservatives, because you have one of two choices for phones. You have the Apple iPhone, or you have an Android platform phone. And so with those two platforms, how do you ever get freedom? How do you ever get another device that can allow different apps to come on to your platform. And it brings me back to this Parler idea where Parler was exploding. It was a challenge to Twitter and Facebook. It was a platform that allowed for free speech. And we saw after January 6th that iPhone and Google took down the app, but also the online hosting from Amazon web hosting services took down the whole site for Parler. So the left has a lot of power and control. And to think that

we might have someone who's fighting back and pushing back for the American principle of free speech was why I wanted to bring Eric on our show. So Eric, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much. So as much as we love you for the Freedom Phone, and we want to know more about that, there's something else about your background that we find fascinating. First of all, how old are you, Eric? I'm an old man. I'm 22. Oh my God. You're 22 years old. 22. I can't believe. Honestly, this is why America's great. There are people that young doing so much cool stuff. Now, the coolest thing that Sean and I have learned that you've done,

we want you to talk about this, is you were one of the early investors in Bitcoin. Bitcoin's a big topic in our marriage, Eric. We have a lot of arguments about how much Bitcoin Sean should be allowed to buy. Well, by the way, just to be clear, I'm playing in the whole space, my largest holding, unlike, I mean, you have a lot more than I do, but my largest holding is Bitcoin. But to be 22 years old, you don't make this kind of money to invest in their freedom phone by mowing lawns. You make your money in Bitcoin, right? Yeah, absolutely. My background is kind of in Bitcoin and I feel like I'm an

ex-big tech dissident now. So I feel like that is Silicon Valley and crypto is kind of my background. I mean, I got into Bitcoin when I was 12 years old. 12 years old. That's so awesome. Our 12-year-olds are not doing cool stuff like that. I'm just going to tell you right off. Yeah. Well, some kids have video games. Some kids had sports. I was trading Bitcoin. How did you hear about Bitcoin as a 12-year-old? Yeah, actually, my older brother, some people actually were arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial, which is very unpatriotic. And then it was a bunch of libertarians. They would find these kind of Ron Paul fans of the day. And they would find these like little obscure laws that were actually highly illegal. And apparently dancing at Jefferson Memorial was that. And then

they went to Jefferson Memorial, got body slammed to the ground, three people just dancing quietly, their headphones on, knee on the neck, everything. And then yeah, we went to go protest that because that's an absurd law. And that's one of many laws. And then and then, yeah, we went to go protest that because that's an absurd law. And that's one of many laws. And then some guy, my older brother brought me to it. And some guy, we were actually in the middle of running away from the riot police. They literally brought the riot police. And we're in the middle of running away from, from the riot police. And then some guy had this orange shirt on with a B on it that looked like a dollar sign. And then I was like in the middle of running. I'm like, what's that?

And he's like, it's a Bitcoin, man. It's going to end Wall Street, bro. And he ran off. And then me and my older brother ended up looking up at it when I came back. And we're like, whoa, this is going to change the world. And at least we felt that maybe in some ways. How many years ago was that then? That was back in 2011. So literally 10 years ago. And we're like, whoa, this is going to change the world. And at least we felt that maybe in some ways. How many years ago was that then?

That was back in 2011. So literally 10 years ago. So ironically, although I'm 22, I'm like a veteran. 10 decade experience, you know? But yeah. But wait a minute. Let's go back. You're 12.

So you hear about, you look it up on the internet after this, you know, crazy experience with this guy and his t-shirt. And then you say, what? I mean, you do what? I mean, what does a 12-year-old do who looks up Bitcoin? And by the way, 10 years ago, how did you buy Bitcoin? Where did you go to go, I need some coin, man. There wasn't Coinbase, right? There wasn't Gemini, there wasn't Kraken. Yeah. It was actually pretty easy to buy Bitcoin back in the day. They would give away Bitcoin for free. You could get maybe 10 Bitcoin completely for free back in the day because it was just worth so little and people would just donate to give it away. So people got more into it. So some of that, you know, I got some for free. It was called the Bitcoin faucet. You could just put your wallet address in and then you get free Bitcoin. you get free Bitcoin. But also, yeah, I mean, it's, I downloaded the Bitcoin wallet on my computer and then, yeah, just playing around with it. And you could just buy it directly from like

local Bitcoins. You could just buy it directly from somebody. There was also something, there was a couple exchanges back in the day, you just enter in your credit card and you get it done. And it was easy as buying something off Amazon. Then the government applied all these kinds of regulations to it where you have to like, you know, scan your ID and do all this, you know, absurd stuff. But yeah, back in the day, it was as easy as buying something off Amazon. So did you get, you had money to, you had money to invest? Yes. My grandmother, she, she gave me a thousand dollars for my scholarship fund as her grandson. And I did not put it into my scholarship fund. And I put into Bitcoin instead.

And actually later, even more so, I dropped out of high school when I was 15. And I had about 100, that Bitcoin, I had about 100 Bitcoin. I was able to buy 100 Bitcoin at that because I was about 10 bucks. And I spent every day just trying to get more and more, mowing lawns, trying to make good trades and everything. And then when I was 15, I had enough money. I dropped out of high school, moved to the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and all that. And then, so, you know, don't even have my high school degree, I guess. And I'm originally from Idaho and then moved there and then, you know, got into tech and went to Peter Thiel's 20 under 20 summit and everything. And then after that, yeah. And then well-liked

by Silicon Valley. And then I guess I dropped out of that too. And eventually, I guess two months ago, before I was doing CNN interviews about Bitcoin, which were boring and I kind of rolled my eyes at because whatever, right? And then July 14th, we launched the Freedom Phone, which is basically my passion thing that I've always wanted to do. So, Eric, obviously, you seem like you went to a Ron Paul event, you must be somewhat libertarian in your politics. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, grew up in North Idaho, my very first vote, I turned 18, two weeks before the 2016 election. So Trump was my very first vote. So and I was actually one of those weird libertarians that was like, I don't believe in the system. I'm not going to vote. But

Trump really is the one that that encouraged me. I feel like to like go out and vote really motivated. What did you like about Trump as a libertarian as a young libertarian guy? Well, I think I didn't have much hope for the system, but I wasn't like a left-wing person that didn't have much hope for the system, right? I was a, you know, libertarian that didn't have much hope for the system, felt like Ron Paul, 2008, 2012, can't do anything, you know, can't get anything done. And what was great about Trump was he was just a bullet train, a human bullet train of being able just to ram through and get things done. And what was great about Trump was he was just a bullet train, a human bullet train of being able just to just to ram through and get things done. And that was really exciting and really encouraging. And, you know, I know friends that, you know, got hired in the

administration. These were people that really had no some of them had no political experience and people that and more. And that was the beauty of Trump is people that would not ordinarily be picked by like a political person. He would see have faith in someone and give them a chance and then they would get hired and all of that. Like it was it was incredible. And you see that with so many stories. We'll have more of this conversation after this. You've always wanted to be part of something bigger than yourself. You live for experience and lead by example.

You want the most out of life and realize what you're looking for is already in you. This is for you. The Canadian Armed Forces, a message from the Government of Canada. So there's several things. I mean, I don't want to mom you, but I am a mom. Nine times over. I have nine kids, Eric. So I can't help but listening to your story through the perspective of a mom.

And two things strike me. On the one hand, I am all the decisions you made early on that clearly made you who you are made you successful are things that i as the mom might have been like mortified if my kid had done like drop out of school and by bitcoin valley and yeah i mean it's just i i fear that i would have a kid like you and ruin it by, by stopping you. So that, that was, that's one thing.

And it's very, it's very actually enlightening for me as a mom to hear this and go, wow, I need to, I need to make sure I'm, I'm, I'm not having Eric Finman in my house. I don't want to,

I would not want to harness that kind of energy. And two, as a, as a parent and just as an American, I'm so attracted to your American spirit that you really have that like rebel 1776 American spirit in my view. In the same way, I think, as Donald Trump. Like these are you and Donald Trump. I got the blonde hair. I don't know. You can't see, but I have it. I do. I can see it. And I'm going to say that you like you and Donald Trump can only be made in America. And what scares me is when I do have kids who are, you know, college age. And by the way, they're they're not as rich as you, but they're just as, as strong-willed and, and, and freedom loving. Um, but they are, they are such the

minority. So many kids are just, I think they're the worst enforcers of all these COVID mandates. And they're like little, you know, little Marxists who love government and want to be controlled and accept the rules and enforce the rules and do what they're told. Do you feel that way, too? Do you feel like you're just such a minority among your age bracket? Or am I missing something? Are there more of you? Are there more Eric Finmans out there? Oh, well, that is too nice. That is too nice. Well, I think, I mean, well, that's why I think that's why they want to kill free speech because ultimately that's, that's the beauty of America is the ability to be who you are and say what you think. And I think that that used to be the case in colleges and universities. That was a place for the free exchange of ideas, learn, come to your

own opinions, but that's just not the case anymore and all that. And, and, and that's something that I feel like is, you know, 1776, right? Like that's, I feel like something we're losing in America and is the ability because what is, what is getting rid of free speech really mean? Obviously there's the grand political implications for that, but also at an individual level, it's, it's losing the ability to be yourself. It's losing the ability to be honest and authentic. And I think that's, that's honestly,

you know, why I actually left school is, is, is, is not just because I had these ambitions, but it was, they were trying to, in my opinion, kill, kill my spirit and kill who I am and who I was. And that's the thing is we're all born as, as I, in my opinion, I don't think there's such thing as a, as a baby that's ever born like that or anything. But I think society can mold, you know, people into the wrong direction. And I think that's, I saw a lot of my classmates before we went into kind of the mass education system. I was kind of homeschooled for early elementary school before I got into school. So about third grade, that's when I started going to school. And I saw what happened to before we all went to school and all of that, everybody was happy. Everything was good,

sharing, caring, everything and independent in themselves. And everybody was unique and all that. And then we, uh, uh, then they started, I was almost going to the third grade and then they started going to the education system and suddenly they were mean they were rude they were they were not not not the people kids i even recognized as as a fellow kid and all of that and and then that's that's uh you know they're in my opinion i think the the establishment and all this is trying to get rid of that individuality and the ability to be yourself and to be authentic and to be truthful and that's why you know and again on facebook and Facebook and Twitter, they ban you. I was at the Trump rally in Sarasota, I think it was Don Jr. said, raise your hand if you've been banned or censored and all that off the social media

platforms. Two thirds of the place raised their hands, all the way from kids to grandmas and grandfathers and all that. And that's so sad to me. And then they say, well, create your own Twitter or Facebook. And I guess as a movement, we did that with Parler and then Parler, you know, they just said, well, you know, well, bye, you know, and they said, well, create your own phone for your own app store. And that's what I did with the freedom phone is, is just, you know, I'm just trying to give people the ability to be yourself and make sure that we don't lose. Cause that's the thing that feels like on Facebook and Twitter, people are getting picked off one by one. And, uh, and then, you know, you see the apps getting picked off one by one. Uh, and you know, I, I just want to go on the offense with,

in the fight for free speech. And that's why I want to do the freedom phone. It's just like, it's just like, Hey, we've got the app store, everything, even, you know, you swipe left, you can see free speech news. We preload it with free speech news apps, you know, parlors right on the home screen, other free speech social media apps, I mean, and the ability to be able to like, I want to be able to on voting day, where, you know, honestly, this might be a little bit annoying for my users, but you know, get an amber alert to go vote, you know, go vote, because that's ultimately, you there's two fronts on this, get a get a do the free the free market sign, which is what I'm focusing on,

but also passing laws to make sure that they can't kill your freedom of speech. So let's get into the freedom of phone. So you obviously, we talked about, you made a lot of money on Bitcoin. You were an innovator early in the space, right? But a lot of the money came from Bitcoin. And so what is the genesis of the idea of, I know how I should

spend some of this hard earned Bitcoin profit. I want to make the Freedom Phone. How did that happen for you and how did you develop it? What's the journey been in the evolution of the Freedom Phone? Yeah. I mean, when I first went to Silicon Valley back in like, you know, I forgot the exact year, but it was like before the 2016 election. And it was this great place of maybe right wing libertarians, left wing libertarians. It was this beautiful society, in my opinion, San Francisco used to be a very beautiful place and all that. And then you're right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then it's, then it became terrible. And with the election stuff, that, that unity, and I don't blame the

election stuff, like that all fell apart though. And everybody was on lines and everything. And I just hated being in Silicon Valley. I, this dream of creating companies and startups to, you know, using the power of the free market to change the world just became totally not striking. It was all hate Trump. And people would have watched the state of the union and literally have crying parties at this Trump state of the unions and all that. That's not even a joke. That's true. And all that. And then I was just like, man, I hate this. You know, I hate this world. I hate this. I hate how nobody cares anymore about, in my opinion, doing good. And it's all just about hating Trump or it's about, you know, just censoring people. And it just became this

place where you can be yourself and be authentic to censorship culture. And that's why I, you know, I had, I had a good amount of money with Bitcoin and, you know, I always like to joke, like I had, you know, I had my, I got my FU money and I wanted to say FU, the Silicon Valley and big tech because I hated it. This place I once loved, I hated it. And I launched the Freedom Phone on July 14th. And then, you know, I was doing, you know, CNN interviews, just being an expert on Bitcoin. I would roll my eyes and be sick of it and all of that. And then, you know, never got callbacks. Well, now I'm doing Fox hits, which is way better, 10 times better and all of that. And then and I and I did this Freedom Phone because i just i just wanted to to fight back and then

you know with its own app store and all that which has all the normal apps your normal phone it has but plus the band ones as well and we always advertise free speech right-wing focus apps preload this with fox news uh uh with with rumble with telegram uh and Parler, and so much more. And DuckDuckGo is the default search engine, which is an alternative to Google and everything. And then so much more than that. Because when you see the, yeah. Oh, no, but I was going to say,

because when I first read the article about the Freedom Fund, didn't know who you were, didn't know your history, but I thought, this is what America needs. This is what our movement needs. And I would talk to, like I said at dinner and talk to different people about your Freedom Phone. And some would say, that's bullshit. He can't develop a Freedom Phone and it's still a Google platform. And there's no way he could rewire the Android platform to get Google out of the system that can allow his own app store to work. So as I was excited about what you were doing, I had a lot of other conservatives still say-

Poo-pooing it. This is a farce. I mean, he's making this up. He doesn't really have a freedom phone that he's saying he has. So what do I tell them when they say, no, no, no, no, he's full of it. This is just an ad campaign not a real freedom phone well yeah i mean i i don't know people been getting phones we've been shipping you know and all that and uh i mean it's just it's just like yeah we've been we've been shipping i have one right here you know and all that like it's just like i don't know what to say to that is the sense you know we had people like candace owens you know do a big

live stream that a million people watched and all that. And they held up the phone, and she held up the phone and was showing the software off to people and all that. And then, yeah, the Google Android, basically the history of that is back when Google was motto. Can you explain that to us? Because, Eric, I think that's what's hard. It's like this is a Google – we're not tech savvy. It's an Android platform, Google platform. It's open's open source right which means everyone can contribute to it and i've heard you say we app we acid washed the google out of the android phone i remember you that quote

well actually yeah i said i said we hillary clinton acid washed the google out of the out of the how do you i mean is that that's possible you can actually take out all of sean just to because i'm the perfect person because I'm not tech. So let me put it in my non-tech mommy form. That's the question I'm trying to ask. I'm going to ask it in the way that somebody my age would ask it. How do I know that what happened to Parler isn't going to happen to my Freedom Phone? Well, yeah, I guess on two of those fronts.

First, I'll do the Android one and all of that. well yeah i guess on two of those fronts first i'll do the android one and all that is uh is yeah basically back when google's motto when they were a little bit more libertarian minded like they talked about was do no evil they open sourced android like 10 years ago 12 years ago whatever and uh when it first came out and uh and basically we took that open source and all that like i said and then you know like i joked hillary clinton acid watched all the google stuff out you can literally download a google app you know you can still we have an email app and you can connect gmail or hotmail or whatever you desire and all that but if you download a google app it will physically not work on this phone unless you click like a big warning sign unless you click the warning sign hey this is don't use it don't use this and all of that um because you

can't trust google and we'll we and we put every app on its own little mini digital Island, little digital bubbles. That way you can't see the rest of, of the stuff you're doing on the rest of the phone. This is something we custom did and all of that. And, uh, and I can't cross track me and we notify you if someone does try and all of that. So, I mean, that's, that's it. So, it just can't, like Apple, actually, they had, there was a vulnerability called Pegasus, a tool where you could get in anyone's iPhone and all of that. And, you know, President Macron of France was like, oh, I'm switching phones and all

of that. And we tested that same software in the Freedom Phone and it didn't work and all that. We didn't prep the phone or anything. It's meant to even fight new vulnerabilities that we haven't prepared for and all that. And it didn't even work where it did work on an iPhone. We're going to be publishing a video about that soon and all that. And then also in regards to the Parler thing, that's why we have our own app store. It's a little bit of a cheesy name, but I like it. I like it. And I picked it, so obviously I like it. And it's called theri app store and again that has all the normal apps your normal phone has but plus band ones as well and uh and then that's uh that's and again and it's not just putting apps on there that's also on that featured

section that all app stores have we advertise all free speech right wing conservative apps and that's always the focus because a lot of these you know you can even if you so two things even if you get on the app store and all that, Apple and Google are never going to advertise you if you care about free speech and all that for free, like in their featured section, their spotlight section. And then I've been helping conservative organizations create apps and all that because I want them, you know, I do it for free pro bono and all that. Cause I say, Hey, I want you on it. I want, I want unique apps on my app store and this app that also works my Patriot. If you build an app for the Patriot app store, it'll work on iPhone or Google. If you build an app for app

iPhone or Google, it will work on the Patriot app store redeveloped. And so that way it was easy for developers, but I've been going to conservative organizations and then I've been submitted my app store. Obviously that's great and works well, but we've been submitting to the Apple and Google app stores. Cause they say, well say well you know we'll put them on there as long as they last right but apple actually it's not just you know they're very they're they're uh authentication systems for getting into their app store their their application they now have added misinformation whatever they define that as so one of these apps got rejected this is a news app this is a news i'm not going to say the name but like this is a news organization you would know and it's very popular

amongst conservative circles and all that and i think is somewhat moderate and all that and and we put them on there and they say you know what because they had an article and they're doubting this extreme lockdowns and they saw the article in the app and they said you have to take this down if you want to be on our app store so it's also about the apps that you don't hear about getting banned and all those apps that never allowed to get on there in the first place so you know do you make the choice to not show these you know uh you know articles on on the app on the on your app maybe on the website but not on the app or do you not have an app as a whole and that and that's you shouldn't have to make that choice. Or do I make an app and just comply with all

of the censoring that Apple or Google has for the content that I put on my app? And that's a huge power that they have to control what information we see. So how much is a Freedom Phone? How much is a Freedom Phone? So this is, in my opinion, the same quality as an iPhone or anything, but it's half the price. We do it $4.99 and if you're able to find a coupon code there for $50, you know, you can get $4.49 and all that. Where are the coupons

at, man? $4.49 sounds better. I'm super sold right now. Well, thank you. Okay, so, and I go where to buy it. I, you go to freedom phone.com. Be careful about that because we've had a lot of left-wing people set up fake websites like freedom cell phones.net or whatever.

And then it's like, that ends up being a fake website and all that. So just be careful. Go to freedom. Sounds like they're really threatened by you. If they're willing to go through that trouble. Oh yeah. No, there's been tons of left-wing hit pieces, fake websites, you know, and all of that. People have been emailing payment processors trying to get us banned and all of that. And I mean, it's, it's pretty, pretty,

you know, people really try to cancel us and all of that. Like it really is the case and all that. But then, you know, I, I, I feel I was prepared and all of that, cause I knew what they were going to do, but they've done clever. Like I didn't, you know, obviously there's nothing really to prepare for. We, we make sure we do takedowns on these fake websites, but you know, I feel, you know, we, we it's, it's be, just be careful. Go to freedom phone.com, freedom phone.com. Okay. I love it. So Eric, I remember you said to this, this phone is made in Asia, not in the U S and the purpose of that was you said you couldn't make it in the US. You would have made it here in the US, but you had to make it overseas because we

don't have the capability of making a phone here. Yeah. I mean, it's terrible. I mean, the US is really incapable. Let's say COVID was maybe like Ebola and spread terribly and all of that. And you had to lock down the borders, you wouldn't be able to get like 80% of everything. Cause you just physically cannot make stuff in the, in the United States. I mean, it's that I, I was like, Oh, I'm going to do a free report. We got to make this baby in the U S and we do get a lot of parts from the U S and all that, but we had to get parts from all over the world and all of that, um, to be able to make a phone in the United States and all of that.

And it's just, it's terrible. I mean, you even see like the MyPillow guy, he talked about like when you start a pillow company, you literally could not make pillows in the United States, top to bottom. He said there wasn't weavers trained well enough and he had to bring in foreign people to be able to train people properly to make pillows at scale and all that in the United States. And pillows are a lot easier than advanced electronics with you know 100 200 plus components that you all have to make from scratch right and all that so i mean it's it's uh uh so yeah we do get some parts you know we do

stuff in hong kong we get our chips from taiwan and all that and we get parts from our camera it's actually uh we got this an awful part uh off the shelf Sony camera. So it's a very good camera. We get a lot of parts from Europe. We get a lot of parts from the US. We get some parts from Canada. So we get parts from all over the world. How long did it take you from the moment you're like, I want to do this. I've got the money.

I'm going to start the Freedom Phone. Till you started actually manufacturing. So we started, the initial idea of this was to make it a little bit um kind of more crypto blockchain focused and all that because that was my background and then you know seeing so we were in development i would say for for like that and then when parlor got banned it was just like you know frankly you know it's it's just time to go all out guns blazing you know quote unquote you know metaphorically right And all that time to go all out because it's just like, this is, you gotta be in the fight. You know, you gotta, you gotta be in this mission. And then, and then we're like, rather than making it, you know,

big point phone or whatever, and all that, we're like, you know what, it's time to, I don't care about Silicon Valley anymore. I don't like these people. This whole culture of censorship is totally difficult to what I, to how I came here in the first place. I love how, when I hear this story, you know, money does give people freedom. It really does.

It really does. I mean, it's, it's like, you know, we're all kind of top, like money doesn't matter, you know,

it's how happy you are, but there is a freedom that you have. I think it's actually, I hate to come back to Trump again, but I also think his money gave him a freedom to say F you to everybody else. He didn't need anybody else. He did this on his own. The people in power didn't like him or thought he was a,

you know, didn't think he was, you know, sophisticated enough to be around them. They thought he was gauche, whatever. He didn't go to them for help. He was doing it on his own and they, and, but that gave him freedom. And I see this freedom that you have

to not just think free, but to do things- That help others. That help others be free. It's just, I'm like your biggest fan now, Eric. I'm really impressed with you. Eric, how are the sales? The sales have been amazing. New York Times, they tried to write a hit piece on us, but it was hard for them to because our sales and our orders have been so successful. We've done millions of dollars in sales. We've done $6 million in sales just in the past couple of months and all of that.

And that's been incredible. We're coming up on even more than that now and all that. And then, yeah, I mean, the goal is to get this in the 75 million plus, you know, Trump supporters like me, you know, and all that, that that want to have, you know, that want to have a phone that they're free, free from big tech with. And I see this as a platform for also so many things. Wait right there. We'll have more of this conversation next. Save up to $75 in the Ancestry DNA Cyber Sale, our lowest price of the year. Treat yourself or a loved one to a DNA journey of discovery at a truly incredible price. Discover your heritage, learn about your ancestors,

and make new family connections. But hurry, these savings are only for a very limited time. Visit Ancestry.ca to start your journey today. Offer ends December 3rd. Terms apply. Does Google now, because again, with this open source platform, it's kind of out of Google's control, though it is their platform. Do they have any control to come back in and say no you can't

use our platform for their freedom phone or no you have to have youtube and and gmail and google all on your phone if you're going to use this platform can they actually reach back in and thwart your effort on the freedom phone no no and and really like it's it's just they basically 10 years ago put the code online for free and all that. And even said in that they have like a MIT, I think, open source license and all that, where it's just say, hey, you know, legally, we have no hold over this. Once the code, you know, once you take the code, we cannot touch it and all of that. And, you know, they'll try to feel it. And then any Google stuff, like, you know, even just signing in with a Google account, right, and all of that and you know they'll they'll you know they'll have try to feel it and then and then any any google stuff like you know even just signing in with the google account right and all

that i think they have that they have that in there in the original called we got rid of and all that my cto is one of the top in my opinion cyber security experts in the world and all that you can get my iphone 10 minutes it's crazy and all that it's like i had he was the head person that built this operating system and uh and then yeah again we made sure to get rid of it if that was actually a complaint because our first version our beta version we were having testing out with people and all that google just didn't work at all like even if you so and eventually we gave people the option with significant warning and all that not to do any integration but if you want to download youtube again we prefer that you use rumble and all of that but i mean it's uh uh, but if you want to download YouTube, again, we prefer that you use Rumble and all of that.

But I mean, it's, you know, if you want to have the option, we give you a big warning sign, you know, and all that say, hey, this is, you know, this will track, you know, your viewing history and all of that. It won't be able to see anything you do on the phone. That's something that people don't know about iPhones. They entered it. Like when you download an app, it's able to see what other apps you have on your phone, analytics, et cetera, and all that.

But so, you know, we made it so, you know, literally YouTube did not work. Originally also on our phone, we made it so secure. So one of the things we do is we have something that follows along to make sure that there's no one. Because a lot of people, they leave their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on all the time. Yeah, I do that all the time. That's an easy vulnerability. Cause I could just be, you know, on a laptop and see everybody's Bluetooth and there's vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth system and all that. So you can get on your phone if you have Bluetooth on all the time. So we, we, we, you know, obviously we have wifi and Bluetooth on our phone when you use it, but we make sure that no one can get into that.

And it follows to see if anyone is trying to, you know, sneakily get in there. Has the government tried to stop you because they could go, well, you know, this is like perfect for a terrorist? Or have they tried to use security as an excuse to stop you because now they can't track you? No, not yet. You know, thankfully and frankly, I feel like, you know, there's these mythical feel like there's these mythical security threats or whatever, but I think the main security threat is in the Biden administration trying to literally, this was perfect marketing, terrible thing to happen, but perfect marketing. This was right around her launch day, two days, one day beforehand. And it was a Biden administration on the press secretary, Jen Psaki, I think her name is, and all that saying, hey, we are putting pressure on the carriers to stop the spread of misinformation in your text messages. So if you're texting your grandma, your grandpa, your grandson, your son, your daughter, whatever, father, daughter, whatever, and all that, they want to be able to,

so if you say, hey, maybe the lockdowns are a little extreme and all of that. Maybe Australia is a little looking a little bit like back how they were back in the day, open air prison colony. You're not allowed to send this text message due to misinformation. And I've already seen, I have friends and they might be a little fringe or whatever. They are now banned from sending text messages and all that by the carriers. And so, you know, by the way, Bill Gates was actually on. We did an interview with him on our show, an interview that he had with CNN not long ago where he actually said that, you know, the problem with America during the pandemic, we're not more like Australia. We need to be we need to really, you know, shape up and do better and be more like Australia.

So Sean, do you mind telling him what happened to you the other day? We don't know what this is. So this was just a couple of days ago. So I was at a hotel in DC, wake up in the morning, go downstairs, and I'm going to use my Uber app to call an Uber to pick me up. So when you pull up your Uber app, it'll say, can I use your location? I go, yep, you can use it once. And then I type in the address of where I want to go. That's how the Uber app works. Everyone who's used Uber knows that. So I looked down at the phone for my location and my location had me nine blocks away from where I actually was, which if you're familiar with Uber, it's exact or it's within a half a block radius of where you are.

And I was in Washington, D.C. The location I was, which was nine blocks away, was in the FBI headquarters. Oh, wow. Wow. What do you think that means? And so I closed the app and I pulled it back up again. And again, it pulled me up as being at the FBI headquarters, which I like.

I mean, probably what's happening. Anything wrong. But I, you know, after Tucker Tucker was being spied on and we both work for Fox news for like, what the hell?

No, that's totally. I mean, they're, they're, they're just intercepting your traffic most likely. And then, you know,

then, then that geolocates my, my, uh, uh, I always joke. My family were like Elon Musk version of the Kardashians. My brothers are both very independently successful. My parents would be an awesome reality show. Yeah, it would be, it would be. I don't think that they, they don't like, none of them except me, I guess, like doing interviews and, um, but, uh, but, but my parents, they, uh, they, um, ran, uh, so they made all these, uh, uh, amplifiers that were able to put in, in every Humvee in the U S military,

they were able to jam people from remotely blowing up IDs under, uh, uh, under Humvee or anything, um, in the middle East. Right. So that, that is their background and they started a company and they, uh, one time that all of their, they went on the internet, and then were a defense company, right? They contact local authorities. And then they said, yeah, the Russians have been intercepting your traffic. And then they took the laptops and all that and basically went through them all and gave them back and all that.

My family got new laptops after that. I'm sure. Right. But yeah, I mean, that's just objectively what they're doing. And that's one of the things we actually partnered with another company out in Utah, which is actually where the NSA has a big thing there. And all that we partnered with a company out in Utah and all that where every phone we have on the back of every phone, we have basically a stamp of security. It's called the clear stamp of security with this clear tracking, of malware clear of government you know intervention and all that it's a great guy his name is michael proper actually and and i talked with him so we this was actually at you know yeah this was i bumped into him and all that and then yeah we make sure that stuff like that doesn't happen to you and all that so eric so really quick because

i know sean is just he's gonna close the show out on Bitcoin. He wants to go back to Bitcoin. I have one thing to say and then one last question and then I'm going to hand it over to Sean to do his Bitcoin thing because he's completely fascinated by you with that. So one, I can't wait till this, I'm going to post this all over my social media.

I have so many friends. And I'm going to buy a phone, Eric. I'm going to get a phone after this. That's great. We're backordered. We're backordered. So just to let you know. I know people to buy a phone, Eric. I'm going to get a phone. We're backordered. I know people in high places, Eric. Yeah, we do know someone in a high place here.

Maybe Eric can hook us up. I'm getting a phone. I'm going to let all my girlfriends know because I have a little cadre. We have a little group chat of me and my favorite conservative moms, and we were constantly posting stuff on them to make sure they all see it. And then I'm going to post it on social media.

I want you to know I love that you named your app the Patriot app because I think you are a patriot. We sit here and we bitch all the time about how bad big tech is and what we need to do and why didn't we buy a movie studio? And why did we let, you know, big tech get this big and why didn't we stop them earlier? And it's like this young 22 year old who's like,

I'm going to, I'm going to change the narrative here. I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to allow Americans to be free with, from my little perch, from my little corner, with my little knowledge. You are everything that is good about America and I hope you I wish you all the success I have one last question it was interesting you brought up your parents um and and what they do

and it might explain a little bit of the question of the question I'm going to ask you but what did your parents think when you what did they say to you What did you say to them when you said I'm dropping out at 15? I mean, like I, like I'd be stressed when my, when my kid says I'm dropping out of college. No, no, no. You're in high school. You're dropping out at 15. What is your mom and dad say? And what's that conversation?

Yeah, actually. So I'll tell you a funny story. They, uh, uh, so I'll tell you a funny story. They, uh, uh, so I was not doing well in school and all that. I didn't like it. I didn't have fun. And my parents, my, my father and mother, they're, uh, Stanford PhDs. And, um, and I felt that they were, the homework was very, you know, just teaching to the test and everything. And one time my, my, uh, you know, my very confident father, you know, was just like, ah, you know, I, I, you know, you just got to work harder and do your own. And he is one of the most brilliant, his PhD is in,

I think mechanical engineering, but he's a most brilliant writer that I think I've ever met and all of that really genius liner. And one day he did one night to prove me wrong. He did my English homework and all that. And normally I would get like maybe a C plus and then he, I turned the homework in and he got like a 30%, like a solid F. And then, and then I was like, and he was like, Oh, it's the school's fault. And, and, you know, and I made a bet with my parents. I said, Hey, you know,

if I don't become successful, if I don't make a million dollars by the time I'm 18, I'll go back to school and I'll do you know, go to community college and do that whole thing. Right. And that was the deal. And then when I was 18, I made my million bucks in Bitcoin, and all that became the youngest person to ever become a Bitcoin millionaire, the youngest Bitcoin millionaire, and all that. And, and then, you know, rest is history after that. So I think the goal of school is to set yourself on a pathway of success in the marketplace and all that, and to also learn and help you become who you are and all that. And I think I've done all those things independently of the school system. And I think actually in spite of it. In spite of it. And I was just saying this whole pandemic has been, I mean, the silver

lining of it is that I think a lot of parents were forced to kind of do what your dad did, which is, you know, they finally got to see what their kids were doing in school because they had the Zoom calls and they were like, finally got to be that little fly in the room seeing what's happening. And I think they were all learning garbage. They're not learning anything. They're indoctrinated. Indoctrination mills. They're teaching to the test.

And many parents started homeschooling to basically compensate and go, wow, I'm doing a better job. This is what I would teach my kid. I know Sean and I coming out of the pandemic made a massive change. Our kids are in a school, but in a much better school, in a school that's teaching stuff that we like and we approve of and we think is worthwhile. It's a classic education. It's a classical academy, Catholic school, but we weren't before. So anyway, I think your life journey is fascinating. And I think more people are aware since the pandemic of just how deficient our education system is. And your story is proof of that.

I want to give you my philosophy on crypto and maybe specifically Bitcoin. And I want you to tell me if I'm right or wrong, because I look at what the government's doing. Number one, I think the left, the socialists, the communists are taking over so much of the American system, whether it's corporate America, education, Hollywood, media, tech. And if you look at history, what the left does is they tax people to death. And when they run out of money, then they start to seize assets. They'll seize your second home. You might have too much in your retirement. They'll seize that. The one thing they can't seize from me is my Bitcoin. Now, if they put a gun to my head and say, give me your keys, that's not seizing it. That's me actually forcibly give, they're forcing

me to give it to them. So that's one reason why I like Bitcoin. But the other is, I think America's monetary policy has been so horrific that we have $28, $30 trillion in debt and there's no end in sight. And throughout history, there's a natural consequence of printing money. You devalue, you debase your currency. And I think just because we're the global reserve currency, we have had a longer run with not seeing the currency debased the way we are seeing inflation right now. And one I think hedge against that is crypto and the gold standard of crypto is Bitcoin. is crypto and the gold standard of crypto is Bitcoin. So those are the two reasons why I think this is the right play. However, I also look at the government and you look at what China's

doing right now. They want everyone to be on the digital one, I think, so they have more control. They have the social credit score that's going to work for them on the blockchain technology, which their dollar is that they're using the yuan for. And they don't want to see freedom in crypto. They want to see everyone in their system. But I guess I look at the US and say, could the US government really allow for a different... So Bitcoin is not a... I think it's a store of value, but you see all of this innovation in other spaces where they're trying to develop payment rails, right? Where this could be an actual usable technology outside of the dollar. I don't think the US government can ever allow another payment system that could challenge the dollar globally. They have to be the reserve currency because if they're not the reserve currency and everyone starts trading their dollars, we're going to

have not just hyperinflation, we're going to have superinflation. And so they can't allow that to happen. And I think they're going to try to regulate this to death. And it depends on how many rich people, Wall Streeters, have crypto that can push back on the government. But I see real opportunity to protect myself from bad monetary policy, but I see real regulatory risk coming from the federal government. Yeah. Where am I wrong on this? Where are you at? Yes. I think before that, another use case is I believe that Visa and MasterCard are just going to ban you from like

donating to certain candidates, you know, and all that, if you get labeled as stupid, like, and all that, you see, they've done this with already some, you know, right wing websites, you just can't Visa, like, it doesn't matter what bank, just Visa and MasterCard and all that just don't ever work on no credit or debit card ever work on your site ever again, and all of that. And, and, you know know so that's that's what's going to happen i think that's a very use case that the payment companies have gotten woke and you know they have this ability and all that um and uh but yeah i mean no i in regards to that the beauty of crypto was actually a lot of people tried creating their own alternative currencies

before bitcoin and those people were thrown in prison. There's something called the Liberty dollar and all that, which is something I actually had back in, back when I, that was, that was a weird kid. I had that at like 11. It was like a rom-com. But it was basically, it was like this, you know, these, these, you know, bills and they were basically some guy in a warehouse. He bought a warehouse and he stacked a bunch of silver and gold in it and you could give him uh a 10 your 10 silver bill and all that 10 it was like a silver certificate but it was like a 10 and you and had like thomas jack ron paul's face on or whatever and then you would give it to him and all that and he would give you 10 bucks worth of silver and all that uh if you want and then so rather than carrying all the silver around you could just exchange

these bills and it was going back to the gold and silver back jam uh standard and all of that uh if you want and then so rather than carrying all the silver around you could just exchange these bills and it was going back to the gold and silverback uh standard and all of that so you know i have a sign that was like we accept liberty dollar too still which is really retro and really an old reference um but they uh put that guy in prison or threatened them with prison you shut it all down and um uh that was that was basically it and uh that that was the end of that when people started creating uh hash based. So kind of like digital currencies, but they were a little bit more centralized. Those people were threatened or put in prison, shut down and all that. And that was why Bitcoin is invented. um and bitcoin was the first just because that's you know the to create a legend no if you started an alternative currency you're put in prison because it's actually illegal to start another currency which is a law that was passed during the civil war i actually before the civil war there was all these companies would issue currencies similar in a way there's all these

different cryptos and i have a i i'm really a weirdo here i have all those alternative currencies before the Civil War happened and they banned alternative currencies and all that. This was actually something that was somewhat common back in the day and all of that. But, you know, because Civil War, they had to fund all that.

They wanted only one currency. Real quick, real quick. And then let me, I'm almost done and all that. And then, yeah. So that blockchain was invented. That way there was no centralized servers, no centralized company. And the founder was off the grid anonymous. It didn't matter if you found them.

Bitcoin would still exist. You can't throw in jail because it's decentralized, right? Exactly. Because it's a community. That's my point. Exactly. That's why I was wondering how they got away with it. That's how.

Exactly. So even if the government did ban it, it doesn't matter. Maybe it'd be less accessible to consumers and normal people and all that, but it would still exist. So if things ever got really bad, Bitcoin would still exist just fine. to regulate it. They're going to have to do something to stop this from sort of dethroning the dollar. Yeah. I mean, I guess that was my point is it doesn't matter in the sense like it exists without you. That's the whole purpose of blockchain technology to make something that is unbannable, even if it's highly legal. And you see in some, you know, Bitcoin is highly illegal in Venezuela and all that. But you look at one of the most Bitcoin transactions are happening from a lot of it's in Venezuela because they use it as an alternative currency to be able

to buy food because their currency is so worthless and it's able to exist outside of those systems. But at the same time, if you want to be able to kind of really kind of be able to get normal people into it and not have to get into it sneakily and all that yeah you should be able you know contact your local congressman senator and let them know your support of bitcoin you have a bitcoin senator cynthia loomis out of wyoming she's great and all that she loves bitcoin and you have people like darren soto even on the democrat side he's a representative from the orlando area and he's very pro-bitcoin cinema is also big exactly, exactly. So make sure you contact your local senator and congressman and make sure that they fight for this. And also it can exist even if it is outright banned illegally.

So now I want to help all my listeners become Eric. So if you look at the whole bunch of coins out there, right? Is it Solana? We've seen a huge run up in Solana over the last several months. Are you all in Bitcoin? Are you taking some of your Bitcoin and putting it in other digital assets? If so, what great advice, what great play do you have for us? I think you should- I'm really asking is, what great play do you have for me?

Or maybe the other question is, what would you tell wives who are mad that their husbands keep buying Bitcoin? Yeah. I mean, I think stick to Bitcoin and just be patient, honestly. I mean, I think if you're, I think stick it, stick to Bitcoin and just be patient, honestly. I mean, I think that, you know, Ethereum and all those others are great. I think Zcash and Monero are also really interesting technologies, you know, Dogecoin is a meme. So I think there's an opportunity to make money off of that, honestly. But I don't know if that's like a lifelong crypto, but I mean, if you're, again, just even a normal person, just probably just put into Bitcoin. I invest in this company called CoinBits, like CoinBitsApp.com, which allows you just to like every credit card you swipe, it rounds up.

So if you buy something that's, you know, $1.90, it would round up to 10 cents and put that into Bitcoin for you and all of that. And that's just a great way to get into it. I feel like if you're a normal person, but yeah, I have some money in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, which is a little complicated to explain in that world. Ethereum, like I said, and Zcash, Monero, and some others. But yeah, I mean, those are all, but I do recommend just getting to Bitcoin because that's just the front facing one and will last for a very, very long time. We see wide fluctuations and I think that scares a lot of people. My philosophy has been, I'm looking five years out, 10 years out with only 21 million coin, there's a supply and demand issue. I'm a believer that this is going to go to 100,000,

200. I think you're going to, I mean, I'm a believer that this is going to go to 100,000, 200. I mean, I think that you're going to see still great runs in Bitcoin. Yeah. My opinion, I think Bitcoin is going to go to 100,000 too. On the same page, brother. Listen, Eric, I appreciate you joining us, giving some Bitcoin knowledge, but also thanks for not sitting on the sidelines and yelling at your TV about what's happening in America, but actually taking on the challenge to bring freedom to more people and engaging. And I think just for Rachel and I, and I think for other conservatives, don't just complain. Support people who are actually trying to make a difference and bring freedom to your doorstep. And that's how you get more businesses, more innovators, more creators, more freedom lovers to do more innovation that brings more freedom to all of us and gets us outside of the big tech woke censorship that's taking place right now in America. And you're one of those guys that are doing that. So thank you.

Yeah. I just want to say, Eric, we need less think tanks and more Erics. And I think we could win. Thank you. Well, you're too nice. As a movement. You're too nice. And your parents, I hope you'll send this message to your parents.

You're amazing, but you are clearly the product of not just smart parents, but parents who let you spread your wings and gave you the freedom to become who you want to be. And that's a really good lesson for me as a parent as well. And if you would send them a message from Sean and I that they are examples to all of us. If you can create an Eric, you can save America. And that's what the future is about. So thank you so much for joining us on the show. Freedomphone.com. We preload it with

the crypto wallet too, the Freedomphone. What crypto wallet? Just our own, our own proprietary one. Yeah, exactly. So we preload with the crypto wallet, Freedomphone the crypto. Now I can't let you go. So I have my keys on like a Nano X, but is it still safe to have your crypto on a device that's connected to the internet as opposed to being offline, being some kind of cold storage? in some kind of cold storage? So what we do is we literally, when you sign up for the phone, you get your keys in a similar way to that. So during the registration process, we transfer literal ownership to you and all of that.

And then you get keys in a similar way to your crypto keys. So it's basically the same thing on the phone and all that. Okay, awesome. Wow. I love it. I'm going to send you a text or email about how much I love your phone once I get it. Oh, well, thank you.

Thank you. Freedomphone.com. Shameless plug. Freedomphone.com. No, we're going to be announcing freedomphone.com everywhere we can. So freedomphone.com.

Thank you, Eric. You are amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us at the kitchen table. All right. Take care. Okay.

Bye. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us for The Kitchen Table with the Duffeys. We've enjoyed the conversation. And if you did too, let us know. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts. We hope to see you around the table next week. this is jimmy phelan inviting you to join me for fox across america where we'll discuss every single one of the democrats dumb ideas just kidding it's only a three-hour show