The Wolf Of All Streets - Will American Politicians Ever Embrace Crypto? | Dennis Porter, Satoshi Action Fund

Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode is sponsored by my good friends at Bullish. Stay tuned for more information on this amazing company later in the episode. Whether we like it or not, Bitcoin and crypto have become political issues in the United States. And we're just seeing the early iterations of legislation and regulation of our space. Dennis Porter has been on the front lines trying to orange pill and convince politicians that this is an issue that they need to care about. He tells us why he's doing it and what we as individuals can also do to affect change. So you've been working on basically getting politicians on board with our mission for ages. And in the words of the movie Almost Famous, it's all happening.

Starting point is 00:00:56 It is happening. It is. And it's very exciting to see. There are definitely people who are in this game much earlier than myself doing a lot of the hard work that is coming to fruition today. But it's really been a shift recently, I feel, where you're seeing an incredible amount of politicians, elected officials, not just on the federal side, on the state side as well, getting very excited about passing public policy and attracting this industry. And miners in particular, which is my field, attracting Bitcoin miners to their districts. So it is a little overwhelming because to some extent, I didn't expect it to go this well, which makes me feel very optimistic about the future in the United States. It's like Michael Saylor said to me the other day, he was like, if I had known that it was going to go this well,

Starting point is 00:01:47 I would have bought a lot more Bitcoin, right? It's like, if I had known it was going to go this well, I probably would have leaned in even heavier to having these conversations with elected officials and just broadening the reach as quickly as possible. You said that there's an excitement about it. That's certainly the optimistic view, and I share it. Is there another side where that's just a bit of forced interest because of either

Starting point is 00:02:13 their constituents or because it's now the hot topic that you need to be able to have an opinion on because you want to get reelected, or are they legitimately excited about what's happening? There's a good balance there, but there's definitely some folks who you can tell who are jumping in and just kind of verbalizing support. And I think it's really important for us as an industry to not allow that level of lip service. It was fine. I tell people a year ago, you put Bitcoin in your bio as a politician and you're getting talked about all over the internet. And then it changed to, okay, now you have to kind of show that you understand this issue. And it's gone from there to you have to put forward a bill. And then even that's not good enough. Like, well, is this thing even going to pass? And that's been incredible to see. I've been working not just to convince policymakers and elected officials to be

Starting point is 00:02:59 more open to Bitcoin, but also what I wanted to do was speed up the expectations of the Bitcoin community, of the digital asset space. I mean, I'm a Bitcoin-only guy, but I'm working alongside all sorts of different folks. But our expectations need to constantly be rising, because if we don't, then they're never actually going to do anything. Because they're going to go, oh, I can just tweet about Bitcoin and get a bunch of likes and, you know, get some funding, get some donations. No, you all actually have to produce proof of work, so to speak, right? You have to go out and do something for the space. That's why I'm very pumped about what we're seeing with Gillibrand and Lummis on the bill that they put forward. They're doing the proof of work. They're putting in the work trying to get this

Starting point is 00:03:43 thing done. It's going to be a tough long haul with that bill. But yes, there is some folks that are definitely not fully on the team that are kind of taking advantage of this issue and trying to use it as a way to gain some clout and some attention. But I think that as long as our community stays vigilant about what our expectations are from elected officials, that that won't be something that's tolerated for very long. Is the community big enough to have that sort of effect? Are we a large enough percentage of the constituency now that they actually have to listen, or can they still somewhat? Sure, I think they can get away with it for a little, I think we are in a period where they can get away with taking advantage of us as a community. We have a very strong social media presence. We have a lot of money.

Starting point is 00:04:28 And we're a brand new space. But those things are only going to grow and they're only going to change. Our influence is only going to grow and change. And I think that politicians should be very careful. This is a very popular issue right now. It wasn't very popular even just a year, year and a half ago. I spoke to Andrew Yang. He was kind of like, well, now you guys want to be pro-Bitcoin?

Starting point is 00:04:44 I was running for president and trying to be pro-Bitcoin. I would dare say it was unpopular. Yeah, and it was unpopular. Not even, yeah. Yeah, now it's super popular. But it's very important if you're elected official right now, just be very careful.

Starting point is 00:04:55 If you want to be forward on this issue, make sure you do your own research, learn about it enough so that you can have a strong understanding of what you're supporting. So that way you don't feel like you have to backtrack on it later, which I don't think they will. But if you're someone like

Starting point is 00:05:07 Mayor Eric Adams, who is like, I'm very pro-Bitcoin. And then he's like, I want to ban proof of work mining. He's like, OK, you clearly don't understand this technology. And every single time I talk to people, he's now the poster child for, oh, these people, politicians will turn on us and they will lip service us and then they will go a different direction. So last comment there is just like, be very careful as a politician, because I don't think this community is going to forget those sorts of approaches. Yeah. He's also the poster child for saying, wow, everybody likes Suarez for this. I'm going to also take my first check in Bitcoin and Ethereum and doing zero work on it. Literally just a clickbait title is effectively what he did. It's unfortunate too, because I don't know anybody who was talking to Mayor Eric Adams and saying,

Starting point is 00:05:49 oh, this guy's great, we should get behind him. I, in fact, was warning people very early on, I don't know, I don't trust this guy. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, but I don't get the feeling like he's authentic. And I just never even went through the vetting process because I did feel like he was trying to just gain attention by being pro-Bitcoin verbally, like outwardly. But no one really vetted him. No one was really on his team. And it's unfortunate that I do kind of get pushed back to like, oh, why are you working with politicians? They're just going to turn on you. See, look at Mayor Eric Adams. And I just kind of like roll my eyes and like, I'm just like, dude, no one really supported this guy. No one was really behind him. And no one I know anyways. I mean, sure,

Starting point is 00:06:28 we tweeted out. Right. Cool. Yeah. Oh, you're taking your paycheck in Bitcoin. Great. Yeah. And you're also in the state that's the clearly the most difficult to operate from any regulatory capacity for the crypto industry. And you're just the mayor of New York and you're not going to influence policy in the state. But yeah, New York is becoming very interesting because now you have this Mayor Eric Adams story. You also have Senator Gillibrand, who is partnering with Lummis on the bill. And at the same time, you have them trying to ban Bitcoin mining in the state. Now, I mean, obviously, the bill was stripped down quite tremendously from its original position. It could have been way worse.

Starting point is 00:07:06 And so we should be happy as a community, even if they pass it, that we put so much pressure on them that they had to strip this bill down to basically nothing. It essentially turned into a ban on proof of work mining behind the meter with fossil fuels. Maybe for two years. For two years, right. Oratorium. They'll actually tell you it's not even a ban, right?

Starting point is 00:07:23 And people are grandfathered in and all these things. And people are saying, oh, that's fine, that's fine. Like, this isn't that big of a deal. But we have to be very careful because at the end of the day, they are still regulating the end use of electricity. And that's never happened in the United States before. Never before has anyone said, you can't use electricity, you can't use power for this specific thing. And the danger there is that once you give government power, you can expand that to a wide variety of issues. So the financial system today, we see them using it, for instance, in Canada, Justin Trudeau kicking people out of the financial system. That's a rail for money, but there's rails for energy. And now they're saying,

Starting point is 00:08:02 oh, you can't be in the rails for energy. We're going to cut you out. And once you expand that power, it can be used for virtually to cut for any reason. The biggest danger, and I don't think it's going to happen with this administration, but the one thing I'm most afraid of is the EPA actually getting involved with trying to regulate the end use of power. And that's dangerous because, as you know, it's hyper-partisan, hyper-political era that we live in. Someone could come into office and use that power to shut the power off, quite literally, for their political opponents. Yeah, that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:08:37 And there's also obviously the risk that other states see what New York is doing and say, us too. They did it, So we don't have to take the reputational risk of being first. We're just following along on the coattails. Although I don't really necessarily see that being a huge problem. It could be. It could be something definitely that we should be concerned about because we can't take anything for granted. But this is also why inevitably I decided to launch Satoshi Action Fund, which is a new C4 organization that will go on the offense for Bitcoin. Today, currently in this country, all we're doing is playing defense with Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining in particular. So New York, we're responding. We're going on

Starting point is 00:09:15 defense, which is good. We should. We have to. Biden administration, EO, looks like they're going the wrong direction. We're on the defense. Chris Larson with the Greenpeace folks trying to go on the offense against us. We're on defense again. And so we're constantly on defense. And there's this analogy that I like to give, which is that if you're playing a game of soccer and you're just guarding the goal the whole time, your opponent might rarely score any points, but you'll also never score any points of your own, and thus you'll never win a single match. And this is a big mistake that the energy industry and the tech industry made back when they were nascent and just getting started. They decided, oh, we're outside of government or like we don't

Starting point is 00:09:55 want to play politics. And so they would only react to when they got attacked. But now they're on the offense very clearly, but the battle lines have been drawn. We're like here in the middle with energy. And it's like a war of attrition now. And same thing with tech. But we're here right now with the battlefield with Bitcoin and digital assets. They're fighting over here. And we're playing defense. But nobody's going on offense pushing the line forward.

Starting point is 00:10:18 Because we could end up here before they get too far across. But nobody's doing that. So that's why I think it's critical that not just Bitcoin and not just digital assets, but especially Bitcoin mining go on the offense so that we can make sure and secure this nascent tech infrastructure in the United States for the next 50 years. What does that actually look like? What does offense look like? Because it's easy to say, but how do you actually do that? Yeah. So the big key part here is going to be educating policymakers and lawmakers and regulators as rapidly as possible. Because when you go to these places where they're trying to ban Bitcoin mining, the first thing that comes out of their

Starting point is 00:10:54 mouth is usually some sort of misconception or it is almost just like it's not even true. It's like a lie to some extent that they've been told, that they're repeating and they think is true. So we have to get to these policymakers and regulators fast. We have to get to them early. We have time, but we don't have all the time in the world. And so what I'll be doing is going on the offense by doing mass education with policymakers on the state level, because that's where the battle can be won on the state level. Most people don't know this, but a lot of energy policy happens at the state level. And so what we do this, but a lot of energy policy happens at the state level. And so what we do is educate, educate, educate. And then we turn around and we have model legislation that we basically say, here, this is what we would like to see. And if you want to have

Starting point is 00:11:34 Bitcoin mining in your district, because jobs, innovation, investment, infrastructure, and also you're going to be able to raise the tax basis because people are making more money there, right? Like politicians love having more tax money to spend. So it's a very positive thing for them. So then we're saying, this is what we want, and we'll come to your state, and you get all of these positives in return. Do you want to pass this legislation and, you know, form it in a way that will be effective in your state? And then if they don't, if they don't pass it, then that's when you start to get involved in elections. But we don't need to get there yet. We don't need to be replacing people if we can be putting them on our team instead. Right. I mean, I think it's very clear that the majority

Starting point is 00:12:13 of politicians, and this is not even a criticism, we live in this bubble, so we think it's the most important thing in the world. But most of them just haven't done the work because it hasn't been on their radar, or they just haven't had to. So I think that's a very optimistic view, actually, to say, listen, let's just go tell them. Maybe they'll get it like we do. I mean, we orange pill people all the time, right? Politicians are no different. I think the biggest risk is that it becomes a hyper-politicized issue, as you said, and it becomes a right versus left thing. And then there's no communicating with one side entirely. It is a problem. Absolutely. We have to be cognizant of the right versus left thing.

Starting point is 00:12:48 Going back to the Lummis-Gillibrand thing, that's why, to me, that's so critical. And she's a New York Democrat, as you said. This isn't just any Democrat. This is a former presidential candidate who's in New York. From one of the bluest states in the entire country. Yeah. And so that is big. And yes, that's what I'm doing. I'm essentially orange pilling policymakers and regulators on Bitcoin mining so that we can be on the right side of history

Starting point is 00:13:11 in this country. I mean, China gave us an incredible gift by kicking the miners out of their country. Arguably one of the worst policy decisions in 100 years, because this industry is going to lead to massive innovation in the energy industry and the grid and the way that we compute data in this country as well and the ability to afford the computation that it takes to do all of the AI. Like Tesla, the cars that are driving around all the time, for instance, right? It's a lot of data. The cameras, all the sensors, they have to compute all of that information. And in order to do that, they need relatively affordable power rates. Otherwise, it's just not economical for them. And so Bitcoin mining will lead to a world where not only is it more affordable to compute this AI,

Starting point is 00:13:55 which will lead to advancements in all sorts of fields, but especially the medical industry, you're also going to have the ability to build out more infrastructure with the renewable energy sector. So Bitcoin mining is just this massive positive, like incredible positive. And it's unfortunate in some states, they're quick to say, oh, energy consumption, bad. Bitcoin mining, bad. What we need to be doing is going in early and educating them on all the things I said, particularly, I think, the renewable energy part of this, especially for folks. And wasted. Yeah. And literally utterly wasted. 30 to 40% of all the energy that we create in this country is completely wasted. Most people don't know that, especially with solar and wind, because those are intermittent energy assets. So

Starting point is 00:14:40 sometimes the wind is blowing. Sometimes the sun is shining. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes people are ready to use that power when it's being created. But most of the time, they aren't. There's this thing called the duck curve. And in the middle of the day, we just create way too much solar and wind. That's when typically the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. But that's the slowest time for energy consumption or the lowest time for energy consumption. And so you have this huge peak of when all this energy is being created and then wasted. We don't use it or we curtail it. Bitcoin miners can come in. They can buy up all of that energy. They can monetize it. They can increase the ROI on renewables, which if you care about the climate and you care about reducing

Starting point is 00:15:20 carbon emissions, you should care a lot about how Bitcoin mining can lead to a total revolution in energy assets and renewable energy assets across this country. And there are certain politicians and states that are seeing that. Yeah, definitely. Not everybody has their blinders on. There are politicians who see it. There are energy regulators who see it. But we're still very, very, very early. And there are many states yet and many places where we need to be doing, going in and educating. And that's my sole mission. Just go in,

Starting point is 00:15:50 educate them on the facts, educate them on the truth around Bitcoin mining, and then let them decide. Do you want this nascent tech infrastructure in your town where it can lead to jobs, innovation, and investment, and a total revolution in the way energy is created? Or do you want to push it away because it's kind of easy to be like, oh, energy consumption is bad and this will be good for my base because I can like point to something that I'm doing. But at the end of the day, you're actually hurting the people in your own district. And how much can we, I jokingly, you recall, half jokingly, I should say, tweeted, we should send every single politician in the United States at the local, state, and federal level a copy of the Bitcoin white paper. And then

Starting point is 00:16:33 three weeks later, we should send them something else. And three weeks later, half jokingly, and you immediately said, let's do this. You DM me and say, let's do this. So how can the average person help affect this change outside of obviously what organizations like yours are doing? Sure. I mean, basically do what I was doing before I started my organization, which is just one-on-one conversations, trying to use whatever you can to leverage yourself

Starting point is 00:16:57 into a place where you're having those conversations with policymakers and regulators. And like... Everybody knows that there are advantages to trading on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. But why not choose an exchange like Bullish that offers the best of both worlds?

Starting point is 00:17:13 Bullish's total trading volume recently exceeded $25 billion in just seven months since they launched. And they have the best liquidity in the game when it comes to Bitcoin USD. Now, Bullish has released the first major upgrade to its liquidity pool technology with the introduction of a concentrated range-bound liquidity pool for the Bitcoin USD trading pair.

Starting point is 00:17:32 This upgrade triples the order book depth within a range of 2%, making it one of the world's deepest Bitcoin USD trading pairs. This industry-leading order depth means you can trade confidently at scale with clearly understood price impact. You should check them out immediately at bullish.com slash melker. You know, oftentimes there are different areas where there needs to be improvements in the way we approach education in this space. And not everyone is going to be in a position to educate policymakers and regulators. But that's why it's so important to just go be effective wherever you can, because you don't know who you're going to orange pill next. The reason why Senator Lummis originally found out

Starting point is 00:18:14 about Bitcoin and was so it's now so forward on the issue is because her son-in-law was a very, very big Bitcoiner and spoke, you know, he he's married to her daughter. And now Senator Lummis is one of the most forward on Bitcoin in the entire country. She said, thank God for Bitcoin on the Senate floor. So if you can't be effective by educating policymakers and lawmakers, just try to talk to whoever you can. But just broadly, you know, at least send emails. I have one click tools. There's other people out there who have one click tools where you can send letters to your policymakers. I think that is big. Also, showing up to events.

Starting point is 00:18:48 If they are having an event, go show up and say, hey, I'm a Bitcoiner. I'm a crypto person. I want to make sure that this is defended in the USA. I want to make sure that we protect this asset or the mining industry. If you show up and you speak to them, it has a big impact.

Starting point is 00:19:07 There's this unfortunate time in our country where people really don't have any faith in the political system. They're completely disillusioned and like there's nothing you can do to convince your politician to take interest in whatever you care about. And it's very unfortunate. And I understand why people feel that way. But if you allow it to cause your disengagement from the political space, you're giving more power to the corrupt system because

Starting point is 00:19:32 you are removing yourself from the equation. I know a lot of Bitcoiners out there, you know, very anti-politics. My vote doesn't work and all this stuff. Okay. Let's just, let's take the presidential races and the federal races out of this equation. At least go be involved on the local level because these races are not nearly as important to most people. And so you can have a bigger impact. And it just tends to be a little less corruption. I mean, it depends state by state. There's obviously some states that have some serious problems with corruption.

Starting point is 00:20:00 But generally speaking, you can go have an impact. And the states are where a lot of the winning is going to happen at because the federal side is like, it's a slog. I mean, we're talking about two years to potentially get this bill passed from Lummis. That's a lot of time that we're going to be working. And I think it's necessary and we should do it. But on the state level, it's like, nobody can. Do you know who, first of all, do you know who your state rep is? Like, do you know who your state senator is? Do you know who your public utility commissioner is? All of these people have a lot of power over this new industry. And so if you can go and have those relationships, go and have those conversations, you can have an impact in a way that you probably

Starting point is 00:20:38 could never really have on the federal side. So I just, I tell people don't become less politically active, become way more politically active because the folks that are the squeaky wheel and have the most influence are the ones that are just constantly grinding away at the system. So I'm very optimistic again. You know, I've championed the single issue voter movement for a while because I saw that not only are we going to be growing in numbers. I mean, everybody who becomes a Bitcoiner or a crypto person typically doesn't stop becoming that. Once you like get it.

Starting point is 00:21:08 Never. Once you get it. I talk about it all the time. There's no reverse. There's no going back. You might switch from one asset to the other, but typically there's no going backwards. You understand the need for decentralization

Starting point is 00:21:18 and the removal of human control over the financial money printer. But once you are in, you're in. So our numbers are always growing. Our wealth is always growing, which means our ability to impact the industry is always growing. Our ability to impact the system is always growing. So just be cautiously optimistic about the future. But my only thing I got to say to people really is just become extremely active in engagement with your policymakers and be nice. Yeah, I was going to say, and do it in a polite, genuine way. There was obviously tremendous risk to centralization of mining in China. Sure. And so, as you said, that was the worst policy mistake,

Starting point is 00:21:56 arguably, in 100 years that China made to do that. Is there any risk to too much mining becoming centralized in the United States? You could say that. I think that if you compare apples to apples, I mean, we had upwards of 60% to 70% of the hash rate in China. If the same amount of hash rate were here, it would be less of a risk. Sure. Simply because we have a more decentralized governance model. We are not an authoritarian regime.

Starting point is 00:22:22 And we have states. So it's a republic, technically not a democracy. I know we like to say we love democracy, but we live in a representative republic. And so each of these individual states are sovereign in their own. That's why you see marijuana legislation pass forward despite it still being illegal at the federal level. And you also see them on the other end of the aisle coming after some of the second amendment rights of folks. But there's this constant battle back and forth because states have sovereignty. They have their own set of rights. And the federal government is not the end-all, be-all in the USA. And so even if we do have a lot of the hash rate here, it would be very difficult for the federal

Starting point is 00:22:59 government to come in and be like, oh, we're going to all coordinate and take down the Bitcoin network or change it or change the protocol so that it can't continue to move forward. The only thing I think that would be a concern is if you had it all in one state, but that's just not really feasibly possible. Texas already is running out of energy and ERCOT, which is the grid system there. They are like getting a little like, oh, okay, this is, we like Bitcoin mining, but this is like a lot of Bitcoin mining. So let's just be a little more cautious as we move forward. And that's, again, why I think it's important for Satoshi Action Fund, my organization, to move forward, educate folks and get them to open up policy and regulation and just be friendly. Because when I was talking to Lee Bratcher from the Texas Blockchain Council, one of the biggest

Starting point is 00:23:44 things he said was it's not just that the regulation is pro-Bitcoin mining. It's that we're like, open arms, please come to our state. And that is a very clear difference from New York, which is doing the opposite of that. And I called this a long time ago. I haven't talked about it much, but it's a term that I'm using now is that Bitcoin miners really just want political asylum. Like they're tired of getting kicked out. They're tired of getting pushed away. Just let me know that we can operate. We just want to operate. Like we don't even mind to pay a little bit more for electricity if we know we can be here for 20 years. They got kicked out of China, which was probably a pretty traumatic

Starting point is 00:24:18 experience, I imagine, for a lot of those businesses. And now they're just like, can we just please know that we're going to be okay? We want to be able to look out into the future and say, we feel safe here. So even if you're a policymaker and a regulator and you're just like, there's no way we can change the policy. There's no way that we can change the regulation. The biggest thing that I can say is just be like, try, go out there and try to attract this industry to your state. And I think that you will, that effort will be reciprocated. I think people will see that and think, okay, these guys are at least trying to be open to us. Yeah, you talk about how Texas is openly inviting them.

Starting point is 00:24:53 It's not just, we know that you can go to Texas. It's please come to Texas. Yes. Right? That's how Miami became the crypto capital of the United States was literally because Francis Suarez put up a billboard in San Francisco. Can't remember the exact words now. It was basically like, hit me up. How can I help? Right? Call me. I'm open to this. Come on down. I'll talk to you. It was as simple as that, which was a paradigm shift for the entire city of Miami and arguably

Starting point is 00:25:19 the state of Florida crypto industry. Absolutely. Just have open door policy to Bitcoin, to crypto. Do it responsibly. You've got to be careful. And I tell people this with policymakers, just be very careful that you're not like saying that you broadly accept everything, because as you know, even though I'm a Bitcoin only guy, that there are some stuff that we can't agree on and that there is some protocols out there that are just outright scams. right? And so you have to be careful as a policymaker. Don't say you're open to anything, right? Because that's essentially saying you're open to rug pulls and to scams. So just be careful as a policymaker and thoughtful about the way you approach it. But yeah, just open door policy. We are here. We want to do business and we're willing

Starting point is 00:26:00 to work with stakeholders within the Bitcoin and digital asset space to figure out how we can make our city, state, country, whatever it be, more friendly for doing business. This when you talk about becoming single issue voters, which is really a thing in this country outside of crypto as well. Now, I think for the first time really in history, there are obviously politicians that you're focused on and working on who are supporting this. Throw out a few popular names because there's a lot of money here. Obviously, politicians that you're focused on and working on who are supporting this. Throw out a few popular names because there's a lot of money here. And when utilized correctly or deployed correctly from our community, we could sway some very, very important elections. So I'm critically focused on pushing forward the names of some Democrats because I think that just broadly in this space, everyone is fully aware of the Republicans that are on their team. It's Senator Lummis for obvious reasons, right? You also have Patrick McHenry and you have Ted Budd now as well, who's running for the Senate,

Starting point is 00:26:56 who could be a really strong Senator and be, I mean, obviously he has a tough fight ahead of him, but he could be very favorable to our space. But on the Democrat side, the number one person I'd have to name would be Ron Wyden. He's done more on the Democrat side to prevent some of this bad stuff coming through from the infrastructure bill, from the crypto tax reporting amendment. He's also looking for ways to continue to move the ball forward.

Starting point is 00:27:18 And he is the head of the chip fab task force, which means that he's in charge of trying to attract chip fabrication to the United States, which means that he's in charge of trying to attract chip fabrication to the United States, which is good for Bitcoin mining, good for national security, good for all tech. So he's a great guy to have on our team. He's very focused on privacy and innovation. And those are two things that I think that a lot of people in the space are very attracted to. We've also got Darren Soto. He is, I think, the co-chair of the blockchain caucus doing great work. Tons of work. I was talking to one of his staffers earlier today.

Starting point is 00:27:47 They are really excited about where they're headed with this. And they have been working behind the scenes diligently. They do not get enough attention. They do not get enough help. But also, Ro Khanna, as you know, as well. He has been very forward on this issue. And I look forward to when some Democrats feel like there's a little more coverage for them to come out and be just like really aggressively pro-Bitcoin. I mean, when I was talking to some staffers, it was like this issue is very progressive.

Starting point is 00:28:13 It's very democratic in some ways because in a sense like for the Democrat Party because you have equal access to money. You're going to be able to bank the unbanked. You've got 10 million people in this country who can't even get a bank account, right? Just simply because they have a bad credit score. So this is one thing for them. They can now access it. If you're homeless, you can have a bank account. A lot of people don't know this. I worked in the houseless space for a while at one point in my life trying to move the ball forward for some nonprofit work. And you actually cannot access the financial system as someone who is houseless or homeless. And you actually cannot access the financial system as someone who is houseless or homeless.

Starting point is 00:28:47 And the main reason is because you don't have an address. Yeah, literally not having an address. You can't do anything. It's crazy. So now you have the ability to have a bank account. You have the ability to store your wealth and get back into the financial system. And barriers like that,

Starting point is 00:29:00 not having able to have a bank account, are one of the main reasons why people continuously stay homeless in this country, because they cannot gain access to financial services. How are you supposed to get up off the ground and get into a place and then get a bank account when you can't get either of those things? Kick an egg. Yeah. So I think it's huge on that aspect.

Starting point is 00:29:19 We could get into the whole idea of how I think that Bitcoin is an incredible savings technology and I think it will help rebuild the middle class and give people access to a financial tool that can't be debased. I mean, it's a very like, you know, AOC, like Bernie Sanders-esque kind of conversation, but that's not really happening yet on the Democratic side. And it's unfortunate. It's the most progressive. It blows my mind that progressives don't get this. I think they will. I just think that it takes a little bit of time. I think it was an obvious yes for Republicans, and they've jumped on the issue. Right. But I fully believe that there's going to be a tidal wave of Democrats that come into this space

Starting point is 00:29:54 once they truly understand what this technology is all about. Well, now that we have a potential framework in place, I'm hopeful that if you and the rest of us push hard enough that we can make this happen, at least in a way that allows for some innovation and to protect American interests in the crypto industry. So thank you for everything that you're doing. Of course. Looking forward to seeing it develop, man.

Starting point is 00:30:15 Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Talk to you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you haven't already left a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please do that now. Spotify just added ratings, so please go ahead and click that five star. I'll see you guys next time.

The Wolf Of All Streets - Will American Politicians Ever Embrace Crypto? | Dennis Porter, Satoshi Action Fund

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.