You're The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson - You Can’t Run Forever: Building Bitcoin Sovereignty from Inside the EU - Matyas Kuchar | Ep. 135

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Matyas Kuchar is a Czech Bitcoin OG and co-founder of BTC Prague, Europe's largest Bitcoin-only conference. Born into a country shaped by communist-era currency controls and a deep-rooted distrust... of central authority, Matyas sits at the intersection of Bitcoin, monetary sovereignty, and the fast-shifting political landscape of the European Union. He helped spearhead a landmark Bitcoin-friendly legislation package that passed unanimously through the Czech parliament, eliminating capital gains tax on long-held Bitcoin and securing banking rights for crypto companies. In this conversation, he breaks down why the Czech Republic may be the El Salvador of Europe, and why the fight for financial and digital privacy is now a hill worth dying on.* Note to clarify what Matyas meant about MiCA regulation: While MiCA does not directly regulate merchants, its travel rule requirements effectively forced third-party Bitcoin payment processors — e.g. Confirmo & Qerko — to treat fiat conversion as a financial service, requiring them to KYC every customer. Since they aren’t complying, these processors stopped supporting merchant Bitcoin payments, and since most merchants relied on them rather than managing self-custody, they stop accepting Bitcoin altogether.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​→ Please like, comment, share & follow — to help me beat the suppressing algo's. Thank you!– SPONSORS –→ Access liquidity without selling your Bitcoin with Ledn — learn more at https://ledn.io/Efrat    → Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it): https://affil.trezor.io/SHUn→ Have you tried mining bitcoin? Stack sats directly to your wallet while saving on taxes with Abundant Mines: https://AbundantMines.com/Efrat - Claim your free month of hosting via this link– AFFILIATES –→ Check out BTC Prague: http://btcprg.me/EFRAT (code EFRAT = 10% off)→ Join me in these upcoming events & use code EFRAT for discounted tickets: https://www.efrat.blog/p/upcoming-events→ Get 10% off on Augmented NAC to detox Spike protein, with the code YCXKQDK2 via this link: https://store.augmentednac.com/?via=efrat (Note, this is not medical advice, please consult your MD)→ Join me at Europe’s largest bitcoin conference - BTC Prague, June 11-13, 2026. Code EFRAT for 10% off: http://btcprg.me/EFRAT→ Be good to your eyes & health, and get the Daylight tablet - a healthier, more human-friendly computer, zero blue light & flicker. Use code EFRAT for $25 off: https://bit.ly/Efrat_daylight → Get a second citizenship and a plan B to relocate to another country with Expat Money, leave your details for a follow up: https://expatmoney.com/efrat→ Watch “New Totalitarian Order” conference with Prof. Mattias Desmet & Efrat - code EFRAT for 10% off: https://efenigson.gumroad.com/l/desmet_efrat– LINKS –Matyas on X: https://x.com/Matyas44Cook Check out BTC Prague: http://btcprg.me/EFRAT (code EFRAT = 10% off) Efrat’s X: https://twitter.com/efenigsonEfrat’s Channels: https://linktr.ee/efenigsonWatch on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/yourethevoiceSupport Efrat’s work: ⁠https://bit.ly/zap_efrat– CHAPTERS – 00:00 - Coming Up...01:29 - Introduction: Matyas Kuchar03:16 - The EU’s Fragility and Bitcoiners as the Future07:05 - Czech Relationship with the EU & the Euro07:37 - Ad Break: Ledn & Trezor15:34 - How Czech Bitcoiners Won Landmark Legislation Against All Odds18:36 - Czech Republic as Europe’s El Salvador22:47 - EU’s MiCA Laws Forcing Thousands of Czech Businesses to KYC Bitcoin25:36 - The Czech National Bank Bitcoin Experiment27:11 - The Risks of The Digital Euro CBDC30:58 - Blackrock’s Redemption Limitations & the Coming Financial Unwind35:19 - Ad Break: Abundant Mines & New Totalitarian Order37:40 - Bitcoin, Privacy, and the Cypherpunk Fight45:09 - What Makes BTC Prague the Best in the World?51:41 - Closing: Stay Hopeful, Use Your Voice

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Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Fed or central banks stepping in, bailing them out, inflation hitting double digits, prepare appropriately. It's over. They just don't know it yet. EU is f***ed. CBDs is coming. I think it's almost inevitable. So rather stack some sats and get ready for the rollout. They can perhaps forbid you from buying your favorite groceries. Maybe they decided you should eat bugs or some soya bean burgers. Bitcoiners will be the future. I think that it's time to take over the European Union
Starting point is 00:00:37 and pretty much make sure that the future of Europe is as we envision. Privacy is never given. They need to be fight for and taken. The Czech National Bank recently bought some Bitcoin. I wanted to move out from Czech Republic and leave European Union, Europe. But because of those changes, it gave me so much hope that we actually decided to stay and build, because the Czech Republic is becoming El Salvador in Europe. If we don't die on this hill right now, and we don't speak out every time they do this to us, we don't show what they do, we don't try to fight them on every level, then we are screwed.
Starting point is 00:01:24 hello and welcome to another episode of you're the voice a flag coming to you from bali with my friend matthias kuhal did i butcher it a little bit but it's fine it's fine it's it's it's kuhash and it's very yeah it's a matthias kuhash it's it's pretty it's pretty uh difficult even for kids in czech okay so i'm not alone thank you for making me feel better so for those of you who are living under a rock and may not know um our friend matthias so he's a czech bitcoiner one of the ogs and one of the organizers behind btc prague the largest bitcoin only conference let me do my little shill here and no i'm not getting paid for this in europe this is largest bitcoin conference in europe which i'm going to be at so if you want to see me please
Starting point is 00:02:23 come it's june 11 to 13 right correct in prague and um i'll be there on stage off stage we're gonna have a lot of side events uh there's a lot of stuff planned for you so this year is going to be awesome please come join me and if you are coming use my code a flat for 10 discount very important. You'll have a link in the show notes. And Matis is in the intersection between Bitcoin freedom, monetary sovereignty, and the evolving political and economic dynamics in the European Union. So we're going to talk about that a little bit today. We're also going to talk about the future of the EU, the relationship between the EU and the Czech Republic, and the tensions there, inflation, CBDC, central banks, privacy, and of course, Prague. So we're going to have
Starting point is 00:03:14 a full hour full of goodies for you. And let's start with just by looking at the EU. So when you look at the European Union today, economically and politically, what do you see? Are we entering a more fragile face and if we are then why eu is fucked that's a very it's a very very very strong and even light lightly put uh answer but uh i mean i'm a hopeful and constructive person so i don't really uh care how how damaged is european union i feel like it's time to change It's time for a change because change is a natural thing for life. And Bitcoiners will be the future very strong social economic group. And with the values we have and long term perspectives, I think that it's time to take over the European Union and pretty much make sure that the future of Europe is as we envision.
Starting point is 00:04:23 of course there are hurdles on the way the european union is powerful organization and it's it's it's too big to fail i guess yet so the the way i'm how i'm thinking about it is to build parallel structures to make sure that when shit hits the fan we will be safe and we will survive the time of uncertainty until it gets better so this is kind of a transition i'm sorry you don't think it's already hitting the fan the shit yeah yeah from yeah i mean you you you're right you're right but it can get worse uh before it gets better and uh What kind of structures would you put in place? Well, I'm always trying to distillate everything on an individual level.
Starting point is 00:05:21 I think that everyone should start with his own life, take care of himself, family, friends, neighborhood, then the city, and then thinking about the state and the bigger picture. So I think this is probably the advice I would give to everyone. and just start thinking about their own life and how to secure and how to have some plan Bs. And it really applies for everyone differently. Where you're at in the Czech Republic, are people also being drafted to the army? Or is that just like a jerk thing or in some countries?
Starting point is 00:06:04 No, not yet. And we don't have a mandatory army service since 1990s, I think. do you think that that's going to change do you think that that there's a push for it uh good question i don't see any push for it but it can change because we can see it's changing in in other european countries and uh we are very uh pro ukraine pro defense and our new president is an army guy he used to be he used to have some very high position in nato i'm not an expert in this so pardon me i don't know more details but he's he's an he's used to be a soldier yeah i really hope that doesn't get to you but the eu is definitely warmongering and uh it's concerning i
Starting point is 00:06:57 I mean, I, you know, yeah, okay. Let's talk about Czech Republic in relation to the EU. So in your recent thread on X, I saw that you wrote that before joining the EU in 2004, 58% of Czech people were in favor of adopting the euro. And today that number is only 20%. percent what do you think caused such a dramatic collapse in in the public support for the euro and what does this show us about the bigger picture relationship between the czech republic
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Starting point is 00:09:03 I find my Trezor super easy to use and recommend it to my friends and family. Enjoy my 5% discount on Trezor product by clicking the link in the show notes and using the code FLAT. I think the main reasons are two. The first is historical because we tend to not really trust authorities because like our parents, my parents were under the Russian communism regime for like pretty much half of their lives. So they learned how to build power systems and how to go around,
Starting point is 00:09:39 how to find loopholes and what the currency really means because we had a horrible currency regime in Czech Republic, like not to going into a big detail, but it was forbidden to own and hold other currencies than Czechoslovakian crown. So if you came from abroad, you were obliged to give the currency back to the Czechoslovakian National Bank
Starting point is 00:10:04 for a very low exchange rate. And there was a dark market of the currency exchange on the street which was very tolerated so this is this is kind of a interesting background background story um it's it's interesting background story because czechs were exchanging these currencies on the street for kind of a vouchers uh which were called bonnie and those vouchers could be spent only in special shops they were called tuzeks and those shops were full of western gods and um like for example labels with western music or jeans or other kind of uh exclusive and and expensive clothes shoes pretty much stuff what we didn't have on our own
Starting point is 00:10:59 market so there was the whole shadowy economic but it was tolerated because even though those politicians they were people and yeah they wanted it you know so it was it was kind of you know funny if i thinking about it from today's lens but it was horrible for those people living in this and they they didn't think that they will come out of it so this uh kind of fostered this anarcho-anarchic mindset in Czech people. So when they were asking about euro, there was already kind of half against it because they didn't want to belong to something bigger, you know.
Starting point is 00:11:44 And the second reason why I think there was such a big difference between 2005 and the second voting is because Slovakian Republic, they actually became part of the European Union and they took the currency, they accepted the currency and we saw how destructive effects it had on their people. So suddenly the bread was two times more expensive because the exchange rate was not favorable for the Slovakian people. The salaries raised a little bit,
Starting point is 00:12:22 but the prices of goods and services raised double so and because Slovakians are kind of like our brothers we we are separated as the countries now but they are kind of like really like we don't think about ourselves like two countries not not not at least at least I don't think about us that way so we saw that and we've learned that it's not going to work here so perhaps that's the second reason you know what you're what you're describing about that history of of czech republic which is so interesting reminds me of the conversation i had recently with uh agustin casis from argentina from la cripta you know i might think and he was talking to me about yeah the the gray economy in argentina and how it is tolerated still until today very
Starting point is 00:13:13 tolerated to do deals in certain ways with cash without declaring everything going to the bank and getting a private room to do like your cash dealings with people there it's like everything is highly tolerated including the exchange rates with foreign currencies where they had like the blue rate which is a totally different rate than the one that the government will or the central bank will publish so super interesting to see how people always adapt even the ones that are up there at the top that are supposed to like be enforcing all of this shit when when it's shit when it's really bad they know it's bad so they participate in the gray economy right which is the biggest proof to show you that things are bad and and those in the top really don't have the right
Starting point is 00:14:07 solutions or the say yeah and if i can add to this like you started with the question around european union so yeah i really believe that czech republic now in if we are talking about bitcoin and freedom we are very well positioned because of this history the people even though on the higher higher ranks like politicians i shouldn't say higher ranks the politicians are yeah they are aware of this and they want i i feel like they they want good for for czech republic and they kind of want to escape so those tools what we can use against the oppressive regimes they should be used on like all the tools at our disposal so like software hardware um different sovereignty specs what we can acquire like 3d printing
Starting point is 00:15:02 whatever is at our disposal we should use but we also should find people who are advocates and they go to the legislators and talk about those important subjects and matters because really on the end of the day we are all people and we care about certain things and perhaps just the people in the politics they are just not educated enough and they don't see behind the curtains so i have a good story from from last two or three years which explains how important is to not lose hope and really work towards better advocacy so i was at this one event where bitcoiners are meeting and they were talking about and this is probably more than four years ago and they were talking about what bad laws are around bitcoin and how big are the taxes and that
Starting point is 00:16:03 the czech companies don't have a right for uh for bank accounts and their their bank accounts are being shut down because of uh crypto regulations and i was always on this side of like a uh bless you crypto anarchist and i was saying that like it doesn't have i don't want to waste my time to talk to politicians but there were a few other people who said yes we're going to make it and they drafted on a piece of paper few legislations what they want to put into an action it was very ambitious almost like like mission impossible deal for most of us but they did it it took three years and last year in may it was passed unitary in the parliament so everyone was voting for it there was no one voting against and now we have a time test for bitcoin so if you
Starting point is 00:17:05 hold bitcoin for more than three years you don't need to pay capital gains taxes the companies they have the right for bank account um then we have kind of like um three thousand euros level of what you can spend day by day with Bitcoin without paying taxes and those are very favorable terms and we can also now see that companies are moving to Czech Republic to start a business entity here because of very favorable legislation and this was only possible because some people believed it's possible i really it changed me and now i feel like it's about the time when we just erase what we what we think is really rooted in to the system because really it's uncharted territory so i i'm just like a little bit more positive about this whole advocacy and lobbying
Starting point is 00:18:09 side of things because this is just one important tool of defense which shouldn't be underestimated but because of the natural kind of we are resistance you know and it's not easy to find people who like to talk to politicians so i'm just like urging the community if if you are the person who like to do this stuff it's very important it's very important that's right yeah that's why i always remind myself and keep saying on my podcast that there is room for everything and for everyone in bitcoin because whatever you are good at and whatever you bring to the table there's probably a need for it somewhere and the reason i had out of my about 130 episodes only five or six episodes with politicians is because it's so hard to find
Starting point is 00:19:05 the ones that really work for the public the ones that really care about serving the public like they all forgot about that role and so when you do find them it is critical to create a dialogue with them and if you are someone who is good at that yes you should probably step up and do it I agree with you and that gives me hope as well what that little story that you told there is very hopeful because um you know understanding that there is a country especially in the eu that has such favorable terms for individual sovereignty that is very hopeful i didn't know about the 3 000 euros uh threshold is that is that monthly per year barrier meaning like in whole year in the whole year yes for the for the small transactions yes if you are buying coffee or
Starting point is 00:20:04 um household items electronics more or less like 250 euros a month yeah quick math sure yes yeah okay yeah yeah wow that okay i mean it can be higher but but it's a good start it's a good start and this is yeah go on incentivize people to hold to save in bitcoin yes it gives you the opportunity to spend just a little bit but anyway like uh you should be spending fiat and hold bitcoin you know like saving bitcoin i mean that's debatable but i i get i get your sure sure in the in the in the united states they're working hard on trying to get that like to get some kind of threshold but it's not working right now because there's a really strong lobby against it like let's let's tax bitcoin at all costs because you have companies
Starting point is 00:21:06 like coinbase and others that have an interest in gaining profits on the bitcoin that people have with them and so they're trying to like really put some sticks in the wheel of of that initiative and it's i mean it's very sad to see especially from companies who proclaim to be bitcoin companies and clearly they're not and so you know people should know about that but that is i agree with you this is very hopeful and that's also why i love prague and i love czech republic Like every time I come, I can use my Bitcoin in what, more than 1,500 merchants, right? Well, yeah, that's a sad news I have to share because with MICA regulation, there is this new law, new regulation, which it requires a KYC if you are spending Bitcoin as an individual.
Starting point is 00:22:05 so all these restaurants and bars and small shops which used to accept bitcoin and there were thousands of them they now thousands thousands yes uh but since this year it's a travel rule am i correct i'm not an expert in this so uh just verify but um yeah yeah so they are not able to accept the payments if they don't kyc you even for small regular um buy so yeah that's that's over unfortunately but the good news the eu it's so annoying bureaucratic bureaucrats yeah they just put two years in a row it was fantastic it was it was yeah buying uh i used to buy electronics paying with bitcoin i used to pay for uh for food and in restaurants for a beer yeah you could pretty much pay for anything what you what you wanted you still can but only in those
Starting point is 00:23:17 shops where they accept some kind of wallets which are kyc i haven't tried it to be honest i haven't tried it yet that's a little bit of a big punch in the belly okay yeah but regarding czech regarding czech i think i and i coined this phrase that czech republic is becoming el salvador in europe we are kind of this you know the first country which really goes towards cryptocurrencies and bitcoin with a very strong uh freedom mindset we recently the czech national bank recently bought some bitcoin and our mr president passed new law which forbids communism so communism is now on the same level as nazism you can't talk about it from the ideological point of view there is still communist party in the parliament which is weird but okay yeah so I kind of feel
Starting point is 00:24:24 very strongly about it and I personally I want I wanted to move out from Czech Republic and leave European Union Europe but because of those changes it gave me so much hope that we actually decided to stay and build because I I feel like we have a good chance to change the course of the of the future well I'm happy that you stayed because people like you and your brother are some of the people that I think are going to be very like key players in the years to come in building something in Europe that is not doing very well right now so I think it's super important that you stay amazing okay I want to move on to a few other things that you brought to light in the last few days and and i want your opinions about them so you you also wrote that when a crisis hits
Starting point is 00:25:18 nobody wants to wait for the european central bank to tell you what to do and that the eurozone countries can't opt out from cbdc either like they're all obliged to to play the the digital euro gain and so my question is do you think the monetary independence that you now relatively have in the czech republic is kind of a strategic advantage compared to other eurozone countries yes it is it is a huge advantage we can see already that mr aleš michel the governor of Czech National Bank is buying Bitcoin on the central bank balance sheet. It's kind of a testing portfolio.
Starting point is 00:26:12 It's worth one million. I'm sure they freaked out by it. Yes. Ms. Lagarde, she was furious about this. She did this press release when she actually lied, you know, and she thought that, no, no, no, they are not buying Bitcoin. or friends in czech republic you know no they are you know like like open your she's she's
Starting point is 00:26:39 desperate she's old you know she she doesn't breathe well you know so it's over they just don't know it yet they just don't know it yet it's over you just get out you know clean the way come on like like like buy a house by the sea and just leave you know i wish i wish it's my it's my dream but matthew stay will hold on to their last breath those reptilians seriously yeah yeah and so okay so it's a hedge i get it uh how seriously should europeans think about the implications of the digital euro oh very seriously i mean it's uh it's a slow boil for those that don't know it's starting next year like the pilot 2027 is official yeah it's slow boil it's it's horrible it's dystopian it's digital panoptic i mean privacy is a human right
Starting point is 00:27:42 i mean to do to exchange in a private way is very important you have a cartons in your home right because not because you're doing something wrong but because like some things you want to keep for yourself and with cbdc this won't be possible plus i think that those kind of rationing uh when when really they will perhaps have a big effect on what you can buy in a shop. Not only that they will see what you are buying, but with the CBDC, the programmable panopticon money, they can perhaps forbid you from buying your favorite groceries because maybe they decide that you should eat bugs or some soya bean
Starting point is 00:28:38 burgers who knows you know i'm using those examples but but the the real deal is that there is a there is an alternative it's called bitcoin it's here and that's that's probably like cbds is coming i think it's almost inevitable so rather rather stack some sets and and get ready for the rollout and most europeans are not aware of bitcoin that is the reality and they are buying into the fud the fear uncertainty and doubt campaigns that are running in the media so they are missing a real opportunity to to opt out from this dystopian system you also pointed out that monetary independence allowed the czech national bank to experiment with bitcoin so you said that they bought some do you know how much they bought yeah i think it was one million dollars worth of
Starting point is 00:29:36 bitcoin and stablecoin and some um they bought no they i think they bought the asset yeah like like they they hold it their self and they bought some stablecoin and also some digital digital stocks or or some digital assets for this testing portfolio so they just i think they're learning how to handle it before they really jump in interesting okay i know you have a policy at btc prag not to have any politicians on stage are you changing this or are you giving them the czech ones uh some space this year no no we are not changing it not yet uh not yet um we are open to uh government representatives but not from any party so it needs to be somehow neutral person so for example president mr president or a governor from czech national bank that is allowed
Starting point is 00:30:41 by our own internal rules because it's not a member of any party. I get it. I would actually love to interview a good Czech politician. If you want to hook me up, that would be amazing. The ones that are involved
Starting point is 00:30:57 in bringing that policy to the Czech people, that would be fantastic. Okay, now I read a report in the last couple of days and I also have this, I don't know where I put my phone, but I have this amazing picture
Starting point is 00:31:10 that I took of the amount of money that were locked up in the last few days by all these private financial or major funds around the world, mostly in the US, that have started restricting the withdrawals of money from them, right? So we saw BlackRock, for example, $26 billion in private credit fund got hit with $1.2 billion in withdrawal request this quarter alone and when the investors wanted to pull out their money at 9.3 percent out of the fund blackrock said no and they capped it at five percent so they paid out 620 million dollars instead of the 26 instead of the sorry 1.2 billion so half of it more or less and they locked arrest so that meant that almost half the people who wanted
Starting point is 00:32:02 to pull their money out couldn't or at least half the money could not be pulled out so when and there are many other examples because all the other funds also behaved similarly in the last quarter i guess we are we are seeing that that's a signal for like low liquidity and stuff but when institutions as large as blackrock limit redemptions is that another reinforcement of our argument for holding assets outside the traditional financial system and what does that signal to you yeah well definitely it is a very strong signal and there will be another floating bodies going uh going up i think it's not over it's just the beginning those are the little signals and it could take another year before we will see some major banks going bankrupt
Starting point is 00:32:55 and Fed or central banks stepping in, bailing them out, inflation hitting double digits, prepare appropriately. You're saying a big print is coming. Yeah, well, most probably, yes. Also with those conflicts and army operations all around the world, this is a pretty obvious scenario. Yeah, no, I'm with you. I think that these are the signs, the signals that we're going to see
Starting point is 00:33:24 escalating uh the more the war is is continuing and more and more uh fronts are being opened i think the economical situation of most western countries is just going to deteriorate and people are going to feel it in their own pockets and as you discussed very early on and i agree with you about the individual this is the time to like look at yourself and your own finances and the way that you handle your economics right yeah you have money in all all those funds this should be a big signal for you definitely definitely but it's not just about money it's the whole mix at btc prague we we teach people how to become a sovereign uh individuals we we like to say that we empower individuals on the way to the future and money is one very important part of that
Starting point is 00:34:18 bitcoin is amazing you know being financially savvy it gives you the time to think about other stuff because it starts with with money and be like getting out from this red race but there are other topics what bitcoiners love to talk about and freedom loving folks like healthy lifestyle parenting education building your own citadel small communities uh circle economies AI, robotics 3D printing free speech so all these other things
Starting point is 00:34:55 are very important too it's a part of the mix what we kind of put forward to our attendees because really if you want to create a better future with prosperous society we need to start
Starting point is 00:35:11 thinking about those other things what to teach the next generation so they don't reply to the same mistakes as we did. I want to introduce you to Abundant Minds because they take a very different approach to Bitcoin mining. Most people buy Bitcoin, but the smart ones mine it straight into self-custody.
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Starting point is 00:36:35 Learn more on AbundantMinds.com. slash Efrat. In a world hypnotized and sleepwalking towards totalitarian control and digital enforcement, awakened voices rise to inspire change and radiate hope. In December 2024, I had the honor of hosting Professor Matthias Desmet at a conference I produced called New Totalitarian Order. This masterclass is now recorded and available to watch. The conference explores the psychology behind global mass processes offering a behind the scenes look at science economics and human potential it addresses challenging global agendas mass formation transhumanism consciousness societal change and the path to transformation click the
Starting point is 00:37:23 link in the show notes to access three and a half hours of exclusive presentations in-depth content and my fireside chat with professor desma use my code a flat for 10 off i hope you find great value 100 and i can testify from being in btc prox several years now that this is actually the the kind of discourse in the conference it's not all pure bitcoin and there's a lot more it's wide but there is zero crypto zero bitcoins so if you're coming to learn about money you will learn about money and bitcoin but not all the other ones so pure signal in that sense and i love that i always say that btc prog is is my favorite but wait i'm gonna get there i want to ask you one more question before we because we will go back to btc prog but i have another one so let's talk
Starting point is 00:38:24 a little bit about bitcoin and privacy first of all do you think bitcoin today still carries the cypherpunk philosophy or is it evolving into something a little bit different well bitcoin was created as a cypherpunk project uh as it was an evolution of previous attempts to create money digital money sovereign digital money digital gold it was perhaps like the fifth fifth step fifth project where when um satoshi nakamoto connected the previous unsuccessful attempts together with proof of work he he finally solved the byzantines problem and bitcoin is here it's not ideal but it's working so i don't think it was actually fulfilling the cypherpunk ethos or like all the aspects from the very beginning we didn't have
Starting point is 00:39:20 privacy since the very beginning we are getting privacy as a second layer on bitcoin the first layer must be from many reasons very transparent because it's working if you need privacy you need cartons the window is from glass from obvious reasons if you need privacy you need to use cartons so i think that if you're valuing cypherpunk's thoughts and uh and and the knowledge would they would they really uh laid down very early like in the very early days of internet and it's still valid until now but they also said i think it was eric hughes that privacy is never forgiven is uh is it needs to be taken it needs to be fought for and taken so i believe this this still stands today i'm with you and i love the analogy about the windows they have to be
Starting point is 00:40:20 transparent i love it i never thought about it this way so you have to have curtains if you want the second layer of privacy perfect and and on that note staying on the privacy topic so So you recently shared, I mean, not you, the BTC private account recently shared a quote from the Cypherpunk manifesto. Exactly what you mentioned, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction system. And your thoughts on that, I mean, you're already alluding to it, but I saw, for example, Lauren Rodriguez on the lineup of speakers at BTC Prague. She's Keone's wife, Keone from Samurai Wallet. And I know they are being targeted. Tornado Cash founder is being targeted.
Starting point is 00:41:09 So we are seeing a real crackdown on privacy when it comes to Bitcoin. What are your thoughts about that? Where are we heading with privacy in Bitcoin becoming viable, being implemented in real life? How many obstacles do we have to cross? Well, this is very important part of the stage, because we are getting into this then they fight you stage. And it's almost, I believe, it's almost over of this. So the reason why I invited Lauren Rodriguez is because I believe this is extremely important thing to talk about. It's very unjust what happened to her husband, he's currently in the jail for writing a privacy software to give people option. It's very unjust and it's wrong on so many levels. And it's creating those precedents for future.
Starting point is 00:42:17 Similarly with those Tornado Cache developers. So that's why we are bringing this topic to BTC Prague as every year. But the game was never so serious until last two years when we really see crackdown on privacy software. not only in Bitcoin, but also in messaging apps. So they're trying to introduce backdoors to messaging apps. In some countries, they are banning cryptographically-approved messaging apps. So, I mean, this is sleazy.
Starting point is 00:42:57 This is so, so wrong. Yeah, and actually, I'm going to integrate some of that messaging into my keynote this year at BTC Prague. I'm going to share from my personal experience how I am being censored by some of those platforms but on the behest of the governments or even more so the global organizations that are top down trickling their their global agendas some of them are related to misinformation disinformation and hate speech and today almost anything you say online can be deemed as misinformation disinformation or hate speech depending how knowledgeable you are and so i've
Starting point is 00:43:39 been censored and also under the guise of the age verification bullshit which is just a matter of uh you know let's bring out the digital id so that we can see your papers before you get access to the internet again another kyc mechanism just like the one you described in the restaurants in in prague now you cannot eat without being identified it's the same trajectory so i'm I'm going to like connect the pieces between those things in my keynote at BTC Prague, but it's like privacy and insisting and fighting for these rights of ours right now is critical. It's crucial because if we don't die on this hill right now,
Starting point is 00:44:20 and we don't speak out every time they do this to us, we don't show what they do. We don't try to fight them on the lobby level, on the technology level, on every level then we are screwed all of us all around the world not just in uh you know specific countries so yeah i'm with you 100 i'm very very glad to see lauren speaking she also spoke at the women of bitcoin summit we just had and she was amazing and you know it's important to just continue raising the topic of privacy and me as a humble pleb student i take digital privacy courses now you know i want to learn what else i can do online to be more private including in bitcoin
Starting point is 00:45:04 but not just as you said so it's a super critical topic right now so i'm very glad you're bringing that to the agenda okay we talked about prague a little bit so i'm jumping to btc prague i as i said i i always say this is the number one conference i just love it so much i get to meet all my friends from all around the world and I think it's the best one in the world what makes it the best in your opinion well I'm a little bit biased here and okay I want to know why you think it what makes it the best well not to sound arrogant you know but we are really the best you know it's it everyone says that so no there is no second best so it must be true and i think the reason is because we are running very tight show with very small team
Starting point is 00:45:59 and we are working all year long only for this conference all year long we don't do anything else we have so much time to think about the topics we are hardcore bitcoiners we don't do any shit coins we preach what we eat we eat what we preach you know that's the thing and we do the conferences for us for us as what kind of stage we are we started in 2020 and we were different so the conference was different but now it's been five years um six oh yeah and we've changed and the conference is changing with us because the community is changing as well we always react on the sentiment of the time of the market of the of the geo geopolitics and yeah we like to empower people because it's really about that we walk together towards the future never underestimate
Starting point is 00:47:01 a single person i think that's that's the reason you know because we we really feel that way and you can feel it when you come you shake a hand it doesn't matter who is it but it's always a great person it's it's the person always give you something uh something more and and it's important in the future we need the real connections not the the digital connections anymore we need real friendships real friendships we need to build trust bridges so when you travel to different country you know that there is someone who you know in the real world who you can trust who will help you who you can call and ask if the things what you're seeing online are real or not because you you can't tell yourself so we are coming back to the to the old times when we need
Starting point is 00:47:57 real connections because the the digital world is full of manipulation deep fakes and illusion absolutely what are you most excited about this year i think i'm most excited about this new track what we are preparing and it's called bitcoin living master class which will be happening on thursday and it's about everything what bitcoiners like to talk about except bitcoin so as i mentioned before it's about health like circadian rhythm and blue blocking a good diet and fitness it's about parenting homeschooling education it's about how to use ai and nostre in the time of digital panopticum how to stay sovereign with the with the right tools mesh core and and different apps for communications it's about how to build your citadel uh regenerative
Starting point is 00:48:59 farming prepping uh small local communities and also how to keep the culture so art music and having fun wow that sounds like a wonderful day it's it's it's gonna be outside okay yes it's it's different stage it's gonna be outside so expect the nice sunny weather because it's june in prague people are just hanging out outside listening talks keynotes about those topics and then really just continue in in those conversations because it's not just about what happens on the stage and most of the time like the whole btc prague is without q a but this particle track will will be with q a so you can ask those specialists those experts on stage on the follow-up questions which is something what we haven't been doing until now and it's
Starting point is 00:50:01 gonna be amazing because like most of the btc prog on thursday it's pretty focused on bitcoin it's we used to call it industry day or business day but we figured out that there are so many hardcore bitcoiners who just like to talk about other stuff than bitcoin and i'm i'm one of them you know if i go to bitcoin conferences i i usually like to just hang out and talk about traveling and and lifestyle you know and and things what are interesting and history and whatever you know so we are opening this track for exactly those kind of people who moved away a little bit and are ready for for for the future i love it i love it i love it i love it and a lot of my audience are in this category that they're you know they're looking at everything
Starting point is 00:50:50 outside of just bitcoin you know so perfect beautiful well done there's also for the ladies there's a women of another women event during btc prague as well so if you're a lady considering or you have never been in a Bitcoin conference, this one is for you. Come and you can join us also at the women event. I don't know the exact dates yet, but once I know it, I will publish it on my account and it will be fantastic.
Starting point is 00:51:20 Last year was great. Like the women showed up, they asked so many questions and there was such a lively discussion between us panelists and the audience. It was fantastic. So yeah, I can't wait for that too. Awesome. Anything else you want to add, Matias, before we wrap up?
Starting point is 00:51:40 Well, yeah. I mean, I like to wrap up strong. So stay hopeful, you know, stay constructive. Never get defocused, you know, because the time is ours. It's your voice. So use it well. Yay, let's go. It is your voice and your voice matters.
Starting point is 00:52:01 I loved speaking to you. you are awesome uh we had so much fun in previous conferences i can't wait to see you again in a couple of months in three months or so i wish you all the best in the next few months to you and the team if there's anything i can help let me know and uh yeah looking forward to it people join us yeah thank you efrat thank you and we'll be looking forward to welcome everyone in prague it's it's gonna be amazing the the bear market really means that only the real deal people show up so we have something to be looking for yes agreed thank you so much for being with me thank you bye bye thanks for being with us please take a minute to give this episode a like a comment
Starting point is 00:52:49 and subscribe or follow and please share it with your friends so they can also get value and choose to take some positive action in their lives. Till next time.

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