How would you handle it if you were financially retired today,
but woke up tomorrow to find yourself literally homeless?
This is the brutal reality that Tony Yausbek lived through in
Lebanon. He didn't lose all of his wealth
in a bad trade, he lost it to a corrupt banking system that went
bankrupt overnight. In this conversation, Tony
explains why the West is following the same unsustainable
path of infinite money printing and why Bitcoin is the only exit
from this failing legacy system. He reveals why most people are
NPCS that are going to stay stuck in this rigged game and
why you should stop looking at Bitcoin as just another
investment. This is a high signal
conversation and I really enjoyed it, and I hope that you
do too. All right, let's dive in.
Tony Yasbek, welcome back to Bitcoin for Millennials.
Bram, very happy to see you man, how you been?
Yeah, really good that I'm I'm happy you're back.
You were one of my earlier guests.
So for the people that haven't seen that episode, just search
for Tonys name on my YouTube and you'll see our, our previous
conversation, which I thought was really insightful.
And also that that time when we spoke, we kind of walked through
your very brutal, I would say orange pill story and, and the,
and the awakening you had when you lived in Lebanon, right?
And you realized that the, the money system in your country
where you went from being very wealthy to basically having
nothing, right? We know all these stories of
people in Lebanon robbing banks, not to get other people's money,
but to actually get their own money.
That is what you you live through and, and what kind of
started your, your journey. And I wanted to refer back to a
talk you gave in Bitcoin Prague, where you called Bitcoin a
middle finger to the world's financial betrayal.
And I thought that was really nice and and kind of wanted to
start with, you know, can you kind of describe Bitcoin or do
you describe Bitcoin more as an act of defiance than just a
better form of money or digital gold or however people want to
define it right now? Wow, this is a very, very
powerful question, man, because it's answers are a bit, a bit a
bit of everything Bitcoin is, you know, depending on the lens
that you view it as is definitely, you know, a middle
finger to the legacy system. It's it's a message.
It's that somebody's drawing the line in the sand is like, all
right, your BS, your corruption, your theft, your whatever it is
that you've been doing for so long, it ends now.
That is essentially the message that I hear when I read about
Bitcoin and I finally understood what it's about.
Now, of course, it's also, you know, the best form of money
humanity has ever seen. And it's also the first form of
money that is not government or central bank issued, again,
something we've never seen. And of course, it also comes
from the world of tech, something again, we have never
seen before, right? So there's a lot of newness to
to Bitcoin, which is why so many people to this day have such a
hard time understanding it, right.
And at some point they all will. How fast and how painful that
learning process is really depends on how much work you do.
My role here, you know, ever since I discovered Bitcoin and
you know, it literally saved my life in my case, is to really
educate and to push out a message of awareness of measure
the message of truth. Hopefully to counter the the
false narratives and the psyops that are very strong, but are
very out there, which is why so many people to this day
misunderstand Bitcoin and why so many people right now are so
depressed about Bitcoin. You know, very, very foolish
state to be, you know, there's nothing to be depressed about.
It's actually quite the opposite.
But that's, you know, that level of conviction and that
conclusion, what can only come from someone who understands
what it is that you know, you're looking at.
And so This is why this question is it like a never ending rabbit
hole and we can speak for months about this, but of course, you
know, we'll try to be very specific during this this
conversation. What do you think is the, is the
one thing that people are totally missing about, you know,
the purpose of central banking, Fiat money?
What, what is, well, what, what is maybe the biggest red pill
that you want or, or, or give to people actively, you know, like
what, what is the one thing that they really need to understand?
Well, The thing is, unfortunately, to really get to
the level of understanding and conviction that I'm at right
now, you have to live the life that I've lived.
You have to walk in my shoes. You have to get completely
obliterated. You have to taste violence and
homelessness and poverty and stress and anxiety and
depression and crazy dark thoughts for nine months to
really understand why I have the level of conviction that I have.
Because all of this is really encapsulates the world that
we've been lied to, you know, since the day we were born.
The money that we work for before Bitcoin is not money.
It's you're working for a surveillance, you know,
apparatus. It's a system that was built to
steal from you, to control you and to surveil you.
But it was done in such a, I don't want to compliment them,
but really it was done in a very brilliant way where most people
don't never felt that this was actually what was going on.
And like every Ponzi, you know, in its infancy, it's pretty it,
it still works, right, because it's still fresh.
It's only when it gets to the end, it's expiration date where
the abuse has gone so far past the point of no return, where
you start seeing the cracks and everything falling apart, which
is the stage that we are at now. And so this is this is the was
my awakening. Like I was so angry because of
what happened to me that I need it.
I was I was in such desperate need to find answers.
And eventually that desperation led me to these answers and I
found out the truth. And that truth made me even more
angry because now I can point to a who is behind the reason of my
collapse, right? So the monetary system is
created by a group of, call them whatever you want.
I like to call them parasites, right?
And that group is essentially what controls everybody's money.
But this group is the worst kind of human being you can ever
describe. They are behind the wars.
They are behind the genocides. They are behind the paedophilia
that we've recently been reading about.
They are behind the most extreme kinds of human like evilness
that you can possibly imagine. This is the system that is
fueling all of this, right? But when you're living in
countries where you're not immediately visualizing all of
this, it's like so abstract to you that it's like, this guy
must be on drugs, right? But that is the reality of the
Fiat system. And fortunately for us, it's
gotten to a point where their abuse, their inefficiency,
their, their moronic decisions over many decades have fled to a
point where their mothership now is collapsing.
Money printing is not sustainable.
Interest rates are unpayable. But the, the country, the, the,
the world reserve currency right now is bankrupt. the US
government is officially bankrupt.
It's been that way for many years.
They've been able to kick the can with whatever, you know,
number wizardry that they've been doing.
But that lifespan is becoming shorter and shorter because you
are seeing the pain on the streets now, right?
People can't afford anything. People walk into the
supermarket, they got a heart attack.
They try, they even contemplate the thought of buying a house.
They get an even bigger heart attack and it's like, why am I
even here, you know, type of attitude, like why do I even
bother doing anything when it's a lose, lose scenario, right?
So you need like people need to understand that this is the
cause of any misery, especially economic misery that they're
going through. And before they have a cemented
belief in all of this, nothing will change, right?
So I think this is this is really what's missing in the
space today and why people like myself don't don't view the
world in the same way from that lens anymore, because we have
been brutally forced to for to Fast forward into the truth,
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simplicity in one. Some people would say, you know
like everything you that you just said you know that's
alarmist. Like you said, it's grand
thinking you must be on drugs. You know this sounds so bad that
it's probably not happening to me right.
I think I've also shared and that's why I think also you're a
great guest to talk to, right? Like as someone who grew up in a
Western country, money, money just works, right?
And I have water and food and I have a home and safety and
school, you know, all that stuff that you think, well, that is
well that we know is important to us.
So there's never really like there wasn't really like a
reason for me to start doubting the money basically.
And I think that's also kind of what what you are alluding to,
right? When when people react in this,
you know, alarmist, you know, crazy, whatever, you know, don't
put that stuff near me kind of way.
But why do you think that those people are actually the ones
that are being irrational, right?
Is it is it because they trust the status quo basically, or
they don't maybe maybe they don't even see what the status
quo is that they agree to and what kind of yeah, powers they
gave away, etcetera. Like how, how how would you
describe or illustrate that? How could we help people see
that that don't have your point of view of, you know, actually
going from a lot of money to nothing in one day?
I mean, that obviously wakes you up, but a lot of people won't
experience that in their lives. Yeah, but you're absolutely
right. I mean, human beings, first of
all, are very allergic to change, especially if it's a
drastic change. You know, they they get
comfortable with what they know. You know, they say they set up a
routine and they pretty much stick to it without, you know,
much, much change. And you have those, that small
percentage of the world that really goes out of their comfort
zone always to excel. That's why you have such a
drastic difference between the echelon of really successful
people. And then the majority are, you
know, they what they call the NPCS and non player characters
that are just, they just exist, not much value, not much
contribution. They just go about their, you
know, do they, they do what they're told, you know, they go
left, they go left, go right, they go right.
Not much critical thinking, right.
They're given enough comfort so that they don't have to question
anything, you know, beyond, beyond that.
And that keeps them as the perfect candidates in a system
that was created, you know, for that control and surveillance.
And so as long as that comfort exists, well, you know, these
people are highly, it's highly doubtful that they're going to
question anything. But what we're starting to see
now is that for the first time ever, there was a competitor to
that system that was born in 2008, right?
Bitcoin, that incorruptible, unconfiscatable, unstoppable
idea whose time has come. And unfortunately for the legacy
system, this idea is now money, right?
So ever since 2009, that entire Fiat legacy system became
optional to those who understood what just arrived, that new
sheriff in town that no one can stop no matter what they what
they want, no matter how many times they try, and believe me,
they've tried. So when you have a force like
Bitcoin out in the wild that you cannot contain, what do you do?
You try to fight the element that you can't control, which is
the narrative about Bitcoin. You try to make it look like the
bad thing. Oh, This is Money for terrorists
and criminals and you know, all that other nonsense.
And you try to shift people's perception of the tool that was
created to set them free so that in their minds, it's the one
thing they should avoid at all costs, right?
And this is unfortunately where most people still are because
they believe the nonsense, the mainstream, the lies and all
that stuff. But there's a shift.
There's a, there's a, there's like a, a change in the air
because the economic situations of these very same people is
deteriorating. That is the silver lining here,
right? I mean, the legacy system to
sustain itself has to continuously engage in more
debt, money printing, money printing and money printing to
fund whatever nonsense that they, you know, they, they want.
And So what that does is that it's completely destroying the
purchasing power of these MPCS. So they were always told follow
the rules. They always did well, now they
can't afford much anymore. So now their lives are becoming
a bit miserable. But despite all of this, you
still have a large majority that shrinks their lifestyle to fit
that reduced capacity, right? Instead of thinking properly to
find solutions, to get out of the rut, No, they drop their
standards. They drop everything to fit that
smaller box that they're being forced into, right?
And so, but at some point, that box is going to become too small
for even the most stubborn, laziest, most resilient human
being. They're going to ask better
questions, right? But by then, I don't know if
they are able to get to the solution that is available to
them, right, which is freedom money, essentially what Bitcoin,
what Bitcoin is. So those that understand this
now are not susceptible to the same psyops that we hear about
out out in the world, which is why, you know, here at the
Bitcoin Way, we try really to push hard that education, that
understanding of Bitcoin with for everyone that comes to us.
It is not an investment as long as you're still getting upset or
excited because of that Fiat price, you don't fully grasp
what it is that you're dealing with.
The volatility that's out there, first of all, for the most part,
is not organic. It's man made, right?
It's designed on purpose by a system that is, you know, on
borrowed time. They're trying to contain the
threat and so they have resources at their disposal to
create all sorts of illusions about Bitcoin, which is what
we're seeing now, the UPS, the downs, the left, the right, and
they do this by trying to fit Bitcoin into their own track fi
world, right? So why do we have the ETFs?
Why do we have the Bitcoin treasuries?
Why do we have all these services?
Borrow against your Bitcoin. What are these?
All of these, First of all, that none of them are Bitcoin and
they're all counterparty risk, right?
So the narrative is that OK, Bitcoins, you know, the new kid
on the block, cool, but use it this way because really, if you
do, nothing changes for you. You're still dependent on us.
We still have you by the balls and we can still manipulate
everything we want about you, right?
So, and most people are still stuck in that, in that narrative
because they don't do the work, they don't read the right books,
they don't ask the right questions, and they just
complain when they lose money, right?
So This is why I see a lot of people still stuck.
I mean, they are their own worst enemies because I am living
proof that you can exit that system.
You don't have to play on that chess board.
And believe me, I'm not unique. There are 1,000,000 like me
around the world that have finally understood this.
The difference between US and a lot of people out there is that
we have been completely destroyed morally, spiritually,
financially, you name it. And so when you are, you know,
eradicated to your DNA level and you survive, the only way is up.
But that human being that is reborn from that death is no
longer the same. You can no longer control
someone who understands what I'm telling you because they will
see your games, they know who you are, they know how you play,
and they have 100 million workarounds around you legally.
Not talking about anything you know?
Retarded here. And because of the existence of
a tool like Bitcoin, that power is available to 8.3 billion
people, which is something the legacy system fights really hard
to prevent because they are petrified that enough people get
this because then their entire existence dies in 5 minutes,
right? And I've said this on many
podcasts. If the Fiat money that you're
using was such a good product, why do you have to be threatened
to use it? Why are you being overtaxed when
you use it right? Why is it being debased?
Like, tell me one good thing about that worthless piece of
toilet paper. That's your earning name 1.
Yeah, I, I, I love this. I, I mean, so many directions we
can go to, but maybe to, to hook into what you said at the
ending. I always use this in a sentence,
right? It's, it's a, it's a currency.
It's not even a money because it's losing value all the time.
So you cannot save in it, right? It's a currency.
I think Luke Broyles calls it a political currency that you're
forced to use, right? And that is what you are
referring to. And I like the tax part
actually, right. If if we all think this is a
good currency or you know, money because we we think a currency
is. Is the same as as money if this
is so good. Yeah.
Why why does it need to be constantly taxed?
Why do you why does the value change constantly?
Why why do you have to create more constantly, right.
And I think the core words that helped me look at that is just
the words nominally, right. They they always say that, well,
you know, if you have 2% inflation, or rather, you know,
monetary debasement and does inflation of prices, people are
motivated to spend these these money units.
And then we have air quotes growth, right.
Growth on paper we can say plus XYZ percent.
Yeah, you know, like our our economy grows.
And I think there's a few of these things that are kind of
basic, I would say but that that when you put them together, you
can kind of start seeing that you like yeah, like, like I had
like I'm operating in a system where I basically I have no clue
how it works, but it's sort of working for me.
So I'll just keep continuing acting in it basically.
But by having that ignorance because it's working enough,
right Enough, whatever enough is right.
It's working enough for me. I'm not really asking those
uncomfortable questions because like you mentioned, they are
quite superficial questions, right?
Why isn't there a competition of money?
Why isn't there a free market of money, right?
Why, why can't people pay in Bitcoin or silver or gold or
whatever? Like they could do that
individually with each other. You know, when we meet and I, I
say give you Bitcoin and you make me a sandwich or what?
Like we can do that, right? But it's not at, at a big enough
skill because, umm, one, I think we can never force that adoption
as medium of exchange, right. That is an organic, uh,
understanding of using a better money than, uh, you know, a
certain Fiat money. And you see that people do that.
For example, you know, on the border of Canada and America,
there's people in the Canadian stores you can buy with American
dollars. They give you Canadian dollars
back because they know that, you know, the US dollar is a
stronger currency. So people have that behavior.
But sorry for the long rent, but when you are active in a Fiat
money system and it's just working for, it just works,
right? You give the coins or the bills
away and someone gives you a bread or whatever, you're like,
OK, well, apparently it works. You don't there's no need to
think about what the predatory aspect of of that is, right?
And one of the things that you talk about when when you talk
about inflation, right, many people see that as, you know,
it's just a boring metric goes up and down.
Christine Lagarde says, you know, we won 2% or, you know,
whatever the TV says, you call it theft with a fancy name.
Now, I remember when I came into Bitcoin and more in the
podcasting, when I heard, you know, inflation is theft, I felt
like, oh, that's kind of a, that's a rough expression Now.
I think that is true. Why is it so clear to you that,
you know, this current money system is actually like a, it's
a global web of financial oppression, right?
You cannot really get out. It's like there's like a,
there's like a, there's like something over us that kind of
yeah, it forces us to use it, pay taxes, exchange or time and
energy, etcetera. Why is that so clear to you, and
what do you think other people aren't seeing?
Because you've been brainwashed to believe that this is how
everything should be, right since day one.
The schools teach you that they follow the rules.
These are the rules. The money must be government
issued. The money must go in a bank like
you're told this since day one. You hear it from your parents.
They heard it from their parents.
They know on it. And this, this, this lie has
been going on for a very, very long time.
So to expect an overnight change, it was something as
revolutionary as Bitcoin, you know, like, I wish it it would
happen, but I think it's, you know, unrealistic to expect it
simply again, because people, most people live in fear, right?
Like you talk, you tell them about something as amazing as
Bitcoin and the first thought that goes to their head, holy
shit, is this legal? Like, am I going to go to jail,
you know, for even talking about this?
Like, that's how retired most people's brains are when it
comes to, you know, thinking outside, outside the box.
And until they have no choice but to take this option
seriously, I think most people will continue being NPCS, you
know, and they'll continue seeing their life.
There's their lives worsen until, you know, it becomes too
much. And then they're like, all
right, well, get get Get Me Out of here.
But The thing is, there's a lot of folks today that are not
willing to go through the pain to learn.
They are listening to the right messaging, they are reading the
right books and they are asking the right questions, but more
importantly, they are taking action, right?
So Bitcoin, the first thing we teach folks here is that to win
at Bitcoin, you have got to believe, believe with 100%
conviction that This is Money, real money.
You cannot come to this thinking of it as an investment, which is
what most spoiled people in the West are doing, right.
You get, you hear a lot of arguments.
Oh, it has to start as a store of value.
Oh, it has to be this. It has to be that the number go
up is critical for mass adoption.
Maybe OK, But if it is, it's because most people understand
nothing and they just get excited by seeing something cool
happen on screen and they run into it.
But this is not the foundation of sustained success because you
know they're still going to get excited to sell that pristine
asset for worthless rubbish rate later, right?
So basically meaning that nothing has changed in their
life. So step one is understanding
that this is the money and the way to win here is to start
restructuring your life to save in that money, right?
And of course, this is not a get rich scheme.
So you're not going to go from nothing to owning 17 Lambos by
next Sunday that you have to get out of your head.
When you first start in Bitcoin, it's a very agonizing process
because, you know, unless you're sitting on millions of dollars
just to convert like this, you know, from fake money to real
money, you're going to have to work your way up the echelon in
the same way you've been saving your entire lives.
The difference is, for the first time ever, everything that you
save is actually yours, whereas in Fiat none of it is yours.
A lot of people mistake or confuse having access to
something with ownership. Just because the bank lets you
use your money doesn't mean the money is yours.
Just because your card, your credit card or debit card still
works doesn't mean the money is yours.
That means that someone is still giving you permission to use it.
But if one day that person wakes up on the wrong side of the bed
or doesn't like your face for whatever reason and just
scribbles a few new words on a piece of paper to change the
rules, there goes your access. Poof, right?
So that is the reality that most people have not have not tasted
yet, but it's coming. It's absolutely coming.
You can see it in Europe, you can see it in countries like
Australia, you can see it in the UK, you can see it in Canada.
And eventually it will be everywhere.
And this and the biggest signal to me is just how bad the laws
are becoming globally, right? More taxes, unrealized capital,
tax gains. What is that for those that have
never heard that word before? Unrealized.
OK. Yeah, exactly.
That is this translates into extortion.
This is pure extortion, like thug style extortion.
You don't pay, we're going to break your legs.
There's no difference. The only difference is that now
it's people hiding behind the title of government.
But the result is the same, right?
So how do they steal their money?
Your money? This is how they do it.
And then what do they do on top of it?
Now you have an exit tax. Why?
Because they don't want you to leave, right?
Because the more intelligent people pack up and go, the less
revenue they can extract from them.
All this Netherlands nightmare is coming to many other
countries. I can tell you from now.
These are the signs of a collapsing, failing system that
is desperately hanging to any string it can in order to remain
sustainable, but it will not work.
It will not last because again, of that new sheriff in town
whose silver lining is its limited supply, that 21 million,
that thing fucks up everything for the legacy system.
They can't corrupt it. They can't manipulate it, They
can't inflate it. They can't confiscate it if it's
in yourself custody, right? So they are completely helpless.
You know, like they, they, they don't know what to do except
level up the, the extreme, the extremes of their tyranny in
order to force you into their system.
This is what I see happening. And the more people do nothing
and think this is just some crazy guy talking on YouTube,
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Now let's continue. Your story was definitely a big
help in painting a bigger picture for myself, right?
We just mentioned that there, especially in the Western world,
you know, also obviously in other countries, but this is my,
my, my, my reference point. There's a lot of high trust in
other people that are, you know, just as flawed as, as we are as
as humans, right? Everyone has an ego and their
own life challenges and wants, wishes, desires, what whatever,
right? It's just so hard to visualize,
conceptualize when you have not experienced it.
It's a very, It's a very hard thing to solve, especially if
your goal is to solve it quickly because, you know, everybody
learns and understands at their own pace.
And like, the prerequisite for that is for them to be open to
understanding all of this, right?
But the best way that we found to do it is, well, there's many
ways. Essentially, you're going to
become a broken record, you know, very quickly, you know,
repeating the same messaging over and over.
And at some point, people's life situations is going to resonate
with like the 50th time that you've repeated the same
message. And then it's going to click for
them, right? Or someone's going to experience
something and they're like, oh shit, you know, like I heard
this, I should have listened. Then they're going to do it.
Otherwise, it depends really on how much influence you have on
your surroundings. Like, for example, the people
closest to me, they're forbidden from working and earning in
Fiat. It's just, you know, Tony's
rule, if you're going to go out and provide value into this
world, you're not going to do it to to fund a criminal or a
criminal cartel. You will not, I will not allow
you to do this. And I, you know, and that is,
you know, backed up by a lot of education, like it's a tough
process by someone who wants to make someone else who
understands nothing yet really, you know, like if I can
telepathically take everything in my head and port it over in
10 seconds in somebody else's brain, you'd see bitcoins Fiat
price at like 10 trillion tomorrow, right?
But doesn't work that way, at least not yet.
Maybe one day we'll be able to do this.
But as of this conversation, it's a it's a long process.
The other very, you know, useful way of doing it is to live the
life you want them to see, lead by lead by example, which is
something, you know, that we're doing.
I'll, I'll be very candid with you.
When I first decided to first of all, to get back up on my feet
and to rebuild my life, that decision was only made because I
found Bitcoin. Otherwise, I was in such a dark
place. There was no hope in hell for me
just to, to even bother to even get out of bed.
It's like, that's how bad it was.
And then when I ran across this Andreas Antonopoulos video, I
don't know, maybe it was sent from someone who from above, you
know, drop that video my way. I don't know.
But something changed. Something clicked for me.
And then life started to flow back through my veins.
And I promised myself, I'm like, look, if you're going to get
back up on your feet, you're going to do it the right way,
even if it's going to take you much longer to do so.
Even if, if the, if the initial Rd. is going to be very
difficult, it will be worth it in the end.
And so I stuck to that conviction.
And let me tell you, I am living proof that is it's 100% worth it
because you start saving in real money.
That money appreciates over time, that appreciation
increases your purchasing power. And when you get to a certain
point, external macro factors don't bother you.
They don't matter, right? Like if everybody's just ignored
Bitcoin today and nobody wanted to use it for the next forever,
then Bitcoin would die simply because there's no interest.
But this is not what's happening in the world.
In fact, it's the complete opposite.
But if you're listening to their narratives or if you're glued to
the charts or you're listening to macro and micro fucking
rubbish all day long, you're not going to see that reality.
There are millions of folks around the globe that are living
on a Bitcoin standard. They are not driving Lambos.
They are not buying Ferraris, OK, but they are living very
happy, very comfortable sovereign lives with no
connections to the evil empire anymore.
There's no big bad wolf behind your back breathing over your
neck, right? There's No Fear of waking up 1
morning to the news of extortion, unrealized capitals,
gains tax, 60% tax bill and whatever other, you know,
nonsense that keeps coming up, you know, on a regular basis.
Digital ID to use a search engine, central bank, digital
currencies, all of that nightmare that only exists if
you stay within that world. But again, as of 2000 and nine,
8.3 billion people have the option to leave that world.
But in order to leave that world, you need to understand
how to live in the new world. Understand Bitcoin is money,
learn how to use it and memorize 2 words self custody.
That's it right And once that clicks in your head and you go
through the workout of you know, building your savings on sound
money, you will reach a point where again, external factors
don't impact your everyday life. I am living proof of it.
And again, it's not like because I'm sitting on hundreds or
thousands of coins, far, far from it.
But when you understand that your life now belongs to you
because when you own your money, no one controls you, right?
So once that clicks, you live on your own terms.
But again, you know, that ties into another, you know, rabbit
hole, which is the jurisdictional freedom, which we
can discuss later on if you want to.
But Step 1 really is about owning your money.
Once that's done, everything else becomes easier.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You echo something that I also
frequently mentioned. I, I, I don't think it's about
how much Bitcoin you have, right?
I think, well, the more Bitcoin you have, the nicer in general,
right? Like just you, you can own your
time even even more. But just getting to the point
where you are consciously making the decision to actually keep
your own money and take all it responsibility, making that,
making that conscious decision. I think my assumption would be
like 8 or 9 out of 10 people will then also realize, Hey,
what are all these other parts in my life where I haven't
really taken a conscious decision, but I'm still
following certain, you know, systems or, you know, ways of
doing so because other people are also doing them, not
realizing that the other people also haven't really thought
about why all the other people are doing it basically, right.
So, so just getting to that point where you kind of like
peel away all these layers of abstraction that you accept it.
And now our, our refuting, I think is, is is already quite a
psychological and also a spiritual step in, in becoming
more, more sovereign. And you just mentioned, you
know, macro, right? We could talk about, you know,
why, why do you need Bitcoin? You know, the debasement of the
money, Fiat money at etcetera. But you've argued that that is
not really enough. You also have to understand the
protocol. And I think you just mentioned a
few times, right, like, OK, Bitcoin is kind of the anti
thesis right to to Fiat money. What is the essence for you
there is that is that the, the hard cap, right?
Like why, why is this not, you know, a stock investment as a
lot of people think it is, right?
Oh, it's trending with the NASDAQ, etcetera.
What? What is it that they need to
understand of the of the protocol that for you is is is
the thing that that gives you power once you hold it.
Well, The thing is, look, part of the attacks on Bitcoin is,
you know, the attempts to rebrand it, which is why you
know, when you when they try to fit Bitcoin into the Tratfi
world, well, you know, the first thing that that's the easiest
path to do so is to rebrand it as a stock or as an investment.
And so of course, you know, once once you do that, then it falls
within that, you know, manipulated chess board, but can
be easily be taken up and down. Like how do you go from 1:26 to
66 in such a quick period of time?
Like you think that was organic? Absolutely not.
And so when you control these variables, well, then, you know,
you also controls people's perception of the the product,
like the in this case, in this case, Bitcoin itself.
When you're saving in whatever local currency, do you compare
it to any other currency? Like, I don't know, I, I guess
you're in Europe, right? Like when you when you earn EUR,
you compare it against, OK, wherever.
All right, let's say I'll use the US dollar because every,
most people, you know, reference that.
So when somebody earns in the US dollar, when you get your
paycheck, do you compare it to the Zimbabwean currency or the
Lebanese pound or the Iranian Riyadh?
Of course not. Why do you do it with Bitcoin?
But if we rebranded the US dollar as another tech stock,
that's exactly what people would do.
And so you can also screw around with the numbers and people will
say, ah, the US dollar, wow, terrible product, right?
So this is what they're trying to do to Bitcoin, keep it as a
like keep keep it as a counterparty risk, as an
investment, as a store of value. If that's all it was, Bitcoin
would fail, man. Like if it because it will get
Co opted and centralized, you know, at some point and there's
no more no more revolution. The revolution is in these two
words, self custody the first time where people can own their
time and energy their money. That's the part that the legacy
system will go to any length to prevent enough people from
understanding. Because, you know, that's where
the power lies, right? But it's not working because
unfortunately whatever other inefficiencies they're doing are
forcing people to learn about self custody because their own
life situations are getting, you know, drastically worse.
I keep referring to the example of people that live in very high
tax jurisdictions. Like just do simple math.
If your tax rate, just to keep the numbers easy, is at 50%,
right? So you're working and you're
paying 50%. Then on that 50% you have the
debasement tax, your inflation, your money's worth less, let's
say, again, to be conservative, like 10%.
Then you have all these other indirect taxes, sales tax,
school tax, bullshit tax, whatever.
Tax, right? What is left from your paycheck
after you've deducted all of these things?
Pretty much nothing, right? So I'd say good, maybe 70% if
I'm being nice here, goes to fund these parasites.
So in other words, you, the hard working, honest individual who
believes you know by playing by the rules and wants to be the
good citizen, are essentially working 7 to 8 months out of the
year for free. And then you wonder why your
life is so difficult, why you can't afford the things that you
used to afford, why there's just not enough time in the day.
No matter how hard you try, you're still stuck, right?
If people simply just paused 5 minutes during the day and ask
themselves, like really ask themselves that question, what
am I doing? It says more about you, right?
It's it's allowing yourself to be bullied by the system, which
is exactly what what, how I see this.
And a bully is never going to stop bullying unless you end it
because bullies, they thrive on weakness.
And so as long as you're weak, the abuse will continue.
It's like any abusive relationship.
You can cry, you can complain, you think you're going to,
you're going to get sympathy from the bully.
You won't you will get an even more excited to, to, to take it
1 notch higher, which is again, what we're starting to see more
and more now. So if you want to end the
bullying, exit that abusive relationship that that that, you
know, deadly drug addiction, you have got to do the work and pull
yourself out. I mean, it's, it's, I just
looked up the number. In the US, people work one day a
week to pay taxes only to help their government pay interest on
the debt. Which they can't do.
Exactly. Yeah.
But you know, then people say, you know, when when you start
this conversation with someone, people say, well, you have to
pay taxes because they have to build roads and this and that.
Well, yeah, you know, conceptually you can agree.
But factually, when you look at what the money is spent on,
especially if you start going down the road of well, how much
of my total income basically is spent on, on taxes or well,
yeah, goes to taxes. And what is that being spent on?
For example, in the US, it only goes to paying it off.
Well, to paying interest. It doesn't go to paying it off,
right. If, if the debt needs to be
refinanced like this year a lot and the interest rates are way
higher than than before, that percentage is only going up.
There are no new roads, there are no new bridges.
There isn't an improvement in whatever reading level 5 year
olds and you know, all that stuff.
It's not getting any money. Basically.
You're working to pay off this debt, right?
And I think that is what also eventually incentivizes all
these stricter attempts at getting more money from citizens
because there's no one ever really that gets serious
traction. Maybe that's also a signal,
right, that says, well, maybe we should reconsider what we are
doing, right. Think about Rand Paul, Ron Paul
or any, any type of libertarian type person in any in any
Western country. I'd say the, you know, people
don't want to and I think that goes back to our beginning.
They don't want to accept that they're functioning or are being
the subject in a fundamentally flawed system, right.
So even when someone has this picture perfect factual
representation of how money works and what the I would say
the mathematically determined end of this system is, people
are still going to be like, yeah, you know, like please,
please, please don't put that on my play to to think about.
Now I wanted to ask you about this.
This is a long road, right? I think this is a really long
road. And you just mentioned, you
know, people call Bitcoin digital gold.
I always say, well, digital gold is just an illustration to help
people think in a certain direction when you can think
about Bitcoin, but it is characteristically way more than
gold. It is vastly superior to gold,
right? Some people say exponential
gold, you know, perfect money, you know, whatever.
But my point is more it's obvious that this is still
evolving. Just the understanding, the
reflection, the discussion, all these things.
And it's going to take a very long time, I think for enough
air quotes. I don't know what enough people
are to figure out what you just said.
You need to take away energy from that system that is abusing
you, basically that you're putting energy and time in and
and not really getting anything in return.
You're perceptually getting something similar as you had
before, but it's only worse, right?
I'm in my late 30s. When I think about 20 years ago,
I don't think we progressed. I still have an amazing life.
But compared to 20 years ago, I think it changed in a, in a
negative way. And that is also a very, very
slow process, right? And I think these two things
kind of crossing paths at one point, I think it'll take some
time. I think that that could possibly
be an inflection point. But a lot of people want stuff
to happen quickly. They don't understand this,
this, this, this bigger arc. Let's say we get there.
What? What does what does that look
like When people actually value Bitcoin, they save in Bitcoin,
they spend Bitcoin. Is a Bitcoin standard something
that takes us more into the future, or does it resemble
something from the past? What do you think that that
could look like? And maybe what is the total
opposite of it if we don't? The thing is, we are already
living on a Bitcoin standard, at least for those that understand
the Bitcoin as money. I genuinely believe that we are
going to head more and more towards a A2 tiered world, one
that is founded on sound money, where people are really just
living their lives, you know, or their own ways.
No headaches, no fuss, no anxiety.
And you've got another part that is completely stuck in a
dystopian nightmare. And these two worlds will
coexist for a while. But of course, as with human
nature, people always look at where the grass is greener,
right? And then they're going to
wonder, well, hold on a second, how are these people not
complaining and laughing and smiling and doing stuff And my
life like Kyle, I want to jump off a Cliff.
It's, it's, it's so bad, right? And so you're going to be,
they're going to start asking these questions that at one
point they're going to want to move from point very bad to
point very good. But by then there's no ticket.
Like there's no train to take you from that shit hole to that
greener grass area because who's going to trade their freedom for
that? So either there's no ticket or
that ticket is ridiculously expensive.
And so when people are stuck enough, then they revolt.
That scenario is what worries me because I've seen a version of
it in in Lebanon. Believe me, this is not a movie
you want to watch. OK, so, and this was isolated to
a small country. Put that on a global scale where
people everywhere are having their Lebanon moments, feeling
suffocated. They need answers.
That is extremely dangerous and extremely, you know, very ugly
to even conceive what that could possibly look like.
I think eventually a lot of folks will come into Bitcoin
that way because, you know, that's the only option that's
going to be available to them. But, you know, it's going to
take time. Like you said, maybe not as long
as most people think because, again, pain is the best teacher.
And as, you know, your situation gets worse, at least intelligent
folks are going to start asking quicker questions.
All right, this is not working for me.
What can I do, right. And we're starting to see this
more by the way, even even despite everything that's going
on in the macro world, Bitcoins price dipping and all that
stuff, we are, we are seeing an increase of interest from people
in set for self custody, jurisdictional freedom and what
have you. It's not the other way around,
right? But again, this is limited to
those that are actually paying attention.
Yeah, I would agree. I also think This is why it's
slow, right. It is a 1 by 1 conversion where
Fiat money is probably, you know, a multi layered group
enchantment from when you're like 6 years old or something.
So maybe that is why it takes so long.
Yeah, the thing. The thing is, here's something
else maybe a lot of folks are not paying attention to.
Because Bitcoin is such a permissionless monetary system.
It's for everyone, right? The wrong people.
The worst people, the people you least want to be anywhere near
Bitcoin are 100% in it because they understand it.
They just don't want you, the worthless pleb, to be in it.
So the powers that be want Bitcoin in self custody for
themselves, but they want you, the worthless, the worthless
cattle to use Bitcoin but in a way that keeps you dependent on
them. The treasuries, the ETFs, you
know, borrowing against your Bitcoin, all these carrots that
they dangle to keep you within that broken system.
That mindset has to die. You have to forget about that
world entirely or use it strictly when you need it and
then never look back. So some people argue, oh, but I
need money. No, you don't.
If you can't afford something, don't buy it.
Focus on your immediate needs. This isn't about living a life
of luxury in two days. This is about building the
foundation to give you that life at some point, with the main
difference being that no one can take it away from you anymore.
That is the investment in Bitcoin.
It's your freedom. It's not a yield, it's not an
interest rate that you get paid. That mindset has to die before
you can actually win and move forward in Bitcoin, which is why
we never recommend any any, but I mean like not a single one.
Try service using Bitcoin wrappers because they are all
manipulated services. Even if the intention of the
people behind them is noble, these people are playing by
rules that they don't control. And the people making these
rules, these people are not noble.
These people don't care about anybody except for their own
relevancy. You can only trust government
when government is no longer in a position to be abusive.
And that only happens when you strip them from the power of
money so that a business, so that a government is held
accountable just like any other business.
Just like you, me and everybody else do something wrong, you do
something wrong, you pay for it, right?
But when you've got the carte blanche to do whatever the hell
you want, no questions asked and a money printer, that's not
going to work. So that illusion of good
government cannot exist in a world like this.
What is your hardest take, hardest take on what the Western
version of this Lebanese bank line and, and, and your
experience is going to look like in, in the West in the next
decade? Because I assume that, you know,
you're the, the history of Lebanon is a bit more fragile
and chaotic than a lot of the Western world.
So, you know, perhaps you already had a different, you
know, point of view of government, etcetera.
But I think especially in the Western world where the trust is
so high, it's really going to melt brains in my opinion.
What? What do you think?
Well, look, one thing I learned is that as bad as the, as bad as
the corruption was in Lebanon, these people were not
autonomous. You know, there's a hierarchy
for the corruption. The Lebanese governments, these,
you know, these corrupt politicians, they also report to
a higher level of corruption. And if you want to go down that
rabbit hole, well then This is why I'm telling you that the,
the collapse is coming everywhere because the mechanics
of the Lebanon collapse, the Iran collapse, they're all
they're, they're all the same. They're all tied to the same
broken system initially, right? They're just different tentacles
in different parts of the world. So smaller countries will fall
first. You know, bigger countries will
fall last. But eventually, you know, things
will will deteriorate. If 5% of what happened after the
collapse in Lebanon happens, let's say in the United States,
God help us because first of all, in Lebanon there is no 500
million privately owned assault weapons, which is a
constitutional right in the United States.
A lot of people have guns, right?
So you remove these people's bank accounts or maybe you keep
the bank accounts, but they're purchasing power is pretty much
formatted. Can't buy shit.
These guys need to live. What's the next reaction?
Like? Do you think they're going to
come and have a conversation over a cup of coffee or like a
nice dinner to try to work things out?
No, it's going to be act and then think later, which is what
I've seen. That scenario is not somewhat
something. It's not something you want to
be caught in the middle of. And you can't blame these
people. Like it's not because these
people are all of a sudden criminals or terrorists.
No, they're resorting to survival instinct.
And The thing is, no one really knows what they're capable of,
like not even you, until you're put in that situation.
Like you, you want to know who Bram is, really is.
There's no meditation in the world that you can do for a long
enough period that'll give you that answer as quick as putting
you in my shoes. In Lebanon, the day after the
the, the whole country collapsed because now you really have zero
option. You are formatted, you are like
this lone person in the middle of a desert, no one around you
figure it out. So what do you do?
This is how you figure out who you are and what you're capable
of and how you rise back from literal hell.
And so people were reacting based on their own version of
those instincts, right? Some people didn't make it.
Some people made it. Some, you know, some people I
don't know where they are. But overall it is.
And again, it's not about doom and gloom.
It's about just sharing a reality that I've personally
experienced and worked my way. Very, very difficult way to come
out of it. So if I can do it, others can do
it as well. My purpose here is to avoid as
many folks as possible to have to go through something like
this in order to understand what I'm trying to explain here,
right? Because I don't know, man.
Like, I never thought I'd be alive during a time like this to
actually see something as historic unfolding before us In
100 years, you know, they'll be studying, you know, this, this,
this time of history. And I can only assume what
they'd be thinking. Man, we joke around internally a
lot that, you know, like a student studying us would
probably laugh at us. Like, look at these idiots.
They're working for paper money and giving, giving it to someone
who then decides if they can, if they can use it right.
Like, I mean, can you just imagine the conversation like
100 to 100 years from now on? Bitcoin is just like a standard
sound money. Everybody's living that life.
And then somebody decides to go back in time and just study, you
know, how how the money evolved into Bitcoin.
And then they'll read about us. So, you know, like if you want
to laugh, just think about that conversation and take yourself
out of the joke right by by moving into that future from
now. So the way anyone can do it is
slowly. Unless you're sitting again on
hundreds of millions of dollars, you can decide what percentage
you want to start allocating to sound money.
We don't get financial advice. Everybody does it at their own
pace, based on their own comfort level.
But to do nothing, in my opinion, is suicide because at
some point, even if you had a lot of that, you know, fake
paper, you won't be able to do much with it, right?
So understand Bitcoin is money, sound money that appreciates and
purchasing power over time. And the investment that you're
making is in yourself, in your freedom and the fact that you
don't need permission to transact from point A to point B
anymore. Those days are gone.
Trusting a third party with your money will be at some for at
some point in time considered mental illness.
Like you have to be a nut job to give hand over your keys, your
money to someone else and then pray that they don't abuse that
position. That is probably a great end
there to this conversation, but is there anything that you would
want to share with our audience as as a final take away or or
call to action? Absolutely, guys.
There are millions of folks living on a Bitcoin standard
today. Don't let the news, the
narratives, the charts keep you away from the real truth, the
real signal. Bitcoin is a protocol.
You know, like the Internet. There are tons of apps and
systems and layer twos and threes being built in that
world. There are many high profile
merchants across the world that are starting to accept it as
money and are seeing their sales significantly improve while
using Bitcoin as money. That world is thriving.
But if you're only focused on the charts, you are missing
where the truth is, plenty of people around the globe live as
free individuals. True sovereign individuals,
right? Tax free, low tax, better
incentives jurisdictions. They exist.
We help people get there. Bitcoin has money.
You can do it. Again, it's not a get rich
scheme, it's a savings technology.
So figure out your formula and how to build those savings.
You don't need to buy one Bitcoin from day one when the
price dips. I can assure you that everyone
who understands this message is ecstatic and everybody who is
fearful is because they are still lacking the fundamentals
of what it is that they're looking at.
The future is orange. I genuinely believe, and I've
said it a million times, and it will continue to repeat it,
Bitcoin will become the future world reserve currency and the
future of money simply because it's the only neutral asset that
everyone will agree that they can trust.
Amazing. Yeah, I I think that is an even
better ender. So I want to thank you for your
time and your insights and I hope our listeners found a
valuable and yeah, man, thanks and I'll see you soon in a few.
Months. Thank you, Brian.
Looking forward to it man Thank you.
Cheers brother. I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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