1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,160 There's a mechanism inside the money you use everyday that's 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,440 designed to keep you too busy, too anxious and too confused to 3 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:10,000 ask the one question that would free you. 4 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:15,080 And the question is very simple. What is this stuff actually 5 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,600 doing to me? Not to your wallet, but to you, 6 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,360 to your mind, your time, your ability to live a life that 7 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:24,320 means something. Hey, everyone. 8 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,160 I'm Bram Konstein, and this is Bitcoin for millennials. 9 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:29,920 And in this episode, we're going somewhere that most Bitcoin 10 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,800 content never goes. We're not talking about price. 11 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,400 We're not talking about charge. We're going to talk about what 12 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,040 Fiat money does to your consciousness. 13 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:41,160 And by the end of this, I think you're going to see your 14 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:44,000 relationship with money as something completely different 15 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:46,520 than you thought it was. If you're enjoying my content, 16 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,880 it would mean a lot to me if you could subscribe to the channel 17 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,240 and like my video to support my journey. 18 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:53,400 Thanks a lot. Now let's dive in. 19 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,160 Every single day you make a trade, you go to work, and you 20 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,200 exchange something that is absolutely irreplaceable. 21 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,480 Your time, your energy, your attention, your creativity, the 22 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:11,240 hours of your one and only life for units of a currency that 23 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,960 somebody else controls. You didn't choose this currency, 24 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,200 you didn't vote for it, and you cannot opt out of it. 25 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,680 And the people who manage it can create more of it whenever they 26 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:26,120 want, diluting the value of every unit that you have already 27 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:28,800 earned. You're trading something finite, 28 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:32,880 something you can never, ever get back, for tokens who supply 29 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:36,320 is determined by committee decisions in rooms you'll never 30 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:40,480 enter, made by people you'll never meet, serving interests 31 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,200 that aren't yours. I call this the life energy 32 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:45,960 trade. And once you see it for what it 33 00:01:45,960 --> 00:01:50,000 is, you cannot Unsee it. Alan Watts, the philosopher, 34 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:52,480 nailed this back in the 60s already. 35 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:56,240 He said money relates to real wealth the way words relate to 36 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,680 physical reality. It's a symbol, a measurement, 37 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:03,000 not the thing itself. And he used this incredible 38 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,400 analogy. Imagine you're building a house 39 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,320 and one morning the boss shows up and says, we can't build 40 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,240 today. There are no inches. 41 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,320 And you'd say, what do you mean no inches? 42 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,040 We've got wood, we've got metal, and we even got tape measures. 43 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:18,520 Yeah, but you don't understand business. 44 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,960 We've been using too many inches, and there's just no more 45 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,960 to go around. That would sound absurd, right? 46 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,720 But that's exactly what happened during the Great Depression. 47 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:32,080 From 1929 to 1939. Every physical resource was 48 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,360 still there. The brains, the labor, the raw 49 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,720 materials. Nothing had been destroyed. 50 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:40,800 There was just a sudden absence of the measuring tool, the 51 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,920 symbol, not the reality. And Alan Watts argued that this 52 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:47,600 confusion isn't just an intellectual mistake. 53 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,520 It's the defining error of civilization. 54 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,200 We're eating the menu instead of the dinner. 55 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,680 We've confused the map for the territory and the measurement 56 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:58,440 for the thing that's being measured. 57 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,560 And that confusion doesn't just lead to bad economics. 58 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,400 It captures your consciousness. It shapes what you pay attention 59 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:09,040 to, what you chase, what you worry about, literally how you 60 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,000 perceive reality. He put it this way. 61 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,600 If you say that getting money is the most important thing, you 62 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,080 will spend your life completely wasting your time. 63 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,400 You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on 64 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,640 living. That is to go on doing things 65 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:26,600 you don't like doing, which is stupid. 66 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,960 Now you might be thinking, OK, but that's nice philosophy. 67 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,240 But is there actual evidence that money is doing something to 68 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,760 people's minds? There is, and the data is 69 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:40,880 devastating. When central banks create new 70 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,720 money and they create a staggering amount of it. 71 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:48,120 Like the Fed's balance sheet went from 900 billion in 2007 to 72 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:53,320 8.9 trillion in 2022, a nearly 10X increase in 15 years. 73 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:55,720 That money doesn't arrive equally. 74 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,000 It enters through specific channels like banks first, then 75 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,320 financial institutions, then asset holders. 76 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,680 These first receivers spent new money at yesterday's prices. 77 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,440 By the time it reaches ordinary wages, prices have already 78 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:11,880 risen. And this is called the Cantalon 79 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:13,600 effect. And I call the downstream 80 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,839 consequence of it the extraction loop because it's not a one time 81 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:20,399 transfer. It's a continuous compounding 82 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:22,640 drain. And the numbers are staggering. 83 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,480 During the pandemic, the world's 10 richest men doubled their 84 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,240 fortune to 1.5 trillion. That's about $15,000 per second. 85 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:35,480 The top 1% captured 63% of all new wealth created since 2020. 86 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,920 And meanwhile, real wages for working people barely moved. 87 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:42,560 But here's where most economics discussions stop and where I 88 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,040 think the real story begins. What does this extraction loop 89 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:48,160 actually do to you psychologically? 90 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,360 A study published in Science in 2013 found that financial 91 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:56,400 scarcity literally reduces your cognitive function by roughly 13 92 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,160 IQ points. Not because poor people are less 93 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,840 intelligent. The exact same person tested 94 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:05,680 when stressed about money versus when not performed significantly 95 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,080 worse. Financial worry doesn't just 96 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,960 limit your options, it limits your mind. 97 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,440 Money has been the number one source of stress in America 98 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,120 every single year since they started tracking it in 2007. 99 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:23,200 Not health, not relationships, not work, but money. 72% of 100 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,080 Americans feel stressed about it, and somewhere between 50 and 101 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,440 67% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 102 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:35,800 The median American has about $7850 in liquid savings. 40 days 103 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,160 of income, one car repair away from a crisis. 104 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,520 Always and perpetual. And when you zoom out and look 105 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:46,200 at the full picture, roughly 75% or more of the average person's 106 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:48,720 income goes to maintaining the system. 107 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,600 Taxes. Housing and debt service, the 108 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,480 invisible inflation tax. There's nothing left. 109 00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:58,240 No margin for building, no margin for creating, no margin 110 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,880 for becoming. No margin for having the time 111 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,040 and space to go on your inner journey. 112 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:08,840 I call this the bandwidth trap. You're stuck at the base of 113 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:11,880 Maslow's hierarchy. Safety needs survival mode. 114 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:14,840 And the higher levels, the ones where you find purpose and 115 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:18,760 meaning and self actualization, those become luxuries. 116 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,920 The system keeps you running so hard that you never have the 117 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,240 bandwidth to ask the deeper questions. 118 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:26,640 Who am I? What matters in this life? 119 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:29,960 And one thing that has become very, very clear to me is that 120 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,520 this is not a side effect. This is all by design. 121 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,200 Now, everything I've told you so far, the data, the wealth 122 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:40,680 transfer, the cognitive damage and the bandwidth trip, most 123 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:44,080 people stop here and think they understand the problem, but the 124 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,840 problem is way older than central banking. 125 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:50,320 And once you see that, the solution becomes obvious. 126 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,160 Ancient wisdom traditions identified exactly these 127 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,080 dynamics thousands of years ago, just in different language. 128 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:01,160 And when you map them onto modern monetary policy, the 129 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:05,160 precision is almost eerie. Let's start with Buddhism. 130 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:07,480 There's this concept called Tana. 131 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:10,720 It literally translates to 1st or craving. 132 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,040 The Buddha identified it as the root cause of all suffering. 133 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:20,040 Not desire itself, but this compulsive, unquenchable craving 134 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,040 that drives the mind from one object to the next. 135 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,640 Basically to never be satisfied and always reaching. 136 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,080 The dama pada compares it to a monkey swinging through trees, 137 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,600 grabbing 1 branch only to release it and seize another. 138 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:37,720 Always grasping but never arriving. 139 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:40,960 Literally. And everyone can feel that, 140 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:44,000 right, that you should be doing more, earning more, and 141 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,480 optimizing more constantly, day in and day out. 142 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,160 Now think about what an inflationary monetary system 143 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,680 does. It structurally requires 144 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:57,680 perpetual growth, so also perpetual consumption and 145 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,560 perpetual desire for more. Your money is losing value, so 146 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,200 you'd better do something with it, Spend it invested, leverage 147 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:06,840 it. Because if you just hold it, 148 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,480 you're getting poorer. The system doesn't just allow 149 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:14,800 craving, it mandates it. I call this institutionalized 150 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:18,160 Tana, a monetary architecture that turns the Buddhist 151 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:21,200 diagnosis of suffering into economic policy. 152 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:24,480 The system engineers the craving and then sells you the cure, 153 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,320 which is more consumption, which feeds the craving further, and 154 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,400 so on. Basically an infinite extraction 155 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:33,880 loop applied to your consciousness. 156 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:38,000 Now you might be thinking, OK Buddhism is 1 tradition, maybe 157 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,840 the parallel is a coincidence. But it's not just Buddhism. 158 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,240 And this is where it kind of gets wild. 159 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,720 Lao Tzu, the foundational Taoist philosopher, wrote about a 160 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:51,960 principle called wuwei, usually translated as effortless action 161 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,360 or non interference. The idea that natural systems, 162 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:57,600 when left alone, tend toward harmony. 163 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:02,160 Chapter 57 of the Doubt the Jing says The more prohibitions you 164 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,400 have, the less virtuous people will be. 165 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,680 The more subsidies you have, the less self reliant people will 166 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:10,080 be. Central banking is the exact 167 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,200 opposite of Huawei. It's constant intervention, 168 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:15,640 adjusting interest rates, expanding and contracting 169 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,200 balance sheets, managing expectations, manipulating yield 170 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,640 curves and providing forward guidance. 171 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,440 An entire institution built on the premise that the economy's 172 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,680 natural rhythms need to be managed, controlled and 173 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:32,640 overridden. Lao Tzu also wrote in chapter 75 174 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,320 that people starve because those above them eat too much tax 175 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,120 grain. That is the only reason why they 176 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:44,920 starve 2500 years ago. The Cantalon effect described in 177 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:50,320 one single sentence. If your Bitcoin double tomorrow, 178 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:52,960 would you feel good about how it's secured right now? 179 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:55,920 Most people haven't really pressure tested that and I get 180 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:57,480 it. Some people are comfortable 181 00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:00,880 taking full control of their own keys, but others want security 182 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,000 without having to manage it all themselves. 183 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:06,640 That's why I partnered with on ramp Multi institution Custody, 184 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:09,520 where your keys are held across independent institutions in 185 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,800 multiple jurisdictions. No single company can access, 186 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:15,640 move or lose your Bitcoin. Lloyds of London insured 187 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,480 inheritance planning built in and a team that walks you 188 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,560 through the entire set up. They serve clients globally, 189 00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:24,160 whether you're in the US, Europe or anywhere else. 190 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:28,200 Book a free consultation at onlinebitcoin.com/prom to learn 191 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,080 more. That's onlinebitcoin.com/prom. 192 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,400 Most people stop too early with Bitcoin. 193 00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,720 They buy it, maybe move it to a wallet, and think they are done, 194 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,280 but they're not. The real questions are how 195 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,920 you're securing it, how private your setup is, and whether 196 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,520 you're verifying your own transactions or trusting someone 197 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:49,600 else. And what happens to your Bitcoin 198 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,840 when something happens to you. This is the layer that most 199 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,240 people ignore, and it's the most important one. 200 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,560 That's why I've been working with the Bitcoin way to help you 201 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:01,400 set up self custody properly, including privacy, 202 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:04,880 cybersecurity, inheritance, and even running your own note. 203 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,000 And they do it without ever touching your Bitcoin. 204 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:10,680 They're not a custodian, they're your support team. 205 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,000 If you're serious about this like I am, go to 206 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:17,360 thebitcoinway.com/brum, that's Bram to book a free call. 207 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:20,240 They'll walk you through your setup, personalize everything to 208 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:23,560 you, and help you get a much stronger position very quickly, 209 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:25,760 whether you're a beginner or more advanced. 210 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:29,960 That's the bitcoinway.com/brum. But the Buddhist lens and the 211 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:33,840 Taoist lens, as precise as they are, they only describe part of 212 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,640 what is actually happening. And there's a deeper layer. 213 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:40,160 The Hermetic tradition, the kibali, on this mysterious text 214 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:43,680 rooted in the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, describes 215 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:45,800 what it calls the principle of rhythm. 216 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:50,160 Everything flows, everything has its tides, all things rise and 217 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:52,240 fall. The measure of the swing to the 218 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,160 right is the measure of the swing to the left. 219 00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:58,640 That's the boom and bust cycle, described with precision 220 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,000 millennia before anyone coined the term business cycle. 221 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:05,960 Every artificial boom plants the seeds of the next bust. 222 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,920 Every swing in One Direction stores energy for an equal swing 223 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,240 back. And the Kibalian says the masses 224 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:15,000 are swung backward and forward like a pendulum. 225 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,160 But those who understand the principle learn to rise above 226 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,680 the swing, to basically neutralize it, to become movers 227 00:12:21,680 --> 00:12:25,360 instead of being moved. And then it describes the 228 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:28,840 principle of cause and effect. And this is the line that 229 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,760 stopped me cold. The masses of people are carried 230 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:35,440 along, obedient to environment, the wills and desires of others 231 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:39,560 stronger than themselves, moving them about like pawns on the 232 00:12:39,560 --> 00:12:44,920 chess board of life, Pawns on a chess board moved by whales, 233 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,640 stronger than their own. If that's not a description of 234 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:52,280 how monetary policy works in this day and age on all our 235 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,240 populations, I don't know what is. 236 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,840 The Federal Reserve raises rates and millions could lose their 237 00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:59,840 home. They print more money and wealth 238 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,440 transfers upwards. They tighten and businesses 239 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:05,920 close. The masses don't choose, The 240 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:09,560 masses get moved. Now hold that, because there's 241 00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:12,440 one more tradition that ties everything together, and it's 242 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:16,360 the one that, when I encountered it, made the entire picture 243 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:19,280 crystal clear. The ancient Gnostics had this 244 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:23,080 concept of the Demiurge, a powerful figure who created the 245 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:27,000 material world and convinced everyone it was all there was. 246 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:30,360 His power depended on keeping people ignorant, focused 247 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,560 entirely on material survival, and able to recognize their own 248 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,680 inner divinity. And the Demiurge had enforcers 249 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:40,800 called archons. And the crazy thing is that 250 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:45,960 Archon literally translates from Greek as ruler or authority. 251 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:49,840 That's not a coincidence. The Gnostics deliberately used a 252 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,240 political term to describe spiritual oppression. 253 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,640 These Archons maintained control through what the text described 254 00:13:56,640 --> 00:13:58,880 as forgetfulness, distraction, and fate. 255 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,280 They kept people in what's called a condition of sleep or 256 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:06,280 drunkenness, souls trapped in cycles of material existence, 257 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:09,840 the wheel of reincarnation, and never able to escape because 258 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:12,760 they never woke up to what was really happening. 259 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:17,280 Now I'm not asking you to take any of this literally, but as a 260 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,920 philosophical lens, as a metaphor, I think it's damningly 261 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,480 precise. A monetary system that forces 262 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:28,400 you to trade irreplaceable life energy for token someone else 263 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:32,400 dilutes at will, that keeps you focused on material survival 264 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:35,920 through engineered scarcity that uses forgetfulness. 265 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:39,720 I mean, most people have zero idea about how money is created. 266 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,760 And also distraction, right? Consumerism as a coping 267 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:47,200 mechanism for the anxiety the system itself creates to prevent 268 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:49,160 you from asking deeper questions. 269 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:53,160 And that traps you in cycles. Debt cycles, boom and bust 270 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:55,080 cycles. The paycheck to paycheck loop. 271 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,920 And that mirrors the Gnostic will of reincarnation very 272 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,920 precisely. And what was the Gnostic answer 273 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:05,560 to all of this? Gnosis, A word that literally 274 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,760 means direct knowledge. Not belief, not faith in 275 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,760 authority. Personal, verified understanding 276 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,320 of reality. You didn't need a priest or an 277 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:17,600 institution to mediate your relationship with the absolute 278 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,200 truth. You needed to see it directly 279 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,640 for yourself. And right there, that's where 280 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:27,480 Bitcoin enters the picture. For my European friends that 281 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:30,240 want to buy Bitcoin with ease, check out Relay. 282 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:33,200 I've been a long time fan and happy to partner up with what I 283 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,320 think is the best Bitcoin only platform for Europeans. 284 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,080 They offer a super simple beginner friendly app with no 285 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,320 distractions and no shit coins. You can do a quick one time 286 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,640 smash buy or set up automatic purchases when you're stacking 287 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,600 regularly. And here's the thing that 288 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,120 matters most. Relay is 100% self custody. 289 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,880 Every set you hold is yours, your keys, your coins. 290 00:15:57,280 --> 00:15:59,560 If you want to get started, download the app file in my link 291 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:03,560 below or in the description and use code BRUM that's BR AM at 292 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:05,760 checkout to get 10% of your fees. 293 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:09,040 Every bitcoiner hits this moment. 294 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,880 You need cash, maybe a house deposit, an emergency or a tax 295 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:16,080 bill and you're staring at your stack thinking, do I really want 296 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,800 to sell this? Here's the thing, you don't have 297 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:20,080 to. You can borrow against your 298 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,680 Bitcoin instead. So there's also no taxable event 299 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:25,000 and your stack can keep on stacking. 300 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,360 This is where Firefish comes in, a peer-to-peer marketplace for 301 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,920 Bitcoin backed loans. And Firefish isn't a lender. 302 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:34,880 They built the protocol that makes this all possible, which 303 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:38,960 is exactly why they never ever have to touch your Bitcoin 304 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:41,760 during your loan. Your Bitcoin sits in an on chain 305 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:43,960 multi 6 secured by open source code. 306 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,760 You can easily create a loan request with your desired 307 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:49,400 amount, duration and interest rate and share it on their 308 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:53,360 marketplace at firefish dot IO. When you get matched and decide 309 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,960 to accept a loan offer, you can use code Brom to get 30% of your 310 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,160 first loans fees. That's firefish dot IO and 311 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:03,720 Bitcoin score ethos is don't trust verify. 312 00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:07,319 That's gnosis applied to money. You don't need to believe the 313 00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:09,240 Fed. You don't need to trust your 314 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:11,280 bank. You can run a full note and 315 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,640 independently verify every single transaction ever made on 316 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,160 the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin time chain is a 317 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,920 transparent, mathematically secured record of reality that 318 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,400 anyone can audit. No priests, no intermediaries, 319 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,839 no authority standing between you and the truth about your 320 00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:30,800 money. I call this monetary no direct 321 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:35,120 knowledge of your own financial reality, verified by you, not 322 00:17:35,120 --> 00:17:39,160 granted by an institution. When you store your life energy 323 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,040 in Bitcoin, you're storing it in a container that no one can 324 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:46,080 dilute 21 million coins forever. And that cap is enforced by 325 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:50,160 mathematics and distributed consensus, not by institutions 326 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,480 with agendas and people you will never see the face off. 327 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:56,920 And the rules of Bitcoin are extremely hard to change. 328 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,800 This was proven in 2017 when 95% of minors signaled for a 329 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,680 protocol change and the notes run by ordinary people all over 330 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,880 the world said no. And the rules held. 331 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:11,520 And bitcoins fixed protocol. The predictable having every 332 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,240 four years the absence of any committee adjusting supply its 333 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:19,520 rule way encoded in software. A monetary system that follows 334 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,200 natural rhythms instead of fighting them. 335 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:26,040 No intervention, no tampering, no meetings to decide what money 336 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:28,520 should cost. Today there's this Daoist 337 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:33,080 concept called poo, the uncarved block, representing things in 338 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:34,960 their natural, uncorrupted state. 339 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:39,320 Field money is the carved block, shaped entirely by human 340 00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,560 artifice, limited by the forms imposed on it. 341 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,040 Bitcoin is way closer to poo. It's unchangeable, unfakeable, 342 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:49,800 and uncarved. And then there's the option to 343 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,920 keep Bitcoin in self custody. 12 words in your memory. 344 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,960 That's your private key. No government can seize it. 345 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,240 No bank can freeze it. No court can confiscate it. 346 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:04,280 Your value, decrystallized product of your finite time on 347 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,840 this earth, truly belongs to you. 348 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,360 The Gnostic tradition thought that every human carries a 349 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,560 divine spark, an inner sovereignty that no external 350 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:17,240 authority can grant or revoke. Bitcoins private key is a 351 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:21,720 material echo of that idea sovereignty made tangible For 352 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:23,480 the first time in monetary history. 353 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,760 You can hold your own value completely without anyone's 354 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,160 permission. The bandwidth trap breaks, the 355 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,440 extraction loop ends, and the monkey stops swinging because 356 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,480 the branch stops dissolving. So let me bring this all 357 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,680 together because the synthesis is the most important part. 358 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,640 Ellen Watts said the ego and money are both concepts, 359 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,520 symbols, useful abstractions that become prisons when you 360 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:51,120 forget their abstractions. The Fiat system captures your 361 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:53,480 consciousness in exactly this prison. 362 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,840 The Buddhist would say Fiat money amplifies Tana 363 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,160 structurally mandating the craving that causes suffering. 364 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,360 The Taoist would say central banking violates wuwei, forcing 365 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:07,920 intervention where natural order would serve better, and the 366 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,640 Hermetic tradition would say the masses are moved like pawns 367 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,360 because they don't understand the causes moving them. 368 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:18,000 The Gnostic would say the Archons maintain control through 369 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,560 forgetfulness and distraction. All of them are pointing at the 370 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:24,640 same thing from different angles, and all of them are 371 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,560 pointing toward the same solution. 372 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:31,160 Wake up, see directly. Verify for yourself. 373 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:34,680 Stop trusting the authorities who benefit from you being 374 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,840 asleep, Buckminster Fuller said You never change things by 375 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:43,680 fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new 376 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,480 model that makes the existing model obsolete. 377 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:50,760 Bitcoin is that model, and it's not just about saving your 378 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:53,120 money. It's about giving you back your 379 00:20:53,120 --> 00:20:57,040 time, your attention and your cognitive bandwidth, your 380 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:01,360 ability to think beyond plane survival, your sovereignty over 381 00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:05,840 the value of your own life. That is not a financial 382 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,880 revolution. That's a revolution of 383 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,760 consciousness. It starts with 12 words that 384 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,680 nobody else controls. Thanks for listening to this 385 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:15,280 episode of Bitcoin for Millennials. 386 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,560 If this one hit different, if it made you see money in a way you 387 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,080 hadn't before, share it with someone who needs to hear it. 388 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,560 I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, you can click here 389 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:28,920 to find more just like it and click here to find all Bitcoin 390 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:30,840 for Millennials podcast episodes. 391 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,320 Also, if you want to help me shine a light on the message of 392 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:38,480 Bitcoin, please like this video and subscribe to stay connected. 393 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,320 I hope to see you for the next episode. 394 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:40,920 Bye.