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Show Notes

Bitcoin Journey

– First tweeted about Bitcoin in 2013, was skeptical

– Would comment on early tech, very unknown at the time

– Would tweet about Bitcoin and people find his old tweets

– Learned about Bitcoin through poker and online gambling

Diversifying

– DON’T DIVERSIFY

– Diversifying is selling the winners to buy the losers

– Amazon wins

– Walmart kinda treads water

– and 15,000 companies lose

– It’s nearly impossible to beat a digital monopoly

Banking Experience

– Lost $1M in a bank rug

– Lost $1M in an Argentina rug as well

– Banks wouldn’t let him move his money around

– He got crushed by Argentina inflation

– Kept getting smoked – “can we buy a yacht, float it to the US, then sell it here?”

– Couldn’t do that, eventually gave up

Current Bitcoin Experience

– Then had $1B company with $500M cash on balance sheet

– Knew it was gonna get inflated away

– Saylor: “It’s like losing half your body – like amputating your left arm and left leg”

– Now has like $5B worth of Bitcoin

– If you’re on main street you had the worst year of your life

– If you’re on Wall Street you had the best year of your life

– First Bitcoin buy in August was defensive

– Bought first amount at like $11k BTC ($250M buy)

– Then got $600M loan at 1% interest…and just bought Bitcoin lmao

– Saylor: “All time high is just the all time high to date”

Business and Bitcoin

– Cobie: “Given the cyclical nature of crypto, I’ve seen life ruining bear markets and pre up only euphoria bull markets. Will you keep buying bitcoin forever?”

– Saylor: “Yeah” LMAO

– Devaluing currency is crushing basically every small business

– Saylor: “It’s like you’re rowing 7 knots, but the current is moving against you at 7 knots”

– Michael Sailor! *credit to CryptoCred*

– Saylor: “It is true that if I deal you double aces, you have an advantage in the poker game. But if I put a gun to your head, you don’t have that advantage anymore!” think he’s saying zoom out, think bigger lol

– More war/ poker/ boating analogies

Bitcoin vs Other Cryptos

– The others are very complicated, there’s likely a crypto economy in the future

– Bitcoin is not like them it is simple

– Once a sovereign wealth fund owns $5B of it, then its OK for big companies to own $5B of it, and there’s a domino effect

– One regulator could wake up tomorrow and put out a press release that doubles the market

– There are 10,000 big institutions that can start to pour in and that tips everyone in

– Saylor: “If you’re Apple, you can take your market cap up $2 trillion. Do you want $2 trillion???”

– The real Bitcoin bond – borrow $1B at 1% interest and buy Bitcoin

Countries Buying Bitcoin

– Cobie: “So El Salvador did it and now there are rumors of Honduras doing it – I do think the second person to follow is a strong form of leadership”

– Ledger: “Your top job as a large holder of Bitcoin is to convince others to buy Bitcoin to increase the network effects”

Bitcoin Maximalism

– Ledger: basically asked if there is any chance Saylor buys anything besides Bitcoin?

– Satoshi disappeared, price was a penny, there’s no pre-mine, its PoW, there’s no yield

– Basically, it’s pure

– Saylor: “Every proof of stake coin is a security”

– If you are a person of any fame, you cannot endorse a security

– However, you can endorse property

– “Saylor Coin, Saylor Moon Coin, Son of Shiba Moon Coin”

– China could create China Coin (only legal to mine in China)

– There is risk in property, but its heavy and sound

– You want property to be heavy and durable

Crypto Future

– The first decade of crypto was off shore, entrepreneurial

– The second will be on shore, institutional

– We are in the middle, and will be there for 3-5 years

– Cobie (summarizing): “you buy Bitcoin because you know what Bitcoin will be in 50 years”

– Other coins not so much

Life Advice

– Saylor: “Stay in your lane”

– You start trying to express a nuanced opinion and next thing you know your debating a nobel prize winner in that field

– There are black swan tail risks that can crush everything so can’t worry about them much

– If you think there’s a 95% chance Bitcoin goes to 0 then alright put 5% of your money in

– Misc. good quotes:

– “Bitcoin could be a $100 trillion asset without L2s without Lightning Network or anything”

– “The block of granite under Manhattan doesn’t move. It still has value”

Do you own Bitcoin as well personally?

– Yes, Michael Saylor owns 17,732 BTC

FINAL ALPHA

– “Focus.”

– “Just because you can acquire a thing doesn’t mean you can maintain a thing, and just because you can maintain a thing doesn’t mean you can enjoy a thing” referring mostly to a boat

– “The hardest thing is to compete forever, profitably”

Notes by Kevin and Luke

Music by GiovanniPickle

Episode 83: James Taylor on the EPA’s “Secret Science”