The Last Free Americans with Joe Kelly

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Nov 4, 2025

Joe Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Unchained, dives into self-custody and Bitcoin's impact on financial freedom. Growing up in Alaska instilled in him a fierce independence, mirrored in his work promoting self-sufficiency in the digital frontier. He connects the conservation movement to preserving peer-to-peer money and discusses how ETFs can broaden access without capturing Bitcoin’s essence. Joe also highlights the importance of legislative protections for developers and how guided experiences can empower individuals to embrace self-custody.

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ANECDOTE

Alaskan Roots Shaped Self-Sufficiency

Joe Kelly grew up returning to Alaska and living on a boat, which taught him self-sufficiency and independence.
That upbringing shaped his view of preserving frontiers and informed his work on digital self-custody.

INSIGHT

The Hardware Wallet Aha Moment

The hardware-wallet transfer experience is the key "aha" that reveals Bitcoin's peer-to-peer nature to users.
Joe Kelly says that plugging in a hardware wallet and sending bitcoin shows there was no intermediary involved.

INSIGHT

We Don't Notice Hidden Financial Middlemen

Everyday payments hide intermediaries, fees, and privacy trade-offs that users don't notice until they experience peer-to-peer transfers.
Kelly calls this ignorance 'not seeing the water you're swimming in' regarding modern financial rails.

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Joe Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Unchained. In this latest episode, Joe shares his story and Alaskan roots that shaped a deep respect for self-sufficiency—an experience he now applies to the digital frontier. In this episode, Joe joins The Bitcoin Frontier to share why Unchained is launching a new miniseries, The Last Free Americans, how self-custody became his life’s work, and why the conservation movement offers a powerful analogy for protecting financial freedom. We dig into the frontier phases of new assets and ideas, the role of ETFs as a bridge (not the destination), and how policies like developer protections and “keep your coins” language can ring-fence essential rights.

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro: The Last Free Americans and what’s at stake with self-custody
1:06 – Alaska, boats, and learning self-sufficiency
2:54 – Conservation mindset: preserving wilderness and preserving peer-to-peer money
4:03 – From accounts to keys: the “aha” of sending bitcoin yourself
5:39 – Seeing the water we swim in: intermediaries, fees, and privacy tradeoffs
8:03 – Frontiers and phases: from prospectors to politics—how new assets mature
10:57 – Gold rush parallels: excess, scams, and integration into the mainstream
12:55 – National parks as a model: ring-fencing what matters for future generations
15:00 – “The last free Americans”: a proud warning about peer-to-peer rights
17:02 – Building Unchained on bitcoin’s assumptions, not fiat rails
19:16 – ETFs as a useful bridge vs. living the peer-to-peer experience
21:03 – Who are today’s “John Muirs”? Gear, guidance, and making self-custody approachable
23:42 – Beyond one bill: culture, developer protections, and keep-your-coins language
26:34 – Free speech, code, and the very American fight for financial privacy
27:34 – Short memories: SVB, protests, and why self-custody matters before the next shock
29:16 – What to expect from the series and the intellectual adventure of bitcoin

WHERE TO FOLLOW US:
→ Unchained X: https://x.com/unchained
→ Unchained LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unchainedcom
→ Unchained Newsletter: https://unchained.com/newsletter
→ Joe Kelly’s Twitter: https://x.com/josephkelly
→ Timot Lamarre’s Twitter: https://x.com/TimotLamarre