149: Dr. Saifedean Ammous - Cryptocurrency, The History of Money, Addressing Bitcoin’s Energy Usage, and More

In this episode, Dr. Saifedean Ammous and Dr. Anthony Gustin discuss the history of money, using gold and other metals as currency, cryptocurrency, hyperinflation, dispelling a big criticism of Bitcoin, what the future holds, and more.

Dr. Ammous, a carnivore for several years, also ties the conversation back to health so it’s not completely missing from this episode that’s not as health-focused as the podcast usually is.

If you don’t know Dr. Saifedean Ammous’ work, he’s authored two books, The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking and The Fiat Solution.

He also holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the American University of Beirut.

When you tune into this episode, you’ll hear about these topics:

• How crypto currency gives people hope
• Principles from Saifedean’s book, The Bitcoin Standard
• A brief history of money and how we got to this point
• What we’ve learned from using gold and other metals as currency
• Easy versus hard money examples
• What was the incentive to come up with separate currencies?
• What are the long-term implications of all this?
• What hyperinflation can lead to
• What makes Bitcoin different from gold or the US dollar?
• How is crypto currency possible now and why wasn’t it around sooner?
• What about the biggest criticism of Bitcoin -- that it uses incredible amounts of energy?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Saifedean Ammous’ website
• Dr. Ammous’ Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel
• Dr. Ammous’ books, The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard
• Dr. Ammous’ online courses