Episode #487: Stablecoins as Weapons, Bitcoin as Escape: A Conversation on Money and Control

On this episode of Crazy Wisdom, Stewart Alsop sits down with Abhimanyu Dayal, a longtime Bitcoin advocate and AI practitioner, to explore how money, identity, and power are shifting in a world of deepfakes, surveillance, automation, and geopolitical realignment. The conversation ranges from why self-custody of Bitcoin matters more than ETFs, to the dangers of probabilistic biometrics and face-swap apps, to the coming impact of AGI on labor markets and the role of universal basic income. They also touch on India’s refinery economy, its balancing act between Russia, China, and the U.S., and how soft power is eroding in the information age. For more from Abhimanyu, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation

Timestamps

00:00 Stewart Alsop opens with Abhimanyu Dayal on crypto, AI, and the risks of probabilistic biometrics like facial recognition and voice spoofing.
05:00 They critique biometric surveillance, face-swap apps, and data exploitation through casual consent.
10:00 The talk shifts to QR code treasure hunts, vibe coding on Replit and Claude, and using quizzes to mint NFTs.
15:00 Abhimanyu shares his finance background, tying it to Bitcoin as people’s money, agent-to-agent payments, and post-AGI labor shifts.
20:00 They discuss universal basic income, libertarian ideals, Hayek’s view of economics as critique, and how AI prediction changes policy.
25:00 Pressure, unpredictability, AR glasses, quantum computing, and the surveillance state future come into focus.
30:00 Open source vs closed apps, China’s DeepSeek models, propaganda through AI, and U.S.–China tensions are explored.
35:00 India’s non-alignment, Soviet alliance in 1971, oil refining economy, and U.S.–India friction surface.
40:00 They reflect on colonial history, East India Company, wealth drain, opium wars, and America’s rise on Indian capital.
45:00 The conversation closes on Bitcoin’s role as reserve asset, stablecoins as U.S. leverage, BRICS disunity, and the geopolitics of freedom.

Key Insights

1. A central theme of the conversation is the contrast between deterministic and probabilistic systems for identity and security. Abhimanyu Dayal stresses that passwords and private keys—things only you can know—are inherently more secure than facial recognition or voice scans, which can be spoofed through deepfakes, 3D prints, or AI reconstructions. In his view, biometric data should never be stored because it represents a permanent risk once leaked.
2. The rise of face-swap apps and casual facial data sharing illustrates how surveillance and exploitation have crept into everyday life. Abhimanyu points out that companies already use online images to adjust things like insurance premiums, proving how small pieces of biometric consent can spiral into systemic manipulation. This isn’t a hypothetical future—it is already happening in hidden ways.
3. On the lighter side, they experiment with “vibe coding,” using tools like Replit and Claude to design interactive experiences such as a treasure hunt via QR codes and NFTs. This playful example underscores a broader point: lightweight coding and AI platforms empower individuals to create experiments without relying on centralized or closed systems that might inject malware or capture data.
4. The discussion expands into automation, multi-agent systems, and the post-AGI economy. Abhimanyu suggests that artificial superintelligence will require machine-to-machine transactions, making Bitcoin an essential tool. But if machines do the bulk of labor, universal basic income may become unavoidable, even if it drifts toward collectivist structures libertarians dislike.
5. A key shift identified is the transformation of economics itself. Where Hayek once argued economics should critique politicians because of limited data, AI and quantum computing now provide prediction capabilities so granular that human behavior is forecastable at the individual level. This erodes the pseudoscientific nature of past economics and creates a new landscape of policy and control.
6. Geopolitically, the episode explores India’s rise, its reliance on refining Russian crude into petroleum exports, and its effort to stay unaligned between the U.S., Russia, and China. The conversation recalls India’s Soviet ties during the 1971 war, while noting how today’s energy and trade policies underpin domestic improvements for India’s poor and middle class.
7. Finally, they critique the co-optation of Bitcoin through ETFs and institutional custody. While investors celebrate, Abhimanyu argues this betrays Satoshi’s vision of money controlled by individuals with private keys. He warns that Bitcoin may be absorbed into central bank reserves, while stablecoins extend U.S. monetary dominance by reinforcing dollar power rather than replacing it.