May 29, 2024

Riding the Bitcoin Bull with Dave Bradley - FFS #110

Riding the Bitcoin Bull with Dave Bradley - FFS #110

Dave Bradley joins the show to tell us all about Bitcoin in Calgary, Alberta, including the Bitcoin Rodeo conference coming up in July, plus much more! 
Key Takeaways:🔹Bitcoin Brains was one of the first physical Bitcoin stores in Canada, and Dave Br...

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Freedom Footprint Show: A Bitcoin Podcast

Dave Bradley joins the show to tell us all about Bitcoin in Calgary, Alberta, including the Bitcoin Rodeo conference coming up in July, plus much more! 

Key Takeaways:
🔹Bitcoin Brains was one of the first physical Bitcoin stores in Canada, and Dave Bradley played a significant role in building the Bitcoin community in Calgary.
🔹The political climate in Canada, particularly the divide between Western Canada and the federal government, has led to frustration and a sense of being ignored by the government.
🔹The diversity and cultural differences within Canada, particularly between provinces, contribute to the challenges of governance and decision-making at the federal level. There has been a significant transfer of wealth from Western Canada to Eastern Canada over the last 30 years, with Alberta being the most affected province.
🔹The rise of woke culture in Canada has led to a shift in political dynamics and a growing dissatisfaction with the current government.
🔹Bitcoin has the potential to play a significant role in Alberta's future, with the possibility of putting Bitcoin on the province's balance sheet and leveraging its energy industry for Bitcoin mining.
🔹Bitcoin aligns incentives and allows individuals to act in their own self-interest while benefiting the greater good.
🔹The Bitcoin Rodeo conference is in Calgary on July 2-3, just before Stampede - use code FREEDOM for a discount! 

Connect with Dave:
https://x.com/BitcoinBrains
https://x.com/TheBitcoinRodeo
https://www.bitcoinrodeo.com/
https://bitcoinbrains.com/

Connect with Us:

https://www.freedomfootprintshow.com/
https://twitter.com/FootprintShow
https://twitter.com/knutsvanholm
https://twitter.com/lukedewolf


Thanks to our sponsors - check out there websites for info:

BitBox: https://bitbox.swiss/freedom

Bitcoin Adviser: https://content.thebitcoinadviser.com/freedom

Orange Pill App: https://www.orangepillapp.com/

Support the Show:
If you value what we do here at the Freedom Footprint Show, consider sending us some value back. You can send us a boost or stream us some sats on Fountain. Check out https://www.fountain.fm/
You can support us directly with Bitcoin on Geyser Fund: https://geyser.fund/project/freedom/

The Freedom Footprint Show is a Bitcoin podcast hosted by Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf.

In each episode, we explore everything from deep philosophy to practical tools to emit freedom dioxide to expand your freedom footprint. This isn't a show for bitcoin news or analysis - we dig into the deep topics that are important to us and to our guests. Join us if you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole of Bitcoin and related freedom-go-up technologies and ideas!

 

The Freedom Footprint Show is a Bitcoin podcast hosted by Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf.

In each episode, we explore everything from deep philosophy to practical tools to emit freedom dioxide to expand your freedom footprint!

Chapters

00:00 - Introducing Dave Bradley

03:34 - Bitcoin Community in Calgary

07:02 - Bull Bitcoin

10:02 - Becoming Convinced About Bitcoin

14:19 - Western Canadian Politics

18:04 - Clown World

24:39 - The Big Problems in Canada

38:33 - Ads!

41:49 - Alberta Independence

45:07 - Bitcoin and the Future of Alberta and Canada

55:04 - Value Creation

01:03:15 - More Ads!

01:04:53 - Bitcoin Adoption in Calgary

01:10:31 - The Simplest Way to Describe Bitcoin

01:18:17 - Incentives

01:26:07 - Bitcoin Rodeo

01:30:12 - Wrapping Up

Transcript
1
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Dave, welcome to the
Freedom Footprint show.

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Thank you for joining us.

3
00:00:03,784 --> 00:00:04,624
Thank you for having me.

4
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Yeah.

5
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Welcome Dave.

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I just posted a thing on Twitter today.

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the post was, I'm trying to
figure out who's, who the,

8
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who is the humblest Bitcoiner.

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00:00:14,982 --> 00:00:18,172
There should be an award for
the winner to not brag about.

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And then before the interview, I,
I, I stumbled upon your webpage.

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And I think you're a good
candidate for this award.

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Like, uh, I Bitcoinbrains.

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com, the strongest and best looking
Bitcoin entrepreneur in Canada.

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Yeah,

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Yeah,

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you, I guess.

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yeah, it's a, it's a very
important title, um, that I'm

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very, uh, proud to have achieved.

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And, uh, if you, if you look on there,
you scroll down just a little bit,

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you'll notice, um, some testimonials.

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And the first one there is from Daniel
Smith, um, who is the Premier of Alberta.

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And this is just, this is just, you
know, this topic came up as she was

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on a panel and the quotes there, she
just said, Dave is very handsome.

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And so now that the government has
said it, I think it's official.

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Absolutely.

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And we cannot do anything
but agree to this.

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Like, uh, I mean, who would
the other candidates even be?

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I don't know.

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But, uh, yeah.

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And it's a fantastic webpage.

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Elon Musk has said you're definitely
the strongest and best looking

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Bitcoin entrepreneur in Canada.

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That's something.

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And there are pictures of steaks
you've eaten here and they're pretty

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strong and beautiful too, I would say.

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Yeah, I've achieved, I've
achieved a lot in that area.

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Good to hear.

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Alberta famously has some of the
best, uh, or the best meat in

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the world, beef specifically.

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And I, I miss it constantly.

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I've been, I've been away for a
good, uh, almost three years here.

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And that's the one specific thing that I
definitely miss from, uh, from Calgary.

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Other things too, but, Uh,
that in particular, but we,

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we can, we can return to that.

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Dave, can you, can you start by giving
us a little introduction to yourself

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for, uh, the benefit of our listeners?

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Uh, yeah.

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Give us, give us the
tldr r on Dave Bradley.

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Yeah, so other than being the strongest
and best looking Bitcoin entrepreneur

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in Canada, I, I got to that point
by, uh, getting into Bitcoin in 2010.

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Yeah.

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And I, in 2013, started working full time
in the space when I opened a store, uh,

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that was called Bitcoin Brains, which
is now my, my personal brand website and

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my, my handle on Twitter and whatnot.

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so yeah, I think we were like the first
or one of the first, like, physical

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spaces like that where you could go
and it was like an actual little store.

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You could buy miners and
obviously Bitcoin and, you know.

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You know, there wasn't that much
Bitcoin related stuff to sell

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back then, but we sold all of it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And, and like, the, the funny thing
is, I, I never knew, uh, about.

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Any of this.

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I mean, I, I completely missed the
boat for, from a lot of perspectives.

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Uh, the, the Bitcoin didn't even
seem to really be a, a thing.

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Uh, I knew a bunch of people who were into
Ethereum, uh, and, and that was the only

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thing going around the, the offices, uh,
in downtown Calgary that I was aware of.

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But, uh, uh, thankfully, I, I pulled
around and, uh, unfortunately,

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somewhat, I, I left Calgary before.

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Uh, before I properly got into
Bitcoin, but uh, as I, as I understand,

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as I understand it, uh, Calgary
has a, has a pretty fantastic,

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uh, Bitcoin community, right?

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Like, uh, starting with, uh, as
you're saying, Bitcoin brains.

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So, uh, can you, can you tell us a little
bit more about that and, and everything

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you're building over in Calgary?

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Yeah, we've got an awesome community here.

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I think that kind of just naturally
emerged because in Western

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Canada, in Calgary in particular,
we are very freedom minded.

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You know, we're very individualistic.

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And so the, the reasons that people
started getting into Bitcoin very quickly

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became aligned with the natural values
of the people here, I think, and so, you

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know, we started seeing, really right back
to when we had that store in 2013, people

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that were not like the normal Bitcoin
demographic, you know, like rural ranchers

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that were like 60 coming in and buying
Bitcoin, and their sole reason for it was

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It was nothing to do with the technology
or the buzzwords or anything like that.

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It was pretty much just like,
yeah, I don't trust the government.

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And that it's a pretty straight line to
get from point A to point B on that one.

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Yeah, the ATIQ bell curve
meme comes into mind.

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But I think there's a lot to that.

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The most dangerous part of
any human population is the

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middle of the bell curve.

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The, the, the sheep.

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I mean, the, The shotgun owners in
the pickup truck, and the really

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brainy ones, they're usually, uh
The ones that should be in charge.

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Well, and the, the interesting thing is
like, I know what you're getting at with

96
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the, the two sides of the bell curve
there, but like, I don't, I don't think

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it aligns with like rural to urban at all.

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I think the rural people are smarter
than the urban people on average.

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And when you're talking to these people,
like, like somebody owns a ranch,

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Like, they're probably a lot smarter
than somebody who works at Deloitte.

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Absolutely.

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I think the, the, the meme
comes from like, there's some

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irony to the meme, right?

104
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Because it's, uh, it's actually the, the
pickup truckers that are the brainy ones.

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That's where I started my
career, by the way, Deloitte.

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Not started, but, but yeah,

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yeah, you go, you got better.

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to see the world is looking up for you.

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And I, Luke, I think I ran into
the bull bitcoin people before you

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did, because I met them all in Riga
in 2019, Francis and all of those,

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and Sessions was there as well.

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Yeah, we, we, we may have
met at that point, I think.

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Did you come to the dinner

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No, I

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in the, okay.

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We had this amazing bull
Bitcoin dinner that year.

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It was like in the basement
and we had this like 66 kilo

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roast pig and it was awesome.

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Yeah, I think I saw the dinner from
like, I was envious and looking in

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through a basement window or something
or saw some pictures or something,

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but yeah, I heard about that.

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If you remember the restaurant, we
might have to get a recommendation.

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We're organizing a little something
something in Riga this year, so.

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Oh yeah, we, we can, I
can, I can dig that up.

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It was like.

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This like 1, 100 year old castle basically
in this restaurant's like in the basement

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there and like when we walked in and And
like and it was like, oh, we're with bull

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Bitcoin They're like bull Bitcoin right
down this tunnel and it was like, I I

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didn't even know I needed to hear that

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So, Rabbit Hole in itself, like,
um, yeah, but Riga is all about

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Old basements with food in them.

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So, uh, I'm sure we'll find one.

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Yeah,

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Fantastic.

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00:07:02,961 --> 00:07:06,621
So, so, okay, uh, take
us through after 2013.

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What, what, uh, did you
all get involved in?

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I think we've, we've, uh, sort of
spoiled the next part of the story

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with the, the bill, uh, bull bitcoin,
but how did that get started?

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How did you get involved with that?

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yeah, so, um, I had been doing business
with Francis for a while, um, we

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sold our store in 2015, and then, but
we kept the business, which was the

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brokerage, buying and selling Bitcoin,
and, I was just, Francis was doing

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the same thing with Satoshi Counter
at the Montreal Bitcoin Embassy.

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And so there was, there's probably
about five or six of us in Canada that

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had like the same kind of businesses.

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And the Bitcoin industry was
not very liquid back then.

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So we all had issues with like
either having too much Bitcoin

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or not enough Bitcoin or too
much cash or not enough cash.

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And so we used to buy
and sell from each other.

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And that's how I got to know Francis.

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And then, uh, yeah, we, started to
get to know each other better from

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some trips that I took out there and
we invited Francis to the first, uh,

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Bitcoin rodeo, which is a conference
that I put on here in Calgary.

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First one was in 2018 and we invited
Francis to come and speak and, we

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ended up, you know, talking quite a
bit and that was where sort of like the

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idea for BullBitcoin was, was formed.

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That we wanted to merge our two
companies and create Bull Bitcoin.

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We originally wanted to get a bunch of
other Canadian companies in to create like

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a super Bitcoin only company, but there
was nobody else that was like quite as

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ideologically aligned at that point yet.

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And, uh, yeah, that was, that's
where the idea came from.

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We founded BullBitcoin in, uh,
2018 and, yeah, it's probably the

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most advanced Bitcoin platform in
the world, I think, at this point.

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It's legendary for sure, and
it's because it's so based.

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And, I mean, uh, uh, and it's been, uh,
having the right ethos from the start, and

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I love, like, the old pictures of Francis,
uh, from his fiat life when he wears a

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suit and looks all, all, uh, like, uh,

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and now he looks like
an insurgent, basically.

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like, I see him as some guerrilla
warrior jungle commando type

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Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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beast mode, like it's fantastic.

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It's a before and after bitcoin.

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Yeah, I think, I think Francis is
obviously the superpower to BullBitcoin.

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Because he, he's probably like
the most hardcore, like, public

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Bitcoiner in the world, I think.

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Like, the guy who would, who would be
the last guy going down with the ship.

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Just, you know, and, and I, I think,
uh, that, that comes through in his,

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like, in his social media and his
communications with the world, and

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people identify with that, I think.

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Yeah.

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We got to have Francis on, Luke.

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Why haven't we had that yet?

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00:09:51,331 --> 00:09:52,321
We need to talk to him.

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We will, one, one thing at a time.

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It's very difficult to
schedule things with Francis.

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00:09:58,290 --> 00:09:58,640
Yeah, yeah.

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But we can wing it.

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00:10:00,170 --> 00:10:00,450
Yeah,

189
00:10:00,885 --> 00:10:02,025
Yeah, I can imagine.

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00:10:02,335 --> 00:10:07,845
But so, tell us a little bit about how
you came to that bitcoin only was the

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00:10:07,845 --> 00:10:12,775
way to go, because that's not necessarily
completely obvious to everyone, right?

192
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:13,710
yeah.

193
00:10:14,190 --> 00:10:18,750
So, um Um, I got there the hard way,
like most people who got in a long

194
00:10:18,750 --> 00:10:22,760
time ago, because, you know, there
was no Bitcoin standard in 2010.

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00:10:23,153 --> 00:10:27,003
when I got into Bitcoin, most of
the talk about like, what Bitcoin

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00:10:27,013 --> 00:10:30,063
was and what it was going to be
was like a competitor to PayPal.

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00:10:30,063 --> 00:10:30,683
You know what I mean?

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00:10:30,683 --> 00:10:34,233
It was this like revolutionary payment
network, censorship resistant, no

199
00:10:34,273 --> 00:10:39,773
chargebacks, and not really a lot of
talk about like the hard money aspect.

200
00:10:40,188 --> 00:10:42,718
You know, there was a little bit
that was in there on the Bitcoin

201
00:10:43,068 --> 00:10:47,498
talk forums, but like, that wasn't
really what motivated everyone.

202
00:10:48,388 --> 00:10:52,908
And it was, it was years before I really
like got the hard money aspect of Bitcoin.

203
00:10:53,618 --> 00:10:59,058
And it was only through like, you
know, discussions with other Bitcoiners

204
00:10:59,068 --> 00:11:03,119
basically and, getting deep on the forums
and reading everything that I could that

205
00:11:03,119 --> 00:11:04,559
like I eventually got to that point.

206
00:11:05,619 --> 00:11:11,179
And back then it was, I mean, I
got in like most Bitcoiners, I was

207
00:11:11,179 --> 00:11:12,689
looking for a way to make money.

208
00:11:12,719 --> 00:11:13,639
I was looking for more fiat.

209
00:11:14,499 --> 00:11:15,049
You know what I mean?

210
00:11:15,799 --> 00:11:21,859
And, uh, that was, uh, like, that was
like, I guess the start of the journey.

211
00:11:21,859 --> 00:11:26,119
And so, you know, you say, you know,
I, I made a good bet on Bitcoin.

212
00:11:26,609 --> 00:11:29,879
Like, I think I'm pretty smart
about this stuff, and now, like,

213
00:11:29,909 --> 00:11:34,399
I'm gonna just, like, use my big
brain and pick the next one, right?

214
00:11:34,899 --> 00:11:41,339
And, uh, so, yeah, I mean, I got into
all kinds of shitcoins, and, some

215
00:11:41,339 --> 00:11:44,799
I got lucky on, some I didn't get
lucky on, and I don't know whether

216
00:11:44,809 --> 00:11:48,549
I would have done better or worse
playing roulette, but, like, it was

217
00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:50,589
just a bunch of gambles in retrospect.

218
00:11:51,634 --> 00:11:57,784
And when it came down to it, like, you
know, I, I used to be very engaged in

219
00:11:57,784 --> 00:12:03,304
the early days of like, when ICOs first
started coming out, like 2015 kind of

220
00:12:03,324 --> 00:12:07,212
area, trying to think of like, you know
what, this has like a really good story.

221
00:12:07,212 --> 00:12:12,312
This is like, I can see the logic
behind this and you start talking about

222
00:12:12,312 --> 00:12:15,032
the technology and you start talking
about the community and all this stuff.

223
00:12:15,672 --> 00:12:17,562
And then when it comes down to
it at the end of the day, like.

224
00:12:18,417 --> 00:12:21,369
None of that stuff is actually
adding any value, right?

225
00:12:21,369 --> 00:12:25,349
They're, they're just like, it's
like investing in a tech company,

226
00:12:25,769 --> 00:12:27,179
but you don't get any shares.

227
00:12:27,835 --> 00:12:30,705
And like, you just don't get any rights.

228
00:12:30,975 --> 00:12:36,319
And part of the, part of the confusion,
and this was probably like where it came

229
00:12:36,319 --> 00:12:41,799
from for me early on, is like, If you
want to invest in Netflix and you wanna

230
00:12:41,799 --> 00:12:45,959
log into like your online brokerage
account, your E-Trade account, like

231
00:12:45,959 --> 00:12:47,459
you're not gonna go read the prospectus.

232
00:12:47,459 --> 00:12:51,259
You're not gonna go like, oh yeah, there's
these mountains of disclosure that have

233
00:12:51,259 --> 00:12:54,409
happened so that this is fair and above
board allegedly and all this stuff.

234
00:12:55,009 --> 00:12:57,019
You're gonna go in there and you're
gonna see the ticker and you're gonna

235
00:12:57,109 --> 00:13:02,059
see maybe a headline and you're gonna
say, okay, Netflix added subscribers,

236
00:13:03,099 --> 00:13:04,839
so I'm gonna invest in Netflix.

237
00:13:04,869 --> 00:13:07,209
And that's like the extent
of the research and.

238
00:13:07,784 --> 00:13:12,374
The user experience of logging into
your E Trade account and buying some

239
00:13:12,374 --> 00:13:16,734
Netflix is materially similar to
the user experience of logging into

240
00:13:16,734 --> 00:13:18,434
your Binance and buying some Tron.

241
00:13:19,126 --> 00:13:23,490
And if you're just reading headlines,
it's not much different, right?

242
00:13:23,859 --> 00:13:26,549
but at the underlying level,
when you buy Netflix shares,

243
00:13:26,549 --> 00:13:27,679
you own a part of a company.

244
00:13:28,669 --> 00:13:33,679
And that was the, that was the
disconnect that like the whole early

245
00:13:33,729 --> 00:13:36,659
sort of altcoin community didn't see.

246
00:13:37,169 --> 00:13:42,189
And like, Yeah, I mean, I think I got
there from like dabbling in it myself

247
00:13:42,189 --> 00:13:46,959
and like getting burned and like seeing
people that I know get burned and it's

248
00:13:47,119 --> 00:13:48,809
the hot stove is a very good teacher.

249
00:13:49,887 --> 00:13:51,227
Yeah, completely understandable.

250
00:13:51,227 --> 00:13:55,810
I mean, this echoes what I
was experiencing a little

251
00:13:55,810 --> 00:13:58,807
bit later, the 2017 run.

252
00:13:58,817 --> 00:14:03,797
But like, as I was saying, the
whole thing was guys would buy these

253
00:14:03,827 --> 00:14:06,267
Ethereum mining rigs in their garage.

254
00:14:06,267 --> 00:14:08,447
And that was the thing going on.

255
00:14:08,447 --> 00:14:14,397
And yeah, I really had no idea there
was something like that, like a Bitcoin,

256
00:14:14,397 --> 00:14:17,367
an actual Bitcoin community in Calgary.

257
00:14:17,367 --> 00:14:18,767
And I wish I'd known.

258
00:14:19,393 --> 00:14:24,413
so, my, my next question is for, for
our, our listeners who, who aren't aware.

259
00:14:24,443 --> 00:14:27,433
I've told a little bit about my story.

260
00:14:27,703 --> 00:14:32,063
I left Canada not entirely because
of everything going on with Trudeau

261
00:14:32,063 --> 00:14:36,968
and the economic climate, but that
was definitely a And I felt better

262
00:14:36,988 --> 00:14:42,797
immediately getting out of, uh, industries
dominated by oil and gas and therefore

263
00:14:43,147 --> 00:14:48,537
regulatory issues that, that created
incredible job insecurity for people

264
00:14:48,537 --> 00:14:50,377
earlier on in their, their career.

265
00:14:50,717 --> 00:14:52,957
But I haven't, I haven't gone
into too, too much detail in

266
00:14:53,167 --> 00:14:54,487
the background of all that.

267
00:14:54,777 --> 00:14:58,807
So can you explain your perspective on
everything that's gone on politically

268
00:14:58,807 --> 00:14:59,537
over the last couple of years?

269
00:14:59,877 --> 00:15:00,867
10 years or so.

270
00:15:01,596 --> 00:15:08,670
Yeah, I mean, so at the start of 2020,
I reread the book Atlas Shrugged.

271
00:15:09,205 --> 00:15:13,365
I had read it when I was 18, didn't
quite get it, re read it at the start of

272
00:15:13,405 --> 00:15:15,265
2020, and it scared the shit out of me.

273
00:15:15,505 --> 00:15:18,829
Like, it's exactly what's
going on right now.

274
00:15:19,249 --> 00:15:25,719
It is a capture of the entire economy
by forces that have nothing to do

275
00:15:25,719 --> 00:15:28,314
with What's good for anyone involved.

276
00:15:28,484 --> 00:15:33,984
So, the communists, the globalists,
whatever you want to call them,

277
00:15:34,004 --> 00:15:37,214
are taking a larger and larger
percentage of our economy.

278
00:15:37,794 --> 00:15:41,574
And in Canada, we're ahead of the
curve in that area, in that, you know,

279
00:15:41,574 --> 00:15:46,770
we've got a very, a government that is
very comfortable being totalitarian.

280
00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:55,170
And we're in this weird situation
where, you know, like, Justin Trudeau

281
00:15:55,170 --> 00:15:58,820
was elected with like something like
30 percent of the vote, which was less

282
00:15:58,820 --> 00:16:04,147
than his competitors, but the way our
system works, he was elected anyway, the

283
00:16:04,147 --> 00:16:09,987
election was over, like, importantly,
before polls had closed in Western Canada.

284
00:16:10,847 --> 00:16:12,107
So we didn't really get a say.

285
00:16:13,242 --> 00:16:18,957
And since then, like the, the leadership
of this country has been like just

286
00:16:18,957 --> 00:16:20,897
an unmitigated disaster, right?

287
00:16:20,897 --> 00:16:29,570
Like we're bringing out the most idiotic
totalitarian policies from everything

288
00:16:29,570 --> 00:16:34,840
from media censorship to, um, an exit
tax they're just proposing right now.

289
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:39,218
And it like, it's gotten so ridiculous
that we're in this scenario where,

290
00:16:39,918 --> 00:16:41,588
you know, we know they're lying to us.

291
00:16:41,928 --> 00:16:46,418
The majority of Canadians know
that we're being lied to, they know

292
00:16:46,728 --> 00:16:49,228
that we know that they're lying.

293
00:16:49,958 --> 00:16:54,588
But they're looking us in the eyes,
continuing to lie to us, and then

294
00:16:54,588 --> 00:16:56,418
expecting us to just go along with that.

295
00:16:57,276 --> 00:17:02,346
And that, it's just such an absurd
scenario that like, we're a very

296
00:17:02,346 --> 00:17:03,776
polite culture as Canadians.

297
00:17:04,261 --> 00:17:11,271
And I think through the whole COVID
madness and that drastic, um, expansion

298
00:17:11,271 --> 00:17:15,757
of government powers and globalist
powers all over the world, you know,

299
00:17:15,757 --> 00:17:16,837
a lot of us were very frustrated.

300
00:17:16,837 --> 00:17:19,217
We're like, I thought there'd be
like mobs in the streets by now.

301
00:17:19,767 --> 00:17:20,067
Right.

302
00:17:20,567 --> 00:17:24,707
And, uh, they were very good for a
long time at knowing how far they could

303
00:17:24,707 --> 00:17:27,727
push Canadians, but then they just
got it wrong and they pushed too far.

304
00:17:28,387 --> 00:17:32,177
And that's when the trucker
protests happened, which I would

305
00:17:32,177 --> 00:17:34,497
say were still extremely polite.

306
00:17:35,462 --> 00:17:37,552
You know, there would have
been a very different.

307
00:17:38,270 --> 00:17:43,160
A very different scene if those truckers
would have showed up with guns, right?

308
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,460
And the gap between those
two choices is massive.

309
00:17:46,460 --> 00:17:47,450
And they didn't do that.

310
00:17:48,170 --> 00:17:52,130
They respected our federalism
here, even though I don't

311
00:17:52,140 --> 00:17:53,680
believe it deserves that respect.

312
00:17:54,430 --> 00:17:59,710
And they respected the law and,
you know, just made a show of,

313
00:18:00,190 --> 00:18:03,110
of solidarity that the government
really couldn't ignore anymore.

314
00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:10,690
And I think Canada is like, almost
like the canary in the coal mine.

315
00:18:11,125 --> 00:18:16,475
For the globalists to see how far
they can push people in a lot of ways,

316
00:18:16,475 --> 00:18:19,155
you know, I think they're, they're,
they're coming with another push.

317
00:18:19,175 --> 00:18:24,895
Like they, this is my, my own, my own
homegrown conspiracy theory is that

318
00:18:24,925 --> 00:18:30,735
the whole plastic straw thing was like,
because obviously, like, you obviously

319
00:18:30,735 --> 00:18:32,395
can't make straws out of paper, right?

320
00:18:32,395 --> 00:18:33,305
Like everybody could.

321
00:18:33,825 --> 00:18:35,055
Everybody knows that, right?

322
00:18:36,035 --> 00:18:40,525
And yet somehow this five year old video
of a turtle with a straw stuck up its

323
00:18:40,525 --> 00:18:42,965
nose surfaces gets extremely viral.

324
00:18:42,965 --> 00:18:46,805
And then every restaurant and bar in the
world has paper straws within two weeks.

325
00:18:48,155 --> 00:18:50,935
where was the paper straw
manufacturing infrastructure?

326
00:18:50,945 --> 00:18:52,245
Why, why did that exist?

327
00:18:52,991 --> 00:18:57,341
Yeah, that was so weird, uh, that
is, and, uh, like, some people even

328
00:18:57,341 --> 00:19:02,991
think it's, you know, gonna change the
climate, we're using paper straws, and

329
00:19:02,991 --> 00:19:08,211
it's like, a four year old can figure
out that that's a lie, like, it's,

330
00:19:08,481 --> 00:19:08,981
Yeah,

331
00:19:09,281 --> 00:19:11,701
uh, it's so bizarre.

332
00:19:12,551 --> 00:19:17,881
it's like, it's like a medal of honor
for the virtue signaling class, who

333
00:19:17,891 --> 00:19:23,591
like, they want to have the lowest
effort level of virtue signaling

334
00:19:23,591 --> 00:19:26,311
that they can, where they're just
like, you know what, I am willing to

335
00:19:26,311 --> 00:19:29,971
suffer through this awful experience
of sucking paper in with my drink,

336
00:19:30,941 --> 00:19:31,351
Yeah,

337
00:19:32,091 --> 00:19:34,411
and therefore I am, I
am more virtuous, right?

338
00:19:34,411 --> 00:19:38,606
And so, but, but that said, like I
think, Like, it's suspicious to me

339
00:19:38,606 --> 00:19:41,456
that that came out of nowhere and
that, like, they were actually able

340
00:19:41,456 --> 00:19:43,056
to have that many paper straws ready.

341
00:19:43,626 --> 00:19:47,796
And so my, the next step where my
brain goes is like, okay, well, why?

342
00:19:48,106 --> 00:19:52,076
And I, I, my, my homegrown conspiracy
theory is that that was a test.

343
00:19:52,096 --> 00:19:55,046
Cause they were like, let's see how
much shit people will really eat

344
00:19:55,896 --> 00:19:57,246
in the name of virtue signaling.

345
00:19:57,246 --> 00:20:00,456
And they're like, okay, yeah, like,
no, they're, they're totally like.

346
00:20:00,851 --> 00:20:03,391
They're drinking through them, even
though they know it doesn't work,

347
00:20:03,841 --> 00:20:05,531
so like, let's roll out the virus.

348
00:20:05,871 --> 00:20:07,261
Like, they'll believe this shit too.

349
00:20:07,949 --> 00:20:13,679
to me, like, the paper straw thing,
it's, it's, it feels Californian, like,

350
00:20:13,689 --> 00:20:15,729
it feels like it's from San Francisco.

351
00:20:15,729 --> 00:20:21,909
I, I have this picture in my head of,
of, you know, um, uh, some, some 20 year

352
00:20:21,909 --> 00:20:30,584
old billionaire woke IT person, uh, It's
sipping some frappuccino twist out of a

353
00:20:30,614 --> 00:20:35,314
paper straw and there's a junkie dying of
a heroin overdose on the sidewalk next to

354
00:20:35,314 --> 00:20:40,654
him and it's like telling his friends how
SF is more like a European town and all of

355
00:20:40,654 --> 00:20:46,744
this and, and you know, Cartman is there
with a space suit and trying to survive

356
00:20:46,744 --> 00:20:49,714
or something like, it's, it's so bizarre.

357
00:20:49,714 --> 00:20:50,599
It's right out of, yeah.

358
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:54,219
Yeah, Monty Python couldn't have written
that joke about the paper straws.

359
00:20:54,219 --> 00:20:55,429
It's like too bizarre.

360
00:20:55,899 --> 00:20:56,339
Yeah.

361
00:20:57,139 --> 00:21:01,309
I, um, I had this little moment
like that at Pacific Bitcoin

362
00:21:01,319 --> 00:21:03,239
in like 2022, I want to say.

363
00:21:03,859 --> 00:21:08,652
And, uh, so we're, like, staying at
this pretty nice hotel in Santa Monica.

364
00:21:08,722 --> 00:21:12,222
And, like, it had one of the
coolest lobby bars I've ever seen.

365
00:21:13,537 --> 00:21:17,507
It's super ridiculous and expensive
and has like all these fancy like

366
00:21:17,787 --> 00:21:23,191
vintage designer chairs from Denmark
and like they've got like a book

367
00:21:23,191 --> 00:21:28,581
signed by Louis Vuitton and like all
the like just fancy as shit and we're

368
00:21:28,821 --> 00:21:30,161
my very good friend and I love it.

369
00:21:30,161 --> 00:21:30,221
Thank you.

370
00:21:30,716 --> 00:21:35,036
Uh, Madex, whose art you can see right
behind me here, are sitting at the bar,

371
00:21:35,056 --> 00:21:38,546
and we've got like this weird surreal
moment where like, there's a group over

372
00:21:38,546 --> 00:21:41,816
to our left, and they're talking about
their movie, and the group to our right

373
00:21:41,886 --> 00:21:43,276
are talking about their tech exit.

374
00:21:43,626 --> 00:21:45,826
And we're sitting there in the
middle like, what the fuck is this?

375
00:21:46,356 --> 00:21:51,246
And like, we walked into this twilight
zone, and then, this is like 6pm.

376
00:21:51,666 --> 00:21:58,086
And then all of a sudden this like six
foot five naked Jesus looking guy is

377
00:21:58,086 --> 00:21:59,436
screaming in the middle of the street.

378
00:21:59,446 --> 00:22:03,156
And it's like we're in the, it's a ground
level bar, there's four ceiling windows.

379
00:22:03,546 --> 00:22:05,976
And so this guy's right there
screaming naked in the street and like

380
00:22:05,986 --> 00:22:07,536
trying to attack cars with a stick.

381
00:22:08,416 --> 00:22:12,709
And everybody kind of looks over and
they're like, oh, it's just that again.

382
00:22:12,719 --> 00:22:13,029
I don't know.

383
00:22:13,029 --> 00:22:15,389
And then, like, it goes
completely back to normal.

384
00:22:15,739 --> 00:22:19,149
And then, like, I went later that night
to the 7 Eleven that was across the

385
00:22:19,149 --> 00:22:22,879
street there, and the guy who had been
naked and screaming is there, and he's

386
00:22:22,899 --> 00:22:26,879
like, He's totally reasonable now,
he's wearing pants, and he's standing

387
00:22:26,879 --> 00:22:30,909
in front of a sign that says, Do not
give any money to the panhandlers,

388
00:22:30,909 --> 00:22:32,619
it only encourages them, essentially.

389
00:22:32,899 --> 00:22:36,309
He's literally like, right in front of
the sign, like, he's right here, and he's,

390
00:22:36,389 --> 00:22:38,999
he's standing there and being like, Oh
hey, hey brother, can I have a dollar?

391
00:22:40,289 --> 00:22:43,669
it's just, like, just the absurdity of
the situation, you know what I mean?

392
00:22:43,879 --> 00:22:46,039
And it brings to mind something
you said there, where it's kind of

393
00:22:46,039 --> 00:22:48,279
like, This feels very Californian.

394
00:22:48,649 --> 00:22:50,589
I feel like you can almost
use that as an insult.

395
00:22:51,124 --> 00:22:53,284
At this point, like, oh, if
somebody says something stupid to

396
00:22:53,284 --> 00:22:56,234
you, you're like, oh, that, you
sound very Californian right now.

397
00:22:56,707 --> 00:23:01,117
Yeah, I, I have a similar experience,
but it has nothing to do with this,

398
00:23:01,167 --> 00:23:04,957
uh, you know, junkies dying on the
street or Californian or anything.

399
00:23:04,957 --> 00:23:08,327
But this was in my tall ship
sailing days where, you know, I

400
00:23:08,337 --> 00:23:11,327
used to work on a tall ship that
had high school students on board.

401
00:23:11,797 --> 00:23:14,597
And at this particular
time, we were in Barcelona.

402
00:23:15,127 --> 00:23:22,037
And so around Um, the 30 or 40
kids, mostly like 16-year-old

403
00:23:22,037 --> 00:23:23,747
girls in school uniforms.

404
00:23:23,747 --> 00:23:28,817
And we're taking them to see, uh, a
concert in some church, a nice little

405
00:23:28,822 --> 00:23:31,607
event, um, at just after dinner.

406
00:23:31,697 --> 00:23:37,837
And they're walking up, uh, rumble, which
is like the big, uh, uh, the big street

407
00:23:37,837 --> 00:23:40,027
in, um, walking Street in Barcelona.

408
00:23:40,867 --> 00:23:45,727
And all of a sudden there's a naked guy,
uh, with, with tattoos all over him.

409
00:23:45,727 --> 00:23:50,087
So has blue, what looks like underwear,
but it's really just butt naked with, you

410
00:23:50,087 --> 00:23:56,057
know, a piercing in his dick and, and,
and the, they aren't real underpants.

411
00:23:56,097 --> 00:23:59,307
They're tattooed on him and they
just walk past him, but they're

412
00:23:59,307 --> 00:24:03,667
so busy talking about, you know,
after dinner, just giggling and

413
00:24:03,667 --> 00:24:05,117
talking about their little problems.

414
00:24:05,137 --> 00:24:08,577
So that none of them noticed this
naked guy just walking a meter.

415
00:24:09,232 --> 00:24:13,812
from them because they're all in
their own little bubble and there's

416
00:24:13,812 --> 00:24:17,792
a yeah there's a something there

417
00:24:18,462 --> 00:24:21,782
I, I have to say, it's very cool
that you're able to start stories

418
00:24:21,782 --> 00:24:24,302
with, in my tall ship sailing days,

419
00:24:27,012 --> 00:24:28,742
yeah not many people can do that

420
00:24:30,352 --> 00:24:34,802
I might start doing that, and then
just leading on to unrelated stories.

421
00:24:36,772 --> 00:24:38,862
yeah it works you should try it sometimes

422
00:24:39,745 --> 00:24:40,925
Sounds like a good plan.

423
00:24:41,525 --> 00:24:45,585
So, so maybe for some, uh,
some more context on this.

424
00:24:45,615 --> 00:24:48,245
So we, by the way, back to the
truckers a little bit, we, we had

425
00:24:48,245 --> 00:24:53,185
BJ Dichter on and he explained kind
of the whole inside story with that.

426
00:24:53,415 --> 00:24:59,515
But the, the Alberta, uh, versus
Central Canada, Eastern Canada divide

427
00:24:59,565 --> 00:25:04,355
thing isn't something that I think too
many people know about outside Canada.

428
00:25:05,205 --> 00:25:10,155
Can you give a little bit of your
perspective on how this has played out

429
00:25:10,155 --> 00:25:15,975
over the last 10 years that Ottawa, the
Canadian federal government has really

430
00:25:15,975 --> 00:25:22,565
had it out for the Western Canada,
the oil producing provinces and all

431
00:25:22,565 --> 00:25:24,265
that, because it's really something.

432
00:25:24,275 --> 00:25:25,800
What's your perspective on that?

433
00:25:26,485 --> 00:25:31,025
Yeah, I mean, I don't think people
really understand how big and diverse

434
00:25:31,025 --> 00:25:35,065
Canada is, because when you, if you
were to put this into, like, a European

435
00:25:35,065 --> 00:25:40,195
context, like, It's, it's more like,
if you were to say, you know, you've

436
00:25:40,225 --> 00:25:45,785
got somebody living in like, in Lisbon,
and then you've got somebody living

437
00:25:45,785 --> 00:25:50,815
in Istanbul, and those, like, that,
that would all be within Canada.

438
00:25:50,995 --> 00:25:52,605
That'd be like within
a small part of Canada.

439
00:25:53,395 --> 00:25:56,755
And at the same time, we have like
one tenth of the population density.

440
00:25:57,675 --> 00:26:04,585
And so, we are really geographically and
culturally diverse, and there's a huge,

441
00:26:04,615 --> 00:26:10,285
huge difference, you know what I mean, the
difference between BC, Quebec, Ontario,

442
00:26:10,285 --> 00:26:15,765
the Maritimes, and the Prairies, like,
those are all very distinct regions, and,

443
00:26:16,865 --> 00:26:20,155
you know, some of us get along better
than others, and it's, it's interesting

444
00:26:20,155 --> 00:26:25,400
because, you know, Quebec is obviously
singled out as the, the The most, um,

445
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,570
distinct culture in Canada, and I think
there, there's some truth to that because

446
00:26:29,570 --> 00:26:34,330
of the language, if nothing else, and
they obviously had their, um, their

447
00:26:34,330 --> 00:26:39,450
separation efforts in the early 90s,
and, you know, I can identify with that.

448
00:26:39,450 --> 00:26:41,280
I can see why they would want to do that.

449
00:26:41,740 --> 00:26:46,140
And I can also see why they wanted
to stay, because the result of those

450
00:26:46,140 --> 00:26:51,850
separation efforts was a change in the
way that money is distributed from the

451
00:26:51,850 --> 00:26:55,290
provinces to the federal government
and then back to the provinces.

452
00:26:56,050 --> 00:27:01,877
And the result has essentially been
for the last, um, you know, now I

453
00:27:01,877 --> 00:27:04,447
guess we're at like, what, 33 years?

454
00:27:04,512 --> 00:27:08,943
Since the first referendum, the
result is for those 33 years,

455
00:27:08,963 --> 00:27:11,713
Alberta has essentially been
paying Quebec to stay in Canada.

456
00:27:12,533 --> 00:27:14,883
And we have this system where
we have what is called have

457
00:27:14,923 --> 00:27:16,613
provinces and have not provinces.

458
00:27:17,563 --> 00:27:22,023
And for the most part, um, Quebec
and the Maritimes have always

459
00:27:22,023 --> 00:27:23,263
been in the have not provinces.

460
00:27:23,663 --> 00:27:25,943
Alberta has always been
in the have provinces.

461
00:27:26,831 --> 00:27:29,591
The other ones kind of
fluctuate back and forth.

462
00:27:29,841 --> 00:27:32,591
And the result is that when you're
in a have province, you pay more.

463
00:27:32,941 --> 00:27:35,111
And when you're in a have not
province, you receive more.

464
00:27:35,881 --> 00:27:41,241
And the result has been just a massive,
incredible, astonishing transfer of

465
00:27:41,241 --> 00:27:45,461
wealth from Western Canada to Eastern
Canada over the last 30 years and it's,

466
00:27:45,851 --> 00:27:47,641
it's hundreds of billions of dollars.

467
00:27:48,471 --> 00:27:53,271
It's, it's the majority of the spending
that is happening in Eastern Canada.

468
00:27:53,731 --> 00:27:59,401
I had, uh, I had this, this dinner,
um, with some friends in Montreal who

469
00:27:59,401 --> 00:28:06,174
were like very, very politically Like,
one of them was an active politician

470
00:28:06,174 --> 00:28:11,519
that was well known, and I was talking
about this very issue, and they

471
00:28:11,519 --> 00:28:14,509
didn't really see it as that big of
a problem, and then we decided I was

472
00:28:14,519 --> 00:28:17,102
like, look, we'll look it up, I'll
show you how big of a problem it is.

473
00:28:17,499 --> 00:28:21,049
And when we looked it up, 40 percent of
the spending for the province of Quebec

474
00:28:21,069 --> 00:28:23,069
was paid for by the province of Alberta.

475
00:28:23,829 --> 00:28:30,479
And At the same time, we're receiving,
you know, we get less money, and in some

476
00:28:30,479 --> 00:28:33,189
ways that's a good thing, like if the
government's going to do less stuff,

477
00:28:33,219 --> 00:28:38,946
that's probably good for everyone, but
we're at a point where it's not that

478
00:28:38,946 --> 00:28:43,547
they're doing less stuff, they're doing
stuff to actively, they're trying to

479
00:28:43,547 --> 00:28:47,247
destroy our economy, they're trying to
destroy the energy industry, which is

480
00:28:47,867 --> 00:28:52,307
really what has paid for this entire 30
years of spending, is the Alberta energy

481
00:28:52,307 --> 00:28:54,137
industry has paid for the entire country.

482
00:28:54,894 --> 00:28:58,064
And now we've got the Trudeau government
who's, you know, blocking pipelines.

483
00:28:58,064 --> 00:29:00,794
We need three pipelines,
like, ten years ago.

484
00:29:01,774 --> 00:29:04,224
And it's almost impossible
to get one of those built.

485
00:29:05,014 --> 00:29:08,524
Not due to, not due to environmental
concerns, not due to climate change.

486
00:29:08,944 --> 00:29:11,898
Because it doesn't change
how much oil gets produced.

487
00:29:11,968 --> 00:29:13,628
It doesn't change how
much oil gets shipped.

488
00:29:14,158 --> 00:29:17,208
It just changes how it gets shipped
and how much it costs to get shipped.

489
00:29:18,088 --> 00:29:22,573
And so, we're in the spot where You
know, the parallels to like, the American

490
00:29:22,573 --> 00:29:25,833
Revolution are very real, where like,
we have taxation without representation,

491
00:29:25,833 --> 00:29:34,463
we have, we're not important in the, in
the, um, the political picture for the

492
00:29:34,463 --> 00:29:40,793
country as a whole, because we can vote
one way entirely, and that party can lose.

493
00:29:41,748 --> 00:29:46,578
And we can be subjected to, you
know, four more years of the federal

494
00:29:46,578 --> 00:29:50,448
government in Ottawa just looting
our province and sending all of the

495
00:29:50,448 --> 00:29:51,888
wealth to the rest of the province.

496
00:29:52,510 --> 00:29:54,920
And so we've got this, like,
this is obviously a sore spot

497
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,080
for some of us in Alberta.

498
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,720
And at the same time, we've
got this cultural divide.

499
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:04,474
And in a strange way, I actually,
like, I've spent a lot of time in

500
00:30:04,694 --> 00:30:09,089
Eastern Canada, especially Montreal,
and I don't feel a huge, you Cultural

501
00:30:09,089 --> 00:30:13,529
divide, actually, between Albertans
and Quebecois in a strange way.

502
00:30:13,529 --> 00:30:17,289
Even though we're very culturally
different, we're actually quite the

503
00:30:17,289 --> 00:30:21,279
same in the fact that mostly we have the
same values and we want the same things.

504
00:30:22,709 --> 00:30:26,879
I think Quebec and Alberta
would be great neighbors, you

505
00:30:26,879 --> 00:30:28,659
know, in different countries.

506
00:30:29,149 --> 00:30:34,169
Um, I feel a much bigger disconnect from
Ontario, from Toronto in particular,

507
00:30:34,749 --> 00:30:38,539
and anytime I'm in Toronto, I feel like
it's, like I'm in a, I'm in a, like a

508
00:30:38,559 --> 00:30:40,739
twilight zone, it's just a weird place.

509
00:30:41,919 --> 00:30:45,419
know, I went into the bank a few years
ago, and I was depositing some money,

510
00:30:46,256 --> 00:30:50,176
and the teller looks up my account, and
she can see that I'm from Calgary, and

511
00:30:50,176 --> 00:30:54,120
she's like, oh, I see you're from Calgary,
it must be so nice for you to be here.

512
00:30:55,101 --> 00:30:56,615
I was like, what?

513
00:30:56,615 --> 00:30:59,461
Like, no, it's nice for
you for me to be here.

514
00:31:03,083 --> 00:31:07,423
Yeah, so from an outsider's perspective,
let's, let's backtrack here a bit

515
00:31:07,443 --> 00:31:12,908
because, we've been, from an outsider's
perspective, the, the whole, uh, COVID,

516
00:31:12,908 --> 00:31:17,558
um, or the lockdown period, whatever
you might call it, was so weird because

517
00:31:17,568 --> 00:31:23,538
the, what, what we viewed as some of
the most open and, uh, you know, liberal

518
00:31:23,538 --> 00:31:28,398
in the classic sense of the word, of
the word, um, Places in the world, uh,

519
00:31:28,398 --> 00:31:33,138
where, uh, Canada and Australia, we
always saw those as like, we, even me

520
00:31:33,138 --> 00:31:37,388
with my Swedish eyes, I always thought
of those two countries as like, that's

521
00:31:37,393 --> 00:31:38,828
where the chill people are from.

522
00:31:38,828 --> 00:31:43,508
And like Canada seemed like just a,
a more chill version of the US and

523
00:31:43,513 --> 00:31:50,478
slightly more sane, you know, and not
as guns slinging, but . Um, and, and

524
00:31:50,478 --> 00:31:52,493
then, uh, this, this whole woke thing.

525
00:31:53,203 --> 00:31:58,963
It sort of started, or, or p or
started to peak around when, uh,

526
00:31:58,993 --> 00:32:03,313
Jordan Peterson came out and then,
uh, Brett Weinstein and all of this w

527
00:32:03,313 --> 00:32:04,873
or Weinstein or whatever his name is.

528
00:32:05,263 --> 00:32:09,933
Uh, and, and this, uh, about
the universities in the US and,

529
00:32:09,933 --> 00:32:13,773
uh, pronouns and all of that
stuff started to, to be a thing.

530
00:32:13,803 --> 00:32:16,233
Like I hadn't really
heard of it before that.

531
00:32:16,233 --> 00:32:18,393
And that's like 10, 15 years ago, right?

532
00:32:19,098 --> 00:32:21,698
So, so where, where did Canada go wrong?

533
00:32:21,708 --> 00:32:24,038
When, when did Canada go insane?

534
00:32:24,198 --> 00:32:26,668
Like, I, I have a very hard time.

535
00:32:26,718 --> 00:32:31,408
How come the woke virus, like,
infected so much of your country?

536
00:32:31,408 --> 00:32:33,078
What, what, what is the main reason?

537
00:32:33,088 --> 00:32:34,348
What, what do you think?

538
00:32:34,888 --> 00:32:38,728
Yeah, so I don't necessarily think
that it is just that the woke virus

539
00:32:38,728 --> 00:32:39,998
infected a lot of the country.

540
00:32:40,660 --> 00:32:43,210
I think it infected the parts
of the country that have the

541
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,620
voting power is a big thing.

542
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:52,146
So if you look at the way the, the, like
our elections work, the, the seats are

543
00:32:52,146 --> 00:32:54,236
very concentrated in Eastern Canada.

544
00:32:54,236 --> 00:32:58,311
So we have a parliamentary
democracy, Every riding has a

545
00:32:58,311 --> 00:33:01,461
representative that we send to Ottawa
to be our riding representative.

546
00:33:01,491 --> 00:33:04,551
But realistically, they're, they're
a member of one of like three or four

547
00:33:04,551 --> 00:33:10,061
political parties, and the party with the
most, uh, seats can form the government.

548
00:33:10,601 --> 00:33:13,541
And if a party or coalition of
parties has enough seats, they

549
00:33:13,541 --> 00:33:14,791
can form a majority government.

550
00:33:15,376 --> 00:33:20,826
this system in particular kind of leads
itself to capture from, um, Like, a

551
00:33:20,826 --> 00:33:24,596
well organized minority, and that's what
we've seen right now, where we've got

552
00:33:24,626 --> 00:33:28,896
this Trudeau government in there that,
like, they got a very small minority

553
00:33:28,896 --> 00:33:33,656
of the vote when they were popular,
and have been able to appease sort of

554
00:33:33,666 --> 00:33:37,776
the special interest groups on the left
to get them over the hump of how many

555
00:33:37,776 --> 00:33:41,881
seats they needed, and the reason for
that is because these These pockets of

556
00:33:41,881 --> 00:33:43,341
political influence are very concentrated.

557
00:33:43,341 --> 00:33:47,611
So there's always a fight over who's
going to win in the East, but when

558
00:33:47,611 --> 00:33:52,340
the Liberals win in the East, they're
going to win everything because that's

559
00:33:52,340 --> 00:33:53,960
where the most of the seats are.

560
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,535
And so here in Western Canada, like,
we kind of vote the same way all the

561
00:33:57,545 --> 00:33:58,955
time and it doesn't really matter.

562
00:33:59,025 --> 00:34:03,025
The Conservatives will be in power if
Ontario votes them in and the Liberals

563
00:34:03,025 --> 00:34:04,675
will be in power if Ontario votes them in.

564
00:34:05,285 --> 00:34:09,478
And so that creates a situation where,
you know, it's, it's a perverse incentive.

565
00:34:09,858 --> 00:34:10,998
They, the, the.

566
00:34:11,593 --> 00:34:16,813
The government has the incentive to pay
the voters in the areas of the country

567
00:34:16,813 --> 00:34:18,023
that actually decide the election.

568
00:34:18,675 --> 00:34:23,485
Alright, so, is gerrymandering a
phenomenon in Canada as well as the US?

569
00:34:24,075 --> 00:34:24,745
Yeah, it is.

570
00:34:24,875 --> 00:34:30,515
Um, it's, it's not as big of a
phenomenon, I think, as it is in the U.

571
00:34:30,515 --> 00:34:31,085
S.

572
00:34:31,415 --> 00:34:33,645
Um, we don't have as
many things to vote on.

573
00:34:34,445 --> 00:34:37,505
We don't have as many layers of,
like, they elect their sheriffs

574
00:34:37,505 --> 00:34:39,035
and all kinds of stuff in the U.

575
00:34:39,035 --> 00:34:39,235
S.

576
00:34:39,792 --> 00:34:42,212
our levels of power are a little bit
more distinct, and so it's a little

577
00:34:42,212 --> 00:34:45,727
bit harder to make a difference in
terms of gerrymandering When you're

578
00:34:45,727 --> 00:34:49,497
talking about like the scale of the
country than it is the local scale,

579
00:34:49,497 --> 00:34:51,157
but then I'm sure it's still going on.

580
00:34:52,072 --> 00:34:56,622
I know like very few people
probably have trust in the election

581
00:34:56,622 --> 00:34:59,592
system right now, it'd be a pretty
irrational move to believe that

582
00:34:59,592 --> 00:35:00,882
they're not cheating in some way.

583
00:35:01,543 --> 00:35:03,833
that said, I believe both
sides are probably cheating.

584
00:35:04,645 --> 00:35:09,095
I don't know that one side is, is
much better than the other, but in

585
00:35:09,095 --> 00:35:13,209
the spot rate that we're in right now,
like all, all of these politicians

586
00:35:13,209 --> 00:35:16,179
are, are no better than their
incentives, like, like anyone else.

587
00:35:16,179 --> 00:35:16,419
Right?

588
00:35:16,459 --> 00:35:24,087
And so the, um, the incentives are right
now that our liberal government, you know,

589
00:35:24,097 --> 00:35:25,777
they, they've lost the middle ground.

590
00:35:26,217 --> 00:35:30,207
Like they've been so ridiculous and all
of those shit that they pulled, they

591
00:35:30,207 --> 00:35:34,687
trampled a late, like an old lady with a
horse and the trucker protests, like it.

592
00:35:35,932 --> 00:35:40,502
It's beyond ridiculous to the point
where anybody who has opened their

593
00:35:40,502 --> 00:35:44,812
eyes and read something that isn't from
the mainstream media in the last four

594
00:35:44,812 --> 00:35:48,412
years has probably at least got some
doubts going about this government now.

595
00:35:49,362 --> 00:35:52,992
And so they don't have much
room to win in that area, right?

596
00:35:52,992 --> 00:35:55,202
They're trying even more ridiculous stuff.

597
00:35:55,202 --> 00:35:58,362
They're trying a hate speech law
right now that would be retroactive.

598
00:35:59,222 --> 00:36:02,832
So they, they could come after
us for things that we said in

599
00:36:02,832 --> 00:36:05,492
the past that are now illegal.

600
00:36:06,587 --> 00:36:10,927
And, you know, it's getting
like, it's, it's just dystopian.

601
00:36:10,927 --> 00:36:14,557
It's getting so absurd that
there's nothing to be gained

602
00:36:14,567 --> 00:36:17,617
from these governments by coming
to the rational discussion.

603
00:36:17,697 --> 00:36:22,047
All that they can do is pander to
the lowest level of talking points

604
00:36:22,077 --> 00:36:26,607
and, you know, that kind of stuff
is starting to run out, I think.

605
00:36:27,277 --> 00:36:33,797
That kind of like people's appetite to
be sold the most ridiculous bullshit.

606
00:36:34,747 --> 00:36:36,457
is lessening, I think.

607
00:36:36,457 --> 00:36:39,147
And we're seeing that with a lot
of the like, parental rights stuff,

608
00:36:39,547 --> 00:36:44,397
with the whole Bud Light marketing
campaign that spectacularly failed.

609
00:36:44,397 --> 00:36:48,087
We're starting to see, you know, a
lot of people who are kind of going

610
00:36:48,087 --> 00:36:51,397
along with the whole woke cancer
culture because either they wanted

611
00:36:51,397 --> 00:36:54,037
to be polite, they wanted to be nice,
or they didn't want to get cancelled.

612
00:36:54,197 --> 00:36:56,627
A lot more people are fed up
with that by this point, I think.

613
00:36:57,237 --> 00:37:01,697
I never got that, like, people were
upset because, uh, they had homosexuals

614
00:37:01,697 --> 00:37:03,347
in the Bud Light commercial, right?

615
00:37:03,847 --> 00:37:06,347
But everyone knows that Bud
Light is a gay beer, right?

616
00:37:06,967 --> 00:37:09,067
Like, it's always been a gay beer.

617
00:37:09,337 --> 00:37:10,937
Anyway, uh, we're

618
00:37:14,197 --> 00:37:16,937
Maybe we'll have to trim this for
YouTube, Luke, what do you think?

619
00:37:17,147 --> 00:37:17,487
Uh,

620
00:37:18,022 --> 00:37:18,552
I doubt it.

621
00:37:18,552 --> 00:37:19,092
We're fine.

622
00:37:20,507 --> 00:37:27,517
so, like, uh, the exit tax and the, uh,
retroactive hate speech law, that, that's

623
00:37:27,517 --> 00:37:31,267
just, that, that's just super Orwellian.

624
00:37:31,267 --> 00:37:36,902
I know of some other weird laws that came
to pass in Canada, like, Uh, mandatory

625
00:37:36,902 --> 00:37:39,712
tampons in men's bathrooms, for instance.

626
00:37:40,142 --> 00:37:41,922
I love that one, because that's just

627
00:37:41,982 --> 00:37:44,282
Well, well, here's, here's
a very good example.

628
00:37:44,322 --> 00:37:48,817
So, a friend of mine, um, By the name
of Derek Hildebrand, he's the publisher

629
00:37:48,817 --> 00:37:53,847
of the Western Standard, which is the
largest, uh, independent news, online

630
00:37:53,847 --> 00:37:57,907
news outlet in Canada now, and I was at
his office recently, and he showed me a

631
00:37:57,907 --> 00:38:03,257
tampon that he got in the men's room at
Pearson International Airport in Toronto,

632
00:38:04,377 --> 00:38:09,531
and he's like, yeah, I got this tampon for
my penis, you know, and, uh, meanwhile,

633
00:38:10,381 --> 00:38:14,951
neither the men's room nor the women's
room In Calgary International Airport

634
00:38:14,961 --> 00:38:20,636
have to have bonds, so it's like, it's,
it's a microcosm of what's going on here,

635
00:38:20,636 --> 00:38:25,916
right, is like, we're paying for Toronto
to have shit that they don't need at the

636
00:38:25,916 --> 00:38:31,242
expense of stuff that we do need, and it's
all, it's, it's all running down those

637
00:38:31,252 --> 00:38:33,262
woke agendas too, so it's, it's absurd.

638
00:41:49,514 --> 00:41:54,814
Yeah, so, so how far off do you
think, uh, uh, you know, Alberta

639
00:41:54,844 --> 00:41:58,224
just leaving and becoming its
own state, how far off is that?

640
00:41:58,274 --> 00:42:00,364
Is that a fantasy, or what is it?

641
00:42:00,989 --> 00:42:06,139
Well, um, like I mentioned earlier that I
read Atlas Shrugged at the start of 2022.

642
00:42:07,979 --> 00:42:11,299
And I was like legitimately depressed
when I was done with that because it's

643
00:42:11,299 --> 00:42:13,189
like, so I was like, there's no gulch.

644
00:42:13,209 --> 00:42:18,439
Like, I mean, Bitcoin is the gulch
ultimately, but, um, the next book

645
00:42:18,439 --> 00:42:20,879
that I read after that was the
Sovereign Individual, which I think

646
00:42:20,879 --> 00:42:23,269
is one of the best books out there.

647
00:42:23,269 --> 00:42:25,139
Very important for anyone
to read if they haven't.

648
00:42:25,737 --> 00:42:28,897
and one of the central ideas to that
book is that the day of the large scale

649
00:42:28,897 --> 00:42:33,967
nation state is over, and there are
a lot of details that, that lead into

650
00:42:33,967 --> 00:42:37,837
that, but one of the things, and this
book is crazy for its predictions, like

651
00:42:37,837 --> 00:42:41,637
it basically predicted Bitcoin in, like
this is 1994 or something like that,

652
00:42:42,328 --> 00:42:43,288
It's so good.

653
00:42:43,788 --> 00:42:44,658
It's so good.

654
00:42:45,233 --> 00:42:48,513
One of the things that it predicted
was that Canada would be the first

655
00:42:48,533 --> 00:42:52,193
large scale nation state to break
apart, and it specifically mentions

656
00:42:52,193 --> 00:42:54,903
the cultural divide between Alberta
and the rest of the country.

657
00:42:55,733 --> 00:43:01,503
And in a lot of ways, like, I think
Canada is really ripe for that kind

658
00:43:01,503 --> 00:43:03,593
of, like, balkanization, right?

659
00:43:03,623 --> 00:43:09,923
And it's funny because, um, so I, when
Trudeau was reelected 2019, I started,

660
00:43:09,923 --> 00:43:15,073
like, pretty aggressively talking to
people that I know well about, like,

661
00:43:15,273 --> 00:43:17,033
separation and Alberta independence.

662
00:43:17,523 --> 00:43:21,153
And, like, almost exclusively, I
got the answer, um, well, that would

663
00:43:21,153 --> 00:43:22,563
be nice, but that's unrealistic.

664
00:43:23,243 --> 00:43:25,213
And that has shifted.

665
00:43:25,748 --> 00:43:30,188
But the funny thing is one of the
biggest arguments that I don't have,

666
00:43:30,793 --> 00:43:34,293
like there's no rational argument
against is like, okay, but we have

667
00:43:34,293 --> 00:43:35,223
the best hockey team right now.

668
00:43:36,289 --> 00:43:39,739
And like, you break up Canada, it's
not going to be the best hockey team.

669
00:43:39,739 --> 00:43:42,049
But I was, the same is true right now.

670
00:43:42,059 --> 00:43:44,339
We've got the Olympics coming up in Paris.

671
00:43:44,889 --> 00:43:47,399
There's an interesting case
that the best basketball team in

672
00:43:47,399 --> 00:43:48,709
the world would be Yugoslavia.

673
00:43:49,691 --> 00:43:54,089
If it was a thing right now, and
so that's what we have to lose.

674
00:43:54,119 --> 00:44:00,049
We have to lose our global hockey
dominance and, uh, you know,

675
00:44:00,049 --> 00:44:01,019
I don't think it's worth it.

676
00:44:01,299 --> 00:44:05,989
Like, I don't know how you can even
weigh that against all the crazy

677
00:44:05,989 --> 00:44:09,357
shit that they've got coming and,
like back to the question, like,

678
00:44:09,357 --> 00:44:12,897
I think the more crazy shit they
push and the harder Trudeau goes.

679
00:44:13,332 --> 00:44:18,022
The more likely it is that he's going
to push Alberta into a situation where

680
00:44:18,742 --> 00:44:23,122
it's untenable for more people, and
that makes the separation more likely.

681
00:44:23,889 --> 00:44:24,239
Yeah.

682
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:28,409
And the funny thing about, like, I
think this, this entire situation

683
00:44:28,409 --> 00:44:32,059
is like, I mean, I, I'm in the group
that has, has left, but still wants

684
00:44:32,059 --> 00:44:34,509
to see the, the best for Canada.

685
00:44:34,659 --> 00:44:35,509
Absolutely.

686
00:44:35,979 --> 00:44:40,620
But yeah, like before, before I
left, 2021, during the pandemic.

687
00:44:40,846 --> 00:44:47,006
it was the entire mood in, in Calgary was
just, uh, at least in, in, in my circles.

688
00:44:47,006 --> 00:44:50,466
And, and I mean, I might've worked for a
consulting company, but, but like I did

689
00:44:50,466 --> 00:44:52,386
work with oil and gas companies mostly.

690
00:44:52,602 --> 00:44:56,942
that was pre Trucker protest, and, uh,
I mean, I'm sure I would have donated to

691
00:44:56,942 --> 00:45:00,772
that to gotten my bank account frozen,
like, the whole thing is crazy, right?

692
00:45:01,193 --> 00:45:05,663
And I mean, orange pill moment for
so many people, I think, and well,

693
00:45:05,663 --> 00:45:07,573
maybe that's the Bitcoin of it all.

694
00:45:07,783 --> 00:45:14,273
What is your perspective on the role
of Bitcoin in the future of Canada?

695
00:45:15,380 --> 00:45:19,930
I don't really care, um, but I would
love to see Bitcoin have a very

696
00:45:19,930 --> 00:45:21,700
important role in the future of Alberta.

697
00:45:22,483 --> 00:45:23,633
Awesome answer.

698
00:45:23,943 --> 00:45:25,403
So what do you think
that's going to look like?

699
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,960
I hope it's going to mean that
Alberta will be one of the first Uh,

700
00:45:29,990 --> 00:45:33,280
jurisdictions in the world openly
put Bitcoin on the balance sheet.

701
00:45:34,250 --> 00:45:38,200
Um, I wrote an article to that
extent a couple of years ago.

702
00:45:38,550 --> 00:45:44,920
Um, our premier who has endorsed me
from my title as the strongest and best

703
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:51,025
looking Bitcoin entrepreneur in Canada
has, uh, She was a Bitcoiner and she,

704
00:45:51,305 --> 00:45:56,335
a bunch of us, uh, BCC Sessions and
Frances and I, um, were all on her show.

705
00:45:56,335 --> 00:45:59,695
She used to have a radio show and,
uh, we went on there talking about

706
00:45:59,695 --> 00:46:06,575
Bitcoin and the, uh, we all told
her, Get your coins off Quadriga.

707
00:46:07,670 --> 00:46:12,520
Quadriga was an exchange that we had here
that, uh, that went belly up and, uh, she

708
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:14,480
didn't, she lost her coins in Quadriga.

709
00:46:14,650 --> 00:46:18,210
So she's, she's like, I don't
know what you call that, but like,

710
00:46:18,210 --> 00:46:19,650
it's a, it's a vetted Bitcoiner.

711
00:46:19,660 --> 00:46:23,370
Somebody who has lost their
coins to an exchange hack is

712
00:46:23,370 --> 00:46:25,610
like a real Bitcoiner for sure.

713
00:46:25,610 --> 00:46:27,190
And so she, she is a Bitcoiner.

714
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:32,880
sees where, uh, Bitcoin
can add value to Alberta.

715
00:46:33,370 --> 00:46:36,400
I think we're in kind of a
unique spot also because we've

716
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:37,710
got our energy industry here.

717
00:46:38,275 --> 00:46:40,545
And it's a very fragmented
energy industry.

718
00:46:41,115 --> 00:46:46,755
So, um, we did the math and the place
we're holding the Bitcoin Rodeo, this

719
00:46:46,755 --> 00:46:50,335
is last year, this could be different
by now, actually probably is, um, the

720
00:46:50,375 --> 00:46:53,535
place that we're holding the Bitcoin
Rodeo in downtown Calgary, within a

721
00:46:53,575 --> 00:46:57,915
10 block radius of that spot, there
are 650 oil companies headquartered.

722
00:46:59,105 --> 00:47:02,065
So we have a lot of small oil companies.

723
00:47:02,955 --> 00:47:09,625
We have, uh, just a, A really large,
but fragmented energy industry.

724
00:47:09,625 --> 00:47:12,535
And the result of that is that
we have a lot of like really good

725
00:47:12,675 --> 00:47:16,755
producing oil wells that are in the
middle of nowhere and they can get

726
00:47:16,755 --> 00:47:21,855
the oil to market because that's the
whole economic basis for the project.

727
00:47:22,235 --> 00:47:25,095
But these wells also produce
natural gas and it's a lot harder

728
00:47:25,095 --> 00:47:27,705
to get natural gas to market if
you don't have a pipeline nearby.

729
00:47:28,205 --> 00:47:30,585
And so what they do now
is they flare it off.

730
00:47:30,865 --> 00:47:35,985
And in, uh, in Alberta recently, we've
got a bunch of companies, uh, It's pretty

731
00:47:35,985 --> 00:47:40,355
much spearheaded by a good friend of
mine, Steve Barber, upstream data, who

732
00:47:40,895 --> 00:47:46,605
is installing, um, like little buildings
of all these gas sites that burn the

733
00:47:46,605 --> 00:47:49,155
gas, generate power and mine Bitcoin.

734
00:47:49,595 --> 00:47:52,765
And so Alberta is like really
well positioned to be a leader

735
00:47:52,805 --> 00:47:54,265
in that part of the industry.

736
00:47:55,195 --> 00:47:58,995
And if you pair that with, you know,
as I'm saying that, like, we've got

737
00:47:58,995 --> 00:48:02,995
all these mini oil companies, it
lines up with our, our culture of

738
00:48:02,995 --> 00:48:04,835
like individualism, free markets.

739
00:48:05,615 --> 00:48:12,695
And uh, And I guess you can extend to
like decentralization and, you know,

740
00:48:12,715 --> 00:48:17,335
Bitcoin, both as an industry and a
payment tool and a form of money,

741
00:48:17,335 --> 00:48:18,795
obviously supports all those things.

742
00:48:19,365 --> 00:48:22,045
So that's like, we've been working
with the province to try to like,

743
00:48:22,862 --> 00:48:25,372
talk to them about like, what
does this actually look like?

744
00:48:26,027 --> 00:48:29,087
If Bitcoin goes on the balance sheet
someday, and like, I hope it will,

745
00:48:29,247 --> 00:48:32,737
like it, it seems logical and positive.

746
00:48:32,737 --> 00:48:36,477
So unless political forces get in the
way and squash this, then I think there's

747
00:48:36,477 --> 00:48:39,187
a good chance that Alberta will someday
have Bitcoin on the balance sheet.

748
00:48:40,305 --> 00:48:44,445
let's tie it back to the trucker
protests and the frozen bank accounts.

749
00:48:44,475 --> 00:48:48,345
And when people actually started
to receive bitcoins instead,

750
00:48:48,345 --> 00:48:50,235
and it was actually unstoppable.

751
00:48:50,775 --> 00:48:53,465
Like, how much of a
lessons learned was that?

752
00:48:53,475 --> 00:48:57,085
Like, how many people
did the penny drop for?

753
00:48:57,215 --> 00:49:02,035
Uh, is there like, yeah, so people
know that there are ways around

754
00:49:02,035 --> 00:49:03,725
that they don't have to obey?

755
00:49:04,180 --> 00:49:09,030
So I'm, uh, I've been focusing a lot
on the sort of like freedom community

756
00:49:09,220 --> 00:49:16,380
in Alberta here, where this 20 to 30
percent of Albertans, who've basically

757
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:18,240
been like really woken up by the whole.

758
00:49:18,665 --> 00:49:23,175
Pandemic, the trucker protests, and
taken from a point of like mild distrust

759
00:49:23,185 --> 00:49:27,712
for the government to, realization that
this is an enemy organization that is

760
00:49:27,762 --> 00:49:29,652
actually trying to rob us and kill us.

761
00:49:30,397 --> 00:49:36,847
And that big shift in mindset has
created like a whole bunch of grassroots

762
00:49:36,847 --> 00:49:38,077
movements around the province.

763
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:42,780
how our current premier that I mentioned
got in to office was because our previous

764
00:49:42,780 --> 00:49:48,650
premier from the same party, um, had very
specifically talked about no VaxPass.

765
00:49:49,730 --> 00:49:53,990
And then instituted a VaxPass, tried
to just call it something else,

766
00:49:54,110 --> 00:49:55,440
thought we would be fooled by that.

767
00:49:55,990 --> 00:49:59,090
And this grassroots movement
sprung up and like unseated him.

768
00:50:00,045 --> 00:50:04,115
And he lost his role as the leader of
the party, and now we have a new premier

769
00:50:04,115 --> 00:50:09,325
who came in very specifically with the
mandate of avoiding all of that bullshit.

770
00:50:10,175 --> 00:50:17,715
And I think that kind of synergy that we
see between like, you know, that freedom

771
00:50:17,715 --> 00:50:22,290
movement, These people have already,
like what they have in common is they've

772
00:50:22,290 --> 00:50:24,600
already identified the problem, right?

773
00:50:25,060 --> 00:50:27,070
They don't necessarily
know what the solution is.

774
00:50:27,180 --> 00:50:30,950
And so I've been, I've been actually
doing this like kind of fragmented

775
00:50:30,950 --> 00:50:34,530
weird speaking tour to like small
towns and like a bunch of these

776
00:50:34,530 --> 00:50:35,980
freedom events and stuff like that.

777
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:41,860
And yeah, like the, the trucker
convoy woke them up to Bitcoin.

778
00:50:42,912 --> 00:50:43,102
Right?

779
00:50:43,112 --> 00:50:48,342
There's, there's a lot of, there's a lot
more people out there that are afraid

780
00:50:48,352 --> 00:50:52,182
of a central bank digital currency
than that are excited about Bitcoin.

781
00:50:52,932 --> 00:50:56,662
And so they've started to
see like, that money can be a

782
00:50:56,702 --> 00:50:58,142
tool of oppression like that.

783
00:50:58,462 --> 00:51:01,532
And the first detail of that is obviously
like meddling with transactions,

784
00:51:01,532 --> 00:51:06,212
getting into the censorship game,
starting to impose morals on spending.

785
00:51:07,482 --> 00:51:09,412
And that part I think they get.

786
00:51:09,432 --> 00:51:14,102
The next part is that, you know, obviously
the government is stealing your time.

787
00:51:14,867 --> 00:51:17,437
The government is stealing the value
that you create with your time by

788
00:51:17,437 --> 00:51:21,693
debasing the money and that's kind of
what I've been trying to talk to these

789
00:51:21,693 --> 00:51:26,753
people about, and I think a lot of these
people already get this, like, if you

790
00:51:26,753 --> 00:51:31,793
were to talk to, um, this is probably
true, like, most, most over the Western

791
00:51:31,793 --> 00:51:35,233
world, if you had gone, like, 5, 6
years ago and talked to somebody about

792
00:51:35,233 --> 00:51:40,883
inflation, they would be like, know what
it is, maybe, they've heard the word.

793
00:51:41,468 --> 00:51:45,958
But it was like this like nebulous thing
that the government talks to the media

794
00:51:45,958 --> 00:51:51,258
about every few years and you, you hear
inflation was at 3 percent and you're

795
00:51:51,258 --> 00:51:54,342
like, okay, like, that's good, I guess.

796
00:51:54,872 --> 00:51:59,302
Um, now we've gotten to this point
where, you know, we were told in Canada

797
00:51:59,302 --> 00:52:04,372
that inflation was at like 6 or 7%,
but you don't need to be a genius

798
00:52:04,402 --> 00:52:06,252
to tell that that's not true, right?

799
00:52:06,282 --> 00:52:09,492
Like if you've gone to the grocery
store, you can tell that your stake

800
00:52:09,492 --> 00:52:13,312
is triple what it was three years
ago, and that's not the same as 6%.

801
00:52:13,912 --> 00:52:18,957
So, I think inflation has had like a
real bite on people's lives recently in

802
00:52:18,957 --> 00:52:25,747
a way that it hasn't until this massive
expansion of spending and printing, uh,

803
00:52:25,777 --> 00:52:27,117
that they were able to do with COVID.

804
00:52:27,797 --> 00:52:32,077
And so now when you talk to somebody
about like them losing that value,

805
00:52:32,962 --> 00:52:34,602
Like there's tangible examples.

806
00:52:34,602 --> 00:52:39,462
Like there are, there, there are, there's
a huge class of people that are in the

807
00:52:39,462 --> 00:52:46,235
like 65 to 75 range right now that,
have a few hundred thousand dollars

808
00:52:46,245 --> 00:52:51,055
saved up for their retirement and they
thought that was going to be good.

809
00:52:51,595 --> 00:52:56,905
And then they're now realizing that's
like wildly inadequate with the spending

810
00:52:56,925 --> 00:52:58,425
power that that money gives them.

811
00:52:59,185 --> 00:53:01,735
And so people are staying
in the workforce longer.

812
00:53:02,545 --> 00:53:05,875
They're, they're, they're
taking bigger risks, which is.

813
00:53:06,660 --> 00:53:08,070
A crazy symptom that we see.

814
00:53:08,870 --> 00:53:13,730
So I'm, uh, I'm on the board of a company
called Bitcoin Well here in, uh, Alberta,

815
00:53:14,167 --> 00:53:18,867
another exchange that we buy and sell
Bitcoin, run a bunch of Bitcoin ATMs,

816
00:53:18,947 --> 00:53:26,117
and a big problem for this company lately
has been, um, like these, like tax and,

817
00:53:26,117 --> 00:53:29,197
uh, inheritance and investment scams.

818
00:53:30,010 --> 00:53:33,940
There's this massive phone banks
calling people saying you need to pay

819
00:53:33,940 --> 00:53:37,110
your taxes or we have an investment
opportunity or whatever it is.

820
00:53:37,585 --> 00:53:43,145
And we do a lot to try to keep people
from investing or like, not investing, but

821
00:53:43,145 --> 00:53:45,515
like giving their money to these scams.

822
00:53:46,215 --> 00:53:50,445
And a lot of the time once we actually
catch them and like notice, Hey, this

823
00:53:50,445 --> 00:53:53,145
is, this money is going to a scam
and we end up talking to the people.

824
00:53:53,715 --> 00:53:56,815
A big part of the motivation why people
are willing to take these kinds of

825
00:53:56,815 --> 00:53:59,835
crazy risks is because that they've
gotten to that point where they

826
00:53:59,835 --> 00:54:02,595
realize my retirement is inadequate.

827
00:54:02,815 --> 00:54:05,745
You know, if you've got,
you got 300, 000 left.

828
00:54:06,390 --> 00:54:10,250
And you suddenly realize I'm going to
need 2 million before I can retire.

829
00:54:10,830 --> 00:54:17,360
And my current lifestyle, the incentive
to try to catch something is huge.

830
00:54:18,010 --> 00:54:22,983
And so these pains have like, they've
gotten to way more people now.

831
00:54:23,393 --> 00:54:26,893
Like the number of people globally, and
especially in the Western world, who

832
00:54:26,893 --> 00:54:30,713
have actually felt the bite of money
printing now is like almost everyone.

833
00:54:31,273 --> 00:54:34,588
And it's funny because the people
who, you know, The people who work at

834
00:54:34,588 --> 00:54:38,998
Deloitte or, uh, the, the middle of
the bell curve, the, the mid brains.

835
00:54:39,438 --> 00:54:44,018
Um, those people tend to be a little bit
more isolated from this stuff because

836
00:54:44,408 --> 00:54:48,608
they have those jobs like Deloitte,
where it's like, for the most part, they

837
00:54:48,608 --> 00:54:50,728
don't really produce anything, right?

838
00:54:50,728 --> 00:54:55,793
They're, they're, they're, they're there
because they've created a structure.

839
00:54:56,163 --> 00:54:59,243
To feed off of the money printing spigot.

840
00:55:00,463 --> 00:55:02,893
Like how many lawyers and
accountants would the world need

841
00:55:02,893 --> 00:55:04,333
if not for the government existing?

842
00:55:05,493 --> 00:55:10,213
yeah, I mean, this is, this is so
true, and like, this is one of the,

843
00:55:11,063 --> 00:55:15,633
if I have a, uh, One of my latest
thoughts about Bitcoin and what it

844
00:55:15,943 --> 00:55:20,593
has pointed out to people, like if you
really boil it down, and we're going

845
00:55:20,593 --> 00:55:28,503
deep here, so, uh, Bitcoin has made
it so obvious that money was never

846
00:55:28,663 --> 00:55:32,793
anything but information, or at least
that it didn't need to be anything but

847
00:55:32,833 --> 00:55:36,343
information, uh, and what does that mean?

848
00:55:36,623 --> 00:55:40,263
Well, it means it's a part of
us, it's an extension of you.

849
00:55:41,003 --> 00:55:46,033
And, and your worth to other people,
how, how, uh, how useful you can

850
00:55:46,033 --> 00:55:50,583
be to other people, how valuable
other people find you, that, that

851
00:55:50,613 --> 00:55:52,203
is what your money expresses.

852
00:55:52,233 --> 00:55:57,023
And you can, through, through that price
system mechanism, you can, you can show

853
00:55:57,023 --> 00:55:59,573
the world what, what you appreciate.

854
00:56:01,048 --> 00:56:06,538
And it's only because the money is
malfunctioning and we live in systems that

855
00:56:06,548 --> 00:56:13,358
don't, uh, that don't, that hinder the
correct people from being rewarded fairly.

856
00:56:14,065 --> 00:56:20,045
that people, that assholes can get
rich, no asshole would be able to be

857
00:56:20,045 --> 00:56:25,695
rich in a world where money worked
because you couldn't scam people.

858
00:56:25,695 --> 00:56:31,155
You couldn't, you couldn't like being
an asshole wouldn't pay and being

859
00:56:31,165 --> 00:56:36,175
unproductive and being middle of the
bell curve and just shoveling money from

860
00:56:36,175 --> 00:56:38,575
one account to another wouldn't work.

861
00:56:38,626 --> 00:56:40,455
Uh, on a Bitcoin standard.

862
00:56:40,775 --> 00:56:44,815
It's only because the money is
malfunctioning that assholes are rich.

863
00:56:46,135 --> 00:56:47,035
So, yeah.

864
00:56:47,530 --> 00:56:50,220
So I've been, uh, like I mentioned,
I've been doing this little speaking

865
00:56:50,220 --> 00:56:56,624
tour, around Alberta and the tour has
mostly, I've had a few people on it

866
00:56:56,624 --> 00:56:59,594
with me cause it's been a few different
events, but for the most part we've had.

867
00:57:00,029 --> 00:57:02,459
Um, a gold guy and a banker.

868
00:57:03,549 --> 00:57:09,699
And it's interesting because somebody
in the crowd, I think, put this

869
00:57:10,159 --> 00:57:11,509
better than I would have been able to.

870
00:57:11,949 --> 00:57:14,579
And I think it's, it's, it's almost
like the short version of what you were

871
00:57:14,579 --> 00:57:18,199
saying there that I think resonates
really well with, with, with these

872
00:57:18,199 --> 00:57:21,599
crowds is that like, what money is
supposed to do is create options for you.

873
00:57:23,419 --> 00:57:27,139
You, you've performed your task
and now you have all these options.

874
00:57:27,719 --> 00:57:32,219
And the problem now is that money,
when you perform work and create

875
00:57:32,219 --> 00:57:35,079
value, it creates options for you.

876
00:57:35,689 --> 00:57:38,299
But it also creates a lot of
options for a lot of other

877
00:57:38,299 --> 00:57:39,979
people who didn't earn the value.

878
00:57:41,119 --> 00:57:43,819
And that creep is, is getting bigger.

879
00:57:43,879 --> 00:57:44,779
And we're to the point where like.

880
00:57:45,439 --> 00:57:48,539
You don't get the majority of the
value that you create with your time.

881
00:57:49,249 --> 00:57:52,929
You don't get the majority of the
options that the value you've provided

882
00:57:52,929 --> 00:57:54,399
is supposed to give back to you.

883
00:57:54,949 --> 00:57:59,059
And that really distorts society in a
really weird way because that's one of

884
00:57:59,059 --> 00:58:03,849
the most fundamental functions of money
is like, the harder you work, the more

885
00:58:03,849 --> 00:58:05,779
successful you're supposed to be, right?

886
00:58:05,789 --> 00:58:08,739
The more value you provide,
the better your life should be.

887
00:58:09,199 --> 00:58:13,179
The more value you should get back
and that disconnect has created this

888
00:58:13,179 --> 00:58:17,909
incentive where it's like the incentive
is not to create value at all, right?

889
00:58:17,949 --> 00:58:23,969
The incentive, if you want the safest way
in our current society here, anyway, and

890
00:58:23,969 --> 00:58:30,589
Luke, this is, I'm sure your path here is
if you want the safest way to, to receive

891
00:58:30,599 --> 00:58:35,309
the most value for yourself, regardless of
how much value you've created for others.

892
00:58:35,674 --> 00:58:40,104
The safest way is to go down this
very sort of like rubber stamped

893
00:58:40,104 --> 00:58:42,594
approved path where you're going
to go to a government approved.

894
00:58:43,164 --> 00:58:47,874
University, you're going to get one
of these designations that gives

895
00:58:47,874 --> 00:58:49,344
you some letters after your name.

896
00:58:49,504 --> 00:58:52,384
And then you're going to go work for
a company that does actually nothing

897
00:58:52,824 --> 00:58:58,214
except protect companies that do
do things the government a little.

898
00:58:59,184 --> 00:59:02,724
So it's like, it's like, Hey,
we're the, we're like, Deloitte is

899
00:59:02,724 --> 00:59:04,244
basically a lube company, right?

900
00:59:04,244 --> 00:59:08,004
It's like, let us, let us get in
between you and the government and

901
00:59:08,004 --> 00:59:09,144
make sure it doesn't hurt that bad.

902
00:59:09,349 --> 00:59:09,828
You

903
00:59:10,027 --> 00:59:11,407
Oh, that's so good.

904
00:59:12,967 --> 00:59:14,477
That's the intro right there, Luke.

905
00:59:15,622 --> 00:59:19,722
Yeah, and I'll send it to all my, uh, old
colleagues and I'll never, I'll never get

906
00:59:19,722 --> 00:59:21,402
a job there again, but I don't want one.

907
00:59:22,767 --> 00:59:23,257
know what?

908
00:59:23,317 --> 00:59:26,417
So like, we've got this, uh, we've got
the conference going on, and we're always,

909
00:59:27,397 --> 00:59:31,537
we're always looking for sponsors for
the conference, and we used to, so we

910
00:59:31,557 --> 00:59:36,765
did the Bitcoin Rodeo in 2018, and like
I was saying with this whole journey, I

911
00:59:36,765 --> 00:59:41,205
went down the path of like, blockchain
consulting right around that time, where

912
00:59:41,205 --> 00:59:44,915
it was like, and I was getting, I was
getting paid a lot from like, law firms

913
00:59:44,915 --> 00:59:50,145
and stuff to mostly tell companies they
shouldn't do this, but, um, I was involved

914
00:59:50,145 --> 00:59:53,595
in a, in a blockchain organization
here, and we put on some conferences.

915
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:56,880
through this company and like
Deloitte was always one of the big

916
00:59:56,880 --> 00:59:59,890
sponsors of the blockchain group and
then when we went back to a bitcoin

917
00:59:59,890 --> 01:00:01,200
only event they're just like no.

918
01:00:01,628 --> 01:00:05,458
They, they sponsored Prague, actually, of,
of all things last year, and their booth,

919
01:00:05,488 --> 01:00:08,158
I think, was the emptiest the entire time.

920
01:00:08,288 --> 01:00:09,728
It was so completely out of place.

921
01:00:09,728 --> 01:00:12,898
And of course, it was all this crypto,
blockchain, all this sort of thing.

922
01:00:13,028 --> 01:00:16,638
And, and the thing is, I mean, there
are some, there are some great people.

923
01:00:16,813 --> 01:00:18,943
People working there,
the individuals, right?

924
01:00:19,033 --> 01:00:20,293
Many, right?

925
01:00:20,543 --> 01:00:25,313
And, and the thing is, it's, it's not,
it's not necessarily the individual's

926
01:00:25,313 --> 01:00:27,023
fault that all this is, is happening.

927
01:00:27,023 --> 01:00:30,923
And I, I do feel bad for the, the people
who kind of get into something like

928
01:00:30,923 --> 01:00:32,218
this and have no idea what's going on.

929
01:00:32,538 --> 01:00:33,478
Uh, what's happening?

930
01:00:33,478 --> 01:00:36,638
Deloitte gets into this stuff because
it's just the latest buzzword, right?

931
01:00:36,668 --> 01:00:39,408
AI is a big thing there
right now, I know that.

932
01:00:39,788 --> 01:00:43,858
Uh, for example, and it's just, it's
just chasing the, the next thing.

933
01:00:43,868 --> 01:00:47,338
And, and as you say, just
always wanting to have their

934
01:00:47,338 --> 01:00:49,108
hand in, in every little thing.

935
01:00:49,108 --> 01:00:51,908
It's not just Deloitte, of course,
there's all these, all these consulting

936
01:00:51,978 --> 01:00:54,398
companies, Big Four, uh, What have you.

937
01:00:54,418 --> 01:00:58,678
But yeah, I just, I just think it's funny
that it was funny to me specifically

938
01:00:58,678 --> 01:01:02,968
that, that, that Deloitte was there at BTC
Prague, this massive Bitcoin only event.

939
01:01:03,348 --> 01:01:06,708
And, uh, yeah, no one was giving
them any, any time or attention.

940
01:01:07,205 --> 01:01:11,785
Yeah it's interesting you can't you really
can't blame the people in those in those

941
01:01:11,785 --> 01:01:16,185
roles because like I said previously like
no one's better than their incentives and

942
01:01:16,185 --> 01:01:22,330
that that is like an actually good path to
getting a lot of value back to your life.

943
01:01:22,670 --> 01:01:25,890
It doesn't really matter that
you're not actually providing value.

944
01:01:25,890 --> 01:01:28,510
You're providing value to
the entire path, right?

945
01:01:28,510 --> 01:01:32,950
You're providing value to the school
system that charges you and that

946
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:36,890
gets government grants and all this
stuff and indoctrinates people.

947
01:01:36,890 --> 01:01:40,040
And you're charging, you're
providing value to the consulting

948
01:01:40,040 --> 01:01:41,330
firm that you work for.

949
01:01:42,070 --> 01:01:47,230
That uses your work as a way to siphon
value out of real companies that

950
01:01:48,150 --> 01:01:52,050
either don't know that they don't need
Deloitte's help or that need Deloitte's

951
01:01:52,070 --> 01:01:55,600
help protecting them from getting
fucked quite as badly by the government.

952
01:01:56,420 --> 01:02:01,920
And that like, that's not an
irrational move to join that team.

953
01:02:02,590 --> 01:02:05,630
And, and it's not like, it's not
even really like a, an immoral thing.

954
01:02:05,630 --> 01:02:06,280
I don't think either.

955
01:02:06,310 --> 01:02:07,310
Cause if you're, you know what I mean?

956
01:02:07,310 --> 01:02:09,540
Like the lube is an important
part of the process.

957
01:02:09,540 --> 01:02:11,790
If it'd be much worse
if there was no lube.

958
01:02:12,290 --> 01:02:18,255
Well, well, it is immoral in the sense
that, you know, Not doing anything about

959
01:02:18,255 --> 01:02:25,575
the Nazis was immoral too, if you were
in Nazi Germany, like, not, not speaking

960
01:02:25,575 --> 01:02:29,765
up is, well, maybe not immoral, but
it's not the right thing to do either.

961
01:02:30,340 --> 01:02:30,640
Yeah.

962
01:02:30,650 --> 01:02:35,170
So it's, it's, uh, it's like a, like
a Schindler's list situation where the

963
01:02:35,170 --> 01:02:39,280
guy's hiding the Jews, but he's also got
like a free workforce from the Nazis.

964
01:02:39,730 --> 01:02:40,000
Right.

965
01:02:40,040 --> 01:02:43,470
And so it's, uh, like Deloitte does, and.

966
01:02:44,075 --> 01:02:49,885
Tax accountants, specifically consultants
of regulatory various kinds, do help

967
01:02:49,905 --> 01:02:54,405
protect people from the government,
for sure, and help interpret the

968
01:02:54,405 --> 01:02:56,885
ridiculous rules that the government
is going to have, and that's like a

969
01:02:56,885 --> 01:03:02,065
net positive, but they're still like,
they're only getting that value because

970
01:03:02,075 --> 01:03:06,605
the system is so absurd and so broken
and set up in such a serious way.

971
01:03:06,745 --> 01:03:11,728
And I think that's the biggest
detriment to the, the users of the

972
01:03:11,825 --> 01:03:13,875
Yeah, Deloitte even rhymes with exploit.

973
01:03:14,028 --> 01:03:14,795
in, um,

974
01:04:54,303 --> 01:05:02,608
Uh, well, I, I, uh Sneakily opened
BTC map here on my browser and

975
01:05:02,608 --> 01:05:08,208
I'm zooming in on Calgary and I
see 13 hits in actual Calgary.

976
01:05:09,028 --> 01:05:13,788
That's not super much, like how is
the actual Bitcoin adoption on the

977
01:05:13,788 --> 01:05:16,038
ground in the brick and mortar world?

978
01:05:19,922 --> 01:05:24,172
I want to say like 2014, 2015,
when we had this store, there was

979
01:05:24,172 --> 01:05:27,992
a Canadian exchange that was doing
some kind of merchant processing and

980
01:05:27,992 --> 01:05:31,782
they had a little app and we helped
them get a whole bunch of businesses

981
01:05:31,782 --> 01:05:34,102
in Calgary set up to take Bitcoin.

982
01:05:34,102 --> 01:05:36,732
And it was like wildly premature.

983
01:05:36,742 --> 01:05:38,762
Like I think we had like
60 on there at one point.

984
01:05:39,272 --> 01:05:44,582
And nobody but me spent any Bitcoin at
any of those places, except for the coffee

985
01:05:44,582 --> 01:05:46,592
shop that we had our office next to.

986
01:05:47,192 --> 01:05:50,712
And so, it was pretty premature.

987
01:05:51,032 --> 01:05:55,512
I think we're kind of getting to the
point where it's starting to be A little

988
01:05:55,522 --> 01:06:00,372
less premature, but it's still not like,
it's not that useful as a payment tool

989
01:06:00,382 --> 01:06:06,102
when you think about the tools that you
could use to spend your Bitcoin anywhere.

990
01:06:06,522 --> 01:06:11,542
So like I get paid in Bitcoin, I
live most of my life in Bitcoin.

991
01:06:11,612 --> 01:06:15,672
I obviously have to have some fiat
to, uh, to pay for things that

992
01:06:15,672 --> 01:06:18,742
need to be paid for in fiat, but
it's really easy for me to just.

993
01:06:19,207 --> 01:06:23,467
Cash in some Bitcoin through
BullBitcoin, send a small amount of

994
01:06:23,467 --> 01:06:28,487
money to a prepaid MasterCard, and then
just use that as a tap on my phone.

995
01:06:28,557 --> 01:06:30,337
So, that's functionally the same thing.

996
01:06:30,337 --> 01:06:34,807
It's spending Bitcoin, but
we're not putting the, we're not

997
01:06:34,807 --> 01:06:39,287
putting the, um, the onus for that
infrastructure on the merchant.

998
01:06:39,862 --> 01:06:41,462
We're putting it on the
spender in this case, right?

999
01:06:41,462 --> 01:06:46,632
And so, both of those things from like,
the standpoint of moving Bitcoin from

1000
01:06:46,752 --> 01:06:50,122
a store value to a medium of exchange,
I think are like, equally good.

1001
01:06:50,662 --> 01:06:53,732
Whether you're spending through like
a debit card that You can load with

1002
01:06:53,782 --> 01:06:57,452
Bitcoin or you're loading something else
with Bitcoin or buying a gift card from

1003
01:06:57,452 --> 01:06:58,702
like BitRefill or something like that.

1004
01:06:58,702 --> 01:07:04,112
They're all kind of the same
thing and I don't think it's that

1005
01:07:04,112 --> 01:07:10,412
important that, um, the next stage
of Bitcoin adoption be retail.

1006
01:07:11,022 --> 01:07:14,642
Um, where the retail comes in, I
think, is more from the community side.

1007
01:07:14,977 --> 01:07:19,817
So when, because it's, it's meaningless
to get a coffee shop, like this is

1008
01:07:19,817 --> 01:07:23,307
what we were doing back then too,
was that like these places could take

1009
01:07:23,327 --> 01:07:26,677
Bitcoin and it would auto convert
all of the, everything to fiat.

1010
01:07:27,137 --> 01:07:30,377
And it just became like a slightly
worse parallel version of their

1011
01:07:30,377 --> 01:07:31,717
existing payment infrastructure.

1012
01:07:32,617 --> 01:07:33,047
Yeah,

1013
01:07:33,072 --> 01:07:34,372
not really any point in that, right?

1014
01:07:34,372 --> 01:07:39,192
Whereas when you can get merchants,
which I think is one step away from

1015
01:07:39,192 --> 01:07:43,385
where we're at right now, starting to
want the Bitcoin and, you know, we're

1016
01:07:43,385 --> 01:07:47,655
seeing that in some places in the world
where there's, there is a big groundswell

1017
01:07:47,665 --> 01:07:51,910
of, of So if you're looking at actual
Bitcoiners running these businesses who

1018
01:07:51,910 --> 01:07:56,633
want the Bitcoin, I think that's where
it becomes more valuable as a whole.

1019
01:07:57,393 --> 01:08:00,413
And so we've got a little bit of
that going here, but it's not really

1020
01:08:00,413 --> 01:08:02,243
like the brick and mortar type stuff.

1021
01:08:02,243 --> 01:08:05,566
So we've got like one that's really cool,
that I would recommend everyone do is

1022
01:08:05,566 --> 01:08:10,311
if you're coming to Alberta, we've got
a hotel in Banff, which is a, uh, World

1023
01:08:10,311 --> 01:08:15,831
class, like, one of the most beautiful
places in the world, mountain town, um,

1024
01:08:15,871 --> 01:08:20,211
and there's a hotel there called the Banff
High Country Inn, where you actually get

1025
01:08:20,221 --> 01:08:21,871
20 percent off if you book in Bitcoin.

1026
01:08:22,831 --> 01:08:26,281
And that's because the owner of the hotel
is a Bitcoiner, he wants the Bitcoin.

1027
01:08:26,786 --> 01:08:30,346
And they can avoid paying whatever
they paid to Expedia, etc.

1028
01:08:31,385 --> 01:08:32,815
So, we've got a lot of
that stuff going on.

1029
01:08:32,835 --> 01:08:37,825
And then we've got the Saturday markets
that BTC Sessions and I have been putting

1030
01:08:37,825 --> 01:08:42,285
on, which is kind of like a flea market
slash farmer's market, where we get a

1031
01:08:42,285 --> 01:08:43,725
bunch of different vendors to come in.

1032
01:08:43,725 --> 01:08:47,255
And those have been really
cool, because we've been getting

1033
01:08:47,255 --> 01:08:49,195
like 30, 40 different vendors.

1034
01:08:49,750 --> 01:08:54,970
Out selling like everything from like
beef to bikes and we had a hypnotist and

1035
01:08:55,940 --> 01:08:58,730
plumbers and all kinds of people selling
services and goods and stuff like that.

1036
01:08:59,490 --> 01:09:03,600
And part of the owners from that
for that came from from Ben where

1037
01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:09,490
he was like trying to buy Bitcoin
or buy beef with Bitcoin and.

1038
01:09:09,845 --> 01:09:12,675
A bunch of us actually ended up tracking
down different ranchers who would take

1039
01:09:12,685 --> 01:09:16,135
Bitcoin, and we found tons of ranchers
who would take Bitcoin in Alberta, and

1040
01:09:16,135 --> 01:09:20,185
uh, we wanted to have this kind of like
circular economy going because of how

1041
01:09:20,185 --> 01:09:25,485
absurd everything's getting in Canada,
and like, the chances that um, like right

1042
01:09:25,485 --> 01:09:27,905
now Trudeau is very low in the polls.

1043
01:09:28,350 --> 01:09:32,760
Seems absolutely absurd that he could
win, but the chances that he just like

1044
01:09:33,120 --> 01:09:37,780
blatantly cheats and looks us in the
eye, and we have proof but no one ever

1045
01:09:37,780 --> 01:09:41,430
does anything about it, and he gets back
in for another term are not that low.

1046
01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:47,084
Like that could very well happen, and if
that were to happen, the chances that our

1047
01:09:47,124 --> 01:09:54,079
ability to buy red meat without either
sanction, limit, or taxation beyond The

1048
01:09:54,079 --> 01:09:58,429
current levels, um, the government very
well may try to cut down our ability to

1049
01:09:58,429 --> 01:10:03,839
buy red meat, and now we have a way to do
that without the government's permission.

1050
01:10:04,521 --> 01:10:05,351
that's wonderful.

1051
01:10:05,621 --> 01:10:09,681
And this is what I saw with at
least half of the places that

1052
01:10:09,711 --> 01:10:11,371
accepted Bitcoin in Madeira.

1053
01:10:11,371 --> 01:10:13,301
I don't know what your
experience was, Luke.

1054
01:10:13,301 --> 01:10:17,271
You weren't there as long as I was,
but, uh, uh, but, uh, some of the

1055
01:10:17,271 --> 01:10:22,371
places were run by real Bitcoiners and
actually, uh, people who wanted Bitcoin.

1056
01:10:22,836 --> 01:10:27,786
To keep the sats, uh, they didn't want the
fiat and, uh, that's, that's the only way.

1057
01:10:27,886 --> 01:10:30,006
I mean, that's the way it's got to go,

1058
01:10:31,076 --> 01:10:34,136
by the way, there's a, there's
another late brain fart here.

1059
01:10:34,216 --> 01:10:38,916
Uh, the, the, the term store of value,
uh, sort of, it's been rubbing me the

1060
01:10:38,916 --> 01:10:43,686
wrong way, uh, since the praxeology
book, because value is subjective, right?

1061
01:10:44,306 --> 01:10:48,256
So you could view it as a medium of
exchange through time rather than

1062
01:10:48,256 --> 01:10:49,956
a medium of exchange through space.

1063
01:10:50,376 --> 01:10:53,326
So they're really just two
aspects of the same thing.

1064
01:10:54,036 --> 01:10:58,066
And of course, through time has to come
before through space, because if there's

1065
01:10:58,066 --> 01:11:02,236
no medium of exchange through time, there
cannot be a medium of exchange over space.

1066
01:11:02,696 --> 01:11:05,186
But what you're really doing
when you're saving is that you're

1067
01:11:05,196 --> 01:11:09,666
trading with yourself, your future
self, and you're sending, you're

1068
01:11:09,696 --> 01:11:12,211
exchanging with Through time.

1069
01:11:16,191 --> 01:11:16,841
Any ideas?

1070
01:11:17,380 --> 01:11:18,830
Yeah, I mean, that makes perfect sense.

1071
01:11:19,060 --> 01:11:23,840
Um, I'm trying to go in the opposite
direction with the way that I'm trying

1072
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:27,530
to describe Bitcoin for, in a lot
of ways, that, like, I, immediately

1073
01:11:27,530 --> 01:11:29,180
that makes perfect sense to me.

1074
01:11:30,040 --> 01:11:33,730
But what I mean is, like, I'm
trying to, like, remove layers.

1075
01:11:34,980 --> 01:11:35,320
Yeah.

1076
01:11:35,810 --> 01:11:39,240
because, and I, I love
those kind of discussions.

1077
01:11:39,670 --> 01:11:43,279
And like, money is just one thing, really.

1078
01:11:43,879 --> 01:11:46,379
And we're describing like all
the elements of money, and

1079
01:11:46,379 --> 01:11:47,589
that's very interesting to do.

1080
01:11:48,119 --> 01:11:50,929
But I've been kind of trying to
focus more on like, how can I like,

1081
01:11:51,349 --> 01:11:53,029
how can I simplify this for people?

1082
01:11:53,129 --> 01:11:56,899
How can I like, take
away the layers of stuff?

1083
01:11:57,839 --> 01:12:03,065
Interesting abstraction and like that,
that's where you know, we did a, we did

1084
01:12:03,065 --> 01:12:07,355
a, um, at the Bitcoin Rodeo last year, we
did a little, uh, contest that was like

1085
01:12:07,355 --> 01:12:12,675
the Bitcoin elevator pitch competition
where it's like, you got 45 seconds alone

1086
01:12:12,755 --> 01:12:16,795
with a stranger and you have to pitch
them Bitcoin, like, what do you say?

1087
01:12:17,735 --> 01:12:22,800
And, uh, That, I think, was really
interesting because, you know, we've spent

1088
01:12:22,830 --> 01:12:26,670
so much time in the Bitcoin industry,
we have such a great, like, I would

1089
01:12:26,670 --> 01:12:31,180
call them, like, the intelligentsia
of Bitcoin, the, the very many great

1090
01:12:31,180 --> 01:12:37,150
thinkers that do a lot of, um, great
writing and, uh, discussion about, about

1091
01:12:37,150 --> 01:12:41,225
the topic of money and the topic of,
you know, Um, of Bitcoin, how it relates

1092
01:12:41,225 --> 01:12:47,075
to the topic of money and all these ins
and outs, and like, I'm getting to the

1093
01:12:47,075 --> 01:12:51,595
point where like, you know, I, I feel
like I have a good enough understanding

1094
01:12:51,925 --> 01:12:58,985
of money and what Bitcoin is for myself
to be able to be like, yes, I, I get

1095
01:12:58,985 --> 01:13:03,885
this, I get it at least enough to make
my own choices for myself, for sure.

1096
01:13:04,645 --> 01:13:08,845
And now I'm hoping to get it enough
to explain it to the next person.

1097
01:13:09,555 --> 01:13:13,705
And I think there's actually like a
barrier there, to a certain extent,

1098
01:13:14,325 --> 01:13:21,215
where, like, if you end up, um, like these
people that I, I was speaking to over

1099
01:13:21,215 --> 01:13:25,024
the last couple of weeks at these Freedom
events, if I send those guys straight to

1100
01:13:25,024 --> 01:13:30,424
a video of like, Breedlove and Sailor,
like, down the, down the rabbit hole,

1101
01:13:30,424 --> 01:13:32,434
like, they're gonna glaze over, right?

1102
01:13:33,014 --> 01:13:38,614
And, I, I, for me, the most interesting
discussion is not necessarily like,

1103
01:13:38,814 --> 01:13:43,794
how can we find the next best way
to describe Bitcoin and come up

1104
01:13:43,794 --> 01:13:47,894
with a salient point that reaffirms
what we all already believe.

1105
01:13:48,774 --> 01:13:54,039
Um, for me, I'm more interested in like,
How do I describe this to a person who

1106
01:13:54,039 --> 01:13:59,119
doesn't really give a fuck and make it
interesting in a way that relates to their

1107
01:13:59,119 --> 01:14:04,019
life that they actually care about because
it is something that everyone should care

1108
01:14:04,019 --> 01:14:11,619
about and, you know, we're, we're kind of
like ringing the fire alarm at this point.

1109
01:14:12,297 --> 01:14:12,537
Right?

1110
01:14:12,537 --> 01:14:15,727
It's like you guys, like
the building is on fire.

1111
01:14:15,787 --> 01:14:17,737
Like, this is the exit.

1112
01:14:17,947 --> 01:14:22,307
Like, we recommend you join us
as we walk up the exit here.

1113
01:14:22,827 --> 01:14:30,397
And I really, like, I'm more interested
nowadays in, like, what is the

1114
01:14:30,407 --> 01:14:33,757
simplest way to describe Bitcoin?

1115
01:14:35,727 --> 01:14:36,327
What do you guys think?

1116
01:14:36,337 --> 01:14:37,177
What's the simplest?

1117
01:14:37,207 --> 01:14:38,667
Oh, this is an interesting one.

1118
01:14:38,982 --> 01:14:44,612
But isn't that what the intellectual
masturbatory circle jerk is all about?

1119
01:14:44,622 --> 01:14:49,252
To come up with an analogy that
fits each and every person.

1120
01:14:49,602 --> 01:14:54,782
Like, I think Greg Sage said a great
thing when there were all these analogies,

1121
01:14:54,782 --> 01:14:59,212
but Bitcoin Bitcoin is that, and he
just tweeted Bitcoin is a potato.

1122
01:14:59,722 --> 01:15:04,872
And, uh, like, without an explanation,
and, uh, I guess you can shoehorn

1123
01:15:04,872 --> 01:15:09,962
something into making it into a potato,
but, like, you know, underground

1124
01:15:09,962 --> 01:15:12,702
and growing and stuff, but, uh, um.

1125
01:15:13,545 --> 01:15:18,625
But still, at the end of the day,
I think why we do the intellectual,

1126
01:15:19,875 --> 01:15:26,585
the mental gymnastics is the correct
term, the mental exercise, it's to be

1127
01:15:26,585 --> 01:15:28,385
better at communicating with people.

1128
01:15:28,385 --> 01:15:32,305
And I think what's more important
than communicating Bitcoin

1129
01:15:32,315 --> 01:15:33,755
is communicating the problem.

1130
01:15:35,075 --> 01:15:39,795
Especially inflation, because I think
most people think that inflation is a

1131
01:15:39,795 --> 01:15:46,025
natural phenomenon, and they don't know
that it's created by some asshole, like,

1132
01:15:47,095 --> 01:15:51,315
uh, and so they have no clue, like, uh.

1133
01:15:51,605 --> 01:15:52,885
It's not natural at all.

1134
01:15:52,925 --> 01:15:56,775
In a natural, like, so asking
the simple questions, like,

1135
01:15:56,955 --> 01:16:01,115
if you practice something, do
you get better at it or worse?

1136
01:16:01,575 --> 01:16:04,315
And yeah, of course you get better.

1137
01:16:04,365 --> 01:16:06,675
So why are prices increasing?

1138
01:16:07,528 --> 01:16:10,348
Like, it's that simple.

1139
01:16:11,078 --> 01:16:14,258
Like, why do people in the
public sector pay taxes?

1140
01:16:15,558 --> 01:16:15,968
Why?

1141
01:16:16,258 --> 01:16:18,688
Like, the really simple questions.

1142
01:16:18,958 --> 01:16:20,768
And like, come up with a good answer.

1143
01:16:20,768 --> 01:16:26,998
Please answer me, why people in the public
sector pay taxes, and why prices go up.

1144
01:16:28,018 --> 01:16:29,868
Yes, I'm listening.

1145
01:16:29,948 --> 01:16:30,838
I'm all ears.

1146
01:16:30,898 --> 01:16:32,238
Like, that's the thing.

1147
01:16:32,833 --> 01:16:37,233
yeah, I think, I think you're right with
the, like, questions are super useful.

1148
01:16:37,722 --> 01:16:42,552
And like I was saying, these sort of
freedom groups are kind of people who have

1149
01:16:42,552 --> 01:16:46,492
mostly identified the problem, but they
don't really, like, they've identified

1150
01:16:46,492 --> 01:16:49,942
the problem is that they don't trust
the government and that they know the

1151
01:16:49,942 --> 01:16:51,682
government is doing bad stuff to them.

1152
01:16:52,512 --> 01:16:55,772
They don't necessarily know all
of what the government is doing

1153
01:16:55,782 --> 01:16:57,022
and how that's affecting them.

1154
01:16:57,532 --> 01:16:59,862
And I think those kind of
questions are pretty important.

1155
01:17:00,502 --> 01:17:03,982
And the simple ones like that really
resonate, I've found too, where it's

1156
01:17:03,982 --> 01:17:06,102
just like, do you trust the government?

1157
01:17:07,792 --> 01:17:10,112
Almost everyone in the world
is going to say no to that.

1158
01:17:11,202 --> 01:17:14,952
And like, like a large majority
of people worldwide will say,

1159
01:17:14,952 --> 01:17:16,102
no, I don't trust the government.

1160
01:17:16,782 --> 01:17:20,967
And then it's like, okay,
well, do you think they're

1161
01:17:20,967 --> 01:17:22,042
going to keep printing money?

1162
01:17:24,020 --> 01:17:26,550
Of course, like, yeah, everyone's
going to say yes, they're

1163
01:17:26,550 --> 01:17:27,640
going to keep printing money.

1164
01:17:28,790 --> 01:17:31,080
And, and then it's like, where
does the money come from?

1165
01:17:31,835 --> 01:17:35,945
and why do we even pay taxes
if they can print money?

1166
01:17:36,345 --> 01:17:38,085
Like, that's another basic question.

1167
01:17:38,315 --> 01:17:39,055
Why both?

1168
01:17:39,765 --> 01:17:41,335
Why not one or the other?

1169
01:17:42,190 --> 01:17:42,570
Yeah.

1170
01:17:43,120 --> 01:17:47,630
And it, it's really just this, um,
like, I, I don't know where this came

1171
01:17:47,630 --> 01:17:52,500
up recently, but I, I saw a little
clip of that famous JFK quote of

1172
01:17:52,500 --> 01:17:55,850
like, ask not what you can do for
your, your country can do for you,

1173
01:17:55,910 --> 01:17:58,500
but what you can do for your country.

1174
01:17:58,500 --> 01:18:05,440
And like, it's crazy that that's like
positioned as this very inspiring thing.

1175
01:18:05,450 --> 01:18:07,170
Cause it's just like,
nobody was like, why?

1176
01:18:08,195 --> 01:18:11,213
Like, why would I, like,
why would I put my, yeah,

1177
01:18:12,395 --> 01:18:12,745
Like,

1178
01:18:13,795 --> 01:18:16,685
why, why, why would I, why
would I put you above me?

1179
01:18:17,640 --> 01:18:21,200
Like, it's, it's, it's one of these
things, this is an interesting phenomena

1180
01:18:21,200 --> 01:18:26,000
that I've noticed actually in the, in
the very polarized world that we're in,

1181
01:18:26,710 --> 01:18:30,620
and you know, I've got a lot of family
who are, um, very left leaning, and we

1182
01:18:30,620 --> 01:18:38,820
have very differing opinions on, um, on
COVID, and every, every element of the

1183
01:18:38,820 --> 01:18:44,755
cultural attack that's going on right now,
um, You know, I had to, I had to tell my

1184
01:18:44,755 --> 01:18:53,575
parents, like, do not take my son to a
drag queen story hour, like, literally,

1185
01:18:54,005 --> 01:18:56,755
like, and then we got into a discussion.

1186
01:18:56,755 --> 01:18:57,455
I was like, you know what?

1187
01:18:57,475 --> 01:19:00,265
Just, I don't care about the
sexual orientation of the

1188
01:19:00,265 --> 01:19:01,895
person or what they're doing.

1189
01:19:01,895 --> 01:19:05,625
Just like, please don't take my 8 year
old son to the strippers for any reason.

1190
01:19:06,510 --> 01:19:08,330
Like, I don't, I don't care.

1191
01:19:08,430 --> 01:19:08,690
Yeah.

1192
01:19:08,690 --> 01:19:10,630
I don't care who it is
or what their message is.

1193
01:19:11,240 --> 01:19:15,410
And so we're, we're very, we're
very divided in terms of like

1194
01:19:16,720 --> 01:19:20,830
the value proposition of where
our opinions are coming from.

1195
01:19:21,160 --> 01:19:21,470
Right.

1196
01:19:22,030 --> 01:19:27,210
And when COVID was like very obviously
starting to get to a point where it

1197
01:19:27,230 --> 01:19:32,090
was like, there, there are mountains
of data that point to the fact that

1198
01:19:32,100 --> 01:19:36,360
this is not only a lie, but like an
insidious conspiracy that is somewhere

1199
01:19:36,360 --> 01:19:41,050
between Um, you know, on the, on the
good side, maybe it was designed to rob

1200
01:19:41,050 --> 01:19:43,720
us at an absolutely unprecedented scale.

1201
01:19:44,130 --> 01:19:46,500
And on the bad side, maybe it
was designed to rob us on an

1202
01:19:46,500 --> 01:19:48,440
unprecedented scale and kill us.

1203
01:19:49,010 --> 01:19:53,100
So it's, it's a very bad story.

1204
01:19:53,100 --> 01:19:56,940
And I, I started to gather like mass,
mass amounts of evidence for this.

1205
01:19:57,470 --> 01:19:59,070
Because there are mass
amounts of evidence.

1206
01:19:59,130 --> 01:20:01,510
And I wanted to be like, you know
what, these are people that I respect.

1207
01:20:02,170 --> 01:20:04,540
I want to have an intellectually
honest conversation with them,

1208
01:20:04,550 --> 01:20:06,060
with facts that I've brought along.

1209
01:20:06,070 --> 01:20:08,820
I want to be prepared to address
whatever they're talking about.

1210
01:20:08,820 --> 01:20:13,382
And it never worked because, you
know, these people would say,

1211
01:20:13,382 --> 01:20:14,282
well, your sources are not good.

1212
01:20:15,942 --> 01:20:18,282
And, and I would say the same thing.

1213
01:20:18,292 --> 01:20:21,932
I'd be like, well, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, the literal

1214
01:20:21,992 --> 01:20:26,572
government funded propaganda arm of the
federal government is not a good source.

1215
01:20:27,592 --> 01:20:27,612
Um.

1216
01:20:29,162 --> 01:20:33,822
Those two kind, those two things are
kind of unreconcilable because you, you

1217
01:20:33,822 --> 01:20:37,512
have to like debunk every piece of their
entire worldview to get to that point.

1218
01:20:38,272 --> 01:20:43,212
And so I started to try to shift those
kind of conversations away from like,

1219
01:20:43,822 --> 01:20:49,372
let's talk about the facts and what, what
those facts logically support to like,

1220
01:20:50,402 --> 01:20:51,872
let's look at everyone's incentives.

1221
01:20:52,672 --> 01:20:52,922
Right?

1222
01:20:52,952 --> 01:20:56,312
And when, when a guy comes to your
door and he's trying to sell you

1223
01:20:56,312 --> 01:20:59,732
volcano insurance, and he's like,
I promise there's a volcano nearby,

1224
01:21:00,592 --> 01:21:05,242
like, that's not who you should
check with about volcanoes, right?

1225
01:21:05,252 --> 01:21:08,672
The guy who's trying to sell you
the solution for the problem that

1226
01:21:08,672 --> 01:21:14,492
he is sure exists has that perverse
incentive where even if he's right,

1227
01:21:14,522 --> 01:21:16,362
you can't necessarily trust him because

1228
01:21:19,027 --> 01:21:21,197
It's in his best interest to lie to you.

1229
01:21:22,157 --> 01:21:25,107
And when you start to look at all
these topics from that context of

1230
01:21:25,107 --> 01:21:29,397
like, okay, which of the people that
are telling me opposing things will

1231
01:21:29,407 --> 01:21:34,369
benefit if I believe them and the guy,
the guy selling volcano insurance.

1232
01:21:34,884 --> 01:21:36,184
Benefits vary directly.

1233
01:21:37,401 --> 01:21:39,801
Yeah, better buy volcano bonds instead.

1234
01:21:41,131 --> 01:21:46,571
Anyway, I'd just like to flip that
JFK quote, because I think it's true,

1235
01:21:46,581 --> 01:21:50,851
like with everything else in Bitcoin,
it's all of a sudden makes sense if

1236
01:21:50,861 --> 01:21:52,511
you put it through a Bitcoin lens.

1237
01:21:52,701 --> 01:21:56,871
So, ask not what your Bitcoin can do for
you, but what you can do for Bitcoin.

1238
01:21:57,141 --> 01:21:57,451
Like,

1239
01:21:58,016 --> 01:22:02,766
Well, the nice thing about that is
that Bitcoin is one of the first

1240
01:22:02,776 --> 01:22:06,896
systems in the world where it
naturally aligns everyone's incentives.

1241
01:22:06,906 --> 01:22:11,506
So, we need to, we need to
trust each other to be selfish.

1242
01:22:11,976 --> 01:22:14,366
And that's something that you can
actually trust other people to do.

1243
01:22:15,263 --> 01:22:17,183
well, I wouldn't say it's selfish.

1244
01:22:17,943 --> 01:22:24,273
I would say, trust people to, to,
uh, act in their own interest, like,

1245
01:22:26,648 --> 01:22:30,588
Selfishness is, uh, is, is
portrayed as a negative.

1246
01:22:30,918 --> 01:22:31,168
Right.

1247
01:22:31,168 --> 01:22:36,428
But then at the same time, you've got
the like, put on your own oxygen mask

1248
01:22:36,428 --> 01:22:38,118
before you help anyone else type thing.

1249
01:22:38,118 --> 01:22:38,298
Right.

1250
01:22:38,298 --> 01:22:43,998
And I think that that's, that is
a, um, a phenomenon that is wildly

1251
01:22:44,398 --> 01:22:49,123
underappreciated in our, in our society
that has, you know, You know, right?

1252
01:22:49,193 --> 01:22:52,543
Like when you think about us, not what
you can do for your, like what your

1253
01:22:52,543 --> 01:22:56,453
country can do for you, what you can do
for your country, like that's communism.

1254
01:22:56,753 --> 01:23:01,823
That's just, that's just straight
up communism from the single pillar

1255
01:23:01,853 --> 01:23:07,183
of, of hope from the fight against
communism in the world at the time.

1256
01:23:07,193 --> 01:23:11,463
He's just, he's literally standing up
there as the leader of the free world.

1257
01:23:11,978 --> 01:23:15,468
During the cold war and exposing
communism and no one called him on it.

1258
01:23:15,498 --> 01:23:19,318
So this idea that like selfishness is bad
and that we should have the greater good

1259
01:23:19,318 --> 01:23:26,788
in mind has been pressured into us really
over the last, like that whole time.

1260
01:23:26,788 --> 01:23:31,274
You know, we're going back 70 years,
80 years to the point where, they

1261
01:23:31,274 --> 01:23:35,524
started to really demonize and
vilify the idea of individualism.

1262
01:23:36,214 --> 01:23:41,334
And the problem with that is that
it ignores the fact that the most.

1263
01:23:42,224 --> 01:23:47,724
Effective way to maximize the greater
good, so to speak, is to generate as much

1264
01:23:47,724 --> 01:23:54,344
wealth as possible, and the best way to
do that is to align everyone's incentives,

1265
01:23:54,654 --> 01:23:59,654
have everyone working for their own
interests, and surprise, surprise, that's

1266
01:23:59,654 --> 01:24:02,964
when everyone will do the best work, is
when their incentives are aligned, and,

1267
01:24:03,534 --> 01:24:08,124
you know, the, the, um, this is a point
from the sovereign individual where, you

1268
01:24:08,124 --> 01:24:13,829
know, the reason that the West In our,
in our, um, approximation of capitalism,

1269
01:24:15,359 --> 01:24:19,189
won the cold war, so to speak, was
because the governments of the West

1270
01:24:19,229 --> 01:24:24,529
allow the entrepreneurs, the business
owners, the value and job creators

1271
01:24:24,529 --> 01:24:31,474
of the world to have ownership of the
capital to grow it before they steal it.

1272
01:24:32,894 --> 01:24:37,944
Whereas, whereas the, the communists, the
straight up, like the Marxist Leninist

1273
01:24:38,244 --> 01:24:43,524
socialist version of communism, um,
they take the assets and the capital

1274
01:24:43,524 --> 01:24:49,144
in an upfront, and because they, as
individuals, do not have the incentive

1275
01:24:49,144 --> 01:24:53,824
to grow that capital, it doesn't grow,
and so there's actually less value to

1276
01:24:53,834 --> 01:25:03,134
be spent by the communists in the, uh,
other side of the, the Iron Curtain.

1277
01:25:03,694 --> 01:25:06,434
Then there was To Be Spent
by the Communists on our

1278
01:25:06,434 --> 01:25:07,224
side of the Iron Curtain.

1279
01:25:07,654 --> 01:25:11,024
yeah, this is, this is so interesting,
I wish we could go on longer, because

1280
01:25:11,024 --> 01:25:14,084
we're, we're, we need to wrap up here
soon, but, but what you're seeing right

1281
01:25:14,084 --> 01:25:18,234
now, it echoes Ludwig von Mises, even
before he wrote, uh, Human Action, he

1282
01:25:18,234 --> 01:25:22,344
wrote, uh, a book called Socialism,
where he pointed out that it was not an

1283
01:25:22,344 --> 01:25:26,879
incentive problem, Because in the Soviet
Union, everyone had an incentive to work.

1284
01:25:26,909 --> 01:25:28,689
They had a gun to their head, literally.

1285
01:25:28,699 --> 01:25:30,749
They had the best incentive
in the world to work.

1286
01:25:31,059 --> 01:25:32,449
It was the pricing system.

1287
01:25:32,899 --> 01:25:36,729
Like, because if you don't let people
keep their money and do what they wish

1288
01:25:36,749 --> 01:25:40,749
with it, you have no way of knowing
who needs what and when and where.

1289
01:25:41,004 --> 01:25:46,884
Because, so when the factory
workers in Soviet were instructed

1290
01:25:46,954 --> 01:25:53,224
to construct a ton of screws, they
constructed a one ton screw, like,

1291
01:25:53,464 --> 01:25:55,724
because they did the simplest thing.

1292
01:25:55,734 --> 01:25:58,064
Like you say, it's the incentives.

1293
01:26:00,754 --> 01:26:01,114
Yeah.

1294
01:26:01,994 --> 01:26:05,994
Luke, will you finish this off, please?

1295
01:26:06,249 --> 01:26:07,089
Absolutely.

1296
01:26:07,499 --> 01:26:09,559
Dave, this has been a
fantastic conversation.

1297
01:26:09,559 --> 01:26:13,049
And yeah, as Knut was saying, we're
risking running out of our time slot.

1298
01:26:13,069 --> 01:26:18,309
So you've mentioned this a couple of times
now in passing about the Bitcoin rodeo.

1299
01:26:18,309 --> 01:26:21,739
So can you tell us all about
what that is and what's going

1300
01:26:21,739 --> 01:26:23,059
on in this year's edition?

1301
01:26:23,446 --> 01:26:26,786
Yeah, so, uh, the Bitcoin Rodeo
is a Bitcoin only conference that

1302
01:26:26,786 --> 01:26:28,276
we run in Calgary, Alberta here.

1303
01:26:28,326 --> 01:26:31,966
Um, we're running it this
year on July 2nd and 3rd.

1304
01:26:32,246 --> 01:26:35,636
It's at a place called the Grand
Theatre, which is an awesome old theatre.

1305
01:26:36,110 --> 01:26:36,600
we've got J.

1306
01:26:36,600 --> 01:26:36,790
P.

1307
01:26:36,790 --> 01:26:38,140
Sears headlining this year.

1308
01:26:38,310 --> 01:26:39,360
Um, J.

1309
01:26:39,360 --> 01:26:39,530
P.

1310
01:26:39,530 --> 01:26:42,890
Sears is probably, you guys are nodding,
but he's probably like, I don't know.

1311
01:26:43,250 --> 01:26:49,230
The most well known guy who no one
knows his name, you know, because

1312
01:26:49,750 --> 01:26:52,060
like, I've been talking about
this for a couple of months now.

1313
01:26:52,830 --> 01:26:57,100
And if you say that, that
comedian with the long red hair

1314
01:26:57,100 --> 01:26:59,960
who makes fun of the government,
they're like, oh, yeah, that guy.

1315
01:27:00,380 --> 01:27:04,170
So JP Sears is coming to headline.

1316
01:27:04,200 --> 01:27:07,040
We've got an amazing lineup of speakers
that you can see on BitcoinRodeo.

1317
01:27:07,750 --> 01:27:08,130
com.

1318
01:27:08,460 --> 01:27:10,930
Another one of the highlights
is we're doing a roast.

1319
01:27:11,490 --> 01:27:16,880
Uh, just like Comedy Roast like we just
saw with Tom Brady of, uh, BTC Sessions.

1320
01:27:17,615 --> 01:27:18,545
That should be amazing.

1321
01:27:19,275 --> 01:27:25,075
And, uh, yeah, we've got a pretty big
focus on, um, like how Bitcoin is useful

1322
01:27:25,215 --> 01:27:29,505
and valuable and important to the real
world and to normal people rather than,

1323
01:27:29,875 --> 01:27:32,915
you know, we're trying to stay a little
bit away from the macroeconomic topics

1324
01:27:32,995 --> 01:27:36,455
as well as the technical topics, and
we're trying to bring in a lot of that,

1325
01:27:36,575 --> 01:27:43,125
um, like freedom crowd, so there's going
to be a lot of, a lot of stuff that Um,

1326
01:27:43,705 --> 01:27:45,165
we hope reaches out to those people.

1327
01:27:45,425 --> 01:27:50,255
We're not doing like Bitcoin one on one
type stuff, which, you know, the, the

1328
01:27:50,265 --> 01:27:55,555
goal is to be like, I want this to be
entertaining and useful to Bitcoiners

1329
01:27:55,555 --> 01:27:57,075
who show up as well as new people.

1330
01:27:57,795 --> 01:27:59,505
Cause that's one thing that
I find I go to conferences.

1331
01:27:59,505 --> 01:28:00,685
I never watch the talks.

1332
01:28:00,705 --> 01:28:04,635
Cause it's just like, I've seen
this, like, this is the, I already

1333
01:28:04,635 --> 01:28:07,585
saw this exact conversation between
these exact people on Twitter.

1334
01:28:08,685 --> 01:28:11,725
And, uh, so we're trying to,
we're trying to take it a little

1335
01:28:11,735 --> 01:28:13,175
bit outside the box in terms of.

1336
01:28:13,715 --> 01:28:19,825
Like, what Bitcoin will actually mean
to people and those, those questions

1337
01:28:19,825 --> 01:28:24,445
of what it will mean to people are
in large part the same for Bitcoiners

1338
01:28:24,485 --> 01:28:27,045
and non Bitcoiners, you know, we're
talking about all these incentive

1339
01:28:27,045 --> 01:28:32,315
systems and the hope is that fix
the money, fix the world, right?

1340
01:28:32,475 --> 01:28:34,435
Bitcoin fixes all the incentive systems.

1341
01:28:35,105 --> 01:28:37,305
And so we want to kind of try
to start getting into like,

1342
01:28:37,655 --> 01:28:38,825
some of what those are like.

1343
01:28:38,825 --> 01:28:43,725
So like, you know, one, one panel that
I'm really excited for, um, like I

1344
01:28:43,725 --> 01:28:47,435
mentioned, my good friend Madax and
Francis Pulea from, uh, my co founder from

1345
01:28:47,435 --> 01:28:53,035
BullBitcoin, uh, will be speaking on a
panel moderated by Flo Montoya, another

1346
01:28:53,045 --> 01:28:59,985
amazing artist, um, about pretty much how
fiat is ruining our culture, how fiat's

1347
01:29:00,115 --> 01:29:01,795
sapping the value out of our culture.

1348
01:29:01,805 --> 01:29:04,495
And, you know, you can see.

1349
01:29:05,110 --> 01:29:12,190
The proof of work in modern art versus
classical art or, or, or, or madex

1350
01:29:12,210 --> 01:29:14,850
art, you know, there's a difference
in that kind of proof of work.

1351
01:29:15,448 --> 01:29:17,628
And so those are the kind of
topics we're going to be talking

1352
01:29:17,628 --> 01:29:22,188
about is like, what, what is, what
does this actually mean to us?

1353
01:29:22,748 --> 01:29:24,668
Basically, so we've got that going.

1354
01:29:24,668 --> 01:29:28,358
We've got the, the, uh, next
episode of the Saturday market

1355
01:29:28,358 --> 01:29:31,968
on July 1st as well, just kind
of the day before the conference.

1356
01:29:31,968 --> 01:29:34,858
And yeah, it's going to be an
awesome, uh, Uh, awesome event.

1357
01:29:35,499 --> 01:29:39,429
we can use the promo
code, Freedom Footprint,

1358
01:29:40,849 --> 01:29:42,129
Sounds fantastic.

1359
01:29:42,169 --> 01:29:42,719
Yes.

1360
01:29:42,789 --> 01:29:45,259
that I'll, that I'm gonna
make, like, at any moment now.

1361
01:29:45,689 --> 01:29:46,579
And, uh,

1362
01:29:47,069 --> 01:29:48,259
Could we have code freedom?

1363
01:29:51,209 --> 01:29:51,999
Or is that taken?

1364
01:29:52,389 --> 01:29:53,889
you can have code freedom, yes.

1365
01:29:54,189 --> 01:29:55,659
We try to push that everywhere.

1366
01:29:55,699 --> 01:29:57,939
So like code freedom for the win.

1367
01:29:59,209 --> 01:30:01,409
I'll be sending this to
a bunch of Calgarians.

1368
01:30:01,409 --> 01:30:02,219
I promise you.

1369
01:30:02,559 --> 01:30:02,879
Yeah.

1370
01:30:03,531 --> 01:30:04,341
You heard it.

1371
01:30:04,501 --> 01:30:07,161
Code freedom for 10 percent
off or something for some

1372
01:30:07,161 --> 01:30:08,831
percent off for, for something.

1373
01:30:10,171 --> 01:30:11,401
Some kind of something.

1374
01:30:13,041 --> 01:30:15,291
Dave, I absolutely love this conversation.

1375
01:30:15,471 --> 01:30:18,311
Uh, would love to have you back
at some point in the future.

1376
01:30:18,341 --> 01:30:23,161
And I hope to see you in, um, in,
uh, away from keyboard sometime.

1377
01:30:23,661 --> 01:30:24,151
Uh,

1378
01:30:24,301 --> 01:30:24,821
Oh, great.

1379
01:30:25,301 --> 01:30:26,201
Yeah, I'll be in Prague.

1380
01:30:26,621 --> 01:30:30,991
Yeah, uh, and, uh, yeah, so we'll
see you soon, and, uh, uh, we're,

1381
01:30:31,011 --> 01:30:34,951
we might be going to, um, to
Canada next summer, right, Luke?

1382
01:30:35,271 --> 01:30:39,621
Yeah, I just had my, uh, my first
kid over here and so I'm a little

1383
01:30:39,631 --> 01:30:44,041
stuck on this side of the planet
for this next little while here.

1384
01:30:44,391 --> 01:30:47,871
And next year we're going to bring
him to meet all the family in Canada.

1385
01:30:47,951 --> 01:30:49,021
So, uh, yeah.

1386
01:30:49,301 --> 01:30:53,091
Hopefully Bitcoin Rodeo is
having an edition next year

1387
01:30:53,091 --> 01:30:54,551
and we'd love to stop by.

1388
01:30:55,016 --> 01:30:56,096
Yeah, we'll be doing it next year.

1389
01:30:56,296 --> 01:30:59,096
It's, it's always, so this is the
other detail about the Bitcoin Rodeo

1390
01:30:59,096 --> 01:31:02,996
for anyone coming from out of town
is we do it right before a big event

1391
01:31:02,996 --> 01:31:06,916
called the Calgary Stampede, which
is like, it's, it's the greatest

1392
01:31:06,916 --> 01:31:08,146
outdoor show on earth, they call it.

1393
01:31:08,156 --> 01:31:10,726
And it's this absolutely massive event.

1394
01:31:10,946 --> 01:31:13,347
It's around 2 million people, every year.

1395
01:31:13,357 --> 01:31:16,727
And it's pretty much the whole
city turns into like drunken

1396
01:31:16,747 --> 01:31:18,317
cowboys for like 10 days.

1397
01:31:19,077 --> 01:31:21,487
And we have this massive, um,

1398
01:31:22,302 --> 01:31:22,862
Orgy?

1399
01:31:22,927 --> 01:31:23,037
it.

1400
01:31:23,517 --> 01:31:29,177
Well, there's some of that goes
on, but uh, but uh, you know,

1401
01:31:29,337 --> 01:31:32,697
the whole city does turn into
like slutty cowgirls and cowboys.

1402
01:31:33,242 --> 01:31:37,722
But, uh, yeah, we've got one of the
world's largest rodeos going on during

1403
01:31:37,722 --> 01:31:42,922
that time, and chuckwagons, and like
this giant midway event, and crazy

1404
01:31:44,192 --> 01:31:48,192
fiat food, and it's, it's a, it's
an awesome time to come to Calgary.

1405
01:31:48,262 --> 01:31:51,922
It's, the whole city is a huge party,
and we plan the Bitcoin rodeo to

1406
01:31:51,932 --> 01:31:53,352
be right before that every year.

1407
01:31:53,642 --> 01:31:58,837
So, it'll be around the same time next
year, it'll be like, early july at some

1408
01:31:58,837 --> 01:32:04,007
point probably like july uh first and
second or something like that next year

1409
01:32:04,552 --> 01:32:07,552
Use code FREEDOM for 10
percent off your tube of lube.

1410
01:32:08,145 --> 01:32:13,875
code code freedom oh and you know you know
what i don't know if this is like stepping

1411
01:32:13,875 --> 01:32:19,205
on your guys toes but use code bitcoin
brains for 10 off of tickets to btc proc

1412
01:32:19,583 --> 01:32:22,823
Yeah, if you haven't already
used the code FREEDOM, yeah.

1413
01:32:23,168 --> 01:32:23,358
yeah

1414
01:32:26,453 --> 01:32:28,563
Alright, fantastic, man.

1415
01:32:28,883 --> 01:32:31,963
See you soon, and looking forward
to grabbing a beer or two in Prague.

1416
01:32:32,608 --> 01:32:33,088
sounds good

1417
01:32:34,113 --> 01:32:37,943
Anything else you'd like to mention or any
way you'd like to direct our listeners to?

1418
01:32:38,701 --> 01:32:42,341
yeah i mean we've got uh we've got
the bitcoin rodeo at the bitcoin

1419
01:32:42,351 --> 01:32:47,036
rodeo on twitter i'm bitcoin
brains you Uh, Bitcoin rodeo.com

1420
01:32:47,036 --> 01:32:48,656
is the website for Bitcoin rodeo.

1421
01:32:49,046 --> 01:32:52,316
Um, my personal brand website
is bitcoin brains.com.

1422
01:32:52,346 --> 01:32:53,426
That's very important.

1423
01:32:53,516 --> 01:32:55,286
Lots of important reading on there.

1424
01:32:55,766 --> 01:32:57,946
Um, bull Bitcoin.

1425
01:32:59,286 --> 01:33:03,396
Anyone in, uh, in Canada should
visit Bull Bitcoin or Bitcoin?

1426
01:33:03,396 --> 01:33:07,336
Well, anyone in the United States
should visit Bitcoin well to buy,

1427
01:33:07,426 --> 01:33:11,656
to buy Bitcoin and Costa Rica
should visit Bitcoin and, uh.

1428
01:33:12,476 --> 01:33:17,106
Yeah, wherever you are, like, stick to
non custodial Bitcoin only exchanges.

1429
01:33:19,006 --> 01:33:21,036
I think that's everything
I have left to shill.

1430
01:33:21,656 --> 01:33:26,106
And buy art from my good friend
Midex, Spacebull on Twitter.

1431
01:33:27,148 --> 01:33:28,688
Absolutely perfect ending.

1432
01:33:28,868 --> 01:33:30,868
So Dave, thanks so much.

1433
01:33:30,898 --> 01:33:32,378
This was, this was fantastic.

1434
01:33:32,378 --> 01:33:34,208
And as Knut said, looking
forward to next time.

1435
01:33:34,308 --> 01:33:34,508
So

1436
01:33:35,338 --> 01:33:35,808
Thanks for having

1437
01:33:35,858 --> 01:33:37,108
has been Freedom Footprint Show.

1438
01:33:37,308 --> 01:33:38,098
Thanks for listening.