Bitcoin or Slavery?

What no one will stand up for or talk about...

Full Interview Here 👆

---

Nico Moran: Bitcoin purity tests, imprisoning freedom fighters, & what crypto bros wont talk about

Summary:

Nico & Brandon discuss the importance of unity among Bitcoiners and the need to support each other in the fight against the state. They also touch on the role of politics in the Bitcoin movement and the potential impact of adopting a Bitcoin standard. The conversation highlights the power of Bitcoin in challenging the existing power structures and the need for individuals to take control of their own wealth and privacy. The conversation delves into the issues of the Federal Reserve, the manipulation of emotions by the left, the false illusion of fiat currency, and the need for human adaptability. It also explores the generational divide and the impact of traditional schooling on indoctrination. The conversation highlights the importance of Bitcoin in challenging the current system and creating a better future. Nico shares his personal journey from hitting rock bottom to becoming a successful content creator in the Bitcoin space. He encourages aspiring content creators to keep going, work hard, and have faith in their journey.

Playable Characters Show Ep038

Presented by Bitcoin Trading Cards - https://btc-tc.com

Nico's Bio:

CEO and Founder of

Simply Bitcoin

Connect with Nico here:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BITVOLT

Nostr - primal.net/p/npub1gu47n7fxfm4py48jktmu6tdqcvva4e87fntynuzzf62zxnw2e7tsc6907g

Website - https://bitvolt.com/

Timestamps:

00:00 Bitcoiners Purity Tests

05:00 Fiat Theft Crumbling System

11:15 Why Governments Are Scared

19:00 Why Elections Should Matter To Bitcoiners

25:00 How the Right Keeps Tripping Over Themselves

31:05 Is it OK to Replace Something With Nothing?

37:10 What Does Your Government ACTUALLY Do For You?

40:50 How Far Are We From People Waking Up?

47:15 Hippie Bubble Popping Will Heal Things

51:00 Is There An Agenda Against American Interests?

56:00 Younger Generations ONLY Know Sound Money

59:00 What Has Happened To The School System?

01:04:25 Nico Story From Venezuela To America

01:11:35 Advice To Bitcoin Content Creators

01:17:20 The EndGAME

01:25:45 The Story of Simply Bitcoin

Transcription:

Brandon Gentile (06:59.87)

Mr. Nico Moran of Simply Bitcoin, the creator, founder of Simply Bitcoin. Thank you for joining me here today and being a playable character in a sea clearly of non-playable characters. Thank you.

Brandon Gentile (07:26.594)

Well, appreciate it brother. Feelings Mutual, it's, you know, you and I could sit here. It's funny, like we did the show a couple weeks ago, me, you and Opti, BJ, and you know, we could have been there for six hours, like over a couple of beers and just ranting on and on. So it's again, the Feelings Mutual, I appreciate what you do and being in the fight. And I love really the two daily shows that I watch are you guys simply and Nolan Bauerle, which I know you guys are.

Uh, good friends with, yeah, I mean, you guys, the two best real Bitcoin shows out there and just deciphering the madness of what's going on in the world. So speaking of all that, like we are kind of saying offline, we'll, we'll mix some of that in at some point and parse it out a little bit. But boy, oh boy, this world that we're in right now with, I mean, again, whether it's Dame, the FISA stuff going on, we just didn't, we didn't talk about that a second ago. But like then you have Samurai going on. Uh, I mean, just it's an endless attack from the state. You, you say it all the time, right? It's not red versus blue. It's a state versus you.

It's not it's the party of orange versus party of green. Where are we, brother? I mean, it's just like what is going on? The infighting going on between Bitcoiners. I mean, we actually boomer Bitcoiners fighting each other right now. I see people that are crypto versus Bitcoin people. And we've got the state over here is laughing like there's constantly distracting us to frog in the boiling pot for decades. And they're just laughing at us right now. And it's just it feels, you know, I feel very hopeful, but it also feels kind of like, what are we doing? Helpless a little bit. But.

I don't know, please parse through this a little bit for us.

Brandon Gentile (13:32.278)

You know, it's wild because I feel like you made me think of some of these power structures go back hundreds of years, right, you just mentioned, you know, really going back central banking, the French Revolution, it might've been in the show earlier, your guys show, you know, we talked about the French Revolution and even before that, right? And some of these power structures, you have people that they've never been told no in their life, right? Like families, like literally a hundred generations or 50, whatever it is, 50 generations of people that are, you know,

British crown type of stuff where they have always just ruled life and they don't know any different. And what you just described gives me chills in a way, because again, it's complete humanity changing, dynamic changing. Like we've never had the ability to own our own property, really, right? It's like you either rent from the government, the property taxes or your gold gets centralized or whatever it is. And we finally have that. And they're now, like you said, it feels like they're starting to really understand that and kind of like the OMG part, like, oh boy, like we.

We were the drowning man in the water, and it's this, we're the frog in the boiling pot, and they've been doing these things because I think these families are so good at hundreds of years of lineage of like, hey, this is how we keep power. And it's not, I don't think all of them are necessarily evil in a sense, right? They just think like, well, I'm a God. Like, I'm this person, and like, this is how life works. So I don't wanna say like, there's some evil people at the top necessarily, but collective people.

do evil things in a way. Halens razor, like it's not always malice, it's just collective stupidity in a way. And you look at like the Bill of Rights eroding, like do we even have it? Like no one even says, no one does anything, no one stands up to defend them. Fortunately we have the Second Amendment here in America, but it's wild, like you just never got to hear about this before. So.

I would love for you to kind of just comment on like, again, like you said, the disintermediation of money, disintermediation of state, it's paramount, or money in state, because it's paramount. We never heard about this stuff before even, and now we get to hear about it with social media. We get to see these things. So like you said, I do agree that it's gonna be, it's gonna be quicker, because the people are starting to wake up and realize what in the world is going on? Like your rant today on the show was epic. You know, like that was, it was an old timer, right? And it's, that's the revolution right there. The self-custody is a revolution, and that's it.

Brandon Gentile (16:07.822)

I was gonna bring that up in here. I love that you're bringing this up. I was gonna talk about this, yeah.

Brandon Gentile (17:52.43)

Thanks for watching!

Nico (01:03:16.061)

Yo, what's up, dude? How are you?

Oh, just finished a fucking show, man. Just it's so crazy because like I literally like I went on a fucking rip and I was like, guys, like, like we're like we're literally like shit is getting real. They're putting us in a fucking box now. Like the stakes are higher, you know, and you guys are fucking criticizing like swan and Bitcoin mag and like whatever. Like, what the fuck are you guys doing? And then I went on this fucking rip, bro, and like people were enjoying it. Whatever.

Soon as we switch to the next segment in the chat, ah, Bitcoin met David Bailey He's such a fact and then like I'm like Opti like talks and I interrupt Opti and I'm like Opti just stop right there I'm like, dude, did you just not realize what the fuck I had to say? That's some commie ass type of shit Like if you have a problem against a private company Start your own and compete with them if you think you know what's best and if you think you can beat them

Because if not, what the fuck are you doing? Don't buy their products. Don't watch your shit. Like, what are you trying to do? Train change a private company with a private, which you don't have any stake. You don't own the company. You're trying to change it from the outside. The fuck are you bro? A commie? And I went fucking off bro. Cause it just got me in a bad mood, bro. They just put one of our own in a box. All right. They put them in jail 20 year potential sentence. And these motherfuckers are more focused on talking shit about David Bailey. Bitcoin magazine.

As much as I don't agree with a lot of their business decisions and a lot of the people they choose to partner with, like they are the biggest media outlet that Bitcoin has right now. They're the most SEO optimized. They're the most respected outlet. Like it or hate it. Like I'm I have my own media company. I'm in a way competing against what they're doing, but I'm not a fucking retard at the same time. Right? Like it's so stupid, dude. I'm sorry, man. I'm just going off a rant. But

Nico (01:05:15.157)

We're recording right now holy shit that's bad

Nico (01:05:33.909)

Please don't put any of that on here.

Nico (01:05:59.706)

Oh man.

Nico (01:06:44.469)

They have them. They have the monopoly on violence, dude. And like, you know, and like people seem to be like naively, you know, like just naive and like they just they forget. And, you know, they think that this is all like for fun and games and it's all memes and JPEGs and like whatever. But it's like we are going up a very powerful institution that it's a it's a, you know, winner takes all type of thing.

And all we have is grassroots. We have better incentives, but they have all the men with guns. And they can just put you in a box and like specifically, like, look at the political environment here in the U S right now, like whether you're left, right, conservative liberal, like they're charging the leading candidate with a crime, like he's currently in court right now. Right. So like, it's not necessarily like things aren't necessarily.

like smooth sailing. Like I really believe like the system is breaking because Fiat is breaking with it. And it's just a symptom of the system failing the political atmosphere, the political environment. So Bitcoin is like our life raft. It's like our way out of this madness. But the people in the life raft are like literally like, you can't be on the life raft because you're not pure and you don't like Bitcoin enough. And it's like, and then like, you're like, dude, like

Like there's a fucking 50 pound 200 foot Megalodon in the ocean chasing after us. And you're fucking complaining about, you know, this dude on the fucking raft. That's not as morally pure as you are, bro. Like, I'm sorry, dude. Like, look, I get it. You know, I don't like shit coins either. Like, I don't like shit. Like I think that they hurt people and I get that. And you have to take like a stance in somehow. And we try to do that at simply where, where we choose certain types of sponsors.

But again, that's a business decision, bro. There's other amazing Bitcoin content creators that aren't quote unquote, you know, they don't, they, they're a little bit more liberal in terms of who they choose to partner with and they're a lot larger than us. They're a lot bigger than us and they do only Bitcoin only content. Right. So again, like that's their business decision. We have decided to take another business decision. Let's see what happens in the free market. Right. And let the, you know, I think it's, I don't think it's a winner take all thing.

Nico (01:09:06.421)

but like, let's see who, you know, let's see who comes out on top at the end of the day. Right? That's the way I look at it, bro. But like that's capitalism. Like that's the way that things are supposed to be done. I really don't like this kind of like commie collectivist type of mentality where you have no skin in the game. You have no experience running your own business. You haven't really built anything. You're just an observer and you're trying to tell other private companies how they should and how they shouldn't run their businesses.

Like, dude, like, go do it on your own. You'll see how hard it is. And then let's have a conversation. And I bet you, you won't be talking about that. You'll be talking about like, how do I expand my business? Let's do a potential collab. Let's see like how we can make more money. That's where your mind's going to be at. Not like, Oh, are we morally pure enough to be considered Bitcoiners in the eyes of, you know, the hive mind, like it's absurd, man. It's absurd. I'm kind of sick of it. And I think this really put me over the top.

Like this, this whole thing where they locked one of us in the box for privacy. Like, I'm like, dude, like you guys are lost in the sauce. Get your head in the game type of thing.

Nico (01:10:32.489)

Well, I mean, bro, thank you for having me. I'm a huge fan of yours. And I was really excited when you invited me to come on. So happy to be here.

Nico (01:11:09.353)

So good.

Nico (01:12:10.049)

Yeah, so I mean, so, you know, I recently had Jeff Booth on my show, like a week or two ago, and the way that he frames it is I think the most accurate kind of representation of what is actually going on. And the way that he describes it is in this system, they don't have an option but to surveil and but to control because the system is based on theft. So we're like,

Observers and we're looking into the system and we're like what the fuck is wrong. Excuse my language What the f is wrong with these people like they're psychopaths like this is nuts. Like why do they just keep taking? Because the inside the entire system is based on theft. They need to build it that way For the system to operate The problem that I think they're having and I think that we're all kind of living through this some people call it the fourth turning whatever is you want to describe it, but

our generation, like we got dealt these hand of cards. And essentially the cards are saying like, look, like, like there needs to be a change. Like there needs to be a revolution. And I think Bitcoin is that vehicle. It is that tool in order for us to achieve this revolution. The revolution that we're trying to aspire to, trying to fight towards is the separation of money and state. But like every other revolution.

And like the, like the, I always bring up the, the example of the separation of church and state, which was extremely bloody. And then there was the Napoleonic Wars that came after it. Like it was a horrific time in human history. Millions of people, people died. I don't think it's going to be like that. And I think it's going to be a lot quicker. And I don't think a lot of people have to die, but fundamentally what this is, is it's a revolution. Like you are radically changing the preexisting system and the preexisting system.

is going to fundamentally fight back. That is what the FISA thing is. That is what Joe Biden saying 44% capital gains tax, 25% unrealized tax. That is what the 30% tax on Bitcoin miners is. That is what the Elizabeth Warren bill is all about. It is literally the system fighting back against the decentralization of information, decentralization, better said,

Nico (01:14:34.901)

the disintermediation of information and the disintermediation of money. And it's like, it's like, it's vicious and it doesn't like it. And it's like, no, but at the same time, they have a little bit of a cognitive dissonance because they've been used to operating in this environment where like their, their return on violence, their ability to kind of, uh, use violence in order to achieve a certain political end goal has an extremely high return.

But in a world where people are taking self custody of their Bitcoin, like, and specifically in a country like the U S we're like, it's like one of the most armed societies on the face of the planet. What are you going to do? Are you going to go door to door, millions upon millions of Americans all over the country and start literally busting down their door and say, yo, where are your private keys? Like, especially if they didn't commit a crime, like, dude, I bet you, if you do that to, you know, a couple thousand people, like you're going to get a bad result.

Like you're going to cause some type of political divisions in the country. You're going to cause instability. Right. So that's what we're fighting for fundamentally as Bitcoiners is getting people to take self custody. And if enough people do this, we win this thing by default, but like we will win the revolution. You can't shut this down. It's not going away. Right. So all we need is just more people operating within our system so that, and you, you mentioned this earlier where you're talking about the, that we're just like this minority.

Our goal as Bitcoiners is to fundamentally for us to become a big minority enough for like we're unfuckable with right? Like we're such a big minority that it's like you pass any type of anti Bitcoin legislation or regulation and you know, you're going to have 10, 20, 30 percent of the population up in arms saying like, yo, go fuck yourself. Like we're not going along with that. Right. But what I'm just describing is essentially that is the chaos. Like that's where it comes from. That's where the tyrant, that's where the tyranny comes from. That's where the.

the like this over encroaching government type of actions and stuff like that's where it's coming. It's coming fundamentally from that. They're scared and we're winning and we're making progress and they're trying to stop the inevitable.

Nico (01:18:59.005)

Yeah. And like, I appreciate you saying that as well. And what I would say, Brandon, is that like, like it's the and Tucker did an amazing interview, which I highly recommend everyone. And by the way, they dislike this interview so much that it's shadow banned. So if you go on YouTube and you put Tucker Carlson, Mike Bens, it won't pop up. You have to go to Google, put Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson, Mike Bens.

And then it will show you that interview. That interview was one of the most powerful, um, historic interviews I've ever seen in my life. And essentially they go down the rabbit hole and just the TLDR is that governments were not ready for the internet. They were not ready for peer mass scale, peer to peer communication. It freaks them out. They have been used to.

They have been able to control the narrative on a mass scale because there's only been a handful of legacy media outlets that During the pandemic. We've really discovered that they weren't like Reporters they were they were professional propagandists like in the Soviet Union like the guys that were running Pravda Which is like the state official newspaper. They put Pravda to shame the New York Times puts Pravda to shame

Like the Wall Street Journal puts probs that shame their same kind of go to movements where Elizabeth Warren goes to the Wall Street Journal. They try to release on the Wall Street Journal that Bitcoin was used by Hamas to raise funds. Social media responded like this to that, like a vicious like immune system and they couldn't propagate the narrative. And it got to the point where there is a representative Tom by the name of Tom Emmer.

that literally cornered the head of FinCEN and said like, Hey, listen, that article was bullshit. Right. And you literally had the head of FinCEN say like, actually terrorists preferred the legacy financial system over Bitcoin. Like boom, game set match. It's over. Finish. That was not possible before mass scale peer to peer communications. And to go back to your original point about this awakening,

Nico (01:21:23.305)

That's what's happening. It's causing a great awakening in society as more and more people go to Twitter or go to the internet to consume the information they wish to consume. That's why the US government is so hell bent on taking down Elon, taking down Twitter. Like what came out with the Twitter files was disgusting. It was like literally agencies like, take down this person, take down this person, take that. We don't like what he has to say. Like.

That is completely against the First Amendment. Like they have no regard for it. Like they don't care because, and that was the whole scam. And I think the internet really kind of revealed it is that we, like as a society, like Operation Mockingbird, all this stuff, I guess as a society, we've been psyoped. We've been mind controlled. And then they give us like this like illusion of like, oh, but you have an election every four years. So you kind of get to decide where the thing is, but.

I think really what was discovered in the 2016 election was the uncovering of some people called the deep state. I called the administrative state, right? But basically this unelected bureaucracy that stays in power regardless of who gets elected into office and what was discovered is like, they're the ones actually running the entire country. Now the problem is that when you have an unelected bureaucracy that runs the entire country,

The issue for them is that they're used to operating in a body where they don't get feedback. There is no accountability. And now all of a sudden the internet has given anyone the ability to grow a platform and hold them accountable. Not only hold them accountable, expose their bullshit in real time and they're not used to that. And it freaks them the fuck out. They're like, Oh my God, like, what do you mean? Like this is uncovered. Like we can't do that. We got to get this. We got to put this guy away. Look, the first guy that did it.

Like, but on a mass scale was Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Look at what happened to them. Right. Like Edward Snowden released the, you know, like the CIA was spying on everyone. And then Julian Assange released the, like the infamous Apache gunship, just like mowing down people.

Brandon Gentile (01:24:04.593)

Okay, I've never heard that happen before.

Good thing we're on the other side.

Nico (01:24:09.707)

What was the last thing? What was the last but the magic of editing, right? What was the last thing you heard?

Brandon Gentile (01:24:15.221)

Yeah, exactly. Pretty much like I heard everything. So I started saying refresh on my side. So I heard basically everything until last like 10 seconds. So, yeah.

Nico (01:24:26.613)

Oh, OK. Yeah. But look, just to kind of till the art, summarize it up, right. Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, they made examples of these people. All they're doing is reporting, right. But they weren't reporting through the controlled, acceptable media sources. Right. So, yeah, like it's this crazy world that we live in, and especially like as Americans. Right. Like I'm an immigrant. I wasn't the version of this country I was sold on is not the version of this country that we're living in today. This is.

nuts like the level of control and evil really that's what it is that we're seeing from our so called betters that people empower.

Brandon Gentile (01:25:06.925)

Yeah, it's wild. I remember like 10 years ago, listening to Hillary Clinton talk about civil society 2.0. And it was basically her, like they're in a, it was similar to like the Obamacare, the Jonathan Gruber guy from like, you know, 12, 14 years ago when he was in like the academic setting, similar also to the FDIC thing from a year and a half ago when they're in the round table. And they're like, well, yeah, there's courses gonna be bank runs. And of course, like we don't believe in the banking system that much like the people do, ha ha. And Hillary Clinton.

You know, Jonathan Gruber, Obamacare was saying lack of transparency is a great political tool. Like we had to shove it down people's throats in order to just get it past, to take control of people, stuff like that. And then you have Hillary Clinton to civil society, 2.0, which was basically, like you said, the administrative state. And she was saying, it really doesn't matter if we lose elections. The State Department is so it's so built out between the military bases and the State Department and all these apparatuses within the administrative state that we will run things regardless of who's president and regardless of what happens. It doesn't matter.

And so I think that's, like you said, the Mike Benz interview was one of the more eye-opening things for the average person to see. And I think what a lot of us that paid attention, it was confirming, right, of like, oh my gosh, like this is my greatest fear is actually true. And then it waking up people up. So, you know, I guess speak to like, like the importance of just being active politically locally. You know, this is like a hot topic within, you know, you know.

Libertarian or Bitcoin or communities, but boy, oh boy. I mean elections do have consequences and maybe right now Yeah, the average rate like you might be so well, it doesn't matter Brandon like, you know, Nico like well Maybe you know, hey you have a better case now but like this is the whole point if you if you Don't do this decades ago and you let yourself continue to get to this place now We find ourselves in this place where like you said we have to shift the entire system because like Jeff says like you can't fix the reality from the current system, so Anyway, just if you could elaborate or just you know speak on what you

your thought on just again being active politically, whether it's what Dennis Porter's doing or just being active locally and knowing your community, the people around you, so we can not be in situations like this in the future.

Nico (01:27:09.705)

Yeah, I mean, look, so I think it's incredibly important. Like, you know, I always kind of make the joke and it's not a joke, right? It's an election year. The most important vote you can make is taking Bitcoin to self custody. That being said, elections do have consequences. So and this is a very uncomfortable topic for Bitcoiners. But the reality is that Trump is anti CBC. That means that he's like in from the from my perspective, politically, like I'm voting for that guy.

Biden is pro CBDC anti Bitcoin. So like you think about it, like who would you rather vote for in that situation? Like put aside conservative red blue, like whatever, just think about it from like a purely Bitcoin or lens like Vivek RFK Jr. Ron DeSantis passed an anti central bank digital currency bill here in Florida. Like

Yeah, absolutely. Like the in traditional like fiat politics, I could call it. Absolutely. It holds big significance. I mean, look at what happened in El Salvador. Right. Like El Salvador is a great example where Bitcoiners have essentially we've I don't want to say we've gained control of the state, but we are now protected. If you're in El Salvador, you're now protected by the men with guns. Right. The men with guns now protect Bitcoiners.

Right. Like the men with guns now enforce Bitcoin as legal tender. Like, like that's important fundamentally. Right. So yeah, I think the political process is incredibly important. I think from how it currently stands, the Republican party has been a lot more pro Bitcoin than the Democratic party, even though it's not monolithic at all. Like it's not black or white. They're, they're Democrats that support Bitcoin. And there are Republicans that are anti Bitcoin.

But kind of like the general consensus is it's kind of like Republicans are more pro and then Democrats for whatever reason are more anti Bitcoin. Right. It's very strange because, you know, the party stands on equality and equal opportunity and all this stuff. But it's like, you know, Bitcoin and of course, like, you know, they're for the little guy, which is interesting because like Fiat ravages the little guy the most. Right. So you would think that they would be pro something like Bitcoin.

Nico (01:29:31.169)

Right. But then there's this beautiful thing about Bitcoin, which is that it exposes incentives. Right. So, you know, whether you're a tyrant on whatever ideology you're operating on, like Bitcoin exposes you for who you are and what you're trying to do. So, yeah, I think we're entering a phase in the next five to 10 years that I think Bitcoin is going to enter the political discourse, but immensely. Right. I think we're seeing the first inklings of that.

this election cycle with Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, RFK Jr., Trump, like testing the waters with the CBDC. He got surprised when he mentioned it with the crowd. He was like, yeah, and if you elect me, I'll be anti-CBDC. And then the crowd's like, yeah. And he's like, whoa, I didn't know you guys are like, yeah, okay. Anti-CBDC. And of course, he's just trying to get elected. He's trying to get votes, right? But, you know, it is entering into the political discourse. And what I will say

is that the current administration is extremely hostile towards this thing. They want a central bank digital currency. When Gary Genzer accepted the whole ETF, dude, like, first of all, they butchered that release, number one. Number two, dude, like that letter that was like, we accepted this.

Brandon Gentile (01:30:49.075)

Yeah, that was terrible.

Nico (01:30:53.729)

But I think it's a horrible decision. It's like, dude, like you work in government, like it's not your decision to decide what the markets can do or what the markets can't do. Right. So yeah, I mean, I tend to like shy away from that in my own show, just because I want to be inclusive of everyone. And I think it's such a hot button issue, but those have been my observations so far. Like clearly there, there are some patterns that can't be ignored.

Brandon Gentile (01:31:02.033)

Amazing.

Brandon Gentile (01:31:21.741)

Yeah, and it's funny because I came from a political world in the 2000s. You and I are similar in age. I graduated Michigan State in 09, and I was very political in the 2000s. I was in political science, and then eventually got out and got into real estate, found after the crash, gold and silver, and playing hockey and doing stuff. But I had a lot of time to study and just see what was going on. But I realized, once the great financial crisis happened, I realized, oh, shit, the...

conservative side team that I was on, I thought that was like you said, they generally align maybe more with like freedom, the principles Bill of Rights, but I realized there was just a game being played in all of us. It was the money bailouts and George Bush is the one that started it. And I was like, Whoa, well, that's not that's not what we do here, you know, and then Obama came out, Bush brought us on the platform. And then Obama came and dropped the platform out from under us and finish it off. And you're like sitting there like what, you know, what in the world is going on. So that was really my eye opener of going down this rabbit hole of figuring out this the money game of

of what was happening and how things were, you know, how we were being played basically. Transitioning to that though, or from that in a way, where politics, at this point, I don't know if it is the answer, like you said, you gotta be plugged in, but it is tough because we're in Bitcoin because of, we think this is the answer, it's the new system. It defunds and suffocates these people from doing these egregious things to all of us. In saying that, you know, I talk to a lot of people, I'm sure you get this too.

and a lot of conservative people, and they'll endlessly talk for hours about, the government this, the government that, and they're in our life and they're doing this. And then you mention Bitcoin or you say something, they're like, well, the government won't let it. The government won't let us have it. The government won't let us do that. And I'm like, whoa, whoa. Like, are we not the government? If you're saying that your vote doesn't matter and you can't change it and politics isn't downstream from culture, then we have a bigger problem here. We need to talk about the credibility of elections. So like, do you get that too? Because it drives me absolutely bonkers.

Nico (01:33:16.609)

Yeah, I mean, so like, you know, like we're kind of heading down this conversation, right? So, yeah, I from the traditional American right wing perspective, you would think that like, oh, Bitcoin. Yeah. But what I've seen from like traditional conservatives is kind of like this reactionary, like they react to the left. They react to what the left is doing. And.

Brandon Gentile (01:33:34.159)

Easy.

Nico (01:33:46.529)

And I'm like looking at Tucker and I'm looking at like tempo or I'm looking at like Alex Jones. I got these people as a massive audiences and like they're like identifying like the lunacy of the left and like what the left is doing. And like they're like whatever. But I'm like you guys are just like effing react like you're just reacting and like saying like oh this is crazy. But like if they were serious about taking down the left and they're serious about taking down communism.

The fifth tenet in the communist manifesto is the necessity for the centralization of credit, the necessity for a central bank. There you go.

Brandon Gentile (01:34:22.977)

Hey, Eric has a pocket constitution in his jacket. I got it somewhere, but it's, I got the communist manifesto sitting on my desk all time. So we remember. I have a jacket.

Nico (01:34:28.289)

Exactly. Keep your enemies closer, man. You got to know, right? I tweeted this out the other day. Fiat enables socialism. Bitcoin starves it. How? Right. So socialism is based like the only way that ideology works is effective wealth redistribution. Right. So there's two ways of doing that. Direct taxation. That's not enough. Right. And then the most effective.

is a wealth redistribution through inflation. Right. So if the conservatives and the right wing were really serious about defeating the left, like for good, like type of thing, they would adopt a Bitcoin standard. Look, by definition, this a central bank and fiat money is a progressive system. Right.

Bitcoin is the most conservative money the world has ever seen. Literally by definition, it can't change. You can't change the rules. There's a fixed supply. Right. So the conservatives are operating in a progressive system, trying to change the progressive system and the progressive system is operating on its own set of rules. Right. And again, maybe I'm wrong here, right? There's progressives that are Bitcoiners and I support them and I think that Bitcoin should be inclusive and all that thing. But I think that

Bitcoin is a much more conservative technology than it is a progressive technology. And the reason for that is it protects you from confiscation. It protects you from redistribution. And without redistribution, you can't really have, you know, the quote unquote equality, right? That is only the equality is only possible through coercion, right? Through like, I'm going to take from you and I'm going to give to the other guy. But what happens when you have unconfiscated wealth, right?

that kind of changes the conversation, the topic. So to go back, I'm like ranting and rambling, but to go back to your original point, yeah, it's perplexing to me why, you know, these conservative commentators that have these massive audiences are not shouting from their rooftops about the benefits of Bitcoin. Now, to go to the progressive argument, I can make an argument for Bitcoin on the progressive side. It's the most equal, equitable money the world has ever seen, right?

Nico (01:36:45.569)

Like if you truly care about the little guy, the little guy gets absolutely massacred by inflation. Right. The little guy does not have equal opportunity. Right. So yes, if you're from the progressive mindset, Bitcoin is for you too. Right. But I think, you know, just to kind of summarize it here, Bitcoin in itself is apolitical.

But the consequence of the world adopting a Bitcoin standard is extremely political.

Brandon Gentile (01:37:18.693)

Mm hmm. Yeah. Well said. You know, it's funny, like I couldn't agree any more in like the properties that Bitcoin has and how you broke that down. And it's funny, like, you know, I just go back to I had this thought. So going back 15 years ago, I had this thought of like, man, we need to come together somehow. And the Bill of Rights Constitution for me at that time, not knowing Bitcoin in oh nine, 15 years ago was the thing where I was like, OK, we can galvanize behind this because it's the document where it gives everyone freedom and, you know, 90, 95 percent of people generally want freedom.

And there's always gonna be the outliers. And so to me, that was like the obvious thing of like, man, and then so it became obvious. That's where Bitcoin eventually became obvious where that you learn through Bitcoin, which you can't in the fiat system. You don't learn it in gold. You don't learn it in these other worlds where they're just, like you said, it's a state, it's not red versus blue, it's a state versus you. They're distracting you. They're distracting you and pitting you against each other because we are very similar, way more similar than we are different. And in like all those things, like you said, conservative or progressive.

A lot of those values, I share those same values too. Now, was I conservative or whatever my entire life, libertarian, yeah, but I share a lot of those progressive values too actually, because I think they're human things, like a lot of them, and they just use emotional marketing on the progressive side of the Marxist side to entrap human beings and really get them over to that side. And I think that's where a lot, it makes me think of the Ronald Reagan quote of, and again, he says Democrats, but like, it's not that they don't know anything, it's just they know so much that it isn't so.

And to me, that's how I look at it. The people of, you know, Fiat is a brainwashing mechanism. We go back to these intelligence agencies and all these things. It creates mental illness in people, unfortunately. And we're living through that right now. And I couldn't agree more to you with, I think of Glenn Beck's of the world, the Tuckers, all these people. And it's like, I just commented on one of Glenn's, they talked about the having the other day. I'm like, how do you guys not talk about this more? And the only thing I can think of is, one, you don't get it, obviously, okay, great. But two, it's like,

Are there some people that you think you're freedom fighting with, but at the same time, like, are they scared that their job might go away because they can't now fight? You know, like... Like... I...

Nico (01:39:21.089)

I don't know. I don't know that dude. I've gone down this rabbit hole where I'm just kind of like they identify that the issue is the Federal Reserve. Like especially like the more kind of like Steve Bannon types, like all that stuff. They identified the issue. They're like the issue is the Federal Reserve. And you're like, OK. And then and then it reminds me of like the Thomas Sowell video where like the guy was like asking him, so if you end the Fed, what do you replace it with? And the guy's like.

Brandon Gentile (01:39:27.121)

I could feel you going there.

Brandon Gentile (01:39:32.827)

Yes.

Brandon Gentile (01:39:40.669)

Cause of George Gammon's yeah Ron Paul yeah.

Nico (01:39:51.105)

how do you you don't replace a cancer you just end it right um but here's the thing like history has shown that it will inevitably be co-opted because humans human beings are prone to that like emotional manipulation and I truly believe that that's why the left has been as successful as it has been is because it kind of like uh I think human beings needs purpose right and if you're like if you're not doing well in society right and you're low and

They it's almost as if they give you something to make you feel that you're part of something bigger than it is. Like you're in a fight to end climate change. Like, bro, OK, like, dude, like we're in a fucking ball float, like orbiting a fucking giant fireball, flying through outer space at hundreds of thousands of miles and faster than that, and then we're orbiting a giant fucking black hole in the middle of this fucking like.

Brandon Gentile (01:40:29.937)

Yeah.

Nico (01:40:47.233)

And then you have the goal to think that the government somehow government can't do shit and is going to somehow Fucking change the climate like bro Like the climate isn't steady like this thing changes like it's the way it is it's the innovation and the uh, uh, um Adaptive adaptability. I don't know if that's a word but the ability for humans to adapt to different circumstances That is going to make us survive this like I mean like

Brandon Gentile (01:41:08.409)

Yeah, adaptability.

Nico (01:41:15.297)

Holland would have been like underwater for hundreds of years, but then they realized they're like, holy shit If we don't build these badass dykes, we're gonna go underwater. So let's build these badass dykes so it's like like betting against human innovation and betting against human beings ability to adapt I think is naive and Like thinking that somehow you're gonna be able to like, you know pause the climate

on earth like dude in a billion years I think the sun's gonna expand and it's gonna like just like eat the earth or some shit like that like dude like it's like things are changing like to think that you're gonna somehow save earth like dude save yourself first like look within yourself become a better human being and stop trying to control other people like you know and I think it's what you said like I think fiat is a disease and fiat has given this like false illusion to a lot of people that I think money comes out of nowhere.

I could just grow on trees. You can have free everything. And I think it's given politicians specifically this like God, like complex where they feel they can like, you know, solve all these issues. And the reality is that we can't afford it. Like the, the, the U S government in 2023 spent $1.7 trillion more than it collected in tax revenue. Where'd that money come from?

They printed it and everyone's like, oh, we can print it. It's like, no, dude, they're literally just taking out of your pocket because the numbers don't change. You're like, no, I have the same amount of money. It's like, no, but the purchasing power went lower. Right. So, yeah, I mean, Bitcoin changes this in the sense that like, I think in over like a long enough time scale, I think it's going to make politics like obsolete in the sense that. What happens when a politician's only mechanism to

raise money for whatever fucking idea comes out of their head is via direct taxation. Like, you know, the whole conversation changes. Now, all of a sudden, that politician surely does care a lot about what you have to say and how you feel about them. But as long as they have this ability to just literally create money for free that everyone else has to work for, I think the problems of today are just going to keep on going and go. It's just going to keep getting worse and worse and worse and worse.

Brandon Gentile (01:43:38.445)

Yeah, 100%. You know, it's funny, like I, you mentioned, I always, for so long, I was like, how can a sane human being, and you know, God love everybody, you know, Catholic, I think you're a Catholic too, I believe Catholic boys, I, you know, I love all people, I love all people, but how can some people believe the things that come out of someone's mouth in the sense of, like, you're against climate change, you want dirty air and dirty water, it's like.

Yeah, you're right. I breathe a different supply of air and I actually drink a different water source from you. And I don't like women either, because I don't have three girls and I don't have a wife or a mother or grandmothers. I mean, in the things that people like, the stories they tell themselves are mind blowing. And this is where we find ourselves. I think of again, the incremental relenting, which you guys were talking about earlier, which is just a frog in the boiling pot and it's so well said. And this is something you guys brought in the show earlier too.

they, what am I getting for my taxes? Like I actually wrote a letter to Gretchen Whitmer, our governor here in Michigan, and it was like, what am I getting from, like I could go to Florida and I could, no state income tax, or I could go to Texas, or I think Tennessee, or like I could go, or Arizona. I could go there, like I might, I might just end up moving here, because what am I getting? Like what am I actually getting? The roads just suck here, it's terrible, you're trying to take all of our rights here, you know, gun rights, everything. Like what am I getting for my 6% or what the heck I'm paying every year?

And it's just, it's mind blowing to me, but do these bad things going through, so this and then Samurai Walt, what's going on there, kind of bringing this all together. I mean, do bad things just have to keep happening? I mean, people do have to get punched in the face a dozen times till they realize, hey, I'm in a fight. This guy's at worth the bar, I'm on the ice rink, and I'm in a fight. I didn't wanna be, but now I'm in a fight.

Nico (01:45:19.553)

I unfortunately, bro, like I think it's human nature. It's so funny that you wrote a letter to your governor and, you know, I'll, let me respond to that real quickly. So like Florida and Texas have no income tax. Where's better quality of life, New York, California, which has incredibly high income tax or Florida or Texas that has no income tax. So it's like, like, like what the fuck, right? So, and then they would tell you like their argument is like, no, well, we need

Brandon Gentile (01:45:41.264)

Enough said.

Nico (01:45:48.641)

to build out services for the people. And my argument would be like, do you think you're going to do a better job than entrepreneurs? Right. Like I don't think so. Right. Um, so, but anyways, that that's a whole other issue. So, but to, to, to go back to, like I tweeted this out and I was kind of joking, but at the same time I was serious when Javier Malay won the election in Argentina, I was like, all right guys, we have the political roadmap.

All we need is 150 percent inflation for a libertarian to get elected. So, like, so, I mean, and I was joking, but at the same time, I was serious. Like, I don't think people ask questions until money breaks and stops working. And then when money stops working, people are like, oh, okay. You know, like maybe we should look for an alternative, but as long as the bread and circuses are strong, like.

Brandon Gentile (01:46:21.169)

That's great.

Nico (01:46:43.201)

They just released a new fallout show on Amazon Prime. It was so awesome. As long as there's a game on Saturday, you know, as long as you can like have a barbecue, then watch Netflix. Like people don't understand like how good people in the U S have it compared to the rest of the world. And when you have it really good, it's decadence and comfort. And when you have decadence and comfort, like people are really not incentivized to pick up that metaphorical rifle and be like, all right, you know,

with time to change shit up. Like it's just it's too comfortable. So I think things have to get progressively worse for people, which sucks ass to say that for enough for a critical mass to wake up and be like, you know, what the fuck, dude, like this is kind of weird, you know.

Brandon Gentile (01:47:29.517)

100%. You know, so it's funny, like I'm Googling, when did the TV come out? September 27th, 1927, color TV, I don't know, must've been a couple of decades after that. But I would, so when I was interviewing Surfer Jim the other day, I've been thinking about this for a while, but then he said this, and we go back to like what WTF happened in 71, like, you know, 64, they were taken, well, I guess, sorry before that, right? But then like 64, they're taking the silver out, and then obviously gold in 71, but I think of like the television. Like Surfer Jim, I was like, you know, I asked him, I forget what I asked him, but he was like television.

He's like the television. He's like, I grew up with it. Like, I'm sure I spent way too much time watching it, but this bread and circus, like it just, what you said made me think of this, like the Colosseum, the Roman Empire, you have like all the games on, then I felt drafts tonight, you know, we got this on and it's just like you said, it's that comfort, it's that like, well, you know, like it's not that bad. Well, I'm not breaking the rules. I'm not breaking the law. Like, eh, it's not that bad. Like no one's knocking on my door to come handcuff me and take me away right now. I mean, I've had family members say stuff like that to me. And it's just like,

You want to just throw them up against a wall and shake them. And because you're trying to limit this, like the collateral damage, like this Samurai guy's going to jail. That is the collateral damage. Ross Albrecht going to jail. That is the collateral damage from people not doing, not standing, the light not disinfecting the darkness for decades. And we are starting to live through that. And I don't want any of us to go to jail. I don't want my family to go to jail. I don't want, you know, like that's what we're trying to stop at the end of the day. And that's what I think is, you know, it's so like right in our face. And it's like,

It's so scary, like you said, because we only need a couple percent of people to change it and to really, you know, politics being downstream for culture and change that sentiment. But it feels so far away at times.

Nico (01:49:07.585)

Yeah, I mean, it does feel tremendously far away. And I think that's just because like the nature of the industry that we just happen to choose that happened to choose. And I think that from like a human time span, right, like this is moving so slowly, but the humans would live 70 to 90 years old, you know, between that kind of like injury age range. So it's like, from our perspective, we're just like, dude, this is happening so slowly.

But from like a historical standpoint, like things are happening pretty effing fast. Right. And I think it's just like accelerating and accelerating. And I really think it was the Internet. It was like the Internet like like dawned. It's peer to peer global communication. Like that's nuts. Right. Like like back in the day, they set up like the first telegraph or whatever underwater.

And that was the first time like the United Kingdom could like talk to someone in the U.S. and it was like relatively quickly before that you literally had to put a fucking piece of paper on a boat and fly it over the Atlantic. You would not hear from your it's like oh I get a letter from my family member dated two months ago and you'd be like oh so great to hear they could be dead but you could you like you're like kind of like interacting whatever like now I could literally pick up you know and call someone.

in India, which is like literally halfway across the world, like literally across the world from me, like, and I can communicate directly. I mean, look at what we're doing right now, like video a thousand miles away from each other instantaneously and have a regular conversation. Like this was not possible, you know, 20 years ago. And then what are the implications of people being able to do this on a massive scale? Now, all of a sudden, like you have can have all these people communicating.

you know, these dissonant ideas in the eyes of the state and like, they're like, holy shit. Like, no, like they're not supposed to question JFK and they're not supposed to question. They're not supposed to question the money. Like, what do you mean? Like they're not okay with our fucking, uh, you know, our national security policy. Like, what do you mean we can't invade countries anymore? Like they're not supposed to know this, these dirty peasants like only we're supposed to know this shit. So it's like, yeah, man, like

Brandon Gentile (01:51:10.091)

This is the Mike Benz. Yep.

Nico (01:51:28.001)

It's just crazy how this is all this stuff is happening. And like, I feel like I'm a broken record when I mentioned this book, but I'm going to have to man, sovereign individual, bro, like they just predicted all this shit. Like they just predicted they weren't right about a lot of the like communism going away. They like evolved. But, you know, all the other stuff, they're a fucking spot on about it. Like they were so accurate.

in their just kind of like mental model. And if we just keep following that mental model, like things are just going to get progressively worse because the state is just going to get like they're going to be starved. You know, like I saw Lynn Alden tweet this today and it resonated with me and it was like, hold on a second. It was such a good fucking it was a Nostra post. Does the entire developed world tax apparatus that was built in the 20th century.

and extends into the 21st century depends on ubiquitous financial surveillance. They're not going to give that up without a fight. I've been saying I've been saying that at a number of conferences and podcasts that privacy is their main battleground for the next decade. Back in the 19th century and before money was mostly private, there were plenty of dictators, but there was no major method of surveillance, surveilling all transactions. Therefore, things like broad income tax were untenable to enforce. But in the 20th century, as money increasingly moved around.

At the speed of light, people needed bank accounts to keep up. It wasn't forced upon them. They chose it. And those bank accounts were centralized, surveilled and ruggable. This allowed authorities to switch to income tax, which required ubiquitous financial surveillance to work. And it ultimately allowed them to switch to fiat currency altogether. Now in the 20th century, 21st century, Bitcoin, its various layers allows people to hold and move around global money without permission banks. And they can do so peer to peer and they could do so with custodians and open layers, et cetera.

unlike the base layer of fiat, the base layer of bitcoin is permissionless. Now, okay, that's just talking about money. Apply information to that as well, dude. Like it is so crazy that we're growing up in this time, but it's fucking chaotic as shit at the same time. Like it's like, holy fuck. House prices are fucking crazy. Like it's just nuts, man. The whole thing is just, it's bananas.

Brandon Gentile (01:53:46.445)

It really is. It's like, I just don't know if people grasp, you know, the average person or normie grass, you know, like we could have the debt, the United States could be a hundred trillion by the end of the decade. I mean, there's no telling. I mean, we're on that exponential curve at somewhere along this line now of the exponential curve. I know, you know, Lynn tweeted out the, what was the CBO thing just a couple of months ago of like their own projections of like, yeah, this is unsustainable. I mean, like you feel like you're in a simulation, like we're in a game. It's like, where does it end? What happens?

hippie bubble and we've talked about this over time too but like the older generations like Lynn just mentioned in that in that nostril you know tweet or whatever you call it it's um it's the system built by the silent generation and in the boomer generation and it doesn't work anymore it's just it's a system past its time and the younger people are going to become in power speaking of politics and things of that nature and it's just not gonna it's not gonna fly that dog don't hunt anymore you know like 401k you know arisa you know all these things from it

You know, like you're stamped like a cow, you're branded with your debt number so we know who's who and who has the, so we can pin their national debt on them. I mean, it's a joke. And that's where the younger generations, some of the Gen Xers and the millennials on under, they're like, no, we're not doing this anymore. We're just not going to. So I think that's where, to your point, it does, I think a lot of these things are probably moot in a way, like it just iceberg flips almost, and it happens quickly, because in the next couple of elections, you're gonna have.

Bitcoiners coming into power and it's just going to start flipping. And I think that's the thing that's almost hard to realize, where maybe the debts do start kind of spiraling out of control. But at the same time, people are coming into power, people like us. And they're like, no, no. Like, what are we doing here? So anyway, I think that's, you know, I just I feel like that's inevitable, I guess, just because of demographics.

Nico (01:55:33.697)

Yeah, no, and the thing is too, also is like, I think that's one of the hardest, like one of the reasons that I think it's so difficult to see from our perspective is because like, like no offense to the boomers, bro, but the boomers are acting as if they're going to be immortal or some shit. Like, dude, like, like, you know, they're acting as if like, you know, they're going to live another hundred fifty years or some shit. It's like, dude, like

Like, you know, and they're acting like they're acting as if like they're going to be in power forever. And it's like, no, dude, like eventually, you know, like, like we're human beings, we're mortal. Like we have a set time span to live eventually, you know, like I know they don't believe that in Congress because they're like, yeah, I'm going to run for office again. I'm 85 fucking years old. Like, yeah, why not? Right. But it's like, you know, eventually like, like it's going to catch up to them.

You know, eventually like and again, we don't have to do anything. It's just it's mother nature. But I think the boomer generation broke, not all of them. I have so many good Bitcoin boomer friends and they're awesome. They're dope people. You mentioned surfer jammies. Fucking amazing. But do just in whole like that generation, like, holy shit. You know that saying like weak men create hard times, hard times, create strong men, strong men create good times. It literally was.

Brandon Gentile (01:56:49.509)

Great stuff.

Nico (01:56:54.209)

Good times created weak men and we're like living through the weak men generation as you know, millennials. And it's like, this sucks ass. Like it's terrible. And then we're just getting fucking riled up. All of a sudden, morals start to become important. Honor starts to become important. Integrity starts to become important. All these lessons that we forgot because life was good. Things were booming. Like the eighties were dope. Like you can buy a house in Miami for like a hundred K, 200 K. Like it was fucking nuts. Like.

One of the things I always hear that from, like, my parents are like, like, Oh, you know, when I was your age, like, you know, whatever. And then like, I literally like fucking, cause it's all on, it's all on, on Zillow. And I pull it up and I'm like, you mean that? And they're like, Oh no, but inflation. And like, I literally put it into the inflation calculator. It's like, dude, it was still 250 K bro. And they're like, Oh, you got to work harder. It's like, dude, shut the fuck up. Like no offense. Like, I'm sorry, man. Like

Millennials got the short end of the stick. The zoomers got fucked like they're Russian serfs, dude. They have their literally their serfs like, like I'll put it to you this way. Okay. Um, shit's getting so bad that their own propaganda coming out of the container conference, the world economic forum, like they're even telling you like, uh, guys, you are going to own nothing and be happy. Like they're telling you like they fucking know themselves. And it's like, dude, Klaus.

Brandon Gentile (01:57:58.107)

Literally.

Nico (01:58:19.937)

Like you're fucking 80 years old dude, like you're gonna fucking die probably in the next 5-10 years. Like Mother Nature is gonna do its thing. Like bro, what the fuck are you doing? Like move the fuck over. You've lived your life, you fucked it up for the rest of us.

Brandon Gentile (01:58:25.304)

Give it up.

Brandon Gentile (01:58:31.821)

It's time to go.

Brandon Gentile (01:58:39.161)

I can't. Mission accomplished, Klaus. I mean, yeah, I don't like, it is wild. I mean, it's like it is so crazy to see like why, yeah, why, what are you doing, Klaus? Like it feels like that's why people think it's an agenda. Like how come you haven't passed the rules off? Right? Yeah. And that's why you have conspiracy theorists because we think you're conspiring together to do crazy things. That's what it is. That's what it is.

Nico (01:58:52.097)

It is! It-

Nico (01:58:58.753)

They are though! They are!

Brandon Gentile (01:59:06.353)

Klaus is 900 years old, he's still doing stuff, wearing a Dr. Evil suit at the flip. And then the best part this year, Niko, right, was, what was the slogan this year? Regaining trust or whatever. I mean, like, you can't make this stuff up. It's like they're hiding in plain sight.

Nico (01:59:17.377)

Bro. They had the hubris to think the build back better, bro. What the fuck happened to that? It just disappeared, bro. And then all the politicians all around the world, like there was like this like epic compilation video of like all these politicians different nurse and has like we must build a back better like dude, like like bro. What build back better you guys shat the fucking bed like on epic proportions, dude.

Brandon Gentile (01:59:27.241)

Thank you.

Brandon Gentile (01:59:37.049)

That was classic. That was a great one. Yeah.

Nico (01:59:46.209)

Like, and then it's what you said, like, like we must regain trust, like, dude, like, no, like that, bro, like, fuck you. Like, literally just stop doing like this is the part that like governments are like whatever, like there was a the prime minister of the United Kingdom. And he was like talking about it. He's like, look, we're here to help. We got to the pandemic, but we bailed you out. We printed this, you know, a lot of money and that caused inflation.

But it was because of the war. It was because of the pandemic. It's like, the war didn't hit the fucking P button on the keyboard. You did, bro. Like, if governments did nothing, I feel like it would have amounted to a better response than them trying to get involved and play God, in my opinion.

Brandon Gentile (02:00:32.645)

Look at Bitcoin. I mean, to your point, the greatest thing was Bitcoin, right? Like the last, what, 18 months, FTX blows up, DoeQuant blows up, Celsius blows up, all these things blow up. What does Bitcoin do? Nothing. It dips down a little bit, it took a little hit, TikTok next block, here we are, back at all time highs. I mean, like, what are we doing? You know, it's comical. The free market doing free market things. Weird how that works. Wild, wild.

Nico (02:00:55.041)

It's weird, right? It's so weird. It's like almost unbelievable. It doesn't make sense. It's inconceivable, right? Like, oh man, just, but...

Brandon Gentile (02:01:03.873)

Kane's rolling in his grave. Kane's rolling in his grave right now. How much time you got? I know he's probably wrapped soon here in a few minutes. Got a little time? All right, good, because I won't go through everything here as we ought to do it another time as well because there's so many things we could just go on about, but holy cow, it's just, it's laughable. Like again, the generational thing is so, like I was...

Nico (02:01:07.393)

I know I got I got I got some time. Yeah

Brandon Gentile (02:01:27.801)

I remember talking to Larry Lepar, we were going to like a CrossFit workout, I mean, like a year ago, and we're I don't know where we were. And we were talking about the which I feel like we've talked about before, maybe it was just you on the show talking about it. But the millennial way right now millennials what the wealth they have compared to the boomers when they were our age, it's like what 5% of wealth and millennials have now versus like 20 25% the boomers had at the same age. And it's just like, holy cow, like it's it and you see it like and then

paying for kids houses, right? Like this is already the shift of wealth from like them and they're not passing away yet necessarily. They're just having to shift down and pay off their student debts or pay for school or pay for the homes they're living in. It's wild and it's just gonna increase.

Nico (02:02:08.577)

Dude, it's not like, man, I'm just not a fan of that. Like the, and again, it's like layer the part is dope, right? FOSS is dope, right? Like these are Gary Lee Lin, Bit Block Boom, like such a fucking badass, like dude. But like, I feel like the lion's share of that generation, bro, is like, like hubristic, godlike complex.

Brandon Gentile (02:02:17.979)

you

Brandon Gentile (02:02:25.201)

That ass.

Nico (02:02:36.609)

Uh, like,

Brandon Gentile (02:03:00.666)

Yes.

Brandon Gentile (02:03:04.213)

Makes me think of I'm trying to find a tweet Cameron McGregor who's awesome dude. He has a YouTube channel He's not like that well known in the Bitcoin community. Yeah, but he's like he's brilliant. He went to the Naval Academy He's only got like a thousand Twitter followers. He's like he's probably one of the smarter people I know he's been in some of the spaces here and there and stuff like that But he was we were talking to their day and he was like He was at the silent generation is becoming irrelevant The boomer generation is blue-pilled right because like you said if they're in that they're in that turning you know, they're part of the cycle was like

Nothing happened to us. We didn't have to go to war really. We didn't really have to do much. Again, and God love all of them, right? This is, it's just fact is fact, right? Like where you turn in the cycle, it just is what it is. We have to recognize that. And then the X generation X is purple-pilled, Gen X or Gen Y, us red-pilled, and then black-pilled is Gen Z like you said, they're just out to lunch, they're serfs. And then my wife actually, Jessica actually said,

Gen A, which is alpha, which I believe is, I don't know, five or 10 and under, I believe, which is all of our kids, that's Gen Alpha. Is that the Bitcoin generation? Is that the orange pill generation now? So we have this generation where they're gonna know nothing but Bitcoin, you know? So we all have young kids and it's just like, they're the ones truly at the end of the day we're doing this for, but also they're gonna be the ones who know nothing different. They're not gonna know this old bullshit. They're just gonna know Bitcoin and that's it.

Nico (02:04:22.689)

Yeah. And anything that's incredibly important, because that just creates this like new generation of of of fighters and like new generation of people that like they're just they're so laser focused on, you know, the like like they're not going to put up with the bullshit. Like I have this conversation with my wife all the time. And I'm like, we're like, I'm like, look, this schooling thing like like it's like we're not just going to send, you know,

our kid to go be indoctrinated. Like that's not like we're seriously, we're putting a lot of thought into that. Um, and then like, imagine man, like, like our, our ranks just get larger and larger over time and their ranks get smaller and smaller over time. So, um, like what, and have you ever seen this meme of like, it's like a Wojak and then the Chad and it's like, you know,

If if like if you know if your kid doesn't go to school like they'll be an extremist and then the chads like Like yeah, and then the woe jacks like like what? Like

Brandon Gentile (02:05:29.009)

Oh yeah, so good. Yeah.

Brandon Gentile (02:05:38.037)

I was one of my favorites. Oh, I just yeah, it's just so yeah, it's funny. Like we are just having this conversation. Jessica, I was just talking about this again. And, you know, our kids are seven, five, three and one. And so we've been having these conversations and they're in, you know, Catholic school right now. But it's just I know the time's ticking. It was just because of the situation we are in that we kind of forced and I know we'll be homeschooling at some point, just.

I was just like driving the other day. I was like driving our little one to school. And I was just like watching like two like little dudes out there, like probably eight, 10 years old, just shooting hoops at like 8 a.m. And I was like, dude, like that's amazing. And my third one is a boy. And I'm like, and I already like, I'm like, he is not going to school. Like he absolutely will not go to school, formal education or compulsory schooling. Like, especially for boys. I mean, it's just like, oh boy. So you're just watching, you're like, what am I doing? Like, why am I, what am I sending you into this little prison cell for seven hours a day for? And you know, it's been

two years, but it's probably time-sticking. It's not gonna be that much longer. And it's just a different world. And it's, I don't know, have you ever, have you got into any of the Daniel Prince's stuff, like all the books he talks about? I can't even remember the guy's name off the top of my head, but he was the professor working in New York City, New York school system, I think, for a long time, wrote a bunch of books. I haven't read any yet, but I have like four or five of them. And it's all about, again, how it's, the General Board of Education, Rockefeller in 1902.

and how they were there to create doers and not thinkers and all the schooling changed from late 1800s to the early 1900s and really just started like, hey, we don't want competition. We want you guys to just be worker bees and just go do what we tell you to do and not think, just memorize stuff. So phenomenal books. If anyone hasn't seen those, those are must, must reads.

Nico (02:07:19.105)

Yeah, no, and I completely agree. Like it's it's, you know, again, it's it's like kind of like the industrial age like conveyor belt type of mentality that I think, you know, that I think. That I think, you know, this the previous schooling system has kind of like it's like it's been normalized, but, you know, but you're starting to see it. And like, I think people is.

kind of going back to our previous part of the conversation where we were talking about essentially like the Great Awakening and I think people are starting to see that like the traditional schooling system is This this effing machine man. It's like this like it's literally it's a conveyor belt and It's it's a propaganda machine like it's indoctrinating you with like

Brandon Gentile (02:08:04.409)

Yeah. Cause they're

Nico (02:08:13.857)

Like like what they're doing to little kids right now is I don't even know if we want to go down that rabbit hole But like, you know, it's insane and like this is like really well known kind of like in In like marxist literature and like whatever like the way that they they want to weaken the nuclear family because if they weaken the nuclear family Then the allegiance of the individual becomes to the state rather than the family like the state doesn't like strong

Brandon Gentile (02:08:39.597)

taking that out at home. Yep.

Nico (02:08:40.737)

Yeah, the state doesn't like strong families. It doesn't like strong mother, father type of thing, because that means less reliance on them. So they're incentivized almost to weaken those types of relationships. And then the mechanisms of which they try to achieve this are really fucking evil, man. It's sinister. It's it's fucked up, you know? So, yeah, man, it's it's such a crazy rabbit hole for sure.

Brandon Gentile (02:09:07.149)

It really is. And really quick, these are, and I'll put these in here too for anyone who wants to see them, but like Dumbing Us Down, Weapons of Mass Instruction, some of his books, John Taylor Gatto. So check those out. But yeah, I mean, you look back and like the history of like, we had eugenics in this country 100 years ago. And this is all because of progressivism, you know, Marxism, you know, the Fabian School, like this is all from that. And then ironically, right this past week,

Columbia, which is like the ground zero for a lot of that coming here into America actually, from like, from that school of thought, coming here to start indoctrinating people, the professors and start teaching Americans, like you said, to break their back, to break their will, I should say, and internally. So they didn't have to fire a shot and we're at that end game. And then you have Columbia literally coming full circle. They had to shut down classes and go remote learning because what are they doing? They're...

being all crazy, what do you know? I mean, it's like, you can't, you literally can't make this stuff up and it's all there for people to see, that's a crazy part. It's there for people to see, with ears to hear and eyes to see. And you just, but then we go back to, well, I've got my six pack and the game's on night, Brandon, Nico, like why should I care? So it's like this never ending, like, oh my goodness, like when are we, you know, we just gotta get punched in the face more, I guess. So that's all, that's it guys.

Nico (02:10:20.513)

Yeah, man, it's just get punched in the face. And people enough people wake up enough people are fed up with things and then, you know, they, they, they want change. And, you know, I think from, you know, our generation, Brandon, it was just a matter of like 2008, you know, and like all these things. And it's like, people are always like, Hey, Nico, why do you adopt Bitcoin in 2016? Like, why do whatever? I was like, dude, I was desperate as fuck. I hated my life. I wanted a way out. And, you know, it ended up being Bitcoin, which is great. Right. But.

Um, you know, that's, that's literally why it's the reason, you know, so, um, it just, it just happens that the industry that we work in and what the outcomes are going to be of a Bitcoin standard are so, uh, seismic, like it's, it's a big F deal, you know,

Brandon Gentile (02:11:06.277)

Mm-hmm. Yep. You know, it's funny, and it's like, you talk to so many people about the school system and all these things, the monetary problem. Like we said earlier, if you're talking to conservatives, or it could be progressive, you know, liberals too, and they know their problem with government, or there's problems with this. I mean, there's a ton of people in the last 10 years I've talked to, which this didn't happen before this, where they would bitch about the school system, and they'd all bitch about government. And it's wild, because it's like, if you know there's a problem, if we all know there's a problem, like how come these things aren't being solved?

And that's where you go back to the agenda. Like we said with Klaus earlier and things like that, it's like, how come we're not teaching financial literacy in school? Everyone knows this. I mean, this is decades. People have talked about this, bitched about it, wrote books about it. Robert Kiyosaki has his entire empire built off of this very thing. We know, people know about this, but yet nothing changes. And it's like, huh, why is nothing changing? Yet we all know there's a problem here. It's probably because there's something behind that. It just blows me away that the average person, again, like we...

Or like Congress, Congress constantly has like a single digit approval rating, yet they all get voted in over and over again. And again, it's like, what is going on? Yes. Yeah, that's true. It's okay, so where do you starting to transfer towards landing the plane here a little bit and getting toward the end? Why are you so based? Like what's your story like? Again, like give us a quick rundown of, you know,

Nico (02:12:11.297)

Stockholm syndrome, bro. It's crazy. It's just crazy stuff, you know, but Bitcoin fixes this man. That's the good news

Brandon Gentile (02:12:34.322)

your background, you know, Venezuela, just like, what was that like? And why are you the way you are?

Nico (02:12:39.233)

Yeah, so, um, yeah, so I'm originally from Venezuela. My parents are Venezuelan, um, moved to Miami. Um, I was just like 10 years old, uh, was raised in Miami. Um, and the, my, my, my, I was lucky enough for my, my dad, he had, uh, a lot of success earlier on in his career. He worked in the kind of the tech industry in the nineties and that's how we were able to move to Miami.

But basically the 2008 financial crisis like really impacted my family and, you know, my my parents divorced and kind of went through all these things. So it kind of jaded me a little bit to the political system and to the financial system. So I guess I was already pre deposed pre I don't know what the pre pre predisposed to it. And then 2016 was like a low point in my life.

Brandon Gentile (02:13:29.969)

disposed. Yeah.

Nico (02:13:37.953)

And I was living on my friend's couch working like minimum wage job. Uh, worked in real estate like you did. It worked in commercial real estate before that. But at that time I was like working this minimum wage job and it was like, I was terrible, bro. I was like 23, 24 years old. Um, I was dating this awesome girl. We broke, she broke up with me cause it was not really kind of amounting to anything at that time in my life. And that, like, I literally hit rock bottom, bro. It was, it was pretty bad. And that's when.

I found Bitcoin and I literally just went all in. Like I literally, and it wasn't because I was like, Oh, Nico, you're fucking smart. And it was like, no, dude, I was so fucking desperate that I was just like trying to find like an industry or something that like I wanted to break into. And, you know, that's kind of like where I started. I began the industry through mining. So like I was, I fell in love with mining. And then.

Um, 2018 hit that it wasn't that great for mining in hindsight. I should have stuck it out because I would have hit a home run. Uh, I didn't know at the time. So I started simply in 2020 and little did I know that at that point in history and Bitcoin's history, there was no Bitcoin only media. There was only like.

crypto and Bitcoin media. And it's not like now it's like there's so much Bitcoin content. But at that time it was like in its infancy. So I started simply. Then that took a life of its own. That gave me a lot of like personal attention and I start getting invited to conferences and this and that. And then in 2023.

Like swan was like courting me for a while and that they were like giving me a lot of responsibilities in the conferences and I would do live streams for them and I always had like a pretty good relationship with Cory and He offered me a job. I turned him down because it's a bull market and I thought I was hot shit And then the bear market came and I was like hey about that job. Like I'll blow up your YouTube channel And then I never had any corporate experience. So like I kind of wanted it Like I never worked in a corporation or whatever So join swan

Brandon Gentile (02:15:36.165)

Hmm.

Brandon Gentile (02:15:55.141)

Hmm. Yeah.

Nico (02:15:58.657)

uh, like got my first kind of exposure to the corporate world, climb the corporate ladder, which I was a lot of, I didn't, I didn't think these things were going to be difficult. I didn't have any experiences. So like this, like naive, you know, kid, and, um, you know, ended up climbing the corporate ladder to becoming the director of content strategy, basically fancy way of saying I led their YouTube strategy and their video strategy. So I taught their whole media team, like how to make YouTube engagement content, like all that stuff. It was a great experience.

And then my family were making bets. They're like, Nico's not going to last a job for a year. And I was like, no, I'm going to last four years. And then literally a year and a month, I couldn't deal with, with, with corporate politics anymore, which no one ever tells you. Right. When you join a corporation, like I'm like, happy go lucky. I joined. I'm like, yeah, I'm just going to make content and I'm a whatever. And then there's like,

Brandon Gentile (02:16:34.292)

Hahaha.

Nico (02:16:54.977)

like there's a whole other side of it is like there's a lot of politics involved, especially in an organization of that side. And I love Swann too, by the way, they're incredible company and can't criticize them whatsoever. Love Swann, love Corey. Great. It just comes with it's just, it's the nature of corporations. It has nothing to do with them as an organization. And I was like, no, dude, I'm an entrepreneur. Like I can't, like I'm an entrepreneur. I love being my own boss. I

Brandon Gentile (02:17:07.641)

You know, not unique as one. Yeah, it's just corporate.

Nico (02:17:25.313)

And simply had reached enough of a critical mass at that point where we had enough income where I can support myself and my entire team. So cut the umbilical cord in January. I wish it went a little bit more smoothly, but I, you know, I left, I left, I made a, I, I, I made a huge impact. And then my outro was just, it was like that. I guess it comes with the territory of hiring a content creator.

Brandon Gentile (02:17:45.029)

You had it on the outside.

Nico (02:17:53.889)

Um, and, uh, you know, I just, I, I, I made my own path with simply, and we're super, super happy now and we haven't like, we're making enough money where it kind of supports, you know, the entire corporation. We have enough sponsors, enough people like, uh, supporting us. And we're a team of four people, full time, 12 people part time, uh, would love what we do. And, uh, it's been an incredible experience so far, but, uh, literally, um, you know, uh,

I swan played an instrumental role in being one of simply's first sponsors. Um, I'll forever be grateful for Corey for giving me, you know, someone with very little corporate experience that opportunity. And I learned a tremendous amount of working at swan and, you know, kind of, uh, interacting with those people's incredible team, incredible company. Um, but it was, it was time for me to venture out and be the entrepreneur that I am in my heart. So, uh, I pulled the trigger in January and.

Fast forward to April and this is where we are.

Brandon Gentile (02:18:54.177)

I love it. Definitely amazing. I mean, your channel's blown up. I mean, it's massive. You guys do an awesome job. Like we were saying earlier, I mean, like I think you guys do an unbelievable job. The daily show you guys produce, Rustin's show that he does and his videos he puts out. I mean, just everything is awesome. And I think it's setting the standard for what a lot of Bitcoin stuff will kind of emanate from just kind of the content creator community going forward. So people have to check that out, which we'll link to in here for sure.

What's the biggest thing you've learned in that was six, seven, eight years in doing that just kind of through Bitcoin, just seeing that the content creation side, media side, people that are starting out. What advice do you have for people getting into this space and starting to say, hey, I'm on this mission too. Like, what I let's go, let's make some content. Let's do this together. I mean, me being one of those people, obviously, too, like what what's your advice to people that are like, hey, I'm just jumping in this year. Like I want to make content. Let's go.

Nico (02:19:51.073)

Yeah, so and again, I kind of learned all of this through my experience at Swann. If you come from a traditional media background, you are at a severe disadvantage to someone that comes with no media background, because if you come from a media background, you have to unlearn a lot of stuff.

The reason that the Swan channel right now is popping off, the reason that simply is popping off is because fundamentally I'm a YouTuber. I'm like that, like if you ask Nico, what are you? It's like, yeah, I'm a content creator, but more so like, what are you? I'm a YouTuber. I love YouTube. I've been on the platform for eight years. I started making videos for video games. And I'm...

Brandon Gentile (02:20:27.761)

Mm-hmm.

Brandon Gentile (02:20:42.713)

Mm.

Nico (02:20:44.545)

I know the platform and I know how to get views and I know how to get clicks. Right. Um, a lot of people, they approach content from a traditional film background. So they make these beautiful documentaries that doesn't translate to views a lot of the time. So what a lot of people have to understand is like, you, where's your distribution, your distribution is on Twitter and YouTube. Therefore.

You have to be a professional Twitter person and you have to be a professional YouTuber for you to succeed on those platforms. Now that's not a blanket statement, right? The podcasters are incredible examples of, oh, good friends of mine. And I admire their work. They're fabulous at what they do. Natalie, Peter, breed love, uh, some of the most successful ones. Of course I do this show with sessions well, uh, as well. Um, but sessions understands this too, like fundamentally you're a YouTuber.

Like for the podcasters, yeah, long form content translates to some views. But if you're not doing long form content, if you're just doing content in general, um, you have to understand like you are a YouTuber, right? When you understand that you're a YouTuber, you're not a movie director. You're not a filmmaker. Um, the style of which, how you make your content completely changes. And you might not like it.

Again, this is why I said, like, if you come from a traditional background, you have a disadvantage, right? Because everything they taught you is kind of like, and I'm going in there like, no, like you got to make it this way because that's what's going to get you. That's what's going to get you more views on the algorithm. And they're like, no, that's going to destroy my creative process. And I'm creating this beautiful film and I'm like, okay, you can create this beautiful film. I could rip a live show in 30 minutes and I will get three or four or five, maybe 10 times the amount of views you're getting.

Brandon Gentile (02:22:25.113)

Yeah.

Nico (02:22:38.689)

By definition, I'm making a more successful film or I'm making a more successful video. So that's what I that's the advice that I would give to people is like you are a YouTuber first and a filmmaker second or a content creator second. Learn the platform YouTube because that's where that's your distribution. That's where you're posting. Right. And to my surprise, just based on my career and based on my experiences, you'd be surprised.

how many people don't know that. Very, very popular people, huge following. You'd be surprised. Like they look at you like a crazy person. You're like, no, I have a traditional film background. Like I went to school for this and I'm whatever. And I'm like, okay, you went to school for this. I've been making YouTube video for eight years, right? And then initially you doubt yourself. You're like, no, there's no fucking way. They went to school for this or professional, whatever. But the thing is about views is that they don't lie.

Right. And, you know, views are king on the Internet. Engagement is king. And he or she or they that can get the most amount of views is by definition winning the game. Right. So and that's a very tough pill to swallow, especially from people that come from traditional media backgrounds. And it kind of reminds me of this last bit I'll say kind of reminds me of of you want to see one of Mr. Beast's episodes or podcasts. He's the most popular.

Brandon Gentile (02:23:56.483)

Mm-hmm.

Nico (02:24:07.393)

a youtuber on the face of the planet right now. He gets more views than everyone, like including legacy media. Doesn't matter. This guy gets the most amount of eyeballs out of anyone on the planet. Okay. And he literally says, he's like, we don't hire from traditional backgrounds anymore. Right. What does that tell you? And that's been my experience so far in my career too, is that give me a rough diamond who's like naturally gifted at making content. And I could tell that they have a voice and they have a charisma and they have whatever. Give me that person.

Brandon Gentile (02:24:33.434)

Mm-hmm.

Nico (02:24:36.033)

versus the person that went to film school for six years. Because the person that went to film school for six years, they'll look down upon you, right? They'll be like, no, whatever. And then the rough diamond's like, oh, YouTube engagement, optimized content? Like, absolutely, hell yeah. You know, so that would be my piece of advice, is like, remember, you're a YouTuber and then everything else comes second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, et cetera, et cetera.

Brandon Gentile (02:24:53.002)

Thank you.

Brandon Gentile (02:25:03.417)

So good, so good. Man, that's a heck of a clip. That's gonna be its own clip at some point. Love that. All right, getting towards the end, we have a new segment here presented by, I don't have Nico's card, but presented by Bitcoin Trading Cards. So, Kayla Pressy, Sunday Conversation Style, a new segment presented by, speaking of content creators. So, we'll do a little word association with Nico and rock through a half dozen or so, I don't know, maybe 15 or so words.

and lightning round it. And let's rock, let's rock and roll. Satoshi Nakamoto.

Nico (02:25:40.929)

What do I do?

Brandon Gentile (02:25:43.281)

word like lightning around a word. Try not to do like a bunch of paragraphs but like a word or two on each word.

Nico (02:25:44.961)

Oh, okay. Satoshi Nakamoto, legend.

Brandon Gentile (02:25:52.709)

Christine Lagarde.

Nico (02:25:56.033)

Opti's girlfriend.

Brandon Gentile (02:25:59.577)

politics.

Nico (02:26:01.249)

Yeah.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:03.522)

CBDCs.

Nico (02:26:04.769)

slavery.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:07.146)

Venezuela.

Nico (02:26:10.497)

Oh, tragedy.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:13.542)

Freedom.

Nico (02:26:15.553)

life.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:17.713)

The right to bear arms.

Nico (02:26:19.969)

life.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:24.181)

Naib Bo Kelly.

Nico (02:26:26.049)

Hope.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:28.731)

Family.

Nico (02:26:29.729)

Everything.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:32.077)

Elizabeth Warren.

Nico (02:26:33.409)

Demon.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:36.642)

Entrepreneurship.

Nico (02:26:39.265)

The only way to live.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:42.992)

I love that. Citadels.

Nico (02:26:45.793)

future.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:47.494)

Mmm, Canadian trucker convoy.

Nico (02:26:50.657)

Freedom Fighters.

Brandon Gentile (02:26:53.894)

faith.

Nico (02:26:57.345)

Everything god. Yeah

Brandon Gentile (02:27:01.707)

and Bitcoin trading cards.

Nico (02:27:03.105)

I'll go back to that. Christ is king. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can't have salvation without Jesus. 100 percent.

Brandon Gentile (02:27:06.737)

There you go. Love it.

Brandon Gentile (02:27:10.998)

love that Bitcoin trading cards.

Nico (02:27:13.633)

Uh, fucking awesome. Yeah. I love them. Uh, physical NFTs. Uh, they're so fucking cool. Uh, I, I'm a huge fucking fan and, uh, I.

Brandon Gentile (02:27:24.533)

I don't have an eco card. I'm ticked because I don't have an eco card. I want I try to when I have someone I try to have their card with me but I literally one I don't have is your card some

Nico (02:27:32.897)

I think I here we go. I got I got an eco card and a tone base. And we are Satoshi. So yeah, the Nico, it's pretty cool. Yeah, but no Bitcoin trading cards are so bad ass. They're so cool. The reason I say physical NFTs is because like NFTs are a fucking joke, right? Like they're, they're so they're garbage, but it's kind of like a jab at the same time.

Brandon Gentile (02:27:36.753)

Let's go!

Brandon Gentile (02:27:40.965)

I know I've got like a Jimmy, I think I have a couple from it. I'm kind of skated well, let's go. Love that.

such a cool part.

Nico (02:28:02.561)

Because it's like, this is what you're trying to be, but this is what this actually is. So this is what you're trying to do, but this is a real life example of just that. And I think it was Andrew Breitbart that said this, but politics is downstream from culture. And anything to take over the culture

Brandon Gentile (02:28:10.209)

That's what it actually looks like.

Nico (02:28:30.177)

Because this is a culture war, not the culture where everyone thinks, but like the whole Bitcoin thing and Fiat thing is a culture war. And to win over the culture, you need like trading cards, you need music, you need media, you need content, you need a whole foundation of art. Like all of that is necessary in order to build culture around it. And I think what? Yeah, exactly. Like merchandise, shirts, like clothing. And I think the Bitcoin trading cards.

Brandon Gentile (02:28:46.057)

Yep. Yes.

Brandon Gentile (02:28:53.087)

Shirts, everything.

Nico (02:29:00.513)

play a really essential role in building up that culture.

Brandon Gentile (02:29:04.913)

Exactly, exactly. Simply sure. Yeah, 100% dude, I could not agree more. And that's, it's funny, we've been talking a lot about that. I've just like, you know, people will say that and it's like, you have to own it in a way because it's like, yeah, the NFTs are gonna blow up the blockchain. This is this JPEG garbage, but here's the actual thing. This is what it actually looks like. And trying to merge those worlds, these old worlds, collectors world hobbyists and bring people into the Bitcoin world and then Trojan horse them that way and incept the education and truth through that. So couldn't agree more.

Lastly, simply Bitcoin.

Nico (02:29:38.593)

Uh, my life, my, my baby, my dream. Um, yeah, I mean, yeah, let's see, dude. It's, uh, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's everything that I've, that I've put my heart and soul into for, you know, three and a half years and before years. Um, if you would have told me like, uh, four years ago, I know you said not a paragraph, but this one hits home. Um,

Brandon Gentile (02:30:06.318)

It's allowed here.

Nico (02:30:08.673)

Yeah, if you would have told me three and a half years ago, four years ago, that this podcast would eventually become a business. No, this hobby would eventually become a podcast, which would eventually become like a small media startup. I would have never believed you. But I kept going and I just kept powering through. And I really believe that, dude, like if you just keep going.

and you're laser focused on something and you really, really want it. I think the universe is kind of like structured in a way where like you get what you want, but you really have to fucking fight for it and bleed and suffer and go through uncertainty. But if you're able to power through, I've never met an entrepreneur in my entire life that wasn't eventually successful. Never met one.

I've met people that have quit many times, but I've never met one that like just kept going and eventually didn't pop off. Now I cannot put a time table on that. Like some hit it big year one, which I think is very dangerous to be honest with you. And then some hit it big year 10. But eventually you hit it. I don't know what the magnitude of

Brandon Gentile (02:31:18.104)

Mm-hmm.

Nico (02:31:30.465)

Is it going to be a billion dollar company? Is it going to be a $10 million, $150 million? No one knows. And no one, and anyone that tells you is lying to you. But what I can say is that if you just keep chipping at it and you keep trying and you put your heart into it and you work your ass off, um, it's like the parting of the seas, bro, like it's fucking nuts, like things just happen. And then, you know, you're, it's unbelievable. Like you just don't believe it. You're like, I can never have believed.

that you know this thing we would have like you know a 12 person company we would never I would have never believed you I would have been like you're you're fucking crazy but just keep working and if you know you believe in God you're a good person you have integrity you know like I forget I have the have the have the passage saved on my on my tab but it's Psalm 91 there you go right just keep going

Um, and, uh, he's got your back, like literally just keep going, be a good person, have faith, work your ass off and literally God has your back. Never let me down my entire life. Uh, that's what I would say. Maybe that's naive, but that's been my personal experience.

Brandon Gentile (02:32:48.613)

Well, Bitcoin is lucky to have you. We're glad that you stumbled into Bitcoin and had that desperation, because we are lucky to have you in the company now. It's so cool to see, man, honestly. And grateful to call you a friend and know you. It's, you know, just you have to find like-minded people on the mission, because unfortunately, boy, there's not a lot of them. So you have, you know, whether it's kindred spirits or people on the same mission or whatever, you gotta stick close to them. And just, you know, grateful to know you.

Yeah, so I don't want to want to get too emotional at the end here, but seriously, it's just not common. So where can people find you?

Nico (02:33:24.769)

Yeah, I mean, you could find me on Twitter at BitVol. You can find, just search Simply Bitcoin anywhere and YouTube, Rumble, X, and we'll pop up. And very privileged and thankful for everyone watching and supporting us. We wouldn't be here without you. And again, it's been an honor to be on your podcast, Brandon. And I was very excited when you initially invited me. So thank you.

Brandon Gentile (02:33:52.965)

Thanks, Nico. Thank you for having me on your shows as well. And just very grateful, man. And thank you most importantly for being a playable character, someone who can critically think in a sea of non-playable characters. Thank you. Thanks, brother.

---

💰  SUPPORT THE SHOW & VALUE FOR VALUE ECONOMY!

Strike ID: https://strike.me/brandongentile

Cash App: $ThinkingBig811

📱 FOLLOW BRANDON ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter - https://twitter.com/brandon_gentile

Nostr - primal.net/p/npub1r6xc8z27uv9dy4zd55z6rjxe2vcdu40jrygla0wcug56klfeh4nshta9je

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brandongentile811

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandongentile

Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brandon_gentile?_t=8knOkrkTtlO&_r=1

Spotify - Click Here

DISCLAIMER: “Playable Characters” is for entertainment purposes only and does not intend to be taken as financial advice.

#BitcoinETF #BitcoinHalving #bitcoin #btc #crypto #cryptocurrency #money #satoshi #btcnews #btcprice