IGNORED reason is why Bitcoin will REPLACE fiat DOLLARS and BLOW doubter's minds - Brady Swenson
What bitcoin HODLers understand that the average person cannot see and it has nothing to do with price.
Watch FULL Interview Here 👆
What bitcoin HODLers understand that the average person cannot see and it has nothing to do with price.
IGNORED reason is why Bitcoin will REPLACE fiat DOLLARS and BLOW doubter's minds - Brady Swenson
Presented by Bitcoin Trading Cards - https://btc-tc.com
🎙️Playable Characters - Ep044
Bio:
Brady started and podcasting which led to friendships that ultimately culminated in becoming Swan Bitcoin Co-founder with Cory Klippsten and Yan Pritzker and then starting the Swan Signal podcast.
Connect here:
Twitter - https://x.com/CitizenBitcoin
Company websites - http://swan.com
Timestamps:
00:00 What Draws All Different People To Bitcoin
13:11 A Key Skill in the Bitcoin Community
18:55 What He Admires in Bitcoin Entrepreneurs
21:00 What Makes Him MOST Hopeful
27:04 How His Content Created Massive Opportunity
34:20 What Did Swan Learn From Their Mistakes
37:27 Swan Bitcoin's Integrity & Mission
38:00 Orange Pill Tools for Children
39:56 The EndGAME
Transcription:
Brandon Gentile (04:30.801)
Mr. Brady Swenson, thank you so much, brother, for coming on today, being a playable character in a sea of non-playable characters. Appreciate you.
Brady (04:38.998)
Thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it.
Brandon Gentile (04:41.297)
Yes. So we were, we were talking a little bit offline again, just about Bitcoin trading cards, swan. There's so many things to kind of dig into, but I want to get your story, just your origin story and not like your orange pill story, but you know, kind of why you fight for Bitcoin. You started obviously citizen Bitcoin that turned into a swan signal basically. And then you kind of retired everything. Right. So I would love for you to kind of like, what is it that you fight for in Bitcoin and kind of talk about that story and in, in really building up.
Brady (04:55.222)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Gentile (05:10.001)
you know, quite quickly having a lot of big people on your pod and putting that all together, what it led into and again, why you fight is it the human rights stuff, the energy, things of that nature, what is it that you that is you, is it macro? So I'd love for you to kind of jam on all that stuff.
Brady (05:13.718)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (05:25.11)
Yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. What is it about me and sort of my core character traits that really draws me to Bitcoin? I think it's, I think it is really kind of comes down to human rights stuff. It's, it's fairness, I guess, a sense of justice. Um, I, I had a, uh, I was drawn to politics for a long time and my family's big into politics, democratic politics in, in Kansas, which is, you know, it's a red state, but it's sort of.
It's not as red as people might think. Um, and it's always kind of been sort of a more independent, kind of, kind of independent minded state. And so we'd always have like a democratic governor and a Republican Congress, you know, in the state and vice versa. So it always kind of be deadlocked basically. And Kansas was like really smart about, about, um, about that. It seemed to always work out that way. And so my, my family's in democratic politics. And so there was this sense of justice, like let's, you know,
make this society as fair and just as possible. And we're going to fight for that. And this is one way that we can influence society. And, uh, I got really disillusioned with it after, after a while. And I found this guy named Lawrence Lessig and he wrote a book called Republic Lost. And, uh, he's a Harvard law professor and, uh, this is like occupy wall street time, you know, roughly. So 2008, right around the time that, uh, Bitcoin was.
released the white paper was published and all of that Occupy Wall Street stuff was happening. And it was all about, um, the sense that the system is rigged, right? The political system is rigged. The economic system, the financial system is rigged against the 99%. That was the meme, right? The 1 % and the 99%. And that really spoke to me. And I, and I, this book was like, basically saying like, okay, well, our political system has been completely rigged. It's completely bought.
by corporations and special interests, et cetera. And here's what it was supposed to be, this more decentralized kind of government representing different ideas. And we have 50 different political experiments happening around the world, around the country. And you can move to different jurisdictions as suited you. And we'd have them all sort of loosely affiliated through a federal government. And federal government would be responsible for a few things. But.
Brady (07:51.222)
Uh, this otherwise, you know, the power would go to the States and then to the counties and then to the cities and it would, you know, decentralize the power. So that, that really spoke to me. Like I felt that that was the way that. The thing should be, um, which turned out to be a conservative idea, you know, quote unquote, um, which was, I didn't think that way. I didn't think it was, I thought it was just like the just way to do it. I saw it as a, as a justice issue. And so in my, for my mind, it was.
a liberal way to do it. Um, and, and that was just the semantics in my head. It was all semantics, but the, basically the idea was power became too centralized. And so I was, that was like coming to these ideas at the same time Bitcoin was, was coming out. So six years later or so I found Bitcoin 2014. I didn't understand it. I didn't connect it like, Oh, it's, it's part of this. It's like part of fixing this problem. I've been thinking about for a while now. Um, I just, it was,
Brandon Gentile (08:23.761)
you
Brady (08:50.454)
Interesting from a technical perspective, like I was, I've been working on the web for a long time and I was like, Oh, this is really interesting. A new kind of like decentralized money. It's some money for the people. That's cool. But I didn't really think about it deeply. And so I was like, I'll grab some. And I didn't end up making like connecting my bank account. There was some problem with Coinbase and the customer service was like, you know, notoriously terrible. I have a great actually Citizen Bitcoin episode with Eric Kason, who is a really early.
Brandon Gentile (09:10.929)
Hehehe.
Brady (09:20.406)
like manager, uh, client services at Coinbase and hit the first 15 minutes of that episode is him just like unloading. This was the first time he'd talked publicly about all of this. Um, it's really funny. So anyway, I didn't end up getting any Bitcoin in 2014, but in 2017, I came across it again and then I figured it out. I was like, Oh, okay. Like this is fascinating. And it was Andreas who did it for me. Um, I watched, I found it. I found one Andreas video and then I watched everyone that I could find.
Brandon Gentile (09:20.785)
That's right.
Brandon Gentile (09:44.081)
Yeah.
Brady (09:49.238)
over a month or two period. And that was early 2017. So all of 2017 was me just trying to figure things out. Um, I wasn't a Bitcoin maximalists right away. There's all kinds of other, you know, I looked at Ethereum and Cardano and I traded shit coins, trying to make more Bitcoin, um, and trying to figure out the block size debate who's going to win. I tried to like hedge my bet, my bets between like Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin. I held like 50 50 for a while. Um, after the fork, um,
Brandon Gentile (10:15.985)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (10:19.254)
And eventually I just, I became a Bitcoiner. I figured it out, put all my Bitcoin in, or all my crypto into Bitcoin. And that was by, that was about the end of 2018. Part of that process was recording Citizen Bitcoin with my friend here at this coworking space that I'm in. And he and I had just started talking about it. And we were like, let's record our conversations once, you know, every other week.
And we'll publish them. I didn't really promote them that much. And we had like maybe a hundred downloads per episode. Um, but it was a forcing function for us to like, try to really understand what you're saying. Cause we're putting these thoughts out there publicly and we didn't want to like make it sound like an idiot, even to a hundred people. Um, you know, so, uh, I finally felt like that was all of 2018. So I finally felt like, okay, I'm ready to like, do something, uh, for real with this podcast.
Brandon Gentile (11:03.665)
Yeah.
Brady (11:16.406)
And so I decided to start interviewing people and made a list of the top 10 people. I was like, if I can get these people, uh, on my podcasts, it'll take off. And, uh, I got nine of them almost right out of the gate. Adam back was the 10th one. And I ended up getting him on my podcast. Uh, no, I'm not sorry. I'm sorry. Uh, not out of back. Andreas was the 10th one. And I, I think he ended up coming on at like episode 90 or something like that, which was really cool. I finally got him. So he finally completed all 10.
Adam back was one, he came on early to bunch of people came on early. Bitcoiners are really, really cool. Like just reach out and they're happy to help like a Bitcoiner with a new project. So I try to pay that forward as much as I can. And it took off. There was a lot less competition back then in terms of Bitcoin podcasts, way less. I mean, there were maybe, you know, like five, six, seven, like legit Bitcoin only podcasts. So, um,
Brandon Gentile (12:04.433)
system.
Brady (12:14.838)
I had one of the top five or six, seven podcasts in the States. Um, but it did, I mean, it got some traction and there were, you know, some people that really liked it and some big fans, which was really fun. And, uh, and it really allowed me to network into the space. I'd met everybody. And, uh, then I went to Bitcoin 2019. This is about six months after I had started interviewing people. So I knew quite a few people and got to meet everybody in person and network further. And, and I met Corey there.
Brandon Gentile (12:16.817)
Hahaha!
Brady (12:44.086)
And I met Jan there and, um, Corey had just started give Bitcoin, which was, which eventually turned into Swan. And, um, from that conversation, he came on my podcast a few months later toward the Q4 and the, in the holiday season. And, um, then he followed up with me after we had that conversation and said, Hey, I really enjoyed that podcast. You know, what do you do? Let's, you know, I want to get to know you a little bit more with.
What do you, uh, what do you do for a living? And so I was like, I've been working on the web for 25 years. And right now, like lately I've been doing a bunch of marketing stuff the past six or seven years. And she's like, perfect. So you want to come do some marketing for give Bitcoin. I was like, I would love to. Yeah. So started kind of side on the side, doing some contract work and, um, that, yeah, that was it. Basically. Uh, I very quickly went full time and we launched swan a few months later when we realized that.
Bitcoiners were joining give Bitcoin to use the recurring gift function to DCA Bitcoin for themselves. And that was the, uh, yeah, that was like, okay, so this is what people want to use it for. So we'll just build a DCA, a Bitcoin only DCA product. So anyway, that's how it started. And excuse my voice. Sorry. I've kind of lost my voice. I went and watched Lionel Messi play this past weekend and it was a very loud at Arrowhead stadium. So there's lots of yelling.
Brandon Gentile (13:51.633)
Lord.
Brandon Gentile (14:00.785)
Huh.
Brandon Gentile (14:11.441)
That's so cool. Man, that's wow. Dang. That's wow. That's once in a lifetime right there. Yeah, that's incredible. What, so I was just telling you, I'm gonna, I was gonna interview Corey later, but I'm gonna probably do him later this week. So I'm actually, I'll ask you guys like questions to piggyback off each other. What's, so your thing, I guess first, like, what do you think your thing is? Is it like the marketing space, like computer science, or like just web?
Brady (14:12.726)
Yeah, that was awesome.
Had to do it. Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Gentile (14:40.145)
web stuff, web development. And then so I, what's your answer on that? And also what is Corey saying? Like to me, I'll give my, my opinion first. And he seems like such a relationship builder. That was my first experience with Corey, like two years ago, like he just DMed me cause he, I think he, I tweeted back at him or something like that. And he read my profile and he's like, Hey dude, like former pro hockey player, like, dude, we gotta get your story. Like inviting me on a cafe, Bitcoin, whatever. And it just like, and you just told a story similar to that. He reached out to you. Like, it just seems like he's kind of a connector or relationships, like people.
Brady (15:06.71)
Yeah. Yep.
Brandon Gentile (15:09.425)
person type of thing. So I'd love your answer on both those. I'm going to ask the same thing to him like and see what he says.
Brady (15:13.59)
Okay. Yeah. I mean, you're, you nailed it a thousand percent. I would have said instantly that he is a world -class networker, um, and a relationship builder. Same thing. He, he is absolutely world -class at that. His network is incredible. Um, and it's genuine. It's not, it's not like he does it to, um, for some end purpose, like solely for some end purpose, right? It's valuable to network. Everyone knows that.
Brandon Gentile (15:24.081)
in her
Brandon Gentile (15:38.193)
Mm -hmm. Right.
Brady (15:43.35)
And of course he's aware of that, but it's not the sole purpose. Like he's, he genuinely connects with somebody and tries to find a way to bring about value to the relationship as well. And so he's not just taking, he's that's how you build a valuable network is you're, you're giving often giving more than you can, than you receive back from it. Um, and yeah, his network has been a huge, you know, in the startup space, they called an unfair advantage. What's your unfair advantage? Investors want to know what it is. Right. And, um,
That's a common question in the fundraising scene. Well, one of Swann's unfair advantages is Corey's world -class networking abilities and his network he's already built. And so it's brought a lot of opportunities in to Swann. This network that he's built over the course of his career and life. So yeah, and he's just, he's just a really, just a really good person. He's just a really solid human being. He really cares about people and.
He's funny. I don't know. He's, he's fun. He's fun to be around. He's fun to hang out with. He's got good energy. Um, and he's, and he's also just really smart, but I think the killer. Like app of Corey, the killer app of Corey is network is a networking for sure. Uh, man, I don't know for me, like, I don't even know. I think, I think, uh, I work, I think I'm a, I think I'm a good leader.
I think I'm fun to work with. I think I bring like make people comfortable, bring like the best out of small teams. Like, I think it would be a really good like sports coach, for instance. If I coached a basketball team, I think it'd be really good at it if I ever had the chance to do it. So I see it sort of as the same way I sort of approach like, um, pulling teams together, like create it, especially creative teams and like really getting people's.
Brandon Gentile (17:23.889)
Mm.
Brady (17:39.798)
energy and like, uh, creative energy and juices flowing and making it fun so that people want to come to work and really want to be there and, and hang out and spend time and do their best, you know, their best work and really come up with something amazing. Um, so I think that's, I think I'm, yeah, if I were going to pick like one. Like work related or even just like life related ability, I think it's bringing people together, creating space. And it's another thing that like, like,
Corey and I kind of have in common too, and he's, he's great at throwing parties. So like, like this is like, we have two sort of brands principles at SWOT, like two principles that have built the SWAN brand. And one of them is be the media and just a really aggressive content marketing strategy, you know? And the other one is throw the party. Like we have Swans, we do Swans salons in Miami and LA every month. We do PB, Pacific Bitcoin every year.
Brandon Gentile (18:12.465)
Thank you.
Brady (18:38.358)
We do online events every month. We're doing more and more one -off in real person, in real world events. We do sponsorships and stuff. Like we did big bit block boom this past year or this past weekend. And so there were a lot of like swan related kind of events in real, uh, IRL events there. So they're both relationship building strategies, right? They're both networking strategies. Like we were just talking about the content marketing strategy is building relationships at scale. Right? So it's more.
Brandon Gentile (18:50.673)
Yeah.
Brady (19:08.118)
It's more like one to many. So like this podcast, we're having this conversation, but people listening to us or people listening to any swan media content, uh, are building relationship with the people that are producing it. Right. So whether it's me on Swan signal or now Sam on Swan signal or Dante on the Bitcoin daily show, um, they're building relationships with swan through those people. Right. And then in person, it's one to one, right? It's, it's, it's more, this more real kind of high def, you know, in real life.
interaction and it's maybe more long lasting over time because you build a deeper connection, but they're both relationship building strategies. And so, so Courtney are both not, I guess I'm kind of naturally a relationship builder too, just not to the same scale as Corey is. I think he's maybe more of an extrovert than I am, but I think, um, I think we're really similar in that sense. So like be the media, build relationships that way and throw the party, build relationships that way. Um, so he and I were both.
party throwers growing up. Like we both, we've shared many, talked about this many times. Like we were the one in our groups who were like organizing the parties, had the party house where everybody came to hang out at. Um, you know, and it's just, yeah, that kind of vibe, that kind of vibe. Yeah. Which is a great skill to have in, in, uh, your professional life, it turns out. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (20:16.881)
Yeah, it shows. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. It makes me think of Gary Vaynerchuk, the high school party rule he has where it's like, there's like the kid that's like no one really knows or like he's like half, you know, in the popularity is half right. But if he throws the party, he automatically is like an upper echelon of like popularity now.
Brady (20:33.878)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Yes. Yes, exactly. I've not heard that, but yes, that's completely true. I've got those stereotypical like high school party hosts, you know, hosting stories that, you know, you see in the movies and stuff. We've got several of those. Yeah. And college for that matter. So yeah, that's, it is interesting. And it's like a, it is a networking skill, I guess, when it comes down to it. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (20:44.465)
Yeah, it's literally the high school party roll.
Brandon Gentile (20:54.161)
Yeah, so funny. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (21:01.137)
Yeah, it is. And like in your personality, I've always enjoyed being around you and you're incredibly busy. So I have not been able to be around you as much as I would like. But your personality is very calming, very authentic, kind of what you said about Corey in a way. Like you said, a little more maybe energetic and and out there and extroverted in a way. But, you know, our personalities, I think, are a little bit more similar. So it's I've always vibed with you in that sense, whereas you have an authentic and calming personality.
And would you need that yin and yang, obviously. So but like Dante, like you said, Dante and Sam, like those guys, man, to the smartest guys that I know. I mean, it's just wild. Like their intelligence level is just next level. To touch on that, if you want about them, really, if you want to. But my other question to you was was Aladdin, actually, I wanted to ask you about Aladdin. So advising Bitcoin trading cards as well. Kind of skipping around here a little bit, but it just made me think of Aladdin. What do you think his?
Brady (21:38.934)
Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (21:57.265)
like genius zone is or like his superpower or something that kind of just is always resonated with you or just like, dang, he's got this. Is there anything that kind of comes to mind or or why you said yes to, you know, helping advise and helping with with Bitcoin trading cards?
Brady (22:11.766)
Yeah, I think there's like three things about Aladdin. One is, I think he has something kind of similar to what I just described about myself, which is like bringing like really smart, creative people together and inspiring them to do really great work and like organizing, you know, that project with creatives. Obviously really good at that. That's what Bitcoin Trading Cards is, but he's also an incredibly talented creative himself, right? So just by himself, like he just, his artwork is beautiful and amazing.
blows me away. I don't know. And then he's also a fantastic salesman and like entrepreneur. So the kind of conversations that he'll sit down, he'll go into like, he's like, I'm going to have a call with so -and -so, um, with this huge printer, for instance, right? They print like magic gathering Pokemon and sit down and talk to them. So there's this tiny little project and like, you know, we talk, we talk pretty much every Friday. And so he's like, uh, okay, well how'd it go last week? And when you had that call, he's like, oh my God, man, it was.
Brandon Gentile (22:46.097)
Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (22:55.377)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (23:11.094)
Like they love us. They're like, it's like, we're like the, they're going to print our project and it's like 10 times smaller than any project that ever printed before. Right. And just like, how did you do that? Like, how did you make that happen? Uh, but he just does that over and over again. And he just has this just infectious charisma or like just passion for what he's doing and just conviction and what he's doing. And he's able to relay that, um, and just this really undeniable way. So, um,
Yeah, he's, he's a special, a special human being, man. Aladdin is pretty, pretty cool. I like, I mean, I'm just, I really love the projects when I really sat down and looked at it. But then when I met Aladdin, I was just like, yeah, I got to, you know, somehow work with this guy in some capacity because he's so cool.
Brandon Gentile (24:00.273)
Did you, so again, not to, we'll kind of curtail some of this, not to go off and talk about other people the entire time, but it is important in a way. Yeah, I know, I know. And it's like, yeah. And that's, again, that's your personality, right? It's like, given you shall receive, right? So again, it's very cool, but.
Brady (24:08.726)
fine. I like talking about other people.
Brady (24:16.118)
Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Gentile (24:21.393)
We know there's not a lot of podcasts in a sense where you're sitting there talking about other people and not in a malicious way, obviously, but talking about the good things about other people. So it's kind of an interesting, you know, just exercise to do, I think, in general. But what do you think it is about your Bitcoin? It just Bitcoin attracts people like this, like some of the smartest people. I mean, like, is this.
Brady (24:27.286)
true. Yeah.
Brady (24:33.654)
Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (24:43.569)
Is to you, is that why Bitcoin is inevitable in a way? Like, why do you think like Bitcoin, you know, it's a human system, people still have to work and educate and bring people to the system. Bitcoin could run forever on its own, but if humans don't adopt it, then it doesn't matter. So, I mean, is it the people coming here like that, like the Aladins, like the Koreas, like the Dantes, the Sams? I mean, like, what is it to you that really gives you the most hope?
Brady (24:52.15)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (25:01.622)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (25:07.926)
The most hope or help? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, it's an interesting question. There is certainly a human layer to Bitcoin undeniably. All right. All of the Bitcoiners, this social layer is sometimes called to Bitcoin. Um, and I mean, man, being around Bitcoiners is, uh, absolutely incredibly inspiring. It makes it does make me full of hope.
Brandon Gentile (25:09.297)
Yeah.
Brady (25:37.334)
Uh, whenever I go to a Bitcoin conference, I'm always reminded of that. And, um, it's just, it's, uh, I think it's what Bitcoin represents is hope. This, this hope for a better future, this hope that we can escape from this rigged system that we were just talking about at the top of the show. Like it's undeniable that stuff is bad and wrong. Like things are, it's just.
Brandon Gentile (25:57.649)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (26:06.294)
And once you start figuring out, okay, yes, okay, it's rigged. It's somehow rigged. The rich and powerful are getting more rich and powerful. And these are these sayings that just these tropes that we've grown up with, you know, like the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Like, like a truism, it's just a truism. Like it's something you say to people, just like, this is the way things are. And it's true that this is the way things are, but now we have something that gives us some hope that we can break that cycle. Right. And, and stay out of it.
Brandon Gentile (26:20.465)
Yeah.
Brady (26:35.03)
or at least stay out of it to this extent and make it better. So I think the people who are drawn to Bitcoin are people who have a sense of justice and understand that there is this injustice that's happening and recognize that Bitcoin is a tool for justice and that we recognize that we can help it in some way or another, to increase adoption.
Of this, of this tool. Uh, and so a lot of us just, there's nothing more important that we could work on nothing that will have more impact in the world that we could work on. And it's the type, the type of people who just want to have an impact on the world. Right. Like I joined the peace core after college, same kind of drive. Like I just wanted to have some kind of impact on the world. I wanted to go somewhere where I could have like demonstrable sort of like good feedback about the.
the impact I was having on that community, for instance, because it was a small community. I had resources that I could bring to bear and try to help make this one school a better place for the students and this one community a healthier place to be, you know, or like, and I listened to them and tried my best to like humbly go about that work. And it, I mean, it changed me way more than I changed that community, right?
So we all get that back too. That's one of the things I love about working on a mission driven projects is you learn so much about yourself and you improve yourself at such a rate, um, beyond what you would do if you were engaged in work that wasn't that inspiring to you, you know, wasn't really a mission driven thing. It was just to, you know, so that you could bring on a paycheck. Um, so it's, it's, uh, it is a bit of a privilege.
And it's also, or, and you know, it's also earned it's part partly earned, probably partly privileged in cases to be able to work on a project like this, like be able to work on Bitcoin full time. Um, but you have to recognize, okay, you have this privilege, what are you going to do with it? And, um, it's also very humbling because you're, you know, around these absolutely incredible people, the caliber of people that you work around when you're in Bitcoin is like you were just saying, it's off the charts. Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (28:55.441)
wild. It the funny part is like, in your constantly like you again, you've been in this space for a long time. I've been in it since like 2018 or so just seeing it and studying it and you're constantly getting humbled. Like I was talking to tone vase the other day this weekend and he was like, yeah, I've been making content for like 10 years but like, all of you guys came in the space and you're like, you're like a lot better than I am. You know, it's like it's an OG saying like, yeah, I don't like level up. I had to go do different things actually. And that's gonna happen to all of us like,
Brady (29:18.422)
Yeah.
Brady (29:24.182)
Great. Oh yeah.
Brandon Gentile (29:24.209)
when you have the biggest companies or biggest talents in the world coming to Bitcoin eventually, it literally will just crowd out all of us at some point. So it's like the weirdest dynamic ever. Like your spot might be that big or whatever it is if you want to call it that. And it's like, eventually you just get, you just get, you know, casted to the side eventually and someone better than you comes in and exactly. It's like, yeah, the system is constantly upgrading itself and it just discards like all the rest of us. And it's like the most wild thing.
Brady (29:41.622)
Bitcoin's upgrading itself constantly.
Brady (29:48.15)
Yeah. Yep. It's like out of the way, Brady, here comes Natalie Brunel. I'm like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's true.
Brandon Gentile (29:52.017)
So cool.
Yeah, literally, literally. It's just yeah, it's wild to even like think about and then eventually it'll be like Sydney Sweeney that will be all of a sudden the new Natalie Brudin. Like some like Hollywood, it like sounds weird to say, but eventually, as we know, as a Bitcoiner knows, that will be the case where it'll be someone somewhere that replaces the current versions of all of us who's some mega superstar, the Tom Brady of, you know, whoever it is, the Patrick Homes will become a Bitcoiner. And then all of a sudden, like he sucks all the air out of the room. It's like the
Brady (30:03.83)
Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (30:24.369)
wildest dynamic ever. Anyway, it's so going back a little bit to Swan Signal and Citizen Bitcoin to again, really successful podcasts that you had started. What do you, you know, like why? And I don't think we touched on this, but why? Why did you start that? And what do you miss about it?
Brady (30:26.614)
Yep. Yep.
Brady (30:41.046)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (30:49.014)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, citizen Bitcoin I started just because I was having conversations with my friend Tommy about Bitcoin at this coworking space when I'm still here actually. Um, and.
We were, we'd meet over lunch or whatever. We just have a conversation. You'd see a chart like over my shoulder. He's like, what are you looking at? And, uh, so that's when we started talking about it. And I was listening to podcasts at that point. I was like, look, it'd be fun to just record our conversations. And I was like, at the very least it'll help us like, you know, make us do the work and try to understand it and come up with some original thinking about what we're looking at on our own. And, um,
And so we did that. And like I said, we, every other week we record 30, 45 minute show. If you go to the citizen Bitcoin feed, they're still there. Like the first whatever 20 episodes is like every other week in 2018, we, we had these conversations and it's kind of, I mean, pretty cringy to go back and listen to it. Like for me, but like, but it's also like, it's also kind of sweet and nostalgic. Like it was fun. I mean, um, so started it really just to force ourselves to, to learn.
Brandon Gentile (31:44.785)
So good. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (31:50.289)
you
Brady (32:01.142)
and to read and to like understand what you're talking about. Um, it's like the idea of, uh, you know, like the best way to learn is to, is to teach kind of idea. Not that we were really out there teaching, but we were like, we're giving our opinions and talking about it and trying to explain things. So, um, so effectively we were, and that's why we did it. And it worked like it worked really well. We both got a much better understanding of Bitcoin. Like if you listen to the first few episodes, we're talking about.
Litecoin and Cardano and all this kind of stuff. And we're not really quite sure what to make of it all. And you can kind of get the evolution of like a Bitcoiner, uh, through, you know, we were pretty much there because we pretty much got there through 2017, but the first few episodes, um, are, are, are interesting, but we kind of started like by the third or fourth episode, we were pretty much like, all right, we're, we're Bitcoin maxis now, you know, uh, anyway, so yeah, that.
Brandon Gentile (32:37.201)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Brady (32:56.95)
That was it. And then again, like I started interviewing people because I really wanted the podcast to like actually grow. I wanted to make it a bigger deal. And so I basically asked my friend Tommy, I was like, look, I'm going to interview these people now. Do you like, or is that cool with you? I'm kind of pivoting the podcast and we, we still did a show once a month where we did like a new show and we'd bring in a Bitcoiner to hang out with us. So it'd be like Ansel Linder or Guy Swan. Um, a couple other people.
I can think of right now and come in and like do the news review for the month with us. So that's what I did with Tommy. So we've got those, uh, for all through 2019 as well. Uh, and then Tommy kind of, uh, went off and do other things, but anyway, that was sitting in the Bitcoin Swan signal. I did both of them, uh, at the same time for awhile. They, they overlapped, um, Swan signal started during March of 2020, like there was the COVID crash in the markets.
And in Bitcoin and it like crashed down to like 3000, 4000 something. I think it wicked down to maybe 4 ,000 or three, something like that got really low. And it was like four or five, six K for a long time after that. Um, so the night that it got completely nuked, uh, a message Corey, we hadn't even launched the product yet, but we were getting close and. It was like, we got to go online. We got to go like live tomorrow and like talk to the.
Talk to our people, you know, talk to the Bitcoiners because morale is low right now. And, uh, so he's like, yeah, absolutely. So we got, um, John Valles and Gigi and Guy Swan and Friar Hass and then Corey and Jan and me. And, uh, we just had this big two hour session, just talking, you know, sort of going through feelings and like, uh, what was it like in the last?
you know, bear market and like, w w when have you felt like this before to like fryer has and, and, and guy who had been around for a long time. And so we're just starting to tell him stories and, and it was great. It was awesome. And so I was like, let's do this. Like, I like bringing multiple people together. I like that idea. Let's start, let's just pair people up, but nobody's doing that. Let's pair people up. We'll make cool combos and I'll host a conversation with, uh, with two people and we'll keep it in a small, tight rotating group.
Brady (35:21.782)
30 people or so, you know, kind of in that group, like the bigger names, and we'll just mix and match them into different combos. So it kind of like meet the press, meet the press has like been running for like 65 years or something. And it's just like a, there's a small sort of group of people in the press that they'll bring into that show and they sort of mix and match them. So that was the idea. And, um, and so we started the very next week.
Brandon Gentile (35:25.457)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Gentile (35:30.001)
Cool.
Brandon Gentile (35:43.313)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (35:47.798)
And it was, I think it was Marty and Parker or something, maybe then the next week for the first episode where we paired people up. And we just did that, um, continuously. And it, it was, um, I just, I think it's a really cool show and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a ton of fun doing it. Um, we don't always do pairs anymore. Um, but I loved the concept and we did that like religiously for a couple of years.
Brandon Gentile (36:15.409)
So cool. Yeah, it is a great idea. You don't see it a lot, which is really unique.
Brady (36:16.534)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, yeah, like Peter will do it sometimes sometimes, you know, it's like a one -off here or there, but yeah, as a concept in and of itself hadn't been done. Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (36:23.185)
Mm -hmm. Right.
Brandon Gentile (36:28.817)
Oh, it is, it is. So the last couple of questions here before we get towards end, the last year obviously has been crazy. The bear market, all kinds of stuff, you know, swan, you know, people come back or swan, which, you know, like as Alex Danzig says, it's just like, it's just in the Bitcoiner world, you get the wheel, right? And you spin it and then eventually it's your turn to get hammered, right? What, what?
What can you touch on? Like what do people not you kind of touch on this with Cory in a way and like who he is and what people don't know like Cory could easily be what in like Silicon Valley or Wall Street like doing stuff, you know, really really shit coin and really out there in the fiat matrix on the Titanic's rearranging deck chairs He has a context to do it, but he's not you know, he's in the Bitcoin world doing doing you know on the mission So what are people not? Understand about swan like what are maybe some misconceptions things you see here from a macro level being in the position you're in like what are people not?
Brady (37:17.334)
Yeah. Yep.
Brandon Gentile (37:27.569)
Understand about swan that maybe they they should
Brady (37:33.046)
Well, um, I mean, I think last year, you know, we took some knocks and deservedly so for, um, being reliant on another company as a key part of our business model. Um, and so prime trusts, you know, they had a, a failure which obviously affected us. Um, so we had to move to prime to fortress.
Um, and these, and these were like, when we conceived the business and I'll just say like, there's a real, there's a very good reason why we chose to like this business model. And that's because in the, like the best way to basically protect clients. In our opinion is to use what's done in the legacy finance industry and is actually by law, like mandated is to have.
Brandon Gentile (38:14.001)
Mm.
Brandon Gentile (38:31.505)
Right? Minor detail.
Brady (38:32.982)
a brokerage in custody separated from one another. So like FTX, for instance, is brokerage and custody were together. Right. And there's all kinds of shenanigans that can happen there. When you have brokerage and then custody is in a legally separated trust company with bankruptcy, remote trust accounts. Right. So like when you sign with Swan, you get a trust account in your name. Like Brandon has a trust account and.
Brandon Gentile (38:42.641)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (39:01.558)
the Bitcoin and the assets are held there. And if something happens to the trust company, like did, did with prime trust, those trust accounts, those client trust accounts are separated from the business money. Right. So when the business was having trouble and went bankrupt, the trust accounts were bankruptcy remote, meaning there was like the last that you could get clawed back. And it's never happened in the history of the U S U S trust companies that.
trust funds have been clawed back in a bankruptcy proceeding. Right. So that's, that's why that, that we did that. Um, it's just like the best practice, right. Established, well established best practice. Okay. So very, very good reason to do that. Well, the thing that you want to protect against happened, a prime trust, it did, no client funds were lost. So we went to Fortress, same, for the same reason. Um, and they had, they,
Brandon Gentile (39:55.921)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (39:58.902)
had a hack of a third party, you know, provider, vendor, and lost funds. And again, no, no Swann customers, uh, funds were lost, but it's another third party, you know? Um, so we are building our own trust company and we're going to have the first Bitcoin only trust company. It will be a separate entity from Swann, but Swann will control it. It will be regulated with, you know, all the state regulators, uh,
that in all the regulation that comes along with the trust company. Um, so it'll be much more like transparent, et cetera. And it'll be separate from the brokerage from the brokerage business. Um, but we will be able to control the way it operates and, um, you know, how, like the integrity of the business effectively. So we'll be able to operate at the same excellence that swan the swan brokerage is operated at operated at. Um, and we won't have any of the exposure.
the security exposure that, um, operating with shitcoins, you know, brings with it. So, um, so we're fixing that, like we're fixing that piece. The model is correct. Like you should have, you should separate brokerage and custody. You should not roll your own custody and have it, you know, have it with, with the, uh, with the brokerage business. Cause if something goes wrong, then all of that's up for grabs, you know, in a bankruptcy proceeding. Um, that, so it's just not, not the right, in our opinion, not the right way to do it.
Um, so I think that that's probably what's misunderstood out of that whole, um, that whole saga. And, um, I think people will see, you know, like we're working on fixing it and there'll be more, we've announced that there'll be more to come this year. Um, as the year progresses on that front. And I mean, once, once we do that, I think it'll clear up any misconceptions on that front. I think, um, I don't know. I mean, I think otherwise swans like reputation is pretty on point with.
Brandon Gentile (41:42.289)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (41:58.07)
we are and what we do, you know, inside the company. And I think we have a strong, strong reputation, a strong brand because we have a lot of strong people with like a lot of integrity at this company. Um, and that's why I am proud to be here. Like I wouldn't be here if we're, if we're anything else or other than that for the case, you know? So, yeah.
Brandon Gentile (42:08.273)
from human.
Brandon Gentile (42:19.313)
Yeah, so cool. Yeah, no, thanks for kind of breaking that down because it's it's something that you know, I'm sure there are people out there who still wonder questions and things like that. So I appreciate you, you know, walking through that. I think it's important. And like you said, the ethos is there and what doesn't kill you makes it stronger. You know, you learn from the business, right? Like you learn, you make mistakes, you do stuff. We all make mistakes and and then you learn and grow. That's how you get better.
Brady (42:31.83)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Brady (42:36.95)
Great. Great.
Brady (42:43.734)
Right. Totally.
Brandon Gentile (42:46.321)
Transitioning towards the end here, what do your kids think about Bitcoin trading cards?
Brady (42:52.854)
Great question. Give me, give me two minutes to redo that answer without, with less detail because I don't want, I can just hear Guy in my head right now. Like, so let me do the prime trust and forger's answer again, but with less detail, only using things that I know we've put out in public. Um, cause I think I may have, I'm not sure if I did or not. Anyway. Um.
Okay. So I'll start, let me just start over. Yeah. So I think, let me start with this. I think that in general, the Swan brand is well understood, at least strong because we have a lot of strong, smart people with high integrity at this business. And so I think our brand really does reflect what's going on inside the business, inside our company and our culture. So I don't think there's a big misunderstanding there. I think one like aspect of the business and our, and our four years of operations.
that people may not get completely is what happened with Prime Trust and Fortress last year. And we, you know, we've talked about this. Our business model operates because we want to separate brokerage and custody. And this is what's done in the legacy finance world. It's the, it's a best practice. In fact, it's, it's legally mandated. And so we approached building a business this way.
having a separate custodian from our brokerage business and we operate the brokerage business and we had a separate custodian. One, because it's, we think probably going to be the law at some point for Bitcoin and crypto businesses. And two, it's just the best thing to do anyway for reason, obvious reasons, right? So if a business like Prime Trust goes bankrupt, all of those trust accounts, the customer funds are separate, legally separated in trust accounts.
So the business money can be clawed back in a bankruptcy proceeding. The trust account money, like never is, as far as I know, has never been clawed back in a, in the bankruptcy of a trust account. So that's why we did that. Um, and it, the case actually did happen and no customer funds were lost. Um, and in the case of Fortress, there was another, um, mishap where there was a, a hack. And so we have the right model.
Brady (45:19.574)
But the inputs, the prime trust and the fortress inputs have been incorrect and they've broken on us. So we absolutely are still committed to that model, but now we're going to build our own trust company. So we're making a Bitcoin only trust company and get rid of the attack surface that shitcoins bring along with them. We'll be able to operate it to the level of excellence that we do with Swan brokerage, but with all the regulation and legal benefits for our clients.
that a trust accounts bring. So I think that's something that may be misunderstood, uh, that kind of fell out of that. But to me, it's like, from everything I've seen from the inside, it's been nothing but operating with integrity, right? From the beginning, like we made that those choices because we thought it was the right thing to do. Um, and we, we acted with integrity in the face of adversity. Um, took a lot of lumps on the, on the PR front. Um, and.
You know, we pushed through and we built our way, you know, like out of that and our team got a lot stronger. Now we've got the Bitcoin, the Bitcoin trust company will be coming online this year. So I think what people will see looking back through that whole saga, maybe there's some misunderstanding. We'll see like, okay, it was really just like a bunch of integrity all the way down the whole time. Um, and I think it'll be really, it's almost like a hero's journey, you know, that, uh, that will kind of complete when we get that trust company up and running.
Brandon Gentile (46:43.825)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (46:47.638)
Yeah.
Brandon Gentile (46:48.049)
Yeah, well said. OK, the Bitcoin trading cards and your children, what are their thoughts?
Brady (46:56.822)
Yeah. Yeah. My kids love the Bitcoin trading cards. Absolutely love them. They asked me about it quite often. Like, do you get new cards yet? Are you getting new packs? Can I help you open packs? When I got series one, they both helped me open packs. Um, I've gotten a lot more careful about opening packs now. So I like, I limit the amount of packs that they open, um, which is kind of silly, but, um, anyway, I, we, we just went.
Brandon Gentile (47:16.465)
you
Brady (47:26.198)
wild with series one and, uh, we had so much fun. Uh, they all, they both have their sets of commons, like they really want the shiny foil cards. And I'm like, okay, these can be yours, but I'm going to keep them over here, you know, but they have their little box of commons. I'll get them out and play with them and sort them and stuff like that. So they love it. Uh, and I, it's one of the things I love about using this medium to educate is that it's like for us, you know, and anybody of any age at this point, right.
Brandon Gentile (47:33.329)
That's all.
Brady (47:55.446)
has experience with some kind of trading cards, you know, pretty much everyone at a young point in their, in their lives. So it's going to be nostalgic for us and kids love it. It's just cool. Like intuitively for some reason, people just enjoy it. They love it. It's a little piece. Card, the art is cool. The info is cool. There's only so many of them. It's collectible, like speaks to all these sort of things that humans innately understand, um, even at a young age. And so, yeah, I think it's, um, I think it's a genius idea.
And my kids' reactions to interacting with the cards is proof of it right there.
Brandon Gentile (48:32.337)
I love it. I know we got to run here in a couple of minutes. We got a new segment presented by Bitcoin Trading Cards. As you can see, the box is back here. Stuff all over Brady's background as well. Little word association. So I'll go with like 10 or 12 words and just quick kind of lightning round what comes to your mind or like the word that maybe that comes to your mind associated with it. Satoshi Nakamoto.
Brady (48:33.366)
Yeah.
Brady (48:39.862)
Oh!
Brady (48:43.83)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brady (48:56.086)
Okay.
Brady (48:59.445)
Genius.
Brandon Gentile (49:01.489)
Bitcoin ETFs.
Brady (49:05.334)
Top of funnel. That's a very market, very marketer answer. Peter Schiff. LARPR. I don't even think he's honest about his hate of Bitcoin at this point. Yeah. Everything.
Brandon Gentile (49:07.441)
Peter Schiff.
Brandon Gentile (49:14.513)
Same, same. Family.
Brandon Gentile (49:22.001)
Collectors, hobbyist collectors.
Brady (49:25.238)
My people.
Brandon Gentile (49:27.121)
memes
Brady (49:30.518)
Powerful.
Brandon Gentile (49:32.657)
politics.
Brady (49:38.838)
Man, I'm going through so many words in my head right now with politics. I would just say, I'll say frat, frat. It's a frat topic for me.
Brandon Gentile (49:46.833)
I like that. Kansas City.
Brandon Gentile (49:52.259)
Alex Gladstein.
Brady (49:54.23)
hero.
Brandon Gentile (49:56.145)
intelligence agencies.
Brady (49:59.958)
Bye.
Brandon Gentile (50:02.769)
shitposting.
Brady (50:04.694)
fun.
Brandon Gentile (50:08.145)
Bitcoin Trading Cards.
Brandon Gentile (50:12.337)
Citizen Bitcoin.
Brady (50:17.27)
my ticket in.
Brandon Gentile (50:19.793)
and Swan Bitcoin.
Brady (50:26.198)
My legacy.
Brandon Gentile (50:27.761)
Oh, wow. Appreciate brother. Last thing really quick, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I knew what you meant. What really quick before I before people tell people where they can find you, but also one or two like who are your biggest mentors in the Bitcoin space? Maybe one or two people that you really look up to the most or maybe you've over the years you really kind of look to.
Brady (50:32.246)
Professional legacy. Yeah.
Brady (50:50.71)
When I was first starting Citizen Bitcoin, actually Peter McCormick helped me a lot. I looked at, because he was such a pro at running his podcast and he was the only one in the space who was really running it like a business. And so I hit him up. He was the second person I had in the podcast. Hodlana was my first episode and then Peter was my second episode. So I was, I hit him up and was asking him questions and he helped me out. And I've always sort of admire his admired his work.
Brandon Gentile (51:12.113)
Mm -hmm.
Brady (51:20.822)
from afar in his dedication. And...
Brady (51:30.902)
Uh, I'm going through a lot of options, but...
I think I'll say Brandon Quidam. He's been like in the trenches with me at Swann from the beginning. And somebody who I connected with on Citizen Bitcoin on several episodes, just really deeply. Some of my favorite ones, personal favorites were with him. And has become a really, really close friend. And so, yeah, I've learned a ton from him. I really trust him. When I...
Brandon Gentile (51:37.713)
Mm.
Brady (52:03.67)
have something I need to work out and talk through. Um, I can go to, go to Brandon and yeah. So he's, he's a mentor to me in a lot of ways and just a really good friend. Go with Quittem.
Brandon Gentile (52:13.937)
That's so cool. Very cool. Where can people find you?
Brady (52:18.294)
I'm at Citizen Bitcoin on Twitter. And I'm Brady at (Brady@Swan.com) .com. If you want to email me and I'm, you can also find me in the Bitcoin Trading Cards telegram room. I'm in there quite a bit.
Brandon Gentile (52:29.905)
There you go. There's the plug right there. I love it. Mr. Brady Swenson, thank you for being a playable character. Thank you for joining me today.
Brady (52:32.054)
Yeah.
Brady (52:36.374)
Thanks so much, Brandon. This was fun. Appreciate it.
💰 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?igsh=MXY5MjBlYnZoYnV0aQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
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