Bitcoin Bottom Line

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz delve into the recent bank closures and their impact on the crypto space. The issues raised from these closures are not unique, and people are looking for someone to blame. Olszewicz states, “I believe the FED plays a big role in this because they had to catch up after slowly raising the rate. Ultimately it's the bank's problem. It is their job to manage that risk appropriately.” People have been dependent that the FED will continue on a steady track of raising rate, but this has not been the case.  Throughout the highs and lows of Bitcoin, people have continued to show their faith and commitment to the fight for economic freedom. Public opinion of Bitcoin is at a low, with recent scandals causing hate and distrust towards crypto. Wilson describes those who have persevered through the valleys as “those who have proven their worth with strong hands is a bear market.” Now it is time for Bitcoiners to have discipline and avoid shorting during the highs. As Bitcoiners immerse themselves in the space, they grow more skeptical of traditional banks, questioning the rate of fees and if the deal is truly beneficial long term. Wilson states, “Everything is good for Bitcoin as long as it continues to function uninterrupted.”  Wilson and Olszewicz go on to discuss credit unions, the importance of financial education from a young age, and regulations. Many large corporations have begun moving offshore to countries with fewer regulations, but Wilson warns that they must plan for long-term alterations. Historically, large corporations have used this strategy successfully for years, but crypto companies have to be selective with the location to ensure they will not be suddenly changing their regulations. The likelihood of the country benefiting from growth-based crypto companies should be taken into consideration. Listen to the full episode for more! DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by an expert in the crypto space, Troy Cross. He is an academic philosopher and has been a Bitcoiner since 2011. He also describes himself as an environmentalist and is not afraid of controversy. Cross discusses his opinions on ESG and believes that its critics should be listened to. “My own vision is Bitcoin having a minimal environmental impact. Bitcoin mining is constantly changing, and miners are constantly trying to find more environmentally friendly ways to mine.” Cross describes some of the ways that miners are trying to counteract the negative impacts of Bitcoin on our environment. Some of the early members in the Bitcoin space have created a way to give us pure water from Bitcoin. They use the heat from ASIC chips to distill the water. The heat from the chip alone is not enough, but when you put water under the negative pressure of a vacuum, it will boil at a lower temperature. Once the steam condenses, you will have pure water. You can create pure water from anywhere in the world. Wilson, Olszewicz, and Cross discuss the dangers as well as the benefits of the space. Cross states, “this is a system I believe in. It is bloody; people get hurt; it rewards efficacy and ruthlessly punishes inefficiency and leverage. It redistributes wealth in accordance with how well you manage it.” There is purity in the laws of crypto. People cannot do whatever they want and are required to stay humble. The reward at the end of this pain will be well worth it. Bitcoin encourages people to think critically and expand their minds. “If we can disagree in a way that is open-minded and civil, then we are collectively able to reach a much larger audience. We win by thinking how each one of us can help to improve the crypto space. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz begin by discussing the recent arrest of the founder of the Russian exchange, Bitzlato. Recent reports suggest Bitzlato had ties with a Russian darknet market Hydra, and the company only ever had $11,000 in their wallets. Wilson and Olszewicz go on to discuss the skepticism from users in the crypto space and how things might not be what they seem. Wilson uses a racing metaphor, “yellows breed yellows. Meaning that cautions bring more cautions. Bitcoin Twitter is so conditioned to be skeptical of everyone big that the second there is an announcement, they assume that it will be bad. It seems like whoever can hang on the longest will reap the rewards of being the provider of last resort.”   Wilson and Olszewicz talk about how the volatility of Bitcoin is relatively low despite the mess of GBTC. Olszewicz states, “price wise, we have erased the entirety of the post-FTX collapse in November. The price is back to where it was.” Wilson discusses, “there are a certain number of people that are back in profit on their net holdings. If we are above $21,000, we are still above the 2017 cycle. This goes back to, if you have held it long enough, you are good.” Wilson and Olszewicz discuss mining Bitcoin and how you must be strategic. Wilson reminds listeners that Bitcoin mining requires a complex strategy. Mined Bitcoin is not as easy to hold as one might assume. It may take about four to five years to find out if you have deployed a good strategy or not. Wilson continues, “it is a wild world out there. Bitcoin is a great way to determine what direction you are heading.” Olszewicz wraps up the episode by stating the importance of keeping an open mind and being willing to learn.  Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss how the sausage is made internationally, why there is no pivot coming to save us, and how fast food could be the next big winner. Olszewicz discussed how many people are coming to the realization of just how much power the fed has, which is much more than people in our generation ever imagined. “We are optimistic that things are going to reverse course and net assets will be saved, which is not the case.” Everything is laser-focused on inflation right now, which means you are going to see high unemployment, housing mortgages evaporating, auto loans collapsing, and consumer debt being at an all-time high. Inflation affects everything.  Wilson and Olszewicz discuss the effects of a credit-based economy. Wilson states, “we live in a country with over $90 trillion in debt and only $9 million in the money supply. This has caused the ice to start thinning, and eventually, someone will fall through the cracks.” Olszewicz continues, “that is the argument for the inability to raise our own government debt interest payments above 5%. It would exceed anything that we could even think about paying and be the single biggest line item other than the defense budget.” Politicians often do not think about the impact of the money they are spending now and its potential to increase our future inflation.” Olszewicz states, “It has only been fourteen years since White Paper, the network was launched in 2009, and it has had 99.98% uptime. Over time, people age out of the CEO or CIO role, and the new generation comes in and sees this as more than just an alternative asset.” Wilson continues, “social media platforms are only around twenty years old, which is only a little older than Bitcoin. People are being born now that do not know about how these platforms started, just that they are operational. It is similar in terms of smartphones. Some people forget that there was first Motorola, then SideKick, and then came the iPhone. We are not even at the iPhone of Bitcoin yet.” Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the big update of the FTX case. The wheels of justice are slowly turning, and Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by the Bahamian Department of Justice. The United States Department of Justice is sending a petition to extradite him, which is predicted to happen. The question now is, does everyone involved who turned on Bankman-Fried get immunity? What will happen to Caroline? There is still a lot that is unknown.   Olszewicz states that the two biggest takeaways are that “this has very little to do with Bitcoin at all: how was the exchange run, who was trading what. The protocol was unaffected. The second one is that regulations are definitely coming. It is just a matter of what flavor. I am all for having the best regulations we can, but would those regulations have stopped something from happening in the first place? Are you going to prevent venture capitalists from investing in companies that are headed by individuals in a United States off-shore tax haven?”   Wilson describes his definition of a bear market while discussing the current state of the crypto space with Olszewicz. They talk about inflation and how most people generally are conscious of price changes of resources such as gas. One of the best ways to see inflation is by looking at fast food prices. They wrap up the episode by discussing user growth. The number of BTC addresses is almost a million, so there are almost a million whole coiners. There are still a few reasons that Bitcoin would not be the best primary source of your money. They talk about the room for growth, how it is hard to earn Bitcoin, and the need for a way to pay salaries with crypto.   Listen to the full episode for more!   Follow CJ and Josh Here  https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer  https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom  DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the massive shake in the crypto industry. The pain we have been seeing since this summer is still in circulation with the latest casualty of the FTX blow up. SBF is a great example of what not to do. Many people were skeptical of the speed his enterprises were ramping up and how they were severely understaffed. Wilson explains, “if you have too fast of a rise and too much money being injected without too many rules being put into place, it results in many problems. According to Forbes, he took his investors' money and made venture investments with other companies, which are not liquid. If you spend money in that manner, there is no possibility of getting it back if you need it.” Olszewicz states there is speculation “they had no accounting system or tax management team.” Everyone inside the space was blindsided by the FTX scandal. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss how the market could be a factor in these scandals being brought to light. People thought of FTX as the central bank of crypto that can help bail you out, but it has been proven again that there is not one. Wilson suggests that “if you look at it from a roach mentality, how do I survive the apocalypse? You will end up being fine. The way to do that is to keep your head down and be humble. If you overextend yourself in this type of volatile state, you are going to lose your arm.” Olszewicz brings up, “there are no issues with the chain, and people are able to withdraw their funds. At the end of the day, there are issues still going on, but they are centralized exchange issues and not chain issues.” These are operating issues, not technical issues. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss how the current state of the space is going to make everyone better Bitcoiners when this is over. Wilson states, “Bitcoin is like a sponge. You squeeze the sponge, and liquidity comes out, but you can see the absorption and how much capacity it really has when you put it back in the water. I think Bitcoin has the capacity to absorb all the tears, pain, and broken-hearted people.” Bitcoin is for everyone, and everyone is necessary for mass adoption. At the end of the day, there are still a lot of great things going on in the space. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this episode of “Bitcoin Bottom Line,” hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss how the “sausage is made” internationally, why there is no pivot coming to save us and how fast food could be the next big winner for investors. Olszewics discussed how many people are coming to the realization of just how much power the Federal Reserve wields, which is much more than people in our generation ever imagined. “We are optimistic that things are going to reverse course and net assets will be saved, which is not the case.”  Everything is laser-focused on inflation right now, which means you are going to see high unemployment, housing mortgages evaporating, auto loans collapsing and consumer debt being at an all-time high. Inflation affects everything.  Wilson and Olszewicz discuss the effects of a credit-based economy. Wilson states, “We live in a country with over $90 trillion in debt and only $9 million in the money supply. This has caused the ice to start thinning, and eventually, someone will fall through the cracks.” Olszewicz continues, “That is the argument for the inability to raise our own government debt interest payments above 5%. It would exceed anything that we could even think about paying and be the single biggest line item other than the defense budget. Politicians often do not think about the impact of the money they are spending now and its potential to increase our future inflation.” Olszewicz states, “It has only been 14 years since [the Bitcoin] white paper, the network was launched in 2009, and it has had 99.98% uptime. Over time, people age out of the CEO or CIO role and the new generation comes in and sees this as more than just an alternative asset.”  Wilson continues, “Social media platforms are only around 20 years old, which is only a little older than Bitcoin. People are being born now that do not know about how these platforms started, just that they are operational. It is similar in terms of smartphones. Some people forget that there was first Motorola, then Sidekick, and then came the iPhone. We are not even at the iPhone [stage] of Bitcoin yet.” Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount!  https://b.tc/conference/2023 Use promocode: BMLIVE for 10% off everything in our store! https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine - https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine Pro - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/bitcoin-magazine-pro  

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by special guest Mike Hobart. He is an author of Bitcoin Magazine, a seed oil disrespecter, and a former United States military member. Wilson, Olszewicz, and Hobart open the episode by talking about what is currently happening in the investing space. Olszewicz states that there is currently no good news, and we are seeing how rate hikes are not working effectively.  Wilson has observed people starting to question inflation and interest rates while seeing that there is a person responsible for them. He believes the solution is the Bitcoin mantra “no rulers, just rules.” Hobart remarks that energy companies have the potential to have a significant impact on the acceptance of Bitcoin as well. “I believe that we will get a lot closer after energy companies like Exon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips become vocal about how they are using Bitcoin mining to help with their production numbers and revenue. I have noticed that everyone wants to treat Bitcoin like a stock and equity or as a heavy rock like gold. It is both of these things and neither at the same time. The more information that is put out about Bitcoin, the more understanding people will have, and the adoption rate will begin to grow even more exponentially.” Hobart closes the episode by sharing the threat medical debt has to our economy. “With the rest of the macroeconomic situation, the whole market is looking at housing because of 2008, oil, energy, and gas because of Ukraine, as well as supply and shipping rates due to covid. I think the markets are going to have the black swan come from the health sector. In regard to diabetes, ten percent of the population has diabetes, and ninety-seven million people are prediabetic. About forty percent of the population is or will be taking insulin. This does not account for all of the other metabolic diseases prevalent in society. There are trillions of dollars worth of medical debt in the United States, and nobody is talking about how this debt is going to affect the economy.” Listen to the full episode for more!

In this week’s episode of “Bitcoin Bottom Line,” hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by special guest Daniel Batten to discuss bitcoin mining using organic materials. Batten is an expert on methane and explains the benefits of bioavailable energy. “If you are taking your power source, such as natural gas that would otherwise stay in the ground, it is carbon positive when you take it out of the pipeline. This will contribute to carbon emissions and is absolutely the type of bitcoin mining we want to do.”  Batten goes on to talk about how there is another form of methane that does not come from the ground and is freely emitted into the atmosphere. “This comes from farms or anywhere you have anaerobically decaying organic matter, which are things that rot without air. Global warming is about several different emissions that all have their global warming potential. If we compare methane to carbon dioxide, methane is more warming and breaks down faster than carbon dioxide and then turns into it.”  The United Nations Environment Programme has stated that methane is the strongest lever to reduce climate change over the next twenty-five years. “This is because it increases at a parabolic rate and is 84-times more warming than carbon dioxide. If you can find a way to use it as a fuel source, you are removing it from the atmosphere.” Wilson, Olszewicz and Batten discuss the benefits to our environment of using these emissions and potential ways to do so. They wrap up the episode by talking about how this is not a single-solution problem and many preventative measures will need to be put in place to impact climate change. Batten states, “There is enough landfill gas around the world to power the Bitcoin network many times over. Bitcoin does not produce enough energy to solve this problem single-handedly.”   Lower your time preference and lock-in your Bitcoin 2023 conference tickets today!!! Use promo code BMLIVE to save 10% off your conference tickets today!!! https://b.tc/conference/bitcoin2023

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the current worldwide events. Wilson discusses how Bitcoin has recently been a safety net. Olszewicz states that “currencies appear to be collapsing on the government's management. Japan and England have been a complete mess.” The pound is currently at an all-time low, along with many other currencies. Bond markets are doing historically worse than they ever have. Olszewicz says “it does not make sense to me why the pound is up if England has been printing money and buying their own bonds.”   Wilson explains that all of the national banks lean into each other for stabilization. As trends change, we typically see a five or ten-percent wick over a long period of time. Now we are seeing twenty to thirty-percent riffs, where the dollar is up thirty percent against these other currencies in a very short period of time. People are generally unaware of how interlinked all of the central banks are.   Wilson goes on to talk about risk as an investor. “When you are an investor, you want to put your money in a diversified portfolio of risk so you are not all risk, all the time. Bitcoin does not have a yield or natural interest rate so you have to manage your cash flow in order to operate. The problem is that during inflation, your cash flow is being burned much faster than you want.” Wilson believes that inflation is here to stay for quite a while.   Wilson and Olszewicz discuss using bitcoin as a transaction method. “If you want to do a transaction, you can buy bitcoin, send it to someone and they can sell it for cash right away. There is very little volatility between transaction periods. You can decide to exchange it all for cash or you could take a fraction in bitcoin and the rest in cash.” Olszewicz says that bitcoin is “an off-ramp for all of the central banking mismanagement.”   Listen to the full episode for more!