¶ Global Uncertainty Index at Record High
If you thought the dot-com bubble 2008 and COVID were bad, global sentiment is pricing in something much worse here in 2026. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bitcoin Banter. I have Tony and our friend Brandon Gentile with me. Don't forget to stick around for our Donkey of the Week segment at the end. But first, guys, let's talk about the recent Global Uncertainty Index. So the World Uncertainty Index, WUI, just exploded to 106,862, the highest level ever recorded, which is crazy.
This is 292% higher than after the 9-11 attacks, 243% higher than during the Iraq war, and 103% higher than COVID-19. Brandon, it's been a minute since we've had you on, so I'm going to let you take this one first. the world is in flames. What is your assessment of what's going on here and what are people sniffing out? Yeah. And it's, it's the, uh, the positives and the negatives of social media, right? I mean, part of this is we get to see what's going on all around the world now
instantaneously because of social, social, social media. So it's lighting people's brains on fire. They're getting emotional at the same time. There's, there's obviously massive things going on. You know, we were just talking offline, uh, about the wars going on and what's happening and whether you like it or not or whatever it is,
¶ Corruption in Systems Due to Fiat Currency
there's real power and there's abstract power. And Trump's showing everyone that that's the game. It doesn't matter. There is no blind justice. There's 10 tiers of justice right now. And whatever we think about it, international law and all these different things, they don't exist. Tony mentioned this offline. If no one's enforcing the laws, then it doesn't matter. And I think that's what people are sniffing out at the end of the day.
They're realizing that these systems are all corrupt because they're corrupted by fiat. and that's the genesis of all this. So it's frustrating as a Bitcoiner because at the end of the day, we wanna get to the root core of the problem and get the cancer out and disinfect that area. But most people are trying to put Band-Aids on bullet holes and that's why the fear keeps going up. As a Bitcoiner, your fear is way lower.
Your stress and anxiety is way lower living in Bitcoin and seeing the lens of society through that Bitcoin lens. So are we human? Do we still be fearful at times? Of course, but Bitcoin just puts a different perspective and you see everything way differently than this. I mean, this is a very fiat poll, like you were just kind of laughing about where, yes, are there real things happening? Of course there are, but this is because of fiat. Make no
mistake. Fiat has incentivized all of this chaos, has created all the malincentive and has created the just-in-time shipping and worrying about the straight-up horror moves and all these dumb things that have been had, the petrodollar, the breaking of the dollar in 71. All these dumb things they've done is because we haven't backed our currency by anything real. And so it creates these dumb incentives, these dumb backroom deals. And this just perpetuates on itself over time.
And even though a lot of people don't understand the true core problem, like we just mentioned, they can see that there's things breaking all over the place. And that to me is really culminates in this, in this poll right here. You know, the craziest thing is I think most people who are, who are sharing that they feel the world is very uncertain at this moment, aren't even factoring in things that were sort of yesterday's news. No one's talking about the war in Ukraine anymore.
No one's talking about tariffs anymore. Like all of those things are, these are balls in the air. Yeah. The Somalian daycare centers, like none of that stuff is even accounted for, at least from my perspective in this news. It's the immediate in front of us, straight of Hormuz. It's the war in Iran. But Tony, what's your take on all of this?
¶ The Delusion of Safety
man where to begin explaining all of this i think i think you know if you really want to sum it up why these numbers are so high why the uncertainty index is that guinness world record numbers is because i think the uh delusion of you know this only happens in other places has finally been shattered to everybody around the planet and uh no matter where you look now there's a disaster looming over your head and people are starting to feel it.
And because, you know, they've always lived, sheltered the lives, you know, seeing, viewing the world through these rose-colored lenses. Well, now these lenses are broken and now they're panicking because they don't know what to do. They go into a store, they can't afford it. They think they're living in a safe country, a drone drops a bomb over their head. They go left, there's a problem. They go right, there's another problem.
And so, you know, it's like, you know, you have these chickens scrambling all over the place with no attention span, no knowledge and no direction. And so, of course, you know, instinctively, fear dominates everything. And this becomes a very, very big problem because then you are relying on people acting on instinct. I've, you know, I've mentioned this countless times that I've lived through this. It's not a pretty picture, man.
In fact, it's one of the most dangerous situations you can find yourself in because you literally need to expect the unexpected, sometimes from folks that you least expect it from, you know, people that you've grown up with your entire life. It's just gone crazy. And so all this links back again, you know, like you mentioned, Brandon, to the broken money and the delusion of having some sort of, you know, justice system in this world.
That's also gone down the toilet because clearly there is no law. If somebody breaks into a store and steals something, what usually happens? They get caught, they get arrested, they go to jail. You've got organizations that have bankrupted the entire planet. What's happened to these people? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You've got these same people responsible for crimes on humanity. What's happening to these people? It's not like nobody knows who they are. Everybody knows who they are.
But there's no reaction. Except, oh my God, what am I going to do? My money is dead. I can't buy anything. There's a rocket that blew up next door. That's how the world is handling a crisis.
that's not the way you solve problems man tony it's completely true here's the interesting thing i always wonder when i look at something like this i just think about my personal life and to what degree is this level of uncertainty that people feel understated because people again people in my personal life know that i'm interested in this stuff they know that as part of my work i follow along with a lot of these things even even if i'm not diving deep deep deep into the weeds
and no one's talking to me about what are gas prices going to be in two weeks. We're going to talk about that in a minute with one of Simon Dixon's recent tweets. But I think a lot of people aren't really... Tony, I'll speak from a US perspective. Many people are like, this is crazy, don't know what's going on, don't know if I support this war or not, but it always feels so
far removed from much of the West because it's not happening on our soil. And so I suspect if people could really understand what's happening in the world and the potential implications of it, they would be much more uncertain and much more panicked. And it might drive them into something like Bitcoin. That's the thing. It's like you have to add for now to your statement. Because if you look at the Middle East, these are some of the richest countries in the world for decades.
look at them now if you had asked them a few years ago could anything like this be possible in your area they would have laughed in your face now who's laughing now nobody's laughing so if you think you're somehow immune to this because the sun is still shining and the grass is green and things are just quiet for now in your neighborhood this is like the most dangerous delusion you can put yourself in.
Because at some point, probably much sooner, like if you follow the news these days and you think, you're also going to wake up with an uncertainty index of a million, not 106,000. Because now it's happening literally two meters in front of your front door. And you've got people you're responsible for that are also scared shitless. And you have no idea what to do. Yeah. I think that's exactly right, Tony. And I think you're unfortunately correct also that that day is coming.
Well, speaking of uncertainty, so Quat the Raven, this is a guy who I like.
¶ The Fed Has Run Out of Road
I've learned a lot from. He tends to talk financial markets, macro. He has this really interesting article. And he says, I'm sorry, but the Fed has run out of road. And the reason this is particularly interesting to me is because, Tony, we've talked on the show a long time. Brandon, I'm sure you've been a part of these conversations as well from time to time on can they continue to kick the can? And he seems to think, no, not any longer.
If I were to give you like a TLDR on this, and I think everyone should go read this article. It's basically the premise that we've been saying for a long time, but we're actually at the end of this game, the charade that they've been playing. They're going to have to choose between a depression, a deflationary crisis, or printing more money.
And of course, he comes up with the conclusion that they're going to print more money because it is the most expedient and not because it is the best thing for everyone long term. But Tony, I would love your thoughts on this. Yes, because when you get to the very, very end, you are screwed no matter what you do, because that's it. You know, you're past the point of no return.
So if they print, which, you know, I also think they're going to do, well, they're going to destroy your purchasing power. That means, you know, you go to zero, you know, whether they seize your bank account or not. And if they don't print, well, then you end up with something, I don't know if recession is the right word for it, something like exponentially worse than that. And it's just a whole world of pain on both sides of the equation. And again, these people are responsible for this.
they've constructed this disgusting fraudulent system that they've ran for decades on end, and now they've run out of steam and have no idea what to do. And the world is going to, unfortunately, have to pay the price for it.
If I had my saving still in that worthless garbage paper sitting in a bank right now, honestly i'd be terrified out of my out of my skin because i i would literally um not sleep because i don know where my options would be if i that all i knew right um but for those that have been paying attention for the last 17 years and understand you know is a product a new currency that been gifted to the world specifically to fix this problem to give people that life raft, escape hatch,
to jump onto, which is Bitcoin, in full self-custody.
¶ Bitcoin: A Life Raft in a Broken System
People have adopted that standard. Yes, they don't like to read these headlines. They worry about them depending where they're living.
but their stress levels are nowhere near the stress levels of the regular folk who has no idea what's coming his way yeah imagine trying to be someone trading on wall street right now trying to figure out what how to make sense of everything brandon what's what's your take man yeah you know it's funny because you know 17 years ago when the crash was happening i was in michigan state this was the thing that i realized very quickly right school doesn't teach you about money i'd argued
with professors and debated anyone I could. And, you know, you'll learn on the job and this and that. And it was just like questioning everything. Like, well, why am I here? You know, I was very fortunate that I had a scholarship to play hockey or else I really would have been mad. You know, what am I paying for? So I can't imagine people that are in debt right now, you know, all these,
the things they've been sold, sold down the river because of fiat. Like we've been talking about all show and what happens when you have a fake currency and you know, the system's been playing with you and we're at the hockey stick part of the curve. So I started going down the road of money of like, what is money actually? Like, where, where does it come from? Like, what does the government really create money?
Like what, you know, monetary history, gold and silver, all these different things that led me down the path eventually to Bitcoin and the hardest money to ever exist. And we're the hockey stick part of the curve. I mean, back 20 years ago, I mean, you guys remember, like we were at five, 6 trillion, 7, 8 trillion, I think in US debt. Now we're at 39 trillion. That's only 17 years ago, you know, 18 years ago. I mean, it is, it is, our brains can't even process the exponential function.
and so people think this is gonna like slow down and to your guys point i believe we're gonna go into financial repression i'm like they're going to print because the the social pressure will be to look i mean student loan stuff all these different things will be to bail people out 15 years ago we were trying to um you know people actually got thrown out of their homes i remember moving one of my family members out of their home they had built because they were in the housing
industry architect in the housing industry and when that crashed i had to help them move out of their baby, like, you know, and my cousins. So like, I felt that impact from, you know, through them. And so seeing that happen, this stuff, I think the social pressure is going to be so huge to, you know, put, you know, blame on the banks purposely, because then it'll just be more bailouts, bail-ins, you know, things that Tony has waxed poetically about and has firsthand experience
about for so long. And we've seen this in many countries around the world. So you're going to have massive printing going forward. I mean, this is where the government, I think it was a CBO, So they published a thing just recently that said the government debt is going to be $63 trillion in the next 10 years.
¶ U.S. Government Debt to Be $63 Trillion
And that's the government admitting it's going to be up 40%, 50%. And that's, of course, conservative, not including black swans, any more wars. So it's probably going to be $100 trillion in 10 years from now. And so your money loses, what, another 100%? It goes down 99% from here just in 10 years from now. And it seems hard to believe, but it's because we're at the exponential part of the curve. And so I do think it'll be financial oppression. You're just going to be printed.
You're going to get your social security. You're going to get your pension or whatever it was owed, the grand a month or two grand a month. It's going to buy you a loaf of bread if you're just saving in dollars and US fiat cuck bucks. And so you're going to lose hard, but we kept our promise to you. The United States government kept the promise. They gave you the 2000. They said they're going to give you. It just buys you some raisin bread, maybe one loaf of it. The math is the math.
And so I can't tell you, I can't comment on, and the reason I brought up some of my history too is because I thought that was the end of the game 17 years ago. So I love the Quath the Raven too. He's an awesome guy. He's a Bitcoiner now as of the last few years. And so he gets it. He's much smarter than I am with the math, but we know where the end game goes. And I always try to say, keep the main thing the main thing.
The average person doesn't need to be Luke Roman or Quath the Raven, all these guys who are brilliant and have been doing it for decades. You just need to stack Bitcoin. You need to provide more to society than you actually spend, saving the hardest money to ever exist and sleep well night, spend time with your family, touch grass and do things that actually move society forward. That's the promise of Bitcoin. You don't have to be a hedge fund trader and worry really about it.
You know, we talk about it because that's part of our job. But the average person just has to provide value and stack in Bitcoin. And you are going to do much better than the average person going forward. That's for sure, I'm sure. Prudent advice. Absolutely. Well, we've got a little bit more bad news and we've got some good news coming up, everyone.
¶ Diesel Shortages and Weaponized Crisis
By the way, don't forget, stay tuned for the donkey of the week here at the end. But so Daily Mail shared that diesel shortages within weeks, as experts warn energy shock will be worse than the 1970s, which I wasn't there. But as I understand it, very bad, very problematic, long lines. And Simon Dixon says you will own nothing and be happy. Wait till you see how they weaponize this crisis. Obviously, they're going to weaponize a crisis.
I don't know his base case for how exactly, but I know they're going to. That's what they do. But, Tony, this is a this is a big deal. I mean, diesel fuels the world, right? I mean, if you want your groceries delivered, it's diesel. If you want anything showing up on shelves anywhere, it's diesel. And never mind the obvious implications on gas prices for people just trying to get around, airlines flying, any of that sort of stuff. What's your take on Simon's comment here?
Well, I believe them. I mean, I can't speculate exactly what they're going to do. But, you know, if the last five years were any indication, you can have a pretty good idea of how bad it could possibly get. Because, you know, when people are desperate, they go to extremes, right? The difference with this one is that this one is affecting people's ability to eat, ability to save, ability to buy basic goods, ability to move around.
I don't know what the patient's level globally for something like this. Should it happen, how long it will be. I think this could very well be the tipping point of an extremely ugly revolt everywhere. And of course, some people will say, well, they expect you to revolt so that they can come in with even tighter draconian measures. But I don't know if this game is going to play out the same way this time around. I think enough people are aware of what really is going on.
The truth is a lot more prevalent these days. And if COVID failed because enough good people stood up and put an end to it, I think this time around there's going to be a lot more of these good people hopefully doing the same thing should it get worse. I'm hoping it doesn't. But historically speaking, you cannot continue expecting this form of abuse to simply go away on its own over a conversation.
this type of abuse must be ended you know once and for all by uh people who have had enough and tony there's no other way to fix this hopefully a lot more bitcoiners now than there were six years ago as well people who are not dependent on the money and don't need the ubi check and don't need the handouts and everything in a way that i think if we obviously we didn't have bitcoin you kind of have to walk into that prison cell and just hope they treated you well
but now you have that opt out. Brandon, what do you think? Yeah. And, and this is why I partially brought up my story too. And that's the 2012 election was my kind of inflection point in my life, you know, really. So Oh nine, all at 2012, you had Obamacare, you know, affordable care act, you know, whatever you want to call it, but a government getting in bed with the free market and distorting free market. You had the bailouts of huge companies here in America still happening today.
Government buying Intel, you know, in bed of Palantir, like all these different things. This is not the free market. And again, This is the symptom of fiat currencies, fake government currencies. This is, again, zoom out. Keep the main thing the main thing. You have to put your family on a Bitcoin standard, your city, your municipality, your society, the people around you, and it starts with one person doing it, and then it extrapolates out. That's what Bitcoin has become, right?
17 years of one person starting it, Sochi, and then it expands out from there, and look at what's happened in only 17 years. It's the only way. it's either going to be hash power or like we said off the show, gunpowder. There's only two ways out of this. You can't vote harder. You can't capitalism harder. The economic system is built on
top of the money you choose. They're not together. I've talked to so many people who think that those things are together, like inflation is part of capitalism or the money is inside the economic system you choose. That could not be further from the truth, but these are government educated, public university, MBAs, finance bros, these people that have, they don't know the inputs, the actual accounting mechanism that accounts for that MBA degree they have, or learning how to
manage people and, you know, go to CF, you know, be a CFO and the C-suite executives. They have zero clue what's going on. Jim Rickards has talked about this for a long, long time, decades, and he's no Bitcoin friend, but he's talked about in 71, when they took gold off the, you know, out of the money that they immediately took gold out of the books. So no one got taught after 1971, 72, 73, no one was being taught what money really was. So of course you have a couple of generations
of people that have zero idea what's going on. And these things will all be weaponized because that's what fiat is. Fiat is just a bunch of job owning. It's by decree. So it's a, it's a political currency. So that's all these narratives, the Patriot Act, stir people up, create a bunch of emotion. You know, what did Rahm Emanuel say? And you know, Saul Alinsky, all these guys through the decades, never let a good crisis go to waste. This is how government operates, the natural end
state of governments and empires. This is no different than all of human history and what's happening. But again, how do these things start? Like you guys just said, when people have had enough, when they're on their hands and knees crawling, which Tony has seen firsthand before, so you probably should listen to Tony. He has seen this, people on their hands and knees crawling, begging for the cash they had in the bank, begging for food, begging for whatever, because the
currency collapsed, the fake government currency collapsed in said country. That is coming anywhere and everywhere that has a government currency. And Newsflash, that's all of them. And also, there's never been a government currency that's ever existed for more than 100, 200 years in all of humanity. Every single one has gone to zero. So the US dollar is no different. Maybe it takes a little longer than the rest of them, but they all have the same fate. And Bitcoin is the only answer
that can withstand a global monetary system and a ledger that can't be corrupted. I think that's very well said. Okay, guys, we've got Donald Trump, probably not worth playing a clip, but he
¶ Trump on Bitcoin: We Have to Be at the Top of It
he's talking about Bitcoin in the midst of this war. It kind of makes me wonder if, you know, this is kind of always in the back of the mind of these politicians. They understand the threat. They're trying to figure out how to frame it. But he says Bitcoin is very powerful. So many people
now want to pay you in crypto. They want to pay you in Bitcoin. We have to be at the top of it, call it an industry Tony I think we all probably all a bit skeptical of politicians here You maybe more so than than most people I talk to Why do you think Trump is talking about Bitcoin Does this make you more bullish Do you care at all Or do you think that this is a signal for something else? They talk about it because they have no choice but to talk about it.
It's not going away and it's definitely threatening their entire existence and relevancy. That's why they talk about it. What they're trying to do here is not kill it because they tried that numerous times and failed. What they're trying to do now is absorb it, reshape the narratives and, you know, prey on the ignorance of the people by letting them think that, you know, Bitcoin is a great thing.
As long as you use, you know, the government's version of it, which is, you know, these worthless ETFs, treasuries and all that fucking garbage that they put out there. because they prey on people's addiction to convenience and going with the path of least resistance. But the truth is, and at some point people are going to understand this, that the root of all of the problems, all of them, no exception, is the money, is the dollar that you go out to slave for from nine to five.
But it's also a catch-22 for a lot of people because they need that worthless paper to put food on the table for now, right? Because, you know, of course, you know, Bitcoin is only 17 years old. It's not everywhere yet. And so they're stuck. So you've got, you know, the lack of knowledge and, you know, poor education and the fact that, you know, there's immediate needs that need to be met. And so, of course, these corrupt politicians abuse that. It's not like they care about the people.
They don't give a shit about you, whether you live or die. But they know you're stuck. And for them, the eternal quest for power and greed and control is never going to end. And so since they can't kill the threat, they're hoping they can somehow contain it. This might work for a portion of the population, but there's a very rapidly growing number of folks worldwide that are not going to fall for this rubbish.
And the more they try to contain, I think the more they're going to incentivize and push the development and proliferation of real Bitcoin circular economies. They're going to push the peer-to-peer standard of electronic cash. And we will go into, at least in the short to midterm, into that two-tiered system that I keep referring to.
you're going to have a part of the world you know still stuck in that donkey money asking for permission you know under constant surveillance and control and you're gonna have a large enough portion of the population that are not and you know of course you know since the internet is is available to everyone and people love posting about how glamorous their lives are you know people who are stuck in hell are going to see others that are not so stuck in hell and
And I'm going to wonder, you know, why are they so happy? And why am I in such a rut? And they're going to, you know, want to figure out how to get there. And so that, you know, light bulb moment is what stresses me out. Because there's no ticket at that moment in time, right? To go from hell to heaven, there is no ticket. Who's going to trade places with you, right? And so that usually turns into, I want it at any cost. And that usually means, you know, extreme violence.
Would either of you guys give any weight to the notion that perhaps someone like Trump doesn't really understand the threat that Bitcoin is to the dollar? And so he talks about it, kind of throws a bone to the Bitcoiners who we, you know, rallied around at the Bitcoin conference. Could be part of that as well. You know, it's like to gain, I don't know, political brownie points, I guess. Who knows, man? I mean, but the key takeaway here is that Bitcoin doesn't care about these people.
It doesn't care about this entire system entirely. It doesn't matter what they say or do. This is the part that so many folks still don't understand. And they still wait around clapping like a bunch of fucking penguins. You know, whenever one of these guys announces some sort of good news, which they never follow up. Right. So, you know, you need to stop, you know, being so foolish and hoping that, you know, a legacy system is going to adopt a money. that completely puts it out of business.
You must be crazy to think if a corrupt government is ever going to do that. Yeah, no, I completely agree with that statement. And I guess maybe what I'd say is just, if you're watching this, don't hold your breath, right? Like just don't hold your breath on what politicians are going to do. Brandon, what's your take? Yeah, I mean, Joe Manchin, I keep going back to 15 to 20 years ago.
Joe Manchin told us in 2014, hey, we should have stopped Bitcoin when we had the chance, you know, in 2010, 2011, when it was very small, you know, probably the only legitimate shot at stopping Bitcoin. And now they know they can't, uh, the cats, you know, the toothpaste out of the tube, it's long, long gone. Uh, politicians know like whether, you know, Tony just said like, whether, you know, Trump knows or not, just trying to throw a bone is trying to get, you know,
donations, you know, whatever it is, maybe he does know, maybe he doesn't know. Um, it just, they, the only way to, to remove you from your Bitcoin is a psyop you, whether it's, you know, the government stuff, it's tax this, it's the ETFs or like all these different things. These are just psyops to remove you from your Bitcoin. You know, a fool in this Bitcoin are soon departed. And, and that's the only thing that the ruling class can do. They can't stop it. They have to stop you.
And this goes back to, again, we were ranting our show a little bit, right? And it's just like, you don't, this whole system is, is fake. The fiat currency, it's, you can't have good society from dishonest money. And so everything downstream is polluted. It's like, it's Adam and Eve, you You know, you bite the apple. Now, now you have all the sin after that. You know, good and evil. You know the difference.
So now you get all the dumb consequences, whether it's, whether it's this politician or not, or it's another politician or it's a group of people or not, because people always dismiss the, I guess we'll just say conspiratorial people because people know that term, but they, they dismiss people who argue against the government. They dismiss a lot of people that they have a problem with the government or whatever it is, but it's not one person at the top.
You know, both sides kind of miss it to a degree. It's just the incentives of fiat. But they pit people against each other, left versus right, red versus blue, consumer and producer, government versus individual. It pits everyone against each other. That's just the inherent nature of fiat. You cannot have good fruit from that bad tree. It's literally impossible. So separating money from state is the only answer at the end of the day. Move your family onto that standard. Get educated.
Talk to the guys here. Get some extra food storage, some gas, some water. Again, Tony has talked about these things for so long. get prepared because things are coming and it's just the natural state of life. This is, these are life cycles, you know, for turning all the cliches. These things are obviously just how life works. People forget. Then we learn our lesson. We get smacked in the face and then we get, then we learn our lesson.
Go back to like, we just mentioned the Bible a minute ago, that people forgot the truth and then they come back and they're like, Oh, we forgot. And then they learn for a while and then they forget again. We're just, you know, it sucks to have to live through the period where people forget and they're like, Oh darn it. We forgot the truth. We forgot common sense. And here we are, we're getting smacked in the face.
And there's people, whether the politicians, whether they know it or not, they're going to be run over by the system. They win at the end of the day, too, because they are humans also. And they will benefit from Bitcoin at the end of the day as well. Not maybe in a political sense, but just for their life, their family, the people around them. And that's the beautiful thing about Bitcoin is it puts everyone on the same side of the table, actually.
And actually is that positive some upward loop instead of this downward doom debt spiral loop that we have now with fiat. So I have an interesting story. So last year I spoke at a, a small event here in town and it was largely a bunch of like business professionals. And there was one guy sitting in the audience who had tattoos. He looked like a biker. Like I, I could imagine his Harley sitting outside.
And I said something about how government had corrupted money and, you know, we, they can't be trusted with, and it was, I was not trying to be like divisive. I didn't know the audience real well. And he said, he raised his hand and he said, Hey, what if I think we'd maybe I'll be better off if we all just agreed to trust the government. It was like the last guy in the crowd I was expecting to say we should trust the government. He's going to be like the rebel, like rah-rah,
cheering me on. And I think that's the challenge is they see someone like Trump, like, oh, he's talking about Bitcoin. Oh, maybe if I buy some Bitcoin and then wait and keep it in the ETF, it's going to go up because Trump's talking about it. And I think everyone just needs to get to a
¶ BTQ Technologies Launches BIP 360 Testnet
place where they reject that notion. I'm hopeful that the global uncertainty index maybe makes people question when a politician speaks about anything, even things that they like. Maybe it's not quite as it seems. All right, guys, we got some good news here before we get to our donkey. We actually have two donkeys of the week, by the way. But BTQ Technologies launches
BIP 360 testnet, pushing Bitcoin toward quantum proof security. So the TLDR here is that But obviously, I think a lot of people who follow along know that the elliptic curve cryptography could be broken by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer. And a host of folks have been working on this. This is one step closer toward moving to Bitcoin's mainnet, requiring a community-approved soft fork. Obviously, we don't have a timeline on that yet.
But to me, this is optimistic, not because I'm worried about quantum computing in the short term, but there's a lot of FUD around this. I think it's just one of those boxes we could potentially check that maybe puts people who are worried about this at ease. Brandon, do you have any particular take on this? No, I don't specifically. It's just, again, zooming out, keeping the main thing, the main thing. It's just, you know, we had energy flood for 15, 16 years straight.
And then all of a sudden that becomes AI data centers. Now we need tons of energy. And that's all of a sudden a great thing. And now we hear nothing about energy flood with Bitcoin.
and so that I believe is a little signal there because now we hear quantum and epstein stuff all the time these last you know couple months so that to me is a little signal and at the end of the day quantum it yes do we need to work on things just to prepare for the future of course and not put our head in the sand however at the same time if people think that you know someone's people are going to come after a two trillion dollar you know one and a half trillion dollar
uh honeypot and they're not going to go after the u.s military first or you know jamie diamonds bank or like all the other banks first, and those won't be the first targets with quantum, which we know most of that is not quantum proof, then come on, we're fooling ourselves here. So it's amazing that this is happening. And again, it's just a testament to Bitcoiners, always forward thinking.
Bitcoiners usually, I would say what I've seen, operate 10 to 20 years in the future, probably minimum somewhere around there and beyond. So it doesn't surprise me, Bitcoiners were working on this already well ahead of the curve.
And again, another benchmark, another reason that you should be studying Bitcoin and understanding this world because it's going to be the only system in an AI world and what happening going forward that will be able to operate efficiently and securely going forward Tony does this make you bullish Yeah absolutely man This is definitely the type of good news that people need to be focusing on because it clearly you know
debunks the FUD and the nonsense that's been spewed out, you know, over the last few months. A lot of smart people love Bitcoin and that's not going to change. In fact, if you really want to be bullish on Bitcoin, just understand what's being built on the protocol and that ecosystem. And once you understand that, then it becomes very clear why Bitcoin's value is going to be exponentially larger than anyone can possibly think of. Yeah, I completely agree.
I think it's just exciting to see that some of these things that many people are talking about most ignorantly, but that concerns some people and it comes up on CNBC or wherever. We've got answers and it's being worked on. So I think that's exciting. All righty, guys, this is our tier two donkey of the week. OK, so the Canadian government is seeking to secure elections from crypto risks, because obviously that's the biggest risk of their election.
It says in Canada, crypto regulation is now entering the democratic arena and electoral reform proposes to ban crypto donations to counter risk of foreign interference and opaque financing. That is your problem. It's opaque financing of politicians. That's that's what's going on in Canada.
uh tony what's uh what's your thought i did to be fair i think most politicians will uh you know out of fear for losing their job could potentially comply even though it's peer-to-peer electronic cash i mean it's just like another i don't even know if it's a misstep it's just like another like what are you wasting your time on canada that's my sort of interpretation but tony what do you think well man when you have like inefficient corrupt and stupid politicians
who are desperate to remain in power and they know that they can't because the world has changed now, what do they do? They cheat. And so they try to leverage their position in order to warp the rules, in order to keep the real competition from kicking them to the curve. I don't think this is going to work. There's nothing they can possibly do that will ban a peer-to-peer transaction from someone to someone else if they really wanted to do so.
People who understand crypto are usually much more educated than these retarded politicians. And so if somebody wanted to send funds somewhere, they will find a way to do it. And there's nothing these people can say or do about it. So this is like a nothing burger trying to just, you know, trying to show strength where there's absolutely none of it. Yeah, this is what happens when you elect a two-time central banker.
And it's, yeah, to me, I wonder what percentage of political donations come in the form of cryptocurrency. It's probably pretty insignificant. So I just don't know why they're wasting time on this. But anything you would add to that, Brandon? Yeah, again, it's just more of these, like you filed into Trump thing earlier, like the good, the bad, whatever.
It's just the politicians, people acknowledging probably a lot of, you know, just placating to the different sects of your base, you know, the different components of that. It's probably what a lot of it is right now. Because, again, we mentioned this earlier, but I know some politicians do understand Bitcoin. Obviously, there's going to be some out there that do. But the vast majority don't at the end of the day. They really don't. They're worried about insider trading.
They're worried about all these other things. That's the grift and how they're making money. We talked about the leering centers earlier, the Minnesota tax fraud. The money laundering all over the place is how these people are making money. So this is just, I think, placating to their different voter blocks and voter groups to say the Elizabeth Warren type stuff or whoever. than Mark Carney's. Hey, this is what we're doing.
You know, because they know their base doesn't like crypto or it's associated with right wing people or whatever it is, you know, stupid things they believe. So this to me is just, is this part of that. And if you're really about security transparency, then, you know, we have the, after 9-11, we had the Department of Homeland Security in America was created. And there was 200, as of like a year or two ago, there's 240,000 agents. So for after 20 years, we're adding 20,000 people a year.
So are you 240,000 times safer than you were after 9-11? And that's just my question to the average person, at least in America. That's how many people they throw onto this stuff just to glom on and to create this opaqueness and lack of transparency.
So every time you see things like this, to me and all my experience of 20, 25 years of following this stuff, it's usually to create some other government position, get more people into the government, actually create more opaqueness and more lack of transparency, more grift, more money laundering. That's generally what happens with these things. So again, to me, it's just a ruse. try to play gate and base and hey, how can we launder some more money at the end of the day
with some new initiative or some new government agency? That seems pretty reasonable. Alrighty,
¶ NYC Proposes WEF-Inspired Blackout Law
guys, the real donkey of the week, however, is are the politicians of New York City. So they're proposing, they say it's a WEF inspired law that would require a blackout to be put in place to save the energy grid. And the long story short on this, guys, is that non, so it would be a mandate shutting off non-essential outdoor lights from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting in 2028. So no real urgency to this, of course, to curb light pollution, conserve energy, and protect
migratory birds. And of course, they're going to allow exemptions for public safety, which I don't know how they decide if it's for the benefit of public safety, and areas like Times Square, which they can't turn the lights off because all the big donors advertising in Times Square and the tourists who bring them money. They don't want to upset those people. So, I mean, just absolute clown world. We've seen plenty of this out of New York City lately, but I would love, Brandon,
your thoughts first. Yeah, boy, oh boy. This makes me think of Daniel Batten. I was just trying to find the tweet somewhere, but he talked about this. You know, one of the things I got to say, the one of the things I love about Bitcoin, like we talked about earlier, the putting people on the same side of the table instead of pitting each other against each other. Daniel Batten is someone I probably wouldn't have agreed with 20 years ago when I was very political. We would have been on
opposite sides of the table. I think of someone like Eric Kaysan. I know we were on the opposite sides of the table, whether it was Occupy, Wall Street, and Tea Party. And then you really realize these people are all on the same team. I mean, 95% to 99% of people want to be left alone. They want freedom. They don't want the government running their life. And so we've just been told they're saying, and that's what Bitcoin does. It puts people that were before in this political
fiat currency system at each other's throat, where now we're all on the same team. I can have great conversations and 99% of what these guys say, or those gentlemen say, or ladies say, I agree with, because you start realizing, wow, this is really what it's all about. So, you know, I think about Bitcoin mining, Daniel Benton was just talking about this the other day of like the electricity to grid and how Bitcoin mining is the thing that stabilizes all this.
And it's like, if you were really for the green agenda, New York city, you know, politicians or mayor and all these people, these grifters, the Gretas, they're like, if you're really for green energy and ESG and all these things, then how have you not found Bitcoin after 17 years? What kind of homework are you doing? Where are you actually looking? And that's the confusing part to me. And I say that, you know, facetiously, because we know that it's just a grip. It's a ruse. It's
what we've been talking about this whole show. It's their money laundering operations. All these things are to siphon power away from you, siphon your wealth away from you so they can have it at the top. They still have homes on the sides of cliffs. They're not worried about climate change too much. They're not worried about sea levels. So again, you get to decipher the signal from the
noise. But Daniel Band, like I said, I was trying to find this tweet and he was just saying that one of the biggest methane gas, you know, I forget what the guy was because one of the biggest guys in the world. And he said the, the best way to get rid of methane gas in the world is Bitcoin mining. And he had just retweeted that in the past week. So, I mean, massive signal anywhere.
So it's like Tony said earlier, this stuff is inevitable. Like Bitcoin is the inevitable money protocol going forward, no matter what way you spend it, no matter what way you look at and what lens you look at Bitcoin from, from the revolutionary aspect, from the cleaning up the environment, saving, you know, not being stolen from through inflation, every angle you spin Bitcoin, you're, you see, Oh, wow, that's the answer. And then you come over here. Okay. Wow. That's the answer too.
It's that's what Bitcoin does. And that's why it's just zoom out. Keep the main thing, the main thing. It is much easier. You know, what's easy to do is easy not to do. As humans, we tend to think like it's got to be super complicated. And I think it's what Occam's razor is. The simplest answer is almost always the right answer. And we just need to get our own way and not overcomplicate things. But it is tough when you have 12 years of government run school for many people here in the West.
I empathize with you. I was one of those people. And it is hard to get our own way because we have to overcomplicate things. And it's time will tell. but we're going the right direction overall. Yeah, I can relate to that. Tony, why don't you? Yeah, man, not much further to add here, except when you're tired of being ripped off and you're tired of knowing who's ripping you off and you still do nothing, well, then I hope you have a nice collection of candles because...
No, I think that's a good place to end it. Make sure you stack sats and stack candles, everyone, especially if you live in New York City right now. Brandon, it's so fun having you on every single time, my friend. Why don't you tell people where they can find you? I appreciate you guys so much and what the Bitcoin way does. And just have such a great relationship with you guys. And I'm truly on the mission, the freedom mission.
And that's what this is all about at the end of the day, the freedom maximalism, freedom mission. So I always appreciate being on here. Brandon underscore Gentile is just my handle for the YouTube live streams we do and the podcast we do there. And then I think it's on Nostra and Twitter as well. You can find me everywhere. It's Brandon underscore Gentile. Thanks, boys. And stick around for another minute to our listeners.
You can hear about the Bitcoin way, how we can help you go schedule a call with our team. We'd love to chat with you. Gents, it's been a pleasure. Look forward to catching up again here soon. Thanks, guys. It's been great. Thanks, boy. Cheers. Hey there. Thank you for tuning into Bitcoin Banter. Wanted to take a quick minute to remind you to head on over to the Bitcoinway.com slash
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