Join me today for Episode 954 of Bitcoin And . . .
Topics for today:
Circle P: Rev.hodl: https://primal.net/p/npub1f5pre6wl6ad87vr4hr5wppqq30sh58m4p33mthnjreh03qadcajs7gwt3z Rev. Hodl's Applied Permaculture Class: https://primal.net/e/note1t6p47jytn4wg9ft5a4t4unm787y3jyz3drsrfgz072jjsuszpgsq2u370f
The King Ranch Donation Pages: https://www.ruralamericainaction.com/fundraising/save-king-ranch-and-agriculture-in-washington
https://www.givesendgo.com/Kingranch
Articles: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-mining-shutdown-cause-20-surge-in-electricity-bills
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cftc-predictions-marketsmarket-manipulation
https://www.theblock.co/post/316550/fed-now-expected-to-cut-rates-by-50-bps-this-week-giving-boost-to-bitcoin-bitwise-analyst-says
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0071/3772/files/OppositionLetter.pdf?v=1725463027&mccid=6d9d8a9255
https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/09/16/ether-bitcoin-ratio-drops-to-lowest-since-april-2021-heres-why-it-matters/
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/16/el-salvador-president-nayib-bukele-to-present-debt-free-budget-for-2025/
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/nayuta-wallet-is-shutting-down/
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here: https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Topics for today:
- 20% Rate Hike in Electricity After BTC Mining Jilted
- Election Prediction Markets Catch CFTC Eyes
- 50 BPS Rate Cuts Expected by FED
- ETH/BTCC Ratio Drops to 48 Month Low
Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd
Circle P: Rev.hodl: https://primal.net/p/npub1f5pre6wl6ad87vr4hr5wppqq30sh58m4p33mthnjreh03qadcajs7gwt3z Rev. Hodl's Applied Permaculture Class: https://primal.net/e/note1t6p47jytn4wg9ft5a4t4unm787y3jyz3drsrfgz072jjsuszpgsq2u370f
The King Ranch Donation Pages: https://www.ruralamericainaction.com/fundraising/save-king-ranch-and-agriculture-in-washington
https://www.givesendgo.com/Kingranch
Articles: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-mining-shutdown-cause-20-surge-in-electricity-bills
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cftc-predictions-marketsmarket-manipulation
https://www.theblock.co/post/316550/fed-now-expected-to-cut-rates-by-50-bps-this-week-giving-boost-to-bitcoin-bitwise-analyst-says
- https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/
- https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/
- https://mempool.space/
- https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
- https://geyser.fund/project/thebitcoinandpodcast
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0071/3772/files/OppositionLetter.pdf?v=1725463027&mccid=6d9d8a9255
https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/09/16/ether-bitcoin-ratio-drops-to-lowest-since-april-2021-heres-why-it-matters/
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/16/el-salvador-president-nayib-bukele-to-present-debt-free-budget-for-2025/
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/nayuta-wallet-is-shutting-down/
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here: https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here:
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
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Music by:
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[00:00:00]
David Bennett:
Good morning. This is David Bennett, and this is Bitcoin and, a podcast where I try to find the edge effect between the worlds of Bitcoin, gaming, permaculture, podcasting, and education to gain a better understanding of all. Edge effect is a concept from ecology describing a greater diversity of life where the edges of 2 systems overlap. While species from either system can be found at the edge, it is important to note there are species in the overlap that exist in neither system, and that is what I seek to uncover. So join me in discovering the variety of things being created as Bitcoin rubs up against other systems. Well, it is 9:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the 16th day of September 2024. This is episode 954 of Bitcoin. And we got all kinds of neat stuff going on today. We really do. But first, the circle p is open for business.
Rev Huddl's applied permaculture is coming up Friday, October 11th. And there is well, actually, that's the fireside Bitcoin meetup. But the very next day on Saturday, October 12th, that's when Rev Huddl's applied permaculture class and demonstration begins. It's gonna cost you a 100,000 sats and you will learn how to apply permaculture to your lifestyle, build sovereignty, resilience, and wealth. It's a half day class, y'all. It's not going to take that long. He's going to detail how he uses permaculture ethics and principles to homesteading, how he builds his own wealth resilience with the 8 forms of capital. And the 8 forms of capital are indeed mentioned in Bill Mollison's Permaculture Design Manual, which is sort of the Bible for permaculturists.
He's going to illuminate connections between Bitcoin and permaculture as well. After learning all about that, you're gonna eat some lunch that's prepared with the food freshly grown on his homestead. And then after that, a full homestead tour showcasing living examples just so you can see how the ethics and principles of permaculture work and are in action. So, on Saturday, October 12th again, tickets are 100,000 sats. There's 20 1 available. You will need to direct message Rev HODL on Nostr and the link directly to Primal like, yeah. I'm putting in a Primal link so that when you hit the link you'll go right to Rev HODL's, basically his profile on Primal. Alright? So, you don't have to enter in a NINpub or anything like that. I just threw you threw you down a link. So, DM him.
If you buy tickets, make sure that you tell him that you heard about it here on the Bitcoin and podcast. Now, if you don't wanna pay but you wanna go hang out with some spectacular people, and by the way, this is very close to a place in the United States called Baroda, Michigan. If you're close to Baroda, Michigan, then you're in you're in his neck of the woods. The very next day on Saturday I mean, on the the day before on Friday, October 12th, not only do the people for the Saturday, gig check-in, But at 7 pm, there is a free bring your own beer Fireside Bitcoin meetup. So, if you want to meet some of these people, probably talk about some permaculture kind of things, then you can go and it won't cost anything.
He has, some free camping available. But, if you want a house or a yurt or one of those tiny houses, he just finished one that has a queen bed and it sleeps 2, you will have to DM him for prices on the house, the yurt, and the tiny house. So, go check out in Baroda, Michigan, Rev Hoddle's applied permaculture class, Saturday, October 12th. Again, tickets are a 100 1,000 satoshis. Let's crank this son of a bitch up. It's Monday, Monday, Monday, and Bitcoin mining shutdown causes a 20% surge in electricity bills. I think we're I think we might be overstating things. Let's let's see what Vivek Sin has to say in this one from Bitcoin Magazine. The closure of a Bitcoin mining facility in the Norwegian town of Hadsell has led to a 20% increase in electricity bills for residents.
The mine, the bitcoin mine, was shut down after the municipality declined to renew its permit due to noise complaints. Cryptovault operated the mining facility for 20% of local power company, Norinet's revenue. With this loss of its largest customer, Norinet is raising prices for households to compensate. Locals had bitched their way into a 20% increase in bills. No. That's not what it says. It says locals had complained for years about noise from the mine's cooling fans. However, due to the closure, residents are now faced with paying several $100 more per year for electricity. When such a large individual customer switches off overnight, it has an impact, said Noranet manager.
The company estimates bills could rise by up to $300 monthly, and that's $300 US. I don't know what they're using up in Norway. Is it the kroner? I can't remember. Anyway, whatever. While unhappy about the price hikes, Hatzell's mayor said that the municipality must deal with the consequences of losing a major power consumer under the regulations. He said that the town will now seek new projects to utilize the excess energy capacity. This is what we mean by buyer of last and first resort just saying the situation highlights how Bitcoin mining can help reduce electricity costs by distributing grid expenses to a larger customer base Bitcoin mining continued operations would have prevented the rate spike for these citizens. The incident has fueled a debate in Norway about imposing restrictions on energy intensive mining.
This could force miners to relocate operations abroad and can lead to yet further increases in prices for residents. So yes, the residents of Norway and this little town bitched their way into a 20% rise in their bill. Now that's according to Vivek Sin. He says he uses the words like is and did and basically saying it definitely did do this. Well, just to be fair, I've read 2 other stories that said it might. I've heard another story that said it probably will lead to a 20% increase in rates. And it makes sense that it would. It's just that I'm getting conflicting reports. So it either did or it didn't or it might or it probably won't.
Right now, for me, all of that's still up in the air. So just be aware. However, it would not surprise me if in fact the residents of this town are going to have to pay through the nose to replace the largest electricity consumer that was in that particular area. Well, here's here's my thing. Would there have been a way would there have been a way that the power company because they're, you know, they've got such a large, large customer Working with the town and the mining company, would there have ever been a way that they could have figured out how to squelch the noise being generated from this particular Bitcoin mining? Why not go there?
Is it I mean, it's not impossible to do, but how much would it cost versus, you know, what's the return on investment? You know, is it really going to squash the sound down to the point that, oh, I got cats and stuff that have decided to play in the background. So if you're hearing a bunch of bumping, that's that's what's going on. My point is, is that it looks like they didn't even try to retain their customer by working with the town, themselves, and the miner to figure out a way to insulate against the noise. Maybe it was just impossible. But I haven't read a single shred of anything anywhere that says, hey, let's look at doing this first before we start pulling plugs on people. Well, now it looks like the guys in Hansel are gonna have to be able, you know, are gonna have to pony up another 20% on their electricity bill. And, no, the answer is no. You're not going to find somebody to eat up 20% of your electricity production very quickly, if at all.
So that's what happens. Just you see what happens, Billy? You see what happens? Alright. Here's another issue. Election gambling. Yeah. Not election not, you know, not interference. No. Gambling on elections. And maybe Braden Lendria has it, has the same sentiment that I have about gambling on this kind of stuff. He's writing it for Cointelegraph and says, explosion in election gambling will harm the public interest according to the CFTC. The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission says prediction markets can fall to spectacular manipulation in the latest filing against the United States predictions market, Calshi.
Quote, documented cases of market manipulation have already been realized in the very markets Calshi points to, the CFTC stressed, pointing to recent instant instances on competitor platforms in the September 14th reply in support for a motion of stay. Polymarket experienced a spectacular manipulation attempt by a group of traders gambling on vice president Kamala Harris to win the 2024 United States presidential election claimed the CFTC. While a fake poll showing Kid Rock leading senator Debbie Stabenow 30% to 26% in a senate vote on predicted impacted the price of StableNow's reelection contract.
The CFTC partially lost its initial case against Kalshi September 6th, effectively allowing the platform to offer election betting, Kalshi's founder, Tarek Mansoor claimed in a September Twitter post. However, District Court Judge Gia Cobb issued a temporary stay order following an emergency motion from the CFTC on September 9th intended to pause Kalshi from offering US election markets. Interestingly, Mansour said the US first election market went live 3 days later on September 12th. However, it was taken down just hours later after the platform was hamstrung with yet another stay order, this time in the appeals court.
The CFTC's latest filing was a reply in support of a stay of motion in the appeals court. The commodities regulator filed a notice to appeal September 12th. Despite that, Cobb said that the CFTC exceeded its authority by ordering Kalshi to halt its election markets in a separate September 12th opinion. In arguing against the CFTC's motion for a stay on September 13th, Kalshi said such an order would cause irreparable financial harm to the company while similar products continue to be offered on other unregulated platforms. But the CFTC slammed Kalshi's argument as sophomoric in their most recent September 13 filing stating quote, a pharmacy does not get to dispense cocaine just because it is sold on the black market, end quote.
Now who's being sophomoric? The commodities regulator said the financial opportunities Kalshi would miss out on pale compared to the harm it could cause by allowing more bets to be placed on the upcoming presidential election. And a key factor of the CFTC in Kalshi's case was whether the prediction platform's operations constitute gaming under US laws and thus fall under the CFTC's authority. Cobb's September 6th ruling was viewed as a big win for the broader crypto industry. Quote, this is great news for anyone who believes that having skin in the game is a fundamental aspect of being American. Nick Tomiano, founder of the crypto fund, one confirmation said at the time. Okay. So what does it mean?
We've had these prediction markets. We had these prediction markets when Trump was running against Biden or whatever. Right? These prediction markets in crypto land have been around for a very, very long time. But now now it's getting real. Now the CFTC is starting to complain. And I guarantee you the SEC will be next. But you know who else might jump into this entire thing against gambling? Well, I mean, against, you know, election gambling is gonna be the Federal Elections Commission. And there very well may be a case to be that they will make the case and maybe they have a case to be made that says that these gambling sites somehow or another constitute election influence which also might be considered electioneering which is illegal in the United States.
Right? You can't you can't go and hold up your sign for whatever president that you want within a 100 yards of any polling place. And as far as I know, that's every state in the union. It's minimum of, like, a 100 yards. You cannot campaign for a candidate that close or inside 100 yards to a polling booth. That that would be called electioneering. I almost guarantee you the federal elections commission at one point or another is going to weigh into this. And we might actually see the wholesale cessation of these election markets, at least in the United States. But here's what's so funny. It's not really gonna matter, is it? Because these things are all over the place, and many of them are not in the United States.
Yet, people will be betting on those platforms on the United States elections no matter what CFTC, SEC, FEC, no matter what any of these kitty cats have to say, it's not going to do anything. There are still going to be election markets. So if you have an election gambling site or whatever and you're operating in the United States, you might want to close that son of a bitch down and, I don't know, go to Morocco. Because otherwise, you will probably be hit with electioneering charges. That's my gut feeling. What other gut feelings do I have?
I don't know. But something is going to happen with the Federal Reserve Because they are now expected to cut lending rates by 50 basis points this week, giving a boost to Bitcoin. According to a Bitwise analyst, this is out of the block written by Brian McGlynnan. The United States Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its benchmark rate this week for the first time in 4 years, leaving investors speculating about the size of the cut and its potential impact on risk assets, and that includes Bitcoin. Interest rate traders have adjusted their expectations and are now betting that the Fed will announce a 50 basis point cut at Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting rather than the more conservative 25 basis point reduction.
According to the CME Fed watch tool, the likelihood of a 50 basis point cut has now climbed to 65%, eclipsing the 35% probability for the 25 basis point cut. And several days ago, the market was giving 2 third odds that rates would be cut by 25 basis point and 1 third that they would be lowered by 50. Pausing to just remind you that on Friday, I reported that the rate or the, chances of a 50 basis point cut had risen to 45%. And now we are at 65% coming out of the weekend. Continuing, in the if the Fed decides to cut rates by 50, the market for risk assets including Bitcoin could react positively according to an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an analysis. Sorry. Quote, today's relatively strong Empire State Manufacturing report shows the market reaction is likely going to be a positive if the Fed cuts by 50 basis points since this particular leading indicator has signaled that underlying economic momentum has even accelerated in September, implying some kind of early innings of a Goldilocks scenario with low inflation and stable growth, as well as stimulative monetary policy, said Bitwise head of research, Europe, Andre D'Agroch.
Yeah. I can't pronounce that name. There's no way, man. Some recent economic indicators have shown mixed signals. According to Monday's Empire State Manufacturing Survey, business activity in the state of New York grew. It grew. It actually grew for the first time in nearly a year with shipments increasing significantly. However, employment within the state continued to decline. Firms grew more optimistic that conditions would improve in the months ahead though capital spending plans were weak, New York Fed Economic Research Advisor Richard Deitz said. And this suggests that while some economic sectors are experiencing a recovery, the labor market and business investments are still under pressure. Factors that the Fed may consider in its rate cut decision.
Interest rate cuts tend to increase the valuation of risk assets. But according to Dagrash, or however you pronounce his name, it is more the anticipation of additional rate cuts rather than the cuts themselves that could give Bitcoin a boost and potentially lead to sustained price appreciation in the coming months. Quote, I think the market will be driven more by rate cutting expectations than the cuts themselves over the coming months, the Bitwise head of research said. According to the analyst, the need for additional rate cuts could be driven by recessionary indicators that are currently stocking the US economy such as a slowing job growth.
Expectations of further rate cuts will likely intensify on account of the weakening US economy and imminent recession. And our expectation is that this will be net positive for bitcoin and crypto assets. Despite the current rate cut expectations, Dragos, there you go, Dragos argued that the Fed may still be behind the curve in its efforts to engineer a soft landing for the US economy. Jesus Christ. Are we still in the air? We need to land this plane sometime. Dragaraj pointed to the Taylor rule, popular interest rate model that suggest the Fed should have already reduced rates by at least 150 basis points, quote.
This is based on core PCE inflation and US unemployment rates, which we know will continue to deteriorate over the coming months based on more forward looking indicators, Dragosz said. Alright. Alright. Alright. So I've talked about this one, you know, a couple of times and we'll do it, you know, here yet again in case you're, you know, new or or haven't listened to Friday Friday's show. When money becomes cheap, in general, riskier assets become more attractive. Because it's cheaper to borrow money to buy those risky assets. And therefore, if for whatever reason you were wrong and that investment tanks, you have a much easier time paying off the loan or the debt that you took on to be able to do that deal. Even if it did fail, it doesn't mean that it makes it all peachy clean. It could still that kind of thing still sucks. Right? But but it's a hell of a lot better doing it when rates are cheap than when they are very very high.
Because paying back that loan at cheaper rates is easier than when they're very very when rates are very very high. Right? That's the way that the normal thinking goes. However, there's been some speculation that in this particular case, the 50 basis point rate cut could signal underlying trouble in the world's economy, especially the United States. And therefore, people might get a little gun shy on risk assets even though they're easier to finance. You see how this works? So there's a underlying psychology that's going on here. However, none of that was actually mentioned in this piece. But don't just think that when they cut rates and let's say they cut them by 50 because we're gonna find out this week. Alright. Let's say they cut them by 50.
Do you think that means that we're gonna recover all of the red dildos that started appearing last night? And and and go to the moon. No. It doesn't. It doesn't. Don't gamble that way, ladies and gentlemen. Please don't. Now that we've got pretty much a handle on what the Fed is going to do, let's see what the rest of the markets are going to do or doing right now and we'll run the numbers. CNBC Futures and Commodities West Texas Intermediate Oil is up 1.7%, but it's still sub 70, hanging around $69.83. Brett Brett Norcey is up 1 and a third.
Natural gas is up 2.6. And gasoline is up almost to 2 full points to $1.96 a gallon. Good luck finding that price. Metals, mostly doing well. Gold is kinda moving sideways though. However, it has topped $26100. It is now $2610.90. Silver is, let's see what silver is down two points. Platinum is up 0.87%. And palladium is up 0.98%. Hold on for a second. I think I might have blown that. No. Silver is sorry. I did blow it. Silver is up a quarter. Platinum is down 2. Copper is up almost a point, and palladium is up a point. Ag is pretty much, mostly in the red today. Biggest winner today is cotton. 4.3 percent to the upside.
Biggest loser is gonna be wheat. 3.11 to the downside. Live cattle moving sideways. Lean hogs up just a little above 1%. Feeder cattle are up a 5th of a point. The Dow is down a 3rd now this is where the this fed rate cut stuff comes in so check this out the Dow which represents the stalwart stocks right The 30 most, stable companies in the world. Well, or at least in the United States. Right? Right? That's supposedly. Right? It's up a third of a point. But the S and P and the Nasdaq that both represent some of the riskier type not it's I mean it's not like just risky the S and P has got a lot of really cool stuff in it that's not exactly risky Nasdaq on the other hand does have a lot of risks and so we're seeing the reaction of the potential of a 50 point drop coming into play. It doesn't look like what people think. Oh, they're gonna cut rates, therefore risky assets are good.
Because the S and P is down 0.08%. But the Nasdaq the Nasdaq is down 3 quarters of a point. Now, the S and P Mini is up a half point. So we're getting a lot of mixed signals between what people think a 50 basis point cut means versus what, a 50 basis point cut might mean signaling the underlying economy. Is it in danger? Well, we know it is. I mean, we all know that, but we're talking Normieville. I'm talking norm talking about the people that are watching CNBC thinking they're smart while they're sitting in chairs in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Right? The general joke you public.
Right? There's a these guys, there's a lot of there's gonna be a until the Fed actually does the rate cut and until the dust settles on those rate cuts, I don't think we're really gonna know if John Q Public wants to get into riskier assets because it's cheaper money. We're gonna have to see. There's no way on God's green earth anybody can predict this. But I can look at the price of Bitcoin and tell you that it is sitting at 57,610. So we bartered back down on the other side. That started happening sometime last night. And, yeah, we're not even at 58 k gang.
It is a $1,140,000,000,000 market cap, and you can only purchase 22.2 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your 1 Bitcoin of which there are 19,754,736.74 of and fees remain low. 0.05 BTC in fees on average on a per block basis. There are 103 blocks in the mempool that I'm looking at mempool.space. And in their mempool is a 103 blocks. It's carrying 187,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priorities of 5 satoshis per vbyte. Low priority gonna get you in at 4. Hash rate is at 610 exahashes per second. So, we are down well off of the 742 exahash per second high.
Just so you know. Now, from boys love milkshake theory Bitcoin and episode 953. I got hodl bod that tried to give me a 100,000 satoshis. I very much appreciate the effort. But hodelbod was the first person to ask me, dude, is your node offline? Because I got an error on sending this massive fat ass zap. Wait. He didn't say that part. I'm I'm saying that part because it is a massive fat ass zap. And, no, I I I checked. I didn't get it. However, I'm look it's still registered on Fountain, so I'm able to read, that he tried. And I appreciate, If you, you know, you're more than welcome to try again if you want. But slow slow with 21100 did get his through. It says, AlbyHub not fully sovereign but easier than running a full lightning node. Simplified for slow slow.
It is fully sovereign if I use it as just rails that plow directly into my sovereign lightning node. If you don't want to run your own sovereign lightning node, then yes, it becomes less sovereign. That is true. It depends on how you want to use AlbyHub. And that's up to you. But remember, it has the option of being fully sovereign and just allowing rails. Right? But if you want to get a Lightning node hosted and use albHub as the rails to that hosted node, then you're at the mercy of that host node or the people that are hosting that node to not steal all your money or close all your channels or do some other kind of chicanery. And in that case, yeah, you're not Sovereign.
Just clearing that up. Craftig 500 gives me an emoji that I can't read. God's death with 537 says thank you, sir. No, thank you. He did it again with 537. Thank you, sir. No, thank you. And ScreetCode with 500 gives me an emoji and I can't read it because it's too damn small on my screen. Is it me with 420 says, thank you, no thank you. Pies De Pleb with a 100 SAT says, thank you sir, no thank you. Hugh James with a 100 says, thank you sir, No. Thank you. And that's
[00:29:39] Unknown:
the weather report.
[00:29:47] David Bennett:
Welcome to part 2 of the news that you can use, meshtastic. Now, I think I might have made mention about this a little bit a couple of weeks ago, but, this has to do with mesh networks. And if you don't know what a mesh network is, it's basically internet by radio. It's more than that. So, I buy a mesh network device like a GoTenna. And I, like, just keep it in the window of my house. That antenna becomes a node. And that antenna is linked, like through Wi Fi or Bluetooth or whatever they do to my Wi Fi router. Right? So, there's a connection to the internet.
Somebody else that has a GoTenna Pro or GoTenna something or some kind of mesh network enabled device that is transmitting and receiving signals on the same bandwidth that mine is can connect to my Gotenna. And, therefore, through that connection, connect to the internet. Don't think you're gonna send cat pictures through this. It's not designed for high amounts of data. But, like, small text messages and other slightly lighter weight things? Yeah. It's great. Now, let's say some 3rd and 4th individual, they've got GoTens too or whatever they're using. Right? And they link up. Now, we've got 4 people that are, like, my intent is communicating to 3 other people and all those each other each 3 other people are all connected to 3 other people. And because of that, because my go ten is connected to my network, my Internet, they all have access to the internet. Now expand that to like 200 or 300 people and they're all this is all by radio waves, right? You've got what's called a mesh network And if 8 or 9 of these people are connected to their very own internet connections through Wi Fi or whatever, then we have the ability to broadcast or spit basically throw a great big communications net over a bunch of people. And anybody else that walks into that network and they have a mesh enabled device themselves can choose to automatically connect to that network. So that's essentially what a mesh network is. It is a very lightweight yet very can be very expansive, almost infinitely extensible, in fact, as far as how many people can be connected to each other.
And that's what it is. Well, a company named NextNav is trying to get the Federal Communications Commission to essentially deplatform a set of frequencies that have always been used as public domain frequencies. And that's what a lot of the mesh network stuff uses. So if they get decommissioned because NextNav wants them, they want those frequencies. They want to buy those frequencies. They wanna make sure nobody else can use those frequencies because they've got some kind of project that they wanna do. And they're thinking, nobody uses these things, so therefore, they must be ours. And we're gonna go and and lobby and throw a bunch of money at this. Right?
Wrong. Because Meshtastic is a mesh networking company. They have written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission dated August 11, 2024 and here's what it says. Meshtastic is an open source project that utilizes low power radio frequency technologies such as LoRa or short for long range to enable long distance decentralized communication. Our mission is to empower the individuals and communities by providing tools that foster resilient communication networks, especially in areas where traditional infrastructure is unavailable, unreliable or unaffordable.
Meshtastic devices operate within unlicensed frequency bands allowing users to communicate over long distances without relying on centralized infrastructure. So here are our concerns regarding the next NAV proposal. We have identified several key areas of concern related to next NEXNAAV's proposal which could have significant and adverse effects on the operation and accessibility of decentralized communication networks like Meshtastic. 1. Potential interference with unlicensed bands. 2, impact on innovation and open source projects. 3, public safety and communication resilience.
And 4, and finally, equity and accessibility. Now, I'm pausing to let you know that there are full paragraphs under each one of those, but I don't think it's necessary. You get the gist of what they're saying. You know, they're basically saying, hey look, a lot of open source projects rely on these radio frequencies. And if you take them away from us or you cause somebody to be able to use them at a scale that we don't, it's going to cause interference. You know, and that's what they're talking about. The potential interference with unlicensed bands. They're talking about the radio frequency bands. Community resilience.
If these unlicensed bands are being interfered with because NextNav has this massive project and they're using these bands with a lot of wattage for broadcast, it's going to overpower whole communities that might actually be using mesh networking to communicate with each other and to the internet. And then that gets into the equity and accessibility issue which is number 4 on the list so I'm just going to read to you the conclusion in light of the above concerns the meshtastic community urges the FCC to carefully consider the potential negative impacts of NextNav's proposal on decentralized and community driven communication networks we advocate for the preservation of unlicensed access to the frequency bands in question ensuring that these vital public resources remain available for innovation community resilience, and public safety.
We respectfully request that the FCC reject NextNAS proposal in its current form and encourage a more balanced approach that protects the interest of open source projects, community driven networks, and the broader public. Okay. So that's JM Casler on behalf of the meshtastic community. And I don't know I I I don't really know if that Meshtastic is a full blown company or if it's just a group of people. That's not the concern here. The concern is that there's always been radio frequencies available for citizens to use without being a licensed radio operator.
Ham radio guys have to get a license. If you have a radio station and you are above a certain wattage, you've got to get an FCC license. What's going on here is that these bands are typically used by very low power transmitters. Therefore, they don't stay I can't I wouldn't be able to broadcast 50 miles away. But my neighborhood? Yeah. I could do that. Hell, I could even I can even get a radio transmitter and as long as it's under, like, I think it I can't remember what it is. It's like either 10 watts or 1 watt. Very low power. But that 1 watt? I could probably cover half of one of the cities that I'm closest to.
Right? And I don't need a license for that. It's very low power. It's not going to interfere with airplanes. It's not gonna interfere with all that stuff. What NextNav wants to do is use those bands but at very very high power. Therefore, if I have a low power transmission it's going to be basically drowned out by next nav communication pulses on that same wavelength right being able to have something like mesh networks that work that are viable and we need more of them there's not enough of them this is relatively new this decentralized communication idea is come up alongside of Bitcoin as decentralized money it's come it it predates Noster
[00:38:31] Unknown:
as a decentralized
[00:38:34] David Bennett:
web based, you know, like, Internet based communications protocol. I'm just saying all these things seem to be rising together. They're all important. And NextNav, I don't think that they're saying I don't think NextNav is some kind of, I don't know, government shadow group. I think they're just like I think they're a private company and I just think that they're being they're hubristic. I don't think that there's anything there's any intent to make sure that citizens can't communicate with each other. So don't put the tinfoil hat on. It is my opinion that NextNav is just a regular Joe company. They they see some low hanging fruit that nobody's ever been able to pick before or nobody's tried, and they're gonna try for it because they've got some project or another.
I hope that the FCC says no to Naxnav and forces them onto a different set of frequencies. We will have to see. Something that's been going on for the last forty 8 months has taken a slightly well, it's taken a direction. The direction is down. You'll understand here in a second. Shahram Mal was writing for CoinDesk. The ether Bitcoin ratio has dropped to its lowest since April of 2021. Okay. Here are the bullet points. The ETHBTC ratio has hit the lowest since April 2021, dipping to below 0.04, signaling a decline in investor interest in ether relative to Bitcoin.
Alright, before I continue, what's the ETHBTC ratio? If you take the price of 1 Ethereum and you divide it by the price of 1 Bitcoin, that's the ratio. Right? I've got a whole chart on it. I posted a couple of pictures of it over the weekend of the Ethereum versus BTC price or the ratio basically sitting in a channel going down so ether relative to Bitcoin is losing its value. Let's put it this way. You have you had, like, let's say at April 2021, you bought 1 ether and you bought 1 full Bitcoin, right? If you had bought taken what you paid for the Ethereum and just bought more Bitcoin, you would be doing far better on a USD price valuation basis than you do if you still hold that one Ethereum because it has lost its value in relation to the price of Bitcoin in US dollar terms.
Alright. So this price has been steadily going down for 48 months. It hasn't wavered. The channel, which is basically it's just think of a boat channel. You get too far to the one side, you're gonna run into the wall. You get far too far to the other side, you're gonna run into the other wall. These are top and bottom channels, though. As of yesterday, the price the ratio of Bitcoin versus ether dropped to 0.04. So if you divide the price of ether by Bitcoin, you get 0.04. Except not today. Not today, because that shit dipped under 4 or 0.04. And it's starting to recover a little bit today, but this is just this general decline, which is why I'm trying to tell everybody to get out of ETH while you still can.
Just buy Bitcoin. Continuing, the preferences swung towards Bitcoin, which was influenced by the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs, and those saw significant inflows compared to Ether's piddly ass little ETF, which is experiencing net outflows. And some traders say this shift indicates broader market favoring Bitcoin's perceived stability over ether's riskier high yield potential. That shit ain't got no potential. It is a Rube Goldberg machine full of misquotes, staking. They basically recreated the fiat world all over again. That's all they've done.
Analysts suggest that the ETHBTC ratio might drop further, potentially half as much to the 0.02 to 0.03 range, unless there's a significant change in investor sentiment or some regulatory clarity that might favor riskier assets like shit coins. Of course, they spell it altcoins, but I don't care. As long as that dog dies in the street like the mangy piece of shit it is, I'm good with it. Now, let's go down south to El Salvador where President Nayib Bukele is presenting or will present a debt free budget for the year 2025. This is getting close.
CoinDesk Andres Angler The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said that he will submit a 2025 deficit free budget to the legislative assembly. I announce that this September 30th, we will present before the legislative assembly for the first time in decades the first fully financed budget without the need to take a single cent of debt for current spending, said Bukele on Sunday. El Salvador will no longer spend more than it produces annually. We will not even lend money to pay the interest on the debts that we inherited. We will even pay that from our own production.
A more robust economy and a truly independent country will be seen. Not only because it has more freedom and security, but because it will be financially independent, fiscally independent. The new generations will inherit an economically prosperous country, Nayib Bukele said. El Salvador's finance minister, Jersson Posada, detailed that it will be the first time in decades that the country will have a budget that will not issue a single set of debt debt, neither local nor foreign. Bukele has an overwhelming majority in the legislative assembly with 57 of the 60 total available seats among legislators from his party. Nueva's ideas, 54, and allies, which has 3, I guess. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by 543. They're not really explaining it very well. The 2024 budget gap was $338,000,000 on total spending of $9,100,000,000 according to an official document published by the assembly.
The deficit when Bukele took office in 2019 was 1,200,000,000. Woah. El Salvador is unable to print money to fund expenditures because in 2021 or 22,001, it imposed the US dollar as the legal tender. And the country famously added Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, just 2 decades later. Although there are no official documents on El Salvador's Bitcoin purchases, the website, Naive Tracker, which puts together a portfolio based on Bukele's announcement, shows that the Central American country could currently hold 5,874 Bitcoin valued at a total of $331,400,000 which represents an unrealized gain of 32%, or 43,000,000 Bukele last month acknowledged that Bitcoin hasn't the widespread adoption that they had hoped for. It could have worked better and there is still time to make some improvements, but it hasn't resulted in anything negative.
In August, the International Monetary Fund announced that it had different discussions with Salvadoran authorities and quote progress has been made in the negotiations towards a fund supported program focused on policies to strengthen public finances, boost bank reserve buffers, and improve governance and transparency as well as mitigate the risks from Bitcoin. And I call bullshit. Those Salvadoran authorities are not in Bukele's party. They are the losers of the election and they will do anything they will do anything at all they will meet and treat with any anybody including the International Monetary Fund the World Bank the UN doesn't matter Doesn't matter. That's their only lifeline to get back into power or to gain some kind of power in El Salvador. But it looks to me like the people of El Salvador don't want to have anything to do with it.
Looks to me, no matter no matter how authority authoritarian you want to call the guy, I've called him authoritarian too. He's kinda a little bit of a dictator. Maybe he did a lot of shit outside the realm of, you know, it was a lot of extrajudicial stuff to a lot of people in prison. Right? Okay. A little dictatorial. Not saying it's good. That that's the one thing that bugs the shit out of me. It just makes but it makes me ask the question, was there no other way to clean up that country? I don't know. I'm not a politician. I I don't run-in those circles. I'm not even gonna conjecture. Still, it's a makes me a little wobbly at the knees to think that I kind of like a dictator I don't want to like a dictator but I can't just you know close my eyes to what he's done down there I don't know it's it it's a it's a point of contention with me I want to like the guy I really do I just don't want to like dictators okay let's get to the last bit nayuta n a y u t a, Nayuta Wallet is shutting down.
It's a Japanese based developer of the self custodial Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, same name, Nayuta. And it's going to close down. Due to personal health reasons, no less, Kenshi Kuramoto, the CEO, needs to undergo treatment for a certain period, making it difficult to continue business operations as usual during the time. The Lightning Network, which was initially developed for real time payments of decentralized money, has currently evolved into a business landscape where currently custodial Lightning Network solutions are taking center stage. While Nayuta was in the process of pivoting from its strategy centered on non custodial lightning network, the situation described above, the health aspects, has made it extremely difficult to complete the pivot.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported us so far for so long, the CEO said in a blog post. So, thankfully oh, I I back up. That's a shitty thing to say. I don't want anybody to have health problems. Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. And I prayers and thoughts go out to this person. I hope they get well. But I definitely am relieved that it is not a regulatory issue. Every time we see these wallets closed down or another lightning network business closed down or or like I don't know somebody like an exchange having to to shut down operations in the US. It's all because of US regulations. They scare the piss out of everybody.
This is the first time that I've seen a project shut down and it had nothing to do with United States regulations. So there's a small silver lining there in otherwise really bad news. Again, his name is Kenichi Kuramoto. Kenichi Kuramoto. Use that name in your prayers if you decide to say a couple of prayers to whatever deity you pray to for this person's health. I really would like to see these wallets not have to get flushed down the toilet just because of a health issue. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, that is it for this Monday, 16th September.
I appreciate you being with me today. If you want a boost, then please do so. Just use Fountain app or any of the other podcasting 2.0 apps available to you. And I will gladly accept those satoshis and they will most happily reside in my lightning node except for the ones that I took out last Friday because ladies and gentlemen, last weekend was my 19th wedding anniversary weekend. And I decided that I was going to test something. So I went to Bitrefill and I bought a Mastercard gift card. I bought it for $50 and I got the card, I redeemed the card, the basically the verification code the Bitrefill gives you with their 3rd party.
So, so, basically, it's another company that Bitrefill uses that you can take that little verification code the Bitrefill gives you take it over to this other website and then it kinda turns it into the an actual credit card. And that is compatible with Apple Pay so you can throw that particular gift card, that Mastercard gift card, into the Apple Wallet. And that's what I did. And I go, okay. Well, I'm gonna run down to the store. I'm gonna test it. So I've got I've never used Apple Pay before. It kinda bugs me. But I'm like, hey. Let's see what happens. $50 worth of the satoshis that you guys sent me. And I was unable to purchase a single freaking thing at the grocery store because it kept asking me for a PIN number.
I did all kinds of things. And not to belabor the point, I did all kinds of things and I was never able to get it to work at this grocery store no matter I had changed the pin on the credit card on like through the internet on their website the the people that actually created the card and the card number and I put that's the card that I put in my Apple Wallet. Changed the the PIN number. I did all kinds of stuff. I I looked it up online. I went to Reddit. They were saying, oh, just type in 0. The other people said it's the last four of the card. None of it worked. And I'm like, well, poop. Because what I was gonna do is if it worked, I was gonna buy like a $300 card and take her ass out on the town, which it did anyway. I just had to use, you know, fiat money to do it. But I wanted it to become I wanted it to be from the proceeds that this show made because you guys are generous.
And I'm sad to say that I was unable to take my wife out for her 19th year anniversary dinner and drinks later with the satoshis that the bitcoin and podcast had made. But there's another silver lining. So happens I was out with my daughter yesterday because my son's birthday is coming up and she wanted to buy him a present. She decided to buy him a video game it was on sale so it was like $25 or something like that and so she gets it we walk her to the counter and I whip out my my wallet and I go wait a minute hold on I want to try something because now I'm at Target this is a different store so I whip out Apple Pay and sure enough it worked like a charm so my daughter was able to buy her brother a birthday present from the satoshis that you guys handed me that went over Albie, over their rails, and into my lightning wallet that I used to fund the card on bitrefill. It was completely circular.
So what I have to say here is thank you. You guys actually bought my sons one of my sons birthday present and that enabled my daughter, who didn't have the $25 to get her brother his birthday present. It made me feel really good. It made me feel every bit as good as I thought I was going to feel if I'd been able to get a $300, Mastercard and take my wife to the restaurant that we went to and pay for it there instead of using, you know, fiat cut bucks. So I wanted to tell you that story simply because I want you guys to know that when you support the Bitcoin and podcast you're not just supporting the podcast you're supporting me and in this case you supported my daughter and ultimately you will have supported my son on his birthday So don't think that your satoshis are just laying around doing nothing.
They are helping me to live a life that I desperately want to live. Alright. So I just want to let you know about that and I will see you on the other side. This has been Bitcoin and and I'm your host David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have a
[00:56:18] Unknown:
great day.
Good morning. This is David Bennett, and this is Bitcoin and, a podcast where I try to find the edge effect between the worlds of Bitcoin, gaming, permaculture, podcasting, and education to gain a better understanding of all. Edge effect is a concept from ecology describing a greater diversity of life where the edges of 2 systems overlap. While species from either system can be found at the edge, it is important to note there are species in the overlap that exist in neither system, and that is what I seek to uncover. So join me in discovering the variety of things being created as Bitcoin rubs up against other systems. Well, it is 9:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the 16th day of September 2024. This is episode 954 of Bitcoin. And we got all kinds of neat stuff going on today. We really do. But first, the circle p is open for business.
Rev Huddl's applied permaculture is coming up Friday, October 11th. And there is well, actually, that's the fireside Bitcoin meetup. But the very next day on Saturday, October 12th, that's when Rev Huddl's applied permaculture class and demonstration begins. It's gonna cost you a 100,000 sats and you will learn how to apply permaculture to your lifestyle, build sovereignty, resilience, and wealth. It's a half day class, y'all. It's not going to take that long. He's going to detail how he uses permaculture ethics and principles to homesteading, how he builds his own wealth resilience with the 8 forms of capital. And the 8 forms of capital are indeed mentioned in Bill Mollison's Permaculture Design Manual, which is sort of the Bible for permaculturists.
He's going to illuminate connections between Bitcoin and permaculture as well. After learning all about that, you're gonna eat some lunch that's prepared with the food freshly grown on his homestead. And then after that, a full homestead tour showcasing living examples just so you can see how the ethics and principles of permaculture work and are in action. So, on Saturday, October 12th again, tickets are 100,000 sats. There's 20 1 available. You will need to direct message Rev HODL on Nostr and the link directly to Primal like, yeah. I'm putting in a Primal link so that when you hit the link you'll go right to Rev HODL's, basically his profile on Primal. Alright? So, you don't have to enter in a NINpub or anything like that. I just threw you threw you down a link. So, DM him.
If you buy tickets, make sure that you tell him that you heard about it here on the Bitcoin and podcast. Now, if you don't wanna pay but you wanna go hang out with some spectacular people, and by the way, this is very close to a place in the United States called Baroda, Michigan. If you're close to Baroda, Michigan, then you're in you're in his neck of the woods. The very next day on Saturday I mean, on the the day before on Friday, October 12th, not only do the people for the Saturday, gig check-in, But at 7 pm, there is a free bring your own beer Fireside Bitcoin meetup. So, if you want to meet some of these people, probably talk about some permaculture kind of things, then you can go and it won't cost anything.
He has, some free camping available. But, if you want a house or a yurt or one of those tiny houses, he just finished one that has a queen bed and it sleeps 2, you will have to DM him for prices on the house, the yurt, and the tiny house. So, go check out in Baroda, Michigan, Rev Hoddle's applied permaculture class, Saturday, October 12th. Again, tickets are a 100 1,000 satoshis. Let's crank this son of a bitch up. It's Monday, Monday, Monday, and Bitcoin mining shutdown causes a 20% surge in electricity bills. I think we're I think we might be overstating things. Let's let's see what Vivek Sin has to say in this one from Bitcoin Magazine. The closure of a Bitcoin mining facility in the Norwegian town of Hadsell has led to a 20% increase in electricity bills for residents.
The mine, the bitcoin mine, was shut down after the municipality declined to renew its permit due to noise complaints. Cryptovault operated the mining facility for 20% of local power company, Norinet's revenue. With this loss of its largest customer, Norinet is raising prices for households to compensate. Locals had bitched their way into a 20% increase in bills. No. That's not what it says. It says locals had complained for years about noise from the mine's cooling fans. However, due to the closure, residents are now faced with paying several $100 more per year for electricity. When such a large individual customer switches off overnight, it has an impact, said Noranet manager.
The company estimates bills could rise by up to $300 monthly, and that's $300 US. I don't know what they're using up in Norway. Is it the kroner? I can't remember. Anyway, whatever. While unhappy about the price hikes, Hatzell's mayor said that the municipality must deal with the consequences of losing a major power consumer under the regulations. He said that the town will now seek new projects to utilize the excess energy capacity. This is what we mean by buyer of last and first resort just saying the situation highlights how Bitcoin mining can help reduce electricity costs by distributing grid expenses to a larger customer base Bitcoin mining continued operations would have prevented the rate spike for these citizens. The incident has fueled a debate in Norway about imposing restrictions on energy intensive mining.
This could force miners to relocate operations abroad and can lead to yet further increases in prices for residents. So yes, the residents of Norway and this little town bitched their way into a 20% rise in their bill. Now that's according to Vivek Sin. He says he uses the words like is and did and basically saying it definitely did do this. Well, just to be fair, I've read 2 other stories that said it might. I've heard another story that said it probably will lead to a 20% increase in rates. And it makes sense that it would. It's just that I'm getting conflicting reports. So it either did or it didn't or it might or it probably won't.
Right now, for me, all of that's still up in the air. So just be aware. However, it would not surprise me if in fact the residents of this town are going to have to pay through the nose to replace the largest electricity consumer that was in that particular area. Well, here's here's my thing. Would there have been a way would there have been a way that the power company because they're, you know, they've got such a large, large customer Working with the town and the mining company, would there have ever been a way that they could have figured out how to squelch the noise being generated from this particular Bitcoin mining? Why not go there?
Is it I mean, it's not impossible to do, but how much would it cost versus, you know, what's the return on investment? You know, is it really going to squash the sound down to the point that, oh, I got cats and stuff that have decided to play in the background. So if you're hearing a bunch of bumping, that's that's what's going on. My point is, is that it looks like they didn't even try to retain their customer by working with the town, themselves, and the miner to figure out a way to insulate against the noise. Maybe it was just impossible. But I haven't read a single shred of anything anywhere that says, hey, let's look at doing this first before we start pulling plugs on people. Well, now it looks like the guys in Hansel are gonna have to be able, you know, are gonna have to pony up another 20% on their electricity bill. And, no, the answer is no. You're not going to find somebody to eat up 20% of your electricity production very quickly, if at all.
So that's what happens. Just you see what happens, Billy? You see what happens? Alright. Here's another issue. Election gambling. Yeah. Not election not, you know, not interference. No. Gambling on elections. And maybe Braden Lendria has it, has the same sentiment that I have about gambling on this kind of stuff. He's writing it for Cointelegraph and says, explosion in election gambling will harm the public interest according to the CFTC. The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission says prediction markets can fall to spectacular manipulation in the latest filing against the United States predictions market, Calshi.
Quote, documented cases of market manipulation have already been realized in the very markets Calshi points to, the CFTC stressed, pointing to recent instant instances on competitor platforms in the September 14th reply in support for a motion of stay. Polymarket experienced a spectacular manipulation attempt by a group of traders gambling on vice president Kamala Harris to win the 2024 United States presidential election claimed the CFTC. While a fake poll showing Kid Rock leading senator Debbie Stabenow 30% to 26% in a senate vote on predicted impacted the price of StableNow's reelection contract.
The CFTC partially lost its initial case against Kalshi September 6th, effectively allowing the platform to offer election betting, Kalshi's founder, Tarek Mansoor claimed in a September Twitter post. However, District Court Judge Gia Cobb issued a temporary stay order following an emergency motion from the CFTC on September 9th intended to pause Kalshi from offering US election markets. Interestingly, Mansour said the US first election market went live 3 days later on September 12th. However, it was taken down just hours later after the platform was hamstrung with yet another stay order, this time in the appeals court.
The CFTC's latest filing was a reply in support of a stay of motion in the appeals court. The commodities regulator filed a notice to appeal September 12th. Despite that, Cobb said that the CFTC exceeded its authority by ordering Kalshi to halt its election markets in a separate September 12th opinion. In arguing against the CFTC's motion for a stay on September 13th, Kalshi said such an order would cause irreparable financial harm to the company while similar products continue to be offered on other unregulated platforms. But the CFTC slammed Kalshi's argument as sophomoric in their most recent September 13 filing stating quote, a pharmacy does not get to dispense cocaine just because it is sold on the black market, end quote.
Now who's being sophomoric? The commodities regulator said the financial opportunities Kalshi would miss out on pale compared to the harm it could cause by allowing more bets to be placed on the upcoming presidential election. And a key factor of the CFTC in Kalshi's case was whether the prediction platform's operations constitute gaming under US laws and thus fall under the CFTC's authority. Cobb's September 6th ruling was viewed as a big win for the broader crypto industry. Quote, this is great news for anyone who believes that having skin in the game is a fundamental aspect of being American. Nick Tomiano, founder of the crypto fund, one confirmation said at the time. Okay. So what does it mean?
We've had these prediction markets. We had these prediction markets when Trump was running against Biden or whatever. Right? These prediction markets in crypto land have been around for a very, very long time. But now now it's getting real. Now the CFTC is starting to complain. And I guarantee you the SEC will be next. But you know who else might jump into this entire thing against gambling? Well, I mean, against, you know, election gambling is gonna be the Federal Elections Commission. And there very well may be a case to be that they will make the case and maybe they have a case to be made that says that these gambling sites somehow or another constitute election influence which also might be considered electioneering which is illegal in the United States.
Right? You can't you can't go and hold up your sign for whatever president that you want within a 100 yards of any polling place. And as far as I know, that's every state in the union. It's minimum of, like, a 100 yards. You cannot campaign for a candidate that close or inside 100 yards to a polling booth. That that would be called electioneering. I almost guarantee you the federal elections commission at one point or another is going to weigh into this. And we might actually see the wholesale cessation of these election markets, at least in the United States. But here's what's so funny. It's not really gonna matter, is it? Because these things are all over the place, and many of them are not in the United States.
Yet, people will be betting on those platforms on the United States elections no matter what CFTC, SEC, FEC, no matter what any of these kitty cats have to say, it's not going to do anything. There are still going to be election markets. So if you have an election gambling site or whatever and you're operating in the United States, you might want to close that son of a bitch down and, I don't know, go to Morocco. Because otherwise, you will probably be hit with electioneering charges. That's my gut feeling. What other gut feelings do I have?
I don't know. But something is going to happen with the Federal Reserve Because they are now expected to cut lending rates by 50 basis points this week, giving a boost to Bitcoin. According to a Bitwise analyst, this is out of the block written by Brian McGlynnan. The United States Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its benchmark rate this week for the first time in 4 years, leaving investors speculating about the size of the cut and its potential impact on risk assets, and that includes Bitcoin. Interest rate traders have adjusted their expectations and are now betting that the Fed will announce a 50 basis point cut at Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting rather than the more conservative 25 basis point reduction.
According to the CME Fed watch tool, the likelihood of a 50 basis point cut has now climbed to 65%, eclipsing the 35% probability for the 25 basis point cut. And several days ago, the market was giving 2 third odds that rates would be cut by 25 basis point and 1 third that they would be lowered by 50. Pausing to just remind you that on Friday, I reported that the rate or the, chances of a 50 basis point cut had risen to 45%. And now we are at 65% coming out of the weekend. Continuing, in the if the Fed decides to cut rates by 50, the market for risk assets including Bitcoin could react positively according to an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an an analysis. Sorry. Quote, today's relatively strong Empire State Manufacturing report shows the market reaction is likely going to be a positive if the Fed cuts by 50 basis points since this particular leading indicator has signaled that underlying economic momentum has even accelerated in September, implying some kind of early innings of a Goldilocks scenario with low inflation and stable growth, as well as stimulative monetary policy, said Bitwise head of research, Europe, Andre D'Agroch.
Yeah. I can't pronounce that name. There's no way, man. Some recent economic indicators have shown mixed signals. According to Monday's Empire State Manufacturing Survey, business activity in the state of New York grew. It grew. It actually grew for the first time in nearly a year with shipments increasing significantly. However, employment within the state continued to decline. Firms grew more optimistic that conditions would improve in the months ahead though capital spending plans were weak, New York Fed Economic Research Advisor Richard Deitz said. And this suggests that while some economic sectors are experiencing a recovery, the labor market and business investments are still under pressure. Factors that the Fed may consider in its rate cut decision.
Interest rate cuts tend to increase the valuation of risk assets. But according to Dagrash, or however you pronounce his name, it is more the anticipation of additional rate cuts rather than the cuts themselves that could give Bitcoin a boost and potentially lead to sustained price appreciation in the coming months. Quote, I think the market will be driven more by rate cutting expectations than the cuts themselves over the coming months, the Bitwise head of research said. According to the analyst, the need for additional rate cuts could be driven by recessionary indicators that are currently stocking the US economy such as a slowing job growth.
Expectations of further rate cuts will likely intensify on account of the weakening US economy and imminent recession. And our expectation is that this will be net positive for bitcoin and crypto assets. Despite the current rate cut expectations, Dragos, there you go, Dragos argued that the Fed may still be behind the curve in its efforts to engineer a soft landing for the US economy. Jesus Christ. Are we still in the air? We need to land this plane sometime. Dragaraj pointed to the Taylor rule, popular interest rate model that suggest the Fed should have already reduced rates by at least 150 basis points, quote.
This is based on core PCE inflation and US unemployment rates, which we know will continue to deteriorate over the coming months based on more forward looking indicators, Dragosz said. Alright. Alright. Alright. So I've talked about this one, you know, a couple of times and we'll do it, you know, here yet again in case you're, you know, new or or haven't listened to Friday Friday's show. When money becomes cheap, in general, riskier assets become more attractive. Because it's cheaper to borrow money to buy those risky assets. And therefore, if for whatever reason you were wrong and that investment tanks, you have a much easier time paying off the loan or the debt that you took on to be able to do that deal. Even if it did fail, it doesn't mean that it makes it all peachy clean. It could still that kind of thing still sucks. Right? But but it's a hell of a lot better doing it when rates are cheap than when they are very very high.
Because paying back that loan at cheaper rates is easier than when they're very very when rates are very very high. Right? That's the way that the normal thinking goes. However, there's been some speculation that in this particular case, the 50 basis point rate cut could signal underlying trouble in the world's economy, especially the United States. And therefore, people might get a little gun shy on risk assets even though they're easier to finance. You see how this works? So there's a underlying psychology that's going on here. However, none of that was actually mentioned in this piece. But don't just think that when they cut rates and let's say they cut them by 50 because we're gonna find out this week. Alright. Let's say they cut them by 50.
Do you think that means that we're gonna recover all of the red dildos that started appearing last night? And and and go to the moon. No. It doesn't. It doesn't. Don't gamble that way, ladies and gentlemen. Please don't. Now that we've got pretty much a handle on what the Fed is going to do, let's see what the rest of the markets are going to do or doing right now and we'll run the numbers. CNBC Futures and Commodities West Texas Intermediate Oil is up 1.7%, but it's still sub 70, hanging around $69.83. Brett Brett Norcey is up 1 and a third.
Natural gas is up 2.6. And gasoline is up almost to 2 full points to $1.96 a gallon. Good luck finding that price. Metals, mostly doing well. Gold is kinda moving sideways though. However, it has topped $26100. It is now $2610.90. Silver is, let's see what silver is down two points. Platinum is up 0.87%. And palladium is up 0.98%. Hold on for a second. I think I might have blown that. No. Silver is sorry. I did blow it. Silver is up a quarter. Platinum is down 2. Copper is up almost a point, and palladium is up a point. Ag is pretty much, mostly in the red today. Biggest winner today is cotton. 4.3 percent to the upside.
Biggest loser is gonna be wheat. 3.11 to the downside. Live cattle moving sideways. Lean hogs up just a little above 1%. Feeder cattle are up a 5th of a point. The Dow is down a 3rd now this is where the this fed rate cut stuff comes in so check this out the Dow which represents the stalwart stocks right The 30 most, stable companies in the world. Well, or at least in the United States. Right? Right? That's supposedly. Right? It's up a third of a point. But the S and P and the Nasdaq that both represent some of the riskier type not it's I mean it's not like just risky the S and P has got a lot of really cool stuff in it that's not exactly risky Nasdaq on the other hand does have a lot of risks and so we're seeing the reaction of the potential of a 50 point drop coming into play. It doesn't look like what people think. Oh, they're gonna cut rates, therefore risky assets are good.
Because the S and P is down 0.08%. But the Nasdaq the Nasdaq is down 3 quarters of a point. Now, the S and P Mini is up a half point. So we're getting a lot of mixed signals between what people think a 50 basis point cut means versus what, a 50 basis point cut might mean signaling the underlying economy. Is it in danger? Well, we know it is. I mean, we all know that, but we're talking Normieville. I'm talking norm talking about the people that are watching CNBC thinking they're smart while they're sitting in chairs in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Right? The general joke you public.
Right? There's a these guys, there's a lot of there's gonna be a until the Fed actually does the rate cut and until the dust settles on those rate cuts, I don't think we're really gonna know if John Q Public wants to get into riskier assets because it's cheaper money. We're gonna have to see. There's no way on God's green earth anybody can predict this. But I can look at the price of Bitcoin and tell you that it is sitting at 57,610. So we bartered back down on the other side. That started happening sometime last night. And, yeah, we're not even at 58 k gang.
It is a $1,140,000,000,000 market cap, and you can only purchase 22.2 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your 1 Bitcoin of which there are 19,754,736.74 of and fees remain low. 0.05 BTC in fees on average on a per block basis. There are 103 blocks in the mempool that I'm looking at mempool.space. And in their mempool is a 103 blocks. It's carrying 187,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priorities of 5 satoshis per vbyte. Low priority gonna get you in at 4. Hash rate is at 610 exahashes per second. So, we are down well off of the 742 exahash per second high.
Just so you know. Now, from boys love milkshake theory Bitcoin and episode 953. I got hodl bod that tried to give me a 100,000 satoshis. I very much appreciate the effort. But hodelbod was the first person to ask me, dude, is your node offline? Because I got an error on sending this massive fat ass zap. Wait. He didn't say that part. I'm I'm saying that part because it is a massive fat ass zap. And, no, I I I checked. I didn't get it. However, I'm look it's still registered on Fountain, so I'm able to read, that he tried. And I appreciate, If you, you know, you're more than welcome to try again if you want. But slow slow with 21100 did get his through. It says, AlbyHub not fully sovereign but easier than running a full lightning node. Simplified for slow slow.
It is fully sovereign if I use it as just rails that plow directly into my sovereign lightning node. If you don't want to run your own sovereign lightning node, then yes, it becomes less sovereign. That is true. It depends on how you want to use AlbyHub. And that's up to you. But remember, it has the option of being fully sovereign and just allowing rails. Right? But if you want to get a Lightning node hosted and use albHub as the rails to that hosted node, then you're at the mercy of that host node or the people that are hosting that node to not steal all your money or close all your channels or do some other kind of chicanery. And in that case, yeah, you're not Sovereign.
Just clearing that up. Craftig 500 gives me an emoji that I can't read. God's death with 537 says thank you, sir. No, thank you. He did it again with 537. Thank you, sir. No, thank you. And ScreetCode with 500 gives me an emoji and I can't read it because it's too damn small on my screen. Is it me with 420 says, thank you, no thank you. Pies De Pleb with a 100 SAT says, thank you sir, no thank you. Hugh James with a 100 says, thank you sir, No. Thank you. And that's
[00:29:39] Unknown:
the weather report.
[00:29:47] David Bennett:
Welcome to part 2 of the news that you can use, meshtastic. Now, I think I might have made mention about this a little bit a couple of weeks ago, but, this has to do with mesh networks. And if you don't know what a mesh network is, it's basically internet by radio. It's more than that. So, I buy a mesh network device like a GoTenna. And I, like, just keep it in the window of my house. That antenna becomes a node. And that antenna is linked, like through Wi Fi or Bluetooth or whatever they do to my Wi Fi router. Right? So, there's a connection to the internet.
Somebody else that has a GoTenna Pro or GoTenna something or some kind of mesh network enabled device that is transmitting and receiving signals on the same bandwidth that mine is can connect to my Gotenna. And, therefore, through that connection, connect to the internet. Don't think you're gonna send cat pictures through this. It's not designed for high amounts of data. But, like, small text messages and other slightly lighter weight things? Yeah. It's great. Now, let's say some 3rd and 4th individual, they've got GoTens too or whatever they're using. Right? And they link up. Now, we've got 4 people that are, like, my intent is communicating to 3 other people and all those each other each 3 other people are all connected to 3 other people. And because of that, because my go ten is connected to my network, my Internet, they all have access to the internet. Now expand that to like 200 or 300 people and they're all this is all by radio waves, right? You've got what's called a mesh network And if 8 or 9 of these people are connected to their very own internet connections through Wi Fi or whatever, then we have the ability to broadcast or spit basically throw a great big communications net over a bunch of people. And anybody else that walks into that network and they have a mesh enabled device themselves can choose to automatically connect to that network. So that's essentially what a mesh network is. It is a very lightweight yet very can be very expansive, almost infinitely extensible, in fact, as far as how many people can be connected to each other.
And that's what it is. Well, a company named NextNav is trying to get the Federal Communications Commission to essentially deplatform a set of frequencies that have always been used as public domain frequencies. And that's what a lot of the mesh network stuff uses. So if they get decommissioned because NextNav wants them, they want those frequencies. They want to buy those frequencies. They wanna make sure nobody else can use those frequencies because they've got some kind of project that they wanna do. And they're thinking, nobody uses these things, so therefore, they must be ours. And we're gonna go and and lobby and throw a bunch of money at this. Right?
Wrong. Because Meshtastic is a mesh networking company. They have written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission dated August 11, 2024 and here's what it says. Meshtastic is an open source project that utilizes low power radio frequency technologies such as LoRa or short for long range to enable long distance decentralized communication. Our mission is to empower the individuals and communities by providing tools that foster resilient communication networks, especially in areas where traditional infrastructure is unavailable, unreliable or unaffordable.
Meshtastic devices operate within unlicensed frequency bands allowing users to communicate over long distances without relying on centralized infrastructure. So here are our concerns regarding the next NAV proposal. We have identified several key areas of concern related to next NEXNAAV's proposal which could have significant and adverse effects on the operation and accessibility of decentralized communication networks like Meshtastic. 1. Potential interference with unlicensed bands. 2, impact on innovation and open source projects. 3, public safety and communication resilience.
And 4, and finally, equity and accessibility. Now, I'm pausing to let you know that there are full paragraphs under each one of those, but I don't think it's necessary. You get the gist of what they're saying. You know, they're basically saying, hey look, a lot of open source projects rely on these radio frequencies. And if you take them away from us or you cause somebody to be able to use them at a scale that we don't, it's going to cause interference. You know, and that's what they're talking about. The potential interference with unlicensed bands. They're talking about the radio frequency bands. Community resilience.
If these unlicensed bands are being interfered with because NextNav has this massive project and they're using these bands with a lot of wattage for broadcast, it's going to overpower whole communities that might actually be using mesh networking to communicate with each other and to the internet. And then that gets into the equity and accessibility issue which is number 4 on the list so I'm just going to read to you the conclusion in light of the above concerns the meshtastic community urges the FCC to carefully consider the potential negative impacts of NextNav's proposal on decentralized and community driven communication networks we advocate for the preservation of unlicensed access to the frequency bands in question ensuring that these vital public resources remain available for innovation community resilience, and public safety.
We respectfully request that the FCC reject NextNAS proposal in its current form and encourage a more balanced approach that protects the interest of open source projects, community driven networks, and the broader public. Okay. So that's JM Casler on behalf of the meshtastic community. And I don't know I I I don't really know if that Meshtastic is a full blown company or if it's just a group of people. That's not the concern here. The concern is that there's always been radio frequencies available for citizens to use without being a licensed radio operator.
Ham radio guys have to get a license. If you have a radio station and you are above a certain wattage, you've got to get an FCC license. What's going on here is that these bands are typically used by very low power transmitters. Therefore, they don't stay I can't I wouldn't be able to broadcast 50 miles away. But my neighborhood? Yeah. I could do that. Hell, I could even I can even get a radio transmitter and as long as it's under, like, I think it I can't remember what it is. It's like either 10 watts or 1 watt. Very low power. But that 1 watt? I could probably cover half of one of the cities that I'm closest to.
Right? And I don't need a license for that. It's very low power. It's not going to interfere with airplanes. It's not gonna interfere with all that stuff. What NextNav wants to do is use those bands but at very very high power. Therefore, if I have a low power transmission it's going to be basically drowned out by next nav communication pulses on that same wavelength right being able to have something like mesh networks that work that are viable and we need more of them there's not enough of them this is relatively new this decentralized communication idea is come up alongside of Bitcoin as decentralized money it's come it it predates Noster
[00:38:31] Unknown:
as a decentralized
[00:38:34] David Bennett:
web based, you know, like, Internet based communications protocol. I'm just saying all these things seem to be rising together. They're all important. And NextNav, I don't think that they're saying I don't think NextNav is some kind of, I don't know, government shadow group. I think they're just like I think they're a private company and I just think that they're being they're hubristic. I don't think that there's anything there's any intent to make sure that citizens can't communicate with each other. So don't put the tinfoil hat on. It is my opinion that NextNav is just a regular Joe company. They they see some low hanging fruit that nobody's ever been able to pick before or nobody's tried, and they're gonna try for it because they've got some project or another.
I hope that the FCC says no to Naxnav and forces them onto a different set of frequencies. We will have to see. Something that's been going on for the last forty 8 months has taken a slightly well, it's taken a direction. The direction is down. You'll understand here in a second. Shahram Mal was writing for CoinDesk. The ether Bitcoin ratio has dropped to its lowest since April of 2021. Okay. Here are the bullet points. The ETHBTC ratio has hit the lowest since April 2021, dipping to below 0.04, signaling a decline in investor interest in ether relative to Bitcoin.
Alright, before I continue, what's the ETHBTC ratio? If you take the price of 1 Ethereum and you divide it by the price of 1 Bitcoin, that's the ratio. Right? I've got a whole chart on it. I posted a couple of pictures of it over the weekend of the Ethereum versus BTC price or the ratio basically sitting in a channel going down so ether relative to Bitcoin is losing its value. Let's put it this way. You have you had, like, let's say at April 2021, you bought 1 ether and you bought 1 full Bitcoin, right? If you had bought taken what you paid for the Ethereum and just bought more Bitcoin, you would be doing far better on a USD price valuation basis than you do if you still hold that one Ethereum because it has lost its value in relation to the price of Bitcoin in US dollar terms.
Alright. So this price has been steadily going down for 48 months. It hasn't wavered. The channel, which is basically it's just think of a boat channel. You get too far to the one side, you're gonna run into the wall. You get far too far to the other side, you're gonna run into the other wall. These are top and bottom channels, though. As of yesterday, the price the ratio of Bitcoin versus ether dropped to 0.04. So if you divide the price of ether by Bitcoin, you get 0.04. Except not today. Not today, because that shit dipped under 4 or 0.04. And it's starting to recover a little bit today, but this is just this general decline, which is why I'm trying to tell everybody to get out of ETH while you still can.
Just buy Bitcoin. Continuing, the preferences swung towards Bitcoin, which was influenced by the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs, and those saw significant inflows compared to Ether's piddly ass little ETF, which is experiencing net outflows. And some traders say this shift indicates broader market favoring Bitcoin's perceived stability over ether's riskier high yield potential. That shit ain't got no potential. It is a Rube Goldberg machine full of misquotes, staking. They basically recreated the fiat world all over again. That's all they've done.
Analysts suggest that the ETHBTC ratio might drop further, potentially half as much to the 0.02 to 0.03 range, unless there's a significant change in investor sentiment or some regulatory clarity that might favor riskier assets like shit coins. Of course, they spell it altcoins, but I don't care. As long as that dog dies in the street like the mangy piece of shit it is, I'm good with it. Now, let's go down south to El Salvador where President Nayib Bukele is presenting or will present a debt free budget for the year 2025. This is getting close.
CoinDesk Andres Angler The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said that he will submit a 2025 deficit free budget to the legislative assembly. I announce that this September 30th, we will present before the legislative assembly for the first time in decades the first fully financed budget without the need to take a single cent of debt for current spending, said Bukele on Sunday. El Salvador will no longer spend more than it produces annually. We will not even lend money to pay the interest on the debts that we inherited. We will even pay that from our own production.
A more robust economy and a truly independent country will be seen. Not only because it has more freedom and security, but because it will be financially independent, fiscally independent. The new generations will inherit an economically prosperous country, Nayib Bukele said. El Salvador's finance minister, Jersson Posada, detailed that it will be the first time in decades that the country will have a budget that will not issue a single set of debt debt, neither local nor foreign. Bukele has an overwhelming majority in the legislative assembly with 57 of the 60 total available seats among legislators from his party. Nueva's ideas, 54, and allies, which has 3, I guess. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by 543. They're not really explaining it very well. The 2024 budget gap was $338,000,000 on total spending of $9,100,000,000 according to an official document published by the assembly.
The deficit when Bukele took office in 2019 was 1,200,000,000. Woah. El Salvador is unable to print money to fund expenditures because in 2021 or 22,001, it imposed the US dollar as the legal tender. And the country famously added Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, just 2 decades later. Although there are no official documents on El Salvador's Bitcoin purchases, the website, Naive Tracker, which puts together a portfolio based on Bukele's announcement, shows that the Central American country could currently hold 5,874 Bitcoin valued at a total of $331,400,000 which represents an unrealized gain of 32%, or 43,000,000 Bukele last month acknowledged that Bitcoin hasn't the widespread adoption that they had hoped for. It could have worked better and there is still time to make some improvements, but it hasn't resulted in anything negative.
In August, the International Monetary Fund announced that it had different discussions with Salvadoran authorities and quote progress has been made in the negotiations towards a fund supported program focused on policies to strengthen public finances, boost bank reserve buffers, and improve governance and transparency as well as mitigate the risks from Bitcoin. And I call bullshit. Those Salvadoran authorities are not in Bukele's party. They are the losers of the election and they will do anything they will do anything at all they will meet and treat with any anybody including the International Monetary Fund the World Bank the UN doesn't matter Doesn't matter. That's their only lifeline to get back into power or to gain some kind of power in El Salvador. But it looks to me like the people of El Salvador don't want to have anything to do with it.
Looks to me, no matter no matter how authority authoritarian you want to call the guy, I've called him authoritarian too. He's kinda a little bit of a dictator. Maybe he did a lot of shit outside the realm of, you know, it was a lot of extrajudicial stuff to a lot of people in prison. Right? Okay. A little dictatorial. Not saying it's good. That that's the one thing that bugs the shit out of me. It just makes but it makes me ask the question, was there no other way to clean up that country? I don't know. I'm not a politician. I I don't run-in those circles. I'm not even gonna conjecture. Still, it's a makes me a little wobbly at the knees to think that I kind of like a dictator I don't want to like a dictator but I can't just you know close my eyes to what he's done down there I don't know it's it it's a it's a point of contention with me I want to like the guy I really do I just don't want to like dictators okay let's get to the last bit nayuta n a y u t a, Nayuta Wallet is shutting down.
It's a Japanese based developer of the self custodial Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, same name, Nayuta. And it's going to close down. Due to personal health reasons, no less, Kenshi Kuramoto, the CEO, needs to undergo treatment for a certain period, making it difficult to continue business operations as usual during the time. The Lightning Network, which was initially developed for real time payments of decentralized money, has currently evolved into a business landscape where currently custodial Lightning Network solutions are taking center stage. While Nayuta was in the process of pivoting from its strategy centered on non custodial lightning network, the situation described above, the health aspects, has made it extremely difficult to complete the pivot.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported us so far for so long, the CEO said in a blog post. So, thankfully oh, I I back up. That's a shitty thing to say. I don't want anybody to have health problems. Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. And I prayers and thoughts go out to this person. I hope they get well. But I definitely am relieved that it is not a regulatory issue. Every time we see these wallets closed down or another lightning network business closed down or or like I don't know somebody like an exchange having to to shut down operations in the US. It's all because of US regulations. They scare the piss out of everybody.
This is the first time that I've seen a project shut down and it had nothing to do with United States regulations. So there's a small silver lining there in otherwise really bad news. Again, his name is Kenichi Kuramoto. Kenichi Kuramoto. Use that name in your prayers if you decide to say a couple of prayers to whatever deity you pray to for this person's health. I really would like to see these wallets not have to get flushed down the toilet just because of a health issue. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, that is it for this Monday, 16th September.
I appreciate you being with me today. If you want a boost, then please do so. Just use Fountain app or any of the other podcasting 2.0 apps available to you. And I will gladly accept those satoshis and they will most happily reside in my lightning node except for the ones that I took out last Friday because ladies and gentlemen, last weekend was my 19th wedding anniversary weekend. And I decided that I was going to test something. So I went to Bitrefill and I bought a Mastercard gift card. I bought it for $50 and I got the card, I redeemed the card, the basically the verification code the Bitrefill gives you with their 3rd party.
So, so, basically, it's another company that Bitrefill uses that you can take that little verification code the Bitrefill gives you take it over to this other website and then it kinda turns it into the an actual credit card. And that is compatible with Apple Pay so you can throw that particular gift card, that Mastercard gift card, into the Apple Wallet. And that's what I did. And I go, okay. Well, I'm gonna run down to the store. I'm gonna test it. So I've got I've never used Apple Pay before. It kinda bugs me. But I'm like, hey. Let's see what happens. $50 worth of the satoshis that you guys sent me. And I was unable to purchase a single freaking thing at the grocery store because it kept asking me for a PIN number.
I did all kinds of things. And not to belabor the point, I did all kinds of things and I was never able to get it to work at this grocery store no matter I had changed the pin on the credit card on like through the internet on their website the the people that actually created the card and the card number and I put that's the card that I put in my Apple Wallet. Changed the the PIN number. I did all kinds of stuff. I I looked it up online. I went to Reddit. They were saying, oh, just type in 0. The other people said it's the last four of the card. None of it worked. And I'm like, well, poop. Because what I was gonna do is if it worked, I was gonna buy like a $300 card and take her ass out on the town, which it did anyway. I just had to use, you know, fiat money to do it. But I wanted it to become I wanted it to be from the proceeds that this show made because you guys are generous.
And I'm sad to say that I was unable to take my wife out for her 19th year anniversary dinner and drinks later with the satoshis that the bitcoin and podcast had made. But there's another silver lining. So happens I was out with my daughter yesterday because my son's birthday is coming up and she wanted to buy him a present. She decided to buy him a video game it was on sale so it was like $25 or something like that and so she gets it we walk her to the counter and I whip out my my wallet and I go wait a minute hold on I want to try something because now I'm at Target this is a different store so I whip out Apple Pay and sure enough it worked like a charm so my daughter was able to buy her brother a birthday present from the satoshis that you guys handed me that went over Albie, over their rails, and into my lightning wallet that I used to fund the card on bitrefill. It was completely circular.
So what I have to say here is thank you. You guys actually bought my sons one of my sons birthday present and that enabled my daughter, who didn't have the $25 to get her brother his birthday present. It made me feel really good. It made me feel every bit as good as I thought I was going to feel if I'd been able to get a $300, Mastercard and take my wife to the restaurant that we went to and pay for it there instead of using, you know, fiat cut bucks. So I wanted to tell you that story simply because I want you guys to know that when you support the Bitcoin and podcast you're not just supporting the podcast you're supporting me and in this case you supported my daughter and ultimately you will have supported my son on his birthday So don't think that your satoshis are just laying around doing nothing.
They are helping me to live a life that I desperately want to live. Alright. So I just want to let you know about that and I will see you on the other side. This has been Bitcoin and and I'm your host David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have a
[00:56:18] Unknown:
great day.
Market Updates and Bitcoin Price
Personal Reflections and Podcast Support
