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Join me today for Episode 1032 of Bitcoin And . . .

Topics for today:

- FDIC's Massive Drop on ChokePoint 2.0
- Bitcoin Payments Report
- Strategy: Worst Rebrand Ever
- Blackrock to Launch European BTC ETP
- New Mexico OIn Deck

#Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd

Circle P:
Peony Lane

Wine

nostr: https://primal.net/BenJustman
Twitter: https://x.com/BenJustman
Website: https://www.peonylanewine.com/bitcoin

The King Ranch Donation Pages:
https://www.ruralamericainaction.com/fundraising/save-king-ranch-and-agriculture-in-washington

https://www.givesendgo.com/Kingranch

Articles:

https://decrypt.co/304559/fdic-operation-chokepoint-crypto-documents

https://www.tradingview.com/news/reuters.com,2025:newsml_S8N3K008B:0-czech-central-bank-no-time-horizon-for-analysis-to-assess-reserve-options/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-payments-arent-the-future-theyre-here-already

https://www.theblock.co/post/339199/strategy-bitcoin-bernstein

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-political-weapon-reserve-asset-arthur-hayes

- https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/
- https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/
- https://mempool.space/
- https://value4value.info/
- https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
- https://geyser.fund/project/thebitcoinandpodcast

https://atlas21.com/sec-scales-back-anti-crypto-unit-and-strengthens-new-task-force/

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/02/05/blackrock-plans-to-launch-a-bitcoin-etp-in-europe-bloomberg

https://atlas21.com/new-mexico-proposed-bill-to-invest-up-to-5-of-public-funds-in-bitcoin/

https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/seedsigner-v0-8-5/



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[00:00:02] Unknown:

Good morning. It is 09:00AM   Pacific   standard   time. It's the February   2025,   and this is episode   ten thirty two of Bitcoin.   And why the hell are we giving $68,000,000   to the World Economic Forum through The US aid program?   Yeah. We're gonna get into a little bit of that, but only to introduce   a particular website that I think everybody   everybody should not only be looking at, but leveraging   much like we leveraged WikiLeaks   to find the truth   through citizen journalism or Yeah. Citizen journalism. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go.   Continuing on that same vein, the FDIC   seems to be releasing some articles about choke point two point o, and they're doing it all on their own.  

And it looks as if they might actually be telling us the truth. That should be interesting to find out.   Remember when old Leatherface, you know, Christine Lagarde, the felon from France that runs the IMF?   Or no. No. The European Central Bank. She used to run the IMF.   She was running the IMF when she got convicted. Although she didn't actually go to jail, they basically said, no. We're just gonna put the conviction on the record, and you go on you go on to the UN where they're gonna throw you a party because you just became the president of the European Central Bank. Yeah. A Leatherface. Remember how she was saying that the Czech Republic would never ever ever put Bitcoin on the balance sheet because she talked to that governor?   Yeah. We got some news on that one.  

Bitcoin payments aren't the future because they're already here. That's gonna be a breakdown   from Bitcoin Magazine. Trust me. It's gonna be worth it. And then we're gonna talk about   the strategy,   the strategy b,   the worst rebranding   ever, and it's not gonna matter because Mike   is sitting on a shit ton of cash. And then, what else we got? Oh, we got Arthur Hayes.   His grinning face is gonna be looking at you square in the face today   with describing the description of a potent   political weapon.   The SEC   is making some changes on their own front.   And then, well, what do we got over here?  

BlackRock   has a new product up,   and one of The United States   states   is on deck   for yet another   strategic Bitcoin reserve. But first,   you've been hearing all about it in the news.   USAID.   USAID. It's everywhere.   Oh my god. Chit's breaking loose. It's gonna be a disaster.   Oh, but   what I wanna do is read you this headline because I'm not pretty much well, I'll I'll I'll go through and cherry pick some stuff,   from this article, but it is an MSNBC   article.   So I can guarantee you, if I read the whole thing,   it would end up saying how USAID is actually good. And and it's just a whole bunch of those meanie Republicans out there trying to trying to destroy the lives of poor people. Well,   then why the hell are we given $68,000,000   through USAID,   which is taxpayer money,   United States taxpayer   money, to the World Economic Forum?  

It it seems that   a citizen journalist on Twitter called   Kinokoa   the Great   has raised some concerns about it, and there's a screenshot   of this tweet.   I don't know what the hell x is calling their tweets now. It's just it's a tweet, but it's on Twitter or now x or whatever it is. And here it is. Why did USAID give $68,000,000   to the World Economic Forum? And   that that   tweet has a screenshot. Actually, it's got two screenshots.   And it looks to be a screenshot of a thing that I've seen a lot of lately.   A lot of lately. And in fact, if we go on down, there's another person   that is called the Kifness   that says   that USAID   gave $400,000,000   to ANOVA,   which is a South African   non governmental   organization with a broken website   and a deactivated   Twitter account.  

And lo and behold,   there's a screenshot on here that looks   very similar to screenshots   that I'm seeing all over the place. And you may be asking yourself,   where the hell are these screenshots coming from? If you're not asking yourself that, that's fine. It probably means that you don't know what I'm talking about. But if you do, then you realize that if you're on Nostr or you're on Twitter,   you're seeing this thing   all over the place. It is a website   that is basically run   by a person on Twitter named Data Republican.   It's at Data   Republican.  

Yeah. Data, you know, like hard data. Data republican, all one word, on Twitter.   Don't know if it's a he or she. Avatar looks female. I don't care. It doesn't matter because this person, data republican,   has a website.   And that website   is named, you guessed it, datarepublican.com.   Data republican   Com is a website   that has   graphing   functionality   on,   as far as I can tell,   either all or the great guts and feathers   of all this US taxpayer dollars,   where it's flowing from,   who it's flowing through,   and, ultimately,   where it ends up.   Now it's datarepublican.com,   and you can go over here to, like, federal grant search, which is on the left hand side, And you can type in a keyword.  

Or if you know the organization's   name,   you will be able to or the organization's name. But more more importantly, if you know the organization's,   like like, it's an an NGO, like Anova, right, then they've probably got what's called an EIN   number or employ employment or employer identification   number, I think is what it stands for. It's like a Social Security number,   for businesses or organizations or anybody that's got a bank account that is   a   ' Social Security number. So you can track   what these businesses are.   Now when I've when Data Republican first came up on my radar,   it was because she had a graph. And literally it's a graph. Like, if you do graph theory or if you look   at graphs of social networks, and I'm sure that you've seen them, they're they're it's pretty common nowadays to actually talk about the social graph   or the network graph or whatever.  

And it basically just shows you all the nodes on the network. And in this case, each node would be some kind of organization with an EIN number, and it's got arrows that come from into all these different organizations.   And it can look like a big mess. But Data Republican put up this one graph that showed   this one organization   feeding, like, four other organizations   with US tax   taxpayer money. And then those organizations were feeding a whole shit ton of more different organizations.   So, like, when you if you go from left to right, it ends up being like a giant circle. It's really small   radius on the left hand side. And then as as more organizations are evolved, it gets really inflated. And then it comes over to the right hand side and starts getting smaller because now   all this flow, all this taxpayer money is going into these different organizations, but fewer and fewer as we get over to the right hand side of the page until   until   in this one particular instance, it's not all of them. It's just this one particular instance except it was, like,   a hundred,   you know, like, something like 500,000,000   or, like, a couple of billion. It may have been it may have been even more than that. It was   an exorbitant amount of cash,   and it all flowed into a back into a single entity,   which happened to be   Bill Kristol, and you've seen him on he's not the comedian. It's not Billy Kristol. It's William Kristol.  

He's been on, like, I don't know, like, probably Meet the Press on on PBS. He's been on. He's like some, like, Democratic left hand wing, you know, pundit guy. Right? Well, he's got this organization   called, like, the Center for the for the Study of War.   And somehow or another,   all this money from this one organization   flowed through all these other organizations and then flowed back to Bill Kristol's   nonprofit   or his non governmental organization, otherwise known as an NGO.   You're going to see   probably   a   avalanche   of corruption just become so evident,   and it's really,   really pissing off the left.  

And it's it should very well it should in in fact, what it should do is it should be pissing off the right as well, but it doesn't seem like it they're really   freaking out as much because I guarantee you there's corruption on both sides of this aisle. It's not just the left, ladies and gentlemen. You got people like Mitch McConnell, which is one of the most corrupt sons of bitches on the face of the planet. He's probably not gonna be around very much longer. Last I saw of him, I think he was drooling.   But I want to make sure that you are all aware that you   can go examine this,   all this data   at datarepublican.com.  

You can look at Charity Graph,   and that's where and that's actually the one that I I recommend everybody looking at at first. It's very like, if you go to the left hand side of the page,   right under the symbol for data republican,   you there's a button for charity graph, and then there's officer search, and then there's federal grant search, and then there's charity funding, and then there's even a voter turnout analysis. But this actually shows you a huge, immense graph   so that you can see what I'm talking about. So it would end up being datarepublican.com/expose,exp0se.   And you can start there and start looking at the numbers   and how much taxpayer money is going to all these different organizations.  

I highly recommend that we pull the old citizen journalist WikiLeaks   move   and start actually   examining   this   data.   If we can examine this data, if we have hundreds of people looking at this,   like hundreds of pairs of eyeballs just   just   on a terror   in trying to find corruption,   the amount of work that's gonna be done   is probably going it could very possibly get us out of the shit. It really could, guys.   This could I mean, this could finally   break the levy,   let all the damn waters out,   wipe out the corruption in the town and the valley below,   but it's not going to happen if it's just the person that's put this website together actually going through the data,   actually making the connections,   actually looking at the people behind all these things. Like, I would have never known in a million years that William Kristol   had an NGO   named the the Center for the Examination of War,   that somehow or another was getting   billions of dollars of US taxpayer money.  

And he already gets paid a lot of money to be a pundit on CNN,   NPR,   PBS,   you name it, man. He's he's everywhere.   So I just wanted to make sure that I put that right in front of your face at the very beginning of the show. Now do you wanna buy some wine?   I want some wine.   I gotta have some wine. Well,   Peony Lane Vineyards. I worked a deal out with Ben Justman. He's the   owner operator of P and E Lane, p e o n y, Lane.   You can go find his wines at pandelainewine.com   because   Ben,   Justman agreed to be in the Circle p. Circle p is definitely open for business. Circle p is where I bring plebs like you who have good goods and services for sale in Bitcoin to other plebs just like you. And in this particular case, you might have already seen or know of Ben Justman.   So I lined it out for him yesterday. I said, hey. Look, man. There's there's no contracts. There's there's no set in stone thing. If you make a sale and the person that bought your wine told you that they're buying your wine because they heard it here on the circle p from the Bitcoin and podcast,   then he's gonna give me some sats that he thinks   is what it's worth for this particular advertisement for me bringing his wine to you. Now you will say, well, mister Bennett, have you even tasted his wine? No. I have not. And that's the beauty   of just wanting to do and help the plebs out there   get their goods and services in front of other people that may not have heard about it. Now from what I understand,   from many people that have tasted this man's wine,   this is very good   wine. But   like I said,   you're not in the circle p if you don't take Bitcoin   either main chain or lightning or some other way.  

You're not in the circle p if you don't sell your goods and services for Bitcoin. And he does because you can go to peonylainewine.com/bitcoin   and boom you're right there where he expects   to get paid in Bitcoin.   I do believe he's either is it powered by BTC pay server? Let me scroll down here to the bottom.   It doesn't say. Let me let me look at let me look at this. Hold on for a sec. I wanna make sure because it's either Zaprite   or it's BTC pay server   powered by Zaprite.   So hit this website, this part of his website   will allow you to buy   all banner of wines. I think most of the wines that he produces are reds, like Cabernets and whatnot, Malbec,   Cabernet Franc, that kind of thing.  

And   he he gets good money for his wine. And like I said, I haven't tasted myself,   but   other people have said that his wine is fantastic.   So   if you're looking to buy wine   and you want to buy it in Bitcoin   and you want to help support Bitcoin plebs,   then go to pandelanewine.com/Bitcoin.   Buy yourself some wine. And he's got a little place where he's got a note down here on his order on the order information you put in your name, your email,   shipping address because, you know, he's gotta send you the wine. But then there's a place at the very bottom says note. Say, I heard about this on Bitcoin and   circle p.  

And that way, Ben will know that I made a sale for him. And that way, he will get me back on the other side. And like I told Ben,   this is a hand digital handshake agreement between me and him. If I don't make a sale, I don't get sats. If I make a sale and he finds out that you bought it from him because you heard it here on Circle p, he gets to make the determination.   Not me. There's no agreement as to how much he pays me every time I make a sale. He gets to figure out what he thinks it's worth. This is the value for value advertising model. Highly experimental,   and sometimes it doesn't work, but sometimes it does.  

And I just love bringing you plebs   just like you to plebs   just like you. Now onto the news where the FDIC has released a treasure trove   of operation choke point two point o documents. This is out of decrypt Andrei Beganski is writing it. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation unexpectedly   unexpectedly,   ladies and gentlemen, released a trove of documents on Wednesday   detailing how the agency regulated   banks approach to cryptocurrency.   Travis Hill, the FDIC's   acting chairman, said that the agency is taking steps   to enhance transparency as lawmakers move to investigate   the plot dubbed Operation Chokepoint two point o. Quote,   the documents that we are releasing   today show that requests from these banks were almost universally met with resistance.  

These and other actions sent the message to banks that it would be extraordinarily   difficult, if not impossible,   to move forward, he said in a press release.   In December, the FDIC   published 24 letters detailing the agency's push to delay or prevent American banks from engaging in crypto related activities. But this   790   page tranche of documents appears to contain   correspondence   covering the bank's ability to serve crypto firms as well.   In one letter, the FDIC appointee acknowledged that a bank's board of directors had had chosen to close all of an entity's deposit accounts.   While the entity wasn't explicitly referred to as a crypto firm, the letter also sought additional information on the bank's   internal authorization, quote, to engage   with a maximum of up to three additional crypto companies.  

The letter also said that banking organizations are neither prohibited nor discouraged   from providing banking services to customers of any class or type, but industry advocates have claimed the correspondence was further proof of the FDIC's   debanking   plot.   The documents were unveiled shortly before   senate lawmakers began a scheduled hearing on debanking.   So far,   it's been giving the public a first look at whether the FDIC   unlawfully   clamped down on the crypto industry.   One snippet highlighted by Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Gruel   showed how a bank was deterred from offering an account to a stablecoin issuer   looking to park reserves at the institution.  

The bank was told that it, quote, should not proceed with any crypto asset activity   until   the FDIC   and another entity the name is redacted in the document   found the practice was safe and sound.   In one case, Gruul said that the FDIC   did not raise concerns about risks to the financial system,   but he did think it deterred a bank from offering a way for customers to purchase bitcoin. In an excerpt,   the FDIC   stated that reputation risk, or the prospect of bitcoin's price falling, was at issue.   Though the conversation   among lawmakers   has focused intensely on the FDIC, which insures banking deposits and supervises financial institutions,   the Federal Reserve recently weighed in.  

A week ago, Fed chair Powell stated that,   quote, banks are perfectly able to serve crypto customers   as long as they understand   and can manage the risks.   Some letters included in Wednesday Wednesday's   document dump accused banks of false advertising claiming that they did not include   clear and prominent disclaimers that digital assets are not covered by FDIC   insurance in their advertising.   On Wednesday,   Hill signaled that more documents may be in the pipeline   as the agency moves to reverse practices under the previous administration.   While this review remains underway,   we are releasing a large bot batch of documents today.  

Looking forward, we are actively   reevaluating   our supervisory   approach to crypto related   activities.   So it sounds to me that the FDIC   under is under new management,   and it is completely reversing course.   However,   Silvergate   do you remember Silvergate?   It was the first bank taken into FDIC   receivership in, what, 2022?   Or was it 2023?   I can't remember. Three banks collapsed. Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and something else. Can't remember what the other one is. But Silvergate was a special case   because the the   the tenants of going under FDIC receivership is that you can't pay your creditors back, you know, your customers. They come to the door and say, hey. We want my money out. And you say, well, I'm sorry. We don't have any money. Can't give it to you. Bye.  

Well, that then you go into FDIC receivership because you're insolvent.   Not the case with Silvergate.   Silvergate, in fact,   was able to have the money   to make every single one of their customers whole and then still have a little bit left over for a bit of operations   until they got new customers making deposits. But no. No. No. No. No.   They were taken under FDIC   receivership, and they were immediately   gutted   and sold. And I can't remember who bought it. But, essentially, they didn't buy the bank. They bought the customer list and the customer deposits.   But that bank, there was no problem with Silvergate.  

And yet, it was the first bank   out of those three,   and I think it became four in, like, because that happened on, like, a I wanna say that that happened Saturday.   It was either a Saturday or a Sunday that all that shit happened. And then sometime   early in the next week, a fourth bank was added to that list. And it was like one of the largest banking collapses in The United States history, and nobody talks about it.   Well, I'm not sure if the FDIC is gonna be able to get out of all the hot water that they boiled for themselves on Silvergate.   I'm hoping   that we're going to get some news out of this Silvergate bullshit,   but we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile,   Leatherface,   Christine Lagarde, may have been correct.  

That's right. She may have been correct. I called bullshit, but she may be calling bullshit up on me because   she said   that after talking to the governor of the Czech   Or Czech Republic Central Bank or the Czech National Bank, whatever you wanna call it, it's their central bank, said that there was no way, no way that Bitcoin was ever gonna be into the reserves of any European Central Bank or any European nation's central bank, and the check was no different. They weren't gonna get Bitcoin because she talked to the governor.   You know, this, what, Ailes Mitchell   Michael, like, m I c h l is his name. That's the governor. That's the head honcho over there at the Czech Central Bank.  

Well,   turns out   she may have said something to the Czech Central Bank governor that possibly, I don't know, scared the piss out of him. Not sure because Reuters put this out this morning.   Headline is   Czech central bank,   quote,   no time horizon for analysis to assess reserve options,   end quote.   It's a very short article. The Czech central bank has no time horizon for an analysis   on widening its investments of reserves to include more asset classes, potentially including   bitcoin,   governor Ailes Michael said on Thursday. That was this morning.   The bank's board last week had approved   conducting the analysis to look at broadening the asset classes in its reserve portfolio   after its governor flagged Bitcoin as an option   under consideration.  

Seriously, guys, that that's it. That that's the article.   So   we get this news last week that central bank head honcho of Czech Central Bank says we wanna look at Bitcoin and reserve and and expand our reserve portfolio.   And then hours later, old Leatherface still stands up in somewhere,   some speech or some interview she's given,   and says   that she talked to this guy and that there's no way Bitcoin goes on the balance sheet. And here we are a week later with a two sentence   article out of Reuters   basically saying that the governor is now saying, well, we don't have a time horizon.   We never said what date we would make a decision by. This could be indefinite.  

Do you smell a rat?   Because I   smell   a rat. Oh, by the way,   getting back to P and Elaine. If you wanna get a hold of Ben Justman   over on,   Nostor,   he is primal Net forward slash ben justman, j u s t m a n. And it's the same handle over on Dead Bird's site if you wanna go over there and talk to him. But it's b e n   j u s t m a n. That's Ben Jasmine   of Peony Lane.   He makes Bitcoin wine.   Maybe that callback will get you   to order some bottles. Make sure you tell him he you heard it in the circle p. Alright. Bitcoin payments aren't the future. They're already here.   And this is by Shinobi   Bitcoin magazine.  

Breeze,   in partnership with one, a one z,   has released a new report investigating the use of Bitcoin as a payments system   and as a transactional currency. Bitcoin has always been painted as digital gold. That is one of the longest running narratives at this point in terms of what Bitcoin actually is.   It does capture the use as a long term investment or speculative asset and has been a very helpful aid in getting people over the first hump of basic understanding, but it is by no means a comprehensive   explanation of what Bitcoin   actually is.  

The report,   which is linked to here in this article, and this article's link will be in the show notes as a URL so you'll be able to find the report if you dive deep enough. The report dives into multiple factors of Bitcoin's use as a payment mechanism.   It dissects different use cases, regulatory treatments received in different jurisdictions, services, and platforms   with existing integration of lightning payments, etcetera.   Case studies are included looking at specific businesses and the volume of transactions   or user base they have provided access to Bitcoin for.  

Mercari, a major Japanese marketplace similar to Amazon,   accepts Bitcoin.   MOLVAD, VPN,   Namecheap, and ProtonMail   are all instances of digital businesses benefiting from Bitcoin payments.   While the Bitcoin digital gold narrative is running strong, Bitcoin's use as a payment mechanism is growing quietly in the background.   Storing value may be a necessary component   of Bitcoin's use in commerce, but the ultimate purpose it was created for was to transact with. And you can read the report   here.   And, again, this URL to this Bitcoin magazine,   article will be in the show notes as a URL. So you just gotta tap it or click it or whatever. And then the very first sentence, it says, Breeze and relationship with one a one z has released a new report.  

New report is underlined,   and that will take you right to breeze.technology   forward slash report, and that's where you can find   this   report. Now   the rebranding.   Why MicroStrategy,   now strategy,   is about to get a $12,750,000,000   boost to its balance sheet according to Bernstein,   and this is written by James Hunt   out of the block.co.   MicroStrategy,   which rebranded   to strategy yesterday   for whatever reason, is about to get a $12,750,000,000   boost to its balance sheet according to analyst at research and brokerage firm, Bernstein.   Strategy   reported oh, and this is really bad y'all. Their earnings came out yesterday, and it was a shit show   for strategy,   formerly known as MicroStrategy.  

They reported   a net loss   of $670,000,000   in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four on Wednesday with operational expenses rising 693%   year over year   to $1,100,000,000.   Operations.   Their operational   expenses rose   seven   times. What they paid in operations last year,   they did not pay that this year. They paid seven x   on a year over year basis.   That includes just over $1,000,000,000   worth of impairment losses related to the company's Bitcoin holdings   compared to 39,200,000.0   during the same period in 2023.   So there's where   the Bitcoin on their balance sheet is causing problems   under the old   FASB   rule set.  

K? So keep that in mind because that shit changes in May.   Previously,   digital asset values on the company's books had to be marked down when prices fell but could not be adjusted upward if prices rose unless it was sold.   However, with strategy adopting the financial accounting standards board's   new, quote, fair value accounting rules from January   2025,   this will lead to a one time   cumulative adjustment   of $12,750,000,000   to the opening balance of its retained earnings, the Bernstein analyst led   by Gottman   Shugani   wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.  

And it will enable the firm to recognize   unrealized   gains on its Bitcoin's position   for the very first time. Quote,   beginning   in the first quarter of   fiscal year twenty five,   the carrying value of Bitcoin will align with the market value,   allowing MSTR   to report any appreciation of Bitcoin's price as a gain in its net income according to the analyst.   However, uncertainty remains over the tax treatment of strategy's bitcoin holdings under the new FASB rules in combination   with provisions of the 2022   inflation reduction act, meaning   that it can require a special exemption from the Internal Revenue Service.  

Strategy stock closed down 3.3%   on Wednesday   and is currently up 1.4%   in premarket trading on Thursday.   MicroStrategy   changed its corporate brand.   Now we get into the branding   fiasco, which I think was dumb.   I'm sorry. That's just me. I know. Yeah, Dave. He's a billionaire and you're not. I know. I'm still calling it out. I it's just dumb.   MicroStrategy   changed its corporate brand to just strategy   ahead of its earnings release on Wednesday. Quote, the new logo includes a stylized b, use the Bitcoin symbol, signifying the company's Bitcoin strategy and its unique position as a Bitcoin treasury company.   The brand's primary color is now orange,   representing energy, intelligence, and Bitcoin.  

The firm said in a statement, further quote, this finally symbolizes   the complete   shift   from its software business   to a Bitcoin treasury company,   Chughani wrote.   I told you this shit six months ago, if not longer.   Mike is completely disinterested   in furthering anything in software. He's done. He's been done. This is finally it.   There is I mean, other than servicing his MicroStrategy's   like former customers,   they're not going to release they're they're not going to update their quote business strategy software suite.   I guarantee you they're gonna stop selling it altogether.  

He's done. He's out. It is now Bitcoin only. It is a 100%   financial company now. And it started out,   they were building software.   Continuing the company recorded a year to date b t c yield   of 74.3%   a key performance indicator it uses to represent the percentage change in the ratio between its bitcoin holdings   and assumed diluted shares outstanding.   Strategy also announced   other new KPIs,   an annual BTC gain and   BTC   dollar gain   with an annual BTC dollar gain target of $10,000,000,000   for 2025.   On Monday, strategy's latest twelve week Bitcoin buying streak came to an end. Oh my god. We're all gonna die. After confirming,   it did not sell any shares of class a common stock under its at the market equity offering program   and did not purchase any Bitcoin   in the week ending February 2.  

The company's total Bitcoin holdings stand at 471,107   BTC,   which is worth around $46,000,000,000   Strategy's total holdings were bought at an average price of 64,500   per coin, a total cost of around 30,400,000,000.0   including fees and expenses,   according to a company's cofounder and executive chairman, Michael Saylor. And to put that in perspective,   strategy holds more than 2.2%   of Bitcoin's total   21,000,000   coin supply.   Strategy's twenty one twenty one plan, which was introduced in the third quarter of last year, targeted a capital raise of 21,000,000,000   in equity and 21,000,000,000   in debt from 2025   through the year 2027.  

Over the past three months, the company has already utilized around $20,000,000,000   of that plan,   the analyst highlighted.   $16,700,000,000   in equity and $3,000,000,000   in convertibles and $600,000,000   in preferred stock.   Strategy aims for a long term leverage ratio of 20 to 30%.   However,   its current ratio was lower than this target at around 15%   due to its outstanding   $6,200,000,000   in convertible debt with the first maturity   not due until 2028.   This provides enough room to lever up. Oh, shit.   They said as the firm's Bitcoin experiment   continues. Even the blocks calling it an experiment.  

Well well, I guess it is. I I I I guess it is. We'll have to wait and see if, you know, if if Mike gets   somehow or another thrown under the bus and then fed to the proverbial dogs.   But I think that strike price is somewhere around 16,500   a coin   before   Michael Sailor is completely destroyed.   And that's a long way to go.   That is a long way to go. Meanwhile, while we wait, let's run the numbers.   CNBC   market report.   Everything sucks.   Oil is down a quarter of a point to $70.87.   This, China thing is really it it's   it doesn't look like it's gonna be cleared up anytime very, very soon, and I haven't heard a single   word   about I haven't heard a reply from the Trump administration   about the China   tariffs levied on United States, but it's really screwing up energy.  

Brent North Sea is likewise down a fifth of a point to $74.48   a barrel. Natural gas down three quarters of a point. Gasoline, however, as you would expect, is up 1%   to $2.07   a gallon.   Gold is down two thirds of a point to $28.75.7.   Yeah. Gold's at an all time high, but still, it's down two thirds of a point. Silver is down a full point. Platinum is down a third. Copper is up point one six percent. Palladium is down two and a quarter.   Ag,   it's it's basically mixed. The, biggest winner today   looks to be wheat at 2.14%   to the upside. Biggest loser is   chocolate down damn near five points.  

Live cattle down 2.1.   That's not good.   Live hogs is unchanged, and feeder cattle are also   down 2.1.   The Dow is down a third.   Everything else is essentially moving sideways. S and P is up point one seven, Nasdaq point one two, and the S and P Mini is up as well point zero six.   So it's basically just chucking on down the tracks.   And at $97,180   per corn kernel,   we have a $1,930,000,000,000   market cap, and that is going to only   get you 34 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin, of which there are   19,820,344.96   of an average fees per block remain low. Why? Because mempools around the world   are   really light. 0.04   BTC   taken in fees on a per block basis.  

How many blocks are there? Well, let me tell you there are,   let's see.   12? Yeah. 12 blocks   carrying a measly ass 17,000   unconfirmed transactions   waiting to clear at high priority rates of four. Count them four, Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at three.   And hash rate is still above 800.   Eight hundred and seven point nine exahashes per second.   I still   am in awe   that miners with, like, almost no fees at all and only on subsidy   because they're getting a subsidy every time they win a block reward. That is the subsidy.   Only on subsidies   are these guys not pulling hash rate   hand over fist off the network. So your Bitcoin   is secure. And from yesterday's or, actually, not yesterday's,   snow day yesterday. Kids had to stay home. Wife wasn't feeling well.  

Nothing I could do, ladies and gentlemen. But my sincerest apologies for not bringing you the strategy news right when it broke. Anyway,   Sovereign Syrup,   yeah, Tuesday's   show. It was I I got Geek Toshi   with a thousand 31 that says, this $10.31   is better than Odell's ten thirty one. Keep on rocking, brother. You got it. And then I got,   Gil Maron with a thousand says,   did you miss the news on the Ligma e Nuts protocol?   Great show.   Did you catch that?   Ligma e Nuts. You know, Gil, I was already   putting Ligma, and I I think I was like at Ligma   e n   into Google   when it hit me.  

Ligma me nuts. Whatever, dude. God's death. 537.   Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And Gil, that was a good one, by the way. Wartime with 333   says, cheers, Paul,   sir nine.   With two fifty says,   thank you, sir. Especially for your take on the tariff situation   and the micro strategy trade. It's because of such condensed insights that your episodes are invaluable.   Plus, I just like your style, including   the occasional rant. Keep up the good work. Dude, Paul, thank you. I appreciate that. It's always nice to hear when people actually like what I do. Yegro with one twenty one says constructive criticism is very useful,   not just to help in explaining things better, but also   it encourages the person explaining to think more and perhaps differently or perceive differently   a topic, which in turn   helps them understand it at an even deeper level. Yes.  

And writing helps with that. It it really does. Actually, writing stuff down, either type it on a computer or write it down on a page or   or or whatever. You know, writing   actually   helps you think. Pies with a hundred says thank you sir, no thank you. Pies with another hundred says value for value. I totally agree with that. Value for value, which is why I depend on you guys   to help me   keep this show going.   And instead of asking you for money today in the form of sweet sweet Satoshis,   I need your time.   A four of the four. A five star review on Apple Podcast.   I know what you're saying. But, David, you always send out the link to fountain.fm.  

You don't send it out on Apple podcast.   Yes. But   Apple Podcast has been around so long   that they are a major node   on the podcast   referral   network.   What do I mean by that?   It means that   somehow or another,   Apple   sets the tone   with whose podcast is valuable   by how many five star reviews   the Apple podcast website actually gets on my RSS feed address.   So   that's just a thing.   I I I I'm not gonna pretend that I know why. I'm not gonna pretend that I know how. I just know that it is.   So, therefore, I ask you for your time   today   to go over to Apple Podcasts,   find, you know, like, you just I mean, I've got it in my show notes. The there's a direct link to Apple Podcasts in my show notes. Click the URL. It'll send you right there.  

Log in, whatever it is you gotta do, and leave me a five star review and say, you know, say something nice. Say it or or you can even say, you know, I've given this guy a five star review, but I really wish he'd include this in his show sometimes   and give me an idea for a new segment or something like that. I am listening when you guys talk.   If I list you know, if there's something that you said that you want me to do and I I I just don't do it, it's because either I can't figure out a way to deliver it properly or it just doesn't fit in the show.   But it doesn't mean that I'm not listening,   and it doesn't mean that I won't continue to listen. But if you guys can get the word out about the show, then we can spread   spread it around.  

Like, you know, I'm I'm getting more and more supporters on fountain.fm.   And a lot of that is because of you guys.   You know, you you you helped me market the show.   I'm a one man band over here, dude. I got is, you know, like that idiot that's sitting in the corner in the bar. He's got, like, all this shit attached to him. He's got, like, cymbals up over his shoulder, and he's got, like, a a kick drum down there, and he's got a little monkey running around trying to get people. That's me.   I'm the guy   that's doing that.  

So take pity.   Have some mercy.   Spread the show.   That's the weather report.   Welcome to part two of the news you can use brought to you by Peony Lane Vineyards.   Over there at peonylanewine.com   forward / bitcoin. You can get all the wine you want from a good friend, Ben Jessman.   And if you don't remember, if you don't buy today,   just remember where you heard it. One of these days, you'll go, you know, what was that wine thing that that David was talking about? Oh, yeah. That Peony Lane wine. Even if it's four months from now and you remember that you heard about it here in the circle p,   make sure Ben knows because even four months from now, he'll go, oh, shit. I got you know, even though you didn't hear it but four months ago, at least it's still a sale, and he will cut me some Satoshis for that sale. Now Arthur Hayes,   the grinning man,   is apparently saying that Bitcoin reserve   could end up being a potent   political   weapon.  

Braden Lindria,   Cointelegraph.   A Bitcoin strategic   reserve in The US   could be a net negative for the industry as it could be used as a political weapon   and even reversed if Democrats win the election in 2028   and decide to sell the stockpile   according to an industry executive.   That last one, that that's the one that always does worry me. Because all this unless   unless the Bitcoin's   strategic reserve   first of all, we gotta see it happen. I haven't seen it happen. I hear a lot of talk.   I hear people say, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   I haven't I've seen I've seen exactly jack squat done on the strategic Bitcoin reserve. Let's say let's say it happens.  

Unless that is instantiated   into law   by Congress,   then, yeah, the next president can definitely do something about it. And the next administration   could try to get rid of the Bitcoin   law if it was actually instantiated as law, but it is way more difficult to do than just reversing a presidential   executive   order. If I remember, I have more to say on that.   Quote, broadly speaking,   many misguided crypto folk wish that the US government would print dollars and purchase Bitcoin as part of a national stockpile.   I believe these folks are asking for the wrong things,   said Maelstrom Fund chief investment officer,   Arthur Hayes.  

Hayes argued   that the potential Bitcoin stockpile would simply be another financial asset that could be bought   and   sold. There would be 1,000,000 Bitcoin just sitting there ready to be sold. It just takes a signature on a piece of paper, said Hayes.   It turns a Bitcoin reserve or quote national stockpile of shitcoins held by the US government   into a potent political weapon.   Hayes, who is one of the founders of BitMex crypto exchange, acknowledged   that the Bitcoin reserve would initially make Bitcoin's price go nuts, but said whether The US buys or sells more of it would primarily be for political   and not financial   gains.  

If US president Donald Trump fails to slow inflation,   stop wars, and fix the food supply by 2026,   Excuse me. The Democrats could build political momentum, win the house majority,   and potentially even punish crypto investors who supported orange man in the twenty twenty four election,   Hayes said. Well, it could be.   Others have been more optimistic about the prospect of a national Bitcoin stockpile, and I won't get into that because   this is just like the other side. These are other people talking about.   I wanted to talk about what Arthur Hayes was saying because he brings up a damn good point.  

Everything that we've seen   and understand.   I'm putting on my weatherman tinfoil hat.   I'm just telling you that it's raining.   I'm not telling you that it's good.   I'm not telling you that it's bad.   I'm just saying I looked outside my window and water's falling from the sky.   Therefore, it's raining.   Okay.   Now now that that's done,   you know, I'm neutral when I'm about what I'm about to say.   Everything that we've seen done by the Trump administration   is effectively   done through executive order,   except   for the placement of people in the cabinet, like   JFK. And I I I hope he gets I hope he gets confirmed because that would be really interesting.  

Tulsi Gabbard. I don't know if she's been confirmed or not, but a cup Bondi's been confirmed,   and it looks to me like all of his people are gonna get confirmed.   JFK or RFK is the lowest man on the totem poll poll in far as far as chances of getting confirmed according to Polymarket,   or at least he was two days ago last I looked. I haven't looked today.   Be that as it may, that's not executive orders. But everything else that we've seen is essentially   either executive order or basically Trump saying something about Gaza.   Okay. So the executive order, let's just look at that.  

All of those can be reversed in the next administration.   If if an if if Vance doesn't become   the presidential   or not only the presidential candidate, but then wins the presidential election in, what, 2028,   then you can bet your bottom dollar that everything that Trump did will be reversed   even though the amount of damage that the and when I mean damage, I just mean   wrecking ball,   like taking down bullshit.   Right? There's a a lot of crap that I didn't like that's just being gutted.   To have to rebuild that, I don't envy anybody that. But   be that as it may,   in essence,   executive orders can be overturned by an executive order. And in my opinion, this is no way to run a country.  

It's just not.   So   what what would need to happen?   Well,   to get the I could see it going this way.   Trump uses his executive order to just get started what needs to be started in his opinion.   Then it will be up to congress   during the next two years.   If the following doesn't happen,   then you we're going to have some serious issues.   The following thing that needs to happen is this.   Congress needs to follow-up   and essentially   canonize   every single one of these executive orders and convert them into quote quote unquote the law of the land through congressional   legislative   sessions.  

Build the bill.   Like, for instance, let's let's look at the strategic reserve, the strategic Bitcoin reserve. He was said he was gonna do with an executive order. And then   and I was talking about this on a few shows back. You got Cynthia Lummis who's written a bill,   the strategic Bitcoin reserve act.   So Trump let's say Trump signs an executive order, says you start buying Bitcoin right now, they start doing it. Then Cynthia Lummis in he has got this bill introduced.   It passes out through committee, goes to the floor of both the house and the senate, is voted on, and then that bill   now passing out of congress goes to the president's desk. And if the president of The United State   signs that bill into law,   now it's not an executive order. Do you see how this works?  

They would have to do that with everything that they don't want taken down either after the twenty twenty six midterm elections   or, god forbid,   we have a complete   left wing psychotic person   put into that chair.   There are some left wing people that are good people, but   Biden   and Kamala Harris, I'm sorry.   Both of them were sociopaths,   Psychopaths.   All both of them.   And they had both conditions. They were both psychopathic and socio   constant lying   that it was clear that he was not in control of The United States, and yet we were being he was being passed off as the commander in chief. And everybody that watched this guy talk is like, there's no way he can't find the bathroom,   much less order a nuclear strike if we had to do it.  

He doesn't know where he is.   It was a lie. That entire presidency was a lie. God forbid, Kamala Harris gets in.   And we dodged a huge bullet on that one because that woman   that woman's got some weird shit going on, and I won't even get into that. But there the more you dig, the the   funnier that whole thing is.   So   to reiterate,   the only way   that Trump gets what Trump wants done done   is to do it in a two phase way. Phase one, executive order the shit out of everything.   Phase two, make sure that is reflected and instantiated   into the law of the land through proper congressional   means. And if that shit's not done,   well, then Arthur Hayes is right. The next administration could very well just sell everything,   and we have a major crash   because they don't want Bitcoin in.  

Honestly, that makes me kinda still question why Trump's doing any of this in the first place because he loves the dollar.   But whatever.   Let's move over to the Securities and Exchange Commission because they're scaling back their anti crypto unit,   and they're strengthening   a brand spanking new task force according to Atlas21.com.   The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is restructuring   its approach to cryptocurrencies.   And according to the New York Times,   the agency is downsizing   its special enforcement unit dedicated to the crypto sector while simultaneously   bolstering a new task force   focused on regulation.  

This decision marks a shift from the previous administration.   The enforcement unit, which included over 50 professionals such as lawyers and other staff, is seeing some of its key members transferred to other departments within the same agency.   This move reflects the SEC's new direction under Trump's leadership favoring a more constructive approach to the sector.   Meanwhile,   Republican commissioner Hester Pierce   announced   that the new task force will focus on classifying different types of crypto assets and related activities to determine which fall   under the category   of a security.  

The SEC   has also launched a new web page dedicated to the task force, opening a communication channel with the industry and the public   to gather input and feedback.   This new direction contrast with the approach of former chairman Gary Gensler who advocated for regulation through enforcement   that had targeted US Crypto Operators.   President Trump has appointed it appointed. Sorry. Apported.   Appointed   Mark t Ueda,   known for his pro digital asset stance as interim SEC chairman, and he has already begun making strategic appointments at the agency's top levels.   For the permanent chairmanship,   Trump has nominated Paul Atkins,   a former regulator   with a long history of supporting innovation in the crypto sector. Yeah. Well, you could have said the same thing about Gary Gensler.  

He taught a blockchain class at Harvard or wherever the hell he was at, and everybody thought he was pro crypto because of it. Turns out,   we were wrong. We were really wrong about Gary Gensler, and yet he was touted in the same way. He had a long history of supporting innovation in the crypto sector.   So until this man is appointed   and then picks up his pen and starts doing stuff,   I don't believe nothing.   Now out of CoinDesk,   BlackRock   is planning to launch a Bitcoin exchange traded product,   not a fund, an ETP,   not an ETF   in Europe.  

Let's find out more.   Who's writing this one anyway?   Chamomile   Shamba is writing it. The world's largest asset management firm with more than $10,000,000,000,000   in assets under management, BlackRock,   plans on listing a Bitcoin exchange traded product or an ETP in Europe,   according to Bloomberg.   The fund would be based in Switzerland, and BlackRock could start marketing it as soon as this month, according to the report.   This would be the giant asset manager's first crypto linked e t p outside of The United States.   BlackRock's   US based iShares Bitcoin ETF has been a wild success accumulating yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The $60,000,000,000   in assets since it's opened or whatever. BlackRock's move would be the latest in a string of investment firms looking to dive further into providing crypto backed securities   in Europe.  

Europe.   Europe is a mess.   Europe is a mess.   They don't even know what they don't like anymore. I just heard a report that France, who was was going to call Bitcoin   and its unrealized   gains as, quote, unproductive   products   and therefore   tax the shit out of those capital gains has now decided not to do that in their 2025   budget. We don't know what the hell they're doing.   But one thing that I can say for sure is   Larry Fink   deciding to open up an exchange traded product in Europe at this time   signals to me   that the only turmoil that is present in Europe   is purely political   and that somehow or another is somehow firewalled   from the financial side,   at least as far as he's concerned   to his   interests,   which is probably why he's picking Switzerland. Anyway, the company entries or the company's entry into the European crypto ETP ecosystem   could further fuel the competitive response that that we've been seeing amongst various providers, which include   fee waivers on several products.  

Some expense fees for ETPs have been as high as 2.5%.   In The US, a similar competitive response   came after the funds were launched in January of twenty twenty four.   And a lot of question marks still occur   around the product, including the fee structure,   which would have big implications for the performance of the ETP, quote, don't know the fee yet. That will be a big variable, said senior Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas,   quote, US ETFs blow away the rest of the world in cost and liquidity,   but either way   shows commitment   from the world's largest asset manager   who has a big presence overseas, end quote.  

US based Bitcoin ETFs currently have   91%   of the world market,   said Balchunas.   Ninety one percent of the ETF, the exchange traded fund, the the iBit spot Bitcoin ETF.   91%   of the world's market   for Bitcoin   ETFs,   spot ETFs   seem to be over there at BlackRock. That is a huge,   huge chunk of the market.   And it looks like they are not waiting for their European competitors   to launch any kind of,   you know, payment worthy products that Europeans want to actually purchase. They're just gonna do it themselves.   So you got Larry Fink   sinking his fingers   deep,   deep into the future of Europe because   Bitcoin's not going away.  

But all these people, the the   WEF,   especially now that we know that USAID   directly gave them $68,000,000   or whatever it was, billion. I can't remember what the hell it was. Whatever. They got a lot of money from USAID.   All that shit's coming out, and generally,   I'm going to make the statement that what you're about to see is going to be   horrifying.   And not because, oh my god, he hates Trump. No. No.   No. I don't hate Trump. I'm just saying what's been going on   under the covers that we've never been able to see probably for seven decades   minimum,   is probably so horrific   that if you are a churchgoer   or you believe in God and you don't go to church, where you're some just decent   human being   that at least respects their fellow human,   you're probably going to want to marf.  

And I ain't talking about just money.   You know what I'm talking about.   We're going to probably find out   things that we wish, like, we kept saying.   We need to find this out. We know there's we know there's all kinds of weird shit going on with you guys. You guys are are strange. We need to know all about it. We need to be we need to have all this stuff out in the open, And then it's probably all gonna come out in the open, and we're gonna go put it back in the closet.   The nightmare fuel. I don't wanna see this. I didn't wanna know this.   That's that's probably what the reaction's gonna be, because I think that what's going to come out is going to be so fucking horrific   that any decent human being will start barfing   immediately upon understanding the gravity of what's actually been occurring. And at that   point, Larry Fink will have his finger so   clawed deep into Europe in the future   that when all those people in Europe, because they're all connected,   it the West has just turned into a mire of corruption and bullshit.  

And it's because the citizenry of the West has just basically been lulled by bad food,   terrible commercials, terrible TV programming to essentially just not see exactly what's going on right in front of our fucking faces. And that veil is gonna be ripped off this year.   And Larry's fingers are gonna be so deep into that that when the European power structure crumbles just like it's gonna crumble over here,   it's not gonna matter to Larry. He's gonna have his Bitcoin ETFs.   He's gonna have his ETPs.   He's gonna have all the rest of his products, and he's just going to hold on to Europe while the feathers of that dead chicken fall to the ground.   And what is he gonna have after that? All he's gotta do is pluck the rest of the feathers off and he's got a nice little winner winner chicken dinner. Atlas21.com,   New Mexico is on deck, brothers and sisters. They have proposed a bill   to invest up to 5% of public state funds   into bitcoin.  

New Mexico   Senator Anthony Thornton   has introduced Senate Bill SB two fifty seven known as   the strategic Bitcoin reserve act. That's the name of the bill. It's not strategic shit coin. It's not strategic crypto asset.   No. It's strategic   Bitcoin   reserve   act, which would allow the state to invest up to 5%   of its public funds into Bitcoin.   The proposed legislation aims to create   an alternative fund for New Mexico,   diversifying the state's investments by including Bitcoin.   The bill mandates   that the state investment council work closely with financial advisors to ensure responsible bitcoin investments while monitoring the state's financial stability.   It specifically   calls for the use of cold storage   solutions   to safeguard the state's Bitcoin holdings. An increasing number of countries are exploring the idea   of establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. While El Salvador   has already implemented this strategy since November of twenty twenty two, others such as Brazil and Russia are considering similar moves.  

On the domestic front,   Utah and Arizona are engaged in a race for Bitcoin reserves   with bills currently under review. However, not all states are seeing the same level of progress.   Similar legislative proposals have faced setbacks in Wyoming as well as North Dakota.   Wyoming's h b two zero one bill has been stalled in committee, and North Dakota's h b one one eight four   failed to pass a house vote. Oh, that's a damn shame. But, anyway,   it's on deck.   New Mexico   is on deck. And for all of you,   I want you to understand this.   New Mexico has been a deep blue state for   years, decades, in fact.  

Colorado   and New Mexico   always vote blue. It does not matter.   They've been doing this for the say the same way forever.   They are at the as deep blue as New York,   Both those states.   I'm very surprised that it's New Mexico.   New Mexico.   Because   if you go look at all the rest of the states that have actually proposed this stuff,   either all   are deep red   or the ones that aren't deep red are mostly purple   to the red side.   This state, there's no purple in New Mexico,   and there never has been as far as far back as I can really remember,   or at least as far back as I gave a shit about remembering.  

Always been blue.   For them   to come up with this   is kind of extraordinary   Even if it is probably a Republican senator   or not senators is is yeah. He would be a state senator,   senator Anthony Thornton, even if he is just full red.   The fact that he's got anybody else to sign their name to it, I would assume he's got at least one other person,   is kind of extraordinary because they are so deep blue.   But,   again,   not good news about North Dakota and Wyoming, but whatever. We'll we'll have to see how this works.   We we never been here before.   It's blue sky all the way.  

Finally,   seed signer version zero point eight point five,   en Espanol   has been released. In fact, it's seed signer's   first multilingual   release.   And for those of you who might be listening to me who speak a second language,   you can you too can contribute to seed signers translation   on trans effects. And you can volunteer there,   to well, you actually, you can go to Transifex.   You create an account on transifex.com.   That's transifex.com   to add your own language. So you'll go to the project, which is explorer.transfx.com/seedsigner/seedsigner.   By the way, they are a hardware wallet.  

And if your language is not yet in the list, request to add it. And then   volunteer to translate all the seed signer stuff into your language.   And just so you know, seed signer offers anyone the opportunity to build   a verifiably   air gapped,   stateless,   bitcoin signing device   using inexpensive   publicly available hardware components. For all of you who don't know the difference between signing device and hardware wallet,   it's the same thing.   It's the same thing.   A hardware wallet is simply a signing device. In fact,   no wallet anywhere that holds Bitcoin on chain actually holds any Bitcoin at all. All it holds   is your signature   that allows you to re vector   Bitcoin that you are in control of on the main chain.  

Bitcoin   never leaves the blockchain.   So when you say you've got Bitcoin in your wallet, you do not.   What you have in your wallet   is the ability to sign a message that is transmitted to the Bitcoin blockchain   that then tells the Bitcoin under your control, because of that signature,   where it can go.   You don't hold any Bitcoin in your wallet. You're just signing a message.   Seed signer has always been that way. They've always eschewed saying that they were a hardware wallet. They've always said   they are a signing device.   But in essence,   it's the exact same thing.  

So if you've never looked at the seed signer project, please go look at it. If you are a seed signer user and you really wish that it was in your language,   then go make that shit happen. And you can go make that shit happen over   at explore.transfx.com/seedsigner,   all one word,   seed signer, all one word. So that's the show.   And just a little parting shot here.   I have been putting notes out on Nostr   and essentially well, let me read you this one.   The Woody Wide Web.   Kevin Bealer   made a spatial map of fungal connections between trees in a 30 by 30 meter plot of forest.   The most well connected tree had 47 connections via fungal networks to other trees. And then I've got a picture of the map that was actually presented and and drawn by Kevin Bealer   that went into his paper that was published about this particular thing.  

The most amount of hops it took to get from this most well connected tree   to any of the other trees in the plot was three hops.   Three hops to get from point a to any point b.   The low number of hops was entirely caused   by the older trees   having more connections to each other than any of the younger trees.   This pattern of connectivity   is the same in the world wide web. The great majority of web pages   have just a few connections, and a sparse few pages have many,   many connections.   This pattern repeats in almost all networks   from global air travel   to neuronal linkages in your brain. It's all about the well connected hub.  

Well connected hubs   are prime targets for network destruction,   but they are almost   thematic in everything we see.   Decentralization   is the key.   As with people,   younger trees have fewer connections to mycorrhizal networks, and older trees have many.   Even in the forest, it's not what you know,   it's who you know.   So why did I take the time to read that? What I'm doing, in case you did not know, is that I am a huge Obsidian user, and that is a note taking   app. And I don't use it on my phone. I use it on on,   on my desktop.   And it is part of something that I've been doing for a couple of years called Zettelkasten,   where when I read a book instead of just going, oh, well, that was nice, because I don't read a lot of fiction anymore. I read, like, books like   like,   Mycelium Running from Paul Stamets.  

I read a lot of science books, but, essentially, it's either, like, stuff about carbon,   stuff about molecular biology, stuff about ecology,   stuff about, like, this mycorrhizal   fungi attachment,   biochar,   all that stuff. I read, like, 45 books,   and I've taken notes on all of them. But those notes, unless you go back to all those books and you keep looking at those notes, they don't do anything for you. You forget that they exist, and then you forget the knowledge exists. So enter this this thing called zettelkasten, which was done a long time ago by a guy whose name I can't remember right now, and it doesn't matter. It's a system of taking notes   that link   one note to any other note that somehow or another has something to do with each other, some kind of standing theme.  

It used to be done on on, like index cards and you would have like a card catalog like you'd see in an old library, but then we're all digital now.   So what I've been doing is I've been going back through all those books,   gathering up all the notes that I've taken to those books or taken in those in those books and then rewriting those notes   as something that I can use because by rewriting something   you get to really know what the hell you're talking about because you've got to read what you underlined   and then have to restate it. This is the way at least I do it. This is not a prescription for you, but this is the way that I do   it. And then I have to reword it. I've got to restate the thing.  

And by doing that, it really locks it in my head. And then   I've got a copy of the note   that is in a repository,   and I go, you know, that note may very well   have something to do with this other note that I remember. And then I use Obsidian search function, and I go, yeah. And not only does it really have something to do with that note, but these other three notes. And then I can connect all those notes together. And then I can look   at   a graph view of all my notes and trace back their connections to each other,   and that's what I've been doing.  

So when I write   or rewrite one of these notes, I've been putting them on Nostr   just because.   Why not do double duty? Right?   And that particular this particular woody wide web note got a lot of traction, man. It's like that that's that whole,   that whole meme of that, you know, the the chick in the background going, you're not an influencer and the frog lighting a cigarette going, oh, man. This one's doing numbers and it's got like four likes on it. Yeah, dude. This one's doing numbers, bro. It's got like 49   likes, but still it's on Noster   and I'm kinda, you know, working with this. But people really seem to like some of these.  

Others get no traction whatsoever.   But some of these notes that I'm putting out,   actually, people really seem to enjoy them. So I'm going to continue doing that. But when you see me do that, understand that an exact copy of that note   is residing   in my Obsidian   locker box,   and it's connected to, like, three other notes. And each one of those notes are probably connected to at least one or two other notes.   And if I go back through the chain   of all these notes and I rack them up all together and I look at them side by side,   a story starts to unfold.  

And now whole articles could possibly be written.   The guy that came up with the Zettelkasten method, the dude whose name I cannot remember,   he wrote,   I think it was 700   articles   and 40 books before he died.   His amount of productivity in his field, which I believe was psy sociology,   anthropology,   and psychology, and this was back, like, early nineteen hundreds, I believe.   His level of productivity   has yet to be matched by any other academic that I've seen.   And it was because of this method of him actually writing this shit down that he got from a book and somehow or another making a file system for it. And that ended up being what he called Zettelkasten, which is roughly translated to slip box.   He writes it on a slip of paper and he puts that slip into a box with all the other slips that he's written down. But he had this weird, you know, mechanism of being able to catalog these notes with a ID number and he would use that ID number to write at the bottom of other notes when he would remember,   yeah, and then he'd go pull that note and say, this does have something to do with what I'm reading now. So he would take that ID number, and he would write it on the bottom of the new note.  

And now those two notes were connected.   And he was able to write 40 books and 700 articles   before he died.   So I just wanted to bring that up as to   you may have asked yourself, what the hell why does he keep talking about mycelium?   Because I'm doing all these notes from a single book.   Martin Sheldrake's   what wait. What the hell is it on?   Oh, good lord. Oh,   there's a book that I'm that I've read called Entangled Life from a guy named Martin Sheldrake,   and all these notes are coming from this one book. When I finish   doing the notes in this one book, I'm probably going to start talking a lot more about   maybe cattle, you know,   pastured cattle because I got a whole book of that.  

Now when I start reading that and at one point or another, I run across the farmer or the pastor guy saying, you know, it's all because this mycorrhizal fungi,   and he says that, like, six times throughout that book, you can guarantee that I'm gonna be making connections from that book through these notes over to Martin Sheldrake's book and the notes that I've taken there about   mycorrhizal fungi   and grass.   Maybe not trees, but grass.   So now I will have two books connected together   through these various notes, which I can go back to look at and start just writing from.   If you have not discovered the Zettelkasten method   I wish I could hold on. I I need to be able to spell it for you so that you can go find it. Zettelkasten.  

Let me make sure that I'm spelling it right.   Okay.   Z as in zed, e t t e l k   a s t n, like kettle cast,   but zettelkasten.   You can think of it that way.   Just dive down that rabbit hole. If you're somebody that reads a lot   and you've found yourself questioning   what it's doing for you, then you're the person that needs zettelkasten.   And that's all I'm gonna say.   That's all I'm gonna say on this, and I'll 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   great day.