- We discuss the recent Bitcoin conference in Nashville, which attracted over 22,000 attendees, including notable speakers like former President Trump and RFK.
- Brandon shares insights into the hard work and dedication required to organize such events and the importance of bringing Bitcoin to a wider audience.
- We explore the challenges of introducing Bitcoin to mainstream audiences and the significance of educating policymakers to minimize regulatory threats.
- Brandon emphasizes the role of Bitcoin as a tool for freedom and the necessity of engaging with political figures to ensure Bitcoin's growth and acceptance.
- Brandon shares personal anecdotes about the impact of Bitcoin conferences on individuals and the broader community.
- The evolving landscape of Bitcoin adoption, from startups to legacy companies, and the importance of integrating Bitcoin into various sectors.
Whether you're a seasoned Bitcoiner or new to the space, this episode offers valuable insights into the dynamic world of Bitcoin and its potential to reshape our financial systems.
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(00:00) Introduction to the Bitcoin Conference
(01:25) Meet Brandon Green: Co-founder of Bitcoin Conferences
(02:54) Highlights from the Nashville Bitcoin Conference
(04:42) The Role of Bitcoin in Politics
(09:06) Bitcoin as a Tool for Freedom
(15:12) Challenges in Promoting Bitcoin
(21:45) Overcoming Resistance to Bitcoin Adoption
(32:25) Building New Institutions with Bitcoin
(39:11) Integrating Bitcoin into Everyday Life
(47:01) Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Oh, my God. How many of you were lucky enough to get to go to Nashville to the Bitcoin conference? That was such a stellar experience. And my guest, Brandon Green, is the co founder of all of these wonderful Bitcoin Conferences all over the world in Miami, in Nashville, in Asia, and Amsterdam, and beyond. This has been such a great honor to get to talk with Brandon and discuss his journey as a Bitcoiner and how he started putting these events on. So, so cool. You guys got to tune in. So grateful for what Bitcoin Magazine is up to in bringing us all together and, really getting the word out there to folks who aren't Bitcoiners as well. It's easy for all of us in the echo chamber to hang out, but it's so important if we're going to get new folks onboarded that they have a high quality top shelf experience and that's exactly what was delivered. Tune into this episode and you guys will love it. Okay. Thanks. Aloha.
Hey, aloha. Get ready for an epic episode. And if you love it, please share it. You know why? Because you got the love. Enjoy, my friends. Hey. Aloha, love tribe. Welcome to the show. I have somebody with me here who I think is he's probably operating as 10 octopuses octopi with all of the tentacles out there making the things happen at the Bitcoin conferences. He's a cofounder of the world's largest Bitcoin conference, and I'm so excited to have Brandon Green with me here from Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc. What's up, brother? Woo hoo. It's great to be here, Vijay Val. How are you doing? I'm so good. And, this is my Nashville hat. So I'm wearing it in an honor and, of course, my my free Ross day 1 shirt, from Nashville.
You are so amazing, you and the team. Like, my brain is is massaged with how great you guys are with putting these events together.
[00:02:12] Unknown:
No. We we have an incredible team, truly incredible team. There's about 40 of us who have worked on that event for 14 months, to make it what it was. And and, you know, it it all came together in the end, which is the the best payoff you could ever hope for. So it was a lot of fun. And and I love the the you know, you've got the Nashville vibes kind of, trickling out, afterwards, and so that that makes you know, warms my heart.
[00:02:37] Unknown:
It's so cool. I mean, I love that you guys I I've gotten to go to 3 conferences, like, 2 in Miami and then one in, this last one in Nashville. And it's so it's so stellar how many people you bring together and, you know, different people from different walks of life. I mean, obviously, this last conference for you, Brandon I mean, let's tell everybody, you know, who's listening, like, why was this conference so special and different than the other ones?
[00:03:05] Unknown:
Yeah. You know, I I wrote a little sappy, tweet about it afterwards that, kind of framed the way I was thinking about it. But, obviously, we had about 22,000 people in Nashville. Nashville. It was a tremendous event. And oh, did I just lose you? Uh-oh. Well, I'll keep talking. No time. It was about it was it was about 20,000 people, and we had, you know, former president Trump speak. We had RFK speak. 2 different presidential candidates both coming to the Bitcoin audience to talk about, Bitcoin as part of their presidential policy. I mean, it is incredible. And, you know, one of those big ones being FreeRoss on day 1, which, of course, was a a huge hit with our community.
And, you know, because we love Ross. And and I I told his mom, you know, Ross as a headline speaker in 2025 would be one hell of a, one hell of a thing. So we'll see what we can do. We'll see we'll see if we can make it happen. But, certainly, you know, we're trying to pull off all the all the stops we can in order to to make it happen. And, but I wrote this tweet, and and it was basically saying, we had gone into this event thinking to ourselves, oh, yeah. It's an election year. 2024. We gotta get the presidential candidates. And so, you know, there was this expectation from our team to some extent, like, hey. We're gonna pull this off. We're just gonna go get them. You know? Like, we didn't know how. We didn't know why.
We just knew Bitcoin's time had come, and it was time to go, make the presidents come talk about it. And what I realized in the process was that, as much as the game theory exists around Bitcoin and and as much as we wanna think that its success is preprogrammed and that we're gonna get there and all we have to do is just let it happen. Bitcoin truly progresses through the hard work, the blood, sweat, and tears, and a little bit of luck from people who truly care and truly work every day to push it forward. And, and the, you know, the the Trump thing, the RFK things, those didn't fall in our lap. You know? Those were things that we worked hard to make happen for months.
And it was months of understanding the narrative and and, you know, creating the compelling reason why they should care and walking them through the state of the industry and the opportunities. And and, you know, there's just there was so much that went through it, and teaching, you know, president Trump about Bitcoin, helping him understand what it is and and why is it important, and how is how should it be viewed by a president of the United States and and all of these things. And so, you know, it was it was a lot of work, and I give, of course, our fearless leader, David Bailey, a ton of credit. He really took the the charge on that and and did a tremendous job.
But it was this moment of, you know, I had a conversation with a a couple of folks in the team. This may sound cheesy, but, you know, in, like, Harry Potter where, in the the third book, you have, Harry watching across the lake as his, you know, his father, it seems, you know, produced this Patronus and warded off all the the the mentor. You know, all the bad guys. Right? And, it's this great moment where he's like, oh, my father stepped in and saved the day. Then he travels back in time, and he's on the other side of the the lake waiting for his father to show up. And he realizes that it wasn't his father. It was him.
And and he produces this moment of, like, you know, that's the sweet memory. That's the thing that he draws upon in order to to make this change happen is the realization and the growing up that no one's gonna come in and make this happen. You have to step in, and you have to take control, and you have to make it happen. And, that was, you know, kind of the the cheesy but powerful takeaway that that I had from this event is, like, we have evolved as an industry, as a group of people, as as, you know, compatriots, to the point where we can make Bitcoin succeed. We have the ability. We have the know how. We have the relationships, and we have the market cap, you know, the magnitude of what Bitcoin has become to truly go make it into the global currency that we all, expect it to become.
And it's on us to do that. It really is. So that's my my long winded, kind of take from from the event, but, you know, it it's it's really a galvanizing feeling. It it's something that, it feels like Genie that's that flipped the bottle a little bit.
[00:07:48] Unknown:
I mean, you guys seriously put together, you know, just, again, the best people on planet Earth to be talking about Bitcoin. And I understand that there's a lot of people out there who are like, oh, Bitcoin, we don't want it mainstream. We wanna separate Bitcoin from state. We don't want the presidents talking about it. We don't want it politicized, etcetera. So how are you handling these conversations when you're getting obviously pushback from, you know, the the the anons and the hardcore Bitcoiners? You know, and then obviously, we've got this this to me, Bitcoin is life or death.
You know? And once I became a Bitcoiner, I started understanding that through Alex Gladstein, through watching Bitcoin conference, you know, livestream during COVID. And I was like, oh my gosh. This is a tool for freedom. This is legit. This isn't just meditating and peace, love, and granola. This is something that's tangible. You know, I used to be a CFO of a company and I'm an entrepreneur, and a lot of people don't know that because I have glitter and they don't know that. But but it's just like this was the missing ingredient for the next, iteration of humanity.
And so how are you having conversations with people who continue to push back and say, oh, it's it's getting to you know, we don't want it associated with political candidates or the state or anything.
[00:09:07] Unknown:
Yeah. You know, there's a couple of things I would say to that. First of all, Bitcoin is a tool. Okay? And and it's a permissionless tool. No one can prevent any other person from using Bitcoin. That's the whole point. And what that means is, you know, for those of us who believe in this path of hyperbitcoinization, it means that everyone's gonna use it. That's not just every person. That's every institution. That's every government. That's everyone. You know? So the the fact that governments are starting to pay attention to it and view it as a strategic tool for them is part of the process of Bitcoin becoming what it is meant to be.
And and the the beauty of Bitcoin is that that doesn't mean that governments can turn around and prevent you from using it, at least not from a a tech level. You you will never be prevented. The only place where they can prevent you from using it is in a meat space. It's in the rules and the regulations and the policies that they put in place. And the reality is as Bitcoin grows more and more, it gets a bigger and bigger target by these these different regulators and policymakers. And so the best thing that you can do to minimize the target is to orange pill the policymakers.
There is no other way. Bitcoin will grow to a point where they care about it, and they won't be able to ignore it. And they're either gonna be for it or they're gonna be against it. And so we might as well get as many of them for it as possible to minimize the target on Bitcoin's back and to minimize the target on our all of our backs and allow us to continue to use Bitcoin in the way that we want to use Bitcoin, unfettered by any, dubious regulations, anything that's trying to push Bitcoin out from from, you know, the the geopolitical borders that may be drawn. And, instead, you know, if any let's option of it even further. That's how we think about it. And and I totally you know, I'm a user. I'm not of government. Right? Like, I'm not a company.
I want to use Bitcoin as a person, and and that's what I want to have protected. And so from that perspective, I a 100% agree for with all the other Bitcoiners who were like, I don't wanna see governments use Bitcoin. Like, yeah. You know, I I don't wanna see governments use Bitcoin any more than I wanna see, you know, my enemies use Bitcoin. Right? Like, but I know they will. And so it's all about let's make sure that we can just keep ourselves protected and our use of Bitcoin protected, as we continue along this path of hyper hyper Bitcoinization.
[00:11:38] Unknown:
I love that. And and I think there was something yesterday that the Cali posted, and it was about a UN treaty that's going on with something, about the cybersecurity that's overruling, the the the the KYC stuff and the Fintech. So I'm concerned about what is gonna happen if we're getting this global censorship mechanism in place when we're gonna have financial censorship. We're gonna obviously have, you know, speech censorship. What's going on in the UK is absolutely ridiculous right now. How are we as Bitcoiners and freedom warriors and truth seekers going to stay protected if these these unelected bureaucrats are starting to put these things on top of our ability to transact freely with each other, with our words, with our communication, obviously, and with our financial means? So how how can we you know, for people who are listening, you know, how are how are we supposed to stay safe from this? Because we're obviously just what happened yesterday with Elon and and Trump, and the whole mainstream media narrative over here is, like, completely not the truth of what just happened yesterday. So how can we, you know, protect our financial sovereignty as Bitcoiners?
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Well, the the easy short answer is to buy Bitcoin. Right? But the, you know, let's take the Elon Trump thing for a for a second because, a very real outcome of that in a world, you know, in which we're just a couple of steps further along the dystopian path that we already seem to be on from a from a perspective, is that you could have seen Twitter have their bank account shut down. Yeah. You could have seen, you know, Trump have, more lawsuits and trying to seize his assets, you know, in in various places. And the the reality is, you know, it wasn't talked about in the conversation, which, you know, I found disappointing, but, is that Bitcoin is is the solution to many of the problems.
And, you know, those these are 2 people that, are pro Bitcoin. You you know? Like, Elon doesn't like to talk about it anymore, but Tesla still owns 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars and puts it on their balance sheet. SpaceX, allegedly, still owns over a $1,000,000,000 of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. So, you know, there is this element that that Elon's company, they're still very very much aligned with Bitcoin. And, you know, Trump has called himself the 1st crypto president. I, you know, wish you would say the Bitcoin president, but, I get I get the the ramifications of wanting to keep that broad and and, you know, draw on more people. But, but he is he will be the 1st Bitcoin president.
And so you have to understand that that means that they're primed to think about these things from a Bitcoin perspective. Maybe not all the time, but more than they were before they understood what Bitcoin is. And it's such a glaring solution to so many of these problems, so much of the, growing apparatus that seeks to restrict freedoms and and censor that, it's just a matter of time before people, recognize it and and recognize the opportunity of it more and more. So yeah. I mean, it's it's one of those things where, truly the solution has already been built, and it's more just a question of it, continuing to be evenly distributed throughout society.
[00:15:13] Unknown:
And and, Brandon, what's been your personal journey as far as, like, what's what are the biggest obstacles that you're coming across when you're having conversations with people, whether the businesses, institutions, nonprofits, individuals, you know, your family at Thanksgiving, whatever? What are the things that you're seeing that even, you know they talk about the psyops, and even if you're putting truth forward, you know, there's people who are so brainwashed and conditioned to, you know, accept the the narrative. What are things that you're seeing that people just cannot get over, You know? Because they're it it's it's just like you're talking to a brick wall.
[00:15:53] Unknown:
Yeah. I I would say that the biggest you know, I'm a little bit America centric in in the way I think about this, so I have to, you know, recognize that bias when I'm saying this. But I would say the the biggest blocker still is, is that the mainstream sort of, narrative around Bitcoin is somewhere between ignore it. Really, actually, it's probably somewhere between laugh at it and then fight it. Right? We're somewhere in that phase in terms of, like, if you go ask a random person who buys into the mainstream narrative what they think about Bitcoin, it's either a joke or it's used for criminals and terrorists. Right? It's somewhere in that ballpark.
And so the the problem is that, those people are still plugged into the matrix, let's say. They're still part of this, crafted, curated reality that isn't real. You know, it's it's not reality. It's it's lies built on lies, built on false incentives, built on, just, you know, Orwellian doublespeak. Right? It it's just it's so much, that it's really hard to escape from and the the pain of escaping from it, the pain of kind of rejecting it, grows every single time, you know, the next sort of truth gets, implemented into it and you that you have to kind of, disregard at some point. And so, that's the biggest challenge. Now the silver lining of it or the the, the good news is that more and more people every day are are starting to catch on to the fact that it can't be trusted, and there's louder and louder voices, particularly in this election cycle, I find, where some of the stalwarts of the censorship regime, are coming around to the fact that maybe they weren't the good guys, over the past 4 years. And, you know, I think about a Zuckerberg.
I think about a Jack Dorsey. I think about an Elon. You know, some of these Silicon Valley tech execs who really helped put in place, a a ministry of truth that, you know, seeks to kind of tell you what's okay to think and what's not okay to think, they're all flipping off of that, pretty quickly and pretty hard. And they're flipping onto, you know, a pro Trump sort of, platform, which then, you know, it becomes a pro Bitcoin platform to some extent. And so, like, there is this trend. Like, you know, you you have to look at how it exists right now and then what's the trend. And how it exists right now may not yet be what we wanna see, but the trend is very positive. And I expect that trend to continue, and and I think, again, it's just part of Bitcoin's path of hyper hyperbitcoinization.
[00:19:00] Unknown:
You you were bringing up, you know, obviously, all these giant tech execs. Right? There's lots of conversations about, you know, are people, operatives of the state? Are they being blackmailed? Are they you know, who the heck knows? Right? There's always conspiracy theories slash truth theories out there. Are you familiar with Whitney Webb? Mhmm. Yeah. And so I I think about, like, what I see you know, my children always ask me. They're like, mom, why are you watching, you know, CNN and Fox and Twitter and Noster and Instagram? Why are you doing all of them? And I'm like, Because somewhere in those things, I'm gonna pull tiny bits of pieces of information and the truth is in there somewhere.
But if all I'm doing is tuning into one channel or one, you know, vertical, it's just gonna be this echo chamber. You know? So my job is to kinda go assess what actually is happening out there. And so, you know, after learning about what's going on, like, with Whitney Webb and One Nation Under Blackmail and everything, I'm just like, holy cow. You know, what is actually happening out there with the incentives and who's pulling the strings of, you know, the the businesses, the nation states, the individuals, etcetera? And so, you know, Bitcoin to me is, you know, the source of truth.
And when we're dealing with the general public who are exhausted, they're broke, they're, you know, they're arguing with their spouses. They're feeling, you know, numb, dumb, sick, scared, broke, angry, lonely, hungry, tired. They're all of the things that the system is putting upon them so that they can stay controllable. You know, how do we as individuals, how do we as Bitcoiners, how do we as freedom fighters, break through that paralysis, that hypnotic state that society is living in, you know, and help them understand, like, take a couple steps into, you know, exploration and and not be afraid that your whole worldview is going to get completely demolished and shattered if you say yes to this one segment of truth, because the ego wants to hold up our worldview because it makes us feel safe. You know? But once we start learning about different truths and worldviews, then we have to question everything else that we learned up until this point.
How do you deal with people who are going through an ego death crisis? And how can we help the world understand that it's okay and it's better to have ego death crisis than it is to be slumbering in, you know, the the the matrix as as you said.
[00:21:45] Unknown:
Yeah. You know, it's a very good question. I'm I'm toying with this idea right now of Bitcoin in the the lens or through the lens of volatility. And I really think that, a lot of what is keeping people in in their current, you know, NPC form is, an allergy to volatility. Mhmm. And, what's what's nice about Bitcoiners, of course, is that, you know, we get to see volatility up close every day. And, at first, it hurts. And at first, you know, you you put yourself on the roller coaster and you, you react to every up and down. Yeah. But, eventually, it's it's just a metric. It's just a a mirror. Bitcoin is a mirror to the world of how much volatility there actually is and how much craziness there actually is.
And and the reason why people opt for the system that currently exists is because it replaces volatility with inflation. It it basically slowly robs you. But in exchange, you almost never get to experience or you never have to experience the true volatility that exists in the world. You you know, drink our tea, you know, drink our Kool Aid, like, listen to our facts, and, you know, lose your savings over time, work every day, and, you know, when you retire, we'll print more money to to keep you, you know, subsisting off of the the resources around you. But you'll never have to worry about, the volatility of the world and the volatility of humanity and the entropy that exists. And and so, like, that's what has to break, and it breaks sometimes.
And in those moments where it breaks, you know, that's where you see true volatility introduced and and a lot of people, jump out of of that system. And so, you know, great moments where it broke. Trump winning in 2016 was a great moment to to kind of show that there's volatility. You know? Like, the world isn't existing exactly how we think it is. COVID, great moment where people understand, like, there's volatility. You can't just print away, a global pandemic regardless of the severity of it. You know? Like, so there's there's these moments where, volatility you know, that that 5% confidence interval event happens, and, it makes people really uncomfortable. Doesn't really faze the Bitcoiners because, you know, like, that's just the world we already operate in.
But it is you know, I bring all of that up to say going back to something you're talking about earlier where, you look at all these people, all these tech executives. You wonder, you know, what's really going on underneath the hood. There's the old saying about, like, you fall to the level of your incentives. Right? You know, never you can never really separate yourself from the incentives. And I think what a lot of the, what, you know, the quote, unquote conspiracy theories really are is trying to track down what people's actual incentives are, because sometimes people have stated incentives and then they have unstated incentives.
And, and that really is what drives people. The beauty of Bitcoin and I saw the the comments about, you know, Bitcoin is much more than number go up. That's true. But also number go up is a an incentive that exists Yeah. When all else doesn't. And and so, you know, you have to look no further than the fact that people buy Bitcoin when the price is rising, and the most people every cycle buy at the top. And there's a reason for that. And it's because, Bitcoin showing true volatility in the world, is this moment like, you know, introduces these moments where there's an explosive growth. And you don't see explosive growth in in the mainstream world. And so when people see something with explosive growth, they wanna be part of that. And, and so that sort of incentive can actually pull, a lot of people out of this mainstream volatility dampened world.
And, and I think that, you know, enough is not talked about the fact that that number go up truly does break people out of the the habits as much as anything. And and the volatility is very good, and we need more volatility in in the mainstream, and I think that that would shake a lot of people loose.
[00:26:33] Unknown:
It it does. And it will and how do you differentiate? So, obviously, we've got, you know, 20,000 crypto tokens and all of this, and then we've got Bitcoin. Right? And and, you know, we're seeking I mean, to me, like, I loved number go up when I was, you know, learning about Bitcoin, and I was trying to differentiate what's Bitcoin versus crypto, etcetera. But but then there's this there's something that we're excited about at a level of, like, yay, number go up, but then there's also something that's like the number is always only gonna be 21,000,000. You know? And so there's that sort of, you know, that that desire, that incentive for consistency or predictability, and then there's an incentive for, yay. Let's go, you know, make sure that we have survival opportunity because if number goes up, that means that I'm gonna be able to, you know, buy milk for my children next week, and everything's gonna be okay in my future. I think about, you know, I study a lot of personal development and whatnot and leadership stuff that Tony Robbins talks about, you know, 6 human needs. You know? And there's this differentiation of, you know, some people are really driven by consistency and stability, and some people are driven and excited about inconsistency and unpredictability.
You know, they wanna have that adrenaline and all of that. And so to me, Bitcoin addresses both of those at the same time, you know, because there's something that I think all of us feel knowing that there's this fixed supply that will ever be there. We're not gonna wake up one day and say, oh, look. There's now there's a 100,000,000 Bitcoin, not 21,000,000. And so it it that that feels safe to me, but at the same time, we understand that the ride to that that that final, you know, minting of Bitcoin is gonna be volatile. So how do you help people outside of this, you know, understanding start to get on board? Like, what's your what's your go to when you're helping people understand Bitcoin?
[00:28:36] Unknown:
Yeah. It's it's such a difficult question to answer. I would again go back to, like, my go to is the the number go up. And and then, you know, 6 months later, we're at the point where I can start talking to people about, actually, its number go down. You know? Like, it it just it takes so much more time to to get there. But you're right. You know, the the way that Bitcoin eventually will work is that it's everything divided by 21,000,000. Yeah. And it's it's, you know, the human output divided by 21,000,000. And, that doesn't mean that every day, the the price of everything is continually decreasing because, again, that's the volatility part. Humans don't you know, human achievement does not go up into the right straight line. Right? Like, we go up, we go down. There is volatility.
And, the the beauty is that when you zoom out, it it generally trends up into the right. And so, like, yeah, the the way that I would kind of wanna frame it to somebody right now is look, the world you exist in is a gentle down into the right. And, you know, like, maybe it's a gentle ride down, and maybe that's just what you're looking for from your money. But just know that it's fake. And, and, you know, it's gonna cause you to believe things that aren't true, and it's gonna cause you to miss the opportunity to build something meaningful and sustainable, that you can pass down to your family, that you can, you know, truly know that you've invested into a hard asset.
And, you know, you're just always gonna be kinda at the whim of a greater power that, is is has other incentives, has other interests with you, other than, like, what's in your best interest. And maybe people are gonna be okay with that for a while. I don't think people will be okay with that forever. And certainly, the the number one thing that really gets people irked about Bitcoin is the, everyone's getting hilariously rich and you're not, mantra. And so, ultimately, like, that's gonna be the thing that that pushes people over the edge every single time. It's just that, and and it should. You know, the the price going up is a signal that the Bitcoiners are right.
And so you can't be right and the price not go up. That's just you know, until bit hybrid Bitcoinization happens, it it won't happen. So, we have to lean into that. We have to continue to accept the fact that that, you know, the top of Bitcoin is gonna continue to to revolve around price to some extent. But let it just be a metric of the volatility of the world and the total adoption of Bitcoin. And it's just kind of, you know, a symbolic number that equates to those two things.
[00:31:36] Unknown:
I love it. And I I know I think, you know, I talk a lot about worldview shattering and ego death and all the things that happen when, you know, you start to get out of this matrix of the way that things were. And, you know, we think about Buckminster Fuller and, you know, building this new world and letting the old one kind of just suffocate and die and crumble. It it's very, very difficult for a lot of people to to cross that bridge and just start to say, I'm gonna stop trying to fix this thing over here, and I'm just gonna build. I'm gonna build, build, build, and I'm gonna spend my focus and my energy and my time on on the vision of the future instead of trying to to repairing something that is is fundamentally just flawed, you know, and and never gonna get fixed.
What's been your journey as a Bitcoiner, obviously, as putting together the largest Bitcoin conferences on planet Earth? You know, like, how have your relationships transformed, and how has your perspective changed, you know, from 7 years ago when you started, you know, working on all this?
[00:32:46] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, certainly, the things that I talk about with my friends has changed quite a bit. It you know, it's funny. It's it's one of those hallmarks of a cult is is when you just, like, have nothing in common with your friends anymore, and and, I would argue who's in the actual cult. Right? Like, that that would be my counterargument. But, yeah. There's a couple of things, that you were drawing on there, you know, even before talking about the the relationships and how those have changed, building the conference, and and how that has sort of impacted me has been, a very interesting a very interesting thing. You know? Like, I started out as an intern at BTC.
Mhmm. And, you know, I was moving boxes. I there were a bunch of magazines, old Bitcoin magazines in a closet, and I was supposed to go, sort them out and get some of them mailed out. Yeah. Exactly. You got the, the Julian Assange, edition right there. But we're we're talking about Bitcoin magazines from 2013, 2014, like, way back. And, I had to get them organized. And from there, I I just grew in the company. And and when it came time to launch the conference, you know, we we were right there kind of a a team of 5 of us really building it. And so, it's been fun to to grow that into what it is today. But, you know, the thread what you were saying about build new institutions and let the old ones die, there's an interesting interplay with the conference, which is that, there are, the companies that that participate, there are hundreds of new startups, that are that are, you know, using Bitcoin in order to, change the world, you know, realistically.
And Yeah. A lot of them right now are focused on Bitcoin. You know, the the Bitcoin is somehow directly the product that they're creating, but there are some that aren't. And and that's where I'm really excited about is that the, you know, the cattleman's beast, the Yeah. You know, the beef farmers that are now, you know, using Bitcoin just as a means of transacting, but their product is is something entirely different. I think of, you know, Peter McCormick in Real Bedford, the soccer team, you know, that uses Bitcoin as his treasury. And and I think that there's just gonna be more and more of those examples as time goes on, and those are gonna be the stalwarts of of the Bitcoin conference. Because the reality is Bitcoin works. You know, as people get more technically sophisticated, as people get more familiar with Bitcoin, they don't need as many companies, that are Bitcoin companies doing Bitcoin things to service their use of Bitcoin.
There's there's some for sure. For sure, there are some. You know, people will need to buy it somewhere. Probably people will want to have the ability to do a loan against it. Like, there will be financial services, for Bitcoin. But, but, yeah, most of the Bitcoin companies are gonna be doing something entirely different, and Bitcoin's just gonna be part of it. And they're gonna wanna come, you know, to the Bitcoin conference because it's the biggest conference for business in the world. You know? Like, we're we're the biggest business conference in the world. So, that's interesting. But then on the flip side, we also have the Shells and the Exons and, you know, the Snapchat came a couple years ago. Like, there are legacy companies that are understanding Bitcoin as well.
Take the Tesla and the spec SpaceX too. And so to your point about building the new institutions, you know, my one, challenge to that would be maybe not all the old ones have to die too. And and there's there's interesting merit to trying to rescue as many of the old institutions as well using Bitcoin, and and not letting the entire legacy world crumble. And I think, you know, it's something that is less explored because it's number 1, there's so much inertia against it. And number 2 Yeah. It's it's so much more difficult to break into some of those institutions and truly make change. And, and so it's it's just it doesn't seem realistic, but it is happening.
And and I'm I'm very I'm equally excited about fixing what already exists as I am about building the new systems, and I think we have to do both.
[00:37:18] Unknown:
I agree. I I think there's it it I I like the third way, you know, this third path because, like, one involves too too much destruction. 1 is doesn't seem like it's viable to keep, you know, you know, resuscitating a dead horse kind of thing. So it's kinda like how can we truly get somewhere that's that's sustainable in the middle that makes sense, that's logical, and has common sense around it. And I and I love your point about it's not about let's go build 10,000 Bitcoin companies, but let's go teach companies that already exist in whatever their domain is, whether they're creators, whether they're finance, whether they're healers, whether they're, you know, mom and pop shops, you know, anything.
How are they gonna start integrating Bitcoin into their operating system and into their ops, whether that's savings, whether it's medium of exchange? You know, and so that's what I think is super interesting. So because a lot of people aren't ever gonna go to a Bitcoin conference. Right? So how can we bring Bitcoin to people on a day to day basis and teach them why it's important? I don't know about you, but, like, every time I'm in an Uber, I'm like, do you accept Bitcoin? You know? And they're just like, no. It's Bitcoin. And even at the conference. Right? So there's all these, like, you know, the Ubers and the Go Karts and all the stuff around there. And so it's just kind of like, you've got over 20,000 people here who wanna tip you in Bitcoin. So how can we teach the Uber drivers and the golf cart guys from the hotels, like, here, you can tip me at PayPal and Venmo, but then here's a little QR code to go tip me in Bitcoin kinda thing. And so I think it's super important that we continue to educate all of these other sectors and vectors of business and, humanity of how Bitcoin is gonna serve them and their purposes, not just we have to build Bitcoin companies. Because you're right. There's only gonna be so many exchanges. There's only gonna be so many ways that, you know, here's my financial adviser or here's my multisig, you know, custodian solution.
That's great. But then how do all these other organizations and individuals start to really understand how Bitcoin is gonna affect them on their balance sheets and as, you know, a medium of exchange? And I think about, you know, as musicians and artists and podcasters and whoever, it's kinda like, are you gonna continue to opt into this old system of your royalties and waiting for, you know, 90, a 180 days to get, you know, pennies on the play? Or are we gonna help this whole industry understand that, like, Bitcoin can be this value for value opportunity to get, you know, tips, or it can turn into these splits, you know, with Ellen Bits and whatnot. So so I think it's really, really fun to think about, like, all of these conversations that are being had at the conferences.
And and how how do you what's been your biggest you know, obviously, this conference was huge with all the politics and all the the the Secret Service and all this. Like, taking a step back, like, what's the most kind of humble thing that you've seen somebody go through a transformation at one of the Bitcoin conferences that you've gotten some feedback about?
[00:40:32] Unknown:
You know, I'll tell you. I think the most, emotional thing I saw, at the event was, a and who is wearing, a Bitcoin made in America hat and walking around and and kinda hunched over and and, you know, wearing his age, let's say, but so excited. And and it was in you know, he told us, I got to bring my dad to the Bitcoin conference. And this is, like, the the most special, moment we've had. And we talk about Bitcoin every day. And, you know, being able to take him here was just a life changing, experience for us, and and I can't thank you enough for for letting me, you know, share this moment with him. And it like, that's the kind of stuff. It's it's the people who get impacted by the event. That's the reason we do it. Right? And, you know, going back to, really to kinda thread this all the way to the beginning of the conversation, I I always say that, the way that I measure Bitcoin's success ultimately is when all of us, all the people who work on Bitcoin every day, don't have to anymore. Yeah.
And and we're all focused on other things because Bitcoin is running. Bitcoin is working, and everyone's using it. And now we get to turn our attention on the rest of the world and and start fixing it. And so, you know, like, that's what I hope the conference evolves into. I hope it's a, you know, instead of fix the money, fix the world, it's fix the money, then fix the world. And I want the conference to be part of that transition of hyper Bitcoinization and now fixing the world with the sound money. And and so yeah. That's I know it doesn't exactly answer your question, but that's that's how I view it. It's like, let's let's impact these people. Let's bring them in. Let's teach them about Bitcoin. Let's bring everyone one step further on their journey. Let's give them an impactful, powerful moment. Let's make them laugh. Let's make them upset. Let's move them into tears, and and let's all come together and celebrate Bitcoin.
And then, let's turn around, and the day after our event, inspire everyone to go change the world around them.
[00:42:45] Unknown:
I love this. Oh my god. Brandon, you're like you're we're having little mind melds here because it it's a tool. Well, think about the Internet. Right? Like, we don't have conferences about, yay. Everybody should use the Internet anymore. In beginning of the Internet, it was like, woo hoo. Everybody go check out this whole new thing. We've got this Internet. And now it's just like, well, duh, that's what we're doing. But then we have to go create, you know, the change within ourselves, within our families, within our communities, within our societies, you know, that are gonna lead to the future that we all hope for, which I believe most every single person wants a safe, happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous world where we can all cothrive.
You know? And so what are the things that are gonna lead to that? And hopefully, Bitcoin is obviously one of the tools, you know, in that tech stack. You know, I think it's a base layer. I really do. 100%. And so okay. So we'll wrap up here. Just I'm so excited to know you, and I'm so happy that I got to participate in the conferences. And, obviously, you guys invited me to get to DJ and speak and everything, and I'm just like What you did for me to do to have job on, by the way. Really? Fantastic job. Yes. It was so fun. So much. It was so fun. You did I mean, I was blown away. So thank you. That was that was awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's it's like it's such a pleasure to get to share our gifts with our community. You know? And what are some final words you might wanna say to the audience who, you know, if they're not Bitcoiners, that they might wanna start understanding Bitcoin from the lens of Brandon?
[00:44:22] Unknown:
Yeah. So, well, I would start by everyone who came to the event, thank you for coming. You know, like, we we would put that event on if there were 2 people, and we're over the moon that we got to put it on with with 22,000 people. And so, you know, it it means the world to us. And what I would say to people who were, thinking about Bitcoin for the first time, you know, embrace the volatility. We'll we'll trace it all the way back. And, you know, the the world can be scary. The world can be an uncertain. But what's certain is your ability to change it and, your capacity to do great things.
And all you need to do is move forward and be fearless and attack it. And so, you know, that's that was my number one lesson from this event, and that's, that's a powerful lesson to internalize. So, truly, we're in the middle of a total change of the world. And Bitcoin is at the core of it. And, you know, the people who champion Bitcoin are the people who are trying to repair the world, and there is no greater cause. So, you know, thank you. Thank you for having me on. It was it was a pleasure to talk. And so sorry I'm a little long winded sometimes, but, I I truly enjoyed it, and and, we had a great conversation.
[00:45:56] Unknown:
Yeah. Thank you so much, Brandon. And, and thanks for being patient with all my technical difficulties and the Internet issues up here in the mountains. And, yeah, I completely agree with you. I feel like we are on the the precipice of a new world, and don't give up. It's gonna be a wild ride just like surfing. You know? Like, you don't just get out there and think like, I'm catching every wave, and they're gonna be easy, and I'm not gonna get smashed and pulled under where I can't breathe, and am I gonna live? It's like, no. You'll be okay, but jump on that board and don't give up and keep paddling. And so I think for all of us, you know, we speak we speak the same language. And thank you so much for what you're doing with, all of the conferences, and I look forward to seeing you again. And if anybody if you ever wanna go understand Bitcoin and start to learn about it with a group of highly welcoming people who will answer your questions, give you hugs, and point you in the right directions if they don't have the right answers, go to any of the Bitcoin Magazine Conferences that Brandon and the whole team has put on. I highly you you you will never go wrong. I went to my first all by myself 3 years ago, I didn't know a soul.
And I just showed up, and I'm like, I'm coming to a Bitcoin conference. Okay. Here we go. And now here I am. I can't not talk about Bitcoin every day of my whole life. So thank you. I love it. I love it. Absolutely. Thank you, and and hope to see everyone next year. Alright. Sounds good. Alright, everybody. Aloha. Make sure you check out Brandon, and make sure you check out the b t b dottc conference, and you can get all the stuff that's going on around the world, for the upcoming events. So thanks again, Brandon. And, I'll talk to you with you guys all soon.
Introduction to the Bitcoin Conference
Meet Brandon Green: Co-founder of Bitcoin Conferences
Highlights from the Nashville Bitcoin Conference
The Role of Bitcoin in Politics
Bitcoin as a Tool for Freedom
Challenges in Promoting Bitcoin
Overcoming Resistance to Bitcoin Adoption
Building New Institutions with Bitcoin
Integrating Bitcoin into Everyday Life
Conclusion and Final Thoughts