371: Bitcoin: Investing Fad or Final Bullet to Fiat Currency?
BiggerPockets Money Podcast
BiggerPockets
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2023
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Asking for Bitcoin explained is like asking how a rocket works; it's a little complex. A digital currency is valued at a certain amount of dollars (or euros, yen, etc.) and is used to pay for goods or exchange for other currencies. That makes sense. But things can get complicated as we go deeper into Bitcoin and the blockchain. There's no need to get overwhelmed; we brought Saifedean Ammous, economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, onto the show to explain.
Saifedean, like many investors, was skeptical of Bitcoin at first. He thought it was merely a fad that would pass away in a few years. But, after researching the history of money, the rise and fall of fiat currencies, and the standard that Bitcoin was built on, Saifedean changed his tone. Now, he's a huge proponent of this new "digital gold" and has spent years of his life warning others of fiat currency's faults and the opportunity behind Bitcoin itself.
In today's episode, Saifedean explains what Bitcoin is, how it works, why the blockchain is needed, and why saving money isn't enough in today's fiat inflationary environment. You'll also hear why "hard money" like Bitcoin beats "easy money" like the American dollar and why the latest cryptocurrency crash isn't as bad as mainstream economists think. So if you've thought of snagging a bit of Bitcoin, this is the best place to start.
In This Episode We Cover
The history of money, fiat currencies, why rare, hard money is always the most safe
The dangers of easy money, debasing currency, and the fallacy of required inflation
How Bitcoin solves the fiat problem and why it can never be inflated or over-printed
The blockchain explained and why it works for Bitcoin and not other applications like real estate
Cryptocurrency's latest crash and why fluctuating Bitcoin prices are more typical than they seem
Whether to bet on businesses, real estate, Bitcoin, or all three when investing
And So Much More!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast where we interview |
| 0:03.6 | Safety in Amuse and talk about Bitcoin. |
| 0:07.2 | It's the one money that ends all money. |
| 0:10.0 | And the reason for that is that it is the one money that's going to have the lowest supply growth rate ever. |
| 0:16.0 | And it's currently at around 2% per year. |
| 0:19.0 | But it's going to continue to go down until eventually it hits 0%. |
| 0:23.0 | And so the truly astonishing and unique achievement of Bitcoin |
| 0:28.0 | is that this process was set in motion. |
| 0:31.0 | The creation of Bitcoin was set in motion and the network continued to grow. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, hello, hello, my name is Mindy Jensen and with me is always my dad joke telling Coho Scott Trench. |
| 0:40.0 | I don't know about dad jokes Mindy but I can be a bit clean. |
| 0:44.0 | Oh my god that was awful Scott. |
| 0:47.0 | That was the worst one yet. |
| 0:52.0 | Scott and I are here to tell terrible jokes and to make financial independence less scary. |
| 0:57.0 | Less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone no matter when or where you're starting. |
| 1:06.0 | That's right whether you want to retire early and travel the world going to make big time investments in assets like real estate, start your own business or attempt to understand the investment thesis behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. |
| 1:18.0 | We'll help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you can launch yourself towards your dreams. |
| 1:22.0 | Scott, I am excited to bring in safe eating today. I am on record is saying I don't particularly care for Bitcoin. |
| 1:30.0 | I think I've been a little bit more harsh in the past with my assessment of Bitcoin but I thought today was episode was very interesting and I learned a lot about currency in general and the history behind it. |
| 1:42.0 | The specifics around Bitcoin specifically I do want to say that today when we are talking about Bitcoin we are talking about actual Bitcoin not using Bitcoin as a generic term for cryptocurrency in general. |
| 1:56.0 | We are specifically discussing the cryptocurrency called Bitcoin. |
| 2:01.0 | I also have a little disclaimer here this is not an endorsement of Bitcoin. Safedin is an incredible thought leader, philosopher really has a deep understanding of this and has constructed a very compelling case for Bitcoin but I'll share with you my personal philosophy about why I do not invest in Bitcoin towards the end of the episode and in the outro as well. |
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