T.T. 56: managing expectations?
Preparing for the best... choosing pragmatism and optimism
Hola amigos,
Greetings from DC… 2.5 weeks after writing the first half of this during the layover and flights back from El Salvador.
At the time of writing the second half, the dollar price of Bitcoin just surpassed $100k for the first time ever.
In my last post, I discussed what I’m walking away from (at least for now): audience sizes in the millions, as a well-positioned potential breakout “public figure” on the front lines of evangelizing for Bitcoin and liberty.
I said I was walking away.
Yet here I am… recently returned from Bitcoin Country, where I lived for 8 months on a Bitcoin Standard, and just visited again for five days to attend a Bitcoin Conference.
In my last post, I said my heart isn’t in it anymore.
In hindsight though…
That isn’t exactly correct.
The situation is more nuanced.
Let’s dive in.
Six main topics today:
Trump’s reelection
The power of podcasts
Bitcoin price skyrocketing
Adopting Bitcoin conference
Pragmatism
Business development
Trump’s reelection
My previous post was on October 31st… the last Thursday right before the election.
I didn’t really comment on it at the time.
I still won’t go into much detail. Let’s just say that I’m tentatively optimistic about the new administration.
Despite being well aware of the pure libertarian concerns — Whitney Webb’s warnings in particular — I’m choosing to focus on the positives for now.
The Biden administration’s attacks on the Bitcoin industry have stopped. The new administration, by contrast, seems very likely to actively support mainstream adoption of this new asset class!
The authoritarian leftist party that tried to ruin my life in 2021 — for the thoughtcrime of respecting real science, and correctly refusing to be a human guinea pig for Big Pharma’s experimental prophylactic, which was neither 100% safe nor even close to 100% effective like “the experts” had promised in their sales pitch — has been removed from power.
RFK Jr. will be well positioned to not only expose Fauci’s lies, but also to reform our corrupt medical system! And the appointment of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as NIH director represents a respectable repudiation of the covid regime.
Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment in charge of the intelligence community is a nice touch of poetic justice. I’m tentatively optimistic about Kash Patel as well. On the foreign policy front, the list of cabinet appointments still includes a disappointing amount of neocon/swamp influence… but I won’t get into all of that.
All things considered, the list is still much better overall than Trump’s first administration.
All things considered, I’m tentatively optimistic, and I’m very happy that the much greater of two evils was stopped.
More importantly for the purposes of this post…
The aspect of Trump’s reelection that interests me the most is the role that decentralized media played in his victory.
The power of podcasts
President Trump’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience was the most anticipated podcast episode in history.
The audience size lived up to the hype. Over 100 million listeners across all platforms… over 100 million!!!
It’s surreal how two guys simply having a long form conversation might have singlehandedly made the difference to get President Trump over the line in swing states and the popular vote.
But even more interesting to me than the episode itself is the extended “content funnel” surrounding it.
Before he finally got invited on the Joe Rogan Experience, President Trump went on several other podcasts. His episodes with Theo Von and Patrick Bet-David were particularly great.
And the follow-up funnel on Rogan’s own show was nothing short of PHENOMENAL:
Tim Dillon
DAVE SMITH
Theo Von
On Election Day, Rogan brought on Tim Dillon. Tim had just interviewed JD Vance the same week as Rogan interviewed Trump… right before the weekend when I early voted. Tim’s sense of humor is a bit on the cynical side, but I nonetheless consider him to be probably the funniest comedian podcaster on the planet.
More importantly though…
The very first guest on the very biggest talk show in the entire world, immediately after the election, was DAVE SMITH.
I mentioned in my last post that I met Dave at the Libertarian National Convention, and that we took a picture together right before Trump’s speech.
I might as well share that now:
That was in the same room as Trump’s speech to the Libertarian Party, taken right after Dave had just introduced him.
Trump’s full speech to us there is worth rewatching by the way. I’ve studied the art of public speaking since high school, and for a variety of reasons, this was the most fascinating speech I’ve ever seen:
Two months later, I also asked Dave about Bitcoin during the live podcast after his comedy show in Nashville, right after the Bitcoin Conference where Trump also spoke.
Here’s the clip:
I could say a lot more about Dave’s meteoric rise lately.
But for now, going back to Trump and Bitcoin…
Bitcoin price skyrocketing
It’s kinda funny that this isn’t my leading topic.
In case you hadn’t noticed, Bitcoin reached its All Time High recently.
100k.
I repeat:
100k!!!
I’ve been advocating for Bitcoin since the dollar price was just 6k.
Some people are still in denial.
Most still aren’t paying attention…
But the investment case for Bitcoin has never been more undeniable.
The new President of the biggest economy in the world is pro-Bitcoin.
Here’s a link to his speech at the Bitcoin Conference I attended in Nashville:
And here’s President Trump bringing up Bitcoin in a separate interview as a possible solution to help fix the national debt problem:
And it’s not just Trump himself…
The new Vice President owns several full Bitcoins.
RFK has a majority of his net worth invested in Bitcoin.
Howard Lutnick, who was co-chair of Trump’s transition team and is now the nominee for Secretary of Commerce, told podcaster Anthony Pompliano that he personally owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.
And that’s just the Trump administration itself.
The success of Microstrategy’s corporate Bitcoin strategy has been astronomical. A few publicly traded corporations have started to copy it, and many more will follow that trend sooner or later.
The first year of Bitcoin ETFs has broken records, even despite interest rates still remaining relatively high.
Wall Street has finally realized that Bitcoin is not only here to stay, but also a legitimately important asset class.
Like it or not…
Bitcoin’s “Wild West” days are ending.
Ready or not…
The institutional adoption era has begun.
And despite the fiat price now surpassing $100,000 — an All Time High — it feels like this bull run is just barely getting started.
I’m personally stacking as many sats as possible right now, because Bitcoin might never be this cheap ever again.
The chance to front run entire nation state treasuries won’t last forever.
Adopting Bitcoin conference
Meanwhile…
Even as American Bitcoiners have been distracted by the Presidential election, regulatory pressures, and focusing on Bitcoin as an investment… the “Medium of Exchange” phase is alive and well in El Salvador.
And visiting again reminded me why I loved living there so much.
The fourth annual edition of the Adopting Bitcoin conference was a big success! I’ll elaborate about my experience there in another post, because I have a lot to say, but this one is getting long.
For now, I’ll just say this:
I was wrong in my last post.
My heart IS still in it.
I still KNOW that Bitcoin in El Salvador is tremendously positive for humanity. And I still KNOW that I want to be involved.
I just need to be more pragmatic about it going forward.
Pragmatism
The arrest of Roger Ver was a wake up call that U.S. Bitcoiners like me can’t be reckless about our involvement in Bitcoin’s “Medium of Exchange” phase. In particular, I need to be careful about the tax implications of how I use it.
This bull run has also been a wake up call that I’m not content with the size of my stack.
My idealist side romanticized the notion of prioritizing Bitcoin evangelism over my own career and finances… but my realist side knows that I would own at least 3 times as much Bitcoin as I actually do if I had just kept my head down and focused on accumulating as much generational wealth as possible while it’s still this much of a bargain.
I also put a lot of friend and family relationships on the back burner over the past couple years. Going forward, my goal is to maintain a better balance across the passions, professional interests, and people I care about.
Business development
I intended to say a lot more here.
I’m writing this late at night though, and I need sleep before work in the morning, so I’ll keep it short.
My new job is very healthy for me in a lot of ways. For now, it’s my top priority.
I was on a hot streak before going to visit El Salvador. Within two months of starting this new job, my metrics already reached the top 20 out of several hundred sales agents across the past four weeks.
I don’t like to brag, but that’s one thing I love about performance-based roles. The numbers do the talking.
However, after taking just five days off, I had my two worst weeks yet upon returning.
My first cold streak… just as the weather started getting cold here. A bitter dose of reality after five days back in tropical Bitcoiner paradise.
Fortunately, I got back on track today, and tied my personal record for most sales in a single day!
Now I just need to get my consistency back. That’s my immediate focus for the next couple of weeks.
I do have more to say though — a lot more — about how the capital and skills I’m gaining from this job can align with my other interests.
I’m definitely NOT walking away from Bitcoin or El Salvador entirely.
Once I’ve reestablished momentum in my day job, I’ll keep you posted.
The weather is getting cold here, and the days are getting darker… but in many ways, the future is looking bright.