Programming Lions

Ep.94 Simplifying Bitcoin for Kids w/ Chad Blackburn

• Matt Morstad • Episode 94

Share episode

In this episode of the Programming Lions podcast, investor and expert Chad Blackburn joins us to simplify complex financial topics related to blockchain, bitcoin, and fiat currency for Gen Alpha kids. Chad shares his personal finance upbringing, concerns about national debt, and insights on alternatives like Bitcoin versus traditional financial systems. The discussion delves into the nature of fiat money, the implications of national debt, and preparing for financial challenges. With relatable analogies and practical advice, Chad emphasizes the importance of financial literacy and encourages kids to understand and secure their financial future through responsible saving and investing. Tune in to learn about Bitcoin mining, digital assets, and the potential impact of these technologies on the future 

economy.


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadblackburn/


TIMELINE

00:00 Intro

00:32 Meet Chad

01:15 Journey into Bitcoin

04:50 National Debt

07:10 Fiat Money

15:12 Origins of Bitcoin

20:27 Bitcoin Mining

20:42 Role of Miners

21:31 Energy and Economics

24:45 Decentralization

25:10 Bitcoin vs. Traditional Systems

27:54 Communism and Centralized Banking

28:45 Meme coins and Crypto Equities

31:23 NFTs and Digital Assets

33:38 Bitcoin as Freedom Tech

36:21 Practical Advice

39:09 Final Thoughts

Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. Today, Chad Blackburn joins us. He is an investor and an expert in sales, digital assets, healthcare and tech. Overall, we're gonna primarily focus on blockchain, bitcoin, fiat currency, and we're gonna put it into terms that kids can unpack and understand, and perhaps most importantly, how we might prepare for a looming debt crisis. So you're not gonna wanna miss it. Let's go.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Chad Blackburn, welcome to the Programming Lines podcast. We're excited to have you on. We have seen you on a number of podcasts and panels talking about blockchain, bitcoin currency, and so we thought this could be a really cool opportunity to pick your brain and get some expertise in this area because it's something that really impacts not only all Americans, but especially the next generation. And so these boys are Jen Alpha. Oh yeah. And the decisions that we're making today and how people are thinking about all of this is is obviously important. And so, so we wanted to get into all that with you, but before we do, could you give us a minute about yourself and kind of what, what led you to get into this area of of, of topics?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Matt, thanks for having me. You know, when it comes to the Bitcoin part of my life, my journey really starts, with you know, a part of my upbringing was personal finance. In fact, when I did chores as a little kid if it was anything above and beyond and it was like a paid job, I actually had to create invoices and give those to my mother. She would pay them, I would then mark that paid and I had a receipt I would give her. So personal finance and small business and all of that stuff was always a part of my life. And so I was very involved in how I saved money and how I invested money. In fact, even when I was a little kid I had a mutual fund and my mom had to deal with me because she was kind of like my employer, right.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Now guys, this doesn't exist a whole lot anymore, but Matt will remember when you could get a dollar for dollar match on your 401k, right? So there was a mutual fund that we had set up and and she did a dollar for dollar match.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

that's pretty good.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

So, I was highly incentivized to start saving money to start investing and well, to start making money as well. So, that foundation has I. Just set me, set me up to be very attuned with what's going on with how I store my time and energy. And and at a certain point, I, I had to start, I started to get really nervous about public equities and especially my concentration in public equities. I really thought, and, and guys, public equities are your stocks, right? So that's like the Apple stock, the Nvidia stock.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

That type of stuff, and I thought I was super diversified. Right. Where I had a little bit here and a little bit there, and a little bit there, and I came, I came to understand that I actually was super exposed to external volatility and, and things like that. And so at that point I started seeking out how could I actually invest in and own a commodity, something that was tried and true that nobody could take from me. And and so I started looking at gold and I started looking at gold stocks. And, and you really can't self custody. Which, and guys, self custody means keep at your house, right? Keep it on you.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Not much gold, right?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

it's, it's, really difficult to do, right? I mean, and, and, and somebody can come and steal it at any point in time. And so I like to say I was primed and ready.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

And so once I started learning about Bitcoin, I immediately picked it up because I was already kind of there to begin with. And and as you learn more about Bitcoin, it is so fascinating and its impact, its potential impact and its impact to date. I. Is so powerful. It really is captivating. It's something that you wanna start learning more about. And so I really went down that rabbit hole and started to just, build up a really strong knowledge base on that and have had a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, it's worked out really well.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

well, great, great. Well, we're talking to the right guy. Oh yeah. I can see you have like a Bitcoin thing behind you on that, that lamp

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

over my shoulder just to, to remind people. Little

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

going. I love the story of how your mom incentivized you through this program. We should think about something similar. So the boys have brought up a lot of curiosity, not only about Bitcoin, but investing. And so we're working through some of that ourselves in, in terms of Oh yeah. Incentives structures to get them to. Save and embrace that delayed gratification of saving all right. So I have a question about, well, national debt. First of all like how con, how concerned should we be about it?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So guys, I think we should be extremely concerned about the, the national debt. I don't know that we need to panic about that. Not that it's not panic worthy, but really what you need to do is what you can and prepare yourself. The national debt is what, like 34, 30$5 trillion. It's growing faster than we can innovate and, and so this really does cause a problem for you all causes a problem for me and Matt and really everybody. But the further this can gets kicked down the road the worse it's gonna be. And somebody's gonna have to deal with that at some point. And and so it, it matters to start. Learning about how you manage your finances and manage your own personal family operation. In the case that there is something that goes wrong with how we're able to manage the national debt. And at some point that will happen. We will have to deal with that. And I hope that it's a peaceful situation.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

To your point, it almost seems like. It's politically unpopular to deal with it because it's gonna take pain right in, in terms of cutting budgets and building a surplus to get it down. And I don't see, I don't see really either side of the political spectrum taking a hardcore

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Right. Yeah. It, it takes stewardship, it takes truth telling, it takes preparation of people that are gonna need to lead us through that time. You know, not to be a victim of the system, but to be somebody that can actually be a part of the solution. Right? That's, that is what we're trying to raise you know, our family to, to be. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

And well, perhaps some of what we'll get into here today is, well, how do we prepare for that potential looming disaster? But without further ado, I think, yeah, Willie had another question. So I was curious because I asked. Dad mainly about this and he had a very terrible description of it.'cause he is not very good at vocab. Come on. But other than that part, I'm gonna ask you because you're a professional at this, I'm pretty sure. Basically, so what exactly is a fiat money system and why should we use it? And are there like any downsides, like maybe we shouldn't use it, possibly our alternatives.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. So, typically a money something to, for something to be called a money, it has to meet certain requirements. And and one of those requirements is that I. The properties have to be rooted in the laws of nature, which of course, and the, the one who creates the laws of nature are, is God. Now on the flip side of that, the word fiat means let it be. So, so it's money by decree, not necessarily by the natural value of whatever the substance is that's being used as money. And there have been many forms of, of money some that we still use today, like gold and precious metals and, and, salt and other things that can be traded as a commodity, right? Many of those things have been, have been used as a day-to-day money, but as you can imagine, using commodities as a day-to-day money is actually a pretty difficult thing, especially if you've got a bushel full of apples and you need a cow, right? You gotta, you gotta find somebody to be willing to, to make that trade with you. So in order to solve that problem, you can actually build and this is where it gets very nerdy, and Matt, tell me if I'm going too deep on this, but you can build, you can build accounting systems that sit on top of the commodity that make it easier to, to do trade, right? And so the United States, the commodity was always gold. Right, and then the accounting system that sat on top of that was the US dollar, right? The paper money that you sit on top of that and you see each one, each one of those paper monies have a serial number on them, right? That means it's a unique number that only that piece of paper has, and that creates an accounting system that's enforced by the federal government of the United States of America. And so that that helps. The world do business with each other and it's something that you need. Now, when you get into the fiat side of things that's when you start to, that's when you remove the commodity aspect. I. To the money. So effectively you dBase the money and you just say that this is money, because it is money. Now in the case of the United States, what we did was we started borrowing against the future productivity of future generations of children. And so that means that the federal

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

you guys.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

started, taking out loans. My name on it and your name on it. And he started selling those loans to everybody all across the globe. And they said, don't worry, we're good for it because Max is good. Max is gonna be smart. I

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

That's right. Max is gonna produce a lot. He's good for it. Right.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Gonna be good for it. That's the behavior that a fiat system incentivizes. I challenge you guys to look up a video. It's fascinating. It's called the Stanford Marshmallow Test. Have you ever heard of this?

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

I've

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Okay, you've seen this. Okay. So it's an experiment where a the experimenter puts a big marshmallow in front of a five-year-old child. And tells the the child that if they can not have a bite of that, that marshmallow while they leave the room for five minutes, they'll get two marshmallows when they come back. Right. And very few, if any children ever make it the whole five minutes without taste, starting to taste the marshmallow, even though they would've gotten the whole second marshmallow. Right. And there's, there's big lessons in that, that idea of the Stanford marshmallow test. But I bring that up because when a government has the ability to print its own money, it creates an impossible, insatiable test. Very few individuals can ever pass, whether you're on the good side or you're on the bad side. It creates a situation where everybody has to figure out how to print the money and give it to the people on their side because that money printer's gonna be running what, regardless. That is. What happens to every fiat money? So, the United States is not the first country that's tried a fiat money experiment. And if you look up famous fiat money experience experiences through documented history, you'll see that they all, they all end the exact same way.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's in calamity.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. that's not good Yeah, I think it was, I dunno if it was the Romans, but they swapped out precious metal coins for wooden coins at one point, and then it, you know, it all kind of collapsed. And so, I don't know, boys, I wanna make sure you understand this. What Chad is saying here is that a fiat money system is based on a promise, like more of a promise. Mm-hmm. Versus of like, we'll pay you back versus a a backed currency, which has, it's, it's pegged to a specific commodity like gold or oil or salt, as he said. So salt could be salt, like salt was one. Yeah. Okay. So this is a great segue then into. Our next question, right, max? Well, what are the alternatives of Fiat or Fiat, right? Yeah. Yeah. Fiat. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Okay.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Fiat. Fiat.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

That's right. I'm sure that there's different ways to say that. Really the thing that we're looking for is a sound money. That's ultimately, it's not necessarily that it's about Bitcoin or gold or yap stones or beads or anything. It's really about a sound money system so gold has typically been that sound money system, but the problem with gold that even the Romans ran into is it's very difficult to transact. A in a broad based commercial environment, especially when we're doing business with people all over the world. I bet guys even you are, when you hop online and you buy something, you could be touching vendors on the other side of the globe and that money flows across there and a dollar's here and is a dollar and same as a dollar there, right? And so you need to be able to transact really, really quickly. So gold does not function very well in a digital environment and really what you need. In a digitally native environment is a digital money. Now, the problem with the digital money is that all things digital or most things digital, they're easy to copy, right? Copy paste, copy paste. And so since about the seventies when the, the, in the, the foundations of the internet were created, researchers and engineers had been trying to figure out how to create a reliable digital digitally native money, and it took a really long time. In fact, it took till about 2009. For them to really figure it out. How you actually do this in a way that cannot, that also cannot be controlled by a government, a corporation, or any individual, right? Kind of like gold, right? Because gold, for lack of better word, reports to God, right? You can't just create new gold. You can't, if you want to go find new gold, it's gonna cost you a lot of money, right? You're gonna. And so that is what they had to figure out. And there was a group of, of researchers one was called Hal Finney. There's a whole bunch of'em, but Hal Finney, if you look him up, he was one of the main researchers. And then there was one that went by kind of a spy name. His name was Satoshi Nakamoto.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Is he like Asian?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

We never, we'll never know. I believe that in, in Japanese, that translates to wise origin.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Oh, wow. So he really wanted to keep himself mysterious for some reason. Yeah. Nobody knows where he is or if he's a real person today, I

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. And then of course Hal Finney passed away of a LS so he had a a long term disease. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Wait, so this like mysterious sounding weird dude name, Basically, no one knows where he is or what he is. That's a

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

or if it's a group of people, if it's a guy or a girl or a group of people, nobody knows. Nobody knows.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

wait. When did they know about this?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

The late aughts, right? So oh 7, 0 8, 0 9, around that time period.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

In some ways, this is actually an interesting part about the Bitcoin history, right? Because. Not having a single owner or architect of it is actually one of the maybe like beautiful things about Bitcoin versus some of the other coins, right?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. It is, it is a beautiful thing about it. I think that if we were to, to discover who Satoshi was, it really wouldn't make a difference. I think the biggest person that would make a difference to is Satoshi himself because, he, she them has a lot of Bitcoin. Right. They would effectively be the, the richest person in the world yeah. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

his Elon Musk

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

would be richer than Elon Musk. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

So like we can Bitcoin like vary in money? Is it like basically money? Like one Bitcoin is like basically like a dollar or like, it's like eight. It's like 85,000, right?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Well, one Bitcoin is worth$105,000 today. Yes. Where did it get that price? That's where the free market comes in.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

And soon you will learn more about the concept of the free market. But when somebody, when when people want something and there's a limited supply of that thing, right? People. Say, you know, I'll pay a little bit more for that thing. I'll pay more than you'll pay for that thing. So I'd like the thing, right? And so that ha, that is why the price of Bitcoin increases because there are only 21 million Bitcoin there's never gonna be any more.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm. Wait, isn't it, well wait, there's like 21 million in people's current possession, or like, does that includes one that haven't been mined yet?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, there are, there are very little is still left to be mined of uncrated. Bitcoin

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Does it reach an end point or the mining continues to get harder, but It does. reach a, like a 0.00.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

adjustment. The miners get compensated two ways. There's the Uncrated Bitcoin that they get compensated with. That's called the Blocker Board. But then there are the transaction fees from the last 10 minutes of transactions every 10 minutes. A minor earns the right to. Write information to the blockchain and and they also get compensated for that activity. And they get compensated Yeah. By transaction fees and the block reward. Eventually the block reward goes away, right? Because it cuts in half every four years. And in the year 21, 30 long after, I don't know, maybe you guys will still be around. But that is when approximately. The last UNC circulated Bitcoin will be released from the Coinbase, not Coinbase, but the Coinbase.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yes, the, yeah. Okay. Wait, so you're telling me, wait, so that Bitcoin, that it runs out eventually.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

No, it doesn't. It's just that all of the Bitcoin starts circulating now. Most

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

so like you're saying like we're Bitcoin minerals, but making new ones will runs out and Max, so Ma Max, do you, do you I, you're saying, saying mining for it and I'm like, what Will, will is more familiar with this than you are? I think Max, but, but do you understand the concept of gold? Right? You have to go mine gold. You get it out of the ground, right? Yeah. So that means you get Bitcoin out of the ground. So when they say mining bitcoin, mi my Bitcoin is a digital asset and so it's, it's built on a. On a a blockchain, you know, cryptology, so, so mining that. You're mining it in a computer, basically. Oh, I thought you were like, actually like goo, you know. No, no. Max, how would you find a digital asset in the ground? Max. Max Bitcoin. I thought it was like, like, you know, a mineral and then like you made it and stuff, max. It's basic. It's effectively a code. I think of like numbers and stuff. Maybe Chad, you can enlighten us on this, but it is, it's basically like what it, it's a string it's a unique

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Well, so let's, let's even back it up because the technical elements will make more sense if you understand the miners do. And of course the word mining is, it's a colloquial word, right? It's just kind of a made up word, but that's what we call it because that's what it kind of, you know, that's what you feel like you're doing as part of the financial network, right? You feel like a gold miner. But the miners. Are the only ones that have the ability to write information to the network or to the blockchain, right? Now the thing that prevents a minor from cheating the system or writing wrong information or trying to fake things out or really do anything that's, that is not in harmony. With the Bitcoin network is the fact that to participate in the mining activity, you have to burn electricity through a computer and you can't create new energy, right? Energy is only transferred, it's never created, and so. Since that is something that you cannot fake. That is the Bitcoin network's rooting mechanism back to the laws of nature. And then of course, the one who governs the laws of nature is God. And so what it does is since I. Since you have to, to actually burn electricity, it creates a situation where the laws of nature reign, supreme, and the desires of man are once again thwarted.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, it'd be like if, if, if you only knew gold was at the center of the earth and having to dig there, it would become astronomically more difficult. Right? Like. Is that a way to think about it? In, in, in Bitcoin terms, like the energy associated with getting more Bitcoin is s like so large that it's a, it's a trade off I suppose. Wait, so can you cre create more Bitcoin?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

You can't, you, you can't really create more Bitcoin, but you can get paid in Bitcoin for doing the mining activity.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Oh, max. The mining is basically where Max, like you have a computer and the computer like through like, like very quickly I think looks through like a bunch of different codes, right? And then once it finds a code, that's a right Bitcoin. That's a Bitcoin, right?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

In the process of finding that code you're required to to burn a lot of energy and energy costs money, and so it creates an economic decision that the person that owns that. Minor is gonna have to make, do I pay the money and try and participate by the rules, or do I pay the money and try and cheat? And then of course, the cheating is so impossible that it becomes financially I guess irresponsible to try and cheat the network because you'll, you'll only lose money. You'll never make any money. The network roots into the laws of nature through the minor, through the miners. Mm-hmm. And it effectively, it bridges the digital realm and the natural realm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

So how long is like an average. Like, let's just say right now, how long it'd be like an average like bitcoin code. Like how many digits?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Oh, these are numbers that could stretch to the moon and back.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Like millions of digits.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

What if you just guess, oh my, wait, can you just like, guess you have to have a really lucky guess for that.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, that's what the machines do.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

I, I think you'd

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

They get, they get guess.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So now and so the way that it is mined and then there are people connected to the nodes of the network to I guess, validate Bitcoin. One thing I hear from like, well, what happens if, you know the internet goes down? Do I lose it? Do I, do we risk that? What if we have a big EMP attack and. How concerned should people be about that when they think about Bitcoin?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. So our entire financial communications network is digital. It's, and it is far more fragile than Bitcoin's decentralized network. It is centralized in a handful of hubs across the country. At any point in time, you could have a loss of service. You could have a government force, let's say a government forced American Express to shut down or forced visa to shut down. Or let's say the hackers got in there and, and, and messed it up. So we already are digital, but we're very, we're very fragile and digital. Digital is where you want to be, right? That's the only way that you can communicate at any scale in our civilization.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

So what you want is you want a completely decentralized and redundant. Form of, of. Of financial communications network. You want your commercial network to be available over satellite, to be over available over ham radio to be available over basic radio to be peer to peer. You want it to be you want to have. Permissionless access to the network because let's say Kentucky's network is down, but Tennessee's is up, right? I want to be able to go over there and do that and, and be able to gain access to the financial network. So, if we were to have an EMP the very first thing that would start working again would be Bitcoin. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

cool to your point, it's and boys, I don't know if you fully grasp this, but what Chad's may means, I think by decentralized is that it's not on. You know, JP Morgan's servers in terms of your cash or your money? It's in a, it's, it's decentralized throughout kind of like the, the entire internet. Mm-hmm. And so, that allows you to really like, own your money without somebody being able to take it or restrict it. So, for example, if the government wanted to, they could restrict our access to pull the money out of our own bank if they wanted to. Right. That'd be evil, but Yeah. Yeah. It happens. It, I mean, it happened in Canada, like during COVID remember that when they, when they had truckers and they, they restricted their ability to get money'cause they didn't want them protesting in in the city. So what they can do it, and they have, and, and governments have done it. And then also you can take it to other places. So you could take it to, let's just say a country that, doesn't run on the same financial system as the, as the United States states. So you could go there with Bitcoin and you could use that to, transact and maybe open a bank account in that local currency or whatever. So it, it offers a lot of flexibility that way. Yeah

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

so this is something that's in interesting. You know, what a communist is, right?

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

yeah. Oh

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Okay. The communists have something called the Communist Man Manifesto, and it's basically a list of things that they believe in. It's kinda like the 10 Commandments for communists. Well, the fifth commandment, if you will, of the Communist Manifesto is the centralization of the banking system because if the, if the head leader is gonna control the people. You have to control their money. And money is how you, it. Money is a form of communication and it's also a storage mechanism for how you store your time and energy, the past value that you have added to any other individual in the civilization. So,

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Wait, so. This is like a, this is kind of like a branch off of Bitcoin slightly.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Let's go.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

I'm just curious what you think about Memecoin and like, mainly if it's like stable and like, is it, is it a good option kind of

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

No, no, it's, it's gambling. They're casino tokens. That masquerade is digital collectibles. Yeah. It's just, it's just a casino game that people are saying, well, I think that lion coin is gonna go up in value, so I'm gonna go over there and then I'm gonna try and get out before everybody else gets out. It's a game. It's a casino game. That's a, that's global and it's unregulated, which is why people love to do it. And then of course, people that either people that start the coin, they're the ones that, that take the money from everybody that bought the coin.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Are they the, are like hawk to coin? Remember guys, she got in trouble. We saw the story

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You can definitely go to jail for doing something like that.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Do you think there's like any other good online options other than like Bitcoin? What, what is the key difference? So meme coin, let's say meme coins or other coin, there's countless coins out there that are also built on blockchain technology, but

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

of them are. Many of them aren't. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

scary. Well, what

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

have to be on a blockchain to be a digital asset.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Hmm. What, so what, what is the main difference between some of those technologies and

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So from a technical perspective, they vary in millions of ways, right? There's, there's all different types of of, of technologies that are used in all different types of digital assets. Now if, if we're just talking about just the difference in these industry segments, right? You've got digital assets, which is kind of the top. Then you've got a commodity, which is Bitcoin, and that's the only one. Then you've got what I would call a crypto equity, which is like a crypto stock. And this gets a little blurry, but I would call Ethereum a crypto equity, right? It's a technical platform that's designed for people to create innovations on top of it. To build on top of this technical platform a lot like Msdos, right? You could build on top of Msdos. Yeah. Except Microsoft listed itself through the stock exchange in the United States, right? So they're governed by those laws. Ethereum just created an equity out of thin air and, and it was already out there, so the regulators couldn't do anything about it. At that point. And then you have effectively the crypto casino. Which could very well include NFTs, although from a technical perspective, I think that NFTs actually have far more use than they do today from a, from a technical perspective in how you secure intellectual property rights. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Right, right. Well, yeah, nft, so like, NFTs can be also used kind of like, oh, collectibles as well. I mean, obviously like with digital art and stuff, but it could also be used to do something like the title to your home maybe, or, or, or something. Is that, is that the kind of, that's, that's where you see more of a purpose built use for it?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. These things would be centralized solutions that would be commercial, centralized solutions, but it would create a much more streamlined way of representing who owns what piece of physical property using a digital title. And the digital title effectively can have let's say a thousand people owned a house, right? And that house gets sold. All the instructions for who should get paid in that transaction are all gonna be straight inside of that, that digital asset. So you can imagine what that would do with, like, say, royalties for a song or a movie as an end user, you could pay to listen to a song. And the rights holders of that song, the songwriter, the performer, the publisher, they could all get paid immediately. Yeah, so all the accounting is bundled in. Keep in mind, all of these things are basically accounting systems as

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I never thought of that use case, so that's pretty interesting. I imagine all the middleware companies and middlemen companies out there today are nervous about some of this technology coming to fruition, huh?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

If I were BMI, ASCAP and csac, they're on Music Row in Nashville, I'd be worried.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Wow. Okay. Okay. Well, lemme think about that. I have a question. So based on everything that you have talked about for this podcast, what do you think is the most important, or anything that you actually haven't told us, what do you think is the most important for kids to know about?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Bitcoin is Freedom Tech, right? It rewards those who are thoughtful and patient and you know, Bitcoin is money that you earn and save and use without anyone's permission, which is important to be able to be able to have your, have the, the money that you've earned and to, and to be able to use that without having to. Ask somebody other than your dad, well, you're a little kid, but, but you don't wanna have to ask somebody permission to be able to spend your own money because it's money that you saved for work that you did, right? That's your time and energy. No one can take your Bitcoin if you know how to secure it. And that's very important, right? That it's very cheap and easy. To secure. It helps protect you from inflation and the national debt that we talked about, right? It helps protect you from that. Something that a lot of people think Bitcoin is, is they think it's a get rich quick scheme. It's not a get rich quick scheme. It's a learn slow and grow rich path. You have to be very patient. Ultimately if you understand Bitcoin, you'll understand the world better. Yeah, it's worth learning about.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

All right, good. Well touched. I like that a lot. And we've talked a lot about inflation here and debt, and obviously there's a correlation of devaluation of the dollar and increased valuation of assets like Bitcoin and I think those are some, some good advice. My last question for you is as a parent with kids, what do you think tactically, someone like me can do to help start securing our children's future in terms of diversifying and being ready for a potential looming disaster?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, yeah. Teach'em. Teach them personal finance skills. Right. Teach'em how to operate a small business as as a young person. Those are gonna be skills that are gonna help you navigate and help you find solutions as you become the solution finder and not the victim. Right. Mental and emotional preparedness. Teach your sons to to lead when others panic. And live by the Boy Scout motto. Be prepared.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

All right. I like that. I like that. That's great advice. Why don't we, why don't we call it a wrap for for this session, but we really appreciate you taking the time and allowing us to pick your brain about this. It's such a. Interesting and unique topic and is growing in popularity and understanding among people. And so for kids to get, start getting a grasp of it early to everything we talked about, like is really important. And so we're gonna take some of this to heart

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

the next time we talk, I think the boys should have their own Bitcoin wallets.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yes, Are there certain wallets or services that you would highly recommend for people versus

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So for you, you there are a couple places I recommend to buy Bitcoin. So Matt, for you River, is it Bitcoin only exchange. That does monthly audits. And then there's a service called Strike

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Ah, I'm familiar with Strike.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Not to be confused with Stripe. Right. That is also a really great place to be able to buy Bitcoin now for self custody. I like Blue Wallet. It's just about the most simple wallet software. You can possibly have, and I'll teach you how to set that up in a kid friendly way. My kids have their own wallets as well. Y'all can do that together. Make sure that nobody's losing any Bitcoin, because that really is at, at this stage in, in their journey, losing the Bitcoin is is the biggest risk. And we've all ho, ho, you know, heard stories of people from early, the early Bitcoin days and they're like, I lost 500 Bitcoin and I didn't even think anything of it. Right. Because it wasn't worth anything at the time. And now that's a life's fortune.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Some of these wallets, they're single owner, and then some of them are, I don't know if you call it custodial or shared ownership. Is that right?

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So, there are a few different ways you can do it. If we're gonna talk about self custody, there's a couple of different ways to do self custody. There is what you would call single signature. And keep in mind, a wallet is technically called a signing device, and so it has the ability to sign an outbound transaction, which, which is what allows the Bitcoin to move on the network. Yeah, it's called a signing device. It manages the private keys, which are essential, and in fact, the private keys are the bearer asset. Yeah. And then there's something called a multisig. Usually people do a two of three multisig, but guys, have y'all ever watched a movie where they have like the nuclear keys and they gotta to get in the special door, you gotta turn both keys at the same time.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

That's, multisig, right? You've gotta have two of three keys and they both have to be present in order to move that Bitcoin.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

kinda like the Mission Impossible movie. Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

And there's a couple of reasons why you would do that. And of course, a multisig key could be lots of keys, right? And you can set that up in a very sophisticated way. But the thing that you don't want to do is you don't wanna use, you don't wanna leave your Bitcoin on an exchange. Especially in exchange, like a Coinbase or something that deals in crypto that that's involved in the crypto casino. I don't think that Coinbase is bad. Or a Kraken. I don't think that that's bad. It's just that if I were gonna be leaving Bitcoin on an exchange, I would probably go with a Bitcoin only exchange. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Good stuff. So, well, we'll keep in touch, we'll get these things going and set up, but we appreciate the advice and everything and this was pretty interesting. So we're gonna dig more into this. Well with that, we'll call it a wrap. What do you guys say? Thanks. Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you for coming on.

Chad_Blackburn-Chad-webcam-00h_00m_00s_275ms-StreamYard:

Hey, thanks for having me. This was fun.

Chad_Blackburn-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_350ms-StreamYard:

very cool. I like that a lot.