Build With Bitcoin

060 - Highlights: Episodes 56-58 & Bitcoin 2025 (Las Vegas) Recap

• Lynne Bairstow, Israel Munoz • Season 2 • Episode 60

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In this episode, co-hosts Lynne Bairstow and Israel Muñoz discuss highlights from recent episodes and the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. They discuss the innovative Tando app in Africa, custody solutions from Onramp, and the entrepreneurial lessons shared by Joe Kelly from Unchained. Finally, they reflect on the conference's significance in showcasing Bitcoin's growth and mainstream acceptance, and conclude with insights into Tether's future innovations.

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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Build with Bitcoin Highlights
03:59 Exploring Tando: Bitcoin Adoption in Africa
07:09 Michael Tanguma and Onramp
09:57 Joe Kelly from Unchained
16:24 Reflections on the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas

References
https://www.buildwithbitcoin.xyz/
https://x.com/BuildwBitcoin

❗ DISCLAIMER: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decisions consult a professional.

Lynne Bairstow:

Super exciting, I think, if anything, just overall impression, it just shows how Bitcoin is is mainstream, and it's here to stay, and it's crossing into areas that may some of us old Bitcoiners may never have thought we'd see as soon as we do in terms of politics, traditional financial markets. So there was a, I think a shift in the type of an attendee that goes to a Bitcoin Conference of if there was one observation, it was as many suits as there were hoodies and T shirts at this conference.

Israel:

Lynne and Israel are partners at Base Layer Advisors, where they employ their strong network of Venture Capital Partners and startups to connect investors with unique opportunities within the Bitcoin innovation space. Alongside this, they support founders with their strategic growth and fundraising goals. Visit our website's advisory section to learn more. Welcome to build with Bitcoin. I'm co host Israel Munoz joined with co host Lynne Bairstow. Today, we're going through a highlight of some recent episodes for this highlights reel. We also are including a summary and a bit of our Lynne and I's impressions on the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. So Lynne, let's get right into it.

Lynne Bairstow:

And usually we do these highlights every five episodes. So we're doing an abbreviated one this time with only three episodes in order to make room for the highlights of the Vegas conference. We hope you appreciate the fact that we want to combine highlights with Vegas and not overload with too much of us and leave more room for our entrepreneurs and investors that are building with Bitcoin. So to start out, let's start with our most recent episode Israel, which was Tando. What were your main impressions of the Tando episode and how you thought about that?

Israel:

Yeah. So I'll start by making out that this just demographically and geographically is quite a different episode. So this is the first time we've had a startup coming from the African continent. So Tando is based out of Kenya. And I mean, I loved this episode Lynne precisely because it was also so different and kind of a grassroots adoption case for Bitcoin as money. So Jason and Sabina joined us both, who are the co founders of Tando and they, they went through their journey, of course, you know how they got to starting the company, but I think what, what's, you know, what's so fascinating to me is how Bitcoin, as we've seen with other technologies in the past, sometimes you you have certain communities that kind of leapfrog in in the adoption of a new technology. And Kenya is going straight from, in the case of Kenya, they're going straight from mobile money, which was a fascinating story in and of itself, with M PESA, straight to to Bitcoin. And, you know, they're still, they're starting small, of course, tandoh, which, and maybe it's good to just make mention of exactly what Tando is. It's an apple it's a mobile application that allows users to basically just use and spend their Bitcoin locally at at an extremely high penetration rate in Kenya, because they integrated with M PESA. To me, the fascinating part was that they're already, within a short few months at I think Sabina mentioned, 150 transactions per day. So this is organic, true peer to peer commerce and barter, which is just fascinating to see. What were some of your thoughts? Yeah. Well, I

Lynne Bairstow:

also love the fact that we now have our first episode on the African continent, and so we're learning a lot about that. And also it's fascinating. We've done quite a number of startups in Latin America. And so Africa also proves the point that there are different ways that Bitcoin is used when you when you expand outside of the US and Western Europe centric, you know, established monetary systems. So in Africa, you know, Sabina mentioned that it's used very widely as both a store of value and a medium of exchange. Store of value because the inflation rates in a number of these African countries are quite high, and so people will store their money in stable coins or in Bitcoin as a way of protecting their purchasing power, but then also as a medium of exchange. And what blew my mind was just thinking about the fact that on the African continent there are 42 different currencies. And so if you, if you think about the US, and if every state had its own currency, and you had to, if you did a transaction between Alabama and Wyoming, you'd be involved with two different currencies. And that's a little bit what the what the analogy is on the or the comp is on the African continent, and so Bitcoin has a way of just bridging that gap and becoming a media of exchange. And so, you know, Tando, you're right. I love the founders. I love the fact that they're growing fast. They launched in December of 2024 so roughly six months ago, and they've had quite a bit of growth, mainly, or. Organic, because they really are solving a real need of allowing Bitcoin to be integrated into the existing M peso system through the Lightning Network. And one of the points to that is also, I think, in the US and Western Europe or established financial systems, you know, we, we sometimes don't realize how advanced mobile money networks are in emerging economies, M Peso and the African continent being one pics and Brazil being another one, where there are and even the space system in Mexico, where there are super efficient financial networks that allow people to move money. But it doesn't solve so it solves the problem like the SWIFT system or being able to deposit from bank to bank, but it doesn't solve the problem of the fact that a lot of people don't have banking accounts or inflation or currency devaluations or money exchange between currencies. So this is where Bitcoin rails on top of those super efficient monetary networks that are being implemented in different parts of the world, makes just a super powerful combination that that Tando has, has has developed their technology on. So, yeah, I loved it. And then the other thing I love the fact that they their initial funding comes from the Human Rights Foundation, so we haven't really talked to somebody who's been funded by a grant, and I think HRF has determined through their their Bitcoin initiative, that this is an important tool for financial empowerment and transactions in the African continent. And so they're supporting Tanda with a grant, and I'm sure that based on the initial success of the company, that they'll be able to raise more traditional funding as they look to expand in other countries on the African continent. Yeah,

Israel:

and, you know, maybe also, final note worth mentioning that they do speak a little bit to their kind of their roadmap and where their head is for the future that they're looking to. They have, you know, plans to expand to the rest of the African continent because they see the need in other countries as well, right? And to your point, I think Bitcoin will continue to kind of penetrate and integrate with these local, local networks. I mean, swapi, though, in Mexico, which we've also covered in the in the podcast, is doing conceptually, a similar thing to Tando, so yeah, definitely worth a listen. Very interesting conversation. They're building out a fantastic product in Kenya. So give that a listen. Yeah,

Lynne Bairstow:

and the founder combo is great too, because Jason has experience building a company in the US and other regions and sabinas from Africa. And so, you know, I think that combination of the perspective of each of the founders and Jason gives some great founder advice in the episode, too. And just, you know, for people looking to get into Bitcoin that you don't have to be Bitcoin centric or foundational, that there are things like accounting problems to be solved and and just looking at some of some of the opportunities that there are for starting a company that's based on Bitcoin or building with Bitcoin.

Israel:

Fascinating episode Tando, make sure to give that a listen, to get some insight into what's going on with Bitcoin in Africa and a very interesting startup out of Kenya. Then let's move on to Michael tanguma from onramp. So we had him on as well, who's the founder and CEO of onramp, as well as early riders. So we'll differentiate in a second. But Michael comes from a very interesting background as well. Former Google and WeWork background so deep into the traditional tech world again, then began transitioning to Bitcoin quite, quite a few years ago. And he shares with us his company's view on particularly from my point of you speaking to on rap, not not so much early writers, because that's, I think, a different proposition. But Michael has a great point of view on custody, and particularly multi institutional custody, which is one of the main pillars of on ramp, right? I mean, Michael, in the episode, goes through why he believes this is so important to solve, and that it's actually fascinating that Bitcoin already achieved a 2 trillion market cap without truly solving custody in his in his mind or words, right? So that was, that was a great conversation on some of the friction points for the custody side and the different custody models, which we're seeing built out in different flavors. And then early riders, of course, being a fund that's kind of pioneering this Bitcoin as a unit of account concept. So yeah, great conversation with Michael as well. What were some of your takeaways there? Lynne, yeah, like you.

Lynne Bairstow:

I found Michael's background really interesting, and I think really informs how he's building his company's on ramp and early riders, because coming from that, and not just traditional tech, but super high growth tech. So when you're part of Google, you know you're you're one of the leaders, and then the ecosystem of early tech, especially when he was there, and then we work, he was there doing that. And I love the how he talks about he was studying Bitcoin at the same time, they were just like. Burning through all this money, but he said the team was so important, and so he's really focused a lot of his intention on with on ramp and and early writers, on building a strong team and attracting the very best talent he can. So, you know, taking the lessons learned from these, you know, high growth Silicon Valley model companies, and transforming them into into the Bitcoin companies, you know, doing what he wants to do and the future he wants to see, but taking the lessons that he learned. So I agree, and then, and I really enjoyed our conversation as we got onto the on ramps to the early writers side, which is the venture capital fund that's based on a Bitcoin standard in that they want to raise the majority of their funds in Bitcoin from limited partners and to deploy that in Bitcoin to their founders, and then later to pay out the returns back to the LPS in Bitcoin. So, you know, it shows the entirety the mindset of really operating at a Bitcoin standard and just talking about how early writers is also like a venture studio and event, in addition to a capital allocator. So you know, really working closely with the companies that they invest in. And I think that was a super benefit, especially given his background of being with these very high growth Silicon Valley companies and his prior, prior work experience. So yeah, very interesting episode, and especially for our listeners who are in traditional tech that want to see how somebody has done it that's gone from, you know, high growth Silicon Valley style tech company into bitcoin company, and how that transition might look

Israel:

if any of that is of interest to you, give that a listen for this highlights reel. We'll finish off with Joe Kelly from unchained. So Unchained, needless to say, a leader in the in the ecosystem, as they're one of the oldest in the industry. They they start off with their lending business so and have expanded from there. But let me just say, Joe, I think, is one of the most I want to say, maybe principled and transparent founder conversations that I feel like we've had on the podcast, you know. So I think it's a very special episode in that regard, because Joe goes through some of you know, some of even, like his early and childhood pain and drama and lessons that kind of strengthen him as a person and as an entrepreneur, some of the lessons that that eventually, you know, that he took with him to then creating his first company. So he's successful founder in his in his life, prior to Unchained, they had a successful exit, and then him and his co founder started Unchained, which is now close to 10 years in the Bitcoin industry, still providing some fascinating services. So maybe I'll pause there. What were some of your thoughts? Lynne,

Lynne Bairstow:

no, I really appreciated Joe sharing the story of losing his mom to cancer and how his dad turned that into an opportunity for kind of recreating the lives of their family by taking them on a sailboat for several years, and how that experience allowed him to live a different life and open his mind up to different experiences. And so through that, working through that painful past, you know how their family kind of grew together and then coming back and being able to, you know, having challenges of fitting into the system. So when he started college, he ended up dropping out because it just didn't have the mindset that he wanted. But, you know, I love the fact that he met his, his co founder, Drew, and that they had this successful business and exit it, and then found themselves with money to invest and, you know, just the and being Bitcoiners, but not having any financial advisors that understood Bitcoin realize that this was an opportunity in the marketplace, and having that co founder relationship with their best friends. And they've been through a company and an exit before, and now they're in there some second company together, just gives a like, a solid foundation, I think, to what they built. And you just feel that just a sense of calm and, you know, all the different variations that unchanged has or evolution that unchained has gone through because, you know, one of the things I loved about the conversation was how completely client focused they are in listening to what their clients want. And their initial clients were Bitcoin holders, you know, people who were early investors or buyers of Bitcoin, or miners of Bitcoin, and they had a Bitcoin stash, and it's like, what do they do with it? You know, creating products and services that meet that and obviously, over the years, since 2016 you know, there have been a lot of changes in the demographics of Bitcoin holders, and so their products and services have really evolved along with the growing client base of big Bitcoin users. Yeah,

Israel:

and, you know, I think for founders or aspiring founders, this is a particularly interesting episode, because Joe gets into a lot of the just kind of guiding principles as a company. What you know, what's worked for them, how he thinks through him. His executive team, you know, kind of the importance of building a solid community as as an organization of now, you know a few dozen people he he goes through some of the pain points of fundraising and the difficulties. There some advice as well on how to think about the fundraising approach, which, regardless of your industry, is typically a difficult path, right? I think, particularly from the entrepreneurship perspective, Joe just gives a lot of good nuggets of advice and insight. So it's, it's a great episode build with Bitcoin. Is a proud affiliate partner of river. River is a financial services company that allows you to purchase, sell and transfer your Bitcoin all through a great suite of products, high security standards, and as of recent, even allowing you to earn a Bitcoin yield on your US dollar cash deposits for a personalized onboarding experience. Go to partner.river.com/build

Lynne Bairstow:

with Bitcoin. I agree completely with you, even though Joe is telling the story or sharing the story of unchained in his personal journey, it feels like a mentoring session. When I re listen to it, it's like there's so much great information, advice that he gives along the way of every in every stage of their growth. He just shares something that I think is super beneficial for anyone thinking about starting a company in the Bitcoin space or elsewhere, just as a successful founder, what you should think about, and also his his focus on company culture of just like really, really creating a synergistic team, where everybody is part of the vision of what you're building in order to create the success that they have. And so I think that's undeniable and and certainly a part of the recipe for their success. That one's

Israel:

Joe Kelly from unchained. And let's move on to the Las Vegas conference. Lots to lots to kind of decompress there. I'll let you start.

Lynne Bairstow:

Well, first of all, I just want to congratulate the Bitcoin Conference team and Bitcoin magazine. I think overall, it was just a fantastic event. It was super exciting. I think, if anything, just overall impression. It just shows how Bitcoin is is mainstream, and it's here to stay, and it's crossing into areas that may some of us old Bitcoiners may never have thought we'd see as soon as we do in terms of politics, traditional financial markets. So there was a, I think, a shift in the type of an attendee that goes to a Bitcoin Conference of if there was one observation, it was as many suits as there were hoodies and T shirts at this conference. So I know people might say that's not a positive, but I think overall, it certainly is an observation that I think you and I shared was just the the scope, the scale, the diversity of attendees. So it was, it was fascinating. But overall, I mean, I had a great time. I think we both did, and it was wonderful to see, you know, in addition to the suits and bankers, I mean, just see so many friends in Bitcoin and just our our community for us as podcasters, what we what we really, I think, appreciated was how much we've grown in the last year, where last year in Nashville, we were introducing what our podcast was aiming to do, and this year, we had over 50 interviews under our belt. So we had a lot of friends that we felt that we knew because of the interviews that we conducted with them, and just that network that we've been able to build between the, really, the leading entrepreneurs and the leading investors working on innovation, the Bitcoin space, which is still not, in my mind, covered enough. I think it's still a lot more the macro and why Bitcoin, but that's okay. Well, we'll get to it over over the years, but I love the innovation story that you and I are sharing,

Israel:

yeah, I think we were both surprised this first year with with how quickly the the startup ecosystem, and, of course, the investors that that support them, how quickly this is growing. I mean, it's still small in scale, but to your point. I mean, we already know so many people in the industry, and it's, uh, and it, it's great to see that collaborative, you know, we work together and we all win approach, which is kind of, kind of what this just nature of open source, decentralized technology provides, right? That's why it's so powerful. But the back to some of your, your impressions, Lynne, that you mentioned, I mean, for me, it was, it was similar in that you mentioned, it's kind of growing up. It's here to stay. The energy, the presence, the type of people that were there, I personally kind of returned from the conference feeling like, wow, that that initial chapter of Bitcoin is is kind of coming to an end. It's, you know, it's kind of maturing. And what really also struck me is the the lines between the store of value and medium of exchange narrative, there's they're quickly blurring, which I think is just a direct reflection of this previous point that the industry is maturing and Bitcoin is kind of just it's going through it that next leg of growth, because it's just starting to become one. Large platform. And by this point, you know, in my opinion, if you still don't get the store of value side of the story, I mean, you just need to put a little more hours into it. And so we're getting, I think, as a consequence, a lot of this other innovation as a medium of exchange and and there was plenty of participation from that arena as well in the conference, which is amazing to see. And, you know, let alone some, some of the previous points you mentioned. I mean, I don't think we've done so much presence from politics, even international politics. You know, big banks, you

Lynne Bairstow:

know, Bitcoin magazine released some statistics about conference and and they did accomplish setting a Guinness World Record for the most transactions on Bitcoin within eight hours, and it was over 4000 so that was that kind of proved the point that Bitcoin is usable. And I think it was great that they did that on it on the first day of the conference, where there were a lot of traditional bankers and there were a lot of politicians who might see it more as store of value, and that has been their focus, because they're creating investment products or Treasury strategies for their companies, and so to see it actually in action, or to learn about the fact that it's so easy to transact on, I think, is a great way of bringing education to the full spectrum of what Bitcoin is as a financial technology. What do you think about the content of the conference? The overall content, I thought it

Israel:

was super well balanced. I mean, to just, I guess, to fully disclose, we, we didn't participate as much in the, in the actual, you know, in the actual content, unfortunately, because, because we had a lot of other side, side meetings, and we just, we were busy with with other parts of the networking component of the conference, but I overall available

Lynne Bairstow:

online. And so I don't know if you caught up, but I mean, and I was excited to be a speaker this year, so speaking on, on innovation, LATAM, that one is not yet on the on the YouTube channel, but, but, but it will be soon. So carrying that over. I mean, I felt like the content. I mean, if I had any criticism, it would be that the content, there was a lot of us, political content. And I think Bitcoin is global. I know the conference is based in the US, and they have sister conferences in Europe and Amsterdam and then also in MENA. So maybe that's why it was more US centric. But I just heard from friends of mine in LATAM that, you know, there was less of a compelling reason to come because it looked like it was. A lot of us politics, and US politics does shape, you know, Bitcoin usage overall, so I understand the reason for doing that. There was also a lot of content about corporate treasuries. I mean, that was a big theme with led by Michael Saylor and strategy, but also by metaplanet and by Saylor scientific and all these new entries, including Bitcoin magazine, zone fund, Treasury fund, that is that just launched Nakamoto. So there's a lot of treasury talk, and then lending options on the consumer side. I don't know if you saw those same trends or other trends. Yeah,

Israel:

I mean, I mean, I think the elephant in the room is the Treasury strategy, that wave that's coming. So definitely strong on the corp, on the corporate side, which is, I think, just kind of a logical next step of adoption. You have some of these rails and regulatory clarity starting to open up the door for that. So just, I think makes a lot of sense that that's a lot of the activity we're seeing naturally. I think I go back to the Blurred Lines with the medium of exchange. I just see a lot of behind the scenes work being done with different use cases all around the world, and just on these efficiencies, just the transaction side, right, whether it's peer to peer or B to C, so that that was a bit of a highlight for me. And the this AI aspect, you also start to see a, you know, a glimpse of that. We got to speak to some people in Silicon Valley, doing so that are very plugged into this AI story. And I think we're, we're gonna quickly, maybe accelerate to these other aspects of bitcoins innovation as just the payments technology itself. And, you know, micro payments, which I know you've been talking about for a long time, Lynne, and the overlap with AI, there's, yeah, overall well balanced. I mean, there was also, you know, we did both kind of touch on this. After the conference, there was still a lot of crypto and you know, these other token platforms, which, to a certain extent, is inevitable, but I think for a first time, attendee can it can lead to some confusion. So just make sure to to do your research right that

Lynne Bairstow:

we felt that before we arrived, because we were. Getting a lot of media requests to meet with founders of platforms that had their own tokens and that were clearly not Bitcoin. I mean, they had Bitcoin in their description and their wording, but were not Bitcoin centric. So you're correct. It's like as a if you were a first time attendee going through the expo hall and talking to some companies, it could be very confusing and disorienting to hear about companies that are really non Bitcoin companies, but we're we're there so you know, and I guess my hope from that is that maybe by being at the Bitcoin Conference, I think there was an XRP conference immediately following ours that had a very low attendance. So maybe it'll help convert some people who are a little confused about the difference between Bitcoin and the other blockchains and platforms, that Bitcoin really has a superior financial technology, and that's where time and attention should be spent. One other

Israel:

mention maybe that comes to mind is that's worth highlighting. Is the open source stage, or, I believe it, open source lounge. Sorry, is what it was called. Well,

Lynne Bairstow:

it was both a stage, so they had a dedicated content, whole list of panels and discussions on the open source stage, and then it was the open source lounge, and connected to that was the noster area, so that all three of those were together, and that's where the hackathon presentations were both the kind of show and tell about what was created over the hackathon, and then the the winner announcement, which we were involved with. So we covered the hackathon, and we'll be doing an upset upcoming episode with the winner of the hackathon. But my thought was they were segregated, so they were across the hall from the main Expo Center and the main stage. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, it was definitely a purity test, because it was like we saw all the, you know, the core developer guys and the and that's where the hoodies and the T shirts and the cargo shorts were still hanging out, whereas an open source area. So if you wanted to get old school Bitcoin, you went over to that side of the hallway. You know, I loved it over there. And the nostr booth was just like, or the nostr section, it was bigger than a booth was really buzzing the whole time with everyone. So it had a, obviously, that was kind of like our home base, you know, we'd love the energetic feel of that, that area. But what were your thoughts about that? Yeah,

Israel:

no. I mean, to your point, it was a bit difficult to find in the conference floor. So maybe tip to future attendees, make sure you go, go out and find this area, because it's where a lot of the kind of just more raw and core building is going on. So and be sure to tune into the to the hackathon winners episode, which you mentioned, Lynne will be covering soon. So, I mean, it was, it was super interesting to see what the different builders are, you know, competing to do, and the different design and UX going on behind the scenes in Bitcoin is, I think, some of both of our favorite parts about covering the innovation space. So, I mean, it was, it was definitely a highlight for me. So Israel, they

Lynne Bairstow:

announced that the 2026 conference will be held in Vegas again at the same place, at the Venetian What do you think of Vegas? What was your impression of the conference being there, after Nashville and after Miami? What about then, the

Israel:

location itself? You know, I guess personal opinions of Vegas aside. It's not, you know, it's not one of my favorite places, career places. Las Vegas itself, for me personally, is not where I like to spend my time. But that being said, I mean, I do have to say, for a conference of this scale, I thought it was actually quite, quite convenient, and it was just easy to step from one stage to the next. All the side events had their dedicated, you know, conference rooms, or there's plenty of restaurants and different, you know, networking locations to plug into. So I think for the organizers, it probably makes a lot of sense. And you know, if you're looking to make the most out of your time there in a short period. I think it's a good spot, but you still get the, you know, the casino, and just all the, all the energy that Las Vegas brings. It

Lynne Bairstow:

was like it was such a strong visual to, you know, leave the room, walk through the casino, which is just a visual of, like the Fiat mindset, Fiat lifestyle, people just desperately, you know, gambling, to get a hit of extra cash or something, and then go into the Bitcoin ethos where, you know, it's like this, this sense, just this positive energy of everybody building a better, more equitable financial future. I mean, maybe not everybody there, because, as we mentioned, there were some some crypto companies. You know, I do think the overall sense that many of us early in this space have is that we're contributing to something that has that's going to have a positive impact on the world and bring more people. Fall into financial inclusion and financial equality. So you know that contrast is crazy, but

Israel:

that contrast hadn't hit me until you just mentioned it. But it is. It is kind of black and white. I think it's convenient, like I mentioned. And to be honest, I do feel like if you're going to be in a city for a conference for just two or three days, I mean, you it is, it is a location where you can get a lot done in a short period of time, which is maybe what they're going for, right? But yeah,

Lynne Bairstow:

and we were able to go to a lot of the side events for businesses that had hospitality suites or happy hours or different restaurant events, because you could walk from one to the other pretty much easily, or take a quick taxi ride or something. So it was the compactness of the city, or even the Venetian resort, which is kind of like a city in itself, I think, allowed us to see a lot of people. And I'm sure it just helped more more of these Bitcoin companies connect with their clients and in an easier way, without disrupting the entire flow of the conference itself. So yeah, I agree.

Israel:

Yeah. And, you know, hats off to the organizers, of course, because they, they do a great job bringing a massive industry together into one location. And, you know, we only have our opinions on, you know, likes or dislikes, but at the end of the day, it's, it's a very special event, I think, and you're able to do a lot of in person networking that otherwise you just missed, you know. So

Lynne Bairstow:

on a personal level, what was if there was one highlight for you of those of the week of the conference? What would it be?

Israel:

Well, I think from some of our initial side conversations, Lynne, we might, we might be sharing the highlight here, but I do think that tether is just kind of this quiet underdog. And it was great. First of all, meeting Paolo and and, of course, his Kino, which is on YouTube, already seeing a company that of that scale, dedicating so much of their profits and resources into this concept of decentralization in other technologies, just basically using the Bitcoin ethos of sovereignty and decentralization and applying it to AI, for example. You know, Paulo spoke to, and I'm not so sure that many people caught this, but that they're, they're kind of on the on the map to become the largest miner globally, and why that makes sense for them. So the tether story, I would say, is what was probably a highlight of the conference for me.

Lynne Bairstow:

Yeah, exactly the same for me. I mean, just serendipitously running into him and the registration area couldn't be a nicer person, just very approachable, very conversant, and and then, you know, just the conversation that we had with him, and then coupled with the keynote, which I really feel was at least 50% shorter than it should have been, for all that he had to say. But, and the keynote was on tether and the Bitcoin ethos, or why tether loves Bitcoin hit, yeah, there's conversation about the stable coins detract from Bitcoin. I think if you have lived outside of the US at all, you understand the use of case of stable coins, or usdt in particular, for for holding your value in countries and regions. It's like we talked about Tando earlier, where you have massive inflation or fluctuation of currencies that make it difficult to use or exchange in other parts of the world, and then the enormous profitability, 13 billion last year, that tether achieved in profitability, instead of just, I don't know, even having, I don't think they even had, Like, a booth or a suite there, but they're reinvesting it and really creating more peer to peer decentralized technologies, including rumble for video. Rumble had a booth there, and then also Keat for communications. They have the plan B initiative for education and venture investing, together with Fulgur ventures. And then the most exciting one that I think you were, that you were just talking about, but this the new tether AI, which, rather than having all of the LLM model or data in one central place controlled by a centralized entity, it'll your device, or including smart watches, or even they're Doing a neural link type of a chip. It'll it'll all be on your own device, so you control that. And then the intelligence itself is on a decentralized basis. So it's a crazy, incredible model to think about. And it really gives control of information intelligence back to the user, to the individual, which I think is, is what tether is really becoming as a company under Paulo's leadership is just, you know, both from money, intelligence information that the user retains control, instead of it being given up to governments, corporations and other centralized authorities. So I love that message, and I do agree. I think that was, that was definitely a highlight of the experience. For me, yeah,

Israel:

it's certainly a company to keep tabs on and follow as they grow. They're already one of the largest players around, and I think they'll, they'll only grow to be more influential. And I think luckily, as we're mentioning, they're a company that's dedicating a lot of resources into decentralized, privacy focused system. So,

Lynne Bairstow:

yeah, Bitcoin, you know, Bitcoin centric,

Israel:

circling it off. Lynne definitely, definitely came away from that conference thinking of Bitcoin is moving on to the next chapter. I think there, there was no doubt in anyone's mind, I think who was at that conference that it's here to stay, and now it's just, how is it going to be used, and how is it going to grow? I laughed,

Lynne Bairstow:

just so inspired, energized. I mean, it was exhausting just going from seven in the morning till late at night and meeting with so many people and the events and the conference, and to your point, we never listened to, I think after you left, I finally listened to like Lyn Alden and sailors and mallors and Russ albright's presentation, which was very powerful. But, you know, it was, it was, it was an incredible experience. And I would encourage anybody to go ahead and get your ticket and plan on going to Vegas, because there's nothing like, you know, being in the presence, in real life with other Bitcoiners, and just seeing and feeling that's hard to I mean that the conference sessions, you can the information you can learn from, but it's just the exchange of ideas and just feeling the the presence of other of other people, that's an intangible that's difficult to get unless you're there in person. So yeah, again, congratulations to the organizers. Yeah,

Israel:

unique event that's that's for certain. Well, maybe that's a good place to to round it off. What do you think?

Lynne Bairstow:

Yep, um, yeah, I think a great place. We hope you enjoyed the

Israel:

the highlights and our summary of the conference, and until next time you speaker,

Lynne Bairstow:

thanks for listening to the build with Bitcoin podcast. If you found benefit in what you heard in this episode, we'd truly appreciate it. If you would like share or leave a comment on whichever platform you're listening as this helps others find us, which is especially important for a new podcast. And as a reminder, our content is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only, and is not to be considered investment advice or recommendation to invest in any company or asset mentioned in the podcast. Build with Bitcoin is a proud affiliate partner of river, a full service 100% reserve custody Bitcoin only financial services company for your next Bitcoin purchase, use our exclusive link partner.river.com/build, with Bitcoin. Thank you sincerely for being a part of the build with Bitcoin community.

People on this episode

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Israel Munoz

Co-host
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Lynne Bairstow

Co-host