have citizens complained or have you got
16:52
any feedback or pushback on kind of the
16:54
volatility of bitcoin or is it something
16:56
where they’re seeing it appreciate over
16:57
time so it’s a little more comfortable
16:58
or is there that day-to-day swing that
17:00
makes them a little uneasy
17:02
i mean i would say all i mean it’s it’s
17:04
there’s no denying that the volatility
17:06
is a challenge for bitcoin the fact that
17:09
you know the volatility has historically
17:11
been going up i think is helpful so
17:13
people have that kind of long view that
17:15
maybe you know they lose money you know
17:17
in dollar terms this month but you know
17:19
overall they’re going to be in a better
17:21
situation um but i think that’s just
17:23
part of the process of bitcoin
17:24
monetizing that it’s trying to find its
17:26
value and so you know i think we still
17:28
have several years of this which is why
17:30
i think it’s the gu it was very wise of
17:32
the government to put into the wallet
17:34
the ability for people to auto convert
17:37
uh there’s the ability for them to hold
17:39
their value in dollars but still utilize
17:41
the bitcoin payment rails and i think
17:43
that’s an important distinction that a
17:44
lot of people don’t understand
17:46
especially the mainstream press they
17:48
don’t understand the difference between
17:49
you know bitcoin the asset and bitcoin
17:51
the payment rails and so it’s the
17:53
bitcoin payment rails that are really
17:55
the most important for the country at
18:00
volatility can be mitigated by holding
18:07
in that auto convert function
18:10
john what questions you got yeah mike
18:11
thank you for doing this um really big
18:14
fan of what you guys are doing as joe
18:16
said but um i’m curious more about the
18:18
the customers and the businesses how are
18:19
they interacting um and then like is it
18:22
kind of being adopted seamlessly by the
18:24
customers in the businesses and then
18:25
what tools are the businesses
18:28
to accept bitcoin as a payment to do any
18:30
loyalty programs that they have like
18:32
what is it like from their perspective
18:35
so most uh the businesses that we’ve
18:37
been working with here and also are very
18:39
small mom-and-pop businesses so they’re
18:41
businesses that never would be qualified
18:43
to accept credit cards and so for them
18:45
this is the first time for them to have
18:46
any type of mobile payments um network
18:49
and they’re just fascinated by the fact
18:51
that now you know somebody can send
18:53
bitcoin from across town without having
18:55
to be physically present and they can
18:57
send a little delivery boy to you know
18:59
go deliver them their papoosas or their
19:01
groceries and so for them it’s been a
19:04
huge asset to kind of have this whole
19:06
digital world opened up to them for the
19:09
most of them have been using the bitcoin
19:11
beach wallet developed by galloway money
19:14
and that’s because the team from galway
19:16
spent several months here and have kind
19:18
of learned how the people used it they
19:20
saw the things that didn’t make sense to
19:21
them there’s oftentimes a big disconnect
19:24
from the developers who kind of live in
19:26
their own bubble versus you know
19:27
specifically people in a developing
19:30
country and so i think it’s very
19:31
important that we build wallets and
19:34
tools that are actually what the users
19:36
want not what the developers want
19:40
mike i got two more questions for you
19:42
and then we’ll uh we’ll let you go is
19:44
one when you think about uh
19:47
bitcoin and the continued move forward
19:50
uh the president is tweeting and he
19:53
tweeted yesterday that they bought 200
19:54
bitcoin he then tweeted they bought
19:56
another 200. uh and then today during
19:58
the dip he essentially tweeted uh that
20:01
they bought the dip bought 150 bitcoin
20:03
said thanks imf uh you know kind of in
20:06
some way was using twitter um in a very
20:10
different way than most heads of state
20:12
how do you evaluate uh bitcoin the use
20:16
of twitter and the el salvadorian um or
20:20
the salvadorian like economy and and the
20:22
people are they excited by this do they
20:25
not like it like it just seems like it’s
20:28
so different that you could almost make
20:30
an argument that it’s good or bad we
20:31
were discussing earlier on the show is
20:33
you know it could be a positive for
20:35
bitcoin it could be a negative it could
20:36
be a positive for el salvador it could
20:38
be a negative same for the president how
20:40
do you view it in terms of almost like
20:42
the real time uh information sharing and
20:45
the transparency and the engagement that
20:47
maybe other heads of state uh don’t
20:50
yeah i think for bitcoin there’s no
20:52
question it’ll it’ll be beneficial i
20:54
mean even even if things go sour or
20:57
something unexpected happens and you
20:59
know there’s a really negative impact
21:01
just the fact that people are exposed to
21:03
bitcoin for their first time and you
21:05
know that sticks with them and so i
21:08
think regardless of what happens here on
21:09
the government level el salvador will be
21:12
a major hub for bitcoin just because
21:14
once people are exposed to bitcoin they
21:18
as far as for el salvador i think
21:19
there’s huge opportunities um we’ve
21:22
already seen it just the amount of
21:24
earned media that they’ve gotten from
21:26
from this decision i mean it’s worth
21:28
tens of billions of dollars just all the
21:30
focus that’s been on el salvador and
21:33
mostly in a positive light you know
21:35
looking at them being forward thinking
21:37
and embracing new technology versus
21:39
historically they’ve only the news is
21:41
only focused on el salvador when there
21:42
was a you know big gang shootings or
21:45
things like that and so it’s really
21:46
flipped the script on people’s
21:48
perception of el salvador and i don’t
21:50
think you can underestimate the value of
21:52
that and then also the number of
21:55
companies that are locating here that
21:57
like literally could not have pointed
21:59
out bitcoin on a map six months ago and
22:02
now are opening offices here
22:04
and not just paying better but they’re
22:06
providing that opportunity for people to
22:07
increase their education and the people
22:10
that are working for these companies now
22:11
will have the skills to go out and start
22:13
their own companies and so
22:20
of what happens and regardless of the
22:22
ups and downs el salvador is going to be
22:24
the most prosperous country in central
22:26
america maybe latin america you know 10
22:28
years from now and i think bitcoin is
22:30
going to increase because definitely el
22:32
salvador is not going to be the last
22:33
country to embrace it i’m hearing all
22:35
kinds of rumors of other countries that
22:37
are looking to go the same direction and
22:39
so i think it’s just a matter of time
22:41
till that happens i’m sure right now
22:43
they’re sitting back a little bit to see
22:44
how this works out and if it works out
22:47
well they’ll jump in if if there’s some
22:49
you know big stumbles along the way
22:51
they’ll probably wait but you know that
22:53
might just be the difference between it
22:55
being six months before the next you
22:57
know announcement in 16 months so i
23:00
think it’s inevitable that that’s the
23:02
way the world’s going to go
23:04
yeah i tend to agree with you obviously
23:06
uh more so than not uh last question i
23:08
have for you which is a fun one uh
23:10
bitcoin is in uh what appears to be a
23:12
bull run any price predictions or
23:14
thoughts as to where bitcoin’s price
23:16
goes through the rest of this year
23:19
i mean i i personally don’t think we’re
23:21
done with the cycles um i i like the
23:24
super cycle idea i would love to think
23:26
that we you know are going to have
23:30
i you know i’m hesitant to make price
23:34
everybody knows how uh you know that’s
23:36
worse than trying to predict the weather
23:37
but i would guess somewhere in the 150
23:40
range you know into the end of the year
23:42
but i still think we’ll have a big
23:44
pullback in the next year i hope i’m
23:46
wrong but that’s kind of what i’m
23:48
assuming but i do know 10 years from now
23:51
it’ll be you know at least 10x what it
23:53
is now and so that’s more what i’m
23:55
focused on so you think 10 years 500 000
23:58
or more is pretty safe bet
24:03
i would make that bet all day long
24:05
so so would i my friend i am making that
24:07
bet as i assume you are as well
24:11
um all right uh we’ve got your twitter
24:14
account here um where uh we’ve been
24:16
telling people to go follow you and
24:18
engage uh at bitcoin beach is there
24:20
anywhere else that you want us to send
24:22
folks um to uh to find more about the
24:25
work you’re doing or check out anything
24:28
yeah so we also have a website it’s just
24:33
but we are we are more current on
24:35
twitter the the website is kind of more
24:37
of a static page but it’s a good place
24:39
for people to go to to kind of see
24:41
pictures of the team there and that sort
24:43
all right and then actually i lied i
24:45
have one more question how good is the
24:47
the surfing in el salvador is horrible
24:53
it’s absolutely horrible bitcoin sucks
24:55
and surfing in el salvador sucks perfect
25:00
the surfing is amazing it really is it’s
25:02
i’m a little hesitant to tell people
25:04
that because i’m getting older so it’s
25:06
harder for me to fight for waves so i
25:08
don’t want the crowds to descend too
25:09
fast but uh but yeah it’s an amazing
25:12
it’s an amazing town it’s amazing
25:14
country and lots of good waves and warm
25:16
water and especially warm people
25:19
that’s awesome man well listen thank you
25:20
so much for taking the time out of uh
25:22
out of this kind of historic day and uh
25:24
you know just thank you from me and my
25:26
brothers and everyone else in the
25:27
bitcoin community have been doing some
25:28
amazing work down there um and i think
25:31
the results speak for themselves so keep
25:32
up the great work and we’ll have to talk
25:34
again in the future as you guys continue
25:38
well hopefully next time we talk you’re
25:39
here in el zante so uh just let us know
25:42
when you’re ready to come down i i i i
25:44
don’t know if you know this but i almost
25:46
made a trip uh with uh the second best
25:49
bitcoin podcaster in the world peter
25:51
mccormick but uh we couldn’t make the uh
25:53
the dates work so i’m gonna come down
25:55
there uh but hopefully i come when he’s
25:57
not there so everyone thinks that i’m
25:59
cool because he’s not there to uh to
26:03
well he must have got hung up on
26:04
something because he told me he was
26:06
gonna come barge in and uh you know
26:09
crash our podcast today so he he’s
26:11
probably off interviewing the president
26:15
no no don’t give him any credit he’s
26:16
probably he’s probably down the street
26:21
surfing drinking or on twitter trying to
26:25
figure out how he can get my attention
26:26
by tweeting at me incessantly stupid
26:31
awesome man listen thank you so much for
26:32
doing this we’ll definitely do it again
26:34
all right sounds good we’ll see you guys