The TRUE story behind bitcoin in El Salvador: Full Interview

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