Crypto and The Pursuit of Freedom - TOKEN2049 Dubai 2024

thank you everyone thank you thank you so amazing to be here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates more than 10,000 people from all around the world came here what an exciting exciting place to be here but I want to bring us way back to why we're all excited about this and why we're here because we're Breaking Chains with blockchains but that can have a lot of different meanings we're breaking the chains that tie us to the past with this new exciting technology that enables people all over the world to transact with each other directly peer-to-peer without needing permission from anybody anywhere in the world instantly and basically for free we're breaking the chains of oppressive regulations upon people that don't deserve to have those regulations impressed upon them empowering literally every single human being on the planet that has access to the internet to have a more free life in many different ways both financially personally economically in all sorts of different ways and it's really why here I am at almost 15 years involved in the space and I see a lot of familiar space people out there in the audience as well thank you so much for for that but the reason I'm still here after almost 15 years is because we're not there yet most most of the world is still using Fiat currencies most of the world hasn't seen the full benefit of these cryptocurrencies for the world but we're on the way we can feel it right we're on the way so many people are here there's cryptocurrency stuff happening all over the world all the time and the the momentum is just building and building and building and just like we can see you know people used to ride horses in the past to you know Cobra Mustangs now and like flying drone cars are just about here for the public like they're coming really really soon so everything's just picking up the pace including all the uh adoption that's happening in the world of cryptocurrency and that brings us to did I not hit click there we go decentralized right this is for all over the world right literally every single human being on the planet with access to the internet has access to this now this is one of the most exciting things to ever come out to the entire world because it's the entire world all once being connected via money and a lot of people don't realize just how important money is money is a form of speech and a lot of people don't realize that but money is speech anytime you buy anything with your money you're transmitting information when you go to the store and buy Coca-Cola or Pepsi or water or whatever it is you're buying from peanut butter to paper napkins you're transmitting the information to those different companies that you want whatever it is that you're buying and they should continue to buy more of that or produce more of that for people to buy and there's a fantastic book I would like to recommend everybody should read it's called I pencil and it's just an amazing amazing book and it's something so simple it's the story of a pencil told from the point of view of a pencil and the pencil tells everybody there's not a single human being alive on the planet that knows how to make me so who here thinks they know how to make a pencil can I see does anyone know how to make a pencil not too many hands are going up and if you think you know how to make a pencil you're wrong and after reading this book you'll realize wow there's really not a single human being alive on the planet that knows how to make a pencil and the reason for that is even something as simple as a pencil so many people all over the world tens of thousands hundreds of thousands maybe millions of people come together to collaborate to build something as simple as a pencil whether it's the Lumberjacks chopping down the wood to make the pencil whether it's the Rubber trees in Indonesia and then the factory that refines the rubber or the little like metal tip on the end that's dug out of some sort of metal ore out of the ground with the Machinery to do that and then maybe the smelting company that does that and then the the graphite that's in the pencil or the yellow paint that's made from the dye from somewhere else in a die Factory and then the people that work in the factory have to get you know the food that they eat and it's produced somewhere else and literally all these people that never talk with words to each other all come together to communicate with each other in this decentralized manner to produce everything that we want from whether it's something as simple as a pencil or an iPhone or this big giant conference like but it's the money that transmits the information to all these people around the world that lets them come together to be able to do that and that's a really really really amazing amazing thing and anytime anybody's blocking the flow of money they're blocking the flow of that information that allows people to cooperate around the world to produce the things that people want and that's why these decentralized blockchains working as peer-to-peer cash are so incredibly important to enable people to be able to communicate more freely financially around the world to make the world a better place for all these things and when I hit the clicker it turns red and the next slide doesn't come so I'll just talk without the next slide if it doesn't come over there there we go so any anybody can participate literally anybody and if you're here at this conference you're already participating but I want to implore you like if you're not already paying for as many your bills with cryptocurrency as you can start and take the Fiat money that you would have normally used to pay those bills and buy more cryptocurrency that's the way we can spread it so anytime you need to pay back a friend say hey let me pay you in crypto or anytime a friend needs to pay you something say hey can you pay me in crypto or ask your employer hey pay me in crypto and that's how we can get more and more people around the world using cryptocurrency as money because if we want to see the benefits for the world of cryptocurrency we need to be using it as something something more than just a speculative asset let's use it for money for everybody all over the planet because that's how we're going to make the world a better place sooner rather than later and it's completely permissionless to use I see what was happening I hit the clicker multiple times my additional slides came out so again no no uh prerequisite qualifications literally anybody on the planet can use this without having to have an ID without having to have anything at all and one really exciting aspect of this too I guarantee you right AI is just right around the corner Bank of America is not going to open a bank account for AI the bank of England is not going to open a bank account for AI NBD bank here in the United ARA memes well they're pretty Progressive here maybe they will but most banks aren't going to open a bank account for ai ai is going to be using cryptocurrency right so whether you're human or superhuman intelligence cryptocurrency is for you any sort of thinking entity out there will be able to use cryptocurrencies and that's a really really exciting thing for for the world as well and again this is peer-to-peer people can use it to pay each other send and receive payments with anyone anywhere on the planet but AIS are going to use cryptocurrency to pay you or for you to pay it or to pay other AIS like this is literally not just money for every single human being on the planet it's money for every single conscious entity on the planet and uh just a little past story of my involvement in in Bitcoin early on on the Bitcoin talk forums maybe in I don't know 2012 I was there was a thread talking about what's your favorite thing about Bitcoin and people were talking about it and some people said oh I like it because it's you know there's a limited Supply or I like it because I can hold my own money or I like it for a lot of reasons we've probably heard already but one of the more entertaining reasons that somebody posted is they posted that finally I they said they like Bitcoin so much because fin when humans make contact with extraterrestrial entities we don't have to be embarrassed about the type of money we're using anymore and if you think about that humans for thousands of years have been using little round pieces of metal or more recently pieces of paper that's old old Antiquated technology and now with the invention of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies we no longer have to be embarrassed about the type of money we're using and I think that's really a a fun point so and again this is for everybody all over the world you don't need a centralized institution it works for everybody right now today without middlemen that's so important so important and I'm really glad to see all the cryptocurrency adoption happening around the world but I think a lot of people get confused about the difference between a cryptocurrency account and a cryptocurrency wallet with a cryptocurrency wallet you have the private Keys yourself and you're in charge of the money yourself but we see a lot of people misla labeling cryptocurrency accounts as wallets and that's really doing a big disservice for the world and so I'm glad to see all the adoption that's going on in places like El Salvador but it's important to understand that the state mandated software for people to use Bitcoin there it's an account not a wallet and if you're using an account you're basically back in the old system where they can freeze your account block your payments monitor everything you're doing you're missing almost all the benefits of cryptocurrency if you're using an account rather than a wallet and so that's why it's so incredibly important for people to use cryptocurrency wallets or at least have the option to use a wallet and not be forced into using some sort of a custodian and so uh I'll recommend I think two of my favorite wallets I think is of course the bitcoin.com wallet but uh another wallet I really like that I have absolutely no vested interest in whatsoever other than it's a fantastic wallet and there's a lot of them out there but uh I really like trust wallet that's also a fantastic wallet so but that's not to say that the other wallets out there aren't fantastic as well but make sure you're not using a scam wallet that's actually an account so an example of that is a wallet of Satoshi Satoshi if he's alive he'll be upset if he's in his grave he's rolling over his grave over a wallet of Satoshi it's not a wallet it's an account so please people understand the difference between a wallet and an account and let's see there we go because if you're using a wallet you can transact freely if you're using an account you're at other people's mercy so please please please understand the difference between wallets and accounts and understand just what a big deal that is for for everybody there so because if you want to be able to send and receive payments freely and not be at someone else's control you need to be able to use a wallet and not an account and that's why I'm slightly distracted because my clicker doesn't work quite how I expected it to work here so there we go and again transactions are fast on most blockchains but not all blockchains and uh one of the reasons why today I think most people know me about Bitcoin cash a little bit more than Bitcoin but I used to be the face of Bitcoin from 2011 until 2015 16 17 somewhere in there I was one of the very main faces of Bitcoin because Bitcoin transactions used to be super fast super reliable uh peer-to-peer cash for the entire world uh today that's not necessarily the case on bitcoin or ethereum or some other things but that's great that now there's thousands of other competing cryptocurrencies just like it's great that there's competition between you know all these different automakers and computer manufacturers it's fantastic that there's competition across all these different cryptocurrencies to have super fast super cheap super reliable transactions for the entire world to use as peer-to PE electronic cash for the world there we go and again I I'm just shocked like I I spend way more money on eth gas fees than gas for my car like like it's not even close at this point and I think a lot of us at there but that's the nice part now we have all sorts of other evm chains with lower gas fees that we can use and so the market can compete and we're seeing that happen right so Bitcoin used to have 90 something per market share it's far far less than that at the moment but that's okay right iPhone uh you know 3GS used to have you know the vast majority of market share amongst iPhones well now there's iPhone 15 has a lot more market share than iPhone 3GS that's a good thing and it's the same as the new cryptocurrencies come out don't be a hater of the new cryptocurrencies as they come out be a supporter because the technolog is going to get better and better year after year month after month day after day and as better things come out all of us get to benefit by it so that's a really great thing so be appreciative of these new cryptocurrencies as they come out and again it's really exciting most of these cryptocurrencies they're set by the laws of mathematics not by the laws of men like human beings currently set them up but once they're set up there they go and that's really a fantastic thing the stability that we have whereas with the the Federal Reserve we have no idea how many additional dollars they're going to print next week or next month or even or even today for that matter whereas with cryptocurrency we have this programmed issuance and we know exactly what's going to happen there and that's a really really positive thing for for them so and again no Runway inflation like we've seen a lot of inflation these last couple years cryptocurrency that's one of the best parts about it too is you know exactly what the issuance is going to be and that's a big deal so and again these public ledgers fantastic anybody can audit them anybody can see what's going on you can see the history all the way back to the Genesis block all the way up till today many times that's fantastic but uh sometimes uh sometimes you don't necessarily want all of that but uh it makes accounting a lot easier and it makes you very very secure in your cryptocurrency right you don't even have to have the money if you know your address you can check on the Computing device in your pocket oh is my money still there has it moved if it hasn't moved you're still good as long as you didn't lose your private keys and uh that's really really a a fantastic tool as well or if you're a big giant institution right if you want to prove that you have your customers money you can point on the blockchain and say hey there it is right there at our public address you can see that it's there and that's a really really uh fantastic uh way to do that that so and again if you're not using a custodian if you're using an actual wallet thieves would have to attack the entire network to be able to take your money that's very very different than uh traditional things so and again it's uh secured literally by thousands tens of thousands maybe some networks even have up more than 100 thousand nodes at this point really really amazing just how many people around the world and I I've seen some miners in the in the audience though who hear at some point does run a full node or some mining stuff show of hands really a lot of hands there some of you haven't even if you haven't that's okay but if you're a nerd it's really really fun and exciting to do it so I recommend just trying it for the nerdy aspect this of it it's really really fun uh and again these are immutable right if you think about it the start of the Bitcoin blockchain was the real beginning of recorded history right because we have this blockchain that's going to go on for forever and ever and ever and it's immutable it can't be changed whereas books written in the past maybe they were copied maybe they were printed again here somewhere that things change right the the winners write the history well with the Bitcoin blockchain anything that's recorded in that blockchain can be viewed as the true beginning of a recorded history because it doesn't change and it's there forever uh and anybody can see and and check it right there on the blockchain and again there's no chargebacks there's no changing the history it's right there for everybody and again with things like ethereum and these other evm chains and you know salana is the hot chain at the moment there as well all these smart contracts all these amazing exciting things are becoming capable uh out there where we can see things literally just happening once the code is set up and the code is written it happens Beyond uh the human control there it's really uh amazing to see that uh as well and again a lot of people get confused they think oh AI is going to take our jobs or this or that like the more things we can automate in the world the more free time all of us have to enjoy other things in the world or the more automation we can create for the production of automobiles or cars or computers or anything the more free time we have to do other things so like the more things we can automate in the world uh the better the world becomes so don't be afraid of Automation and again we've heard you know cod's law we have no idea what the Federal Reserve is going to do tomorrow but we can look at all these different things on different blockchains and we know exactly how they're going to behave and that's really really fantastic and again the revolution started with uh public blockchains Bitcoin of course ethereum just about all of these uh but uh that gave us this ability to look into the blockchains and see hey are these people being honest with us do they have it and compete direct with Fiat currencies where we don't know what the case is going to be and so Satoshi designed it to be that way but he also thought uh that in addition to being totally audible he also thought that with a little bit of a additional effort you'd be able to have privacy on the blockchain as well but it turned out that wasn't really the case on bitcoin and so we saw a lot of Commerce move from public blockchains to private blockchains like Monero for example a huge amount of Commerce did that and then later uh we saw ethereum come along and everybody did tokens tokens tokens and now there's so many different evm chains and so many tokens happening all over the world but you have no privacy with any of the tokens there's basically no token privacy so I thought well a lot of Commerce moved from Bitcoin to Monero and other privacy tokens privacy chains I think the next step that we're going to see that we haven't really seen the market appreciate yet is we're going to see the world move from public tokens to privacy tokens and so uh I implore you to go out there and look what are the Privacy token platforms out there I'm excited about privacy tokens I think that'll be uh the next big deal right so uh because in order to have some control over your own money you don't necessarily want everybody in the world to know exactly what your balance is and how much money you have and what's going on there so I implore you to think if you were fan of Monero where are the Privacy tokens I think that's uh the next big uh thing that's going to be exciting in the world of cryptocurrency and so uh anyhow I just want to thank everybody for coming uh what an exciting time to be alive we're right on the verge of uh you know AI becoming the smartest thing on the the planet but just like there's lots of humans that are much smarter than me on the planet I get to benefit from their knowledge and their resources and the things that they do all of us humans are going to get to benefit from Ai and the new things and the new amazing things that it's going to figure out how to do so uh I just want to thank everybody and invite all of you again if you're not using cryptocurrency in your daily life very much use it more if you're already using it a lot get all your friends and everybody to use it more because that's how we're going to spread this technology to the entire world and I just want to thank all of you again for being in part of this amazing journey because we're really changing the entire world for the better thanks to cryptocurrencies so thank you all so very very much