# Interview│Joel Valenzuela - Dash│ETHDam 2024

- Channel: [CryptoCanal](https://streameth.org/cryptocanal)
- Date: 2024-10-07
- Duration: 11:57
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-qP7ybap3KTc
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP7ybap3KTc

## Description

Joel Valenzuela from Dash shares his journey of surviving and thriving on crypto at ETHDam 2024. 

Joel’s message is clear: "Taxation is theft, your phone is spying on you, fiat is a scam, and you should start living on crypto before it's too late." This mantra highlights his belief in the power of digital money to provide financial freedom and independence. Discover how he’s fully embraced this lifestyle, the challenges he’s overcome, and why NOW is the time to ditch fiat.

https://twitter.com/Dashpay https://www.dash.org/

ETHDam - a conference and hackathon held in the heart of Amsterdam, Netherlands from April 12th to 14th, 2024, celebrated its second edition, gathering more than 600 participants. 

In the dynamic space of ETHDam, privacy and security took center stage, featuring groundbreaking discussions on hacks, recovery, and the revolutionary work of figures like Pertsev. Privacy is dead in crypto, people that know, know. People who don’t know, should know. 
ETHDam is powered by CryptoCanal, an education and events platform growing in Amsterdam, spreading its roots to Rotterdam and Zürich.
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## Transcript

Taxation is theft. Your phone is spying on you. Fiat money is a scam. Start living on cryptocurrency before it's too late. Next on E is Joel from Dash. How does he imagine a fulfilling life on cryptocurrency? Let's find out. Uh, my name is Joel Valenzuela, and I work in business development and marketing at Dash. Yes, the main message main message I'm trying to convey is that it's time to start trying to live on cryptocurrency. We had so many years where the adoption of cryptocurrency was delayed while people looked for other things to do instead of people looked for other things to do instead of just trying to use cryptocurrency as money. There were a lot of attempts to find rabbit holes that didn't need to be explored, or accepting compromises, bad user experiences, all that. And I think that's set us back, and I think we really need to start focusing on using freedom money before we no longer have the freedom to use it. Yes, it came to me in my youth, when I was studying. I learned about the history of money. Where do they come from? It comes from barter, then you have different things, and different things, and eventually you get precious metals converted into coins, and eventually you get converted into, you know, gold certificates, kind of like pieces of paper representing gold reserves. And then it was always kept quiet always kept quiet . How did we get rid of gold and why? And, uh, I grew up in northern Mexico, and I came there just at the end of the peso crisis, when the old fiat currency collapsed and a new one came in. I remember my grandmother having these old coins that didn't work anymore. These new ones worked, but this one didn't. And I was always very aware that money is not always worth the same value, that if you have a state currency, something can always go wrong. So I always talked about always talked about thinking, oh, what if we go back to the gold standard, to this whole Peter Schiff theory, right? If we return to the gold standard, start using precious metals, the world will be a better place again. But maybe it's because I'm so impatient, maybe I'm not that smart, and that's all I could think about, but I was like, "Well, why ca n't we do it now?" Why do we have to wait to reach legislative consensus and do a bunch of other things to convince the central bank?” And so I wanted to try living off of gold. And so, in 2011, 2012, I tried to get one of Peter Schiff's gold-backed debit cards, gold-backed debit cards, which I was looking for. I thought, “I could have all my savings in all my pocket money, even in gold, and it would just automatically convert when I swiped the card. "That's great." I was trying to get one of these, but never got around to finishing it never got around to finishing it when I heard about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. And, uh, a friend gave me my money back for a pizza we shared when I was traveling to Chicago, where he lived; and I paid for the pizza and he refunded me in bitcoin. I thought, “Oh, that’s great thought, “Oh, that’s great . I have to use this." And that's how my journey began. And here's what happened, even though I used Bitcoin whenever I could or received money in it , it wasn't until late 2015 that I started thinking, "Well, kind of like what am I doing with my life?" Because I was talking about "this is great, this will change the world," and I was using it in my personal life, something like; but then I felt that if I really believed it, I should be more convinced. And also I started to feel pressure that if I'm telling people to, you know, this is great, use Bitcoin, I have to know more about what I'm promoting. So I needed to needed to really experience it to be confident in what I was doing. And then I just decided to stop accepting payment in fiat currency and only receive payment in cryptocurrency. And it all started: I wrote for CoinTelegraph for a while , I got paid to write about Bitcoin, and then a few other things, and I worked for Dash around 2017 and 2019 , then I had my own podcast, and I still do that, consulting and other things, whatever I got paid in cryptocurrency, and then I worked for Zcash last year, and finally this year I just went back to full-time work, getting paid directly from the Dash DAO, directly from newly minted coins, just like Satoshi intended, right? Purely and simply living on cryptocurrency all the time. So, if you 're in your native crypto world, okay, I don't want to say " okay, I don't want to say " seamless," because I've been complaining a lot today about how it's so seamless compared to fiat currencies that if I want to say, "Hey, somebody here, I'll set up a Dash wallet for you," I just beep: you have money. That's all. You don't have to go through KYC, you don't have to do any of that, otherwise someone will say, " otherwise someone will say, " Hey, I don't have Dash." I have Monero. I only want Monero. “And I just do a few little things, make the swap, it gets swapped, and then they get Monero and you can pay. Or you have a wallet, you can...I know a few farmers near me who accept cryptocurrency, and they just have a wallet like Edge. And anything supported by the Edge wallet, they accept as goods and services. So no one would do that with fiat currencies. Nobody would say, "I accept rubles and, you know, dinars and everything else, and also US dollars and then Argentine pesos." "It's like no Argentine pesos." "It's like no one would do anything like that." This is just ridiculous. But it's so easy that anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime, and for any amount, I can just pay or receive. And if they want a different amount, it's so easy to switch between all these coins and tokens. As long as you can afford the gas fee, then just stay away from Bitcoin and Ethereum, maybe. And while your transaction is going through transaction is going through , so be careful with Solana, maybe. Uh, that might date this interview in the future, but whatever . So the bottom line is that it's just unobstructed. And it really struck me that it wasn't just a convenience. Uh, I had a friend whose life was in danger in another country. He had to flee and seek refuge. And to get a plane ticket, I paid for it with cryptocurrency. And so he bought a plane ticket. He went for it all . And I just said...He just sent me the address and the amount. I just paid. And then he supposedly fled the country." He is still alive today because of this. And if I...I don't think I could pay for it any other way, at least as easily. He...If someone's life is in danger and you pay, sometimes you don't want your finances to be tied up with that person because then it could be a problem for you. So, just an opportunity, here it is... opportunity, here it is... I reach into my pocket and give it to someone, but in digital format. It's that simple. So unhindered. This is the world I want to live in. Because this is not just my world. I want the whole world to be like this. Hmm, I like to say that the worst thing about cryptocurrency is fiat money. So, the worst thing about cryptocurrency is cryptocurrency is any time you have to interact with the fiat world. For example, if you want to pay bills and so on, and you don't want just your landlord or whoever you're paying to take it directly, you have to go through a fiat intermediary with all the KYC stuff, and then they get regulated, and sometimes your service... sometimes your service... gone, or you want to pay with, like, a prepaid Visa card or something , and where they accept them and how they accept them is always changing. Always, you know, actually, literally yesterday, um, I had a problem with a card being declined for my...I have something like a business card because when I can, I pay... um, I pay, um, almost all business expenses in cryptocurrency. And when I can't, I have a reloadable card that I have for my business. So when I, you know, pay for a hotel that I can't pay for with anything else. And I just paid for my entire hotel and everything else with cryptocurrency, but then when it came to paying the actual tax, they make you do it in person for some reason, and, um, the card just didn't work. So I had to... Luckily, I had enough euros in my pocket just in case, because I'm a little unfamiliar with this area. I don't live here. That I was able to just cover this fee with, you know, cash. But this is the worst. Hmm... A mix of services that work, this one services that work, this one does, and this one does, and this one went bankrupt, but that's a huge problem. The number one most painful problem in this situation, and when this is all over, I will know we have won, is communicating with people. This is the hardest part because the payment terms are always a little more complicated, like in a crowded place, and then you can't always pay for everything you want, but I have to choose where I get these things based on where I can use cryptocurrency. For example, I'll look, "Oh, where can I eat?" I'm in a new city, where can I eat? "Oh, let me check." Bitrefill has a gift card section, so I can buy from these restaurants. "If it doesn't happen, then no." Or I'll see their point of sale. If they... There are many places in the US today that still don't have NFC payments using contactless payment , which is crazy, but that's another story. So if I can't use the virtual crypto virtual crypto card that's in my watch, I can't actually pay. And if I'm talking to friends who don't have cryptocurrency, I can't just give them back the money in cryptocurrency. I'm a little worried. It must be a nightmare situation when you have to pay with cryptocurrency. And once that situation comes, once I never feel that feeling of anxiety again, once I just realize that I can just go out and know that whatever I use is going to work and I'm not going to give up or anything . That’s when I’ll feel like I can just tell everyone, “No, you should definitely start. Not just...If you want, you should live on cryptocurrency, but you should. Everyone should." should. Everyone should." “I can say that as soon as I get rid of this pain point. We don't realize how much control over our lives we lose every day. When you use this with cryptocurrency, you know what you're doing. You control it. And when you try to do that without custody, without vetting your client, you start to see the full regime of control and surveillance that you once lived in, or that the rest of the world lives in, and it's scary. And people did it, agreeing. Don't agree. Stand up for what you believe in and don't let people take away your freedom. This is very difficult. Maybe it's too lazy to talk about Satoshi Nakamoto, because I think that even today, with all the technological advances, he did so much right the first time that many other projects had to learn a long time. But this is again laziness. I would say that Roger Ver is a great project. And there's been a lot of controversy surrounding Roger Ver over the years, especially with people not liking the coin choices he was promoting or something like that." But this person heard about cryptocurrency on my friends' radio show in New Hampshire called Free Talk Live in 2010. And then he just went all in and was a consistent supporter for decades, and he said that without him there wouldn't be a crypto industry today, just like that, because he was an angel investor in the first crypto startups, and he had the wealth and the vision to really turn this into an economy, turn this into a movement turn this into a movement , give value to Bitcoin. And there are many people who I find very fascinating. I really like a lot of people, but I think about the emptiness in this space. If you were to erase him from history, cryptocurrency would suffer the most from most from anyone, except Satoshi, probably. Any last words to the audience? Hmm. Do you want...Yes. Taxation is theft. Your phone is spying on you. Fiat is spying on you. Fiat is a scam. Start living on cryptocurrency before it's too late. Thank you. Therefore.