April 30, 2024
Episode 192 – Jeff Booth – Exploring Bitcoin’s Future with Jeff Booth: Insights on Decentralization, Security, and Economic Shifts
“One system is dividing us from each other, one system is connecting us back together. All you have to do is learn why you might want to spend more of your time in the honest system. And as you do, your life changes.” – Jeff Booth
- Jeff Booth is a visionary leader, technology entrepreneur, Founding Partner at ego death capital and best-selling author of The Price of Tomorrow – Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future. With a profound grasp of technology, system thinking, and design, he stands at the forefront of a shift from an outdated economic model to one designed for tomorrow.
- Jeff’s insights and achievements have earned him the BC Technology Industry Association’s Person of the Year in 2015 and in October 2023, he was honored with induction into the prestigious BCTIA’s Hall of Fame. Furthermore, in 2016, he gained recognition from Goldman Sachs, who named him one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
- In addition to his work investing and helping entrepreneurs build on the rails of Bitcoin, he is a Co-Founder of addy and NocNoc. Jeff also actively serves on the boards of Fedi, and Breez, in addition to several advisory boards. A dedicated member of the Young Presidents Organization since 2004, he further contributes as a Founding Fellow at the Creative Destruction Lab.
- In this episode, Jeff and Patrick continue their conversation that began in 2022 about the current financial system, the decentralization and security of Bitcoin, ways to protect our capital and store value, plus the unlearning that may be required to do so. Jeff shares some digestible, simple concepts around Bitcoin, its perceived transactional inability, inflation (money manipulation), and the deflationary nature of technology. Jeff’s optimism for the future includes a call to curiousity, and encouragement to open our minds and our hearts and move our time and energy into learning about the new system, the optimism therein, and the connection it creates.
- Show Notes
- [00:42] Patrick introduces his returning TEDM guest, Jeff Booth.
- [02:25] Jeff and Patrick pick up where they left off to get into the conversation of Bitcoin, the current financial system, deflation, and the error most people make when looking at Bitcoin.
- [5:34] Money supply manipulation. Jeff explains the way in which an inflationary system, such as we have now, in reality, is theft. Our net worth should be increasing, not eroding alongside the efficiencies that technology creates. A 2% inflation rate as a “goal” is simply designed to make the theft less obvious over time. Until its not [boiling frog]. To quote Jeff from his X post: “We are told we need inflation. This is not true. It only seems true because the rules of the game were designed that way.” This has been the way of the world for a long time, but it is becoming far more evident in first world countries than ever before. Jeff uses the extraction of cobalt in the Congo as an example of modern-day slavery in third world countries which has been going on just as long. Real estate to some degree can be a store of value to protect our assets but Bitcoin is by far the best way.
- [15:25] Jeff starts to unpack the concept of deflation by talking about housing. Housing used to be a utility and now it is a method of protection and a store of value. The utility of housing and the products that go into them, should result in costs falling as things like lumber mills, window manufacturing, etc., become more automated. But because it’s measured in the current manipulation system of inflation, it rises, making housing scarcer and more difficult to attain. Jeff’s simple explanation is “abundance in money equals scarcity everywhere, scarcity in money equals abundance.” Enter Bitcoin.
- [19:06] Jeff talks about how his book was a catalyst for many people to start comprehending that technology in a free market should be deflationary, but the opposite is occurring. This rattled around in people’s brain, and they needed to solve that incongruency. It requires us to unlearn most of what we’ve been taught and challenge some of our hardest beliefs. For many it’s too hard, and they ignore or reject it and stay stuck.
- [24:37] Protecting capital outside of the system is critical. It’s also difficult to wrap our brains around. Even gold, is somewhat inefficient because it has been captured by the system, is vulnerable to value manipulation and does not hold governments accountable. Jeff suggests it is important we spend our time and energy doing the work to learn about and understand the decentralization and security of Bitcoin because it’s the best way to preserve our capital outside of the system.
- [27:02] Confusion over technologies and protocols vs companies and asset class is understandable. At its simplest think of Bitcoin as the first layer of the new internet. It’s a protocol, that’s bound by energy and creates more energy abundance by its very existence. Just like the internet has, Bitcoin is emerging in layers and now there’s a transaction layer, not just the asset of Bitcoin, and its growth is exploding. Bitcoin is limited at $21million units and can’t be changed.
- [32:42] Push-back on the perceived transactional inability of Bitcoin as a reason to avoid it, can quite simply a) be put to rest to rest because it is being used all over the world already b) explain to the skeptic, worst case scenario you convert it back to your local fiat currency. Confusion and skepticism in these early days are understandable. In comparison, it’s like the internet of 1996. There were many non-believers at that time.
- [36:50] The way of the world – Patrick offers his approach to getting our feet wet and starting to learn about Bitcoin. Jeff unfolds the layers of the existing system, which is based on theft, and which he wrote about in his book over four years ago. He talks about the way in which control escalates by design, through deliberate misinformation, targeted infighting, smoke and mirrors. We operate inside this old system, rather than getting educated about the new system and Bitcoin, and then complain about it. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
- [41:31] Optimism for the future. Our thoughts, words, and actions create the world we want to see. If those three things are inside the system that’s making things worse, that’s the view through which we’ll see the world. Jeff is already living in the future and everyday it gets brighter. Jeff shares an example of a business his company gets to fund that has seen exponential growth in less than a year, and operates within the new system of where society is going. We all get to choose whether we move our time and energy into that space.
- [44:24] Hyperinflation is not a singular event in the future. It has been rolling out for a long time, and we are already in it. What Jeff suggests is to open our minds and our hearts and move our time and energy into learning about the new system, the optimism therein, and the connection it creates. The old system is built for divisiveness. The new system is bringing us back together.
- [47:38] Jeff shares the thought process from which he operates in the context of his values.
- [50:42] Patrick and Jeff offer their parting guidance. Everyone goes through the learning curve and bumps up against the discomfort of challenging old beliefs along the way. Have some curiousity to explore a different reality.
- Selected links and people mentioned from this episode:
- The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth
- TEDM Episode #138 – Jeff Booth – Leader & Visionary for a Thriving Future
- jeffbooth.ca – Articles
- ego death capital
- Connect with REIN Canada
- REIN Canada
- [email protected]
- REIN Channel
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