Crypto Unplugged with Tone Vays

Oz: How easy was it to purchase bitcoin back then? Nowadays you go the exchanges you can go on, and OTC and that sort of stuff. But back in 2011-12, was it easy to get bitcoin or was it difficult?

Tone: You know, bitcoin was never that hard to purchase at any time. It only depended on how badly you wanted it. I can make the argument that it was easier to purchase bitcoin in 2012 and 2013 than today, because today you can go on Coinbase and they hit you with all this KYC stuff and you got to fill out the paperwork, and you may not fit their jurisdiction. It can take weeks. But the challenge around getting bitcoin has always been about the same. If you really want it, you will get it. Back then, local bitcoin was around, there were other ways of getting it. A lot of people got them from mount gox. Yeah, you have to send money to japan, but no one knew what bitcoin was, right? So back then, if you left your money in mount gossip, of course you lost it. But opening an account with Mt. Gox in Japan, walking into your bank, setting up a wire transfer to Japan, I mean, some guy will come out of the back and go, are you sure you want to send money to this thing? You just tell them, yes, I do, and it goes off. Now, if you didn't take that bitcoin off Mt. Gox, you lost it. But that's no different than today. If you leave your bitcoin on coinbase, you may not be able to get it back. Coinbase might not do something shady with it, but they will turn it over to the government if the government doesn't like you. So I would say getting your hands on bitcoin back then was probably better because it kind of forced you to buy it without KYC. And the older back you go, back in 2011 days, 2012 days, man, people were dying to spread the love of bitcoin back then, right? You go on a forum and say, hey, what is this bitcoin thing? I want to try it. People will send you dozens of bitcoin for free.

Oz: But for you, why is bitcoin such a game changer above all assets? People really want to invest in something today. There are many things you can invest in, but why for you is bitcoin? I guess, number one?

Tone: Well, because it's more than just an asset. I know everyone just wants to make more money and make themselves wealthier, but bitcoin will actually make you wealthier over time because bitcoin is better for the world. It's a lot better for the world. So, to me, an investment in bitcoin is actually improving everyone's life. Contrary to what the government tries to propagandise how evil bitcoin is, bitcoin makes everyone's life better. And the way bitcoin was designed. And this goes into those three properties of bitcoin that are absolutely critical. As bitcoin gets more and more adapted, it has no choice but to go up in price because of its limited quantity of only 21 million bitcoin, 10% of which is probably lost forever, and some of it continues to be lost forever. I've already mentioned all three of these properties, but to me, in order of importance, bitcoin is unconfiscateable. Bitcoin is censorship resistant value transfer where you can send it to anyone in the world. It's not always fast, it's not always cheap, it's not always private, but that transaction just cannot be stopped. And the third most important property of bitcoin is its limited supply of 21 million bitcoins. And as long as these three properties are not in danger, bitcoin will continue to spread across the globe, frustrating every government along the way, except the El Salvadorian government, which apparently loves bitcoin.

Tone: There's always a balance between the two. The most important thing a person can do for themselves and their family is to put money on the table. And in order to do that, they have to earn some kind of a living. Again, not to get too political, it's the same thing with what the government tried to convince you that you need to put others ahead of yourself. That's fundamentally not true. They tell you this is not true on an airplane. Every time you get on, you put your own mask on first, and then you put a mask on your kids. Like you can't help your kids if you are not protected, right? And they take the opposite view on that when it comes to trying to mandate the vaccine. But we're not going to get into that.

Doc: So can you tell us what you would put first, FA or TA?

Tone: I would put TA first over FA. But there is a third element here. People sometimes confuse fundamental analysis with news headlines and publicly available news information.

Tone: Sure. So, in traditional markets, those are really the three types of analysis you can do. You can pay attention to the news cycle, you can read a bunch of publicly available information, or you can use technical analysis. Now, true fundamental analysis is done that other people don't do. And I find it almost impossible for an at home trader to do real fundamental analysis. A hedge fund can do fundamental analysis. They have a lot of employees, they hire interns, they can assign a recent college graduate to investigate a company for a week before they make any decisions. Normal person cannot do that. You don't have the resources; you don't have the time to put into it. That is true fundamental analysis. If anyone's ever watched the show, billions character their “Dollar Bill” like, he's the king of fundamental analysis, but he'll bribe some guy at the warehouse to find out how much inventory a company really has. That's fundamental analysis, right. Having some kind of real information. Now, can you do this with publicly available information? Yeah, you can. For example, I had relatives that were working in funds that did fundamental analysis. They had a big fund. They would be looking to invest in a company, let's say a million or a few million dollars into a company, they will actually send an intern to the company and sit at the company for a few days, like just seeing what's going on. That's true fundamental analysis, and an average person can't do that.

Doc: We know your stance regarding altcoins, but could you give us and explain to our listeners what is your view on all coins and just be completely real about this?

Tone: Oh, absolutely. Everyone that first gets into bitcoin gets enticed by altcoins, myself included. You know, in the early days, like, well, maybe litecoin is something, maybe this privacy coin is something. But at the end of the day, you start to realise a couple of things. One of them is bitcoin cannot be replicated. You can't reinvent the internet. We have one internet. It's hard to reinvent it. Is it possible? Yes, but it's almost very unlikely. We're stuck with it. Bitcoin is the same way you can't replicate what satoshi did. You can't release an altcoin where no one pays attention to it, where the creator leaves and it grows organically. You can't recreate that environment. It just can't happen. So no coin being launched will ever be as decentralised as bitcoin. And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.

Oz: Is there a space for Ethereum and Bitcoin to coexist or are they trying to do different things? This is just something I would want to know as well.

Tone: I find it hard to see....................