Hack your life with Bitcoin (HCPP2020)

All right, dear viewers, welcome to Consensus Network. We're back in business doing English content again. So it's been a while, but thanks for hanging on if you're still following the channel. And if you're, you're not following the channel, you can, you can do so again. There's gonna be Plenty of more English videos. And we're gonna kick off with an interesting guest, Juraj, from Hackers Congress from Parallelpolis. And we're gonna be talking about that event, which is on the coming weekend. We have a very special discount code for you, so you want to hang on to the end of the video to check that out and take advantage of it. We're going to be talking today a little bit about paying with Bitcoin, like salaries and stuff, doing business with that, doing trade with that, Bitcoin circular economy, how to maybe deal with your accounting and your liabilities, all that kind of stuff. And we'll see where this journey takes us. But without further ado, I will let the guests introduce themselves. Here I am. Welcome to ConsenSys Network. Please introduce yourself, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, and we'll just ease into it.

Thanks, Niko. Thanks for having me. So I'm a founder of Parallelpolis and Institute of Cryptoanarchy, which are places, currently more than one. The first one was in Prague, where the congress is happening as well, but there are places and organizations of the same name in Vienna and Bratislava and Košice. And me personally, I have a background in computer security and algorithms. I studied computer science, and when I first read the Bitcoin whitepaper, I realized that it's a very nice algorithm. I didn't, back then, I didn't know if it could work as money. So I asked my friend who is an economist of Austrian School of Economy, which is the only real economy, I think, if this could work as money. So I was explaining it to him for, for a few hours. And then he said, probably not, but it is interesting. Now he He's also changed his mind. And with this place, Parallelpolis, what we try to do is we try to create a parallel society. And that means parallel education, parallel financial system. We use, for example, only Creative Commons music. There is usually in Parallelpolis, there is usually cafeteria, coworking space, Institute of Cryptoanarchy is a studio think tank and we do talks and stuff like that. And what we tried to do when we started more than 6 years ago was that we tried to figure out if we can use these parallel solutions to run an organization. So we said, okay, we are going to be Bitcoin only. And that was, you know, the time when There were like 2 wallets in the app stores and several people even paid with their Bitcoin Core running on their notebook by scanning QR codes with the camera. So very, very early days. And we tried to figure out if we can actually do this, if we can say, okay, we are not using any kind of fiat currencies. With one exception that we allow an operator of Bitcoin ATM to have an ATM there for people to be able to buy Bitcoin with fiat. So that's the only use of fiat in these spaces. And we were experimenting and we had— we went through all the problems of Bitcoin and it was very interesting interesting experience. We went through the high fees where people would pay, you know, 3 times the amount of espresso for a fee, and then we would need to explain it. And then things like wallets not syncing and incoming payment not confirming. So the first wallets, for example, couldn't spend unconfirmed input. So if the block was not mined for, you know, 30 minutes, people— Were waiting to pay for their espresso in the cafeteria. So it was very, very interesting experience. And it was— I like that we started way before the crazy HODL Bitcoin millionaires and to the moon craze. This was really enthusiasts and people who wanted to try something new. So it was a very different crowd back then. And I also— what is really interesting is to see how the community is changing and the diversity of people that are attracted to freedom, first of all. And we think that being crypto-only is a good filter. If If people are not willing to cross this barrier and this artificial barrier that we put in front of them, they probably are not ready and we don't hate them, but they're not a good fit for our organization. So that's my experience. I started the Prague space, but because I live in Bratislava, I wanted to have something closer to home, not a 3-hour train ride, so I also started a similar space here in Bratislava. So that's a bit about me.

That's really interesting. Thank you for sharing, and definitely thank you for telling us about those. Like, I like those kind of like collective coworking spaces and, you know, basically hobbies. What I really liked about your stories, you know, the early days, right? When it's just the enthusiasts, there's no moonboys, there's no, you know, like in it for tech, whatever. Everybody's just doing it because it's so fun and interesting. Like, it reminds me of the time— I've always been a huge nerd myself and always into the, you know, the latest tech, no matter how difficult it was. Like back when the internet started to be more popular, like in the end of the '90s, beginning of 2000s. I was on the computer all the time doing Photoshopping and making webpages and stuff like that. Everybody would be like, stop wasting your time and do something productive with your life. And it was so difficult to try to download music in the early days, around the time when Napster was a thing. Yeah, I think IRC is still quite popular, but at that time, That's when I got into it. All kinds of peer-to-peer software. Piracy obviously was a huge pull for me because suddenly I could actually acquire stuff that I normally have to pay money for using my own tools of information age. It was mind-blowing to me. And I was like, I can't believe nobody else is into it because it was not the norm back then. it was really weird to think this way. I don't think it's so much anymore. Like now everybody has a smartphone, everybody is using, you know, online tools. But yeah, I was just reminiscing that when you mentioned the early days, the hobbyist days. Good times.

It is what I like to tell people when they ask me why I'm into crypto. It is, you know, that in this time, it is a completely new world that is being created in front of our own eyes. And I think in maybe 10 years, it will be completely boring. It will be like now if you wanted to do an e-shop with pet food. But as you said, like, if the year was 2000, I wouldn't be doing anything else but an e-shop with pet food because that was the thing that was exciting back then and it was, we were creating internet so, you know, we could have a huge impact right in front of our eyes and I think this is the time for crypto especially after the bear market which filtered out, you know, all the crazy ICO projects, you know, promising stuff. And now the people who stayed, I think, are there for either for hard money, but also for, for this fact that you can, you can really participate in creating a parallel financial system. It's, it's very exciting.

Yeah. And, and, you know, we were creating internet at that time and social media and stuff, you know, it was so weird to be into that at that time, and now it is the norm. It's weird if you're not in social media, if you're not using Facebook. It's like, what's weird with you? What's wrong with you? And now I feel like we are creating the internet of money, like Bitcoin and possibly other cryptos as well. It's just so interesting to see and already to experience and feel where it can go because you will, you feel already much more sovereign, just like back in the day when we started ordering stuff online for the first time and the world really started to open up. And now it's even more so because you suddenly have these collectives, these global collectives that cooperate and form companies, not necessarily on paper, but in real true spirit and with the skin in the game and make things happen together using this global money system that is unstoppable and non-negotiable. in settlement. So really interesting. And I really think this is the last piece of the holy grail of the internet that was promised to us when internet started to be a thing. Like we can do free commerce with everybody. And it has not quite been that because all the payments have been processed by centralized companies. And it's not really, you can't really buy, you know, like If somebody's 3D printing guns, for example, and selling those, I don't think that's going to be possible without cryptography and these kind of tools that we now have. Yes. And, you know, throw in the 3D printing and, you know, Bitcoin with the internet and Tor and everything, it's just mind-boggling to see how free and how individual we can be. Because I believe personally that individuals will be able to provide every single piece of product or service more efficiently, more cost-effective, and with a better service than the bigger corporations that now rule the world. What do you think?

Yes, I agree totally. By the way, when we started Parallelpolis in the basement, we had a 3D printing studio, and one of the things that were kind of shocking when you entered the space— so from the outside, it looks like a hipster cafeteria, but when you enter, there's 3D-printed stuff, you know, weird money, weird music because we only use Creative Commons and so on. And, but what you don't see and what is also important for this that you said that products and services will be provided by individuals is the parallel community. And I think that is a crucial part of the future. I think that our relationships, I mean business relationships, will be more peer-to-peer or Paul Rosenberg likes to call it node-first relationships. So for example, when I wrote my book in— it's in Slovak, so unfortunately you would not understand it, but the way that we were doing it is I found people from within the community. We knew that we shared values, so there's no need to— like, we have an understanding that disputes are handled within community, not through the state courts. We have understanding that we pay each other in Bitcoin. We have, you know, it is very easy to negotiate the, the conditions, the terms of a contract if you have a community where people know each other. So I found an editor, I found a graphics— graphic designer, and together we were, we were able to create this. And it's, um, it's basically a virtual company created just for the book. So it's not a DAO, we didn't need a token or anything, but it's done within the community and this community lowers transaction costs because we can find each other. We have a mutual understanding of values already. We have a way to handle disputes because everyone wants to be part of this community. So it's not possible if you, if you don't talk to a person or something, you need to solve any kind of disputes. Thankfully, there were not many disputes, but, but this also lowers transaction costs. We have this completely parallel structure. And it's not hierarchical. I'm not anyone's boss, you know. I give my part of the work, which was the text. The editor supplies the edited text. The graphic designer gives me the PDF, and then we print it. So I think this is part of our future, and this can— this all happens in parallel. There is no state in— involved whatsoever. They, you know, it's totally in the crypto-anarchic sense, it's hidden from the outside world because it's just peer-to-peer relationships.

That sounds really great. Actually, that's a lot like what I have with my company, even though my company is an actual company, but it's only me and it's only for the purposes of satisfying certain needs, like when you need a license for a book. We publish books, so we need to acquire those licenses. So we need a corporate body for that. But other than that, it's completely just like you said. We call it the starfish organization. If you haven't read a book called The Starfish and the Spider, it's really good. The Unstoppable Power of Decentralized Organizations. And it's just like you said, like everybody has like our spaces in internet, you know, Telegram, Twitter, That's how we organize ourselves. And everybody can leave and come and go as they please. So everybody chooses to work together for a common cause because they want to, not necessarily that they expect to get compensated. Of course, that's the hope for everybody. You know, we want Bitcoin and, you know, these books and teaching people to pay off in the long run in one way or another. But that's not the main goal here. The main goal is here to just do something that we're really into. And I found personally, like, we, we've been translating The Bitcoin Standard to quite a few languages, including the, uh, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, and we're doing a Hebrew one as well. And all of these projects have something in common. They have this team of volunteer translators. So we don't have any— I mean, some of them are professionals also by trade, but that's not the point. That's That's not why they came in to get a per-word fee for their work.

Yeah.

For 2 reasons. For budget reasons, obviously. And the second thing is I truly think that we get a better product with the enthusiasts who have the full incentive to deliver the best possible interpretation and translation of the work, because they want to give it to their parents. So that has been like the wonderful thing to see, all these Bitcoiners like working so hard. you know, not basically asking anything except they want really to get the knowledge out there. And then of course, if we are successful and we can make some profit, then everybody wins even more and gets some sats. So that's the hope, of course. Yeah, we call that a starfish organization.

Nice, nice. Thanks for the recommendation for the book. I will check it out. And what is also interesting if you do it like this, So if everyone is there voluntarily because this is what they want to do, they're doing everything in their unique ability. Because if you have a hierarchical organization, you have a boss and they will come to you and they will tell you, okay, you need to do this. And you didn't choose it, so you're not great at it, you know, you will do it because your boss told you to and you know you need to work 8 hours a day. But then you're not utilizing your unique abilities and you're doing something that you're not good at. So this is why I think that this kind of star organizations will probably outcompete the old hierarchical organizations because they're just better. Everyone is doing what they're great at and what they really want to do.

Yeah, that's a good point. I would say There is a place for spider organizations, which are like centralized organizations. Like if you want to, for example, if you want to make a production car, then probably you want to centralize the factory and the supply lines and have full control of making that product. It's very possible that you get a better product that way. That's a very specific case. But what I would say is this is way stronger if you want to build a long-term business. I think you can't do any better than to have a starfish organization that is organically growing and also organically dying if there suddenly is no more demand for the product that you are supplying. And that's okay. That's like, that's how nature works.

I have another book recommendation for you, which is 7-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler. He's running a factory. on a kind of voluntarist principle. It's not totally node-first, but he was saying exactly this. For example, so they have a manufacturing line. So there need to be people, you know, at the same time because the results of one's work go in the pipeline and the next guy— needs the input from the previous guy. But for example, he said that they don't have specified working hours. He said when the team agrees to do the work, they do the work. It's up to them. And he basically said that, for example, you studied to be a doctor, you have an expertise in being a doctor. And now you— and imagine you are working in a voluntary hospital where you can come and go. So you're, let's say, you're a surgeon and you don't feel like going to work. Are you, you know, do you leave your team standing there and looking at the dying patient just because you feel like sitting on a couch? No, of course you go to work. So you don't need a boss to tell you that you need to do your job because that's your unique ability. That's what you're here in this world to do. And if you don't, you should do something else. So maybe I wouldn't rule out even car manufacturers, but of course it's easier to organize.

Yeah, there's mostly robotics nowadays anyway, not so many people, I guess. So I guess it's easier to find people who are committed to maintaining machinery or programming it or something like that. But yeah, basically the choosing part is the part that we should focus on. If you want to really find long-term employees, they need to have the same— Goals. goals as your company has. And I don't think it's too hard to find nowadays because of the information age tools. Like back in the day, it was difficult to make a niche business work, but now basically all you need is like 30,000 to 60,000 loyal followers and you have a business that can be very successful and successful enough to perhaps support you entirely. So the possibilities in this world based on, you know, to choose what we want to do are so much more vast than like, let's say, 20 years or even 10 years ago. And I don't think a lot of people have realized this. I think a lot of people are going the old beaten path through the brick-and-mortar institutional brainwashing schools and pay their— pay for a lot of countries, most people have to pay vast amounts and take loans to attend these institutions. institutions so that they can get a piece of paper and then get employed. That's like— and before you can start working, you're already in the hole for your time, at least 5 to 10 years depending on what you studied. Not to mention also you're in debt, in monetary debt. So you're in debt with time and you're so far back Whereas if you just simply started learning the thing that really drives you, really motivates you, really interests you from day one. Like for example, for me it was the internet and computers, but I was so brainwashed by the system. So I still pursued a career in construction engineering, which I did for 10 years, but I could have just as well stick with my real passion and, you know, kind of like— I'm not to say that I'm not grateful for the 10 years of career. They taught me a lot of project management and stuff. I was really good. I'm just saying that at that time, it was the right impulse to be into those internet things. That was the future. So I could have chosen a different way. And I think the same applies right now. I think we should stop looking back for answers and start taking risks and really listening to ourselves because it's always gonna be worth it, especially for young people. You have time to fail and lose everything multiple times. multiple times before you really have to start taking things seriously. So I don't know what people are so afraid of.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah, one more thing I wanted to say about our process in the translation, like choosing things for yourself. How we start a project is we have this contribution sheet that has all the work split into pieces. And then we have what we call passes, 4 different passes. So we have the raw translation, we have the proofreading and general review. And then we have editing, which is the final part. So everybody can choose. There's a sheet and you can basically put your name to all the slots that interest you. Maybe you're good, maybe you're— some people are really good at really quickly putting the main idea on paper, converting it in their head and then it's just done. And that's great raw translation. I can't do that well because I'm more like a micromanager. So then that results in people just picking those parts that they feel like they are confident with and want to do those. And every time we do that, it's just like it naturally goes. There's no problem of management, not really, because everybody's a self-manager. Because everybody's clear about as long as we are— everybody knows that when is this book supposed to be out, that's pretty much the only information you need and then the team will just carry itself. It's a beautiful thing to follow.

And also you have, and I don't think that many people appreciate it or it's become so ordinary for us, but in the internet age we have absolutely amazing collaboration tools, you know, like just being able to edit a single document, you know, people from all around the world working on the same text in real time. What you can also do if you have a budget that is handled by, let's say, a small team like this virtual company, usually it is, you know, you create a new account in Trezor and you fund it, and then there are rules how to spend it. And you don't need to go to a bank, you know, to create a sub-account or anything like that. You know, everything is just few clicks away. Collaboration, asynchronous, there are no, no need for meetings. There's like, you write a message, or I really like voice messages, the other party can listen to it whenever they feel like. If they're in a different time zone, they wake up and they listen to it when they have time. And it's became much more efficient to do things. And now it is very easy to telecommute. Like in the '90s, it was like, okay, emails and you would, you know, agree on time to call and the collaboration, it was not as good as it is now. And we got so used to it that we don't even notice that this is so easy and it's happening And I think it's fantastic and it's getting better every day. And also the price of all these tools went down. Like you don't even need to buy an office program. You know, you have an AI machine translation. You know, even if I want to translate an article, I first use Google Translate. And then just fix it, you know. And the translation is really good. Like, I'm surprised. If it's too scientific language, it's not as good, but for many articles you can basically— Google Translate is my colleague, or any other DeepL or any other translation service. So now we have these I don't really like the word AI, but these software colleagues, you know, you don't need a secretary because the calendar handles everything for you. It already knows when you're busy and when you're not. So I'm grateful for these things. And I don't think that people appreciate it because it became so ordinary that we just don't notice that.

You know, That's a really good point and what makes me sad is that I think most people use internet mostly for entertainment and to some people it's the extent of their internet use. You know, social media, jokes, Netflix, Spotify and that's it even though you have basically everything that has ever been written available to you with a few clicks if you're just into that and you could just teach yourself any profession basically, almost any profession. Or, you know, yeah, the amount of information is just so staggering. And you're so right, you get used to it. Like, I'm old enough to remember the time that we went to library for information and then you would find a book that is perhaps 10 years old and you have no idea if it's current information in any capacity. So yeah, we are spoiled by the information culture for sure.

Yes, yes.

So do you want to talk a little bit more about the Hackers Congress that is on over this weekend?

Sure, sure. So I think it's a very unique event. It's very unlike any blockchain conference. It doesn't promote any philosophy, so it's not a Bitcoin maximalist conference. It's not a technological conference. What is basically the— because the space itself is focused on freedom or liberty, that's what the congress is about. So we are talking about tools. It's also about Bitcoin, about crypto, but it's not about features, technological features or investments. It's more about how to incorporate it in your way of life, how to increase your liberty, your freedom. So from technological, art, philosophical, scientific perspective. So it's a little bit more fringe crypto-anarchist futuristic conference, I would say. What we did differently this year is that because of the lockdowns and many countries have Czech Republic on the red list or blacklist, so even for me, for example, if I would travel to Czech Republic, I would need to go to self-quarantine. So not many people are able to come physically this year, so we are streaming. There will be some VR meetups as well. And what we are also doing is that during the weekend, we will have a 24/7 podcast stream that is free for everyone. And there, there will be interviews. I think there will be over 30 hosts that will be hosting interviews and so on. So—

And I'll be one of them, by the way.

Yeah, me too. Good, good. When is your time slot?

I actually have, my first one is with PTC Paradigm or aka Rafaele. Shout out to him. We're doing the 1 AM slot, I believe, on Saturday. And then I have a slot, actually I have the schedule right here. Yeah, so I have another slot with Smuggler. also with Raffe at 2 o'clock on Saturday. And talking with Keto Miner, 3 o'clock, about Nodle and BTC retail and the future of it. Sovereign retail or something like that.

He also has a talk about that, I think.

Yes, I think so. Yes, I think it's going to be really nice to talk to him about it.

Good.

Yeah. And I'm also a Nodle user. And on Sunday, I'll have a talk with HODLonaut at So those are my slots.

Good, good. I'll be Friday 5 PM, and we will talk about projects that we are doing in Parapolis Bratislava. So we are building a mesh network, a citywide mesh network. We have found a way to simulate a wedding. So if you want to get married, and you don't like the conditions by state, for example, you don't have the right gender balance or the right number of people, we have consulted with lawyers on how to create basically the same thing as marriage but using private contracts. So that's going to be interesting. So we will be presenting these kind of projects not much crypto, but related to freedom and parallel solutions. So parallel marriage is a fun thing to do, especially in a country where there is only one way to get married if you are a man and a woman. So that will be my, my HCPP TV talk. So you can, you can listen to this stream at hcpp.tv. And again, this one is free. And the theme for this year is digital totality. I think we are entering this kind of digital totality. The COVID thing, I would say, just accelerated what is going on, but we had totalitarian tendencies even before. Last few years Czech Republic and Slovakia started doing total financial surveillance. So for example, the cash registers in every retail store, they have to upload everything that is basically what is written on the receipt to the central financial authority online. And if it's not sent online, then it's illegal. So someone in financial authority has a database of all purchases. So if you go to a pharmacy and you want to buy, I don't know, syphilis medicine, suddenly the financial authority has information about the date, time, location, what exactly did you buy, how much did you pay for it, what did you use to pay for it. So if it's credit card or cash or things like this. So I think, so we were kind of seeing that this is happening, you know, mobile phone tracing, AML KYC, the new EU AML5 and so on. So censorship because governments want to block illegal gambling sites and so on. So they they started to introduce censorship infrastructure, which is right now used to block illegal gambling, but it can be used for anything once it's set up. You know, you can just put a different URL on the list and it's getting blocked. And after the COVID lockdowns, we realized, okay, Schengen is no longer happening. There are border checks between European countries, so this story is now false, you know. I cannot just drive to Prague. I have to show my passport and I get asked questions about where I was and if I'm healthy and this is happening. In Slovakia, we had a leak of all the test results with— of the COVID test results with all the private data. So more than 300,000 entries with names, dates of birth, symptoms, and the result of the test and so on. So we see that this is happening, and I think the COVID crisis accelerated it and And we are looking for ways how to, how to live in this new world, how to find better parallel solutions for more privacy, for actually being able to do what we want to do. So censorship resistance, you know, being able to send the money wherever we want to and these things. So I think the topic is very interesting and again goes much further, much beyond hodling and avoiding inflation, although that's important. Like what the European Central Bank and other central banks are doing is basically crime. It's fraud. But there are many more problems that that are coming, I would say, very, very fast. And it's not fun, but because we are creative, smart people, we can get together and find a way what to do about it. And it's not voting. It's actually finding a parallel solution, I think.

Yeah, vote with your feet and your money. That's the only, only way to do it correctly. Yes. And yeah, like I'm a digital nomad, so I can totally feel the frustration related to COVID, especially now that it seems like it's turning into more and more of a scam to introduce more strict controls to let people accept and condition them to you know, kind of like step up the condition of the whole world. You know, like you said, shutting down borders inside the Schengen area, I think it really doesn't look good. And a lot of times when those temporary measures tend to extend indefinitely, so, you know, it's great that we have this option, but at the same time, I just wonder What kind of ugliness is going to come out before this is so-called over and we can safely transition to the second realm or something like that? Or do you think we can just kind of like do that anyway regardless of what happens in the world? Because I think we are a little bit too dependent on everything, all the infrastructure.

I think that, well, there are of course many layers. If there's a border control, you can go around, and I've seen people from the community do that because we are doing projects together. And sometimes when, when, when the borders were closed, you know, the border is quite long, so some people just drove to the forest and walked through it during midnight or at midnight and just went around. So that's one way to look at it. Okay, what does it mean the border is not closed? The border is long, and the only thing that is closed is where the customs and cops are standing. But what I think is, and this is actually going to be my talk at HCPP, is that I think that the general volatility in the world is going to increase and there is a relationship between freedom and optionality. So optionality could be one way to look at freedom. If you have more options of what you can do, but don't have to, but you can decide that you can do it, This kind of mindset up and kind of collecting these options in your life actually make you antifragile in presence of volatility. So what does it mean practically? So one of the options that I wanted to acquire that you also have because you're a digital nomad is that I wanted to work from anywhere I wanted to. So in order to get this option, sometimes you need to change a job or you need to do something to it. So it's not a free option. It's not given to you by being born or anything like that. It's something that you have to acquire. So for me, it was— I was, because I'm an entrepreneur, I had 3 companies. All of them had an office. It was It was one big office and I was going to the office every day. And so I had to, even though I was a co-owner in these companies, they were limiting me and I had to go to the office because that's where everything was happening. And then I made a conscious decision that I don't want to do that and I want to have an option to work from anywhere. And I, ended up selling my shares in the companies and I acquired this option. And now this gives me freedom because now, you know, with the COVID thing, I didn't notice everything because I was working from home and I could work from home. It was not a limitation. It was not an exceptional situation for me. So this option, the use of this option should be basically free. So you acquire it at some point and then you should be able to exercise it whenever you want. Another option that I acquired, okay, I bought respirators and face masks in January where like people said, okay, it's a Chinese virus. So like 2 months before there was any kind of shortage. I also realized at some point that maybe there would— there could be a problem in the future. I don't know when. I'm never trying to predict what is going to happen. I'm just trying to set up my life in a way that it works. So for example, what I did is I bought solar panels because my living depends on my computer working and there could be an energy outage and this is essential. This is not, you know, acquiring random options. If there is no electricity, I cannot work. I'm basically— useless. So, so I bought them, but not because the energy is cheaper, because it's not. It's especially in the, in the area where I live, there's not so much sun. So, so it's quite expensive electricity. But now I have the option. So when everyone is going to charge their subsidized electric cars, and if the distribution network collapses, I have an option. I can even sell the electricity. if I want. So all these options do really well in volatile environment. So what I suggest is looking at things that are important in our lives and kind of finding if we can increase optionality in these areas. So that's my way of thinking, but it's actually about thriving in volatility, not, you know, Being afraid of what might happen or anything like that. So I got good training with using cryptocurrencies, which are volatile. So that's how I got to think about volatility. But that's what my plan is. So freedom and volatility and optionality.

Sounds really healthy and that's pretty much how I live my life as well. You know, like life is volatile, nature is volatile. Things can change at a moment's notice, especially in the market which is comprised of countless individuals that all behave from their unique needs and unique wants and everybody's unique so there's absolutely no possibility to predict the future. So why even try? Like you said, just try to make everything work the best way for you and keep improving that. Yeah, there's a saying like, he who fears not of losing anything can truly be free. So I think that's the ultimate optionality that you are okay with the option of zero. Like you don't have anything, like you're naked in the dark alone and you have nothing and you're happy and that's enough. So if you're cool with that option, then I think you can simply walk free. You know, things happen, shitty things happen in your life, you get depressed, but you get over it because you know that you have the, you know, your final option is the zero. Yes. And as long as you're not there, you have something more than the zero. So you're doing actually better than your so-called plan B or plan C or plan D. Plan Z and that's your last option and you should be okay with that. Everybody should be okay with that option because it is an option. It's always on the table.

Yes, exactly. And also I think that the markets should be volatile in order to be useful because the price information, it's information. You know, so a banana in January shouldn't cost the same as banana in August because there are seasons and there's supply and demand. And actually everything should be changing because when, when everything is stable, then it usually means that someone is trying to, to force stuff into, into stability. And that usually backfires. It's usually hidden risk or accumulated misinformation and so on. So when I see volatility also in prices, I'm appreciating that the price discovery mechanism works and that I can relate to it and I can use it.

Yeah, I mean, the audacity of central planners, like how could you ever possibly think that you could outdo nature or you could outdo the invisible hand of chaos that directs the actions of humans, which is completely out of anybody's wildest imaginations how that kind of system might behave. So even in the best-case scenario, you will be able to perform just as well as nature in its own chaos from its own standpoints. That is the best-case scenario, and that is utopia. You're never going to reach that. But, but of course, the reason why this is being done is it's immensely profitable to take the role of the king, to take the role of the god, and, and make other people your subjects and make the other people work for you. So that's why it's being done, but it has nothing to do with efficiency. It has nothing to do with wealth or creation. It's basically destroying something, taking something of value from others and to give it to some other people, which is theft.

That's why we want to opt out.

Yeah, exactly. And now we have that chance, which is fantastic. Money changes so much. And once we have that, once we have the Universal language of communicating value and communicating our wants without anybody being able to stop it in any capacity. I think that's just going to solve so many issues related to all kinds of human action. It's really exciting times.

Yeah, exactly.

I think we should start directing this towards the end. It has been an immensely fun conversation. It didn't— like I said in the beginning, like, these never turn out the way you plan. I think we touched on quite a few of the points that we wanted to. And most importantly, we talked about the Hackers Congress, which again, it is on this weekend. So if you are around, please check the option to get a ticket. And as promised, we actually have a discount code, Konsensus with a K, which I believe gives you 50% off the tickets, which is a very substantial amount. Do take advantage of it. If you have a chance to go check Parallelpolis out in Praha, in Czech Republic, I would go if I had the time. Unfortunately, I have to— I have a business to run, so I can't go this year. Hopefully I can go next year. But if you can, please do take advantage of this offer and go and see these awesome speakers. And if you can't, then at least do come to the— I believe Max Hillebrand said it was 58 hours livestream which has 32 or something like that hosts, myself and Juha included. So definitely check that out at least. Any final words? Where can people find you? That sort of stuff in an open invitation to everybody.

Go ahead. Yes. People can find me at hackyourself.io. I have a new podcast Only four episodes so far, but if you liked listening to me, then there's a little bit more. And of course, HCPP.tv will be the the live stream that you mentioned. So people could check check these out. I'm also on Twitter, J U R B E D. is my handle. So that's it, and thank you for listening, and thanks for having me.

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed this. And yeah, as I said, remember to use the code Consensus if you're going to attend the live event. I would take advantage of that if I was you. If you want to find me, you can find me on Twitter and Telegram with the tag Omnifin, double N, at the end. Uh, it used to be different, but now it's both the same, so it's less confusing, hopefully. Um, get in touch if you want to do a show with me, if you want, uh, want to publish a book. Um, I, I do all kinds of Bitcoin works, including the Citadel 21 magazine, which has been a really interesting project as well, which I recommend to, to check it out as well. And we're probably going to talk about it with HODLonaut over the weekend if you're going to check the, uh, HCPP TV. So thank you, viewers. Thank you, Giraj, for your time.

Thank you.

And excellent insight. Thank you for this wonderful event that you're going to throw in. And yeah, looking forward to the next one. Have a good one, everyone. Bye-bye.