Bitcoin Bottom Line

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz delve into the recent bank closures and their impact on the crypto space. The issues raised from these closures are not unique, and people are looking for someone to blame. Olszewicz states, “I believe the FED plays a big role in this because they had to catch up after slowly raising the rate. Ultimately it's the bank's problem. It is their job to manage that risk appropriately.” People have been dependent that the FED will continue on a steady track of raising rate, but this has not been the case. Throughout the highs and lows of Bitcoin, people have continued to show their faith and commitment to the fight for economic freedom. Public opinion of Bitcoin is at a low, with recent scandals causing hate and distrust towards crypto. Wilson describes those who have persevered through the valleys as “those who have proven their worth with strong hands is a bear market.” Now it is time for Bitcoiners to have discipline and avoid shorting during the highs. As Bitcoiners immerse themselves in the space, they grow more skeptical of traditional banks, questioning the rate of fees and if the deal is truly beneficial long term. Wilson states, “Everything is good for Bitcoin as long as it continues to function uninterrupted.” Wilson and Olszewicz go on to discuss credit unions, the importance of financial education from a young age, and regulations. Many large corporations have begun moving offshore to countries with fewer regulations, but Wilson warns that they must plan for long-term alterations. Historically, large corporations have used this strategy successfully for years, but crypto companies have to be selective with the location to ensure they will not be suddenly changing their regulations. The likelihood of the country benefiting from growth-based crypto companies should be taken into consideration. Listen to the full episode for more! DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by an expert in the crypto space, Troy Cross. He is an academic philosopher and has been a Bitcoiner since 2011. He also describes himself as an environmentalist and is not afraid of controversy. Cross discusses his opinions on ESG and believes that its critics should be listened to. “My own vision is Bitcoin having a minimal environmental impact. Bitcoin mining is constantly changing, and miners are constantly trying to find more environmentally friendly ways to mine.” Cross describes some of the ways that miners are trying to counteract the negative impacts of Bitcoin on our environment. Some of the early members in the Bitcoin space have created a way to give us pure water from Bitcoin. They use the heat from ASIC chips to distill the water. The heat from the chip alone is not enough, but when you put water under the negative pressure of a vacuum, it will boil at a lower temperature. Once the steam condenses, you will have pure water. You can create pure water from anywhere in the world. Wilson, Olszewicz, and Cross discuss the dangers as well as the benefits of the space. Cross states, “this is a system I believe in. It is bloody; people get hurt; it rewards efficacy and ruthlessly punishes inefficiency and leverage. It redistributes wealth in accordance with how well you manage it.” There is purity in the laws of crypto. People cannot do whatever they want and are required to stay humble. The reward at the end of this pain will be well worth it. Bitcoin encourages people to think critically and expand their minds. “If we can disagree in a way that is open-minded and civil, then we are collectively able to reach a much larger audience. We win by thinking how each one of us can help to improve the crypto space. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz begin by discussing the recent arrest of the founder of the Russian exchange, Bitzlato. Recent reports suggest Bitzlato had ties with a Russian darknet market Hydra, and the company only ever had $11,000 in their wallets. Wilson and Olszewicz go on to discuss the skepticism from users in the crypto space and how things might not be what they seem. Wilson uses a racing metaphor, “yellows breed yellows. Meaning that cautions bring more cautions. Bitcoin Twitter is so conditioned to be skeptical of everyone big that the second there is an announcement, they assume that it will be bad. It seems like whoever can hang on the longest will reap the rewards of being the provider of last resort.” Wilson and Olszewicz talk about how the volatility of Bitcoin is relatively low despite the mess of GBTC. Olszewicz states, “price wise, we have erased the entirety of the post-FTX collapse in November. The price is back to where it was.” Wilson discusses, “there are a certain number of people that are back in profit on their net holdings. If we are above $21,000, we are still above the 2017 cycle. This goes back to, if you have held it long enough, you are good.” Wilson and Olszewicz discuss mining Bitcoin and how you must be strategic. Wilson reminds listeners that Bitcoin mining requires a complex strategy. Mined Bitcoin is not as easy to hold as one might assume. It may take about four to five years to find out if you have deployed a good strategy or not. Wilson continues, “it is a wild world out there. Bitcoin is a great way to determine what direction you are heading.” Olszewicz wraps up the episode by stating the importance of keeping an open mind and being willing to learn. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss how the sausage is made internationally, why there is no pivot coming to save us, and how fast food could be the next big winner. Olszewicz discussed how many people are coming to the realization of just how much power the fed has, which is much more than people in our generation ever imagined. “We are optimistic that things are going to reverse course and net assets will be saved, which is not the case.” Everything is laser-focused on inflation right now, which means you are going to see high unemployment, housing mortgages evaporating, auto loans collapsing, and consumer debt being at an all-time high. Inflation affects everything. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss the effects of a credit-based economy. Wilson states, “we live in a country with over $90 trillion in debt and only $9 million in the money supply. This has caused the ice to start thinning, and eventually, someone will fall through the cracks.” Olszewicz continues, “that is the argument for the inability to raise our own government debt interest payments above 5%. It would exceed anything that we could even think about paying and be the single biggest line item other than the defense budget.” Politicians often do not think about the impact of the money they are spending now and its potential to increase our future inflation.” Olszewicz states, “It has only been fourteen years since White Paper, the network was launched in 2009, and it has had 99.98% uptime. Over time, people age out of the CEO or CIO role, and the new generation comes in and sees this as more than just an alternative asset.” Wilson continues, “social media platforms are only around twenty years old, which is only a little older than Bitcoin. People are being born now that do not know about how these platforms started, just that they are operational. It is similar in terms of smartphones. Some people forget that there was first Motorola, then SideKick, and then came the iPhone. We are not even at the iPhone of Bitcoin yet.” Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the big update of the FTX case. The wheels of justice are slowly turning, and Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by the Bahamian Department of Justice. The United States Department of Justice is sending a petition to extradite him, which is predicted to happen. The question now is, does everyone involved who turned on Bankman-Fried get immunity? What will happen to Caroline? There is still a lot that is unknown. Olszewicz states that the two biggest takeaways are that “this has very little to do with Bitcoin at all: how was the exchange run, who was trading what. The protocol was unaffected. The second one is that regulations are definitely coming. It is just a matter of what flavor. I am all for having the best regulations we can, but would those regulations have stopped something from happening in the first place? Are you going to prevent venture capitalists from investing in companies that are headed by individuals in a United States off-shore tax haven?” Wilson describes his definition of a bear market while discussing the current state of the crypto space with Olszewicz. They talk about inflation and how most people generally are conscious of price changes of resources such as gas. One of the best ways to see inflation is by looking at fast food prices. They wrap up the episode by discussing user growth. The number of BTC addresses is almost a million, so there are almost a million whole coiners. There are still a few reasons that Bitcoin would not be the best primary source of your money. They talk about the room for growth, how it is hard to earn Bitcoin, and the need for a way to pay salaries with crypto. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the massive shake in the crypto industry. The pain we have been seeing since this summer is still in circulation with the latest casualty of the FTX blow up. SBF is a great example of what not to do. Many people were skeptical of the speed his enterprises were ramping up and how they were severely understaffed. Wilson explains, “if you have too fast of a rise and too much money being injected without too many rules being put into place, it results in many problems. According to Forbes, he took his investors' money and made venture investments with other companies, which are not liquid. If you spend money in that manner, there is no possibility of getting it back if you need it.” Olszewicz states there is speculation “they had no accounting system or tax management team.” Everyone inside the space was blindsided by the FTX scandal. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss how the market could be a factor in these scandals being brought to light. People thought of FTX as the central bank of crypto that can help bail you out, but it has been proven again that there is not one. Wilson suggests that “if you look at it from a roach mentality, how do I survive the apocalypse? You will end up being fine. The way to do that is to keep your head down and be humble. If you overextend yourself in this type of volatile state, you are going to lose your arm.” Olszewicz brings up, “there are no issues with the chain, and people are able to withdraw their funds. At the end of the day, there are issues still going on, but they are centralized exchange issues and not chain issues.” These are operating issues, not technical issues. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss how the current state of the space is going to make everyone better Bitcoiners when this is over. Wilson states, “Bitcoin is like a sponge. You squeeze the sponge, and liquidity comes out, but you can see the absorption and how much capacity it really has when you put it back in the water. I think Bitcoin has the capacity to absorb all the tears, pain, and broken-hearted people.” Bitcoin is for everyone, and everyone is necessary for mass adoption. At the end of the day, there are still a lot of great things going on in the space. Listen to the full episode for more! Follow CJ and Josh Here https://twitter.com/str8edgeracer https://twitter.com/CarpeNoctom DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In this episode of “Bitcoin Bottom Line,” hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss how the “sausage is made” internationally, why there is no pivot coming to save us and how fast food could be the next big winner for investors. Olszewics discussed how many people are coming to the realization of just how much power the Federal Reserve wields, which is much more than people in our generation ever imagined. “We are optimistic that things are going to reverse course and net assets will be saved, which is not the case.” Everything is laser-focused on inflation right now, which means you are going to see high unemployment, housing mortgages evaporating, auto loans collapsing and consumer debt being at an all-time high. Inflation affects everything. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss the effects of a credit-based economy. Wilson states, “We live in a country with over $90 trillion in debt and only $9 million in the money supply. This has caused the ice to start thinning, and eventually, someone will fall through the cracks.” Olszewicz continues, “That is the argument for the inability to raise our own government debt interest payments above 5%. It would exceed anything that we could even think about paying and be the single biggest line item other than the defense budget. Politicians often do not think about the impact of the money they are spending now and its potential to increase our future inflation.” Olszewicz states, “It has only been 14 years since [the Bitcoin] white paper, the network was launched in 2009, and it has had 99.98% uptime. Over time, people age out of the CEO or CIO role and the new generation comes in and sees this as more than just an alternative asset.” Wilson continues, “Social media platforms are only around 20 years old, which is only a little older than Bitcoin. People are being born now that do not know about how these platforms started, just that they are operational. It is similar in terms of smartphones. Some people forget that there was first Motorola, then Sidekick, and then came the iPhone. We are not even at the iPhone [stage] of Bitcoin yet.” Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! https://b.tc/conference/2023 Use promocode: BMLIVE for 10% off everything in our store! https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine - https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine Pro - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/bitcoin-magazine-pro

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by special guest Mike Hobart. He is an author of Bitcoin Magazine, a seed oil disrespecter, and a former United States military member. Wilson, Olszewicz, and Hobart open the episode by talking about what is currently happening in the investing space. Olszewicz states that there is currently no good news, and we are seeing how rate hikes are not working effectively. Wilson has observed people starting to question inflation and interest rates while seeing that there is a person responsible for them. He believes the solution is the Bitcoin mantra “no rulers, just rules.” Hobart remarks that energy companies have the potential to have a significant impact on the acceptance of Bitcoin as well. “I believe that we will get a lot closer after energy companies like Exon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips become vocal about how they are using Bitcoin mining to help with their production numbers and revenue. I have noticed that everyone wants to treat Bitcoin like a stock and equity or as a heavy rock like gold. It is both of these things and neither at the same time. The more information that is put out about Bitcoin, the more understanding people will have, and the adoption rate will begin to grow even more exponentially.” Hobart closes the episode by sharing the threat medical debt has to our economy. “With the rest of the macroeconomic situation, the whole market is looking at housing because of 2008, oil, energy, and gas because of Ukraine, as well as supply and shipping rates due to covid. I think the markets are going to have the black swan come from the health sector. In regard to diabetes, ten percent of the population has diabetes, and ninety-seven million people are prediabetic. About forty percent of the population is or will be taking insulin. This does not account for all of the other metabolic diseases prevalent in society. There are trillions of dollars worth of medical debt in the United States, and nobody is talking about how this debt is going to affect the economy.” Listen to the full episode for more!

In this week’s episode of “Bitcoin Bottom Line,” hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by special guest Daniel Batten to discuss bitcoin mining using organic materials. Batten is an expert on methane and explains the benefits of bioavailable energy. “If you are taking your power source, such as natural gas that would otherwise stay in the ground, it is carbon positive when you take it out of the pipeline. This will contribute to carbon emissions and is absolutely the type of bitcoin mining we want to do.” Batten goes on to talk about how there is another form of methane that does not come from the ground and is freely emitted into the atmosphere. “This comes from farms or anywhere you have anaerobically decaying organic matter, which are things that rot without air. Global warming is about several different emissions that all have their global warming potential. If we compare methane to carbon dioxide, methane is more warming and breaks down faster than carbon dioxide and then turns into it.” The United Nations Environment Programme has stated that methane is the strongest lever to reduce climate change over the next twenty-five years. “This is because it increases at a parabolic rate and is 84-times more warming than carbon dioxide. If you can find a way to use it as a fuel source, you are removing it from the atmosphere.” Wilson, Olszewicz and Batten discuss the benefits to our environment of using these emissions and potential ways to do so. They wrap up the episode by talking about how this is not a single-solution problem and many preventative measures will need to be put in place to impact climate change. Batten states, “There is enough landfill gas around the world to power the Bitcoin network many times over. Bitcoin does not produce enough energy to solve this problem single-handedly.” Lower your time preference and lock-in your Bitcoin 2023 conference tickets today!!! Use promo code BMLIVE to save 10% off your conference tickets today!!! https://b.tc/conference/bitcoin2023

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss the current worldwide events. Wilson discusses how Bitcoin has recently been a safety net. Olszewicz states that “currencies appear to be collapsing on the government's management. Japan and England have been a complete mess.” The pound is currently at an all-time low, along with many other currencies. Bond markets are doing historically worse than they ever have. Olszewicz says “it does not make sense to me why the pound is up if England has been printing money and buying their own bonds.” Wilson explains that all of the national banks lean into each other for stabilization. As trends change, we typically see a five or ten-percent wick over a long period of time. Now we are seeing twenty to thirty-percent riffs, where the dollar is up thirty percent against these other currencies in a very short period of time. People are generally unaware of how interlinked all of the central banks are. Wilson goes on to talk about risk as an investor. “When you are an investor, you want to put your money in a diversified portfolio of risk so you are not all risk, all the time. Bitcoin does not have a yield or natural interest rate so you have to manage your cash flow in order to operate. The problem is that during inflation, your cash flow is being burned much faster than you want.” Wilson believes that inflation is here to stay for quite a while. Wilson and Olszewicz discuss using bitcoin as a transaction method. “If you want to do a transaction, you can buy bitcoin, send it to someone and they can sell it for cash right away. There is very little volatility between transaction periods. You can decide to exchange it all for cash or you could take a fraction in bitcoin and the rest in cash.” Olszewicz says that bitcoin is “an off-ramp for all of the central banking mismanagement.” Listen to the full episode for more!

C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz of Bitcoin Bottom Line discuss how to survive in a Bear Market in this week's episode. In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz discuss how to survive in choppy markets. There is currently a large amount of volatility in the crypto space which could be unsettling for new crypto users. Wilson explains “if your first bitcoin purchase was $45,000 or higher and you are looking at an $18,000 price, that does not look great in your portfolio. For those of us who bought in when the price was $3,000, we are still comfortable knowing that the price is above that because we know that the volatility on the downside is rewarded with all-time highs on the upside.” Wilson and Olszewicz discuss the difficulty of taking profits in the space. Olszewicz states “the volume of any cryptocurrency is down significantly and the number of people who are publicly trading it is a very small percentage. People are not trading as they used to unless they have a different approach to long-only.” The long-only strategy only works if you take a profit and buy back in at a lower price. The problem is that in a market like this, you do not know what the low is. Wilson warns that you should not be investing solely in one place. Wilson says, “right now the winning strategy is not losing.” Wilson and Olszewicz transitioned to talking about blue chip stocks and the stock market. Wilson believes that yield chasing in the crypto space is the most dangerous mentality to have right now. “I feel better about holding dividend-paying stocks, rather than dividend-paying crypto.” Wilson does believe blue chip stocks are okay to hold in your broad portfolio for retirement but you need a mitigation strategy. The most important thing is understanding you total risk profile and your thesis on what is happening. Olszewicz wraps up the episode by telling crypto users that they have to decide what they are here for. “You need to decide your time horizons, why you are here, what you are here for, what are your goals, and if you can sleep at night.” Listen to the full episode for more! #bitcoin #Crypto #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValkyrieFunds

C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz of Bitcoin Bottom Line discuss Off-grid and gas miners Nordstream energy issues in this week's episode. #bitcoin #Crypto #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValkyrieFunds Instagram: https://instagram.com/valkyrie.invest... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/valk... Facebook:

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz interview Daniela Brozzoni a young bitcoin coder. In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz interview Daniela Brozzoni, a young bitcoin coder. Brozzoni has recently been working on a library for building wallets called BDK (Bitcoin Dev Kit). This library includes codes for generating addresses and sending money to offer a wider variety of options to crypto users. Wilson asks Brozzoni about the QR codes that are interchangeable between lighting and on-chain and the cost that comes with this. She believes that in the future we will have different wallets for different needs, but it is difficult to explain to users that they might pay less than one cent in fees or up to two euros. For advanced crypto users, having the option for a transaction to be either lightning or on-chain could be highly beneficial. Brozzoni states, “I believe the single seed wallets that we just use for paying for coffee on-chain will disappear, and extremely complex wallets for storing funds in the long term will appear.” Wilson adds, “people talk about bitcoin as if you're going to be your own bank, but most people are only good at being their own wallet. They can spend and receive, but once you become a vault, you have to become more secure, and it adds more complex layers.” Brozzoni goes on to discuss her grant from Spiral and how she was able to obtain it. Wilson, Josh, and Brozzoni transition into discussing both the positives and negatives of anonymity in the space. They then discuss the benefit of analyzing the questions about the market from individuals who know less about Bitcoin and how it allows them to educate others effectively. Wilson says that the more people he meets in Bitcoin, the more he likes it and realizes that he needs to learn more. To stay updated on what Brozzoni is doing in the space, follow her on Twitter @danielabrozzoni or join the BDK Discord. 🔗👇🏼 Follow Daniela here: https://twitter.com/danielabrozzoni Listen to the full episode for more! #Bitcoin #Crypto #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline Twitter:

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are covering the down market and sell pressures. They begin discussing the crypto bear market, Wilson starts “We are in a bit of a spin right now… What a lot of people want to figure out is how do you find a bottom and what affects the bottom but I think that is maybe in the middle of the conversation, the beginning of the conversation is how connected and interconnected are all of us in this crazy crypto world?’’ They continue on to talk about the stress on miners especially, Olszewicz explains, “I hope people have started to realize the true scale of this stuff as it become more public… they are locking in capital months in advance for something that they don’t get delivered on till months later… not only that but lenders are calling back these loans- not because they are underwater but because they are concerned that not everybody is solvent or able to pay them back.” Olszewicz continues on to say “There's this perfect storm of factors that miners were not expecting to deal with at the same time.” Diving more into the current context, Wilson says, “This is the big wake up call for a lot of these guys that have never been through a bear market before…” Olszewicz talks about the advantages in the liquidity of bitcoin, “If you have bitcoin or a house, the most liquid thing is the bitcoin so you could just go on an exchange that is 24/7, 365, and you could sell it if you need to, and that is certainly what people have done regardless if they think it is risk on, or risk off, if they think it is going to be the future, if they need to sell, because it is liquid you can do that.” Wilson says, “it’s totally fine to take risk with whatever assets you have, you just have to understand that if someone else can value your assets independently from you valuing them then they are going to if there doing it to protect themselves because the people that are lending money on assets whether it is stocks or anything else, they’re borrowing that money from somebody else too, so they are borrowing it at a cost, so they are screwed if you don’t pay them back.” They end the episode with “We are going to have many more good days in Bitcoin, we just have to be responsible.” Listen to the full episode with more! #Bitcoin #Crypto #JoshOlszewicz #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline

In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by Alyse Killeen, founder and managing partner of Stillmark. #Bitcoin #Crypto #c.j.wilson #JoshOlszewicz #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline #Killeen #Alysekilleen #Stillmark Wilson begins by asking, “Having some focus or a lot of focus on Bitcoin makes your experience as a venture capitalist totally fascinating to me.. where does it all start?” Killeen responds, “I started in venture capital about a decade ago and always focused primarily on infrastructure technologies. As I was doing that, I discovered Bitcoin and specifically recognized an opportunity for a financial technology that well served poor people and the world's very large unbanked and underbanked population. To me, that was so compelling…” Turning more towards Stillmark, Olszewicz says “You’ve really focused, at least based on yourporto list, recently, on lightning. Was that a decision early on as it was developing, and beyond lightning now, what do you see in the future? In response, Killeen delves into structure, “We're investing in two buckets, and the first bucket is the financialization of BTC the asset… Bucket number two is companies that are doing these “moonshot projects” built on lightning… where the market has been, and thus where our focus has been is in infrastructure related companies- so sometimes this can feel a little less personal, or a little less flashy or relatable. However, the pieces of infrastructure that are really going to affect the day to day experiences of people using lightning are being built now.” She goes on to say, “Instead of being a bitcoin fund, we are actually a generalist fund, within the Bitcoin space, so we are doing top to bottom- all of it that is happening in Bitcoin right now…” Wilson asks, “How would you say that confidence in the founders changes from traditional VC to bitcoin ventures…” Killeen responds, “That was the opportunity for Stillmark- it was to not be adherent to the old school VC mindset, but to apply the tools and the framework of traditional ventures which work really incredibly well to bolster founders and to apply that to a new paradigm.” Continuing on the VC line, Killeen explains, “We think about venture capital as just being resources to help founders accelerate where they are going. So we are normally backing folks that are going to get there anyway, and then hopefully with us, through capital, and sometimes with network introductions and support from prior lessons learned from working with hundreds of companies, founders can build quicker. Now, from a Bitcoin perspective, there is one other nuance… If we do good work, I hope that that means that adoption is catalyzed, and also the utility set that is offered in bitcoin expands. So my hope is if we do good work, the fundamental value of bitcoin can be increased…” Listen to the full episode for more!

37 The Life of a Bitcoin Core Developer w/ Gloria Zhao In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are joined by Gloria Zhao, a Bitcoin core dev to break down the behind the scenes action of a developer. Wilson begins by asking “what got you into Bitcoin in the first place?” To which Zhao responds, “... There are a lot of ideologies in there from the beginning that I found very appealing, and on top of that there are a lot of very interesting engineering technical challenges to work on, and as a computer science student obviously I was drawn to that...” She continues, “I grew up in Silicon Valley so I think that gave me perspective on how endless it is to chase this idea of ‘innovation’ and profit, and that always struck pretty empty to me so Bitcoin was very different and I had an immediate draw to it.” Olszewicz then asks, “what is your day to day like? Zoom calls and meetings or do you work independently as a decentralized developer?” Zhao answers “...I work on Bitcoin core, which is one implementation of a Bitcoin client,... Day to day I’d say save a few community, cultural, changes it's kind of just like working on any software project, except we don’t have a boss, we just kind of review each others PR’s cause we care about them and they are important to Bitcoin, we fix bugs because if they stay in the client then the network might have some troubles, not because our boss told us to..” To follow this up Wilson asks, “what's the percentage of time you spend, let’s say reviewing other people's work, having conversations with other people about what you guys are working on vs. just going into the rabbit hole yourself and doing more of a deep dive?” She responds that because of the nature of her work, she keeps a detailed breakdown of her time – “about 30% of my time on my main project... I try to do about 50% of my time on just peer review, and or opening small PR to fix bugs... about 10% of my time on things like advocacy and education,... and 10% just pure learning.” She goes on to say, “I very much value time like this where you are able to send a message ... I can tell people, hey there's people working on Bitcoin, hey it's gonna break if nobody works on it, so it's really important to pay the people who do, and get more people to want to be Bitcoin core developers, because that is very important for Bitcoin's health developmentally.” Discussing personal securities, Zhao details, “We live our lives online and there is a lot at stake and a lot to lose... I think everyone should learn how to code a little bit, or equip themselves with tools to protect themselves on the internet.” Continuing on the discussion of security in regards to Bitcoin, Zhao explains, “We care about operating in this system because there are legitimately people who need money in these systems, and other alt coins where they are not operating under that threat model, and maybe they are doing something or solving an interesting technical challenge that is useful in other aspects, but they don’t have what I think is Bitcoin’s core value proposition which is its security model.” Zhao finishes the episode with “it is going to be built brick by brick, where everything is stable underneath, so we need more people.” Listen to the whole episode for more! #Bitcoin #crypto #JoshOlszewicz #Valkyrie #BBL #Bitcoinbottomline

Is Bitcoin the Key to save yourself from Inflation w/ Josh Olszewicz In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Olszewicz are discussing the latest in the Crypto space and the Bipartisan Responsible Payments Innovation bill. Wilson begins by discussing the New York state bill that focuses on Bitcoin mining, “Its kinda weird because they singled out bitcoin mining as a target to say hey we need to limit bitcoin mining, or eliminate bitcoin mining, unless it is from totally renewable sources, which is kind of a weird catch all because I don't think there is any industry in america that has more renewable sources being applied to it than bitcoin.” Wilson then goes onto discussing inflation effects, “as inflation starts to hit more things, we’re seeing the things we need the most... those industries are all the most impacted, so natural resources need to be managed a certain way and the best way to do that is to incentivize people to be innovative with the natural resources that are local.” When discussing the Bill (RPI) Wilson says “the biggest problem that the government has is they have people interchanging words, crypto and bitcoin, blockchain and crypto, all these other things, so by clarifying the definitions, step #1, we set the tone.” Furthering the clarification conversation, Olszewicz explains, “It (Bitcoin) is clearly closer to a commodity than a security... so it is great to see that in writing.” Wilson adds on to say, “If you have hard measurements, meaning like factual, numerical measurements, you know what those thresholds are and you know if you can exceed those or how close you can get to them... in the same sense it's possible that by setting a line you may have more people that try to get close to it but at least at the same time you are setting a boundary.” Applying this idea to stable coin, Wilson explains, “With a stable definition, you might say ok this is not allowed, this is frowned upon, this is not encouraged, so there are like gradients.” They continue on to the effect on mining, with Wilson explaining, “If you HODL your Bitcoin mining revenues they are not taxed... so if you are managing your treasury properly, you are going to HODL a majority of your bitcoin... which i think is going to increase mining focus and allow bigger miners to be more profitable and as they are publicly traded and stuff like that to normalize that thing...” Olszewicz responds, “To see a de minimis rule I think would increase transaction activity for Bitcoin would be great... so just having anything on the books is great, clarity on the miners, clarity on the transactional activity, clarity on stable coins, in general this bill is good.” He goes on to say, “it is not perfect, but it is something and we have to start somewhere.” Listen to the whole episode for more!!

Bitcoin Policy Institute w/ Matthew Pines In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts Steven McClurg and C.J. Wilson are joined by guest Matthew Pines, a managing consultant at Krebs Stamos and National Security fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. Wilson begins by asking Matthew, “What is the discovery path to Bitcoin?” To that, Pines describes the increase in “tangible action taking place across various government agencies.” McClurg asks from the perspective of Bitcoin; “which countries do we see as a potential threat to bitcoin being a global digital currency? Which countries are really embracing it more,... where does the U.S. fall on the spectrum of support?” Pines responds that “The United States is a remarkably pro-bitcoin place, and while the policy action and social media hostility tends to get a lot of attention… if you kind of look at where the conversation was 2 or 3 years ago and compare it with today, the trend has been uniformly positive”. Wilson then asks about Europe, and “if there is more room to improve Bitcoin policy there,” to that Matthew explains “one thing that makes it unique is it is an economic union but not a political union… the euro is a new thing, it has only been around for like 30 years, not that much longer than bitcoin has been around, so they have a lot of vested political interest in the success of the Euro.” He adds, “They have a much more acute sense of currency as a political unifying entity, and anything that could come in and chip away at that is going to be inherently regarded suspiciously.” Wilson asks about Matthew’s work with the Bitcoin Policy Institute, which is as he describes, “got together to put out more rigorous, thoughtful, fact based research analysis on bitcoin specific related policy issues to help inform the conversation and also to provide resources… to help inform policy decisions” McClurg furthers this thread by asking about the narrative that has been attributed to bitcoin’s energy consumption, and “what they (BPI) are doing to combat that narrative” Pines explains “you can rebut it with arguments but you ultimately need data, to look at what is happening on the ground… and investigate the claim empirically…” he goes on to say, “Bitcoin mining companies investing millions of dollars in operations in states around the country with job creation and tangible impacts across the grid, that is a more enduring story that is by definition not refutable.” Listen to the full episode for more!

BBL Ep 33 Exec Summary: In this week’s episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J Wilson and Josh Oszelwicz are joined by guest Yunkun Guo, a corporate and financial regulations attorney at Ice Miller, to discuss crypto regulations and the intersections of law and cryptocurrency. Guo’s interests lie in bridging the gap between technology and law, she explains her tasks as “working with companies to help navigate new emerging technologies.” She highlights the complex and evolutionary nature of the relationship between cryptocurrency and regulation, “One thing that is exciting about crypto is that depending on what you do with it you fall under a different jurisdiction, a different law or regulation.” As they dive deeper into this relationship, Wilson explains; “Crypto is 24/7, Bitcoin trades 24/7, a lot of people think the law is sort of like 9-5” he goes on to ask, “Is it going too fast for laws to catch up? Or are there certain instances where the laws have been ready, or really old laws are still applying even though it’s a brand new marketplace?” To this, Guo explains that in many cases older laws are being applied, but she pushes for evolution, “educating legislators and policy makers to make sure that the laws do catch up and hopefully foster innovation so that it doesn’t impede progress.” Wilson then discusses the ways in which regulations can be variable from state to state. Guo explains that it is difficult to navigate because, “No company, especially if you are a technology company, operates purely in one state… you have federal regulations, as well as state by state regulations you have to follow and case law on top of that.” When discussing regulations in the United States as a whole, Wilson refers to it as a double edged sword, balancing safety and assurance, with comparably higher regulations. Guo explains that an increase in regulation has also been met with an adoption of crypto and Bitcoin on a wider scale. In the end, Wilson asks Guo “What would better laws and rules look like?” to which she outlines a two step process to reach clarity and understanding, starting with “What are we trying to achieve?” Followed by “What are the steps to get there? Listen to the full episode for more! #bitcoin #ethereum #regulation #Crypto #Yunkunguo DISCLOSURE: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

This week on The Bitcoin Bottom Line, Co-host C.J. Wilson met with Josh Olszewicz, Head of Research at Valkyrie, to discuss macro-finance and its link to Bitcoin. The conversation was kicked off by Olszewicz sharing the kinds of markets in which he was involved before his introduction to Bitcoin. Olszewicz discusses his interest in the technology and decentralization of the Bitcoin network. Wilson goes on to share an applicable story from his childhood about how he saved up his money for a fancy bike. This experience helped him cement the idea of savings within his young mind. Wilson shares about his past life as a pro baseball player, and the duo talks about why many professional athletes are Pro-Bitcoin. For many, it largely involves a forward-looking mindset of saving for the future. After spending some time on this topic, Wilson discusses his past investments and how at the time, he thought Bitcoin was a scam. After hearing this, Olszewicz asks what changed Wilson's mind, and he replied “the bull market in which Bitcoin took off was where my mind changed”. Wilson, after explaining his intro to the coin, explains his early investment strategies for investing in Bitcoin. He would give himself milestones to keep himself in check when investing, and if he reached those milestones he would invest more money, create new milestones, and so on. Soon after they talked about trading Bitcoin, the conversation turned toward the negatives of trading and how it can be addicting, even dangerous for some. Wilson shares a personal story and states “ It becomes a little dangerous because it sweeps aside the security concerns and the factual information about scarcity”. The hosts close out the episode with more discussion on Bitcoin trading, mining, finance, and the growth of the Bitcoin community as a whole. Watch the full episode for more!