Jack Mallers

Multiple Paths, One Asset: Spend, Borrow, or HODL? | Bitcoin 2026

🇬🇧 EN🇪🇸 ES
BitcoinMacroPolicy
23:41 min youtube 2026 Week 18 🇬🇧 EN

TL;DR

  • Bitcoin's Dual Role: The debate centers on whether Bitcoin is primarily a "store of value" or "freedom money" used for everyday transactions, with adoption depending heavily on consumer behavior rather than technology.
  • The Payments Revolution: Systems like Strike and Cash App's Tap to Pay are building the infrastructure for Bitcoin to function as peer-to-peer electronic cash, challenging centralized financial entities like Visa.
  • Future Outlook & Risk: While institutional lending rates remain high due to risk aversion, Bitcoin offers unparalleled censorship resistance—a critical safeguard in an emerging AI Surveillance Era.

Summary

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm_PbbnUZgw  |  Duration: 23 min

â—† Intro: Is Bitcoin Freedom Money or a Store of Value?

The discussion begins by contrasting the dominant narrative of Bitcoin as a store of value against the view that it is freedom money and must be used for transactions. A key point raised is that much of the current debate stems from differing definitions of what constitutes money itself. The speaker notes that while Bitcoin functions as currency, its usage varies significantly across the globe. In developing countries, they observe active use of Bitcoin for everyday commerce. Conversely, in Western markets, it is predominantly viewed and treated as a long-term store of value. This leads to the central question: when will people begin spending sats actively to purchase goods rather than just holding them?

â–¶ Jack Mallers Defines Money: The Good You Don't Consume

Jack Mallers defines money as a unique market good that cannot be consumed. He contrasts this with barter, where transactions rely on a coincidence of wants, and explains that money serves to transmit value between parties. He argues that assets like real estate are bad money because they can be used or consumed in daily life. Bitcoin is presented as perfect money because it is purely a market good that cannot be physically worn or eaten, making it ideal for saving and exchanging value. The two primary functions of money, according to Mallers, are saving and later exchange. He notes that while lending is popular in the US, payment systems are often more widely used in emerging markets. Ultimately, he suggests that using Bitcoin as collateral for a loan while spending fiat currency is not necessarily a violation of its purpose.

★ Miles Suter on Block's Mission to Make Bitcoin Everyday Money

Miles Suter discusses the persistent chicken and egg problem surrounding Bitcoin adoption, where merchants accept payments but users are hesitant without a clear path to use it daily. Block's core mission is explicitly focused on making Bitcoin everyday money, aligning with Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash. While payments are considered a crucial use case, Suter believes it is one of the most difficult challenges in establishing a new global financial system. He emphasizes that achieving this widespread adoption will take an extremely long time. Therefore, Bitcoiners must be deliberate and intentional in their efforts to make this foundational shift happen.

â–º The Origin Story of Strike and Cash App's Lightning Bet

The speaker notes that implementing Bitcoin features requires reaching a saturation point of users and having robust infrastructure in place. For many years, the team advocated for these changes despite facing resistance or lack of immediate support. The origin story of Strike began in late 2019 through a collaboration with an individual working on Zap. The concept involved pulling funds from a linked bank account within Cash App to execute a Lightning payment. This idea was highly advanced for its time but ultimately formed the core foundation of the Strike platform. The speaker acknowledges the success of the independent development while emphasizing that payments remain central to Strike's mission and ethos.

â—† Inside Cash App's Tap to Pay and 0% Merchant Fees

Cash App is implementing Tap to Pay functionality allowing users to spend Bitcoin or their dollar balance at Square merchants. The use of the dollar balance has seen high adoption because it avoids creating a taxable event for the user. Merchants benefit significantly by receiving Bitcoin while incurring zero processing fees, eliminating intermediaries like Visa. The long-term vision involves enabling all Cash App customers, regardless of whether they hold Bitcoin, to pay seamlessly with dollars. In this future state, the merchant still receives Bitcoin without any transaction costs. This system is viewed as a strong rail for maintaining Bitcoin's velocity and ensuring it functions effectively as peer-to-peer electronic cash.

â–¶ Why Bitcoin Payments Adoption Is a Consumer Problem, Not Tech

The speaker argues that the primary hurdle for Bitcoin payments adoption is consumer behavior rather than technological capability. While recent developments from companies like Lightspark are improving accessibility, the current financial landscape presents significant barriers. Traditional card networks incentivize usage by offering consumers rewards such as cashback or travel benefits. These systems effectively hold merchants hostage through high transaction fees charged to businesses. Furthermore, fiat currency is actively being debased and misused by governments. Consequently, applying Gresham's law suggests that people will naturally gravitate toward better money, making human preference the key factor in Bitcoin's success.

★ Bitcoin vs Gold: Why a Monetary Network Beats Bullion

Bitcoin surpasses gold because it functions as both a physical bearer instrument and a dynamic monetary network. Unlike gold, which requires slow, costly physical transport across borders, Bitcoin enables instant, costless transaction finality globally without relying on government IOUs. This capability allows users to facilitate rapid international payments with unprecedented efficiency. The speaker advocates for using Bitcoin as a payment system to break the chokehold centralized entities like Visa and MasterCard have on global settlement. By utilizing this open network, competition can drive down costs and foster innovation among countless wallet providers. Ultimately, Bitcoin offers an interoperable alternative that performs the functions of traditional systems like Swift while promoting decentralization.

â–º Spend, Borrow, or HODL? Saylor, Loans, and the Whole Foods Debate

The discussion centers on how to change consumer behavior while leveraging Bitcoin's network to free users from corporate control and foster competition. A key point raised is that interpreting Satoshi's white paper as having specific intent is dangerous, viewing Bitcoin instead as a form of property rights. The speakers address the contradiction of supporting large-scale fiat borrowing for stacking Bitcoin but criticizing personal use of borrowed funds. It is argued that using depreciating fiat currency to acquire Bitcoin is a valid strategy because it removes assets from the market and facilitates wealth growth. Ultimately, the consensus is that since Bitcoin represents property rights, different users globally will find value in diverse ways, with no single interpretation being correct. Block emphasizes its long-term commitment to Bitcoin as a global payments network, allowing them the luxury of playing the long game.

â—† Censorship-Resistant Cash in the AI Surveillance Era

CRITICAL ALERT: Bitcoin is presented as the only truly censorship-resistant money in the current market landscape. As society moves into an AI world where everything is recorded and permissioned, preserving peer-to-peer digital cash is critical to prevent a permanent loss of fundamental rights. Governments globally are increasingly seeking to eliminate physical cash and control every transaction, viewing it as an outdated relic. The speaker views this governmental push toward total payment control in the AI era as deeply concerning. Ultimately, maintaining censorship-resistant cash is seen as a vital safeguard for human freedom over the long run.

â–¶ Why Bitcoin-Backed Loan Rates Are Still High (and When They'll Drop)

Bitcoin-backed loan rates remain high because institutional lenders prioritize guaranteed returns over the perceived low risk of Bitcoin collateral. Large holders of fiat currency often find safer, traditional investments like US bonds offer competitive fixed yields that outweigh current crypto lending opportunities. Scaling these markets requires finding massive pools of capital willing to forgo significant potential gains from owning Bitcoin for a loan return. The high rates reflect the necessary compensation required to convince institutional investors to choose lending over established assets or equities. Cheap dollar access will only materialize once Bitcoin achieves universal asset status and fully integrates into global financial institutions. Despite current bear market prices, the speaker maintains strong bullish sentiment regarding the ongoing technological developments within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

â—† Search for the alpha

The core thesis driving this perspective is that Bitcoin's value proposition is not merely as a speculative store of wealth, but as an essential monetary infrastructure layer. Capital allocation is implicitly weighted toward systemic adoption rails—the mechanisms (like Strike or Cash App) that force velocity and transition BTC from a passive asset into active, censorship-resistant money, viewing this shift as an inevitable regime change driven by fiat debasement and the coming AI surveillance era.

  • The primary focus must be on enabling Bitcoin's function as everyday money (P2P electronic cash), recognizing that payments are the most difficult but foundational challenge for global adoption.
  • Bitcoin is structurally superior to gold because it operates as a dynamic monetary network, allowing instant, costless international settlement without reliance on centralized government IOUs or slow physical transport.
  • The key catalyst for mass consumer adoption is not technological improvement alone, but Gresham's Law: the active debasement and misuse of fiat currency by governments will naturally push users toward better money (Bitcoin).
  • Long-term conviction requires prioritizing censorship-resistant digital cash as a vital safeguard against governmental control in an increasingly recorded AI surveillance society.
  • While HODLing is valid, the long game involves supporting interoperable solutions that build the rails for Bitcoin to function globally, treating it fundamentally as property rights rather than just a currency.
The twist: The guest is implicitly arguing that the biggest hurdle in Bitcoin's adoption curve is not technological capability or even market price, but consumer psychology and institutional inertia. True alpha lies in supporting the infrastructure (the "rails") that forces human preference toward better money, rather than simply waiting for individual users to decide to spend their sats.

â–º Chapter Summaries

Intro: Is Bitcoin Freedom Money or a Store of Value? (0:00)

The discussion opens by contrasting the dominant narrative of Bitcoin as a store of value against the view that it is freedom money and must be used for transactions. A key point raised is that much of the current debate stems from differing definitions of what constitutes money itself. The speaker notes that while Bitcoin functions as currency, its usage varies significantly across the globe. In developing countries, they observe active use of Bitcoin for everyday commerce. Conversely, in Western markets, it is predominantly viewed and treated as a long-term store of value. This leads to the central question: when will people begin spending sats actively to purchase goods rather than just holding them?

Jack Mallers Defines Money: The Good You Don't Consume (1:34)

Jack Mallers defines money as a unique market good that cannot be consumed. He contrasts this with barter, where transactions rely on a coincidence of wants, and explains that money serves to transmit value between parties. He argues that assets like real estate are bad money because they can be used or consumed in daily life. Bitcoin is presented as perfect money because it is purely a market good that cannot be physically worn or eaten, making it ideal for saving and exchanging value. The two primary functions of money, according to Mallers, are saving and later exchange. He notes that while lending is popular in the US, payment systems are often more widely used in emerging markets. Ultimately, he suggests that using Bitcoin as collateral for a loan while spending fiat currency is not necessarily a violation of its purpose.

Miles Suter on Block's Mission to Make Bitcoin Everyday Money (3:43)

Miles Suter discusses the persistent chicken and egg problem surrounding Bitcoin adoption, where merchants accept payments but users are hesitant without a clear path to use it daily. Block's core mission is explicitly focused on making Bitcoin everyday money, aligning with Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash. While payments are considered a crucial use case, Suter believes it is one of the most difficult challenges in establishing a new global financial system. He emphasizes that achieving this widespread adoption will take an extremely long time. Therefore, Bitcoiners must be deliberate and intentional in their efforts to make this foundational shift happen.

The Origin Story of Strike and Cash App's Lightning Bet (5:54)

The speaker notes that implementing Bitcoin features requires reaching a saturation point of users and having robust infrastructure in place. For many years, the team advocated for these changes despite facing resistance or lack of immediate support. The origin story of Strike began in late 2019 through a collaboration with an individual working on Zap. The concept involved pulling funds from a linked bank account within Cash App to execute a Lightning payment. This idea was highly advanced for its time but ultimately formed the core foundation of the Strike platform. The speaker acknowledges the success of the independent development while emphasizing that payments remain central to Strike's mission and ethos.

Inside Cash App's Tap to Pay and 0% Merchant Fees (7:24)

Cash App is implementing Tap to Pay functionality allowing users to spend Bitcoin or their dollar balance at Square merchants. The use of the dollar balance has seen high adoption because it avoids creating a taxable event for the user. Merchants benefit significantly by receiving Bitcoin while incurring zero processing fees, eliminating intermediaries like Visa. The long-term vision involves enabling all Cash App customers, regardless of whether they hold Bitcoin, to pay seamlessly with dollars. In this future state, the merchant still receives Bitcoin without any transaction costs. This system is viewed as a strong rail for maintaining Bitcoin's velocity and ensuring it functions effectively as peer-to-peer electronic cash.

Why Bitcoin Payments Adoption Is a Consumer Problem, Not Tech (9:16)

The speaker argues that the primary hurdle for Bitcoin payments adoption is consumer behavior rather than technological capability. While recent developments from companies like Lightspark are improving accessibility, the current financial landscape presents significant barriers. Traditional card networks incentivize usage by offering consumers rewards such as cashback or travel benefits. These systems effectively hold merchants hostage through high transaction fees charged to businesses. Furthermore, fiat currency is actively being debased and misused by governments. Consequently, applying Gresham's law suggests that people will naturally gravitate toward better money, making human preference the key factor in Bitcoin's success.

Bitcoin vs Gold: Why a Monetary Network Beats Bullion (11:25)

Bitcoin surpasses gold because it functions as both a physical bearer instrument and a dynamic monetary network. Unlike gold, which requires slow, costly physical transport across borders, Bitcoin enables instant, costless transaction finality globally without relying on government IOUs. This capability allows users to facilitate rapid international payments with unprecedented efficiency. The speaker advocates for using Bitcoin as a payment system to break the chokehold centralized entities like Visa and MasterCard have on global settlement. By utilizing this open network, competition can drive down costs and foster innovation among countless wallet providers. Ultimately, Bitcoin offers an interoperable alternative that performs the functions of traditional systems like Swift while promoting decentralization.

Spend, Borrow, or HODL? Saylor, Loans, and the Whole Foods Debate (13:42)

The discussion centers on how to change consumer behavior while leveraging Bitcoin's network to free users from corporate control and foster competition. A key point raised is that interpreting Satoshi's white paper as having specific intent is dangerous, viewing Bitcoin instead as a form of property rights. The speakers address the contradiction of supporting large-scale fiat borrowing for stacking Bitcoin but criticizing personal use of borrowed funds. It is argued that using depreciating fiat currency to acquire Bitcoin is a valid strategy because it removes assets from the market and facilitates wealth growth. Ultimately, the consensus is that since Bitcoin represents property rights, different users globally will find value in diverse ways, with no single interpretation being correct. Block emphasizes its long-term commitment to Bitcoin as a global payments network, allowing them the luxury of playing the long game.

Censorship-Resistant Cash in the AI Surveillance Era (17:00)

Bitcoin is presented as the only truly censorship-resistant money in the current market landscape. The speaker argues that as society moves into an AI world where everything is recorded and permissioned, preserving peer-to-peer digital cash is critical to prevent a permanent loss of fundamental rights. This preservation requires leading the charge through interoperable solutions like Strike and Phoenix for long-term community benefit. Governments globally are increasingly seeking to eliminate physical cash and control every transaction, viewing it as an outdated relic. The speaker views this governmental push toward total payment control in the AI era as deeply concerning. Ultimately, maintaining censorship-resistant cash is seen as a vital safeguard for human freedom over the long run.

Why Bitcoin-Backed Loan Rates Are Still High (and When They'll Drop) (19:23)

Bitcoin-backed loan rates remain high because institutional lenders prioritize guaranteed returns over the perceived low risk of Bitcoin collateral. Large holders of fiat currency often find safer, traditional investments like US bonds offer competitive fixed yields that outweigh current crypto lending opportunities. Scaling these markets requires finding massive pools of capital willing to forgo significant potential gains from owning Bitcoin for a loan return. The high rates reflect the necessary compensation required to convince institutional investors to choose lending over established assets or equities. Cheap dollar access will only materialize once Bitcoin achieves universal asset status and fully integrates into global financial institutions. Despite current bear market prices, the speaker maintains strong bullish sentiment regarding the ongoing technological developments within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Generated with algorithm v1-chunked · model google/gemma-4-e4b · 2026-05-03T11:55:09Z

Transcript

â—† Strike / Visa watch

Exact transcript excerpts most relevant to a potential Strike card, Visa relationship, or adjacent payments product discussion.

  • Visa is mentioned explicitly in the excerpts below.
  • The card discussion is tied to the broader line-of-credit roadmap.

13:07 · Supporting context

[13:07] greatest entrepreneurs in this country

[13:09] to compete to give me the best wallet to

[13:11] check out. And right now, I don't have

[13:13] access to the Visa rails. I don't have

[13:15] access to the MasterCard rails. They're

[13:17] abusing these merchants and treating

[13:19] them unfairly. And so, if we can use

[13:21] Bitcoin, this network, as an open,

[13:24] interoperable, it does the job that Visa

[13:26] does. It does the job that Swift does

[13:29] and we let everyone compete at the

[13:30] edges, drive costs down, be innovative.

[13:33] There'll be millions of wallets. If your

[13:35] favorite color is pink, if you like this

[13:36] one, of course, why not? But right now

[13:39] there's not a lot of options. You either

[13:40] get a Visa or a MasterCard. That's it.

[13:43] So anyway, I think it's a consumer

[13:45] problem. So now if we have this network

[13:46] implemented, it works. How do we change

8:39 · Supporting context

[8:39] They can pay with their dollars without

[8:41] even having to think about it. The

[8:43] merchant receives the Bitcoin that they

[8:44] want. There's no Visa in the middle and

[8:47] there's no transaction fee for the for

[8:49] the merchant. And so

[8:50] all parties kind of win there and it's

3:17 · Supporting context

[3:17] money implies you need to spend it. I

[3:20] have a personal opinion of why I want

[3:22] that to happen and why I inevitably

[3:23] think that will happen, but I don't

[3:25] think it's a violation to use Bitcoin

[3:28] with like a line of credit or a loan and

[3:30] spend the depreciating, debasing,

[3:33] shitcoin dollar. Yeah, no, that does

[3:35] make sense. And you did at least

[3:37] partially answer the question cuz like

[3:38] holding Bitcoin is still using Bitcoin.

[0:00] Let's go. You guys have brought a bit of
[0:02] the crowd in.
[0:03] Um
[0:04] This is going to be a fun panel. You
[0:05] guys, like Jack and Strike and Miles at
[0:07] Cash App and Square, you're kind of
[0:09] pushing the Bitcoin for payment side
[0:12] very strongly right now. And I think we
[0:14] should take a step back to start off
[0:15] with Jack. Like
[0:17] Bitcoin has had this dominant narrative
[0:19] over the last few years of being a store
[0:20] of value. But to me, Bitcoin is freedom
[0:23] money, and it has to be used as money.
[0:25] Like, why do you see that as such an
[0:26] important thing? Uh well, rule number
[0:29] one when you're on a panel is you don't
[0:31] ask the moderator questions back, but
[0:32] I'm going to break it. I think when I
[0:34] was thinking about doing the panel, I
[0:35] think you got to define money.
[0:38] I think a lot of the debate and a lot of
[0:41] the controversy is because people have
[0:43] different definitions of what money is.
[0:46] I have my own, I'm happy to go, but I'm
[0:48] more curious firstly to define money
[0:51] before we understand why or why not you
[0:54] should be using it in a certain way. So,
[0:56] I'm going to answer that question with
[0:57] another question.
[0:59] Let's go. But so, Bitcoin is money.
[1:01] Like, Bitcoin already works as money,
[1:03] but people aren't really using it as
[1:04] money as much as I would like to see.
[1:06] So, like I've I've traveled all over the
[1:08] world like doing the podcast. I've been
[1:09] to developing countries, and that's
[1:12] where I've seen Bitcoin actually being
[1:13] used as money. Um but I think in the
[1:15] West, we see it as this like store of
[1:17] value thing. And so, that's what I mean
[1:19] really when I say when is Bitcoin going
[1:20] to be become money? It's like, when is
[1:22] Bitcoin going to be used as money by
[1:24] people? As in, to buy things. Like, when
[1:26] are when are people going to go out and
[1:27] spend sats, not dollars?
[1:28] >> Yeah, so I So, my
[1:31] definition of money to be super
[1:32] succinct, or at least I'll try. I never
[1:34] am, but I'll try.
[1:35] Um
[1:36] money is uniquely the market good that
[1:38] you don't consume.
[1:41] That's it. So, if you, Danny, grow
[1:43] bananas and I have apples, and we want
[1:46] to directly exchange bananas for apples,
[1:48] that's called the coincidence of wants.
[1:49] You coincidentally want what I have,
[1:52] which are apples, and I coincidentally
[1:54] want what you have, which are bananas.
[1:56] Now, if you're growing bananas and I
[1:58] want some of your bananas and you don't
[1:59] want my apples, well, I'm shit out of
[2:01] luck. What do I do? Well, you want
[2:03] blueberries. So, I go find someone who
[2:06] has blueberries. I exchange my apples. I
[2:08] now have blueberries. I go now, what was
[2:10] the money in that scenario? It was the
[2:13] apples. I used the apples to transmit
[2:15] value. And so, for me, money is the
[2:18] market good. I don't live in it. I don't
[2:21] eat it. I don't fly it. I don't drive
[2:23] it. So, when people use real estate as
[2:25] money, I think that's bad money, right?
[2:27] So, Bitcoin to me is perfect money. I
[2:30] can't wear it in a rap video. I can't
[2:31] put it in jewelry. I can't eat it. I
[2:33] can't live in it. I can't fly it across
[2:35] the ocean. It's a market good that's
[2:37] perfect for allowing me to save and then
[2:40] later exchange
[2:42] the value I've created. So, the two use
[2:46] cases, in my opinion, for money are
[2:48] saving and then later exchanging. Why is
[2:51] the exchange part in the West
[2:53] lesser used than in other I think things
[2:56] like Gresham's Law,
[2:58] like for Stripe, payments for us are way
[3:00] more popular in some of the emerging
[3:03] markets. Lending for us in the United
[3:05] States is the biggest product we have
[3:07] and it's not even close. And I think
[3:09] things like Gresham's Law are going to
[3:11] naturally play out.
[3:13] So, I don't know if that answers the
[3:14] question, but
[3:16] I don't I don't I don't know if using
[3:17] money implies you need to spend it. I
[3:20] have a personal opinion of why I want
[3:22] that to happen and why I inevitably
[3:23] think that will happen, but I don't
[3:25] think it's a violation to use Bitcoin
[3:28] with like a line of credit or a loan and
[3:30] spend the depreciating, debasing,
[3:33] shitcoin dollar. Yeah, no, that does
[3:35] make sense. And you did at least
[3:37] partially answer the question cuz like
[3:38] holding Bitcoin is still using Bitcoin.
[3:40] Um, but Miles, like you both Cash App
[3:43] and Square have done tons to try and
[3:45] push this forward as a I guess maybe
[3:47] currency is a better word, as something
[3:49] that people are using in exchange for
[3:50] goods. And Square rolled out Bitcoin
[3:52] payments to every merchant in America,
[3:54] which is absolutely amazing. I need you
[3:56] to bring that to to Australia, but like
[3:59] with this
[4:01] Let's go. Let's go. Um
[4:03] with this, I think there's um
[4:06] in my opinion, there's always been like
[4:07] a chicken and egg problem with this
[4:08] where like I I've seen
[4:11] restaurants and bars and and things like
[4:12] that in my in my city put the Bitcoin
[4:14] accepted here sticker in, and then over
[4:17] time people aren't really using it cuz
[4:18] it requires a Bitcoiners go out and
[4:21] basically sell Bitcoin to these
[4:22] merchants and try and explain why it's
[4:24] good money. Um like how do you see that
[4:26] chicken and egg problem in what you've
[4:28] done?
[4:29] Sure.
[4:31] Uh so, at Block,
[4:33] one of our company missions is to make a
[4:35] Bitcoin everyday money. And I think
[4:38] in implied in that is the title of
[4:41] Satoshi's original white paper,
[4:43] peer-to-peer electronic cash. And so,
[4:47] maybe we're biased cuz we run a consumer
[4:49] app and we run a large merchant app, but
[4:52] I think that payment to use case feels
[4:54] embedded in the original mission of
[4:56] Bitcoin
[4:57] to us at least, and embedded in the
[5:00] foundational premise of our company as
[5:02] well.
[5:03] And I think the title of this panel is
[5:06] probably it's a little it's not not rage
[5:09] bait isn't an exaggeration, but I
[5:11] actually don't think there's that much
[5:12] of a debate here. I think Jack and I
[5:15] both agree that that's a really
[5:17] important use case, the payments one.
[5:20] But it's one that's going to take the
[5:21] longest to achieve.
[5:24] It's
[5:25] to me, it's
[5:26] the one of the like maybe the hardest
[5:28] thing in the world to overturn and put
[5:32] in place a new global financial system.
[5:35] And I think us as Bitcoiners, while
[5:37] we're low time preference a lot of the
[5:38] time,
[5:40] interfacing with the community
[5:41] sometimes, it's like, "Hey, come on come
[5:43] on guys, make it happen make it happen."
[5:45] And it's something that it's going to
[5:46] take a long time, and we need to be
[5:48] really deliberate and intentional about
[5:50] how we're doing that. And so, we didn't
[5:53] launch Square payments for many, many
[5:55] years. Even though people on Twitter, or
[5:57] when I first joined Block almost 9 years
[5:59] ago, people were asking, "When are you
[6:01] guys going to do it? When are you going
[6:02] to do it?" But I think we need a certain
[6:03] saturation point of enough people having
[6:06] Bitcoin wallets, of the infrastructure
[6:09] being in a strong enough place, and also
[6:13] the broader cultural and regulatory and
[6:16] the like the whole broader situation.
[6:18] It's not something that we're going to
[6:19] we can do just overnight. And so,
[6:24] I mean, I I
[6:26] Jack and I go really far back, to be
[6:29] honest. Like I There's many years where
[6:31] it was like you, me, Odell, Marty
[6:33] pretty much shouting into the void on
[6:35] Twitter alone. And um I want to bring up
[6:39] kind of like the origin story of Strike
[6:41] that we talked about at the end of the
[6:42] last year for the first time in in many
[6:44] years. But at the end of 2019, you
[6:46] reached out to me um because we were
[6:49] buddies and you were working on Zap, I
[6:52] think at the time, but we wanted to do
[6:54] this collaboration where
[6:56] we pull from the linked bank account in
[6:58] Cash App and we send a lightning
[7:01] payment. And I mean, that was a very
[7:03] ahead of its time concept, and that's
[7:06] eventually what formed the foundation of
[7:08] Strike. And congratulations on all your
[7:10] success. I'm so glad that you ran and
[7:11] did that independently. But I think
[7:16] I think payments is kind of core to your
[7:19] to your mission as well and your ethos.
[7:21] And so, I don't think there's too much
[7:23] of a debate here. I think in the current
[7:25] reality, one of the products that we're
[7:27] seeing really take off right now is
[7:30] using that kind of original Strike
[7:32] uh
[7:33] vision of spending your dollars over the
[7:36] lightning network. And of what that
[7:38] means on Cash App right now, when you
[7:39] walk up to a Square merchant and you
[7:42] scan the Bitcoin QR code or we just
[7:45] launched tap-to-pay which everybody
[7:46] should go try out today or tomorrow
[7:49] because we're really trying to make the
[7:51] payment experience as seamless as
[7:52] possible as good as Apple Pay. But when
[7:54] you do that from Cash App you'll get the
[7:56] option of paying with your Bitcoin
[7:59] balance or paying with your dollar
[8:00] balance and we've seen an explosion of
[8:02] adoption of using that dollar balance
[8:04] because there's no taxable event. You
[8:07] you don't burn down your your stack at
[8:09] all. And for the merchant it's the same
[8:11] thing. They receive Bitcoin. There's 0%
[8:13] processing fees and for me it's a really
[8:17] interesting
[8:18] primitive for the future because
[8:21] currently within Cash App you need to be
[8:23] a Bitcoin user to have that optionality.
[8:25] But you can imagine a world in the
[8:27] future where
[8:29] whatever every every single month
[8:30] there's like 55 million people using
[8:32] Cash App that aren't using Bitcoin.
[8:35] But you can imagine a world where those
[8:37] customers can scan that QR code.
[8:39] They can pay with their dollars without
[8:41] even having to think about it. The
[8:43] merchant receives the Bitcoin that they
[8:44] want. There's no Visa in the middle and
[8:47] there's no transaction fee for the for
[8:49] the merchant. And so
[8:50] all parties kind of win there and it's
[8:53] it's something we're thinking about. It
[8:54] feels like a really strong rail for the
[8:56] future and what I love is that it keeps
[8:59] Bitcoin in the mix. It keeps Bitcoin
[9:01] moving and giving it that velocity which
[9:03] I think I truly believe I think Jack
[9:05] truly believes that we need to keep it
[9:07] moving. We need it we need it acting
[9:09] like peer-to-peer electronic cash in
[9:11] order for it to stay relevant and for us
[9:13] to win in the long term.
[9:15] Let's go. Um
[9:18] I think one of the the really
[9:19] interesting things that I've seen and
[9:21] only quite recently really like Strike
[9:23] Strike and Zap before that have been
[9:25] pushing this Bitcoin as payments thing
[9:27] and obviously Block have as well. Um but
[9:29] it feels like a lot of things have come
[9:30] together over the last few weeks. I saw
[9:32] David Marcus' announcement today with
[9:34] Lightspark which is awesome.
[9:36] Are we moving from a world where like to
[9:38] pay in Bitcoin was always kind of a
[9:39] hack? Like you could do it, but it
[9:41] required there was a big barrier to
[9:42] entry. It was a little bit hard to
[9:44] everything kind of falling into place
[9:45] and the world being ready for this now?
[9:49] Uh I think so, but
[9:52] I I I I don't know if I'm repeating
[9:53] myself, but I think it's it's the
[9:55] challenge is not technology.
[9:58] I really don't think now famous last
[10:01] words, right? So there's some developer
[10:02] out there like you but
[10:04] Um I don't think uh the the story of
[10:08] humanity is engineering a better world.
[10:10] Uh we're good at making the world a
[10:12] better place and we find our way. I'm
[10:14] not worried about that part. The
[10:16] difficult thing in getting payments
[10:18] adoption for Bitcoin is actually
[10:21] consumer behavior.
[10:23] You know, these card networks have all
[10:26] of us
[10:27] uh
[10:29] right where they want us. People use
[10:31] their their Amex card, their Chase
[10:34] Sapphire card because they get free
[10:36] flights, airport lounges, Napa Valley
[10:38] wine, cash back. And the way that works
[10:41] is they charge the merchant 3 4 5% and
[10:45] then they share that with the consumer,
[10:47] so they're effectively holding merchants
[10:49] hostage and bribing the person at
[10:51] checkout to use their option instead of
[10:54] Bitcoin.
[10:55] And then you also have a currency that's
[10:57] being actively debased and actively
[10:59] abused to bail out awful government
[11:03] decisions. Uh and so of course people
[11:05] are going to elect to get rid of the
[11:07] worst money as opposed to the better
[11:08] money, which is Gresham's law. So I
[11:10] actually think it has more to do with
[11:11] human behavior than it does. And so the
[11:15] idea that Miles and I are working on,
[11:16] the the 2019 idea that I had, it came
[11:20] from uh me trying to understand why
[11:23] Bitcoin was better than gold, believe it
[11:24] or not.
[11:26] And the reason Bitcoin is better than
[11:27] gold is because Bitcoin is uniquely both
[11:30] a monetary asset, lowercase B, it's a
[11:34] bearer instrument. It's a commodity,
[11:36] right? But it's also a monetary network.
[11:39] Uppercase B, what's the gold monetary
[11:41] network? There's no It's us. Our My
[11:44] human legs are the gold monetary
[11:46] network. The gold monetary network is if
[11:47] I need to get gold to Nigeria, I better
[11:50] take my ass to the airport. That's what
[11:52] the gold monetary network is. And And
[11:54] Bitcoin was both. It was able to achieve
[11:56] transaction finality without me having
[11:58] to deposit it to the government, which
[12:00] gives me an IOU, and in 1971, they said
[12:03] what's yours is no longer. And it was
[12:05] the This monetary network idea. And I
[12:07] was like, "Holy crap." And this was
[12:09] 2019. I was however many years old, and
[12:11] I said, "Wait a second. So, I can the
[12:13] equivalent of throwing a gold bar from
[12:15] here to Nigeria in less than a second
[12:17] and at no cost? Well, that's kind of
[12:19] cool." And if the person wanted to send
[12:23] naira or dollars or euros or pounds,
[12:26] well, they can give it to me. I'll turn
[12:27] it into the faster gold. I'll throw it
[12:29] to Nigeria in less than a second and for
[12:31] free, and I'll convert it back into the
[12:33] currency, no problem. Bitcoin's a
[12:35] global, liquid, sellable asset. It's
[12:38] easy to get in and out. And so, it's
[12:40] this idea of my passion for using
[12:43] Bitcoin as payments
[12:45] is actually to dematerialize the
[12:48] chokehold that card networks and
[12:51] centralized entities have on our ability
[12:54] to facilitate settlement. That's what I
[12:56] want to be free and open so that a David
[12:59] Marcus can launch what he wants. So that
[13:01] Miles can launch what he wants. And
[13:02] ultimately, as an American, what do I
[13:04] want when I go check out? I want all the
[13:07] greatest entrepreneurs in this country
[13:09] to compete to give me the best wallet to
[13:11] check out. And right now, I don't have
[13:13] access to the Visa rails. I don't have
[13:15] access to the MasterCard rails. They're
[13:17] abusing these merchants and treating
[13:19] them unfairly. And so, if we can use
[13:21] Bitcoin, this network, as an open,
[13:24] interoperable, it does the job that Visa
[13:26] does. It does the job that Swift does
[13:29] and we let everyone compete at the
[13:30] edges, drive costs down, be innovative.
[13:33] There'll be millions of wallets. If your
[13:35] favorite color is pink, if you like this
[13:36] one, of course, why not? But right now
[13:39] there's not a lot of options. You either
[13:40] get a Visa or a MasterCard. That's it.
[13:43] So anyway, I think it's a consumer
[13:45] problem. So now if we have this network
[13:46] implemented, it works. How do we change
[13:49] consumer behavior? Do we need to give
[13:50] them more Napa Valley wine? If so, who's
[13:52] going to pay for that? Is Dorsey paying
[13:54] for that? I assume not. And so I think
[13:56] it's a good consumer behavioral thing,
[13:57] but the long arching vision is using the
[14:00] network to free ourselves of an abusive
[14:03] relationship with corporations that I
[14:05] think have created duopoly
[14:07] and open up competition and innovation
[14:09] to what is core to money, which is value
[14:12] exchange. So I could be being naive here
[14:14] and cuz airline miles are cool, but
[14:17] money that goes up forever is cooler.
[14:19] And is is one of the consumer habits
[14:21] that needs to change like this idea of
[14:23] opportunity cost with Bitcoin. Like I
[14:24] mean I can go to the shop and I can
[14:26] spend dollars or pounds or euros or
[14:27] whatever and all of that money could
[14:29] also be Bitcoin.
[14:31] Yes, so so I actually think it's it's a
[14:33] dangerous game to try and interpret, in
[14:36] my opinion, and this is where Miles and
[14:38] I I'm happy to debate you. I love I love
[14:40] Miles like a brother. So debate or no
[14:42] debate, I'm I'm down for whatever. I I
[14:44] personally find it to be a dangerous
[14:46] game to try and interpret Satoshi's
[14:48] white paper as a particular intent or
[14:50] fact and I find Bitcoiners sometimes
[14:54] contradict each other.
[14:55] They say, "Hey,
[14:57] uh
[14:58] why aren't you using Bitcoin the way I
[14:59] think you should?" And I was like,
[15:00] "Whoa, I thought this was about property
[15:02] rights. Are you telling me how to use my
[15:05] property?" And so I think as a form of
[15:07] property rights and and the other
[15:09] contradiction is I love when Michael
[15:11] Saylor borrows fiat to stack more
[15:14] Bitcoin, but you don't like when I
[15:16] borrow fiat to go to Whole Foods?
[15:18] WHAT THE FUCK? So I think that there's a
[15:20] slight contradiction there. You know, if
[15:23] you have access to cheap depreciating
[15:26] shitcoin dollars and someone's willing
[15:28] to lend it to you, which is a luxury
[15:30] service. 100 years from now, no one's
[15:31] going to be willing to lend you pieces
[15:33] of crap paper. Um, then I I think that
[15:35] that's a fine use case. Um,
[15:38] and and it solves for a lot of the it
[15:40] keeps Bitcoin off the market of being
[15:42] sold. Um, it allows people to grow
[15:45] wealth. I mean, it changes lives. If you
[15:46] can find a way to hold an asset that's
[15:49] averaging 30% year over year,
[15:51] you can change you and your family's
[15:53] life if you could do find a way to do
[15:55] that for 3, 4, 5 years.
[15:57] And so, I don't necessarily have a
[15:59] problem with that. I think if Bitcoin is
[16:00] property rights, you know, you'll find
[16:03] different pockets of the world finding
[16:05] value for different reasons. No one's
[16:06] wrong. It's no one's job or role to
[16:09] determine what Bitcoin is and why it's
[16:10] valuable for them. Um, so that's my
[16:14] broad strokes opinion. Serving a global
[16:16] user base,
[16:18] we see different behaviors everywhere
[16:19] and they're all right. No one's wrong, I
[16:21] guess. Uh, and I I actually don't
[16:24] disagree with that at all. I feel like
[16:27] from the Block perspective, we have a
[16:31] bit of an obligation because we have
[16:33] both sides of the counter to and we have
[16:36] the luxury of being a diversified
[16:38] company where we can play the long game
[16:40] on Bitcoin and we don't have to optimize
[16:43] for short-term profits immediately
[16:45] because we think in the long run this is
[16:47] going to be the biggest opportunity to
[16:50] have a global payments network.
[16:52] Most There's not a lot of companies that
[16:55] have that luxury. And frankly, I think
[16:57] if we weren't doing that, I think it'd
[17:00] be it would be a real threat to Bitcoin.
[17:02] And so, I think we take a lot of pride
[17:05] in that. But,
[17:07] I have no problem with lending at all.
[17:09] On the Cash App side of the house,
[17:11] uh, actually across Block, we've
[17:14] originated over 220 billion dollars
[17:17] in like helping out consumers and
[17:19] helping out small businesses and across
[17:21] Afterpay as well. And so there's real
[17:23] economic value that can come from that.
[17:26] And I think
[17:28] as we like it I look at your guys
[17:30] lending business and I'm I'm jealous,
[17:32] you know, and like we'll probably do
[17:34] that shortly. And we think that's really
[17:35] important, but I think given where we
[17:38] are in the market over the last few
[17:40] years and feeling
[17:42] it feels to me like we're in the midst
[17:44] of this big paradigm change. And if and
[17:47] if Block is not doing this, I think
[17:49] there's real danger for the world.
[17:52] Bitcoin is the only truly
[17:54] censorship resistance money that there
[17:56] is right now. And as we're moving into
[17:58] this AI world and as we're moving into
[18:01] every single thing being recorded and
[18:03] watched and permissioned, I truly think
[18:06] that
[18:07] if we don't preserve peer-to-peer
[18:09] digital cash right now, it's a right
[18:11] that we're going to lose and we're going
[18:12] to lose forever. And so I take that as a
[18:16] responsibility to lead the charge. And
[18:17] the the beautiful thing about Bitcoin is
[18:20] it's not just us benefiting, it's the
[18:21] whole community. And so Strike is
[18:23] interoperable, Phoenix is interoperable,
[18:26] and we're laying the groundwork. We're
[18:28] thinking on a really long timeline. And
[18:32] we have the luxury of of of being able
[18:34] to do that because we think it's the
[18:35] best long-term decision in the long run.
[18:38] But
[18:39] if you look
[18:40] if you look towards the future, if you
[18:42] ask any government right now like
[18:45] would you if if something new came out
[18:47] of nowhere and they're laying down the
[18:48] laws and the financial laws,
[18:50] does anybody here think that they would
[18:51] like institute this concept of cash? To
[18:54] me it's a relic from an earlier time and
[18:57] one that we need to cherish because
[19:00] from my view it looks like around the
[19:02] world every government wants to get rid
[19:03] of this. They want they want to see
[19:05] every payment, they want to control
[19:07] every payment, and I think that's a
[19:09] really scary thing in the AI world. And
[19:11] so that's that's my personal opinion on
[19:14] why I think it's so important. I think
[19:16] on a long enough time frame, it's going
[19:17] to pay out and it's a really important
[19:19] thing for human freedom in the long run.
[19:22] 100%.
[19:23] Um
[19:25] just to quickly switch this over to the
[19:27] borrowing against your Bitcoin
[19:28] conversation. Strike, you've done an
[19:31] amazing job there
[19:32] at trying to get those rates as low as
[19:34] possible, but they're they're still
[19:35] relatively high. And I understand that
[19:36] there's a cost of capital for the people
[19:38] that are actually lending the dollars.
[19:39] Um but as we often talk about it as
[19:42] being the best form of collateral ever.
[19:44] Like on the lender side, there's never
[19:46] zero risk, but risk is pretty low. Like
[19:47] it's 24/7 markets, you can liquidate
[19:49] things. Um
[19:51] when do you think the broader market
[19:53] will wake up for that and the the rates
[19:54] will go significantly lower?
[19:56] Well, I don't think people understand
[20:00] what
[20:01] how the market works. Um it doesn't
[20:03] matter how risk-free the return is. Um
[20:07] what matters is if I have a billion
[20:09] dollars,
[20:11] you're asking me to lend it out to get
[20:14] 1% return? Well, I'm better off buying a
[20:17] US bond. That's risk-free cuz those guys
[20:20] can print it out of thin air, and
[20:21] they're willing to give me 3 and 1/2, 4,
[20:23] 4 and 1/2%. And so, it doesn't matter
[20:26] that Bitcoin is as pristine as it is.
[20:28] That's never going to be a disagreement
[20:30] for me. What matters is
[20:33] the market of people that for whatever
[20:35] reason have fiat in the first place. If
[20:37] you've got billions of dollars of fiat,
[20:39] the fuck are you doing? So, you have
[20:42] this weird market of call it fixed
[20:44] income investors or institutional
[20:45] investors cuz by the way, you know,
[20:48] Bitcoin is so niche, right? Um you you
[20:51] think you're doing well, and then you
[20:52] hear that Miles has lent out a quarter
[20:54] trillion dollars. So, if you want to
[20:56] scale these markets and you want to lend
[20:58] out a lot of money, um finding capital
[21:01] that's saying I I could be getting 30%
[21:04] year-over-year on average by owning
[21:06] Bitcoin, but I'll forego that
[21:08] opportunity so that you can borrow
[21:10] against it. How much do I need
[21:14] in return for that relationship? I mean,
[21:16] let's use Michael Saylor and strategy
[21:18] for example. Michael Saylor used to be
[21:20] borrowing money at 0%.
[21:23] Do you think that he got sick of that
[21:24] and preferred 11, 12, 13%? Danny, do you
[21:27] think that he just prefers a higher
[21:29] number?
[21:30] >> Absolutely not. Probably not, right?
[21:31] He's doing it because there he ran out
[21:33] of people willing to give money at 0%.
[21:36] And so if you're going to ask someone in
[21:38] the crowd, "Hey, don't buy Bitcoin. Buy
[21:41] stretch." Well, how much are they going
[21:43] to demand from you to take that deal?
[21:46] Turns out what Michael Saylor's paying
[21:48] is kind of what the Bitcoin lending rate
[21:50] is. So it's what How much do you have to
[21:52] pay someone to say, "I'm not going to
[21:54] buy Nvidia. I'm not going to buy
[21:56] Anthropic. I'm not going to buy Bitcoin.
[21:58] I'm not going to buy really nice real
[21:59] estate. I'm going to lend it to you. I
[22:02] know it's pristine collateral, but
[22:04] people need to appreciate that's what
[22:06] the market is made up of." Ultimately,
[22:08] once we get into implicit government
[22:12] guarantees and Bitcoin finds its way
[22:14] seeps through the cracks like universal
[22:17] asset as it always does and ends up
[22:19] conquering the inner walls of all these
[22:21] institutions, we'll start getting really
[22:23] cheap dollars from the Jamie Diamonds of
[22:24] the world, but we're just not there yet.
[22:26] And so that's why.
[22:29] There is so much more that I want to
[22:30] talk to you to about, but we're running
[22:32] very low on time. Um one of the things
[22:34] just like from my perspective that I've
[22:35] seen like Bitcoin is in a bear market,
[22:38] price is quite low, but I've never been
[22:40] more bullish on the stuff that people
[22:42] are building. Like I think it's
[22:43] absolutely awesome the developments
[22:44] we've had over the last 6 months. Um
[22:47] what a time to be in Bitcoin, guys.
[22:48] Maybe we'll have to do a podcast and get
[22:49] into this more deeply. Deal. Let's do
[22:51] it, Danny. I'm down. All right. Thank
[22:53] you, guys.
[22:53] >> Thanks, guys. Give it up for these two.
[23:02] Every year
[23:04] this community comes together
[23:06] to celebrate,
[23:08] to debate,
[23:10] to build what comes next.
[23:14] And every year
[23:17] the stage gets bigger.
[23:21] Sound money
[23:23] center stage.
[23:24] So, where do you go to celebrate the
[23:26] next chapter in Bitcoin history?
[23:31] You come home.
[23:34] Nashville, July 2027.

← Back to videos list

Scroll to Top