In today's episode of the hardcore finance show, Alex and Shimon discuss the recent weekly events. 

We talk about china banning bitcoin (again), capital controls, evergrande and their real estate woes, the recent price drop in the markets, the infrastructure bill and its implication on inflation and treasury interest rates, and what does all of this mean about the future. Will the higher rates drive higher real growth, or will they collapse asset prices?

Join us for a fascinating discussion!

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What a week it has been. El Salvador is adopting Bitcoin, crypto markets are REKT, The IMF is rooting against the underprivileged, and Coinbase is airing out their dirty SEC laundry. 

Shimon and Alex discuss a whirl wind of a week!

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Shimon and Alex welcome back Gil Eyal and Eliaz Tobias of Crowdsense. Crowdsense is one of the best tools in the market for finding signal in noise and can quickly analyze thousands of data points to help investors trade. This is acutely applicable to Crypto as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot and even GameFi tokens like Star Atlas and Axie Infinity are driven by retail sentiment.

We discuss whether social media sentiment can predict price movements of cryptocurrencies, the social influencers effect on cryptocurrency adoption, different algorithms that crowdsense users and many more topics. 

https://www.crowdsense.ai/
starfund.io
https://twitter.com/gileyal
https://twitter.com/Crowdsenseai


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Shimon and Alex open up the brand new Hardcore Finance Studio. We then re-examine the markets and why people should invest in Bitcoin - as a special request from our fans.



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In this solo episode, Shimon discusses why governments could let Bitcoin survive and thrive. 

Some of the questions discussed are:
- How could getting rid of the state monopoly of money creation help the state collect more tax revenue?
- When would this relevant? 
- What is our Bitcoin price target before governments start to care? 
- What is the optimal tax %? 
- Why do low interest rates hurt productivity and tax collection? 

Tune in to find out!

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In this solo episode, Shimon explores a thesis under which governments choose to not stop bitcoin

• I wanted to start from a desired end result (bitcoin becomes world money) and examine a scenario under which it could happen.
• The main thesis of bitcoin supporters is that governments cannot stop it. I don’t agree. If the governments could put people on the moon, stop the nazi regime that at some point ruled a huge chunk of the world, and destroy the USSR - a government that had lots of nukes and sent the first man into space and back, they can stop bitcoin.
• Another thesis is that governments are not efficient, lazy, lack political will, don’t have the resources to commit, and that’s why they won’t stop it. This is a more believable argument, but it assumes that bitcoin is not significant enough, in which case it’s not very interesting. If bitcoin fulfills its promise and becomes world money, and becomes a threat to government revenues, a cost/benefit analysis would justify committing the resources required to stop it.
• This episode explores a scenario under which governments will choose to not stop bitcoin. The only way under which this could happen (given bitcoin being significant enough) is if it increases the government's tax revenue.
• At first glance it sounds ridiculous, but this is exactly why I wanted to record this episode. Buckle up.

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Glenn Kirschner, Shimon Lazarov and Alex Chizhik chat about the Mueller Report, the workings of the USA legal system on both the federal and state level, Trump’s legal troubles, Trump’s associates charged with fraud and other types of financial crimes and foreign interference into the USA policies.

Glenn Kirschner is a retired federal prosecutor who worked under Robert Mueller as chief of homicide in DC. After his public service, Glenn became a legal analyst for MSNBC and other news outlets and started his youtube channel Justice Matters where millions of people tune in every day to get a deeper understanding on the most recent legal developments.

We discussed:

• Glenn’s path to becoming a federal prosecutor
• Working with Robert Mueller as his supervisor
• Glenn’s take on the Mueller report. Was it the right decision to not indict a sitting president
• When will charges be brought against Trump now that he is no longer president
• Obstruction of justice and other crimes that Trump has publicly committed
• The Jan 6 insurrection and Trump’s involvement in it
• The recent indictment of Tom Barrack and the UAEs influence on Trump’s speeches and policies
• State’s rights vs federal decision making
• The supreme court vs local state legislation

and a lot more…

Follow Glenn on twitter @glennkirschner2

Follow Glenn’s channel on youtube Justice Matters

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Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/36u8fmbr
Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4zv6syfc

Our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrg492YbLDRnx5yXVFj_XFA

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Shimon and Alex discuss President Joe Biden's stance on inflation and how he plans to manage it. Is there inflation? Did he misspeak? Does he really think money printing will cause less inflation?

We then move on to discuss our interview with the brilliant Sinead Colton Grant and how encouraging it is to have major institutions so deeply understand blockchain, crypto, and Bitcoin.

We are more bullish than ever!


Apple Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/36u8fmbr
Spotify Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4zv6syfc
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BNY Mellon’s Sinead Colton Grant, Alex Chizhik and Shimon Lazarov chat about Digital Asset Impact Investing and many topics in the intersection of digital currencies, the traditional fintech space, and the global macro environment.

We discussed:
• Bitcoin as a store of value
• The global macro landscape
• The role of digital currencies in the rapidly developing fintech space
• Ways to determine the value of digital assets
• Banking the unbanked
• Bitcoin as both an asset and a monetary network
• Innovation in the fintech space
• The results of the recent monetary expansion on the global economy
• Performance of stock indexes in light of monetary expansion
• Utilizing crypto currencies as part of a portfolio context
• The longevity of cryptocurrencies vs an expansion of number of adopters
• Is past performance indicative of future results
• The impact of cryptocurrencies on the developing world
• The institutional perception of digital currencies vs stocks, bonds and real estate
• The volatility of Bitcoin vs its upside and uncorrelated nature with other traditional assets
• Inflation as a concern for traditional investors and Bitcoin as an inflation hedge (vs traditional inflation hedges such as commodities)

and a lot more…

Time stamps:

0:44 - Sinead Colton Grant’s background

2:38 - how Sinead got into the space and why digital assets are interesting to her

6:11 - Sinead’s thoughts on the recent changes in monetary policy, mainly increase in central bank balance sheets and their inflation of asset prices and how it will affect digital assets. She mentions changes in valuations in stocks, real estate, tech equities vs other equities, and the weakening of the USD.

13:20 - Sinead’s views on cryptocurrencies as stores of value vs other more traditional stores of value such as commodities.

25:45 - Bitcoin’s energy usage vs the value it can bring to the developing vs the developed world. Commodities, real estate and other stores of value increase in quantity as the price goes up vs Bitcoin where the energy use increases as price goes up.

33:05 - Bitcoin as a money that is not dependent on any particular government, and the institutional view of that aspect.

41:15 - Bitcoin as social impact investing.

42:55 - Opportunity for institutions to tap into billions of consumers through the Bitcoin network that can connect them to a monetary network that doesn’t have high fixed transaction costs.

44:45 - Thoughts on regulation.

47:00 - BNY Mellon’s entry into the space and the reactions to that move

49:25 - Sinead’s recommendation - The show “This Way Up” on Hulu - a comedy about 2 Irish women moving from Ireland to London.

Apple Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/36u8fmbr
Spotify Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4zv6syfc
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Today on the Hardcore Finance Podcast we welcome Lee Bratcher of the Texas Blockchain Council. (https://texasblockchaincouncil.org/). 

We talk about how fundamental property rights are to capitalism and democracy, Bitcoin and illicit activity, and the incredible movement brewing underneath the surface across many States. 

Texasblockchainsummit.org 
texasblockchaincouncil.org 

Apple Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/36u8fmbr 
Spotify Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4zv6syfc 
Hardcorefinance.com

Follow us on Twitter 
@MrEBITDA
@ShimonLazarov

Support the show