Saifedean Ammous – The Bitcoin Standard - [Invest Like the Best, EP.107]

My guest this week is Saifedean Ammous, author of the book the Bitcoin Standard. This was one of the more interesting conversations I’ve had in the world of cryptocurrency, primarily because we don’t talk about Bitcoin or Crypto until 25 minutes into the talk. Instead, we focus on history, economics, sound money, low time preference, and gold—all interesting topics.

Saif’s thinking on cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin—which is that they are worthless—is unique and thought provoking. His reasoning around why gold shouldn’t be compared to the returns generated by assets like equities was also compelling. If you’ve followed my Hash Power episodes, this is a new a differentiated interpretation of Bitcoin as a technology for the store of value use case. Please enjoy our conversation.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

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Show Notes

2:10 - (First Question) – Explain Sound Money

4:25 – Examples of hard vs easy money

7:36 – the even money trap

9:36 – The benefits of hard money vs today’s standards

14:05 – Why this interests him

            14:16 – Gold Wars: The Battle Against Sound Money As Seen From A Swiss Perspective

            14:56 – Democracy – The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order

16:17 – Correlation between time preference and people’s ability to succeed in life

19:59 – How money markets worked in the late 18th century vs today

27:57 – How he came across Bitcoin and how he thinks of it as a digital gold

35:42 – How will the world transition to a sound money standard

42:15 – The impacts of hyperinflation on crypto currencies

45:04 – The idea of a orderly upgrade of the world currency

48:20 – His thinking on alternative coins

54:05 – What it takes to compete with bitcoin

1:01:43 – How he diversifies

1:04:35 – Stalling bitcoins demand

1:06:11 – Does he apply his thinking of lower time preference elsewhere in his life

1:07:09 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag