Honduras Banning Bitcoin Transactions?

Summary

The video discusses Honduras's attempt to ban Bitcoin, contrasting it with El Salvador's adoption under President Bukele. Speakers argue bans are futile since Bitcoin is decentralized money, not technology. They cite China's failures to ban Bitcoin despite surveillance and threats. Instead, grassroots Bitcoin adoption bubbles are key, like in El Salvador. Speakers conclude Bitcoin is an idea that can't be stopped, as states still incorrectly view it as technology, not money created from digital irreproducibility.

Takeaways

• 😱 Honduras recently passed a law restricting Bitcoin, going against the trend of other Latin American countries embracing it
• 👍 El Salvador has seen lower homicide rates and more peace since adopting Bitcoin as legal tender
• 💡 The leadership in countries like Honduras likely doesn't trust their own citizens to handle financial freedom
• 💰 Honduras has its own fiat currency that it can print leading to money illusions for its citizens
• 🔥 Bitcoin can't be stopped by any country, even authoritarian ones like China
• 🌱 Bitcoin adoption happens bottoms up through grassroots effort, not just top down laws
• 📈 There are now Bitcoin circular economies functioning in many Latin American countries already
• ❌ Attempts by countries to ban Bitcoin are a rookie mistake since it operates as money, not just technology
• 💡 Bitcoin created digital scarcity only once, no other cryptocurrency can reproduce this
• 📈 Mrs. Watanabe (Japanese housewife investors) are starting to invest more into Bitcoin recently

Q & A

Why does the host believe Honduras is 'missing the boat' by restricting Bitcoin?

The host believes Honduras is missing an opportunity by restricting Bitcoin while other Latin American countries like El Salvador are embracing it. He thinks there may be political interests or central banks influencing the Honduran government to restrict financial empowerment of citizens through Bitcoin.

How does the homicide rate in El Salvador compare to Honduras?

The host cites statistics showing El Salvador has one of the lowest homicide rates in Latin America at 2.2 per 100,000 people, while Honduras has one of the highest around 51 per 100,000.

What is the host's perspective on Bitcoin bringing peace?

The host believes Bitcoin and economic liberty, as embraced by El Salvador's president, have brought more peace and reduced gang violence there. He thinks Bitcoin encourages a mindset of low time preference and different governance models.

What is the national currency of Honduras?

Honduras uses the lempira as its national currency. One guest points out Honduras can print its own currency and may be restricting Bitcoin to maintain monetary control.

How does the leadership in Honduras differ from El Salvador?

One guest argues the Honduran government does not trust its people like El Salvador's president does. Honduras is implementing more monetary control while El Salvador is empowering its citizens economically.

Can governments truly ban Bitcoin even if they try?

The guests argue Bitcoin cannot be stopped or banned entirely. Even very controlling governments like China have failed to completely restrict Bitcoin despite harsh measures.

Why is Bitcoin adoption growing in Japan?

One guest discusses Japan's high household savings rate and appetite for trading currencies, which may fuel rising Bitcoin adoption there as an alternative reserve asset.

Why do government bans treat Bitcoin like a technology?

One guest makes the key point that Bitcoin is money, not just technology. Banning it fails to understand its nature as a new form of money fueled by collective consciousness.

What is digital irreproducibility?

This refers to the one-time creation of something, like Bitcoin, that provably cannot be reproduced digitally. Bitcoin's core innovation is creating digital scarcity that cannot be replicated.

How can countries adopt Bitcoin most effectively?

The guests argue grassroots Bitcoin adoption is more powerful and organic than top-down government bans or restrictions. Building local Bitcoin circular economies can overcome negative policies.

Outlines

00:00

🎙 Honduras and its laws against bitcoin in contrast to El Salvador and president buchali

The paragraph compares the stricter bitcoin laws in Honduras to the more favorable bitcoin policies in El Salvador under president buchell. It suggests Honduras may be 'missing the boat' and speculates on reasons why Honduras passed laws restricting bitcoin, contrasting this distrust of people with the positive relationship between president buchell and the Salvadorian people.

05:00

💸 The problem with fiat currencies and the incentives they create for governments

This paragraph analyzes problems with fiat currencies, specifically the Honduran lira. It discusses how governments can weaponize fiat currency through policies like taxation and emphasizes the controlling relationship this dynamic creates between governments and their citizens.

10:03

🌱 The inevitability of bitcoin adoption regardless of government bans

The paragraph asserts that government attempts to ban or restrict bitcoin are ultimately futile. It uses China and the growth of bitcoin globally as examples, stating that world leaders will eventually have to 'get on the arc' and adopt bitcoin even if dragged kicking and screaming by their citizens demanding economic freedom.

15:04

📈 Increasing bitcoin adoption in unexpected places like Japan

This paragraph highlights growing bitcoin adoption in places like Japan, noting that adoption is still in the early stages and predicts increasing demand from large pools of capital globally. It emphasizes that the path forward for bitcoin is steadily up.

Keywords

💡Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency and payment system that uses cryptography and a public ledger called the blockchain to verify and record transactions. It is repeatedly mentioned in the video as a tool for financial empowerment and a way for countries like El Salvador to gain more economic independence. For example, the President of El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender to give more financial control to the people.

💡El Salvador

El Salvador is the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. It is presented in the video as a positive example of a country embracing Bitcoin, with benefits like lower homicide rates and more economic prosperity. President Bukele of El Salvador is praised for giving Bitcoin control back to the people with the slogan "finally, it's ours".

💡decentralization

Decentralization refers to the lack of centralized control, like with Bitcoin which has no central bank or authority. The video praises this as empowering for regular people, in contrast to fiat currencies like the US Dollar which central governments control.

💡financial empowerment

Financial empowerment means giving more economic control and independence to regular people. The video says Bitcoin does this by being decentralized, helping countries rely less on other central banks and currencies.

💡adoption

Adoption means the growing use and acceptance of Bitcoin globally. The video predicts Bitcoin adoption will continue growing in countries like Japan despite attempts to ban it.

💡bans

Some countries like China and Honduras have tried banning or restricting Bitcoin, but the video says this doesn't work because the idea of Bitcoin can't be stopped. It argues bans often have the opposite effect of increasing interest in Bitcoin.

💡fiat currency

Fiat currencies like the US Dollar or Honduran Lempira have no intrinsic value, they are issued by central governments. The video contrasts these with Bitcoin which is decentralized.

💡circularity

Circular economies around Bitcoin, like in El Salvador, help drive adoption by creating closed loops where people get paid in and spend Bitcoin frequently.

💡bottlenecks

Bottlenecks to adoption were mentioned regarding the top-down approach of El Salvador, contrasted with the usually bottom-up grassroots adoption of Bitcoin.

💡irreproducibility

Bitcoin's irreproducible and capped supply makes it different from fiat currency that central banks can print more of. This scarcity gives Bitcoin value as hard money.

Highlights

Honduras recently passed a law restricting Bitcoin, while El Salvador has embraced it

The homicide rate in El Salvador has dropped dramatically since adopting Bitcoin, suggesting it brings peace

The leadership in Honduras likely doesn't trust people to handle financial freedom responsibly

The Honduran government prints its own fiat currency, the Lempira, contributing to economic problems

Governments tend to increase control and reduce freedoms when they don't trust their citizens

Fiat currency enables governments to force submission through taxes and illusion of value

El Salvador already used the US dollar, making adoption of Bitcoin easier

Grassroots Bitcoin adoption happens from the bottom up before reaching mainstream

President Bukele brought top-down Bitcoin adoption to El Salvador

Pockets of Bitcoin adoption globally will eventually join up

China has been unable to successfully ban Bitcoin despite strict controls

Bitcoin can't be undiscovered or uninvented, like fire or the wheel

Attempts by governments to ban Bitcoin represent a misunderstanding of its monetary nature

Bitcoin created digital scarcity and irreproducibility only once, in 2009

The market increasingly accepts the reality that Bitcoin cannot be stopped

Transcripts

I would love to do a a podcast or just

an episode called wrong side of History

just go through all throughout people

throughout history who were just on the

wrong side you know people who are like

ah those four guys from Liverpool they

sound like dead cats or whatever just

everyone who missed the boat and it

feels like maybe Honduras is missing the

boat because it all these other Latin

American countries I mean I've traveled

a little bit throughout Latin America I

have not been to Honduras but I'm and

I'm meeting a lot of people from other

Latin American countries and they're all

saying man I wish we had a boul but then

Honduras passes this dumb law basically

saying you can't use Bitcoin or

something like that which leads me to

believe and maybe you guys have more

information it just just as a guess

there's somebody central banks within

that government paying off politicians

or something that's why they they did

that or they're like oh my God we we

can't let people get financially

empowered like they're doing in in El

Salvador so we got to shut this down

what what is your take on Honduras

passing this very like bad Bitcoin bill

or law or whatever it is well I'll also

point out that President buelli just in

the past two

days tweeted a link to the um a a chart

showing the the homicide rate across

Latin America and El Salvador was at the

very bottom meaning it was the safest

and up at the top it was either the the

very top or in the top three was

Honduras

so uh the well Ecuador was higher than

Honduras actually bizarrely I mean

Ecuador has fast become uh very uh

dangerous but uh Honduras is a very

dangerous place right their their

homicide rate was something like 51 per

100,000 versus El Salvador's

2.2 and you know Max is often pointed

out that Bitcoin brings peace right uh I

think this this kind of goes hand inand

and you see that in El Salvador you know

president belli announced his policy of

economic Liberty and under economic

Liberty came Bitcoin and Liberty brings

you know Bitcoin is peace Bitcoin and

economic Liberty brought peace uh and I

think you see that in the results in El

Salvador uh he brought in the uh the war

and gangs after Bitcoin and now we have

a lot of peace and I think they all go

together in terms of the mindset of the

Low Time preference and just your way of

viewing the world and viewing the

governance model of the world and maybe

if they adopted Bitcoin and Honduras

they might have a little bit more

success like they do in El

Salvador well you know it's um it's an

interesting case study isn't it I think

that with President belli his secret

weapon really are the people of El

Salvador the Salvadorian people are so

kind-hearted and beautiful people and

and they love the president the

president loves him and it's a great

relationship and I think that he trusts

the people to do the right thing and by

making Bitcoin legal tender for example

and by passing economic empowerment laws

he's essentially throwing the keys to

the people and saying look this is your

country and you know you see t-shirts

all over El salavador finally it's ours

you know it's back it's we got it back

El Salvador is ours you know finally

after are not only 50 years but going

back 200 years so in Honduras I think or

any country the for the leadership

essentially at the end of the day they

don't trust people they don't trust the

people um and you see that in the US and

you see that in other countries see that

in Canada playing out spectacularly the

leadership there does not trust the

people living in that country to do the

sensible thing to do the common sense

thing so they reach for all the levs of

control they think that we need to

insert more control and that we have a

problem the problem is we don't have

enough control and um it's the tragedy

of being in power is that you seek more

power and that only exacerbates these

problems so Honduras is taking the

opposite course one needs if one wants

to do what we're seeing and I think it's

it's fiat currency right that's the

problem for them is they have their own

currency the Lira and uh they can print

it and I think just like what president

buelli spoke before CPAC the bit about

the two minutes 36 seconds about uh the

dollar I think you know an almost sort

of gaslighting relationship emerges

between the the governing class and the

governed so I think they start to um use

it as a kind of a they weaponize it

right like as he was pointed out they

could just print it but they make you

pay taxes

to for this illusion but really it's a

kind of submission right like they force

they they they they know everybody knows

it's an

illusion but if you don't pay them you

go to jail for 20 years sort of thing I

mean they're a huge consequences to this

illusion if you don't believe in this

illusion it's a it's a very totalitarian

sort of Illusion that they make you

believe and if you don't believe this

you're going to jail so I think that

that sort of innate um

incentive model the the structure the

consensus model of the Fiat system

creates that sort of uh you know the

relationship between the government and

the people so I think El Salvador

already had you know they were already

on the US dollar so it was easier for

them to jump into Bitcoin and to just

like go totally like not even have to

trust the FED they could just trust

Bitcoin trust the math yeah I think you

know Stacy's making an excellent point

there and you know to contrast the two

answers obviously in in my case when you

asked me this question I went on a wild

digression without any facts or

interesting points uh when Stacy's asked

this question she actually pointed out

that they have their own currency the

Lira and they're printing it and they're

leading to Fiat money chaos I mean that

that's the superior answer so if you're

watching this video you can delete what

I said because what I just said was just

like an aside I just was vacuously

filling airtime for no reason and

thinking to myself well you know 20 more

seconds of this and I'll kick it over to

Stacy and hopefully she'll be able to

answer this question intelligently which

she did I had no idea they had their own

currency I didn't know about the Lira

but God that makes sense doesn't it

doesn't that make

sense I mean to quote Michael sailor

yeah I mean Lira you know imagine if you

just bought the Lira and bought Bitcoin

that makes Hur is uh you know imagine we

bought the Bitcoin you know is a 10,000

or 20,000 Michael in the New World Order

he won't to take over the world

obviously he knows the he works in

Washington DC he knows the lizard people

personally well the other thing I mean

these are these are great points to I I

I I got a Wonder too I have to believe

that why I think it's even more

important for if people are watching

this in other countries around the world

is to create other Bitcoin bubbles

because I feel like if you like there's

a lot ofit bubbles in Guatemala and

Costa Rica and I feel like if those if

those governments tried to do what

Honduras is doing or I think there'd be

way more push back because they already

have some Bitcoin circular economies

functioning within their country to

where they might be like no man you're

not taking this away from us I don't

know it's just a theory on my part but

it it it to me you know again at I was

at the Bitcoin farmers market yesterday

and I was talking to uh some of the

people from Bitcoin City in Berlin and

how what is happening there and how

amazing they just went to you know for

those who aren't aware Berlin El

Salvador is way in the eastern part of

the country it's very sort of remote and

they just went there a bunch of

bitcoiners went there for me Premier

Bitcoin and got some Els salvadorians

and they just started a little circular

economy now and there's now like a

hundred businesses in this in this

little town up in the mountains and I

feel like that's the key to sort

of

overcoming

you know it's you got to plant that seed

somehow you can't just wait for like a

buchel to show up in your country I

think you got to start the the the

circular economies where you live

because I even feel like there's a lot

of just at a at at a adopting Bitcoin

there's a lot of people from Mexico and

there's like circular Bitcoin bubbles in

Mexico and other Latin American

countries and I feel

like it would be harder to impose these

laws I don't know what you guys think of

that well there is one in Honduras it's

Rowan oh okay yeah this a it's their own

they're kind of autonomous it's they

have weird laws there well unique laws

and uh it's an autonomous region but it

is part of Honduras it's ratan which is

a big Bitcoin Community uh one other

thing I will point out it's Salvadoran

not El

Salvadorian sorry Salvadoran it's okay

it's okay um and

thirdly I think it doesn't even matter

what central governments central banks

Central authorities try to do to stop

Bitcoin they can't stop it everything

helps Bitcoin the only thing that they

could do

is you know get on the arc right they

they could start adopting Bitcoin

because they're going have to do it

eventually so president buchali was the

only smart guy in the whole global room

of leaders who figured that out first

right like buy a long shot because it's

now been over two years two and a half

years where he's been on his own as the

singular leader of the head of state who

uh figured it out uh all other heads of

state will have to follow eventually the

US will probably be less because their

fiat currency is you know the strongest

of the Fiat currencies in a way that's a

blessing and a curse it's I think it's a

big curse right now that perfect money

has come around of Bitcoin because it's

going to make them the last to figure it

out yeah it's the difference between

Bottoms Up and top down so typically

Bitcoin is bottoms up it's Grassroots

It's On The Fringe it's the Freaks and

the Geeks and they are the first

adopters and the cyppher punks and then

it becomes the early adopters and then

it becomes more mainstream and it's a

Bottoms Up Revolution with President

belli it's top down and that's what made

his story so remarkable and unique and

that's why we moved to El Salvador is

that this was a unique story and it was

The Cutting Edge of Bitcoin at the time

it's like a nation state leader has gone

orange pill and so we got to move there

because we got to be part of this

phenomenon and so but he so far is a

one-off nobody else has really figured

it out to the extent that President

pelly has figured it out uh but to

everybody's point that they're making it

doesn't matter because it's the pockets

of Bottoms Up strength all over the

world are growing and they just start to

join up together their own pace and so

we're on the path it's not nothing

that's going to stop this

train yeah and and to to that point I

want to put this uh Max you tweeted this

out about China I want to put this out

there just to to prove your point here

um that uh let me share that this right

here um so this is from a reuter's

article bruised by the stock market

Chinese rush into to Bann Bitcoin the

global Fiat money apocalypse is upon us

the ultimate Safe Haven Bitcoin is going

to 500,000 so this is this is another

example of like I guess the point that

you're both making Stacy of like yeah

Honduras can do past whatever law they

want it's just delaying the inevitable

because China has tried to ban Bitcoin a

bunch of times and it it's not it

doesn't work because their citizens are

just like nope and this article

basically confirms that doesn't

it yeah yeah if they can't stop you in

China and China is you know they have

social credit scores they have absolute

surveillance of the internet and and and

perhaps there probably is in the US also

that we have a total surveillance state

but in China they don't try to hide it

or disguise it they're like we're

freaking watching you we're gonna Crush

you if you do anything wrong in America

they pretend that they're not doing that

and um they they haven't uh turned

hostile or totalitarian openly like

China has um nevertheless they're unable

even with that with the threat of like

ripping your organs out and selling them

on the equivalent of eBay in China like

they're they people are still uh mining

Bitcoin I think they have still

something like 10% of the hash is in

China which is is remarkable considering

that there's such a you know a

consequence to Bitcoin mining there um

so I think uh it's not possible to ban

it and I think the US knows that

because you know a lot of bright people

in in government and in Industry you

know and and Wall Street have studied it

for a very long time and I'm sure we

have a lot of deep experts at you know

the CIA or NSA because they would have

had to study it and they know

cryptography anyway so they would have

had to study it to see like how to stop

it and they probably determined that

it's impossible to stop so if you can't

stop it then if you can't you know first

they fight you right and then they have

to join you yeah it's like one of those

discoveries like Fire or the wheel where

once you discover it there's no

undiscover it and the vector that it's

on is Unstoppable you can't stop fire

you can't stop the wheel and you can't

stop Bitcoin you know it's interesting

Graham that I think it's in 30 countries

where bitcoin's making new all-time

highs

uh just this past week so uh it made

it's doing incredibly well in Japan for

example and Japan is a huge economy and

it's a very conservative economy but you

know Mrs wat tanabi who's the

prototypical Japanese housewife saver

Japan has a very high savings rate it's

typically the highest savings rate in

the world and they love um cash they

dabble in Gold occasionally and they

seem to be now veering into Bitcoin

that's a multi-trillion dollar piece of

change that could be now nibbling at

Bitcoin they're famous for their uh

Forex Trading they love trading

currencies in Japan they were um always

driving markets and they were a big

player in the whole 2008 crash because

there were a lot of Forex ruptures

happening then between the Euro and the

Yen and the dollar and the Yen and the

Icelandic Kona yeah our our our image of

the day trader is a teenager in America

in the basement but actually the biggest

day Traders are Japanese housewives

huddled over their terminals over their

screens and they're are massively

trading these Forex markets uh so we are

led to believe and the market seems to

suggest that so um the adoption curve

amongst these huge pools of capital is

becoming more of prevalent and um so

that's again a huge Catalyst on the

upside so the vector going forward the

path forward is is up and this bull

market that we're in Now is really in

the early Innings to use a not a golf

metaphor this time but a baseball

metaphor also I want to say

that you know this attempt to ban it

several times that China's done or

Honduras is it's really a a newbie error

right and many of us you know everybody

has thought that erroneously that

Bitcoin is a technology that it's a new

technology and what it is is a new money

and money is about Collective

Consciousness and and an idea and you

can't kill ideas basically so even

though it's backed by math and

Technology it's it's not fundamentally a

technology because you know if it were

these 2.2 million other shitcoins that

are trying to compete with Bitcoin on a

technology front a number of

transactions per second and stuff like

that um that's also a a a fatal error

for them right that because they're

competing there's no way to compete

against Bitcoin because it is money and

it's the only one that will ever be

money of the so-called cryptocurrencies

or digital currencies right there's only

one that money and so when these states

try to go at these things at Bitcoin

what they're trying to go at it with is

technology that this is a technology

that we can stop all the other cryptos

are Tech technologies that can be

stopped Bitcoin cannot be stopped

because it's not a technology it's money

yeah there's a great kind of thought ex

thought experiment here you can only

create irreproducibility once yes so

there's a great Bitcoin

philosopher

nson what's the Swedish guyon oh

kutson Swan home can swan home Cano Swan

home okay and he's written a couple of

books and he this is kind of I think

he's the AR the author of this kind of

idea where you can only you can only

create era producibility once you know

and Bitcoin created irreproducibility

when it was hashed you know in 2009

January 3D there's there's it because

it's it's digital irreproducibility you

know and so you'd only have to do that

once and then you you don't need to try

to do it again because and you can't

it's impossible to create something

that's

irreproducible a second time you can

only do that once and that's what

happened and so it's fool hearty to try

to continue to entertain the idea that

you will succeed in doing that because

it's

impossible and the market shows us now

what's that that reality is becoming

more accepted