Hi, everybody. Welcome to part four of my conversation with Lindsay.

That starts to get into a, into a really dystopian kind of a world.

Well, my question is, why are they even charging US taxes if they're taxing us through inflation already anyway, right?

Oh, that's the, that's the best theme on the internet. Like, if, if taxes don't cause inflation, then why am I paying them? Or other, if printing money doesn't cause inflation, then why am I paying taxes? Yeah, but you'll, you'll never hear a good answer to that.

Yeah. Well anyway, moving on, moving on. You're doing this Airbnb experience and you mentioned that most of your audience actually are older than you.

Oh, significantly. Yeah. The, the average age is probably 60 and up.

So much older than you, like grandparents' age?

Yes. Yes. Usually, usually they're prodded into, into it by a, you know, a daughter or a, you know, a relative, um, younger relative. But usually that person is, is priding 'em into it 'cause. That person doesn't know very much about it. They've just heard a little bit and be like, hey, maybe this is worth looking into. But yeah, it's, it's a lot of people who have some, you know, who have some financial stress or are, you know, maybe they're, you know, they thought they had a very comfortable retirement and they're seeing inflation go, go the way it is, and they're just concerned that, you know, maybe, you know, maybe I need to be worried like, you know what, I don't see a good, a good way to handle this. I mean, If the stock market does well, I mean, that's great, but you know, then my capital gains taxes go up and, you know, my withdrawals are still, you know, I'm still worried about taking out too much and especially as, as volatility goes up and the stock market is just, is, is just more volatile than, than we were used to for that, you know, the second half of the, of the 20th century. It's just, you know, it's scarier, more uncertain times now, and that seems to be a, a, certainly an underlying reason that, that people come to me.

So I get a, a very common question from people in that age group about Bitcoin. If they are already, if they are convinced that Bitcoin is real, they are still generally afraid to transfer their funds into Bitcoin because of the wild price fluctuation, and they don't have time to write it out as you know, a young person would. So what do you tell them? How would you address that question?

Sure. So that is definitely, that's a question that I get every time. And I, I actually have a section in my, in my, uh, experience about volatility. And what I tell everyone is don't, don't invest in amount that you're gonna be scared of losing. Don't invest in amount that is going to make you worry if the price drops, because just count on it that it will. Put in, put in whatever you're comfortable with, you know, assess your risk tolerance and put in, you know, if that's only 20 bucks right now, put in 20 bucks. Like, and as you learn more, you will get more confident. You'll understand better why this thing has such incredible long-term potential and you don't need. You don't need to have a lot to offset your risk. Honestly, I think that, you know, if you're, if you put in 1% of your net worth, I think that's going to protect the vast majority, if not all of your net worth, because that we are so early in this game. And more than that, I think you'll do very, very well. But if you're going to, if you're gonna get, you know, if you're not confident, you're gonna get scared. The first time the, you know, the price drops 20% under you. Like, then you've got too much. Like you need to, don't be in a hurry. Like take, take little baby steps at a time and as you feel more confident, add more if you want to. But to start out, just do just a little bit. You don't need to jump in with both feet on the first day.

That is such a great answer. I'm gonna use that going forward. So what's a common question that you get from the young people who bring in their, um, parents, grandparents.

Young people typ typically ask about like the security aspect of it. And like, you know, can it be hacked, can it be stolen? Can you, you know, your transactions can all be watched. That kind of stuff. And that is, That's a little bit harder of a question to answer just because, I mean, the Bitcoin blockchain is public. Every transaction that has ever happened, It's public. You can go on and look there. You don't know who these transactions were between. They're all pretty anonymous addresses, but it's a legitimate question because there are services and certainly you know, government agencies and institutions that look into these and can kind of link addresses to identities. And that has been a concern of Bitcoin for a long time. With the advent of the Lightning Network, which is a layer two protocol built on top, it batches transactions together, which makes your transaction fees dramatically lower, and you can send a, a transaction on the Lightning Network for, you know, a 10th of a penny. That's pretty incredible anyway, and it batches all of these transactions together. And so then they, they're all processed essentially in one transaction on, on the main chain. And that adds a lot of, a lot of privacy to it. As far as, and there are, there are more protocols being, being built. There's a new one arc that I just heard about not too long ago, which sounds pretty amazing. And then like the whole protocol, there's just, there's an incredible amount of innovation happening right now, especially considering how small the space is. It's just, it's just mind blowing. Anyway, so the, the privacy, the privacy issue is, Is definitely being resolved in real time right now, and it's, it's dramatically better than it was when Bitcoin was brand new. And I think that in, within a couple of years, that will be, that will be a, a complete non-issue. It's already well on its way. And today, if you did take, if you were willing to do a little bit of research and take some extra steps, you can have pretty good privacy on Bitcoin networks, certainly better than you can do in, with credit cards or debit cards or, you know, any kind of electronic payments. The other question with, to do with security... I like to kind of point out that, you know, there are, there are three, there are a few different ways of holding Bitcoin. You can hold it in exchange, you know, you could buy it on, on Coinbase and they hold it for you. You can have a, like a multi-sig arrangement, uh, which we won't go into that, that's kind of technical. Or you can have it on a, on a hardware wallet. You can have it in, in cold storage as they call it. And if you hold your stuff on Coinbase, on some kind of exchange where you bought it or you put it into a, a custodial wallet, there's, there's definitely a potential there for people to, to hack that, especially if you're holding in a place, in a place like Coinbase, like finance. And what that is, is that's, they are holding lots and lots of people's money in one place that you're moral, you're making, you're making a honeypot, you're making it so that the most sophisticated hackers in the world. Are going to attack that. And at some point, you know, even if they're, you know, not necessarily going over the Bitcoin itself, like it's also, it's a, it's a data repository. Like, they can, you know, do data breaches. They can, you know, secure some of the funds or, you know, whether it's Bitcoin or any of the other all kinds or any or anything that are held on there. But when you hold it all in one place, you're creating a target, you're creating a honey pot that that people with those motivations are going to attack. If you hold it in cold storage, you only have yours. The only way to hack that is to break into your house and steal that, that hardware wallet that isn't connected to the internet. Guess your password, guess your pin. And even then, if you realize it's gone, Like you can log onto a different computer the next day and still have all of your funds and safely move them. Like the, the amount of security that you can have with Bitcoin is unlike anything we've ever had before. You can, you can be a refugee trying to leave the country and you can memorize 12 words in your head, get to the other side of whatever word you're crossing, and have your your entire life's net worth. And there was nothing anybody could rob from you on the way. You can't do that with cash. You can't do that with gold. You can't. You know, there's, there's no, there's no good way to do that, except through Bitcoin. So the security aspect of it is, is, is not an intuitive one to kind of wrap your head around. It doesn't have security because it's, you know, it's so, because, you know, Coinbase protects it or something. It has security because it's attacked around the clock by the most sophisticated hackers in the world. I watched a video on this by, uh, Andreas Antonopoulos. I'm not sure how you pronounce his name. He did a, a much better explanation of this than I did, but it was, I think that that principle is, is just kind of difficult to get that it, it generates immunity. By the fact that it is constantly attacked, and yet for the last, you know, since 2008, it's run without hitch and there have been no hacks of anyone holding Bitcoin in their own custody. Whereas if you leave it in charge of somebody else, if you have somebody else hold your money for you, that's taking a risk. I mean, it's the risks nowadays. Clearly there's been, you know, bank runs and stuff, like, your money isn't, isn't safe with custodians. And Bitcoin is one of those things that it allows you to take charge of your own finances and be your own bank, and that is the most secure way to hold purchasing power that there has ever been.

Yeah. All really, really great points. So where do you see yourself going forward? I know that you're back in school and you're studying IT now, so do you see yourself going into the, the tech side of it now?

I'm not sure where I'm gonna end up. I would, I would like to be able to contribute to the projects that are being built. That would be, that would be amazing. But if not, if I end up, you know, continuing to kind of in the same track that I am where I'm kind of helping to, to onboard people and onboard beginners like, That's, you know, I'm totally okay with that, but the more skills I have, the more marketable I am and I'm, you know, hoping to be able to, to break my way into the Bitcoin industry, you know, work for one of the, one of the companies that are, you know, really contributing to this space. I mean, there's lots of them out there. You know, there's Swan, there's Strike, there's Unchained, you know, lots of, lots of different options. And wherever I end up, I just, I wanna be able, I wanna be able to be worth the money that they pay me and, and contribute to this, to this movement, 'cause it is, it's, it's just incredibly important.

Yeah, for sure. Any last recommendations or suggestions for women who are still not sure?

Depending on how much time you wanna put in, I think that one of the most compelling things that really kind of pulls on your heart strings about this is a book by Alex Gladstein, called "Check Your Financial Privilege," and it tells stories of the people around the world and the movements in, you know, developing nations and stuff where Bitcoin is central to them being able to, being able to fight back against, you know, dictators and autocrats and, you know, skyrocketing inflation and cost of living. Uh, just, like, it's, it really, really hammers home the "why" of this movement and, and why it is so important. 'Cause I feel like, you know, in places like the US, like, it's really easy to, to dismiss it as, you know, why would I ever need that when Visa works just fine. And you just don't, you don't realize how incredibly important it is. That's probably my number one recommendation. If you're still on the fence and you don't wanna, if you don't wanna go, you know all the way, and you know, you're not gonna devote yourself to, to reading a book, then just don't write it off. Just maintain an open mind, even if you're not gonna, you know, delve into it right now. Be open-minded about it and take everything that you hear about on the news with it. With a grain of salt, there is, that is not, not an objective reference point. There is a lot of of vested interests in keeping Bitcoin as sidelined as possible. And they're, you know, if you look at the funding, it usually shows that. So yeah, those, those are my two recommendations. It's, you know, an excellent book about recognizing what the, what the important why's are behind this movement and not getting, not getting turned off by people and interests that are not objective and that are not, they're not disclosed usually with those interests. They're not going to tell you that, you know, that they have a lot of, a lot of stake in the system remaining the way it is.

Yes. Thank you very much for that. So for people who are near where you are or driving through Michigan, how would they find your Airbnb experience?

Absolutely come sign up. It's called Drink Wine and Learn about Bitcoin. I am, like I said, on Airbnb, I'm also on Meetup and if you find the meetup page, there will be a link to the Airbnb page. Either one works fine. Yeah, don't, don't be afraid to send me a message or reach out. I am happy to, happy to meet up and happy to accommodate. Even if you don't want a class, you just wanna, you know, grab a beer and hang out. Let's do it.

Awesome. Thank you so much. It's been such fun listening to your stories and sharing your knowledge with everyone. We'll wrap up here.

Alright. Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today. If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club. The meetup link is in the show notes. Also, if there are women in your life whom you think will both enjoy and benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them. Until next time, bye!