Michael Saylor — 21 Rules of Bitcoin (BTC Prague 2024 Keynote)
BTC Prague · 2024-06-18 · 40m · View on YouTube →
[Music]
[Applause]
are you
ready all right ladies and gentlemen for
the main
event next up yeah next up we have the
founder and executive chairman of the
first ever publicly traded company that
went 100% on a Bitcoin standard got rid
of all their dirty fear that was just
losing value and put it in to the
hottest money we've ever
seen and let me tell you about him he's
not just an executive chairman and
founder and all this in 2022 I arranged
a Bitcoin ple party in Los Angeles and
then a few days later I met him at a
Afterparty of the conference and I just
jokingly asked him why he didn't show up
and guess what the second one I
organized which was last year in Miami
one of the first gu to show up was our
next guest who came and hung out with
the plaps so please welcome to the
stage gig at chat gig at Cyber Hornet
gig a ple the man who never sells
Michael sailor
[Music]
I love
[Applause]
Prague and um and I was delighted to be
invited to speak again I got invited
back if you're uh if you're not Bitcoin
enough you don't get invited back to
speak so I've been spending the entire
year trying to trying to convince these
guys to let me back on
stage and uh they
relented and I get a chance to
present a new set of
slides my uh second best set of
slides 21 rules of Bitcoin uh I didn't
label it the 21 rules of Bitcoin because
everybody's got their rules and uh I'm
not so presumptuous to think that I know
the 21 rules but I have my 21 roles and
I'm delighted to share them with you
[Applause]
today I'm going to start by Framing my
conversation bitcoin's a
singularity where science collides with
economics right the this is a profound
thing just like when science collided
with astronomy in the capern revolution
just like when science collided with
medicine and we realize that diseases
aren't caused by
demons Bitcoin is where science collides
with economics and it ushers in a new
age of economic Insight which will
profoundly change our political systems
our financial systems the way we think
about the
world and of course course we all know
this Bitcoin is the world's first
perfect
money the human race has lived for
thousands and thousands of years with
defective
money
seashells bales of
tobacco glass beads copper
tokens one day we'll look back and we'll
kind of chuckle at Silver tokens and
copper and pieces of paper and and we'll
Wonder how did the human race get this
far the implications of perfect money
are
profound it's a paradigm shift it's a
it's not like your your assets are
appreciating in price you're just
falling through space this idea of
Relativity you're in a relative frame of
reference everything around you is
distorted and and you have to break out
of your frame of reference and in order
to see the world differently Einstein
did it for us with relativity but every
great scientist has done it and Satoshi
introduced a paradigm shift in
economics and in monetary thought and so
with that as my Preamble I like to talk
about the 21 rules of Bitcoin I'll start
with rule number
one those who understand
Bitcoin buy Bitcoin and those that don't
criticize
Bitcoin and you can see in a paradigm
shift it's just so
profound there'll be people that will
talk about it and as long as you're
talking about it it's not clear you
understand it at the point that things
click for
you you're not just going to talk about
it you're not going to criticize it
you're going to run not walk to the
nearest place where you can buy Bitcoin
and for me it was very clear when it
clicked I had to buy it and on the other
hand the world's full of people that
criticize it they criticize it because
they have not yet grasped the paradigm
shift and if you H if it hasn't clicked
for you you'll have 10,000
criticisms rule number
two everybody is against Bitcoin before
they're for it right it's not a surprise
why is this person against Bitcoin why
is this Banker against Bitcoin why is
this Bank against Bitcoin why is this
politician against Bitcoin they're
against Bitcoin because they don't
understand it everybody will be against
it we're going to introduce such a
profound new
idea that the natural human
reaction of of a healthy institution a
healthy political system a healthy
intellect is is to First reject it this
should not be discouraging it should not
be
surprising it's uh it's exactly and
completely natural that this would
happen rule number
three how do you know you understand
Bitcoin well the way you know you
understand Bitcoin is you realize that
you're never fully going to understand
Bitcoin if you think you've understood
it if you've studied it if you're sure
you get it that means you haven't quite
grasped it yet people that really
Embrace Bitcoin understand it they
realize you'll never be done learning
about Bitcoin never what is bitcoin
bitcoin's not just the protocol it's not
just the software it's not just the way
you interact with it or everyone else
that uses Bitcoin interacts with it
bitcoin's a it's a virus it's it's an
economic virus it's a monetary virus
it's an ideological virus it's going to
Ripple through time and space so to
understand Bitcoin you have to
understand
how the
existing sets of adopters will interact
on the layer two the layer three the
layer four the layer five you have to
understand how the layer three
applications will interact with each
other via Layer Two protocols via 1
protocols you have to be thinking about
what will people that haven't even
discovered Bitcoin be doing with Bitcoin
in 10 years in 50 years in a 100
years if you want to understand Bitcoin
you think about what Will 10 billion
people a 100 years from now be doing
with Bitcoin through 300 million
different
institutions across protocols and
extensions of Bitcoin that have not yet
been conceived and not yet been invented
so when you consider how the idea will
Ripple through time through space
through
complexity through the endless uh ways
that Humanity can organize
itself then you grasp the full scope of
Bitcoin how will an artificial
intelligent entity created in 10 years
living in cyberspace 50 years from now
integrating with a million other
AIS use
Bitcoin right that this is a profound
Chain Reaction it's a fire in
cyberspace it's uh it's viral through
time through space through Humanity
through all of the various uh vestiges
of humanity and of course once you get
that idea you realize that you don't
really know everything that's in the
minds of 8 billion people or 300 million
corporations or billion things that are
yet to
come and with that comes
humility and with that comes a thirst to
keep studying
Bitcoin you'll never be done learning
about
Bitcoin rule number
four bitcoin's powered by
chaos when you take your money and you
put it in a bank and and you save it in
a fiat currency you're loaning your
money to a
country when you when you take your
money and you buy a stock you're loaning
your money to the management team of a
company when you take your money and you
buy a building you're loaning your money
to the mayor of a city when you take
your money and you buy a piece of art
you're loaning your money and investing
your money in a
culture when you actually buy Bitcoin
you're loaning your money to the Lords
of entropy you're loaning your money to
the gods of chaos what's the bet the bet
is that chaos will outperform cities
companies countries
cultures it's a profound
idea I place you in Europe before World
War II I give you a lot of money and I
give you a choice CH you can buy any
piece of land in any country you can buy
any building you can you can own any
company in
Europe you can uh you can own art in
Europe you can invest in the currencies
and the bonds of Europe imagine I give
you a choice of buying any asset in any
Nation that's about to be a combatant in
World War
II or you can own the One Bank in
Switzerland that's going to hold all the
money of all the
combatants and you see if you own if you
own that Swiss bank and everybody puts
their money in the bank and the war
comes chaos comes and the war is a
metaphor for chaos and entropy
accelerated in four years what you
realize is every every building is risky
it may be blown up every company will
probably collapse any piece of land may
or may not have value the the rents and
the rental contracts will probably be
torn up the currencies will all collapse
and in fact the more chaos the more
destruction and
Devastation the more the more valuable
that One Bank in fact if everybody puts
their money in the bank and they all
kill each other the bank keeps the
money and it's a very profound idea are
you in the business of benefiting from
chaos or are you in the business of
attempting to stop it
the and the law of thermodynamics says
you can't stop
entropy right the the the more confused
uh a government is the more inefficient
the mayor is the more inefficient and
competitive a
corporations uh Market envir environment
is the
more the more chaos and the more change
in the culture the worse all those other
Investments are and the better the
Bitcoin investment is Bitcoin is powered
by chaos it's going to continually
outperform everything else because the
one truth in the universe is that
entropy goes in One Direction chaos will
continue walk into a
casino it's rigged every game is rigged
against
you maybe with the exception of Poker
and when you sit down at the poker table
if you're not the professional poker
player that game's rigged against you
too bitcoin's the only game in the
casino that we can all
win that's a very sobering idea yeah
maybe you can win one of the games if
you rig it maybe you can find something
in life you can win for a while if
you're the expert in this business or
that region or that real estate or this
art dealership or something maybe you
find a game for a while that you can win
but there is no game that everybody can
win all the time right Bitcoin is
Bitcoin is the casino it is the house of
chaos anybody that wants to play in that
game can keep
winning in
fact right the the the most profound
idea here is the only way to
lose in in the game of Bitcoin is you
don't play the game or you quit too soon
until until the odds come to your favor
so walk into the casino sit down play
the game of Bitcoin don't quit everybody
wins or walk out of the casino play a
different
game over a long enough time
Horizon you'll be a loser in every other
game because you don't control the house
you don't control the odds even when you
think you own the country even when you
think you own the company even when you
think you have Monopoly on the market
the gods of entropy are going to upset
your your fragile
equilibrium Bitcoin will protect
you but Bitcoin won't protect you if you
don't wear the armor you have to suit up
what does that mean you're going to walk
through fire you're going to go through
a molten
volcano don't armor up 1% of your body
don't cut 5% of your body suit up buy
the Bitcoin control the Bitcoin right
maybe this means not your keys is not
your coin maybe this means it doesn't
help to tell everybody you know about
Bitcoin but be afraid to buy it it
doesn't help to buy it if you don't
control it it doesn't help you know when
you put one% of your assets into Bitcoin
and the rest go to zero and the 1%
increas by a factor of 20 or 30 or 100
you'll be saying to yourself I guess I
got something and then you'll look back
and you'll think I'd be a lot better if
99% of my body hadn't been burned maybe
I could have suited up more than 1% of
my body don't leave yourself with an
Achilles
heel rule number
seven Bitcoin is the one thing in the
universe that you can truly own
how why right it's it's it's information
manifested as economic value the network
has to be durable the network has to be
decentralized the network has to be
ethical but if you find an economically
sound technically sound ethically sound
crypto network of which we have one
called Bitcoin then The Possession of
the keys is ownership of the thing
everything else you have in your life
you own at the pleasure of someone more
powerful than you whether it's the mayor
the governor the nation state the
corporation you know it it could be
anything or anyone you think you own it
you have it until it's taken away it'll
be taken away from you by uh by
expropriation by
taxation maybe it'll be taken away from
you by
regulation and in the absence of all
those things it you know it'll be taken
away from you by the passage of time
entropy and
Chaos except this thing this is the
thing that if you own this the passage
of time only makes it more
valuable chaos only makes it more
valuable nobody on Earth can take it
away from you it's the first thing in
human history you can own it redefines
the the principle of property
rule eight everybody gets Bitcoin at the
price they
deserve you know the decision to buy
Bitcoin is an act of humility it's it's
when you can overcome your fear your
uncertainty your
doubt it's a Moment of clarity and
courage courage to overcome the fud
Clarity when you realize that you need
to break with your convention
with your ceremony with your
rituals W with with all of your history
and when you finally see things clearly
and when you finally overcome that fear
you'll buy
it uh in December of uh
2013 I looked at it and I tweeted you
know bitcoin's days are numbered it'll
probably go the way of online
gambling big mistake
uh Bitcoin was
$892 okay I got the price I deserved and
when I first started buying Bitcoin I
was buying it at $99,500
but that's
okay I'll buy it at
$95,000 and then I'll be buying it at
$950,000 and when it gets to $950,000
there'll be some whiny person a talking
head on television saying it looks over
overbought right now it looks a little
bit heated I you know we think it's
going to trade down to
700,000 and they'll miss it it'll go to
8 million and they'll buy it at 8
million and they will get Bitcoin at the
price they
[Applause]
deserve you know there's a classic the
classic phrase in uh in
the world you know only invest the money
you can afford to lose if I ran a casino
with a with a deck stacked against you I
would put that as a disclaimer in my ads
come to my casino but only gamble the
money you can afford to lose if I ran
some sort of you know investment company
scam and I wanted to take your money and
buy swamp land in Florida or I wanted to
gamble on a bunch of companies I didn't
understand I said hey only invest the
money you can afford to
lose when you actually say only invest
the money you can afford to lose in my
crypto token or my Casino or in my
investment whatever or my idea you're
making a moral
equivalence to gambling with the odds
against
you right you're making you're basically
saying there's nothing nothing better
about what I'm offering than than any
Foolish Game that you're likely to lose
if I run a bar
you know and you asked me well how's
your boy I said well we serve really
good drinks but you should probably uh
only come here on evenings when you
don't have to work the next day that's
honest right you're going to get drunk
in my bar you're going to underperform
the next day I'm being honest with you
but you know nobody ever said hey only
put the kids on the school bus that you
don't need me to
return I only buy a ticket on my
airplane if you don't need to reach the
destination right the engineers of the
world don't say hey don't drive across
my bridge if you really need to reach
the other
side and so what I say is only buy
Bitcoin with the money you can't afford
to lose I'm not going to equivocate you
shouldn't equivocate people that
equivocate don't understand Bitcoin and
they still they still don't get the idea
of perfect money we didn't invest in it
because we wanted to take a risk we
invested it and in it you know out of of
disgust with the world that forces us to
take risk with everything else where the
risks are stacked against us and
undisclosed bitcoin's better
you know when you Embrace Bitcoin you
realize that your entire world is
defined by a bunch of synthetic metrics
the CPI might come in as this and the
PPI might be that the employment rate is
2% or 3% even though half of you don't
have a job and the ones that have a job
aren't making as much much as they were
making and everything cost 50% more but
the GDP is this and the nominal GDP
looks like that but of course we used
the Market Basket of synthe IC crap you
don't want to buy to calculate the
nominal and the and the real
GDP that's the Matrix you're living in
The Matrix and Rule Number 10 is very
simple it's tickets to escape the matrix
are priced in Bitcoin you don't have
Bitcoin you cannot buy your way out of
the Matrix and until you understand that
you need to buy your way out of the
metri Matrix with Bitcoin you don't
understand the Matrix and you don't
understand Bitcoin
rule number
11 Bitcoin Insight it's restricted to
those with a need to
know you look at Bitcoin you don't
understand it Charlie Monger doesn't
understand it Warren Buffett doesn't
understand it the bankers don't
understand it the rich people that you
hate don't understand it they don't need
to know that's why they can't see it
right when you're comfortable and you
live in the western world and everything
looks just fine to you and your cousin
works at the bank you don't have a need
to know when you have a need to know
when your world comes crashing down when
you're looking at imminent death when
you're looking over the edge of the
Abyss then you will understand and you
will see Bitcoin for what it is so don't
be shocked when people look at it and
they don't get it they don't have a need
to
know rule number 12
all your models will be destroyed I'm
talking your political models the you
know everything that that we learned
over 10,000 years how do you run a city
how do you run a company how do you run
a country how do you how do you
understand economics what is inflation
what is economic Prosperity what is a
job why should I do this you know when
you're looking backwards all these
people they want to look at time series
of historic stuff you know all I see is
a bunch of statisticians analyzing
people with chariots and and you know
bows and arrows and camels and elephants
you know fighting in Wars 3,000 years
ago and we show up with explosives and
aircraft and they're trying to back test
their models and figure out you know how
explosives and aircraft impact the way
they organize their
elephants you know it's like all the
models they don't really make any sense
anymore if you understand Bitcoin you
realize you got to throw them all away
when Godzilla walks onto the
playground you know all your models are
worthless they're all going to be
destroyed Rule 13 the cure to economic
ill is the orange pill
[Applause]
Bitcoin is perfect money once you
understand that you realize everything
you use for money in the past is toxic
your capital is toxic your currency is
toxic you know you're we've been living
in a world where the doctors bleed you
to death we're living in a world where
they inject garbage and sludge into your
brains you're living in a world world
where where you're you're eating stuff
which is
poisonous right the Cure is stop putting
toxic stuff in your system the orange
pill is that cure we need to spread that
cure to the
world and how are we going to spread it
rule number
14 be for
Bitcoin don't be against Fiat before
Bitcoin not against Fiat right if you go
to Bernard Arno one of the richest men
in the world and you say to Bernard well
you know here's a good
business uh selling handbags selling
luxury items Bernard realizes he's not
going to take all his money and buy
Euros or buy dollar bonds or buy
pesos but that doesn't mean he won't
price his handbags in euros and dollars
right the richest man in the world still
will price things in a local currency
recognizing that people would rather
trade the the currency for the handbag
or trade the currency for the champagne
or trade the currency for the
Bitcoin right we're for something which
is beautiful and elegant and powerful
and inspirational we don't need to be
against the other thing at the end of
the day 99% of all the wealth in the
world is going to be in something other
than the currency and half of it will
probably be in Bitcoin let's just be for
it bitcoin's for everybody rule number
15 it's for the people you don't like
it's for the you know the AI bot that
took your job is going to run on bitcoin
you'll be mad about the fact that the
robo taxi took your job or the robot
took your job but you should be happy
about the fact that the robo taxi that
took your your job runs on bitcoin and
wanted to buy your Bitcoin and drove up
the price of your Bitcoin by a factor of
10 or 100 or a th000 right your enemy is
going to buy Bitcoin the people that
launch the ETF and buy the ETF that you
don't agree with that come from a place
you don't like they're going to drive up
the value of your Bitcoin by a factor of
a thousand and you don't have to like
them and you don't have to embrace their
ideology what you should realize is the
more people that join the Bitcoin system
whether they're your friend your enemy
uh the religion you love the religion
you don't care for the country that
you're at odds with they're all helping
Bitcoin and if and if you are true to
bitcoin they'll be helping
you rule number 16 learn to think in
Bitcoin you know I see a lot of people
that the whole Bitcoin you know and they
still don't think in Bitcoin bitcoin's
been going up 50% a year for the past
four years that means the
risk-free rate the cost of capital is
50% so you have the option to borrow
money at 5% loan it to bitcoin at 50%
and keep the 45% difference and I'll
meet Bitcoin businesses that they they
want to actually raise money and loan it
to someone at 15% that's a counterparty
why would you loan to a counterparty at
15% when you can loan to bitcoin at
50% right what why would you invest I
have an investment idea for you is it a
risk-free 50%
return let's be conservative I you know
I think oh Bitcoin will appreciate 24% a
year for the next 10 years
conservatively that's the risk-free rate
you have an idea for me give me an idea
that returns more than 24% a year plus
the risk premium
scalably for the next decade then maybe
it's interesting most people they just
have the wrong idea in their head they
don't think in Bitcoin they make
mistakes rule
17 you don't change Bitcoin bit Bitcoin
is a swarm of cyber Hornets it's a
Thundering Herd of 8 billion people it's
going on for far beyond your lifetime
and it's bigger and stronger and more
powerful and more and more intelligent
than you are right it's like TB writes
about intellectual yet idiots like
people with phds and Aeronautical
Engineering that have that give speeches
on how to make birds fly
better it's like if you find yourself as
the guy with the PHD lecturing Eagles on
how to fly you're the person that thinks
you can change Bitcoin right you're not
smarter than Bitcoin you're not smarter
than 300 million companies and 8 billion
people and
800 80 billion people yet to be right
the world is Big the market is Big
you're not going to change it you're
going to try to change it but it be a
lot smarter for you to change
yourself you know we used to joke about
laser eyes rule 18 laser eyes protect
you from Endless Lies people thought oh
this is just a meme laser eyes laser R
to 100K it's not not a meme this is
going to save you when you you know who
do I feel sorry for it's like I feel
sorry for people to put on the laser
eyes watch Bitcoin go up $20,000 and
then take the laser eyes off and declare
Victory right don't take the laser eyes
off the laser eyes tell you a message
which is you should they signify the
fact that you should avoid delu
distractions right when Bitcoin goes
from 10,000 to 100,000 and you declare
Victory so you launch 16 crappy
businesses and 14 stupid Industries
because you're a genius right you took
the laser eyes off Pride cometh before
fall and what you you know Bitcoin is
going from a trillion to 10 trillion to
100 trillion to 500 trillion and at that
point it'll be growing better than
everything else and there's someone that
wants to take laser eyes and focus on
this thing as long as the joke is good
and then they're going to Drift Off to
launch 82 other things well let me tell
you there's 2.8 million mobile apps
created for the iPhone and you probably
can't name a dozen that worked there's
1.8 million extensions in Chrome and you
probably don't use two of
them right there's a
99.9% mortality rate on new business
ideas but you're sure yours is going to
work right laser rizer about humility
but everybody is going to BS you they're
all going to tell you they've got this
great idea that's better than Bitcoin
the next Bitcoin Bitcoin had its run and
then you're going to lose your focus
you're going to get distracted maybe
because you made a lot of money be by
buying Bitcoin at 100 and selling it at
5,000 because you were a genius and you
got out at 5,000 and then you launched
16 other crappy stupid businesses where
you're just like everybody else and then
then you'll be like oh yeah the mayor
banned my business oh the government
taxed my business oops it turns out that
Microsoft wants to enter this business
oops I didn't realize that you know that
employee would steal whatever the money
from this business oops the bank failed
you know and then you will ReDiscover
everything that Satoshi knew when
Satoshi invented Bitcoin laser eyes are
here to protect you right embrace them
right don't belittle
them and it takes me to my next point
which is you know respect
Bitcoin or it'll make a clown out of you
right I
mean I I come to bitcoin I've spent all
my time trying to learn Bitcoin I
realize I still don't learn Bitcoin I
still don't know everything there is
about Bitcoin but what I do re
appreciate about Bitcoin is it's bigger
than all of us it's stronger than all of
us it'll outlive all of us right when
someone shows up and says I just heard
about Bitcoin I'm here to fix
it right don't be that
guy right have some respect for this
thing we're almost
[Applause]
done I I would be remiss in giving a
presentation of 21 rules of Bitcoin if I
didn't mention this rule you do not sell
your
Bitcoin what do I mean Bitcoin is energy
Bitcoin is
life don't squander your
life conserve your
energy right I give you energy for you
know don't let the fire go out when the
fire is what keeps your family from
freezing do not let the fire go
out right you have a life it's beautiful
you can do beautiful things don't throw
yourself off a
cliff right and Satoshi gave you
economic energy you can you can capture
it you can own it you can conserve it
don't throw it away economically
bitcoin's going up 50% a year for the
past four years every time you sold it
you gave up the best performing asset in
the world to buy
what divers I ification is selling the
winner to buy the
losers when do you sell your
Bitcoin when your family is going to die
you sell your Bitcoin when you need it
to conserve your life those of your life
the lives of those you love then yeah
you trade it you borrow against it
but you only need one
chair you do not sell your Bitcoin
everything else is inferior the World by
the way the entire world is constructed
to convince you to sell your Bitcoin
everybody wants you to trade your
Bitcoin for their hedge fund for their
stock for their idea for their whatever
it is and you just have to keep in mind
that like no one no one is getting rich
by telling you not to give them your
money and uh we've arrived at the 21st
rule of
Bitcoin spread Bitcoin with
love not
hate violence invites violence
aggression
inspires
resistance Satoshi forgive them they
know not what they
do people don't understand Bitcoin
they're going to resist you they're
going to be afraid of you they fear what
they do not know but when you come
across someone that that you know
doesn't like Bitcoin they call it a scam
They Call It Whatever whatever was the
last most colorful thing that someone
said about it your reaction ought to be
hey they don't have a need to know they
don't understand the world consists of
people that need Bitcoin and they're and
they don't understand it but they
will and those that need
Bitcoin and they're in the business of
getting it
um when someone doesn't understand it
and they and they treat you poorly and
they're mean to you or they're or or
they're aggressive or they're violent to
you the best thing you can do is just
say they don't understand it if you
understood it you wouldn't feel that way
because if you push back against them
with
hate that just slows down their uh their
um learning path they're just going to
learn slower they're going to adopt
slower if you actually treat them with
kindness they'll remember they they were
mean to you and they'll feel bad about
it when they discover Bitcoin and
they'll come back and they'll embrace it
you make it easier for people to embrace
Bitcoin and they'll do it faster don't
give people the excuse that uh
bitcoiners are mean they hate me they
were violent to me right because then
then the entire topic just shifts to you
know a a struggle you know over some
tangential thing which was
irrelevant so go place to place door to
door personto person institution to
institution Nation to Nation offer them
something which is going to make their
life better offer it with love not hate
and uh and with that I want to thank you
all thanks for supporting Bitcoin thanks
for being here today
[Applause]
[Music]