Power and Promise of Bitcoin Technology

Good evening, hope you're having a great Saturday night.

Welcome back to my view.

Well, you're probably like me and Bitcoin and crypto

are a foreign language to a lot of us.

It's actually something many of you have been curious about.

But when you can't see the dollar bills in front of you,

it can be a concept that's difficult to understand.

But let's start with the basics.

We've established a strategic Bitcoin reserve

putting us at the cutting edge of cryptocurrencies potential.

Last year, I promised to make America the Bitcoin superpower

of the world.

And this will be a virtual Fort Knox for digital gold

to be housed within the United States Treasury.

That's a big thing.

The federal government is already among the largest holders

of Bitcoin.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the US government

has foolishly sold tens of thousands

of additional Bitcoin that were worth billions and billions

of dollars had they not sold them.

But they did sell them mostly during the Biden administration.

From this day on, America will follow the rule

that every Bitcoin knows very well.

Never sell your Bitcoin.

Michael Saylor, you have over 48 patents.

And now you are so big into the Bitcoin crypto space.

How did you get introduced to crypto initially?

In 2013, I heard about Bitcoin, but I didn't need it.

And I just dismissed it as an oddity.

And in 2020, my company faced an existential crisis.

And I realized that I was either going to have a fast death

or a slow death, or I needed it to take a risk

and transform the business.

So what we did is we looked around for something

like digital gold that we could purchase on our company's balance sheet

that would save the company and give us a future.

And so that's how I came across crypto.

A lot of people say, all right, if I

want to invest a little money in Bitcoin,

I don't know where that goes.

But it does go somewhere.

You're saying it's actually more secure and safer

than actually putting it into a bank,

because it's yours and no one could ever take that from you.

Is that right?

The real appeal of Bitcoin is people

don't want to invest or risk their money.

They want to save their money.

So Bitcoiners would say, we're not investing.

We're saving.

It's a savings technology.

What if you just wanted to take your life savings

and put it into a bank in cyberspace that promises

to never freeze your funds that isn't run by humans,

it's run by incorruptible software,

and you're going to go to sleep for a decade, right?

If you're a rip van winkle, what can I buy that 30 years from now

will be more valuable, that will hold its value?

We want to know that we control it, not our bank,

not our government, not the mayor,

not the CEO of the company.

When I first started looking for digital gold,

I saw there were 10,000 different crypto networks.

And I said, what's the winner?

What's the safe one?

What's the secure choice?

And we sifted through, we said,

well, the largest most valuable one appears to be Bitcoin

hasn't been copied, can it be copied?

Well, it had been copied 10,000 times, and they had all failed.

Bitcoin, it was the winner.

It attracted all the smart capital.

Satoshi launched Bitcoin, disappeared from history forever,

disclaimed any beneficial ownership,

it said, I don't control it, I don't own it.

It is my gift, it is sovereign money.

Bitcoin is the safest bank.

What does the future look like to you with Bitcoin

with cryptocurrency in general?

Where do you see it, 5, 10, or even 100 years from now?

I think big tech is going to embrace Bitcoin.

They're going to let you hold your Bitcoin on your iPhone,

on your Android phone.

It will find its way into Microsoft software, Amazon software,

Google Apple software.

I think that banks are going to embrace Bitcoin.

So your bank's going to give you a loan against your Bitcoin.

It'll buy Bitcoin for you.

Insurance companies will start to support Bitcoin.

I think families will increasingly begin to see it

as their savings account.

The yoga studio, the restaurant, the hotel chain,

they'll be able to raise capital

in order to improve their business and to innovate.

And I think that that's sound money

that will spread through South America, Africa, Asia.

It'll tread the China.

So I think the future is American values,

American technology, not just making America great,

but also spreading economic prosperity to the entire world.

Well, Michael Saylor, I want to say thank you.

Thanks for breaking it down for us,

making it more palatable, I think,

to the average person to understand

and feel comfortable with, because it really does feel like

this is the future, this is where we're headed,

and thanks for joining us for a little bit.

Thank you for the opportunity.

The strategic Bitcoin reserve,

I think the starting point for understanding that

is like the president said, that the federal government

already owns a lot.

Over the past decade or so, through criminal and civil asset

forfeatures and seizures, the government came into the possession

of roughly 400,000 Bitcoin.

Unfortunately, there was no long-term strategy

around these holdings, and roughly half of those Bitcoin

were sold for a relative of patents,

I think $366 million.

Today, those Bitcoin would have been worth $17 billion.

So the taxpayer and the government

have lost out on this value by not having this strategy

of holding these assets for the long term.

We don't want to make that mistake again.

If digital assets are here to stay,

and we are going to make the US the digital asset

hub of the world, for the past four years,

the crypto community digital assets,

the administration retarded their growth,

and we are set to accelerate that

through a positive partnership,

and through smart regulation,

Senate and House are both pushing through

very sound, safe bills to bring crypto,

and digital assets onshore in the US,

and to make sure that the US is both

the financial and the technological leader.

Well, you're probably like me,

and Bitcoin and crypto are a foreign language to a lot of us.

It's actually something many of you have been curious about.

America thrives when we embrace new ideas, technology,

and always fight to be at the forefront.

And if cryptocurrency will be part of that,

then let's use all the tools at our disposal.