Part 1: Pomp On Balaji's 90 Day Bitcoin Bet, Digital Catastrophes, And Failing Banks

Most Americans don't know that if you go and you deposit your money in the bank, it's not your money anymore ... The lack of financial education of the average American is astonishing.

When the government steps in to protect the depositors, that is an inflationary pressure—and it's going to take trillions and trillions of dollars to do it. And so, at the same time you're getting trillions of dollars of inflationary pressure, you also are getting this psychological awakening. And people are saying, 'Wait a second, maybe the dollar isn't as strong as we thought it was; I should look for an alternative.' And when those two things happen, hyperinflation can occur...

What you want to look for is volatility in agreement. So, the more that somebody agrees with you, you pay attention and put weight on when they disagree; and the more that somebody disagrees with you, that you want to pay attention when they actually agree.

The more complex the system, the less likely it is that the theory overlays perfectly on reality. There is no more complex system than the economic system of America, let alone the world.

We're recording this on Monday. Yesterday was Sunday. I recorded a podcast Sunday morning at 11:00 in the morning after I did a 2-hour meeting with a friend at 9 AM. And a lot of people are like, that sounds crazy. ... What did you do? You went and did all your hobbies. I have no hobbies. I literally hang out with my family and I work, but I do it because I enjoy it.

His latest thing is Bitcoin is going to hit a million dollars in the next 90 days, which sounds absolutely insane. Bitcoin's trading at $27K ... I don't agree that that is highly likely; I would put it at, like, maybe, I don't know, 5% chance.

These are not crypto banks or just tech banks. This is a complete global financial system issue. And now there's reports coming out that hundreds of banks are actually underwater in terms of holding these assets.

The way that I define a digital catastrophe is it's an event that occurs that is negative, usually plays out in the analog world... but it is drastically accelerated by the speed of communication and action online.

The central bank, this is actually a crazy statistic, they had about a $900 billion balance sheet coming out of the global financial crisis; they 10 bagged, it. They literally went from $900 billion to $9 trillion between the global financial crisis and 2022.

For a long time, people thought if you're buying Bitcoin, you're trying to make a buck ... This is not about making money; it's about saving money. It's a savings technology.

Why would you ever save your money in something that is designed to lose purchasing power?