A special Richard & Chris episode.

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Alright bro, so in the previous episode, as usual, me being me, I always try to give the devil's advocate to your devil's advocate because you were devil's advocating the status quo and I was like negating the negation, right?

Like it's very Hegelian, right? That's what I always do. It's my version of skepticism but healthy skepticism. So going back to this, so we discussed the general principles about Bitcoin, the pros and cons.

But you said that one of the, sorry, essentially we're discussing blockchain, right? And we were analyzing and explaining that. But how can you get a Bitcoin without any intermediary? I mean, can you give a kind of a technical advice to people?

You don't want to go through Binance, you don't want to go to TDAX, you don't want to go to, I don't know, coins or anything. How do you do that?

Okay, so what I would recommend for everyone...

What I would recommend for everyone is go through, you know, coins, go through GCash, go to Maya, do whatever you need to do.

When you're starting especially, yeah.

Yeah, when you're starting, just do that until you're familiar. Now, once you're familiar with it and you have a substantial amount, then you should take it off the exchange and then hold on to your own Bitcoin.

It's as easy as just transferring it from, let's say, coins to your own wallet. That's it. So that's actually easier than most people think. It just sounds complicated but it's...

It's actually not. So that's the route I would recommend for everyone. Go through an exchange, buy the Bitcoin, and then when you have it na and it's a substantial amount that you want to play it safe with, then you transfer it to your own wallet.

The other option is you can keep it there or you can put it in different wallets, custodial wallets, and then let it earn interest. Yun, okay din yun. Kasi they pay good interest for Bitcoins right now.

And how... So what about the option of you doing it without any intermediary? Is there like a...

Do you have to go into the dark web, do something? How does it work? Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Without many pins. I don't know.

Yeah, no, no. So it's called Web3. Web3 is that there is no intermediary. How Web3 works is each transaction is peer-to-peer na. So, okay, how do I explain Web3?

Okay. I want you to imagine when you log into Facebook, right? They have your credentials. They have your information. They have your data.

They have a server where...

That verifies your login, right? In Web3, it's different. The website is here. Your wallet is where your login information is.

All you're doing is allowing them the access to be able to connect with your wallet, which is your parang passport. Parang ganun siya.

That's the main difference. They don't have your information. It's just saying, yep, I'm allowing you to be able to do this with...

My data. That's it. So it's limited. And when you buy Bitcoins on Web3, it's still an exchange. You're looking for somebody who has it and you're buying it from them. The difference is it's not held with a third party. You're literally going from one wallet to another. The website you go on is just the exchange to be able to create that transaction.

So yung wallet niya at wallet mo, we'll just say, okay, send the US dollars.

Send the Bitcoin. Boom. Connected. That's it.

There's no third party.

I mean, how do you establish that level of trust and confidence? Because essentially you're saying the website that everyone thinks is the thing, it's just actually the meeting place lang. It's just like the park. You bring your wallet, he brings your wallet, you do exchange, right?

So how do you make sure transactions don't go crazy?

I love it.

I throw you the bag, you throw me the bag.

How do you do this, amigo?

Yeah. So it's fully automated. So remember, when you get onto that exchange on Web3, you've allowed the exchange to know that you have the Bitcoin. The other person goes on exchange and they know they have the dollars to be able to buy it. So when you click exchange, it's instantaneous, switches around, and they know you have it.

The transaction will not happen if you don't have the money in your wallet or the Bitcoin in your wallet.

And these are called smart contracts that do these type of transactions. Kaya nga, they're fully automated. And that's the beauty of it. It's pretty much like AI. And there's no more programmer in the middle. It just happens instantaneously.

So like the artificial intelligence detects the person who wants to do the transaction with you, and then your coins essentially talk to each other via the platform of website, right?

Yes.

Yes. So they know already how much you have.

Right.

Do you have it covered? Yes, you do. Pag hindi mo covered, that's not going to happen.

So it's not like you mo hackers going to dark web, hey, what's up? Code this, that. Do you want to send this? It's not what you see in Hollywood and all of that. Julian Assange kind of style of hacking and all.

Yeah. You know, when I hear people say that, it's like they're listening to too much fiction. And it's not at all like that.

But you cannot blame them, diba? Kasi there are a lot of people.

There are a lot of people who are, you know, mystifying Bitcoin to hyping it up, which is what, of course, you're not doing here. Kaya I'm just saying, what we're trying to do here is to demystify not only Bitcoin in general as a principle, but also the transaction aspect of this.

Diba? Kaya obviously, we don't expect you guys to be experts in these things after listening to us, but we just hope that this will inspire people to go and research more on their own.

Yun lang naman talaga ginagawa natin. We're just giving them the initial interest level if they want to know more about this. So don't worry if we cannot explain.

Everything here. But I just want people to understand the general principle of how these things take place because my preconceived notions die because, you know, that's what always happens with new technology because especially if they don't operate on pre-existing modes of interaction, diba?

So that's why I'm asking you to do it. So what you're saying is, at some point, most optimal is you learn to do that on your own, to learn the web tree and do some of these things. I mean, how large is the percentage people are doing that? I suppose it's...

In the world or in the Philippines?

No, as far as the Bitcoin world, yeah, as far as the Bitcoin, like internationally in the Philippines, I suppose it's not that large yet, right?

No, it's not. But, you know, interestingly enough, Filipinos are actually very crypto savvy compared to the rest of the world.

We're actually one of the top countries. As a matter of fact, when I went to the States, you'd be surprised at how much more people in the Philippines knows about Bitcoin than Americans.

And that's why Americans have to go through an ETF.

Because they really don't understand it. They're kind of behind compared to Filipinos and Asians. So we're pretty ahead in this. But having said that, probably less than 5% of the Filipino population is into cryptocurrency or Bitcoin in particular.

And that's why I'm saying to everyone, you are very early. We are all early. This is like the internet in 1990 when it first started. This is like buying an Amazon stock when it was going from $1 to $0.10 to $10 to back to $1.

And people are going, oh my God, it's volatile. And companies were folding and closing and going bankrupt. All these internet companies. And what happened now after all of that, you know, that massacre of all these internet companies, the big ones, the giants came out.

The dot-com bubble, yeah.

Yeah. Pero look at where the internet is now. And back then they were like, oh my God, this is insane. Pero look at it now. So this is where we're at. This is where the next generation of wealth will be built.

It'll be built on the blockchain.

It'll be built on Web3. This is the evolution of everything that we do. From banking to voting to intellectual property rights to everything. It's going to change even the way the stock market is played. The Philippine Stock Exchange is losing money. They're losing a lot of it.

Stock markets were always mediocre in Southeast Asia because the companies here are just so non-innovative. I think that's a structural condition.

I think Southeast Asia in general has one.

It's one of the lowest longitudinal return. Kaya nga, I never invested in stocks in the Philippines.

Yeah. And if you look at the Philippines, right now, they want to list everyone and everything at this point kasi they're getting desperate. Wala na silang mabenta eh. But there is a big problem with how it's run. And because of cryptocurrencies, a lot of traders, retail traders, have moved away from the Philippine stock market and it's now into crypto for all the reasons that we've mentioned.

And crypto is 24-7. You can play it.

You can make money on your phone. You can make money on your phone. You can invest in it. Everything. Walang barriers na eh.

I want to ask also about the other cryptos like Ethereum, etc. which is seen as second favorite. At least this is my understanding among friends who are also into crypto. They're saying if you're not Bitcoin, Ethereum. Anong take mo dun sa mga iba?

Okay. So here's my take on it.

What's the second best after Bitcoin?

Ethereum's the second best right now.

For you, what's the second best? My understanding is Ethereum's the second best among people.

People I talk to. But I don't know. Who am I? I don't know about these things yet.

No, no. Ethereum is the second best. It's the second biggest.

And if Bitcoin is digital gold, we always say that Ethereum is digital oil.

I thought silver. Okay. Oil pala.

Yeah. Kasi Ethereum is the…

Imagine mo na lang. Yung internet, di ba, is the base layer where all the apps are built.

Facebook, Google, everyone.

Ethereum is that base network where all the apps are built now.

Everything is built on top of. Everything is built on top of Ethereum.

Medyo lasagna style. Lasagna.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Like a lasagna.

But having said that, they're not the only blockchain.

But they're the biggest one right now that has most of the apps being built on top of.

The next one that's coming up very big is Solana.

Okay. And Solana is still undervalued right now.

At $140 per Solana, that's still relatively cheap.

That's still going to go up dramatically in price.

But if you ask me, I always tell people, please just invest in Bitcoin.

Because 99% of all the cryptocurrencies that are going up right now are probably going to be gone in about 10 years or 5 years.

May Darwinian struggle mangyayari dyan.

But Bitcoin at least relatively is established compared to all of these other alternatives.

If you want to be a little bit more risk appetite, go into the second, third tier kind of…

It depends on your risk appetite.

I just wanted to also bring that up because I'm hearing people.

They always kind of divided between Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.

Now, maybe the last part on this.

I'm glad. At least this time, it's a practical day.

We talked about Coin, Maya, Gcash for people who don't want to go to Binance

or definitely are not comfortable yet with your approach.

By the way, how did you learn how to do that?

Is there like a programming, self-taught stuff?

What happened?

Did your friends help you?

So, when I learned about Bitcoin, the first thing I did was yun.

I'm a contrarian in a way where kukontrahin ko talaga lahat ang sinasabi ko.

So, I actually did my research to prove Bitcoin had no value, was going to go to zero, is a scam, it's a Ponzi scheme.

Lahat na yan. I did all the research.

You know, at the end of that, I went all in on Bitcoin as everyone knows now.

I wasn't trying to have a confrontation.

I wasn't trying to have a confirmation bias to prove that it was going to be good.

When my friend told me, I said, I'm going to prove it doesn't work.

The problem was I kept trying to punch holes until I realized it kept holding water.

And, you know, I needed a better hole puncher.

So, that's when I decided to go all in.

When to do the transaction, I did it pretty much the same way that I'm telling everyone.

I just went to a regulated exchange that time.

And now, the one I'm recommending is the fastest one is Coinsight PH for Filipinos.

It's literally sending money from your Gcash Maya or your bank

directly to coins and then get your Bitcoin.

It's that simple.

And that's how I did it.

And I literally just kept putting all my pesos and converted my pesos to Bitcoin.

So, that's pretty much how I did it.

Last one.

And I think this is where nag-reply ka talaga sa'n sa Twitter.

Ako kasi, my stance is, I'm not talking about you,

but my understanding is a lot of people who went into Bitcoin

and are holding a lot of amount in Bitcoin

have an interest in Bitcoin.

They have an interest in more people coming in,

not necessarily only because of the principles and convictions that you have

in terms of your libertarian, anti-centralization.

But a lot of them, the idea is, the more people come in,

the higher the value.

It's as simple as that, especially if the big people with the big money.

I mean, the Bitcoin's value is still determined through the network effect.

The more people are invested in it, the higher the value.

I'm not questioning your intention.

I'm just saying, but there is also that reality, right?

Because a lot of these things, blockchain industry or whatever,

a lot of new technologies, they are really adoption dependent, right?

If no significant amount of people adopt it, then it's going to go away.

I mean, look at the, I don't know, multiverse, blah, blah, blah, ni Hizaki.

Wala, walang pumato na wala.

I don't know about the goggles of Apple.

Where is it going?

Kaya everyone went to artificial intelligence.

So as much as I completely agree with you that the internet phenomenon

of down and up and down and super operating,

right now, should make us optimistic about things that we're not looking into as much,

there are also a lot of things that, you know, flopped.

And there was a lot of hype behind it.

I mean, just the metaverse ni Hizaki.

So my concern is maybe some people are over-selling this or over-hyping it

in ways that makes, kasi ganito eh.

If people are getting into this thinking tomorrow maging millionaire sila kagal.

Ang damang ko nakita mga YouTube na from zero to one million.

Like, di ba? It's ridiculous.

Because you're setting up people for,

for disappointment and at the same time you're making people forget

what are the principles behind why Bitcoin came in.

Because as you passionately discussed, this is not just about being millionaire overnight.

So kaya nga sabi ko, maganda yung discussion ng mga tambay kantoy

is because there are a lot of people who are just wanting to be millionaire overnight.

And, you know, that's, and they have all of these channels about zero to one million, blah, blah, blah.

I mean, don't you feel annoyed by this kind of people or that they're giving a ba-

Kasi you're saying this is a sensible,

sensible thing to do.

It will have very good returns.

But when other people come in and say,

ito yung sagot sa lahat, iniwan ka ng jowa mo, mag-Bitcoin ka.

Hindi gumaan ng ETSA, mag-Bitcoin ka, right?

Hindi magaling ang oposisyon, mag-Bitcoin ka.

Like, honestly, honestly, right?

I mean, I'm not trying, trying to throw shades too much, but it makes it sound ridiculous.

In the same way that when Robin Hood Padilla, everything happens, sabi niya charter change ang kailangan natin.

It makes charter change look ridiculous.

Do you get what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Charter change may have actually value under certain circumstances.

Yeah. Charter change may have actually value under certain circumstances.

Charter change may have actually value under certain circumstances.

So, I was saying, yun ang naging problema, nakakaroon ng reputational problem.

Because some people are being ridiculous about this.

They're just over-hyping it and, you know, in the most preposterous sense.

Yeah, regardless of if it's over-hyped or not, for me, Bitcoin is Bitcoin.

People can do what they want.

And in any industry, in anything naman, there will always be the hype boys.

There will be people that talk stuff about it.

But the fundamentals are there.

It works.

And if you talk to the real Bitcoin max,

Maxis, they call themselves, ask them how much a Bitcoin is, magugulat ka.

They're not gonna tell you a Bitcoin is $100,000.

They're gonna say, one Bitcoin is equal to one Bitcoin.

That's it.

Kasi ang pinaka-pinaglalaban nilang value ng Bitcoin is the fact that it's self-sovereign.

It protects your sovereignty.

That it is borderless.

That no government can ever control it.

No corporation can control it.

And it is borderless.

And it's completely...

It's completely transparent.

And it does not require trust.

That's the beauty of it.

And you can never shut it down.

It's impossible.

It's never been hacked.

It's never gone out.

And I'll tell you, in Web 2, a lot of banks have had outages, have had hacks.

Bitcoin has never had a hack.

There is no owner.

There is no 1-800 number.

There is no corporate secretary.

There's no beneficiary to Bitcoin.

That's why Bitcoin is so expensive.

Bitcoin is a valuable

asset because of all the things

that I mentioned. So,

that is the purest digital

form of asset

that

is

about being

sovereign, being able to hold it.

Na walang may control

over it, over you. Walang third party.

That's why it is.

Now,

when you talk about the network effect,

the network effect is

what it is. Like you said, you answered

your own question, that it applies to

everything. Is it going to be

the LaserDisc or is it going to be the

DVD or is it going to be the VCD?

What is going to be the one

that everyone's going to adopt? Is it going to be USB-C

or Apple's Lightning

port, whatever? What is it

going to be? And then the winner, VHS,

Betamax, what is it going to be?

Right? The people choose.

The people chose Bitcoin.

And this is the thing about Bitcoin

and all other cryptocurrencies.

Every cryptocurrency out there

has a founder, has a

board, has developers.

They do updates. They have

people that have vested

interest in holding shares

in those cryptocurrencies.

So a lot can happen. With

Bitcoin, it is the

purest commodity I've ever seen digitally.

And that's why it's Bitcoin

and everything else. So

when you talk about adoption,

think about it. Who assigned

gold as the one with the

store of value?

People. Because they

found that gold was very difficult to mine.

It was very difficult to get

gold and to actually create gold.

They decided that's the best one to

store value. Kasi ang hirap kunin eh.

It requires a lot of work.

Bitcoin requires a lot of work to be able to

mine a Bitcoin. And Bitcoin,

to be able to get it, it is stored

not in the ground. It is stored in time.

So the next Bitcoin that's going

to be mined is in the future.

So we have to

wait for the future to be able to get it.

It's not just going to come out at any time. It's only going to

come out in the future. That's the

difference. Kaya valuable ang Bitcoin.

Yeah, I appreciate that you made

also that distinction that not all

cryptocurrencies are the same, right?

Bitcoin is very

different from a lot of these other crypto founded

by people, right?

Whether it's the ex-Russians who went to

Canada, whether it's folks from

the... That was a good

clarification that you make. I appreciate that.

Ang akin lang naman, siguro may

last point on this is

I definitely see the potential here.

At the same time, I will say

we're still in the

1.0 Bitcoin era. So

you correctly mentioned we didn't

from Web 1 to Web 2 to Web 3.

So maraming pang

pwede mangyari dyan. And I think in the future

let's have soon a discussion about the

halving. Kasi

the other thing about currency is also

the circulation. It's not just

as a storage of value, but

or barrier of value. It's also about

how much there's in circulation

because if you make Mickey Mouse money, it loses

value. It's the same thing with Bitcoin. But that's

a technical issue I'll leave maybe for

next time para may people look forward to.

Anyway, I'm seeing all sorts of mixture

of responses, including people are very happy to

hear about this explanation, but they hear it

from the other side. Thank you so much,

Chris. Now, hopefully in the next

episode, we can go back a little bit sa politika

because I think a lot of your fans and our supporters

are also there because of our political points of view.

But I really appreciate your

time and effort to explain the Bitcoin era.

Salamat. Thank you so much, Richard.

Salamat.