Senator Ted Cruz speaks about the future of Bitcoin & Crypto in the U.S.

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the greater good hey everybody greater good mining here I have been honored to be able to attend mining disrupt 2024 I'm still here but I wanted to get this video out really quick because I thought it was a very interesting conversation between the CEO of marathon digital Holdings Fred theel and Senator Ted Cruz they talk about Bitcoin they talk about monetary policy in the United States so it is a very very interesting conversation so if you like that sort of thing and you like this content do me a favor hit the like button it helps more

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than you know consider subscribing to my channel and without further Ado let's go ahead and get right into the video it's a great fireside chat what was it that sparked your interest in Bitcoin in the first place well look it it it is incredible what is happening with Bitcoin and and with cryptocurrency everywhere and I I'll tell you I think back uh to a decade ago where where I had a friend of mine who tried to convince me then to invest in Bitcoin and I still remember sitting there saying a decade ago I don't understand

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this at all so I don't put my money where I don't understand it and and I think I could say that was a catastrophic financial decision I suspect I'm not the only one and I have a feeling there are a lot of people who remember a conversation when they didn't act on bitcoin and the and the numbers were very different um look I would say a couple of years ago as as it was growing and growing and growing I wanted to understand better what's going on on and and one of the virtues of the Senate

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is you can sit down and I began inviting people who were experts in Bitcoin to just sit down over dinner and say okay tell me what this is how does this work why does it matter explain to me the pros and cons and and I'm not afraid to ask stupid questions and and listen I serve in the United States Senate which is a body with a median age of about 106 so so saying I'm I'm one of the more knowledgeable people in the Senate is kind of like being the tallest dwarf it it's not necessarily uh all that difficult there

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are not a lot of people in the Senate who understand this at all and and I think it is incredibly important number one for what it represents for Freedom look I I am incredibly bullish on bitcoin because the government can't control it I don't want the government controlling m so you talk about freedom and Bitcoin how in your mind does it embody freedom and Independence what are the characteristics about it that you really appreciate well look it it it breaks up the Government monopoly on money and and

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the problem as we've discovered when you put politicians in charge of money they have an inevitable uh temptation to print more and more and more of it we see inflation we see the value of the dollar going down the fact that there are only going to be 21 million Bitcoin coins is a big damn deal that that that there's not some politician tomorrow who can say I want more guns I want more butter let's bu make 22 million that would be a disastrous development for Bitcoin it it's also outside of government

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monitoring and and and I've got to say more and more you see in Washington a federal government that wants to monitor every financial transaction every American makes and I again think that is a terrible thing the same people in Washington who hate Bitcoin they hate cash if they could get rid of cash they could and and and I'm I'm very proach for the same reason I think the American citizenry ought to be able to spend their damn money any damn way they want to and and you see the downsides when you look

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at China when you look at for example the the their social scores that they can then use control over money to control you and make sure you do whatever they want and and and I think that's exactly backwards I think government should work for the people and not the other way around well one of your colleagues in the Senate Senator Warren seems to believe that a cbdc a central bank digital currency would solve all ills well look Elizabeth Warren is totally wrong uh when it comes to bitcoin and just about everything else

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uh but she is a full-blooded Native American so I'll give her that um I think somebody call her she got a job on that yeah um listen Elizabeth Warren hates Bitcoin for the same reason the Chinese Communists hate Bitcoin because they cannot control it this all comes down to who has the power and look back at the beginning of the bid Administration you you remember the the original legislation that that this Administration was putting forward that they called build back better I I called it build back broke it include included

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within it a requirement that Banks notify the treasury Department of every single financial transaction every American does in excess of $600 now you think about daily life that that is every month that's every rent pay pay that's every mortgage payment that's every car payment I mean it's more and more almost becoming every grocery store bill I mean I mean it is they want the federal government to be able to monitor every single thing that is purchased or sold in America and they always justify it in terms of preventing

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crime preventing tax evasion and and and I think the more power that is concentrated in government the more Liberty is is imperil I'm reminded Thomas Jefferson years ago said if a nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects what never was and never will be I think the more we can limit I'm a big believer that government should be limited to doing only those tasks we need it for look there are very important roles for the government I'm not an anarchist uh we have a National military that protects us and keeps us

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safe that's an important role for government um but the role of government should not be monitored ing whether it is the email Communications and there are a lot of my colleagues in Washington that want to intercept every email communication every text people sent I believe in privacy I believe in protecting the ability of people to be free from government control and monitoring and it is precisely the inverse of this if you are a big government collectivist putting government in charge of money is one of the most

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powerful tools for implementing the policies you want to implement so the state of Texas which you represent has been hugely welcoming to bitcoin miners uh and we've all seen the benefits large dispatchable loads or essentially the ability to curtail has had on the Texas crit you know how do you see Bitcoin mining's role evolving in Texas look I want Texas to be an oasis for Bitcoin I want America to be an oasis for Bitcoin across the world and I want Texas to be ground zero but I will say this look I actually think the

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competition we're in Florida right now I want Florida to be really strong and effective on bitcoin and everything else one of the most healthy Dynamics in America right now is the competition back and forth from Texas and Florida and I think each state makes the other better I want Florida saying how can we beat Texas how can we create an even better environment that's more welcoming to small businesses to entrepreneurship now to be honest FL is gorgeous but I think Texas will win that battle but but

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I want that competition back and forth I think Texas when it comes to bitcoin and Mining Bitcoin mining has all sorts of natural advantages one we have abundant energy Texas is and I think always will be the energy capital of the world and and it's it is the both the expertise of the state but it's also the ethos of the state look you think of Texas we were founded by a bunch of wildcats with fourth grade educations who began drilling holes in the ground and one after the other they became the richest

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men on Earth and and I I live in Houston Houston is the energy capital of the world what I love about Houston no one gives a damn who your daddy is I I think it's the most entrepreneurial big city in the world because it is a place where people can come from anywhere in the world and if you have dreams if you have Ambitions if you have talent you can achieve them and I think Bitcoin is at the intersection where obviously energy is critically important and we have abundant affordable energy combined with

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an ethos that welcomes entrepreneurship that welcomes going out and and building a better mouse trap and and I think that's right at the heart of of Bitcoin and and crypto more generally I mean Professor Scott Galloway has said that the 70s and 80s were the error of the energy IND industry being the highest market cap most valuable companies and then the '90s and the early 2000s it was technology and now we're entering the phase where the energy companies and the technology companies join together to

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really Drive Innovation going forth Texas has been a great state for that but there have been some grumblings at some committees in the state senate to try and limit Bitcoin mining access to energy and availability any thoughts on that yeah look I I don't think Texas is going to do that and I don't want to see Texas do that now now obviously the state legislature is a different body than the body in which I serve so that's not something I have a a direct vote on uh but but I I am not shy about you

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using my voice and and listen I think Texas should welcome Bitcoin mining and and and Entrepreneurship rid large and and so I I have every confidence the state legis is not going to do something stupid the governor is not going to do something stupid we want people you know all right you're California you came here there's there's a satirical headline uh in the Babylon B it says Texas is building a wall on its Southern border consisting of nothing but discarded oneway U-Haul trucks from California and it's an amazing all right

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this this is a room that understands finance and understands prices one of my favorite statistics is the cost of a one-way U-Haul from California to Texas is more than 300% the cost of a U-Haul going the other way uh and actually I'll give you even better the cost of a U-Haul from paloalto to Austin Texas is 5X a 24t U-Haul going from pal Alto to Austin is 5 grand the U-Haul going back is $974 that says something yeah they need somebody to drive the things back to bring the next load absolutely so but I will say as a caveat All The

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Californians come to Texas and coming into Florida don't vote like you're going to turn us into an Nate blue dystopia if you like that stay there rumor is that Gavin new was thinking of moving to Florida when he retires I hopefully that's not true so you know I would suggest Gavin move about 90 Mi south of here there's another communist Paradise there and and it reminds me it's something Reagan used to say he used to say the thing the left never notices is on the Berlin Wall the machine guns are all pointed in One

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Direction and and as a Cuban American I put it differently which is the left doesn't notice that that that in Florida the rafts are all coming one way just once I I'd like to see some Hollywood star who who celebrates socialism come down to Florida get on a raft and head 90 Mi South yeah and and you can have your communist Paradise let me know how you like it but but somehow that that basic cause and effect they can't figure out yeah it it you Bitcoin has this magical power of drawing you in you know

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you yourself have become thred with it I understand you maybe be have become a Bitcoin miner yourself I I am I own three miners they're in Iran Texas they are hashing right now um in fact let's see I'll pull up right now can't if I can get face ID to work all right there apparently is no coverage here so maybe I can't pull anything on all right never mind so so they're hashing every day about 30 or 40 bucks worth of bitcoin a day there you go we appreciate you check it daily it's

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a little bit like crack like oh wow that's really cool yeah people think that meta defined the code on dopamine hits boy watching Bitcoin miners mine away and looking at the hash R and I'm sure you're sitting there Fred going 30 or 40 bucks a day that's really cute I get alerts on my phone every time we win a block and it's a lottery we love it though but you know thank you for your contributions to uh the comput to the Bitcoin blockchain helping secure Bitcoin talking of security you know

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some candidates have talked about the fact that they now realize it's a national security issue mining Bitcoin in the US is a national security issue what are your thoughts on that look I I think that is absolutely right and I think when it comes to both money and power intertwined and we want money here but we also want freedom here now now look let me say a broader sort of political point and I've you know been to a number of Bitcoin and crypto conferences and and what is interesting sometimes is I think some of the crypto

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Community I I view the crypto Community kind of where big Tech was about 10 or 15 years ago and about 10 or 15 years ago big Tech I think was a at a fork in the road where they could have gone down they could have gone down number one a Libertarian Road of leave me the hell alone and and let me go and do my own thing thing or they chose instead Road number two which is a nanny State we want to control you we want to censor you we want to get in bed with big government we want to be authoritarian and tragically big Tech chose option two I

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think the world would have been very different had they chosen another road now I think the Bitcoin Community look I suspect there there are some folks here even a few years ago consider considered yourself Bernie Bros and and there was kind of a not very politically involved Community sort of looking around and to the extent you thought a government didn't like it much but but that seemed fine I will say Elizabeth Warren is helping enormously with that and and there is I think sometimes in the Bitcoin Community people are a little bit

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utopian because there's a sense uh you know of like Thanos from The Avengers like like that Bitcoin is inevitable uh and let me say frankly there is I think one force strong enough to devastate Bitcoin and that is the federal government and and and I think you underestimate the Perils of the United States government at your own Jeopardy and for folks that say okay we'll be fine I wonder how many people here have El Salvadorian passports like yes Bitcoin Will Survive but if America acts like communist China has to crush it that

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would be a devastating development we don't want to see that happen we would see it move elsewhere that would be highly problematic but it also would be problematic because of the loss of Liberty of Americans I want us to have Financial Freedom and seeing look I worry a great deal you know you asked about a a cbdc this is the Holy Grail it's the Holy Grail of the Chinese Communists it's the Holy Grail of Elizabeth War because they want the FED to number one control our money and number two be able

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to monitor it and I'm very concerned look a cbdc is not going to pass Congress it's not going to clear a filibuster I have legislation I've introduced legislation to ban the federal government and ban the fed from ever creating a cbdc I want to keep government the heck out of that [Music] business but I am very worried that the FED will do so unilaterally that J Powell is getting a lot of pressure from Elizabeth Warren and and and from her fellow Travelers and and listen if there is a second Biden Administration I think

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the risk of the FED doing that is very real yeah uh and and is is a real problem so Reports say there are about 55 million voters in the United States that have crypto or have owned crypto so it's a powerful voting block and clearly it's starting to find its voice what would you recommend to bitcoiners should they contact their Congressman should they contact their Senators should they contact their representatives at the state level what do you think we should do to mobilize the Bitcoin community so that what

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you're saying doesn't happen yeah look all of the above get engaged speak out use your voice 55 million people is a lot of people use your voice speak out online uh go get engaged and and support a candidate for office go volunteer let others I guarantee you there are people in the Bitcoin Community who don't vote who stay home and say no no what good does voting do well that's a good way to to see your rights taken away if you don't get engaged I would say also get engaged financially look running for office

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that's part of part of what you have to do is is raising money um I can tell you I think my so my Senate website is Ted cru.org my campaign website um I think I am the only Senate senator who accepts Bitcoin on my website so you can contribute Bitcoin a full Bitcoin would be great by the way but but we will take smaller portions as well Satoshi are welcome too indeed absolutely so you we have a budding industry in the US around Building Technology and hardware for uh Bitcoin mining any thoughts on what we

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should be doing at the federal level and other places to try and incentivize more technology companies to develop technologies that will help build and broaden Bitcoin you know look I will say when it comes to Washington and the regulatory scheme for Bitcoin my principal position is move slow that that the level of ignorance in Washington is terrified I I doubt there are 10 Senators who could tell you what a Bitcoin is I I I mean it really is the the I had a colleague not too long ago who referred to to to the

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internet as a system of tubes um this is not a technologically savvy group some of my colleagues reminisce about Eisenhower so we don't want folks and by the way we had legislation that I led the effort on the senate floor to stop that would define every Bitcoin minor as a as a Securities broker dealer and and the problem is when government moves particularly when it doesn't know what it's doing it has the potential to break things and to break things completely ignorant of the consequences will there have to be a

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legal and Regulatory set of rules that arises around Bitcoin and crypto going forward sure but I think we should proceed very carefully and very cautiously now in terms of specifically in incentivizing hardware for mining I I don't know that that we need the federal government I I'm as a general matter not a fan of of that kind of corporate policy from the government picking winners and losers I think what we want to do is have a tax system and Regulatory system that is beneficial to entrepreneurs and small businesses and

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anyone putting Capital at risk and I frankly don't want politicians figuring out where to put that Capital At Risk I want the private sector cuz y'all are going to be a lot better at it than anyone in Washington so I would take it to say that you're against an energy tax specifically targeting Bitcoin miners as part of the budget uh absolutely against that and I will say on energy this is something yall understand but it is not widely understood um I think Bitcoin mining is incredibly positive when it

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comes to energy and I think there's a great story to be told you know you do mining out in West Texas as you know out in the peran Basin you've got flared natural gas if you're drilling an oil well there's there's predictably natural gas that comes up with the oil and if you happen to have a natural gas pipeline there that's great you can capture it and earn a revenue stream from that but if there's not a pipeline it is usually not economically efficient to to do anything with that

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gas and so what happens right now is you light it on fire and you look out over West Texas and you just see Flames burning on the horizon of flared gas now flared gas is not great for the environment and it's also a waste of a valuable Resource One of the great things that Bitcoin money can do is go right at the well head capture that gas and translate it directly into Revenue through Bitcoin mining I think there's also a really powerful story to be told on on on bitcoin about its ability to facilitate alternatives to facilitate

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wind and solar look as as you all know sometimes the planet has an inconvenient way of the sun shining in really remote places and the wind blowing in really remote places and if you're trying to build solar or windmills and they're not electricity transmission lines you don't have an ability to capture the revenue from that and and what Bitcoin mining enables you to do is with the first windmill in the middle of nowhere capture the revenue and make it profitable and over time if you build a large enough array at some point uh the

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economics can work to build an electric electricity transmission line but but one of the ways I like to think about Bitcoin is is a battery uh it's not just a store of value it's not just currency it's not just digital gold but it is also a way of storing energy and and I think that is that is very valuable for for Energy red large and you when you think about the fact that this country has most probably a $3 trillion deficit in transmission capacity which is keeping more of these solar projects and

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wind projects from being able to be built because because they can't be financed there should be more Bitcoin mining associated with these sites yeah right and so and by the way you asked about tax laws I will say I've been drafting legislation I'm quite interested in looking at a way to incentivize using flared gas for Bitcoin mining because there you've got a positive externality that that avoiding that pollution is good for everyone and so I think that's a legitimate governmental role to encourage something

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that is a public good uh at the same time that that it makes sense for for private individuals yeah as you may or may not know we started a pilot project in Utah to actually mine Bitcoin on landfills to use the methane gas from landfills yeah we're big Believers in methane flare and in Washington we produce a lot of garbage it's a lot of hot air too so I mean if you think about the future and the broaden role Bitcoin can uh play you know it plays two roles really one in the developed world it's this great asset for investors right

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it's had a huge return and we're now even starting to see Pension funds starting to invest the ETFs have been approved but in the developing world you have upwards of 2.6 billion people who are affected by governments devaluing their currencies yes this is a huge number of people and Bitcoin plays a very specific role in that and I think you know we certainly applaud your efforts to make sure that Bitcoin remains free free in this country and it may remains free in the world and just wanted to get your thoughts what else do

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you think from a farm policy perspective we should be thinking about relative to bitcoin and how we can help developing countries and these 2.6 billion people get a better benefit out of Bitcoin yeah look that that is a very important part of the story that I that I think we collectively need to do a better job telling um you know it's interesting if you look at the developing world that that you see sometimes technology skipping development so for example in the United States you look at telephones and remember telephones when they first

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started you had the switchboard operator moving cords and then we all had landlines or those of us old enough to had landlines and and now it's interesting you look at the developing World in Africa or Latin America you see many people skipping landlines altogether and going straight to cell phones where they don't even put in the infrastructure for landlines anymore because of that technology skipping ability and and I view Bitcoin as a similar similar aspect look having aspect to banking infrastructure is

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incredibly important it's incredibly important for personal savings it's incredibly important for accessing Capital whether it is to buy a home or or to start a business or or to run a business but in a lot of parts of the world that there is not a banking system that is secure and reliable and and and if you're a sub a subsistence farmer in Bolivia and and and what what small savings you have you don't have a reliable way to safeguard it you can dig a hole and put it in your backyard but that's not a terribly effective way to

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do it Bitcoin if you can get access to a cell phone you can store value in a way the government can't take it and and the cartels can't take it the bad guys can't take it and I view that as a generation and a technology skipping development providing Banking and the ability to instantaneously and costree engage in a financial transactions that's an enormous benefit for billions of people that don't have it right now and and and I will say look telling the story of Bitcoin there's still a lot of people

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whether it is in Washington or just generally in life that don't quite understand what's going on here and I think collectively telling that story better is is really important great Senator I thank you for your time I thank you for your support from the industry and for the industry and I thank you for buying Bitcoin uh it is a pleasure and a privilege and God bless you guys so there you have it Senator Ted Cruz is a Bitcoin minor so hopefully this will mean that we'll have some good positive big Bitcoin and crypto related

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legislation to try to help our industry along and protect what we already have built I hope you enjoyed the video I thought it was a very interesting fireside chat if you enjoyed the video like I said hit the like button consider subscribing to my channel and don't forget to keep it decentralized for the greater good the greater good

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