In this episode, our guest is Kagen Atkinson and Russell Lacour. They are the founders of Tantra labs, researchers, engineers, data scientists, economists, and optimists that focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum. They discuss their firm, the Blockchain System, and the future of cryptocurrency.   What is Tantra Labs? [1:03] Tantra Labs is an algorithmic prop that started in early 2018. It has been primarily focused on earning Bitcoin and Ethereum, denominated returns for accredited investors.   What attracted you to the Blockchain System? [2:00] Kagen originally got sucked in from the idea of being self-sovereign. It was actually on the machine learning side and Ethereum back in  2016. He quickly realized that that wasn't a realistic expectation for a blockchain. That's where he got more drawn into Bitcoin and really just being able to have an asset that is truly scarce. [2:30] Once you get properties that can be trusted, it really changes the way that you think about money. It changes the way that you think about wealth and preserving that wealth.   Why is Bitcoin attractive to large organizations? [3:30] More and more smart individuals are beginning to realize that digital properties no different than physical property. The Internet has created this digital property on a ledger and code that we all agree on where we can publicly see all transactions, see all addresses, and see the quantity of this asset. [4:05] In a Keynesian economic environment where we're constantly printing money to support ourselves, assets that exist in a scarce environment or that take hard money attributes like Bitcoin, real estate, or gold to some extent become very valuable in an environment like this. We are seeing individuals that understand these concepts. They see Bitcoin as a potential asset and property.   Bitcoin as Currency [5:24] The idea of getting paid in Bitcoin is really cool. But the problem is that those are all taxable events. So you don't really have the benefits of a currency just yet where getting paid in Bitcoin and spending Bitcoin will be a lot easier. [5:44] Everyone's trying to kind of stack more SATs, and getting paid in Bitcoin is the best way to do that.   Coinbase [6:18] Many of the projects and innovation that's happening today are still so early to what the possibilities are. When Coinbase comes out, they're making more money than basically every bank in America that really says something. It also says something about the fact that Coinbase has extremely high fees. [6:51] This idea that everything you can do at the bank, you can actually do on the blockchain, which is incredible. All of this can be done on top of blockchain today.   The Bell Curve [7:57] If your IQ falls in the middle of the bell curve, and you try to analyze some of the things that are happening in this space, you will almost never actually make an investment. In contrast, the people that fall on the low IQ end will get just enter because bitcoins numbers are going up.   Conspiracy Theories [12:50] Russell thinks that Bitcoin will become the world reserve currency because China wants the won to be the world reserve, the US wants the US dollar to be the world reserve, Europe wants the Euro to be the world reserve. Everybody wants their currency to be the settlement layer of the free world. [13:28] The only thing that actually logically makes sense for the world reserve is for it to be a neutral third party that no one can control, but everyone can transact in and see publicly. That is Bitcoin. The 30 to the 50-year vision of Bitcoin is that it becomes the settlement layer for all transactions across the world.   Liquidity [14:47] You're going to have liquid assets across the board, whether it's in-game items that you can move around digital art or stocks in your portfolio. But right now, transferring titles doing all these things is still very cumbersome. [15:34] Having liquidity is one of the most achievable short-term targets and the most applicable use case for these types of technologies.   Blockchain and Digitization [15:53] As we digitize things, our generation is truly like the instant gratification generation. You're seeing us manifest that onto the blockchain. If you own the digital version of your title that has a tie to the real world, whether it's through your bank, or whatever, you could then collateralize and take a loan against your own title, all through the blockchain.   Learn more about Tantra Labs at: Website: https://tantralabs.io/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tantra_labs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TantraLabs/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tantra_labs Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMKC2vQ_EpUCfh3yAtszGow   Learn more about Kagen Atkinson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kagnar_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kagenatkinson/   Learn more about Russell Lacour: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Russelll_LaCour LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Russelll-lacour-09a0b4102/