0:00How is it possible that I go to bed on Friday night, everything's hunky dory, and I wake up Monday morning to 0:07financial Armageddon? I do think trust is being eroded because more and more 0:13people in every profession are having to abandon the pursuit of excellence in 0:19order to make ends meet. The number one cause for divorces is money. The number 0:25one reason for social unrest is money inequality. Don't you think it's unimaginably odd that none of us 0:34understands that banks create money out of thin air? 2 to 3% of the people of 0:39the United States participated in the revolution. Only 2 to 3%. And look where 0:44we are. This is an idea whose time has come. This is so profoundly important, 0:50not just for you, but for your kids and your grandkids.1:05Welcome to Medium of Exchange, the podcast where we spotlight business owners building on a Bitcoin standard.1:11Today's guest is someone bringing clarity to two worlds that don't often intersect. Dentistry and Bitcoin. Dr.1:18Mark Link is a dentist and the founder of the Bitcoin Dental Network where he helps dental professionals understand 1:23sound money, strengthen their practices, and align their work with long-term value. And today we are digging into his 1:31journey, the vision behind the Bitcoin Dental Network, and what it means to build a practice and a life on a solid 1:37foundation. Dr. Mark, it is an honor to have you on Media Exchange. Thank you for joining me, sir.1:43Jason, it's great to be here. Happy to be here. So looking forward to the conversation.1:48Same here. So you've built um this really interesting bridge between uh healthcare, specifically dentistry, and 1:54Bitcoin. And I'm curious, what was the core philosophy that really convinced you that these worlds belong together?2:01You know, honestly, um I wouldn't say that it was something that I constructed 2:07initially out of intention. This was all a byproduct of what happened to me in 2008. Um my wife and I 2:15had just borrowed a million dollars back when a million dollars was a lot of 2:20money to build out our brand new dental suite, you know. And the day we moved 2:26in, uh, no exaggeration, was the day that Hank Pollson and George 2:32W. Bush got on the national news to pitch the TARP bill. For those that weren't around, or that's an a foreign 2:39name, it it was the toxic asset relief plan. And basically, it was a plan for 2:45the taxpayers to bail out the too big to fail banks who had actually created the crisis to begin with.2:52And you know, for 6 months after that event,2:58none of my patients, none of the ones that were even the ones I knew were financially well healed were making any 3:05discretionary treatment decisions. And so for the first time in 20 years of 3:11my career, I was, you know, furlowing my staff. I was, you know, uh, not taking a 3:17paycheck just for us to stay afloat. And nothing like that had ever happened 3:24to me in all my previous 20 years of private practice. It's not like I was 3:29green behind the ears, you know. I mean, I knew what I was doing. I had a thriving practice.3:35Um, yeah, it was it was a very traumatic moment. And 3:42you know, I asked myself the question, how how is it possible that I go to bed on Friday night, everything's hunky dory 3:50and I wake up Monday morning to financial Armageddon? How is that even possible? It was also very 3:57self-revolutionary in a way because I realized just how 4:02naive I was about the financial waters I was swimming in. I had I had no 4:08financial education in elementary school, in high school, in uh graduates, 4:14you know, even in dental school, nothing. Zero. Um, and I did not like the feeling that I 4:22had at that moment. And so I I went on this mission to learn how to prevent 4:28myself from ever being in that situation again. And as odd as it seems, because it's not 4:35super easy to see how that would lead somebody to Bitcoin, 4:41but to the extent that Bitcoin is sound money, you know, money that can't be 4:47debased, all roads that are sound lead to Bitcoin, you know, in in the 4:53financial world. And that will that will be something that I think everybody will start to find out over 4:59time. It wasn't by design, but uh it it was something that changed my stars 5:06financially. It allowed me literally to retire. And I I I got into it initially 5:13for for that reason, but now I'm in it because it to me it's it's it's solved 5:20so many problems in the world. And I want I want more of my colleagues in 5:25particular, you know, everybody at large to benefit from this tool that is available to 5:32everybody. Yeah. So, I know that's a long answer to your question, but um you 5:38know, that's that's kind of my Bitcoin story. I I stumbled into it and I'm sure it's easy to look back and see how much 5:47you've learned and how ultimately positive it was, but that had to have been an absolutely gut-wrenching moment 5:55going through that. You took out this massive loan um and then the economy just falls right 6:03out from under you. And I mean, how did you get through that? Well, I mean that was that was really 6:11really really tough. I mean I don't want to make my situation kind of sound like the poor me thing because relative to so 6:19many other people I mean 5 million people lost their homes you know um tons 6:25of people lost their jobs and most of us lost 50% of the value of the dollars 6:32that we had saved to that point in time. I had three little kids at home and uh 6:38it it was terrifying actually and I I was at risk of losing my business which 6:45I had built over 20 years. So it was like 20 years of sweat equity that could have been flushed down the toilet, you 6:52know, start over and start over not as an entrepreneur, not as a business 6:57owner, start over as an associate in some corporate practice. That's kind of 7:02what I probably would have had to have done. So, yeah, I I think about how going through 7:09something so traumatic like that, it it could potentially lend itself to you 7:15becoming more financially conservative. And yet, the juxosition between that and 7:21something like Bitcoin, which is frequently referenced as high risk, it's correlated with like tech tech stocks 7:27and and lots of volatility. It's way too volatile. And how do you how did you 7:33come to the conclusion that Bitcoin is actually sound? That Bitcoin is actually 7:38a a um a tool for7:43uh maybe sort of a conservative uh tool maybe a tool for protection as opposed 7:50to um this this high-risk asset. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I would like to say 7:57that I, you know, saw it for what it was right out of the gate, but that's not the case. Um, my journey literally has 8:05been now almost a 20-year journey, uh, or 15 at least. But I think most people 8:11view it that way because they're looking, they're not zooming out. They're looking at day-to-day.8:18Um, but if you even look at any five-year period over the last 15 years, it has been the best performing asset of 8:24any asset. So I wouldn't say that bitcoin is you know the medium upon 8:31which I would want to save for tomorrow. Um but it is the medium on which I want 8:37to save for 5 years from now. And just like you know stocks and bonds I mean 8:42you know Amazon one of the most volatile stocks Apple one of the most volatile 8:48stocks but everybody thinks nothing of that. Why? because their time horizon 8:54isn't tomorrow. their time horizon is 5 10 15 sometimes you know 20 25 30 years 9:01right and in that frame of reference there is no better performing asset on 9:07the planet and so um you don't get there right away and I think mo most people 9:16are thinking of it in the short term rather than the long term and I also think that 9:22the mass media has done their greatest efforts to to paint 9:29Bitcoin as being so volatile that you that and that that volatility 9:34means risk. There's a difference between risk and volatility. Um because no one would say 9:41that about Amazon. No one would say that about Apple or Google or any of these other very volatile stocks.9:49And I think it's just a lack of understanding. So for me, I became a a 9:56gold bug first. Um, and that was because after 2008, I started to learn about the 10:03banking system. I started to learn about what money is. And once you understand 10:08those two things, which by the way, for anyone who takes the time, it will shock 10:15you to know how our money works, how our monetary system is constructed.10:22And actually once you know that you understand that that's where the real risk lies.10:28Okay? It's not in Bitcoin which is outside of that system. It is being in 10:34that system that is the risky thing. And so why is it risky?10:40Well, why is why is the the banking system risky? Um, oh gosh, there's 10:45number one. Number one is it when we, you know, I I had many of I I knew nothing about the 10:53banking system prior to '08. And then I I read a book called the the 11:01creature from Jackal Island which is about the Federal Reserve and its creation. And I also came across a video 11:07which I would highly recommend for anybody. It is called the hidden secrets of money episode number four Mike 11:14Maloney and it's about 30 minutes long but basically it demystifies how our 11:21very complex monetary system works and banking is risky because the reality 11:28of it is is that when when we deposit our money in our in our banks it's no longer our money. We are effectively 11:35loaning our money to the banks with no guarantee that they will repay it. And 11:42that's the fine print if you really look at the contract. And then they they practice um what's called fractional 11:49reserve lending. So they don't really keep the money that you give them in 11:54your account. They lend it out. That's one way they lend money. But that's actually a small fraction of the way 12:01they lend money. They and and this is another thing I didn't know. When I went in to borrow money for my 12:08practice, for my house, I assumed that12:13the bankers had the money and that I that therefore of course they deserve 12:20to, you know, earn interest on money that they were risking by lending it to me. But the reality is is that that's 12:28not the way it works. They just type the numbers into the computer and then they 12:35create a loan to you and the collateral is your business or your house or 12:40whatever it is that you're requesting the money for. And if you so much as miss one payment, then you're at risk of 12:47losing that asset. Um, so that's super risky and that's 12:52what 2008 was all about because the bankers took tremendous risk with 12:59our money and those risks didn't pay off and unfortunately rather than letting 13:06those bankers pay the consequence, the federal government and the Federal 13:11Reserve bailed them out. And so u there is nothing more risky than our banking 13:17system. And it's sad that I have to say that, but and it's shocking that I didn't know. I felt like such a 13:23that I didn't know. I thought I was like the stupidest person on the planet until 13:28I started asking around. And then I mean I have a ton of c CPAs, you know, 13:34certified financial planners, bankers in my bank employees who were who are my 13:40patients. And I was I would ask them, you know, simple questions.13:46They didn't know the answer. They didn't know that the Federal Reserve wasn't part of the Federal Government, that 13:51it's a private entity and it's owned by the big banks. It's just the whole the 13:58whole thing is the most it's the it's it's the biggest Ponzi scheme there's ever been. You know, they make um to 14:05Charles Ponzi, they make Bernie Maidoff look like kindergarteners. Uh really and and we just don't we just don't know any 14:12differently. So I I know that again another long answer to a short question. No, it's Yeah, 14:18my my journey has been similar where um Bitcoin has transitioned 14:26from something that felt overwhelmingly complex uh where and volatile and risky and and 14:34I would I would um almost to some extent like not sleep well at night uh because 14:41of it. And then as I learned about a current financial system, the better I 14:46slept at night knowing that I had Bitcoin because it's outside of the system and the the the the 14:53volatility of the banking system, the fragility, I should say, um rather than volatility, the fragility of the current 15:00system and and how 2008 may not be uh15:05the biggest um you know crisis within my lifetime, 15:11unfortunately. there could be there could be something 15:16on par or greater uh at some point in the future. And the importance of having 15:22a form of money, which that was a big transition for me, understanding that Bitcoin is is not just a a volatile 15:29asset, but it is it is money. It is sound money to your point. Uh and having having something that's outside of the 15:35system. Um and yeah, it's it's interesting how such a 15:42a trial, such a traumatic event like what you experienced, you know, the day you moved in after taking a million 15:50dollar loan, they they got on on the air and announced that 15:57I I had a um I had a traumatic event. I16:02got hit by a car while riding my bike. And then after like months and months of PT and chiropractic and all this stuff, 16:09I ended up joining a CrossFit gym. And then I I became just so much fitter than 16:14I ever was in the beginning. And it's such a it's such a unique thing where 16:20this this trial turns into a blessing. And it sounds like that is what happened 16:26to you. you you kind of turned lemons into lemonade ultimately long over the long 16:32time horizon because you you learned about the system. So So I think for a lot of professionals though, especially 16:38in the medical field, they're just trying to improve the patient outcomes. They're just trying to 16:45improve their community and their the dental care provided to that community and and take as best care for of their 16:52employees and everything as they can. And then they and then you bring something like Bitcoin. It's like magic 16:57internet money. It's it's it feels overwhelming and and and complex. How do you simplify it for a dental practice or 17:05a professional of some kind um who are who are so new to it? Well, couple of things there. Number 17:11one, um you know, I practiced for 41 years. I just retired couple of weeks 17:17ago. And congratulations. Thank you. Um, and when I first started 17:25practice, it was it was really much easier and uh 17:30much more common for dentists to be focused primarily on being experts 17:37at what they did. And as time went on,17:42there was an encroachment of insurance industry, third party payers. And um and 17:49what I didn't know was that the underlying reason that what that was happening was that our money was getting 17:56debased. And so we went from a period of time where clinicians could have a low 18:03time preference, meaning they could actually invest in their employees, they 18:09could invest in their future. They could be looking down the road. they could uh 18:15take time to uh go to continuing education and that has become so much 18:20harder to do for for again it seems like a multiplicity of reasons but the 18:25reality is is that the underlying reason is that our money is getting debased. So what happens when that happens? All of 18:33our employee costs go up. Our supply costs go up. Um you know the loyalty of 18:39our you know we we no longer have the time to commit to each other as you know in our staff and our in our in our 18:46practices. You have to start to commoditize your your your service. And 18:53so what happens to most dentists and most physicians is that they actually lose touch with 19:00the art and science that they're practicing because they have to do all of these 19:05procedures that are billable in order to make ends meet. And I've 19:12seen this play out over 40 years. So I mean that was real. I just didn't understand why. Okay. So back to your 19:20initial thing, you know, clinicians, you know, why why should they bother with Bitcoin, you know, when they're when 19:27they're when they're we should be focusing and I would say that the the the the very simple thing is without 19:33sound money and without the ability to save in something that is going to appreciate over time, 19:40you can't you can't practice, you can't improve your practice. you you can't allocate time to do what Steven CVY 19:48would call quadrant 2 things. You can't train your staff. You don't have time to train your staff.19:55Um so it it really they go hand in hand. I saw a survey that came out this year 20:00that said the number one concern for small and mediumsized businesses right now is inflation. And it sounds like 20:06what you're saying that you've experienced over the last 40 years is that patient and and tell me if I'm 20:13wrong here, but patient care was priority number one when you got started.20:19And as time went on, the insurance system crept in, 20:25intermediaries, the cost of everything continued to go 20:31up and it became commoditized and harder and harder to earn a living. And you 20:37attribute that to monetary debasement 100%. And I and I even even during the 20:44the majority of my career when that was happening, I didn't know I didn't see it for what it was. I did not see it.20:53It was only that 2008 moment that made me stick my, you know, lift my head up out of somebody's mouth and and and and 21:00my small little world and zoom out and understand, my gosh, this is why things 21:07are getting harder. So in addition to inflation, so you know, let me let me let me really 21:14drill that home. Okay, let me really drill that home. So my dad practiced dentistry for 54 21:20years. When he was 98 years old, I interviewed him. He bought his first 21:26dental practice in 1942 for $1,500.21:33Today I can buy one high-speed handpiece for $1,500.21:39Now, just let that you got to let that sink in. What changed? That's I mean, that really 21:47says it all. My dad on one dental income, my wife, my mom was a 21:53stay-at-home, you know, uh, mother. She They had 11 kids. They paid for 65 years 22:00of higher education. on one income today. Fast forward, I'm a 22:06dentist. My wife is a dentist. And there is no way on there's no way 22:12that we could do that same thing. No way. And back then it was super common.22:18All of my parents' friends, the Cadwells, the Knockways, the McGills, the Ferances, every single one of them 22:24had large families. the mom stayed at home, upper middle class lifestyle and kids went to 22:31college. I mean that was just like normal and there is no way that's happening 22:37today. And again unless you zoom out unless you have that perspective and again I wouldn't have that perspective 22:44without this kind of epiphany that occurred because of 2008. We all assume 22:50we assume that prices are supposed to go up. Of course they're supposed to go up.22:57But the reality is is that they should be going down. You know, technology 23:02inherently makes us more productive people. I have a milling machine in my 23:08practice that I can now I can now prep a tooth digitally scan that tooth and mill 23:15a crown in two and a half hours. Uh, I used to have to take impressions, put 23:21all that goop in people's mouth, send it off to the lab, wait six weeks, come back, numb them. Yeah. I mean, 23:30it it's fantastically more efficient. And yet, my crown fees had to go up and 23:38I and my profit margins continued to go down even though technology was always 23:43getting better. And how do you explain that? The only way the the only way to 23:48explain that is to understand money, our monetary system and the debasement of 23:53our currency and it underpins absolutely all of the problems that every clinician, every business person is 24:00experiencing. We just don't see it. What about insurance specifically? Some of 24:07some of the problems that I've heard from the healthcare industry um some of 24:12the roots of of those problems are insurance. Is that separate from the monetary 24:18debasement? What ratio of these problems are24:24insurance versus inflation? How do they work hand in hand?24:29Yeah, I I actually don't think they're separate. I think all of these things are connected. So, um, again, 24:38back in 1965 when Delta Dental became a thing,24:43um, prior to that, there wasn't dental insurance. Okay? And 24:49my dad accepted dental insurance for the first time. And at that time, the 24:55maximum annual benefit that you could get as a as a dentist was $1,500 in a 25:02year. But that's a car was worth $1,500 back then. You know, fast forward to 25:07today, the maximum annual benefit is still $1,500, 25:12but the premiums have gone up dramatically. So, you know, 25:18the the insurance companies are a second layer to of the onion because they're 25:24taking advantage of this debasement. They really are. And you know, patients 25:30often are kind of tossed in the middle of this. And it's it's so unfortunate.25:36Um because, you know, $1,500 anymore, that doesn't even buy you a single 25:42crown. You know, back in 1965, it would have rebuilt your whole half a crown.25:47Yeah. Yeah. It would get it would get you it would get you a little over half a crown. But I mean it's not it's better 25:53than a poking eye. But even there the way they construct the policies and again we're going on a tangent that is 25:59unrelated to say a lot of of of businesses but um but you don't get as 26:05much for your money. Uh they only pay for what's called half of the usual and 26:11customary and you know so if you want a average crown or a usual and customary 26:17dentist or an average dentist I don't think most people want that. I think people want, you know, we we can 26:24compromise on certain things, but I think we'd like we'd like to have really good healthcare.26:29Okay. Yeah. This debasement is undermining everything as far as that goes. And 26:35insurance are just a layer to the onion and they're taking advantage of this because they're they are they are the 26:43masters of the financialization of everything.26:48They you've never seen an insurance company go out of business ever. At least I never have.26:54Um and that's not the same about any other business. Yeah. No, it's true. I mean, I haven't 27:00thought about that before, but I think you're right. Yeah. In insurance is an interesting 27:06industry. When I think about incentives and alignment, uh, you know, of course, 27:12what's stopping a dentist from saying you need a crown or root canal or you've got a dozen cavities? You they sort of 27:18got asymmet asymmetric information. When I look at an X-ray and they're like, see this shadow right here and I I guess I 27:25see it, you know, I don't know. So, how does how does Bitcoin reframe the way 27:30that you think um you know, you're you're a dentist. You you've got all this knowledge about Bitcoin. How does 27:36it re reframe um incentives and and value and um you know long-term patient 27:43care? Um how do those kind of coincide? Yeah, I I don't know so much be at least 27:50not for me that there is that alignment in as much as 27:56um I think as a clinician you either care28:01deeply about what you do and about your patients uh or you think more deeply about hey I 28:08want to make buck okay and you could say that about any profession you know it 28:13doesn't matter it doesn't matter you know I mean your question about how would I know looking at an X-ray. Well, 28:20that's kind of like me saying to my IT guy, how how do I know I need the new whatever? I I have no idea, right? So, 28:28there is a trust that that that that you know, but I do think trust is being 28:33eroded because more and more people in every28:38profession are having to abandon the pursuit of excellence in order to make ends meet.28:46You know in dentistry it's very tangible. So when I first started practice it was me and my dental 28:53assistant. So four hands uh and actually later even six hands. I would sometimes have two assistants.29:00And now what you see in a lot of dental practices is you have a dentist. He goes 29:05in, he preps the tooth and along behind him comes a moderately trained dental 29:10assistant who's working by herself. Okay? Now, even if that dental assistant was as good as every dentist and all the 29:17training that they've had and so on, can they really do as good of a job working 29:22by themselves as two people can do? No. You know, so we you'll see this 29:29you'll and and if you go to a really busy busy dental practice, you might think, "Oh, they're really 29:36busy. Therefore, it's a good place to go." Well, the reality is is that um 29:41it's kind of like the parable of the of the the town that just had two two uh barbers. And the guy walks in and he 29:48goes to the first barber and there's hair all over the place, you know, and 29:54then he walks a little further and he goes to the d the the the barber that has no hair, you know, and he uh he ends 30:03up thinking, "Well, I'm going to get my hair cut, you know, with the guy that's got all the, you know, uh the hair on 30:09the floor." And the reality is is that that may or may not be true in terms of 30:14the quality of care, right? Or the how how good the haircut is. But the thing to tell would be to say, okay, of the 30:22two barbers, who has a nicer haircut, right? Because you know that in that 30:29town, and unfortunately, we don't have that lititness test in any profession. It's easy for you and I to see that 30:35Michael Jordan is far superior than Spud Webb as a basketball player. It's very 30:41easy to see. It's very difficult for us to see that in every other arena. But I 30:46can tell you in terms of the you know you know the water the the financial 30:52system to the extent that people are struggling you're going to see an erosion of a quality of care. Humans are 30:59humans. They're going to do what they need to do in order to feed themselves.31:04And and it's not that's that's just the nature of the game. So I I think that this is a major issue. All of the things 31:11that we view as out external whether it's you know obesity epidemic food 31:16problems uh you know everything we see that is a major problem has a financial underpinninging to it and then again 31:22that's why Bitcoin is so revolutionary in my view we learn as students we learn math and 31:30science and biology but practically speaking money might be one of the most 31:36important skills that we never learn particularly if all These things that you're saying are true about the 31:42pervasiveness and importance um of understanding31:48monetary debasement and how it influences everything from a dental 31:53practice to our personal lives uh to saving for college, the ability to uh 32:00buy a business or start a business or survive in a business. um is do you 32:06think financial education had if it was taught at all um but 32:12especially if it was taught through an Austrian economics lens as opposed to a debt-based Keynesian lens um do you 32:20think like for you and others life would look32:25differently like how how would that impact that is a great question that is such a 32:30great question it really is it really is. But again, you know, you're zooming out and you're 32:37asking such a great question. Um, you know,32:44on average, humans will will spend 78,000 hours of their life working for 32:52money. Now, they really don't want money, you know. They really don't want money. They 32:57want the things that money can buy, right? And they want to also provide 33:03value to their fellow men, you know, like you want to have purpose in your life, right? It's not all about money 33:10for sure. Um, but in terms of the quality, I mean, the number one cause 33:16for divorces is money. The number one reason for social unrest is money 33:23inequality. The number one reason that nation states go to war is money.33:29Don't you think it's incredibly, fantastically, unimaginably odd that none of us had any 33:37financial education? That none of us understands banks, that none of us understands that 33:46banks create money out of thin air? money. You know, I I I occasionally do a 33:51presentation to my colleagues and I have this portion of my presentation which is about uh it's a it's a thought 33:58experiment. I mean, if you had a money printer in your attic, would you occasionally use 34:04it? Of course you would, right? And if you had um your neighbor had their house 34:10burned down, something unfortunate happened and you could just print the money, might you, you know, give them 34:16some some money? Of course you would. You know, if you if if you did that over 34:23time, would that change your relationships? Of course it would. You know, as you work through this thought 34:29experiment, you come to two conclusions. Number one, using a money printer, if any one of us had it, would be 34:36irresistible. We would all do it. It's a human nature thing. Okay? Anybody would 34:41do it. And number two is that it wouldn't be fair.34:47It wouldn't be fair that you or I or anybody else has the ability to create 34:52money out of thin air that everybody else is spending 78,000 hours of their life to earn. And yet our entire 35:00financial system is based on two institutions that have that privilege.35:07And those two institutions are made of people. And they're going to print money. And they do. And to the extent 35:15they do, all of these other second and third order consequences, everything that we've been talking about, all of 35:22the kind of layers of the onion, whether it's insurance, affordability, the 35:27change in the ability of of over generations for parents to provide for 35:33their families, all of that is related to this one underlying. It's the common 35:40denominator. And again, Bitcoin that that you know, the amazing thing is you you and I both 35:46know is that um no one can print more Bitcoin. It's money.35:52I like how you you included in that very visceral picture of a money printer in 35:59the attic. Use the word occasionally. You're not painting this picture that 36:04it's a greedy, you know, uh let me just extract as much as I possibly can. you 36:10know, it's your you you you you paint this picture of empathy and benevolence, like your neighbor's house burned down. You're just you're just going to help 36:16them out a little bit, right? And I think I think that's the that's the root of it. It's you've got uh potentially 36:24well-intentioned folks who have access uh to the infinite money printer where 36:30they can make money for free out of thin air, which devalues 36:37the money in the system. every time they do that and it creates which is a which 36:42is a hidden tax on everybody and it hurts the people who can least 36:48afford it the most. I think that's one of the most frustrating things to me is that I mean 36:55I spent years working on trying to move the needle on homelessness. Very very 37:00challenging. Mhm. But on the socioeconomic spectrum, 37:07you've got so many people above that stage who are housed but that are 37:15struggling and those vulnerable members of society.37:21It's like reverse Robin Hood. That's one of the most frustrating things to me about the current system. The people in 37:27power are are taking from the poor to give to the rich. the the the effects of 37:33the the Cantalon effect are that uh the asset owning class get richer and it's 37:40the the non-ownership class that's getting poorer and struggling more and 37:46more which to your comment earlier it creates civil unrest uh which creates 37:51even more it's just a flywheel. So how from your perspective especially 37:57for our listeners that don't necessarily know that much about Bitcoin how does Bitcoin fix this thing? H why why why is Bitcoin a a solution?38:05Yeah. Well, I think I think the first thing that everybody needs to understand is the things that we were just talking 38:11about that we have a system that is making them poorer every single day.38:16Every single day. Um and it's structural. It's built in. It's baked 38:22into the cake. And Bitcoin is like the antimatter to that 38:28matter because because of its finite supply because it 38:34is it is money that cannot be debased and because uh it will always increase 38:40in value relative to the dollar over a long enough time frame. and really 38:45against all other assets that have been monetized, whether that's houses or uh you know, because there's a monetary 38:52premium to people's homes. The house that I'm living in, I built in 2017.38:58It's now worth a full third more than it was eight years ago. That's insane.39:06Okay, the house is the same. As a matter of fact, it's probably, you know, less less better for the wear, right? Okay.39:12And yet my taxes on it have gone up because the value of the house has supposedly gone up in nominal terms, 39:20right? And so I have three kids. I have my daughter is a veterinarian. My two 39:27sons are engineers and they're struggling to be able to afford a home.39:34If you go to, you know, www. what what WTF happened in uh 1971.39:41You see all of these metrics, the disparity between uh the price of of 39:47homes relative to the increase in in salaries, uh the disparity, the the number of 39:54people that are getting married later because they can't afford to to have a 40:00home and therefore they can't afford in their view to have a family. That the divorce rate has gone up tremendously.40:06all these metrics. There is literally a line in the sand that began in 1971 when Nixon took us 40:14off the gold standard that basically allowed every government on the planet 40:19to turn the money printer on without constraint. Prior to that, the the 40:25debasement happened at a much slower rate and generations could expect that 40:30the next generation would actually um be better off because they would they would 40:36acrue the advantages that would come to them by virtue of the productivity uh that's inherent in technology.40:44But that's all been stolen since 1971 from the the Gen Zers, the millennials, 40:51the Gen Xers, you know, all of those. As you go back in time, there the each 40:57generation is having a greater and greater difficulty to just crack the nut of basic needs.41:04And and that's again, you know, I I got into Bitcoin really because of number go up technology in a 41:11way in a way of protecting myself from debasement. But the reason I'm so passionate about 41:17it, the reason I'm it's so important to me is because I don't want my kids and 41:23my grandkids to be growing up in a world where they are slaves 41:28and they and that that's exactly what's happening. I another thing uh that I never saw 41:35clearly, I I used to always travel to the Caribbean or I'd go to Mexico and 41:40I'd think, "Oh my gosh, these people, they work so hard." Especially, you know, the people I knew in Mexico, they 41:46were so nice. They were industrious and so on. But the population is so 41:52incredibly poor. How is that possible? And as soon as 41:57they come to the United States, all of a sudden, they're doing great. Okay. Well, what's the difference? Well, the 42:03difference is we have the world's reserve currency, and while it is the uh 42:08cleanest dirty shirt in the in the laundry, um it's way better than the peso.42:14And therefore, those people are impoverished and they're stuck in being 42:19impoverished. And each generation is getting poorer not because of their their lack of industry but because the 42:29money is getting is is losing value faster than they can create value.42:35And that's one of the sort of injust42:40systemic injustices. And one of the things that I feel grateful for is that I lucky enough to be born in the country 42:49that has the global reserve currency. And that that puts you and I a massive 42:56leg up ahead. Massive. That we have I mean as instable as it is 43:01uh we have a stable currency relative to the others. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm actually 43:07It's interesting. I'm actually hopeful though. We had a extremely dynamic economy up until the 43:15Federal Reserve was created. And from that moment forward, there's been this engineering that's 43:21gone on. It essentially at every level and at every moment in time has been 43:27that instead of allowing the people who took bad risks and invested their energy, time and energy poorly, instead 43:33of letting them fail, we propped them up. And so and so 43:40we socialize the losses. That's exactly privatized the profits. Yeah. We privatize the the the profits 43:46and we we socialize the the losses. Yeah. Well so but now we have this 43:53opportunity. It is a once in a humanity opportunity and is it is embodied in 44:01this thing that we call Bitcoin. um because it's going to give it is 44:06going to give people back their money. You know, the reason I started accepting 44:12Bitcoin in my dental practice at that juncture wasn't to make me 44:18richer. It was it was to lend credibility to um44:24to this ecosystem that I know if if people would just opt opt in opt 44:32out of the fiat system and opt in to the Bitcoin system, if they would just do that in mass, 44:39uh it would be overnight things would just be radically different. Um, it's 44:45not going to happen that way, but it is possible. And it is there is a future that is that where I can see where my 44:52kids and grandkids um will be in that future where we have 44:57sound money again. And and I I I I'm very excited about that. I mean, and I it's an opportunity that will never come 45:04again. We need to grab We need to get on this lifeboat, everybody. Yeah. Uh it's 45:10uh another blessing to have it is discovered it. Yes. But even from a more 45:17even from a more pragmatic standpoint, I mean, you know, you know, because this is a medium of exchange, right? Uh 45:23podcast. When I look at all the other payment systems that are out there, let's just let's just kind of one for 45:29one, you know, number one, it's it's basically cash without a cash register.45:35Number two, there are no merchant service fees really. So, you're literally skimming 3% at maybe 2% off 45:44the top. And and in my practice, I pay between 30 and $40,000 every year in 45:51merchant service fees for what? Convenience, you know, uh it's faster.45:57It's immediate settlement. It's an asset that's appreciating. It's easy as it's 46:04so easy to do. People just have to get past the mindset that it's hard. I mean, Steak and Shake, 46:11I don't know if you've gone to Steak and Shake yet, but their kiosk is so amazing 46:16and it's it's way better than credit cards. Uh you're you're but you're 46:21accepting money in an appreciating asset. And if you're a small business and only 46:28a 1 or two or 3% of your of your uh clients are paying you in Bitcoin, you 46:35don't really need to touch that money. You can just leave it off to the side and let it grow and it will. I I 46:41accepted $15,000 in Bitcoin payments my first year and 46:47that is now worth $32,000 a year and a half later. I mean, I didn't do anything for that. I 46:54just let it sit there. Okay, you well what would have happened if I just left it in dollars? It'd be probably a third 47:00less, right? In terms of its purchasing power. That's that's awesome. And then 47:05finally, you know, free advertising. You know, if you accept Bitcoin, you can put yourself on the Bitcoin Map app and bit 47:12there's 40 to 60 million people in the United States who have a Bitcoin wallet.47:18So, uh, now they may not want to spend their Bitcoin right now, but, uh, but 47:26that's a big big big audience. Okay. And it doesn't cost you anything to put your 47:33name on the map other than you have to accept Bitcoin. Well, how easy is that? And then I use the or orange pill app or 47:40the orange club app now. Uh, and that gives me direct access to all the 47:45Bitcoiners in my space. So, in my community, so if I if I want uh to 47:51attract them, I can say, "Hey, fellow Bitcoiners, you know, not only am I a great dentist, but I'll give you a 10% 47:58off for coming in." And why would I do that? Because I'm going to be accepting currency that I know is going to 48:04appreciate on average 50 30 to 50% a year, and I'm giving somebody a 10% 48:09break for doing it. It's win for them, win for me, and I don't have to pay the 3% merchant service fees. I mean, it's a 48:16no-brainer. It's an absolute no-brainer to do this. All collectively, we just need to get 48:22over that hump. It's that easy. And what are you doing with the Bitcoin Deno network to help accelerate the 48:31value and importance of everything you just described uh and how it relates to 48:36a dental practice? Well, I the website that I have created 48:42is really just a curated site for you know that of all of this the the kind of 48:49my 15-year journey included a lot of self-education and you know I kissed a lot of toads along the way but this is a 48:57curated site and everything on that site if you just walk through it top to bottom you your eyes are going to be 49:04wide open literally within a couple of hours you're going to be like oh my goodness 49:09I can't believe I did not know. And it's only from that position, it's 49:14only from that position that you can decide, okay, I'm going to stick my toe in the water here. And then, of course, 49:21there's, you know, there's I'm going to be populating it with uh how-tos on how to uh accept Bitcoin in your practice, 49:29you know, especially as that evolves because, as you know, Square recently started accepting Bitcoin and all you 49:34got to do is toggle the button. It's literally a two and a half minute thing.49:41How amazing is that? So, I don't I didn't use Square. I used Zaprite, which 49:46was equally easy. Took me 30 minutes to onboard, another 30 minutes to train my 49:51staff. But, you know, Jason, when I go someplace, every every business I walk 49:57into, I say, "Hey, do do you accept Bitcoin yet?" Every single place I go. And 5 years ago when I started doing 50:04this, people would look at me like I you was a Martian. They wouldn't even know what Bitcoin is. Recently, I went into 50:12Discount Tire to get four new tires on my car. I walked in. I said, "Hey, do 50:18you guys accept Bitcoin yet?" And the young guy across the the counter said, "No, not yet, but I wish we did, and 50:25you're not the first person to ask." That was four years later. Uh I've 50:31personally gotten five restaurants in Denver to accept Bitcoin um just by asking just by asking. I accept I accept 50:40Bitcoin and so a lot of my patients ask me you know that um why do why do you 50:46accept? So it starts this conversation you know what is Bitcoin? Why would you do that? Blah blah blah. Uh and then I 50:52patronize other businesses. So, the first thing I do when I go to another city is I see what businesses accept 51:00Bitcoin. And if I need to get my haircut and there's somebody who accepts Bitcoin, that's where I go. Uh, again, 51:07getting back to, you know, the the free, you know, the free advertising. I use I 51:14love Steak and Shake, you know, like I I literally love Steak and Shake. Um, not 51:21because they accept bitco. Well, I love it because they accept Bitcoin, but I also like it because I was reintroduced 51:28to them. It was a dying kind of hamburger place, but they have the best 51:34shakes on the planet, you know. And so what I'm saying is that it's easy for 51:40businesses to get involved, but even as individuals, it's easy to start t, you 51:45know, getting exposure if just by going to Steak and Shake and seeing, oh my gosh, Steak and Shake does this, you 51:53know. So, can you refresh our listeners uh the51:59URL and and let me back up. It sounds to me like the Bitcoin Dental Network website that you've created is actually 52:06quite relevant uh for merchants of all industries, merchants of all shapes and 52:12sizes, and you could even call it the the Bitcoin uh merchant network or or 52:18something. Uh because it sounds very applicable to really anyone that runs a business. Yes. Yeah. because uh you know really 52:26the site basically walks you through you know what is the problem from a 30,000 52:32foot view. Number two, what how does how does our banking system work?52:39And again, once you understand once you see, you can't unsee. And then the third thing is what is money? And the fourth 52:46thing is what is Bitcoin? And then how do you accept it? It's it's like boom boom boom. I love it, you know, and 52:52it's amazing. Yeah, it is. I mean, and what's what's the URL again? It's just, you know, the Bitcoin Dental 52:58Network. Uh www. I'll include it in the show notes, but Yeah. Yeah, that I mean that's the best 53:04way to and I I publish a newsletter. Um I try to highlight I have I try to highlight the best video of the week. I 53:12watch a lot of videos now that I'm retired, you know. Um and if I find something that I think is particularly 53:19good, I will I'll put it on there. So yeah. Okay, cool. So is there anywhere where