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I think it's important to understand the long-term implications of cryptocurrency, whether it's a way to change or get countries to think about how the central bank has to figure out an alternative way for current monetary systems; a way to develop a less politically affected monetary system. Thus, I think the way that cryptocurrency is being perceived around the world is also a reflection of how societies are being perceived. Meaning, every country has its own narrative, and due to their differences in their narratives, they are treating cryptocurrencies and blockchains differently.

Well, technology is deflationary. Technology provides so much efficiency that it creates deflation. If you look at your cellphone or just about anything technology-driven that you use, you get more for less on an exponential scale. That technology is moving into every single part of our world. So, you would expect prices to be falling as a natural by-product of that while saving our time. We should be getting more for less and have our time expanding, but it doesn't feel like that's happening.

I started by giving a presentation to synagogues, youth groups and college students called Bitcoin and Judaism. In a presentation session, I go through the Jewish Bible, the Torah, and talk about what the religious, legal, ethical perspectives of money are, and connect that to how bitcoin can be the next step for further evolution. In the Bible, animals, silver, gold, jewelry, etc. are described as different forms of money at a certain period in ancient history. In recent years, this has developed as fiat currency, and now is further developing again with digital currencies. Everybody has a general idea of what they think money is, but most haven't put it all together: they don't know why credit cards are money.

I think that on-chain data is something completely new. it's a new kind of exotic data that does not exist in traditional markets. Now we have open ledgers (blockchains) that have millions of recorded transactions. And there's a lot of information and a lot of value in that data with respect to fundamentales and the market. From on-chain data, we can know how to time the cycles of these markets. I think this is something anyone involved in this industry would want to have an eye on. You will get a grip of what is going on under the hood, how network participants and investors are behaving.

I consider myself lucky to have a healthy skepticism of authority in general, but I have also read a great variety of books that have sharpened my skeptical mind. I would recommend “The Law'' written by Frederic Bastiat. It's an approximately 60-page book and is a good simple short classic. Bastiat thoroughly decimates the social theories supporting government plunder, and it is very relevant to what we are experiencing in the US today. For example, the US government announced they would print 900 billion dollars and they will send everyone a 600-dollar check for financial aid.

I think that 99.9 % of the people on the planet should be investing. When investing, one should not think about their investment constantly. Investments should be checked a couple of times every year to make sure if re-balancing is needed or not. Investors have become insanely wealthy since the beginning of markets. That is how people accumulate wealth; the way to get rich is through putting away money early. In other words, put away the money you do not need when young, and do not touch it until the last possible moment. I only trade with about only 15 % of my portfolio. I have 70% in investments, 15 % in cash, and 15 % in trading. I think some of the best traders in the world are probably trading with only a small part of their total capital. Nobody should trade with their entire portfolio on a day-to-day basis. If you do, you are guaranteed to lose all your money.

Digital currency in the general sense, cryptocurrency in the general sense, does not solve the problem of inflation and hidden taxes in that way. Bitcoin, in a large way, makes it more predictable, in that it has a predictable low rate of inflation, which is constantly decreasing. But as you say, the problem when we talk about everybody moving to digital currencies, we know the bitcoin network doesn't support throughput. Unfortunately, the bitcoin network, as it exists, does not provide the privacy and protections really necessary for these kinds of transactions at scale.

In the game industry, you have 3 traditional business models for monetization strategy developers use to drive revenue. One is you purchase the full game right away; you buy a game in a box or online and download it to play it without any additional purchase. Thus, you get the full game straight away. That used to be console games you would buy for around 60 dollars. You would play it, finish it, and that was it.

NFT, Non-Fungible Token, is a token standard. The main feature of an NFT is that it has a unique ID. If you mint an NFT, you will have a unique ID for a given set of data. You will be able to see specifically who is using the specific token, and where it is. If I sent it to you, you will also be able to track that it has been transferred. Thus, the unique ID of the NFT is why it is interesting for art and the art world. NFT’s provide provenance, meaning it makes it possible to track its history. You can see who has ever owned the art piece, when it was created, is it the real piece or not, etc. By confirming that, we can reduce the amount of forgery which is pretty prevalent in art.

I started on Wall Street in the 1980s as a stockbroker. I was in Los Angeles in the 1990s, and I invented a technology for digital scarcity as part of a currency that I invented for an exchange I launched. The exchange was for trading mediate derivatives that I also invented as part of what became known as the prediction market industry. So, I did all that in the 1990s. Then, we sold out to a bank in 2001, and later I started Bitcoin in 2011 at a dollar, and we have been talking about it now for almost 11 years. I saw it as a more perfect technological solution for digital scarcity.

The first thing you need to understand about the Russian crypto community is that it is not only Russia. When we refer to the Russian crypto community, we are talking about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, which are the main countries, as well as other Russian speaking regions like Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These countries have a lot of historical connections. Sometimes, a reference to “Similarity” may harm or trigger some people due to political reasons. So, the Russian crypto community includes the countries that in any way are affected or involved with Russian culture.

The number one reason why I am a Bitcoin fan is because of the Cantillon effect. Richard Cantillon was an Irish-French economist in the 18th century writing in the 1750s. He described what is now described as the Cantillon effect; when you print money, you debase the purchasing power of the units that are currently existing. Hence, if a person is saving up rupees or dollars, and she is putting it under her mattress every day, there will not be much value. As long as the central bank in Mumbai is printing, her hard-earned savings are being depreciated, whether she wants that or not. What the Cantillon effect discusses is that, if all the money in the economy was equally debased at the same time, that might be fairer, and this is the number one reason to use bitcoin.

I took over the Bitcoin Association meet-up in 2012. During the 2013 bubble period, the community grew rapidly due to the price explosion. Bitcoin transformed into this being on a world stage for the first time, and that was quite a ride. The community and the Hong Kong ecosystem transformed massively due to this growing new industry. If we just take a minute and rewind 2012~13, we can see how it has developed till today.