2022-03-03_Bitcoin_Privacy_Course
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00:00:30.980 | Welcome to this introduction to my newest course called Private Cryptocurrencies, How
00:00:36.100 | to Buy, Own and Use Bitcoin Like a True Radical.
00:00:41.020 | My name is Josh Rascheitz, host of the Radical Personal Finance podcast.
00:00:44.860 | And I have here today with me Gabriel Custodiate, host of the Watchman's Guide to Privacy podcast.
00:00:51.060 | Gabriel, welcome.
00:00:52.060 | I'm glad you're here.
00:00:53.740 | Yeah, nice to be here, Josh.
00:00:56.020 | So I thought what we'd do is take a quick promotional and introductory video here, talking
00:01:01.660 | about the new course that we have launched, that we're launching together.
00:01:08.300 | The scenario that we designed this course around is very simple.
00:01:12.800 | The basic idea is this.
00:01:13.800 | Imagine this, your bank accounts are frozen.
00:01:16.160 | You must flee the country with only what you carry.
00:01:19.140 | Gold is suspicious and cash has limits.
00:01:21.660 | You cross the world and find a public computer, download a single program, type from memory
00:01:25.980 | a private key.
00:01:27.900 | You now have access to $2 million worth of Bitcoin, unattached to your identity, tucked
00:01:33.080 | away for just this scenario and the knowledge to buy, trade and convert it into any local
00:01:38.140 | currency in the world.
00:01:40.020 | Now Gabriel, I was thinking about how this particular course came about.
00:01:43.220 | And as I remember it, I think I came to you with this scenario and I said, Gabriel, here's
00:01:47.300 | what I am working on.
00:01:48.540 | I really want to figure out how to use Bitcoin to its fullest as a last ditch form of money.
00:01:55.940 | A form of money where with nothing other than a few code words in your head, you can cross
00:02:01.860 | any border in the world, go anywhere and have access to your money.
00:02:06.780 | But I don't know how to do it.
00:02:07.980 | And that was when I came to you and I said, let's figure it out.
00:02:10.740 | And of course from there, you've taken and we've worked on an outline and we've got an
00:02:14.800 | exciting course to offer.
00:02:16.580 | So what I thought would be interesting is let's start at the beginning and go over some
00:02:20.400 | of the content that we're going to be covering and most importantly give an outline of the
00:02:24.340 | scope of the course.
00:02:26.420 | Yeah.
00:02:27.620 | So I would say, Josh, that this came about partly upon reflecting how people talk about
00:02:35.300 | Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as this radical alternative to current finance.
00:02:40.140 | We've seen recently with the banning of the SWIFT system for Russian people, not just
00:02:46.140 | the Russian government, but Russian people of the situation in Canada with people's bank
00:02:51.260 | accounts being shut down.
00:02:53.100 | We've seen and we've heard that cryptocurrencies can be a radical alternative, but most people
00:02:57.180 | are not actually using them in that way.
00:02:59.740 | Most people have them in these centralized exchanges, which are antithetical to Bitcoin
00:03:05.100 | and cryptocurrencies.
00:03:06.360 | And so I've read all the books on Bitcoin about people saying that this is an alternative.
00:03:10.660 | This is going to take down the Fed, etc.
00:03:13.140 | But then they don't really explain how to own and to use Bitcoin like a radical, in
00:03:18.980 | other words, self in a self-sovereign way where you own your own private keys, where
00:03:24.660 | you have access to these things yourself and where you do it privately.
00:03:28.460 | And privacy, of course, is important because that which is surveyed can be controlled.
00:03:34.460 | So let me tell you a little bit about the course.
00:03:37.500 | Basically, we are going to do a comprehensive mini course on Bitcoin with an emphasis on
00:03:43.860 | privacy.
00:03:44.860 | We're going to be talking about what Bitcoin is, how to use it, how to acquire it, how
00:03:48.540 | to engage with decentralized and centralized exchanges and what all of these things are.
00:03:54.260 | We're going to talk about how to store it safely with or without hardware wallets and
00:03:58.820 | software wallets.
00:04:00.040 | And so all of this was with a privacy focus.
00:04:02.200 | What do I mean by privacy focus?
00:04:04.060 | Well, my definition of privacy is to have these things have Bitcoin without any attachment
00:04:10.700 | to your identity.
00:04:12.020 | That is the goal, whether that is your IP address or your name or any other distinguishing
00:04:16.260 | piece of information.
00:04:17.260 | Now, that's difficult and there are various ways to do it, which is why I need some time
00:04:23.820 | in order to unpack this stuff.
00:04:26.440 | And so let me describe a few of the things that we'll be talking about.
00:04:31.180 | We're going to go over wallets, hardware wallets and software wallets.
00:04:36.340 | We're going to talk about Bitcoin ATMs and how to use them and how to use them privately.
00:04:41.040 | We're going to talk about getting your Bitcoin out of a public exchange like Coinbase and
00:04:46.140 | obscuring these coins through mixers and through conversion to privacy coins and back into
00:04:51.820 | Bitcoin.
00:04:52.820 | It's not as complicated as it seems.
00:04:54.960 | We're going to cover briefly what you need to know about mining Bitcoin.
00:04:59.700 | We're going to talk about how to acquire Bitcoin from other people, where to do that and the
00:05:04.860 | best method.
00:05:06.260 | We'll talk about and by the way, throughout all of this, we're going to define our terms.
00:05:10.340 | We're going to explain things in the simplest way possible.
00:05:12.820 | I don't want anybody to be left out.
00:05:14.900 | We're going to assume no prior knowledge.
00:05:18.140 | And we'll also be talking about how to use decentralized exchanges to trade for other
00:05:22.980 | coins.
00:05:23.980 | Important point.
00:05:24.980 | This is not just about Bitcoin.
00:05:26.700 | We can use these strategies and we will be using these strategies for other coins, alt
00:05:31.660 | coins as they're called.
00:05:33.500 | We're going to talk about things like how to memorize your seed phrase, very practical
00:05:36.660 | things about the responsibilities of owning your private keys, which is part of the process
00:05:43.140 | of having them privately.
00:05:45.260 | And we'll be discussing a number of other things along the way.
00:05:48.820 | And what I want to emphasize in this course is a few things.
00:05:51.860 | First of all, it is practical, right?
00:05:54.380 | We're not talking theory of Bitcoin.
00:05:57.080 | We're talking about how I've gone out to as many ATMs as I can, and I've learned how to
00:06:04.220 | approach this in the best way possible.
00:06:06.320 | We're not going to be talking about the theory of how to use Bitcoin privately.
00:06:12.700 | You're going to see on my screen the entire time what I'm doing, what wallet I'm using,
00:06:17.500 | why I'm using this wallet, how I'm doing all of this over the course of several hours while
00:06:22.300 | I explain it.
00:06:24.360 | Another part of this course, another thing to emphasize is that this has been a long
00:06:27.480 | time in the making.
00:06:28.940 | I've been ruminating on this course for years now, and I've talked to Bitcoin experts.
00:06:34.980 | I have consulted with people.
00:06:37.820 | And one thing I've noticed is that there is really a dearth of knowledge about owning
00:06:43.340 | Bitcoin like a true radical in a private way.
00:06:46.520 | And so I did the work and I figured out all these methods, and I'm happy to share them
00:06:50.660 | with you, a kind of accumulated wisdom about my trials in exploring this topic.
00:06:56.180 | Another thing is that this course is designed to be as teachable as possible.
00:07:02.940 | In other words, I am trying to walk you through in the most basic terms possible how to do
00:07:09.020 | all these steps.
00:07:10.020 | I'm going to try not to skip anything, not to use overly technical vocabulary.
00:07:16.400 | I want this above all to be completely comprehensible to everybody.
00:07:20.580 | And then the last thing I'll point out is that we will have a Q&A afterwards.
00:07:24.180 | So if you have any questions about the process, you will have a chance to ask that of me.
00:07:30.020 | And I think that's going to be exciting because I really believe that in many aspects of finance,
00:07:39.380 | if you'll go just the extra mile, you'll get a lot more benefit from it.
00:07:43.420 | Bitcoin is a powerful technology, but this is kind of the missing piece of how to do
00:07:47.820 | it privately.
00:07:48.900 | It's even more powerful.
00:07:50.260 | It's certainly powerful if you have it in the normal way, the easiest ways, etc.
00:07:56.360 | But it's just so much more powerful if you go the extra step.
00:08:00.360 | And I think that you mentioned some of the examples, right?
00:08:03.740 | But right now there are people fleeing Ukraine.
00:08:06.540 | And I tell you what, it's a whole lot better if you have some private money along the way.
00:08:13.060 | Gabriel, as you've been researching this so intensively, and I really respect your academic
00:08:18.460 | comprehensiveness, what has been the hardest of the problems to crack?
00:08:25.620 | What for you has been the most difficult thing to find a solution for?
00:08:29.900 | Well, yeah, that's a good question.
00:08:34.260 | I don't know that any one thing is too difficult.
00:08:37.460 | The problem is that this is a constantly evolving scene.
00:08:42.080 | So you have exchanges, decentralized exchanges that come and go.
00:08:46.060 | You have Bitcoin ATMs that at one point were okay with a burner number, and now they are
00:08:52.660 | not.
00:08:53.660 | And so it's a matter of testing just enough things to get a sense of...
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