This transcript was taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on March 19, 2021. To listen to the program, please click HERE.

Sam Rohrer: Well, hello and welcome to this Friday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. You know what I think, probably everyone listening to me right now has no doubt heard of the word Bitcoin, right? Many of you may have even invested in Bitcoin or Ethereum or any other number of cryptocurrencies as they’re referred to. A few of you may have even bought something with these new digital currencies. But if you’re like most people, you don’t understand what this phenomenon is all about. And if you’re like most people as well, you wonder if, for instance, if the staggering world debt and all the printing of these billions, literally trillions of dollars in these last years, the last stimulus plan, the $10 trillion almost in the four years before and that during the Obama administration could perhaps be the trigger of a new worldwide monetary system. And perhaps, maybe cryptocurrencies could be that replacement.

And if you’re knowledgeable of the biblical prophecy, you also know that there has to be a change in currency, doesn’t there? If there is going to be the antichrist who comes along and he’s going to control the world economy, which we know he is, and he’s going to have an ability somehow to monitor and control buying or selling and deny that to those who agree with him or don’t. Well, could that replacement be a digital cryptocurrency?

And because I’ve had so many people listening to me right now and perhaps maybe not listening, but I’ve contacted me from all over the country saying, “Would you deal with this issue of cryptocurrency? We don’t understand it.” I thought, “Okay, we’re going to take a first stab here today.” And we are not, ladies and gentlemen, going to deal with this in its entirety, impossible. But I do hope that during this program today to lay down a foundation that takes a very complex technological creation and kind of puts it down in a way you can get your hands around it. And I’ve looked for somebody who really understands it. I found somebody who I think will work just great here for today.

But my title for today’s program is this, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and Digital Assets: Making the Complex Understandable. My guest is Matt Szina. Now Matt’s not a PhD in finance. He’s not a banker. He’s not a finance attorney. He is what I term to be an honest and a thorough practitioner. He’s a researcher, he’s a thinker, he trains in a lot of areas. He’s trained in mechanical engineering and laser technology. He’s taught this technology at many locations, military locations, installations, even Facebook headquarters.

But he’s been studying Bitcoin, as just an individual, and cryptocurrency since 2017 and is actively involved in it himself. He has no ax to grind. There’s nothing to prove. He’s honest and he’s thorough, and he does understand this better than anyone that I’ve talked with. So between him and I, we’re going to want to enter into this program here today, but we’re also both saying to you right now, don’t take anything that we’re saying as recommendations, financial advice or anything other about how you should invest or not invest or participate or not participate. We’re just really wanting to provide a foundation to help understand this emerging technology and to encourage you to do the investigation yourself. All right. Well, we need to be gone here very quickly, we have a lot to cover today. And Matt, let me walk him into the program right now.

Matt Szina: Well, thank you very much, Sam. It’s great to be with you.

Sam Rohrer: I’m glad you’re with us. And Matt, I’m going to do this as we approach [inaudible 00:03:32] 10,000 foot level. What we’re talking about today in bigger terms is economics and commerce. Now commerce is important, the Declaration of Independence actually talks about the engagement in commerce. One time the US constitution refers to it twice in section eight and nine, so we’re going to talk about, and going to work it down through that.

Now, here are three terms I had Matt, and I want to walk into it and ask you then to define cryptocurrency. Here’s the first, commerce sits at the top, it’s the activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale. The Constitution talks about it, gives Congress the ability to regulate it. Now money is involved, money is defined as the current medium of exchange in the form of coins and bank notes. It’s really any acceptable medium of exchange where the value of something being purchased is accepted as the value of something being sold. And then there’s currency and currency is closely related of course, to money, but it’s defined as a system of money in general use in a particular country. Now that being the case, let’s get right into this matter of cryptocurrency, because it is a part of this whole thing. Define cryptocurrency, Matt, and the difference between cryptocurrency, for instance, and digital currency, if in fact there is a difference.

Matt Szina: Okay, digital currency could be what we have now. In other words, debit cards or credit cards, or even checks. Most transactions we make now are digitally done, but they’re done through a third party, such as a bank, where when you use your debit card, that transaction goes through your bank and then comes back around to complete the transaction.

A digital asset, or a cryptocurrency is a little bit different. First of all, it’s good to point out that cryptocurrencies aren’t really currencies. The IRS says that their property, it doesn’t call them currencies. There’s only one digital asset that I know of that’s been deemed a currency, and that is called XRP.

Now in their simplest form, a cryptocurrency or a digital asset is just computer code. And they use the blockchain to validate transactions from one person to another using these cryptocurrencies. They’re either created by what’s called proof of work or mining as they do with Bitcoin, or proof of stake consensus, which is a bit different. You can’t touch it, but you can see it on the ledger, right? You can’t put it in your pocket, but it has an agreed upon value based on its use case or utility. And it’s also speculation as well, which is what’s going on in the market currently.

Sam Rohrer: Okay. Now Matt, in the next segment, we’re going to get into ladies and gentlemen, actually how it’s created, we’re going to get there. And we’re going to explain blockchain technology a little bit more because it all ties together. And some of this may be Greek sounding to you right now, but we’re going to make it simpler as we actually walk through. But Matt we’ve used some terms, cryptocurrency, we’ve used digital currency, and then you went and said, even the IRS refers to this process actually as an asset, a digital asset. So are they the same? Again, define the distinctions, if there are any, just quickly right now.

Matt Szina: Well, again, the IRS considers them to be property. So every time you make a transaction, it becomes a taxable event. When you use regular digital currency like your debit or credit card, obviously, the only tax you’re going to pay is sales tax depending on what it is you’re buying.

Sam Rohrer: All right, that being the case, ladies and gentlemen, we just laid down the foundation. There’s digital asset, the broader definition of what this whole thing is called, cryptocurrency, a type of currency. It can be, it may become more, but it’s all a digital currency. And as Matt said, it’s what you would see on a ledger on a statement somewhere. You’re not going to actually touch it. It’s not tangible, it’s digital. And that’s hard for us to get our hands around, but that’s the distinction of this emerging technology, which we’ll discuss more when we come back in the next segment where we’re going to deal with, why did this new technology come about? And then we’ll get into who and what is involved.

Welcome back to Stand in the Gap. Today, I’m Sam Rohrer and accompanied today by a special guest, Matt Szina. Our theme today is this, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and digital assets, making the complex understandable. And I hope in fact that we are doing this today. So many of you across the country have asked me, “Would you deal with cryptocurrency? We hear about it, we hear about digital currency. Are they the same? What’s the difference? A lot of people are making money. Some have lost money. What’s this all about?” It’s been difficult for some to understand. And frankly, I didn’t understand all the pieces. And I’ve got a finance background and used to chair the Finance Committee and a Pennsylvania House Representative for some time. I mean, so I’ve been involved in that, but this is different. This digital currency is something that you don’t hold in your hand, like a dollar bill or a coin. But it’s just as transactable, it’s kind of interesting. So we’re trying to deal with that today.

And I’d like to encourage all of you who are listening, just to tell you that we are live streaming this program today right now on Facebook, you can get it by going to our Stand in the Gap Radio Facebook page. And you can communicate and let other people know and be a part of the program as we do this live here right now.

Well, since the start of civilization, commerce and money, whoever’s controlled, the money supply ultimately controlled the money and the economy. That fact was known by our founders, and they were careful to ensure by law that the printing of money and the money supply could only be done through the US Treasury, now that’s what the law says. But since that time, monetary systems have changed and become literally global. Now in the United States the Federal Reserve got involved and I won’t get into all of that, but not any longer the Treasury. So things have already changed, but literally global monetary systems have occurred, and increasingly they’ve been controlled by a few, really to the control of the many.

Now since 1900 alone, as an example, we’ve had four global monetary systems, the gold standard, the gold exchange standard, Bretton Woods, out of which came the Federal Reserve, the US fiat dollar standard, that means the paper money that we’re printing. And on the average, it’s interesting, these systems have each lasted around 40 years, and we’re now in year 50 of the US, what’s called the fiat dollar standard, which means we’re overdue for a new global monetary system. Now, coupled with this historical consideration, as I perceive it, now driven by unpayable world debt and nearly unrestrained printing of paper money, we have fiscal realities that say you can’t do that forever without something happening. And it moves the world, it’s driving the world toward a true global monetary reset.

Klaus Schwab, some of you have heard of him. He’s the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Recently he said, “In the future…” Talking about the great reset, which we’ve talked about before in his program. He said, “In the future you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” Now think about that.

But Matt, let’s get back into this, because a global change is coming. And whether it’s driven by greed, I think a lot is, or necessity, some of that is. Prophecy, we know that to be the case. History, and the reality of it, you can’t just spend forever financially without some kind of collapse. A lot is driving this. Now brings in the cryptocurrency again, it’s fairly new. How and why did it come into being? So let’s start building this up now.

Matt Szina: Okay, so Bitcoin is really the genesis of cryptocurrency. Back in 2008, there was a man called Satoshi Nakamoto who came out with the Bitcoin white paper. Now nobody knows who this man is, or woman, or it could be a group of people or even a government, nobody really knows who it is. But Bitcoin was created by him and then launched in 2009 as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis. So there’s strong libertarian underpinnings to Bitcoin and crypto, and it’s created to be a system where you have true financial freedom and you have complete control over your money. So I’d like to share with you the best definition of Bitcoin that I can come up with, and this could relate to all other cryptocurrencies as well.

[inaudible 00:12:25] it’s a purely peer to peer version of electronic cash that allows online payments to be sent directly from one party to another, without going through any intermediary, such as a financial institution or bank or a governing body. So that tells you pretty much what their goal was, is they wanted to cut the banks and any middleman out of the system, and just have you be able to send your value from just me to you with no bank involved.

Sam Rohrer: Well, it seems that’s more pure and transactional form commerce wise, and the goal of being decentralized, cutting out the banks and government, to me sounds like a good thing as well, but let’s take the next step. All right, so now they have the concept, they have a little bit of a reason and motivation to do it, how is a cryptocurrency, a Bitcoin, how is it actually created? In other words, where does it come from? What is it? It’s not real, it’s not silver or gold, how’s it created?

Matt Szina: Correct, it is computer code. And the way Bitcoin comes into existence is through a process called proof of work, what we commonly call as mining. And the way that works is there are computers all over the world that have a copy of the Bitcoin ledger. And when people are making transactions in Bitcoin, these miners, as they’re called, will try to validate these transactions. And when a miner validates transactions, he creates what’s called a block. So when you think of blockchain, think of it actually as a chain of blocks, and every time they validate a group of transactions, I think each block contains 250 transactions. Whenever they validate one block, it gets added to the chain and then whoever validates it gets a reward in Bitcoin. So the Bitcoins are constantly mined. Every 10 minutes, generally speaking, a new block is created. And then-

Sam Rohrer: And again, Matt, all of this is digital, it all is occurring within the internet.

Matt Szina: Yes.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, all right, so that’s important. What determines its value? You say that somebody’s validating, that’s a technical term, but somebody’s proving that something is happening. What is this something that is happening? What are they validating?

Matt Szina: They’re validating transactions on the blockchain, in other words [crosstalk 00:14:46].

Sam Rohrer: Okay, so the blockchain being the technology that is used within the internet system?

Matt Szina: Yes. Which is kind of actually a new internet sort of, but I won’t go there. But if I send you some Bitcoin, that is a transaction, that transaction has to be validated by the network. And it’s validated by all the computers all over the world every time a transaction is made.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, so let me ask you this, so in essence what you’re saying, that action happening by many people, many computers all over the world, checking, validating a transaction, we’re talking about a purchase of something between two different people. That confirmation is the accountability in the system, can I put it that way? That’s what makes it real and verifiable?

Matt Szina: Yes. That’s correct.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, now what determines its value?

Matt Szina: Well, that’s a good question. For years now, the value has been pretty much speculation. But it’s also got value as a currency, even though it’s technically not deemed as a currency, at least at this point. It’s got scarcity, divisibility, utility, transportability, durability, and you can’t counterfeit it. So those are all six things that a currency needs to really have value. So each Bitcoin is split up into a hundred million, what are called Satoshis, that’s the smallest part of a Bitcoin that you can have. So if one Bitcoin was worth a hundred million dollars, a Satoshi would be worth a penny.

Sam Rohrer: All right, now let’s go back to this, let’s go back to the creation of it. What’s required to create? It’s not just that a transaction is taking place, this is the internet, it’s computers, is the computer, is the internet, is somebody sitting down and doing something, creating this? And is it unlimited or can there only be a certain amount of this value, of this mining process within the internet, within the computers? Is that limited, which then helps to preserve its value? Let’s put it that way.

Matt Szina: Well, this Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever he or she is, wrote the code for this. And the code for this is put in this system of mining, so that the actual last Bitcoin won’t be mined until the year 2140. So a lot of its value comes from its scarcity. There’s never going to be more than 21 million Bitcoin mined, and they actually think anywhere from two to five million Bitcoin have been lost already.

Sam Rohrer: So what limits what can be done? When you say there’s only a certain amount that can be done and the last one won’t be done until 2040 or whatever you said, why is that? What’s the limitation that makes it so that only a certain number can be created?

Matt Szina: The best answer I can give you is it’s written into the code of the original situation, whatever you want to call it. I’m not a super computer geek, so I don’t know if I can exactly answer that, but it’s written into the code that only that many can be mined.

Sam Rohrer: This is quite a phenomenal thing when we talk about it, Matt. I mean, a computer code that exists within the global system, the internet system, which the whole world is connected, which is what makes it global. And somebody comes up with a code that can create value of this type. To me, it’s a rather phenomenal thing, which is why I’ve had difficulty getting my mind around it.

Matt Szina: Well, they call it revolutionary, and I believe that would be the case.

Sam Rohrer: Well, to me, it is revolutionary as well too. And ladies and gentlemen, hopefully, if you’re listening right now, and you say, “Wow, this is kind of hard to get our hands around.” I’m hoping that it’s as simple as we can possibly make it, but it is revolutionary. It exists on the internet and you cannot touch it, you cannot feel it, but it is there and it has value. Now that’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? But I’ll tell you the folks who created this, wanting to decentralize and cut out the banks and governments, well, the governments are involved and they want to be involved, and the banks want to be involved. And we’ll talk about how that’s going to happen next.

Welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today. This is our midpoint in the program, and the theme today is one that we’re dealing with because so many of you who are both watching us right now, live streaming, and if you are, let your friends know that we’re here and invite them to come aboard. And those who are listening, you have actually asked, I’ve had many people say, “Would you deal with this issue of cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin, digital asset? We hear so much about it.” And like I said earlier, some of you may have already been participating in this new technology. So on the program today, we’re trying to deal with this, our title, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and Digital Assets: Making the Complex Understandable. And I hope in fact that we’re doing that a little bit.

It’s not possible, I guarantee you, it’s not possible to deal with this subject in an hour in its complete area, so we’re just giving a framework, a foundation. And I’ve asked Matt Szina, a friend of mine, who is not a finance guy, he’s not an attorney but he’s an engineer by background who just knows how to research and has been involved in this area himself, practicing and being involved and searching it out. And I asked him, I said, “Hey, come on board here with us today.” And let’s see if we can’t walk through this in a simple way in order to explain and answer some basic questions for everybody.

So I am wanting to tell you all, if you’re listening and watching, that what we’re saying is not an intent today to give you an advice and whether you invest or not invest, or how or involvement, as much as to give you the framework to understand what is happening, and then knowing a little bit more to go and do the research and more investigation for yourself. We’re talking about an overall perspective of commerce. We started with the definition of commerce. It’s in our constitution and our declaration, it’s something that governments and nations do. Commerce uses money. Money uses a specific currency designated to that country, whether it’s gold backed or silver backed, or as in the case of our current dollar, really backed by nothing, to, as we’ve talked about, electricity and computers and the internet, which is now the source of this value of this thing called cryptocurrency.

From this technology came the internet, electricity and computers. This concept of computer code, which from that has come crypto currency. Created within the internet, limited in supply because of the nature of the technology of the computer code, and now produces something limited in value, therefore it has asset value. It’s called a digital asset, and that asset does not reside in your hand or in your pocket, but it does exist out there like I’d say in a digital asset form, often referred to as a digital wallet. You can see the asset balance on your iPhone or your computer, and anybody else can as long as they’re participating there with you. And you can actually buy and sell things, and we’re going to talk about how that’s actually done here in this segment.

In some cases, the transaction using this new digital currency can actually be faster than what maybe it is with current dollars. It maybe is more secure, but in the end it may also be more controlled, so we want to talk about that. So Matt, let’s get back into that right now because you made it clear that there’s a private effort, a decentralized effort, let’s put it that way, out of which came Bitcoin and this code you’re talking about. It came out there to actually cut out the government, cut out the bank and have more independent control, but government and centralized banks of the world are also talking about doing this. There’s changes in China and the United States and Russia and the Central Bank of Europe, they want to get involved as well. Tell us about what’s going on, who is really driving what? And who’s ahead in this race, the decentralized or the centralized?

Matt Szina: That is a good question. Right now, I would say it’s the decentralized cryptocurrency side. The central bank digital currency side that you just mentioned, they’re all in the planning stages right now. Now, China has been testing out their digital yuan, and there might be one or two other countries that have been doing it. But China is trying to get ahead of us and supplant the US dollar as the worldwide means of exchange with the digital yuan.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, but the central bank of Europe’s involved, basically a lot of the power bases of the world, government wise are pretty much all involved as far as you know, aren’t they?

Matt Szina: Oh yeah. As a matter of fact, there’s a conference, I think it’s coming up in another week or so, it’s the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Conference. And one of the big topics that they’re going to be talking about is the central bank digital currency, so pretty much everybody is involved. Everybody knows it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when.

Sam Rohrer: And I think, what you just said, right there is a very, very key statement, ladies and gentleman. It is coming, who actually emerges in this race, we’ll talk about it a little bit more in the next segment. But right now the private decentralized is ahead in the development, will they stay ahead? We don’t really know. But let’s go back here, Matt. I said that you would describe, for instance, in just very, very simple terms, how a purchase can be made. I mean, can somebody go out right now, for instance, with cryptocurrency, digital asset, referring to digital currency, actually for instance, buy a car? And if so, how do they do?

Matt Szina: Sure you could go buy a Tesla right now with Bitcoin. Tesla accepts Bitcoin. There’s a lot of big companies that accept Bitcoin for transactions. But if I wanted to buy a used car from you, if you had a car and you wanted to sell it for $10,000-

Sam Rohrer: I’d be glad to, I’ll sell you one for 10,000. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Matt Szina: There’s really four ways I can do it. I can get a bank to issue a check. I can write you my own personal check. I might be able to send the money to you with Zelle, but those are all with a third party involved. Or if you had a Bitcoin wallet, all you’d have to do is give me your Bitcoin wallet address. I would plug your Bitcoin wallet address into my application. I would say, “I want to send Sam, 10,000 worth of Bitcoin.” Plug that in, and I press send. And a short while later you have that deposited in your Bitcoin wallet and the transaction is done.

Sam Rohrer: Okay. Now you’re using Wallet, and ladies and gentleman, when you hear that, many would say, you can only envision that thing in the back of your pocket if you’re a guy, or in your purse, lady, that you may carry. But in reality, it’s not that kind of a wallet. You’re not sticking dollar bills in your money clip. This is different. Matt, let’s just take our viewers and our listeners through this, if you could right now? If someone is listening right now and would say, “Well, I would like to experiment with that.” Or, “I would like to own, or get some cryptocurrency or digital asset.” Using their iPhone. Now they’ve got to use an iPhone or a computer, describe it. If they’ve got an iPhone, walk them through the process of what they need to do, because it’s really fairly.

Matt Szina: Yeah, it is. Actually, and I’ll just mention one company that you would go through. If you have an iPhone, you just go to your iPhone store and you’d look for the Coinbase app. You can download the Coinbase app and then you sign up, you get a username and a password. And of course you always want to do two-step verification with Google Authenticate or some other verification app. Once you’ve done that, you will have to go through, what’s called KYC AML, which is know your customer, anti money laundering rules that they have to follow. So once you’re verified, you can use either your debit card or you can attach a bank account to the app, and then you’re free to purchase crypto. So when you’re using your bank account, the first time you buy a crypto, you might have to wait a few days till the transaction goes through. But if you use a debit card, you can buy crypto instantly, and then you can do whatever you want. You can send it, spend it or just leave it there.

Sam Rohrer: Okay now, somebody is probably listening and they’re saying, “Well, I mean, I hear that, but just work it out a little bit more.” So you download that Coinbase app on your phone and you have to sign up, which most people using their phone would understand what that is. There’s some criteria that you have to be involved in and they walk you through it. And then how do you actually purchase that digital currency? Would you link it to your bank, and then there would be a transaction occurring there? Is that how it works?

Matt Szina: Correct, you would link it to your bank account or your debit card. And then all you would do is say… And they’ll give you a limit for how much you can purchase per day, and it depends on your level of verification what that limit is. And just say you wanted to buy $500 of Bitcoin, you’d type in, “I want to buy $500 of Bitcoin.” You press buy, and it verifies you have the money to buy it and then it’s purchased, and then it goes into your exchange wallet. Now you can take it out of your exchange wallet and put it in your own personal wallet, if you want. Or you can just leave it on the exchange, it’s pretty much up to you.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, and I’m just going to ask you a question. Have you bought anything with this so far?

Matt Szina: Yes.

Sam Rohrer: Big, little?

Matt Szina: I don’t want to say too much about that.

Sam Rohrer: That’s okay.

Matt Szina: I wouldn’t be called a whale, but I’m doing okay.

Sam Rohrer: Well, I didn’t ask you how much you’ve or benefiting, I’m just saying purchases. I mean, they’re not going to buy something at a roadside stand, I wouldn’t think, but they could buy something at a car dealership, perhaps if they accepted. Like you say, Tesla accepts it right now, right?

Matt Szina: I have not done actual purchases of any goods with Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency because I’m just holding it and waiting for the market to increase. So it’s one of those things where, six of one half a dozen of the other. But one of the ways you can actually spend your cryptocurrency easily, and I’m not sure they’ve issued it yet, but I know they’re advertising it, is Coinbase has a debit card that you can use, that you can tie to your cryptocurrency accounts. So you can go and buy groceries or a coffee at Starbucks or whatever you want, and then it’ll just debit your cryptocurrency account after the transaction is made.

Sam Rohrer: Okay, well, Matt, you brought it up, you mentioned an investment. And ladies and gentlemen, we’ll talk about that next segment. Why would you want to participate, as a benefit to it, or you just want to experiment with something new or maybe because it’s going to happen anyway, so get used to it? Any number of reasons, we’re just trying to give the framework. It’s easy to do, that’s the bottom line. It’s easy to do, Matt just laid it out. I didn’t know that, frankly, until we talked, but it’s a easy thing to do. When we  come back, we’re going to look at and conclude with this, we’re going to weigh the risks and the rewards. What are the rewards possibly of involvement, what are the risks, and any downsides?

Well, we’re about to go into our final segment now. I hope this hour’s been fast for you and informative, and I really truly hope that it has not been confusing. This issue of cryptocurrency, digital assets, as they’re called now, Bitcoin, Ethereum, they’re all in that category together, it is hard to understand. And as our special guest today, Matt Szina said, and as referred to, we are going through a change in a global monetary system that is revolutionary. The value of this method of exchange is housed in the internet, in computers. It’s not something that you dig out of the ground, like a silver coin or a gold coin, it’s different, therefore it’s hard for us to grasp. But it’s real, and it’s happening.

There’ve been four, as we’ve said earlier, four global monetary systems that have happened since 1900, the gold standard, the gold exchange standard, Bretton Woods, and then the fiat standard of basically the dollar that’s really hinged to nothing. And it’s 50 years since something has happened, and we’re in that window where something is going to happen again. The change appears inevitable. That seems to be the view of all, no matter where they are, and our guest, Matt and myself, it seems that that is the case. And the change, it appears, maybe sooner than later. The change is going to be dominated, I think by government control.

Now, why do I think that? Well, because ultimately the government has power, and the individual doesn’t. Now they’ll compete, but there’s an issue there. The other is because from a biblical perspective, there is a globalist leader. The Bible calls him the antichrist, who we know is going to run a new system, an economic system… It’s going to be based economically, because he’s going to have the ability to monitor and control buying and selling. And that’s where the mark of the beast comes in, we’re not going to get into that right now. But somehow in this economic system, he’s going to be able to make either people submit to participate or they’re going to have to be outside. But my guess is, I’m just looking into it, since people will be able to survive, probably with great difficulty, but survive decentralized or privately controlled digital currency that maybe could do that, maybe it’s barter. I don’t know, I don’t know what’s actually going to take place, that part’s speculation.

But it’s safe to say that a change to digitally based cryptocurrency is essentially here and it’s going to become more mainstream sooner than later. So what’s the risk versus the reward for the average person? Should we get in now somehow, or should we just wait and see what happens? So Matt, that’s where I want to go with you right now as we conclude. Why should a person, an average person like you or me, or those who are listening, either utilize or pursue some involvement in this currency transition? You said you’re participating, you haven’t bought or sold anything yet, so you’re into it probably for investment purposes. But talk to us about the benefits of the rewards, perhaps of having some involvement now.

Matt Szina: Well, it became pretty obvious to me as I was doing research that there’s no doubt in my mind that in one form or another, this is the future of money, so that would be first and foremost. And if you don’t have any you’re going to be at the mercy of whatever the government gives you, so that would be one reason. But Bitcoin and crypto, for reason, number two, represent financial freedom, really. You can have complete control over your money. Again, if the government doesn’t ban it. And it can produce life-changing financial gains, there’s no two ways about it. Just since June of 2020, the market has increased 600%, which is pretty substantial.

And there’s also many cryptos that when you hold them on an exchange or some other platform, they will actually pay you interest and you can get anywhere between two and a half percent to 9% interest. Tell me what bank you can put your money in and get that kind of interest. And they pay interest in the coin that you’re holding, they don’t pay it in dollars per se. And that’s called staking your assets, that’s what produces that interest. And you can also go to certain websites, such as BlockFi and earn up to almost 9% interest if you store your crypto with them.

Sam Rohrer: And a lot of people are getting into it. I mean, obviously you’ve got actually banks that are buying into this and companies that are borrowing money to buy into this, are they not?

Matt Szina: Companies that are getting into it now, BlackRock, which is the largest fund in the world has started talking and that they’re going to get involved in it. Morgan Stanley just became the first big US bank to offer its wealthy clients access to Bitcoin funds. You have Tesla buying 1.5 billion of it, I could go on and on [crosstalk 00:34:48].

Sam Rohrer: All of what you’re saying there is that there is a broad based movement worldwide. And at this point in time, what you’re describing would be in the decentralized component, not the government based because the government based, they haven’t come out with any yet, have they?

Matt Szina: Not quite, like I said, China has tested theirs out so far. But really reason why you see so many rich people getting into Bitcoin and they’re selling their gold to do it, is because they see what our governments are doing, they don’t want to lose their money. And they’re putting it in something that they believe is going to not only be stable, but increase in value.

Sam Rohrer: We only have just a little bit of time left here, downsides, risks? What are the risks?

Matt Szina: Well, the biggest risk is that this market, at least this point is not for the faint of heart. You can lose 25% of your holdings in just two days. It can go up and down. It’s very volatile because it’s a very young market. So you have to be willing to go on that roller coaster ride, and if you can’t take that, you probably don’t want to get involved with it. And also keeping track of your taxes can be very difficult sometimes because every transaction you make can be a taxable event.

Sam Rohrer: All right, well, you’ve just laid down a few here. But you are experimenting, right now you’re more on the investment side, you’re not using it for daily transactions. Do you think there are many people that you’ve run into that are actually using it for regular transactions? Or is it pretty reserved at this point to like what you’re doing?

Matt Szina: Well, there are people that are doing it. I couldn’t give you a number on how many, but the fact that you know that’s happening is because there’s so many businesses out there that are accepting Bitcoin or some other kind of cryptocurrency.

Sam Rohrer: That’s a good demonstration. So with that being said, I think we’re about wrapped up with where I wanted to go at this juncture. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just summarize it if can, cryptocurrency, digital currencies, they’re all kind of together, referred to more often as a digital asset by the IRS and others. It is not money in the normal sense that you have it in your hands, your dollar bill, it’s within the internet. It’s created, it’s in a computer system. It’s a computer code that Matt talked about. But by the nature of what it is, it makes it scarce. There’s only a limited amount of what it is, which gives it its value. It’s new, it’s developing. Right now, it’s decentralized. It’s developed by people who did not want to be a part of and controlled by and subject to central banks, anti government, so it’s more of a libertarian approach to an alternative way of being able to preserve wealth and to buy and sell.

But the governments of the world are also getting involved because they see what’s happening. And I’m going to put my own comment in here. Matt talked about China and others, the world wants to debase the US dollar. They want to take control of the world economically, ultimately that’s the direction that it is in. And then I’ll conclude with this, ladies and gentlemen, we do know biblically, there is a coming economic system that is going to be ruled by a world economic system. The anti-Christ is the person who does it. Could it be this what we’re talking about now? Very easily.

So put this out there, hopefully it has helped you a little bit. Go back and listen to this program, standinthegapradio.com. Go back through it again, and then consider and do investigation on your own. Hopefully we just teased a little bit, but gave some foundational concepts. Matt, thanks for being with me today on the program. Great job making a complex issue, hopefully simple, at least I got something from it. So anyways, so thanks for being on with us. Ladies and gentlemen, have a great weekend. Stand in the gap for truth where you are.