The Biggest Bitcoin Misconceptions

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. New York Times bestselling author, man of God, Chris Brady. And he's written this new book, The Bitcoin Bride.

And this is something that even a basketball player can get his mind around. Chris, thank you for writing this book. I've read the book. I love the book. What kind of feedback are you hearing about this new book, The Bitcoin Bride? Really good feedback. Thank you.

I'm glad to be on your show. We wrote the book to try to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't read a serious business book about cryptocurrency or Bitcoin. It's a fictional story. It's a romance novel, but it teaches Bitcoin through it.

As you know, you said you read it. It's done well. It's just about the only book in the space that treats the education of Bitcoin in a fictional way.

And because of that, it's really got legs that started to do really well. Well, the crazy thing is I feel like I'm reading the book and talking to you at the same time because how many coffees or how many meetings or lunch meetings, power lunches we had was just a conversation. And you're just kind of guiding me. No, Stu, it doesn't do this. And no, Stu, it's not going to take over the world.

It's not the third world order, this and that. So talking to my good friend, Chris Brady, The Bitcoin Bride. Chris, kind of take us through. Obviously, we don't want to blow the punchline or the storyline too much.

We don't want to spoil it for the reader. But you know, you have a real heart for Italy. This is just like a beautiful Italian conversation. This is a beautiful Italian countryside. This is a young man, actually a really good picture of Christian courtship.

A young man who is being chivalrous like the old way, asking the dad who is this godly Italian man for his daughter's hand in marriage. But there's a couple little stag in that that you bring out and he's got a little runway ahead of him before that can happen, right? Yeah, his plan meets reality.

As they say, everybody can have plans till they get hit in the face. So young Marcus Coleman is a recent college grad. He's involved in Bitcoin with some of his friends.

He's doing pretty well. And he's fallen in love with this young co-ed. And she's Italian. And so you know, he decides he wants to propose to her and make it a secret because she loves surprises. So she doesn't know this is coming.

He's going to ask her father for his permission to marry his daughter, Cassandra. Well, in the United States, that might be a mere formality. It may be just politeness. But in Italy, it didn't go quite as smoothly as he anticipated. And I brought Italy in because I love Italy.

I've spent a lot of time there. I wrote another book about Italy a decade ago called A Month of Italy. And I thought, well, Bitcoin is supposed to be fun. And what could be more fun than setting this in Italy, young Marcus Coleman has to take this skeptical hard nut to crack future possible father in law, and convince him about Bitcoin, educate him about it, teach him about it and get him to be enthusiastic about it before the end of this little two week trip.

And if he doesn't convince his father-in-law, his hope to be father-in-law of the merits of Bitcoin in that time, he can't marry Cassandra. Chris Brady, author of The Bitcoin Bride, a rascal money story, just the whole narrative surrounding rascal will thoroughly entertain you. A wonderful book, very, I think, exceptional book on explaining something that's become very confusing. And what would you say some of the major misconceptions about Bitcoin, the blockchain, cryptocurrency, Chris Brady?

The first big one is what it is. And you can't really talk about what Bitcoin is with understanding why it is, why it was invented. It came around in 2008 on the heels of the financial crisis.

And it's evolved as a thing that becomes a safe store of value. It's a money that's got no government involved. It subtracts government out of the equation of money. 2,500 years ago, the first government intervention money took place in the Kingdom of Lydia, in what's today, Western Turkey, that government minted coins in gold. And that was the first time a government got involved in money and they've had their hands in money ever since. And today, much to the dismay of people everywhere that are forced to live in the dollar economy is the US government is overspending so much that it's robbing the value of the dollar and this hurts the poor and the lower middle class the most. And so Bitcoin has arrived as just about the only other thing galloping in the other direction, offering freedom, offering people a way to have money that doesn't get debased by a government and they're overspending. So Bitcoin is the invention of digital scarcity. It's an insurance policy people can take out against government overspending. So the biggest misconception people have is they think it's some kind of a speculative get rich quick thing or some fly by night thing or some vaporware or famous people have called it things like snake oil and snake oil squared.

They're demonstrating a lack of understanding. And this book is designed to help people truly understand that this is more likely gold 2.0. It's a safe store of value like gold, but it's got a lot of features that make it better than gold. And it's got this technological piece to it that's almost like the next discovery of the Internet. I've heard a lot of folks make that parallel.

That's right. Bitcoin is like the invention of the Internet. When the Internet came around, it revolutionized communication and it revolutionized commerce, but it didn't do anything for our money. Bitcoin is Internet money. You hear a voice over IP voice over Internet protocol when lots of the phone calls now go through the Internet.

Bitcoin is money over IP. Now, I want to give a full disclosure here because Chris Brady is not a banker or a financial planner or a guy working for a financial firm. He's a good Christian guy that wrote a book just to help people with confusion. So, like, people are listening to say, Well, what does he have to gain? Well, he what's he trying to sign me up for? In fact, I'm trying to get you to do something to sign people up, Chris, because but really, I guess that's your goal. Why do you want people to read this book? Well, as Christians, we should be animated by a sense of justice, right?

We're to walk humbly, we're to obey the Lord, and we're to have a sense of justice. And I really feel that there's a global swindle taking place, and it affects the poor and lower classes the most. Inflation is the direct result of government overspending and irresponsible fiscal policies. And the people that pay the price the most are the ones that can pay it the least.

They have the least ability to handle that happening to the increase in prices of everything they need to live on a daily basis. So Bitcoin is this amazing solution that shows up available for anybody. And it started as a bottom up movement from individuals who figured it out and realize what it was. And then it becomes available to everybody. And then now, larger and larger, bigger institutions are finally getting involved.

It upsets the apple cart, it gives power to the people and individual freedom. I'm animated by that as a Christian, I want to spread truth. By the way, this is an excellent way to shuttle in discussion for the gospel. Throughout my book, I put the Christian worldview in there.

All the characters are believers. And so by getting someone interested in Bitcoin, getting them to read this book, they come face first to the Christian worldview and see how much sense it makes and that it is truth with a capital T. Wow. And it's a great story.

It's a fictional story based in Italy, but a lot of kingdom gospel concepts in there. But just a lot of clarity for someone, you know, like me who is really clueless about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Now I can actually hold a conversation with people about it. I'm learning more.

I'm looking to maybe get involved a little bit. And it's good to have godly friends like Chris Brady walking me along. And he's kind of trying to be a godly friend to everyone out there. Just to say, hey, here's a book I wrote. How can people get the book, Chris? The Bitcoin bride? Well, they can go to Amazon, of course, they can go anywhere books are sold, or they can start at my website, chrisbrady.com. Well, okay. And another great business consultant, major business leader, Oren Woodward, also a great friend and partner of yours says this quote, the best book for learning about Bitcoin, period.

That's a big words coming from a big man there. Chris Brady's book, the Bitcoin bride. Hey, thanks for writing this book. And it's a great gift, whether it's Christmas time, Valentine's, actually, there's a romantic piece to it. So if you're thinking ahead of time, guys, I mean, what do you get for someone that has everything or those hard to pick out people? There's a lot of folks that you just not sure, right?

Chris is a dilemma. Absolutely. Yeah, this might be the perfect gift for someone you otherwise can't think of what to get them.

I love it. So learn more Chris Brady at the website, it all over the place, Amazon, everywhere books are sold, right? Yep, absolutely. The book is the Bitcoin bride, a rascal money story. And it's all about Bitcoin. And Bitcoin is here, whether you like it or not.

So as believers, we need to be educated, we need to learn about it and also make sure we're wise stewards. I just talked to a major ministry that's a Truth Network partner, not even an hour ago, Chris, and they said, Hey, by the way, we're taking donations now in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. So this is a another legitimate way to give to ministries to steward our money to advance missions around the world.

Yeah, that's right. And one of the things you can do in that instance is you can buy something like Bitcoin, let it appreciate over the course of your life and then donate it at some appropriate time. And it's a much better tax advantage way to give. So the fruit that you're trying to contribute to a worthwhile ministry gets preserved in the transfer. So it's a wonderful application. Yeah, so this is a great one on one tutorial information and an enjoyable read a page turning book thanks to my friend Chris Brady and his new book the Bitcoin bride. This is the Truth Network.