10 Takeaways from My Chat with Michael Saylor

Many of you tuned in this week to watch the conversation between me and Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of business intelligence company MicroStrategy. More recently, the MIT grad has become a major Bitcoin evangelist, regularly appearing at conferences and on financial news programs to discuss the significance of the first and biggest crypto.

As of June, MicroStrategy reported holding more than 105,000 bitcoins, which at today’s prices would be valued at approximately $4.8 billion.2

Below are 10 takeaways from my conservation with Michael:

1. Gold miners could learn a thing or two from Bitcoin miners.

Bitcoin miners do two things in particular that gold miners could use in their own business model. One, thanks to blockchain technology, they have the ability to validate their newly minted coins as having never been used to launder money or finance terrorism. And two, they HODL (“hold on to dear life”) their coins. Gold producers could similarly use blockchain to validate their metal’s authenticity and assure potential buyers it was not produced using child labor. What’s more, if they believe gold is so valuable, producers should take a page out of Bitcoin miners’ playbook and HODL gold.

2. If you like gold, you may like Bitcoin as well. And vice versa.

Gold and Bitcoin have obvious differences—one is physical whereas the other is digital; one has been around for millennia whereas the other wouldn’t legally be able to drink if it were a person—but they share some important similarities that might appeal to the same investors. In another Frank Talk, I argue that both assets fit the definitions of money. And as Michael points out, they’re both self-sovereign bearer assets, not subject to monetary debasement.