I was walking down the aisle at church with about 15 minutes before the meetings started when a guy sitting in the row called out to me.
"Hey, you still in Bitcoin?"
It was Dave—guns-and-gold Dave—the guy who had teased me plenty about Bitcoin in the past. Not tangible, too volatile, what if the internet goes down—you know the routine.
"Yep," I said. "I buy a little every day."
This time, though, Dave wasn’t teasing. "It really got my attention when the new administration started talking about how they intend to make it part of their plans."
"Yeah," I replied. "Bitcoin is just getting started." I told him how they’d already repealed laws that made it impossible for banks to custody Bitcoin, and soon, people would be able to buy Bitcoin right at their local banks.
Our conversation caught the attention of the guy sitting in the row ahead of Dave—Tyler, a 25-year seasoned Costco employee. He started asking the basics: Is it safe to buy? Where can you buy it? Why hasn’t it been as volatile this past year? Do you have to buy a whole coin?
As I answered his questions, I noticed another guy sitting in Dave’s row, I can see he is listening, but he’s trying not to show it. He’s not the type to talk much, but when he does, people listen. By any metric, he’s a successful man—physically fit, owns his own business, has a beautiful wife, kids grown up and doing great, and an impressive beard. A real man’s man. His name is Adam, and as I talked, I saw him nodding occasionally.
Then Dave, in classic Dave fashion, asked, "Did you buy Hawk Tuah Coin or Trump Coin?"
"Nope," I said. "I’m only interested in Bitcoin."
That got a big nod from Adam. Now he was looking directly at me and smiling.
By this point, the conversation had shifted to price—why it had gone up so much and what would happen if the U.S. government started buying Bitcoin. When it comes to price, I try to keep it simple for non-coiners.
"I think the price will go up in the long term," I said. "During COVID, $8 trillion was printed from this air. That money had to go somewhere—real estate, stocks, the price of everything, and a lot of it went into Bitcoin. It’s still going places. And since the only tool the government has is the money printer, they’re going to print more, no matter who’s in office. Combine that with Bitcoin’s fixed supply and increasing demand, and the price should continue to rise."
"Have you sold?" Dave asked.
"No," I said. "I’ll never sell my Bitcoin. The long-term plan is to use Bitcoin as collateral to back loans for wealth-generating assets. Over time, those assets pay off the loan, so I keep both the asset and the Bitcoin. That’s how the truly wealthy stay wealthy—they don’t sell their assets, they borrow against them to buy more."
I could see Dave and Tyler mulling it over—either seriously considering it or more likely thinking I was delusional.
Then Adam leaned in and finally joined the conversation.
"You never sell your Bitcoin. I’ve been buying since 2016 when it was $500, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you do not sell your Bitcoin. It’s the most valuable thing you own."
I did not see that coming.
Dave replied, "Yeah, okay, but if I buy some, I want to make sure I buy at the right time—not when it’s high."
Adam shook his head. "When Bitcoin is a million dollars, it’s not going to matter if you bought at $90K, $100K, or $110K."
At this point, church was about to start, so I wrapped things up. "And this exact conversation—entry price, current price—will be happening for the next hundred years. Our kids will be having the same talk, except it’ll be, ‘Man, I can’t believe you got in at $5 million a coin. Now it’s $15 million, and I’m just getting started!’"
I took my seat, but when I glanced back, Adam, Dave, and Tyler were still talking.
It felt great to have that kind of backup. That was a first for me. And it came at the perfect time, too—while I was simultaneously having an extended text debate with a college buddy about MicroStrategy. No matter how I explained it, he was doing everything he could to not understand the difference between Bitcoin and all the other cryptos. It was frustrating, and I was starting to doubt my ability to get through to people.
But then Adam backed me up—out of nowhere. That was awesome.
A wise person once said: "If you sit by the mempool long enough, you will see the UTXOs of your enemies float by."
We need a nationwide program to let the black men know where all the white women at