Bitcoin: The Asset for EVERYONE, Says Saylor
Not just for investors, Bitcoin benefits families, businesses, even governments
Bitcoin is the foundation for families. Last week, Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy, spoke at Bitcoin Atlantis, and I thought I’d do my best to summarize his speech about Bitcoin. Saylor explains why people would want to own Bitcoin. "Bitcoin is a foundation to support your family for generations," said Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy, at Bitcoin Atlantis. Saylor, known for his company's major Bitcoin holdings, believes Bitcoin's benefits reach far beyond individual investors. He explained how families, companies, and even governments could gain from embracing this digital asset.
You can find my other posts about Saylor HERE, and here you’ll find my articles on Bitcoin.
Here are the key takeaways from Michael Saylor’s speech at Bitcoin Atlantis:
Bitcoin is a scarce, desirable asset: Saylor emphasizes Bitcoin's unique qualities as digital property/capital/money. Unlike traditional assets that decay over time, Bitcoin's scarcity makes it desirable for long-term value storage. Saylor: “The entire world for the last 5000 years has lived on analog assets, real estate gold, silver, paper, money, bonds, buildings, collectibles, sports teams, livestock cattle and bales of tobacco, seashells and glass beads. Now we have a digital asset. Maybe this is the only digital asset now. What is that? What kind of asset is it? Well, you can think of it as digital capital. You know, we were talking about capitalism. There are hundreds of trillions of dollars of capital. Bitcoin is digital capital. You can also call it property.”
Participants in the Bitcoin Network: The Bitcoin network includes individuals, families, corporations, governments, and non-profits. Saylor: “There are hundreds of millions of individuals that have an interest in Bitcoin in one way shape or the other. It's going to be billions. It's going to continue to grow. And a lot of times a lot of our education is really focused on the individual. But I think that I think that we can't stop with the individual because these individuals, form groups, families, corporations, governments, they perform nonprofits, they form clubs, and churches, there are a lot of ways that individual, individual creativity and aspiration manifests itself and of course, one of my favorites is families”
Benefits for Individuals: Bitcoin empowers individuals with financial freedom and control. It offers security (emotional, medical, physical, economic) and opens doors to new opportunities. Saylor: “There are hundreds of millions of individuals that have an interest in Bitcoin in one way, shape or the other. It's going to be billions. It's going to continue to grow. And a lot of times a lot of our education is really focused on the individual. But I think that I think that we can't stop with the individual because these individuals, form groups, families, corporations, governments, they perform nonprofits, they form clubs, and churches, there are a lot of ways that individual, individual creativity and aspiration manifest themselves and of course, one of my favorites is families.”
Benefits for Families: Bitcoin provides a strong foundation for families. Unlike traditional assets that can be seized or lose value, Bitcoin offers a hedge against inflation and a way to build wealth across generations. Saylor: “It is a foundation to support your family for generations. Right? What is the tragedy of the family? The tragedy of the family is when you run your family on toxic money and you build your family on defective assets and defective property. I'll give you a classic cliche tragedy. Our family came to this country. My great-grandfather bought this farm. My grandfather farmed this land, my father farmed this land. Now I can't pay the taxes on it. We got to sell it and move into an apartment. Why? Because property [real estate] is defective. It was the best idea 200 years ago, I get it. But if you actually own 1000 acres and then someone comes in and creates a state and a mayor gets elected, the mayor decides to spend lots of money on whatever, and they raise your taxes and raise them again and raise them a third time. Pretty soon the people with the farm can't pay the taxes and then the government decides that you're the bad guy.”
Can Bitcoin help my business? : Companies can attract capital, improve products, expand reach, and achieve long-term growth through Bitcoin adoption. Companies can now add Bitcoin to their treasury and balance sheets. Bitcoin acts as a lifeline for struggling companies and fosters innovation. Saylor: “The last 36 days, have been an illustration of how important these companies are. Because every day in the market, they're buying hundreds of billions of dollars of Bitcoin they're trading and they're building up billion dollar positions. This has just started. We're 36 days into a massive adoption of these Exchange Trading Funds [ETFs]. But it's going to just keep going and they're going to ripple all through the world through all sorts of economies, and they will have a profound impact, and in my opinion, a profound impact for good. It used to be, if you go back to 2018 in the Bitcoin community, if you said the name “Larry Fink” they would go, Larry Fink doesn't like us. In the year 2024, Larry Fink goes on television and speaks to leaders in the world saying Bitcoin is a store of value, it protects the sovereignty of the individual, and it allows you to achieve your hopes. So the point is, now what is that? What does that say? It says we don't have enemies.” Saylor goes on to say, “Investment Companies need Bitcoin, right? They need Bitcoin to attract capital. You see that happening? $600 billion flowed into Black Rock yesterday. $10 billion in a month. Right? If you look into the ETF, what you'll see is that the Bitcoin ETFs are crawling on top of all the commodities now, about to eat the gold ETFs and then they're going to eat the S&P 500 index ETFs when that happens.”
Benefits for Banks: Banks can benefit from Bitcoin by attracting and retaining capital, reducing risk, increasing earnings, and better serving their customers. Bitcoin integration enhances bank security and makes it more robust.
Benefits for Non-Profits: Non-profits can leverage Bitcoin to raise capital, grow endowments, expand reach, and support charitable causes more effectively. Bitcoin allows them to operate globally and benefit from technology. Saylor: “The nonprofits are also going to benefit they want to raise capital, but also they have now they want their endowments to go up 40% A year not go up 4% each year. Like there's nobody running a church a charity of benefit a school that will say we don't want our endowment to appreciate and we don't want an endowment. This allows them to harness technology. This allows them to extend their reach globally. Bitcoin is money. This global. I just got a half-life of forever. All of these, all of these endowments, they're using money that has a half-life of 10 years or five years. Your property might have a half-life of 20 years. Their investments are short-duration. And their investments are local, or their property is local. So Bitcoin stretches your scope across time and space. Now tell me what charitable pursuit doesn't want to do.”
Benefits for Governments: Bitcoin empowers governments by strengthening their currencies, improving economies, and fostering global collaboration. It can lead to lower taxes and a more robust financial system. Saylor: “And for governments, traditionally, people have thought you know, well, the government doesn't like a one embrace Bitcoin, but you know, that will embrace Bitcoin because Bitcoin provides them with the financial power to thrive in the 21st century. And there's no there's no government Earth that doesn't appreciate the power of money. Right. This will allow them to lower taxes. It will allow them to strengthen their currencies, defend their sovereignty, improve their economies, join the global community and delight their citizens. And if you talk to any politician, there is none of them that will say these aren't agenda items for them and if you say, well, could you achieve that with infinite money? And say, Well, I don't know if I could achieve it, but to make it a lot easier, right? And if you said, Well, how about if I just took all your money away from you in five years? Would that make it easier or harder? The answer is it would make it somewhere between hard and impossible. So now I get to the important part of my talk.
Ask not what Bitcoin can do for you ask what you can do for Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin: A Solution for Everyone: Saylor argues that everyone, even those who oppose Bitcoin initially, benefits from a healthy Bitcoin network. A stronger Bitcoin network improves the global economic system, reducing inefficiencies and toxicities.
Lastly, Saylor presents Bitcoin as a transformative technology with the potential to benefit everyone and everything. Its unique characteristics address fundamental issues related to value storage, financial freedom, and economic empowerment. Saylor: “The point is great technology just like Google just like Apple just like Microsoft. Just like water, electricity, cars and planes [they] are great technology. It's technology. It's the future. I should invest in it. You made a lot of money on the Magnificent Seven. How do you know Bitcoin? Do you not believe in the Magnificent Seven you think semiconductors won't make a difference? You don't believe in artificial intelligence. They have the same cycles by the way. Once we get into investor the last step intellectually is bitcoin is an instrument of economic empowerment.
By the way, don't get don't get dejected, that someone may actually be a denier. You know who was it denier? Me! And you know what? I next became a skeptic and then at some point, I walked in and said, ‘you know, the world's kind of messed up and interest rates are zero and my dollars are generally zero. I'm gonna buy bitcoin I became a trader’. And then after I bought the Bitcoin I started reading a lot more and listening to a lot more podcasts and thought about it, and I realized, now I should be an investor. You know, I would say when I got him that when you started hearing about me I was still in the investor stage, but it was everybody in this community and every Bitcoin podcast and every writer and every educator that collectively got me over the line to becoming a maximalist.”