Mark Maraia : Asking me what I’m gonna do five years from now is tricky because the price of Bitcoin will have changed. I think at some point the market will more fairly value the Bitcoin network and protocol. The whole point of this chat is that you need a meeting of the minds. I was a practicing lawyer for about seven years, and what you learn in law school is: you have no agreements until there’s a meeting of the minds. All right, so you and I did the first 250 sats for valuing the Bitcoin network and protocol with your book, so you got nothing for the book but you got paid for the network. We can do a transaction for your book tomorrow that could be different than that, or a year from now, or five years from now.
Mark Maraia : Again, any two parties can agree to the value of the network, and they could even start their own Telegram channel for that valuation. And the more every single currency in the world is in a race to zero, the higher probability that the asset is going to move up to bigger numbers.
Will Schoellkopf : That’s separate from valuing the network, right?
Mark Maraia : It’s completely a separate issue.
Will Schoellkopf : So the big thing that’s interesting to me is people say “bear markets are for builders,” so even as satoshis (the asset) goes down in price, the network is only getting bigger and stronger. I’m pursuing not only having a Bitcoin Core or a Bitcoin full node but also a Lightning node, so that’s being bullish on the network getting bigger, stronger and more decentralized, even as the asset goes down in price. So really associating a value for the network more than just the asset.
Mark Maraia : I don’t want the satoshi number to go up against the dollar — I want it to go down. That starts to fry people’s brains because we’re used to thinking about investing. No! This is purchasing power! This is saving! I want a satoshi today to have more purchasing power in a year or 10 years or five years, and I am very confident — if I hang on to my satoshis for five or 10 years — I’m very confident it’s going to hold its value better than any other currency on the planet. I’m very confident of that.
Will Schoellkopf : Very cool. So that’s why if someone wants a copy of your signed poster, they need to have a meeting of the minds, they have to value the network as you do if they want to have that poster.
Mark Maraia : Correct, for that price.
Mark Maraia : I believe — and I think you agree with me — that the best way to maintain and preserve purchasing power is through satoshis and the network that it runs on that’s run 13 years almost perfectly with no downtime and has never been hacked is the Bitcoin network and protocol. Well that includes the developers. What we’re saying to those developers, what we’re saying to every volunteer who’s running a node, who’s mining — there are some miners who are probably not earning any block rewards, they literally aren’t part of a pool, but they’re still securing the network. I want to send the message, to the World Economic Forum, to every central banker on the planet, to the Bank of International Settlements: Hey look, I value this network at this amount.
Will Schoellkopf : There’s no company on Earth that could do this. Even Western Union can’t move value like this — this quickly, easily, safely, securely and with no permission — so of course it’s completely undervalued.
Will Schoellkopf : What would you say to anyone who thinks it’s too late to get started in Bitcoin?
Mark Maraia : It is so early. Because nobody understands — I wrote an article for Bitcoin Magazine and I quoted Jameson Lopp: “Nobody Understands Bitcoin And That’s Okay.” So right now there’s a beautiful arbitrage moment for anybody having the courage to do the homework and get into Bitcoin. And if you do and you have a willingness to hold on to it for at least five years against any currency — all of which are going to zero — you are going to be well rewarded as long as you don’t need to live on it and you don’t use leverage to get it.
Will Schoellkopf : All right, you hear what Mark Maraia says? It’s so early! Thank you Mark for coming onto the show.
Mark Maraia : You are more than welcome, it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll do it again.
This is a guest post by Mark Maraia. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine .
