SPECIAL EPISODE: Pomp Answers Listeners' Questions

This is a special episode of The Pomp Podcast where I answer questions from listeners about everything, including Bitcoin, crypto, finance, investing, asset allocation, technology, and the macro environment. ===================== Nifty Gateway is the premium NFT platform. They release content from the best NFT artists in the world twice weekly, and have featured many world famous artists including Kenny Scharf, Trevor Jones and WhIsBe. NFTs on Nifty Gateway are in extremely high demand. Sign up for an account in advance to participate in the drops, and browse around on the secondary market to find art you like. http://www.niftygateway.com ===================== LVL is a new crypto investing platform that I'm an investor in. They allow anyone to trade an unlimited number of times per month for only $9. If you buy or sell more than $500 in Bitcoin on any exchange, you're spending too much on trading fees. Use LVL to save money and trade as many times you want, but only pay $9/month. https://lvl.co/ ===================== Pomp writes a daily letter to over 80,000 investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy to understand language, while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://www.pompletter.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Anthony Pompliano?

  This is a special episode of the Pomp Podcast where I answer questions from listeners about everything, including Bitcoin, crypto, finance, investing, asset allocation, technology, and the macro environment. There's no music. This is the intro. This isn't investment advice. Do your own research. But before we get into this episode, I want to quickly talk about our sponsors. That's right, we got sponsors on this one. First up is a new one, Nifty Gateway. They're the premium NFT platform. Everyone knows that I came out and explained why I'm so bullish on digital art. Nifty Gateway is the place where you can go buy digital art. They release content from the best artists in the world, twice weekly, and it featured

• 0:44Anthony Pompliano?

  many world famous artists, including Kenny Scharf, Trevor Jones, and Who's Be. NFTs on Nifty Gateway are always in high demand. You can sign up for an account in advance to participate in their drops and browse around on the secondary market to find art you like. You just have to go to niftygateway.com. Again, niftygateway.com. I love going on there. I own some NFTs on there. I think that they're doing a great job with the drops. Obviously, artists really find it valuable. If you're into digital art or you want to learn more, go to niftygateway.com. Next up is Level, LVL. They're a new crypto investing platform that I'm an investor in. If you buy or sell more than $500 worth of Bitcoin on any exchange

• 1:27Anthony Pompliano?

  in the world, you're likely paying too much in trading fees. Level has a really interesting model. You sign up, you pay $9 a month as a subscription fee, and you can trade as many times as you want. You can buy as much as you want, you can sell as much as you want, and you only have to pay $9 in fees for that month. And so if you buy and sell a lot, you should go use Level because you'll save a bunch of money. So go check out Level, LVL.co. Again, LVL.co. If you buy and sell crypto in any size or frequency, Level will likely save you money. It's only $9 a month, and you can not pay any other trading fees. So go check them out. And remember, if you're

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  You're paying a bunch in trading fees. There's something called fee drag. So even if you make a purchase of something and it goes up in value, but you paid a bunch in fees, your performance will actually be lower because of that fee drag. So Level helps people avoid fee drag and you only pay nine bucks a month for unlimited trading. LVL.co. Lastly, don't forget that I write a daily letter to over 80,000 investors about business, technology and finance. I break down complex topics into easy to understand language while sharing my personal opinion on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at pompletter.com. Again, pompletter.com. Alright, let's get into this special episode. Thanks so much to Paulina

• 2:52Anthony Pompliano?

  for helping me with it and I hope you guys enjoy this one. Alright, what's the first question you got?

• 2:58Speaker 01

  The first question comes from Brent KT. It's about time management. How do you find the time to get so much done while sleeping nine hours and putting up with Paulina Marinova?

• 3:08Anthony Pompliano?

  The first piece is I don't sleep nine hours every night. I try to sleep eight. I used to not sleep at all. I used to sleep like four and a half, five hours, maybe six on a good night. And Plina convinced me that maybe I should be sleeping eight. Game changer. Highly suggest. From a time management standpoint, I basically spend my day being as efficient as possible. So I literally down to almost the minute have it blocked off in terms of there's certain times for content creation. There's certain times for calls with founders, for new companies. There's certain times for calls with existing portfolio companies. And then I also have content days. So literally there's specific days on my calendar that are completely blocked off. I do nothing other than

• 3:51Anthony Pompliano?

  create content, record podcasts, etc. And so by putting all that together allows me to do probably a lot more than the average person, just because I'm super efficient and scheduled.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  Jesus Plaza asks, "If you could only invest in Bitcoin or Tesla or your favorite company, what would it be and why do you think that would be the best thing for the future?"

• 4:14Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, obviously, it would be Bitcoin. And really, the idea is just that the addressable market for Bitcoin is much larger than the addressable market for Tesla. That's not a knock against Tesla, it's just a different type of investment. And I think that not only is there the economic argument, but there's also the non-economic argument of if Bitcoin becomes the global reserve currency or ends up getting global adoption, then it is likely to create a much more equitable world. And I think that that's an important part of the analysis as well.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Christopher Von Heim asks, "Biggest mistakes or regrets you have in your life? What did you learn from them?"

• 4:52Anthony Pompliano?

  Probably the biggest mistakes are not going at something hard enough or doing something big enough, right? So I definitely don't have regrets because I tend to think that whatever I've done has gotten me to the place that I am. But I do think that mistakes could be seen as kind of anything worth doing is worth overdoing, is a motto I like. And that's probably the biggest mistakes is not going bigger or harder at something. And so, you know, I try to keep that in the back of my head as I evaluate new things to do.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Scott Wickman asks, "What are your top tips for marketing your brand slash yourself?"

• 5:34Anthony Pompliano?

  This one's really easy. Just be authentic. Literally, just be yourself. That, I think, is the most defensible thing. It's the thing that will allow you to stand out the most. And it's the easiest thing. You don't have to contrive a position in the market or a certain type of branding. Like, literally, just be yourself. And the more authentic you are, the more of an advantage I think you'll have.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Crypto Whale, what's your thoughts on the correlation between Bitcoin and stocks? And does it worry you in the long run?

• 6:05Anthony Pompliano?

  It's very obvious from the math that Bitcoin is non-correlated to stocks over a long period of time. There has been a higher correlation in recent months. I think the Bitcoin correlation's been around .15 historically, and it's risen to about .25 to .3 over the last, call it, five, six months. This is expected when you understand that from March to now, there's been somewhat of a liquidity crisis, and that's what's driven the Federal Reserve and other central banks to try to flood the market with liquidity. During those liquidity crises, you'll see all assets tend to trend towards a correlation of one. If you go back to 2008,

• 6:45Anthony Pompliano?

  2009, we saw this gold drop 30% over the summer of '08, along with all other assets. And then, once the Federal Reserve stepped in and started to put liquidity into the market, gold went up 200%, hit an all-time high, and then we kind of went back to normal correlation levels. And so, my expectation is that we'll see Bitcoin and other assets decouple again, and we'll get back to kind of that .15 or so correlation between the assets.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  What is you and Joe Pompliano's method for growing a following on Twitter with new content? How do you get that content seen?

• 7:21Anthony Pompliano?

  I think that there's a whole bunch of different ways you can do this. First, obviously, is just having something that people find interesting, valuable, educational, intriguing, surprising, you know, whatever terminology you want to use, but basically, just it provides value to other people. The second thing is consistency. You know, people underestimate the value of consistency, so just doing it every day, day in, day out, for months or years. And then, the third thing I would say is being intentional about what is the content that you are going to produce, meaning what's your angle? So, if you look at my brother, there's plenty of people talking about sports on the internet, but really, there's a very, very small group of people talking about the money and business behind sports. And so, if you think of kind of what Darren Rovell did 20, 25 years ago...

• 8:06Anthony Pompliano?

  He built an amazing audience and platform on that theme, but no one has really done it in a unique way since then. Right? And a lot of that content was done on television networks and kind of more traditional platforms. And so Joe's been able to, one, kind of find the right market, two, uncover a lot of interest in that market. And then three, do it in a unique way on new platforms where those stories haven't been told before. And so I think that's kind of what's led to a lot of that audience growth and other people can take that same playbook and apply it. The other thing I'll say is it's been pretty cool to see Darren and others in the sports world be so kind of welcoming of my brother and helpful to him. And so I think that it's, you know, not just, hey, can you create great content?

• 8:50Anthony Pompliano?

  But can you also figure out ways to get other people to help you get distribution? I think he's done a great way of doing that as well. And so as a shout out to, you know, kind of all the people who came before him, who have been helpful also.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Zishan Sayed asks, will you sell Bitcoin if it reaches 100K by the end of 2021?

• 9:09Anthony Pompliano?

  I have no plans to sell Bitcoin.

• 9:12Speaker 01

  Okay. Zero Trust asks, you mentioned that it was a huge personal productivity breakthrough, realizing that good sleep is better than extra work hours. When will you make the same realization with nutrition?

• 9:26Anthony Pompliano?

  So one of the misunderstandings is yes, I obviously love Domino's, eat it every Saturday. I also, if I drink, love Bud Light, but other than that, I'm actually a really healthy eater for the most part. I tend to not eat a ton and I tend to eat relatively well. I'm not kind of fanatical about any one diet or anything like that. And, you know, I think that having kind of that one big unhealthy meal to look forward to on Saturdays actually is a, is a pretty good mental trick. And then, you know, I also kind of find a balance between enjoying life rather than living kind of imprisoned to a diet, right?

• 10:09Anthony Pompliano?

  So if I'm out with friends and I want to get a beer and that's what's going to make me happy, then I'll go ahead and I'll do that. But I do think that for the most part, I've got a pretty good diet compared to most people. So it kind of allows me to do some of the absurd things that people see on the internet, but, but not have me weigh 300 pounds and have a heart attack every day.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  FindHero asks, "I'd be curious on what you'd recommend for asset allocation per age group, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Also, in general, say you're someone that's only in traditional markets. Buy in right now or wait it out for the next recession? Would we even get a recession or hyperinflation?"

• 10:48Anthony Pompliano?

  I tend to think that there's very core principles that apply to everybody regardless of age. And so I always go back to kind of these four personal finance principles. The first is you have to spend less than you make, right? You just gotta live within your means. The second is that you need to have multiple streams of income, right? That's a really important kind of diversifying your income, making sure that you have some level of resilience to your income. The third is you've got to get out of inflationary assets. So getting out of cash, for example. The financial system is structured in a way where savers are punished and investors are rewarded. And so understanding that you gotta invest is important.

• 11:32Anthony Pompliano?

  And then the last is that you've got to be disciplined and very, very patient. So taking a strategy that will compound money over long periods of time. And so if you think of that, if you can follow those four principles, you're already ahead of most people. Then most people ask, "Well, what do I invest in?" And I tend to think that the risk-reward profile that people seek is dependent somewhat on age, is dependent somewhat on kind of their life goals. And so it's hard to give kind of one-size-fits-all advice. I actually think that it would be the wrong thing to do is give one-size-fits-all. But obviously, the younger you are, the more risk you can take. The later on in life you are, the less risk you can take. And therefore, you should also be seeking the return profile that matches the risk you take.

• 12:15Anthony Pompliano?

  So if you take lots of risk, you want high rewards if it goes well. If you take very low risk, you actually should expect low returns just because the risk you take should be the reward that you can earn from an investment.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  At F underscore D underscore KB asks, "In the recent What Bitcoin Did podcast with Michael Saylor, he repeatedly mentioned war as a risk factor in relation to why he values Bitcoin. Do you believe he meant that figuratively or literally?"

• 12:45Anthony Pompliano?

  I haven't had the opportunity yet to listen to it, but anything that Peter McCormick does is high quality, so I'll definitely take a listen to it. In terms of war in general, when it comes to Bitcoin, I think that there's both literal and figurative applications of this. So if you look at right now, the top economist at the World Bank, for example, she's been talking about a war in terms of the central banks buying bonds to keep yields low. And so I think that there's, you know, kind of this competition, maybe is a less aggressive word to use there, but I definitely think that there is an element of competition or war.

• 13:28Anthony Pompliano?

  And then in terms of actual war, you know, I tweeted the other day that in the United States, we've spent less than 20 years of our existence not in war. So, you know, almost every single year, other than 20 of the 244 years that the United States has been in existence since 1776, we've been at war. And so I think war is a natural kind of phenomenon in the history of the United States. What that means for currencies, things like that, you've got to remember that pretty much every time a global reserve currency switches, or there's a transition between one currency to another, there has been violent conflict in the past.

• 14:08Anthony Pompliano?

  And history would expect us to believe that the only way that we're going to get off the dollar system is if there's a war. Now Bitcoin's a little unique in that there is no offensive capabilities of Bitcoin. It is all defensive. And so the big question is, is there an advantage to having a decentralized system that allows you to essentially have the highest degree of cyber defense, which then makes you the most powerful network, right? And we'll see if that plays out or not, but that's my theory, is that actually not having an offense will be an advantage when it comes to something like Bitcoin becoming a global reserve currency.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Great. Mauricio Schut asks, "What is your opinion? What is the level of risk keeping all my Bitcoin on BlockFi rather than storing it on hardware wallets, etc.?"

• 15:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I tend to think that this isn't a BlockFi kind of analysis as much as it's just in general an analysis across, you know, all of finance really, but specifically Bitcoin and crypto. Is, you never want to concentrate all of your risk in one place, right? So even just holding Bitcoin in one type of hardware wallet would be a concentrated risk. And so I think you constantly want to diversify in terms of kind of having redundancy and using different systems and things like that. That also applies to having, you know, hardware wallets, using software products. And, you know, the thing about BlockFi really is, if you want to earn interest, use their interest-bearing account, right?

• 15:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Now, just like you wouldn't go put 100% of all of your Bitcoin on one single hardware device, you shouldn't put 100% of your Bitcoin in any product, right? And even if you leave it on exchanges, which, you know, isn't recommended, but if you do that, why would you leave 100% of your Bitcoin on one exchange? Try to think that being able to do risk management is really important. And so BlockFi obviously has these kind of high rates of interest compared to the traditional world. But understanding what they're doing in terms of lending out that Bitcoin or stable coins, understanding what the risks are, understanding what the upside is in terms of the interest, all that goes into your decision. But, you know, one of the big messages I have for people, it's about personal responsibility.

• 16:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Do the research, understand what you're doing, and then make an analysis. What's your risk parameters that you're comfortable with? And make sure that you never take kind of one-shot kind of risk where everything's concentrated in any one product, whether that's hardware products, exchanges, software products, etc.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Eben Esterheisen, I'm sorry if I butchered your name. Hey, Aipam Pliano, would love to hear your thoughts on how long before the user interface of crypto is simplified to the extent anyone can use it, or even better, if it is destined to be base layer tech that everyday people never really have to know about, example, the Swift Payment Network or HTTP.

• 17:06Anthony Pompliano?

  I think you're already seeing some companies come out with better user experiences, but this is definitely one of the areas that we need to drastically improve. But it's also a natural part of the technology cycle, right? You basically get the underlying technology has innovation, and then people figure out how do I actually improve the user experience or the user interfaces around that stuff. And so, you know, yes, it needs to improve. I believe it will improve, but I tend to remind myself that this is just part of a natural technology cycle and not to get ahead of ourselves and say, you know, it's never going to move, right? One of the things that is very obvious is we usually underestimate what's possible.

• 17:49Anthony Pompliano?

  And I think that you can see some early data points that suggest, you know, this is going to be a standard of the world, this is going to be adopted globally, and therefore the user interfaces will naturally have to be very usable by anybody in order to have that happen.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Bitcoin Bruce asks, if big corporates get into Bitcoin too quickly and too hard, thus sending the price parabolic, will this ruin the concept behind Bitcoin, enabling the ruling wealthy to become even richer?

• 18:18Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, look, Bitcoin is one of these unique things that was available to everyone all at the same time, right? If you think about kind of the first 11 years, basically, the retail person or investor or just the everyday citizen had the opportunity to acquire Bitcoin on an even playing field with these institutions. And so, what's been really interesting is that this is probably one of the first times in history that something like Bitcoin has been available to everyone on a more equitable kind of playing field. And so, yes, is there the possibility that large... Corporations, organizations come in with big dollars and they buy up a lot of Bitcoin?

• 19:00Anthony Pompliano?

  Of course, but I don't think it's so much that they are able to do it to the detriment of other people. It's that everyone's had the same opportunity. You just have had to do the work. You've had to be able to understand what this is, understand what the potential value is in the future and then make a decision. And so I think that it's less about, you know, the corporations somehow position themselves to take advantage of other people. And it's more of just the people who have conviction and courage early should be rewarded if Bitcoin kind of goes the path that I think a lot of people listening to this believe it will.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  What two, oh, Ryan McLaughlin, what two to three points, obviously there's many, would you emphasize the most to convince someone to become pro Bitcoin?

• 19:40Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't necessarily focus so much on convincing people as much as I think of it more as like just giving people the information so that they can then make their own decision. So it's not for me to convince somebody to do it. It's more so to just explain how Bitcoin fits into kind of their worldview. And if you think of something, you know, let's say you're an investor on Wall Street. Usually what I'll explain is three key pieces. I'll say, one, here's the macro environment and why people are looking for inflation hedge assets. Two, here is why Bitcoin serves as a great inflation hedge. And then three, I'll explain, and here's why Bitcoin is likely to continue to see kind of a price increase in US dollars,

• 20:21Anthony Pompliano?

  which ultimately is just a function of a fixed supply asset, having increased global adoption. And so when you kind of start with the language or perspective that that person has, you usually can make much more progress than if you just start with, hey, Bitcoin's this decentralized digital asset with a blockchain and, you know, kind of all the things that are kind of crypto native in language. And so that's what I use with a Wall Street investor. But if I go ahead and I use, let's say, maybe somebody who's experienced hyperinflation, right? I take a whole different talk track. Or maybe I talk with somebody who's from a country where there's been lots of seizing of assets or distrust with their government. You know, use different talk track. And so I think it's really understanding who is the person I'm talking to and what is their worldview?

• 21:06Anthony Pompliano?

  And then trying to fit Bitcoin into that worldview in a way that makes them understand here's why it would be valuable to somebody in your position.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  The Morning Skinny asks, "Seems like most people getting into Bitcoin and crypto are in tech and finance people. What do you think that's going to do for the future of income inequality? Are the rich going to stay rich and poor going to stay poor?"

• 21:28Anthony Pompliano?

  I tend to think that the greatest driver of wealth inequality in the world is inflation, and so that's a systematic thing. Is there the possibility that the people who are early to Bitcoin will end up being the wealthiest people in the world? Sure, but I tend to think that that's more of, everyone had the same opportunity to do that, and therefore some people acted and some people didn't. That's a much more, kind of, it's an easier pill to swallow, when everyone had the same opportunity and just some people did something and some people didn't. I think the problem that most people have with wealth inequality today is that it's a systematic thing. It's not something where you have a say, right? You basically are either put in a position where you can benefit from it, right, or

• 22:13Anthony Pompliano?

  you're put in a position where you end up suffering from it. And I think that's the big problem. And so, just the fact that, you know, look at entrepreneurs, for example. Some entrepreneurs fail, and some become wildly wealthy. I don't think that we look and say, "Oh, the ones who became successful, they're bad people, because there's some entrepreneurs who failed." You know, that's kind of like, no, one of them was successful in building a company, and the other one wasn't. That's the explanation for it. And so I think when it comes to Bitcoin, there's an explanation of, well, some people took the time, did the work, understood what Bitcoin was, saw the value, had the courage and conviction to act, and they did it earlier than other people, and therefore they reaped the rewards of doing that, right? They took the risk of doing it, and therefore that's the return that they receive.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  Matthew46791522 asks, "I deployed to Iraq in 2004 as an infantry squad leader. Still miss it some days and would do it all over again. You were a grunt as well. Do you feel the same?"

• 23:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Short answer is yes. I think that I went when I was 20 years old, spent my 21st birthday in the deserts of Iraq, and it was a point in time for me where, one, I had learned some great life lessons around just our mortality and kind of changed the way that I looked at life and what I wanted to do and things like that. But also, two, was it forced me to grow up, and grow up in a pretty big way, very quickly. And so that was some, by the environment we were in, some of that was with the people I was with. But I think that that was probably one of the most formative experiences in my life, and so I definitely would do it again in a heartbeat.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  Paulo Cunha asks, if BTC approaches world reserve currency status one day, what do you think the US government will do to defend the US dollar?

• 24:04Anthony Pompliano?

  I tend to think that there will be a lot of talk of defending the US dollar, but at some point, there's a capitulation. I'm not really sure, and frankly, don't spend too much time trying to speculate on what are all the different avenues that the United States would pursue in that scenario. I actually think that it's something where, no matter what they try, they won't be able to stop Bitcoin, right? And so, could they do things like banning ownership for US citizens and all that? Of course. But that doesn't actually solve the problem, right? That would be a very reactive, ineffective way to deal with the situation. And so, from my perspective, it's kind of one of these things of, they may desire to want to do things, but if it's going to be ineffective, ultimately, I believe

• 24:47Anthony Pompliano?

  that they're a rational actor. And so, at some point, they'll capitulate, just like every other country will, and they'll actually adopt Bitcoin as a, as global currency.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Alexander Inukai asks, why do you only present Bitcoin, gold, and real estate as inflation hedge assets? Stocks are also, also inflation hedge assets, aren't they?

• 25:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, this is a really nuanced part of the conversation. I've actually talked a lot about stocks becoming an inflation hedge asset. Historically, they have not been considered that. And when I bring it up in traditional finance circles, a lot of people give me a weird look and almost disagree with it. But from my perspective, that's what people are doing. They're realizing, hey, the government is printing lots of money, let me buy stocks. They're going to inflate asset prices. Let me run into stocks. And that's been a great trade from a macro perspective over the last five, six months. And so I tend to think they're serving as that inflation hedge asset, but that's just not historically how they've been thought of in the traditional finance world.

• 25:47Speaker 01

  John McGuire asks, where should a beginner getting into investing start? Where to gain knowledge and where to find a reliable mentor or guidance?

• 25:56Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, John, the internet is this amazing place. I would literally search on YouTube. And the beauty is, if you want to learn about investing, don't go find the no-name people on YouTube who are just producing day trading advice and things like that. Instead, what you should do is look at who are the best investors in the world. There's Warren Buffett, there's Ray Dalio, there's Bill Ackman. You just go down the whole list. There's Kathy Wood. I mean, just a bunch of these investors. And part of the internet's benefit is they put out a lot of information for free. And so if you go ahead and you just search around on the internet, those are the people that I would find. Or go find the best investors

• 26:39Anthony Pompliano?

  or the most popular ones. Robert Kiyosaki with Rich Dad, Poor Dad, etc. And just consume that content. And you'll get an education that far exceeds anything that you would get inside of a traditional classroom, or maybe from a local mentor. And I think that the internet is amazing in that way.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  George Design asks, do you think Satoshi is somehow a threat to Bitcoin value? What will happen if he, she, they decided to wake up and sell their coins or something? Same for the big whales?

• 27:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I don't think that Satoshi is a threat at all. I think that it's something that people like to speculate about and kind of play this game. You know, what could happen, but I just tend to think that it's unlikely that Satoshi would really serve as any considerable threat, given how far Bitcoins come, how much adoption it has, and kind of how decentralized it is at this point.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Crypto Investing asks, what can we expect inflation or deflation in the next 12 months? Bitcoin, gold, and a housing market?

• 27:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, this is a very complicated question. I'll throw a couple of data points out there. So one is, I think the average consumer or investor is going to fear inflation, and therefore they will move assets based on that. We've seen gold, Bitcoin, real estate, etc. do very well during the last five or six months. So there's a consumer fear of inflation. We also know that the liquidity crisis provided a deep deflationary environment, which has kind of soaked up a lot of that liquidity. And then also, we know that technology is a deflationary force. So over time, it will become more and more deflationary. You know, people like Jeff Booth, etc. have done a great job kind of laying out that argument.

• 28:29Anthony Pompliano?

  But then we also have the Federal Reserve, which is committing to getting inflation up over 2% in a persistent manner in the official numbers. But if you actually look at a lot of the unofficial metrics, kind of what I believe are better measurements of inflation, some people would argue that we're running between 4% to 6% right now. You know, many people would argue coming out of the 08, 09 crisis, kind of there was a 6% to 10% inflation. We have to remember also that different socioeconomic classes experience inflation at different rates. So the richest people in the world may experience kind of 2% to 3%, while the bottom 40% of Americans may be experiencing 10+%. And so I think that it's a super complicated question, and there's no kind of one answer.

• 29:13Anthony Pompliano?

  It's actually kind of who are you talking about and in what manner is easier to answer than just, hey, is it going to be inflation or deflation? But those are just some thoughts that hopefully help you think through it.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Sergey Liu Hoskinson asks, "What was the best thing you did for yourself in your twenties that helped you get to where you are today?"

• 29:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Did the work. I think that we have a culture of, you know, work smarter, not harder. And there's definitely some value to that at certain times. But ultimately, I think the kind of values and principles of just being willing to do the work and doing it every day for years is kind of a lost art. And so that's probably the number one thing is just, my parents really get the thanks for this, but they just instilled in me from day one to always make sure that you're willing to put in the work. And if you put the work in, then you'll be able to receive the benefits of that work. And I think that that's probably the number one piece of advice I have for people is just do the work and do it consistently for long periods of time.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  James Lack asks, "You're one of the most prolific creators I'm aware of. What is your production function in the Tyler Cohen sense, i.e. how do you push out so much so frequently?"

• 30:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Authenticity and efficiency, I think, are the two answers. So, one, I'm just myself, so I don't have to spend a bunch of time preparing for things. I literally can just be me, which makes it much easier to create content. And then two, again, as I talked about earlier, the kind of efficiency that I have around how I lay out my calendar, you know, to when I'm going to create content, have these content days, certain periods of time during the day where I can kind of context switch. All of those things, you know, kind of fall into the category of just preparation really allows for me to seize opportunities. And so I think those are the two key pieces, authenticity and then efficiency.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Patrick Okinka asks, "What is the most valuable perspective shift a person can have to make their life better today?"

• 31:19Anthony Pompliano?

  You're responsible for you. That's it. If you, uh, the day you start to realize, uh, you want to be rich? It's on you. Go, go become rich. If you want to be happy, it's on you. Go become happy. Um, you know, if you want to be, uh, successful at something, it's on you. Go do it. Uh, I, I think that personal responsibility is, uh, drastically lacking, uh, in societies around the world today. But, uh, it is the single greatest, uh, path to freedom is, you know, however you define freedom. If you want that freedom, uh, it's on you. Go do it. Uh, don't wait around for other people, companies, governments,

• 31:59Anthony Pompliano?

  uh, or anything else to do it for you. I, I think having that, uh, personal responsibility, um, and, and that ownership of, uh, if I want something, I'm going to go get it. I'm going to go do it. Uh, that will put you in a position, um, to, to really build the life that you want.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  CG asks, once all the Bitcoin has been mined, what happens to all the computing power supporting the network?

• 32:22Anthony Pompliano?

  It will simply process transactions, um, and it will be compensated through the transaction fees, uh, for doing that.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  Isabel Welby, um, top three things that could stop Bitcoin and how likely you think they are.

• 32:42Anthony Pompliano?

  The number one thing is a self-inflicted wound. There's code that's introduced that somehow is, um,

• 32:51Anthony Pompliano?

  you know, detrimental, uh, in, in some way, a bug or whatever. Uh, I think that that is possible, but very, very unlikely. I'd put it at, you know, less than 1% chance at this point, just given how rigorous the, uh, the, the, um, process of Bitcoin development is. Uh, the second thing is obviously Bitcoin could go to zero, like literally it just becomes not valuable. The market walks away. Um, I, I think that again is very unlikely. Uh, I always joke that it won't go to zero because I'll buy up all the Bitcoin, uh, as it drops in price. Um, but I think there's a lot of other people out there, right? 63% of Bitcoin haven't moved in 12 months. Um, and so I think you've got this holder base that, that just won't let the, the price go, uh, below some point.

• 33:33Anthony Pompliano?

  And then I think the third thing really is, you know, everyone always talks about something better coming along. And for me, the thing, the reason why I think that is unlikely is because you have a network effect that is the greatest network effect in the world, which is money. And that network effect has grown at an incredible rate and it's accelerating, right? Over 100 million people now hold Bitcoin, based on some of the reports that I've seen. And, you know, let's take that at face value, that it's true. Then you basically have gone from, you know, less than a million people to millions, to now tens of millions, and now you've broken over into nine figures. That network effect allows for virality, and that

• 34:17Anthony Pompliano?

  virality will eventually encapsulate, you know, seven-plus billion people in the world. And so I tend to think that it's not so much about any other thing, other than that network effect when it comes to money adoption globally.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Byron Huey, what is your opinion of art and collectibles as part of a long-term investment portfolio? For example, fine art, baseball cards, etc.

• 34:40Anthony Pompliano?

  I tend to think that these are kind of the new alternative assets, right? So kind of the traditional alternative assets have almost become more mainstream. And so now the new alternative assets are a lot of these collectibles and things like that. Obviously, I've come out publicly and laid out the thesis for digital art. I tend to think that digital art is going to be, you know, really, really important in the future. It's basically, you know, analog art has value, but digital art will have even more value. I expect the digital art market cap to surpass the analog market cap at some point, you know, in the future, just like I think Bitcoin and gold or sound money principles being applied in analog and

• 35:25Anthony Pompliano?

  digital version. But the digital version will eventually eclipse the analog one. So that's probably the thoughts there.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  Eric Freedom, oh, sorry, wow. Eric Friedman asks, what's in your anti-portfolio? Meaning, what is an opportunity you had to invest in a company that you passed on that you now regret?

• 35:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Man, there's a lot. Um, off the top of my head, uh, Pedal, I think is now like a $400 million company, uh, at the seed. Uh, I was super indecisive and slow on that one. Um, so I missed that. Uh, I had an opportunity to invest a pretty sizable check, um, in SpaceX. Uh, it wasn't like a seed round or anything like that. It was, I don't remember, Series C, D, E, somewhere in there. Um, but, uh, ended up not doing that and that was obviously a mistake. Uh, there's a whole bunch of them, but, uh, I tend not to think about the anti-portfolio because, uh, I like to focus on, uh, you know, how smart I obviously am for the good investments I've made, but, uh, but there's definitely a big anti-portfolio.

• 36:29Speaker 01

  Mario DiTillo asks, aside from yourself, what are two podcasts you recommend for Bitcoin and crypto?

• 36:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, this one's pretty easy. Uh, What Bitcoin Did, Peter McCormick, and Tales From the Crypt from Marty Bent.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Alexander asks, tell me the top five books to read to be successful in your opinion.

• 36:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Top five? Um, I, I've said, you know, many times that the three most important books I ever read were Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Uh, Think and Grow Rich, Um, and The Rich Man in Babylon. I read all three of those, uh, pretty simultaneously. Uh, another one that I think is, um, is real good is, uh, Mark Spitznagel's book. Uh, it's all about, uh, Austrian, uh, investing. I forget the name of it right now. Um, but then, uh, another book that I think actually is, uh, is pretty good, um, The Tao of Capital. That's Mark, Mark Spitznagel's, uh, book is The Tao of Capital. I think that one's good. And then another one is, uh, Eric Jorgensen just put together, uh, The Almanac of Naval Ravikant.

• 37:33Anthony Pompliano?

  I tend to think that one, uh, is fantastic just from, uh, everything around business, money, happiness, uh, and life. And so, uh, reading that's probably, uh, that's one that I'd throw in there.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  Uh, Paper Chaser asks, if you had four people investing all of your money in the coming decade, who would it be?

• 37:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Myself. I, uh, I tend to think a lot about, um, you know, do I want to bet on myself or other people to invest capital? Um, and, uh, and I'll bet on myself all day long, uh, because if I'm right, I'll end up reaping the rewards, but if I'm wrong, I have nobody to blame but myself. Uh, and so that's, uh, that's pretty much it. And then obviously, uh, Paulina is constantly, uh, in my ear telling me when I'm gonna, about to do something stupid. So, uh, probably me and her are the, uh, the two people I trust the most.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Um, undefined asks, why is universal basic income such a bad idea in your opinion?

• 38:35Anthony Pompliano?

  You simply can't change, um, the incentive mechanisms of capitalism without very bad horrific, uh, impact. And so it's become kind of cool, uh, and, and, uh, normalized to believe that the government handing free money to people, uh, is a good idea. Uh, but I tend to think that, uh, that is just a form of socialism. Um, and as we've seen around the world, socialism does not work. Uh, and so I fundamentally believe in the capitalistic principles, uh, of an economy. And, you know, UBI is usually focused on the government giving, uh, people, you know, especially at the lowest socioeconomic classes money, uh, but also quantitative easing, the, the printing of money by governments, uh, and putting it into the financial system.

• 39:20Anthony Pompliano?

  That's essentially UBI for rich people, right? And so, uh, I'm, I'm generally against anything, um, that involves changing of the, uh, risk reward structure and the capitalistic principles of, of a, uh, economy, of a market, um, and of a society. And I tend to think that capitalism is, uh, the greatest, um, you know, way to run a society.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  FullBitcoin asks, "Why did you join the Army? Would you re-enlist if you had to do it all over again? You're obviously very successful and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on if the Army played a role in your development."

• 39:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, we talked about this earlier. Absolutely would do it again. I think the Army had a really, really big impact, both from an experience standpoint but a training standpoint. I don't think I've ever even talked about it, but went to at least one, if not multiple, leadership training courses and really kind of took away a lot from my time, both in theoretical kind of study, but also in application and practice from that time. And so absolutely would do it again.

• 40:24Speaker 01

  RedfieldProctor asks, "Do you subscribe to the dollar milkshake theory?"

• 40:29Anthony Pompliano?

  The dollar milkshake theory is basically every central bank is printing lots of money and all of that money is going to get sucked up by one asset, that asset being the dollar. So kind of think of everyone's putting in ingredients into the milkshake, but then only one country gets the straw and they get to suck up all the value and that's the dollar. I tend to think that that is true to an extent, like what I just talked about, but I do not think that we're going to see a strong dollar forever. I tend to think that we're going to actually have the opposite, which is we're going to have a weaker and weaker dollar over time. It'll be systematically devalued and not holding cash is going to be the better investment than holding cash.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  FinancialFreedom asks, "What makes you better every day?"

• 41:15Anthony Pompliano?

  I think it's literally just practice and practice, not in an intentional sense, but just doing the work. You know, the more you do something, the better you get at it. And so I tend to think just literally showing up every day, investing, creating content, learning, reading, talking to people, all of those things contribute. And so it's more about just, you know, really putting the time, effort in and you'll eventually become better at something.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Greg asks, "Any new investments you've made?"

• 41:50Anthony Pompliano?

  I have. We'll announce them soon. Not ready to talk about them yet.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  Ryan Mail, thoughts on the new IMF policy bullish for Bitcoin?

• 42:02Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm still reading about it. For those that don't know, the IMF, they've been making a bunch of announcements and things. But one of the things is they're calling for new Brenton Woods, which I need to read more about before I start talking about it. But, you know, very, very interesting that that's happening right now. You know, never let a crisis go to waste is a term that you've probably heard it before. And so let me read more about it before I comment any further.

• 42:31Speaker 01

  Andy asks, what if you're wrong about Bitcoin?

• 42:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Then I'll be wrong. I'll lose a lot of money and I'll have to go back and reevaluate what I got wrong. But that's kind of how markets are made is there's always the possibility of being wrong. But, you know, it's kind of a risk reward thing. And so if I'm wrong, there's a 1X downside for me. But if I'm right, there's an exponential upside or kind of an asymmetric payoff. And so it's a risk I'm willing to take.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  Chad Sitzman, how was your Domino's last night?

• 43:10Anthony Pompliano?

  I was not allowed to order Domino's because Paulina cooked something and she told me that I would get fat if I eat Domino's plus the dinner that she cooked.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  That is absolutely false. Okay. A King asks, should there be more people in engineering jobs rather than finance jobs? Why does this seem not to be the case?

• 43:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I think that most finance jobs are merely the kind of movement of money back and forth between people, right? It's basically just a casino. Everyone's betting on future outcomes. And so sure, there's going to be a lot of people who want to go into that field because there's the promise of making a lot of money, right? Incentives drive the world. But should we have more people being teachers and engineers and scientists and others? Of course. What we need to figure out, though, is how do we incentivize those people to do that financially? So that they can make just as much, if not more, doing things that we think might be more productive for society rather than simply just moving numbers around on a screen, trying to capture some alpha so that you get a big bonus at the end of the year.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  Ryan Kukin asks, what innovation do you see on the horizon that no one else is talking about?

• 44:24Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know if there's necessarily like some innovation that no one's talking about. I mean, if you think of any innovation, there's somebody somewhere in the world talking about it. I tend to think that this whole idea of like, "I know a secret in the world that no one else knows," is not really, from an investing standpoint, the best thing. Instead, what it is, is being able to find the people who know the secrets, right? And what I mean by that is like, as an investor, you're not really creating anything. What you're doing is you're simply allocating capital to people who are creating things. And so, sure, there are people who have insights in the world that we don't know about, but I don't think there's anything that I specifically, especially in an investor seat, know that other people don't. Now, I may have more conviction in certain things than other people, or I may think

• 45:08Anthony Pompliano?

  that there's a unique way to kind of solve a problem, but I don't think that there's necessarily some, you know, big innovation, whether it's technology, science, whatever, that no one else knows about and I know, and I know some secret. I tend to think the exact opposite, which is, I don't have the answers. I need to go find the entrepreneurs who have the answers, and I can give them capital to help them kind of build what they want. And then from, you know, the things that I build, especially in the content business and things like that, it's actually, I think everyone knows the answer, but people don't like the answer, which is just, it comes down to consistency, time, and effort. And that's an answer that people don't like, but it's common knowledge, and since whoever

• 45:51Anthony Pompliano?

  kind of follows the rules in order to be successful will end up reaping those rewards.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  Fidiguy asks, "What was the inflection point that took you from casual Twitter user to power user?"

• 46:04Anthony Pompliano?

  In 2017, I told myself, I'd helped a lot of other people build very large audiences, but I'd never done it for myself. And so, I was intentional. I said, "I'm gonna go do it for myself," and here we are.

• 46:15Speaker 01

  Harris Agadi asks, "You once said that you don't have any investments in public equities. Why is that?"

• 46:20Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't think I have an advantage there. I tend to think that if you're going to be a public market investor, you need to believe you have some advantage. Why are you having this investment and other people pass it up? I don't think I've got a good answer for that. And so I tend to stick to things that I understand really well and also places where I think I've got some significant advantage and that just isn't in the public market. There's just too many smart people all competing for returns there. And so I tend to look for much more inefficient markets in the private markets or on crypto, things like that. And so that's where I spend most of my time investing.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  All right. Last question from...

• 47:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Two more.

• 47:06Speaker 01

  Oh, two more. From Grub Passport, "When were you last wrong about something you were pretty sure about? What was it? Who, why, and what evidence made you acknowledge your honest error? If necessary, any learnings from it?"

• 47:18Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I think one of the really good things that I still believe will happen, but I definitely was wrong about was kind of the digitization or tokenization of assets. So if you think of this thesis of every stock, bond, currency, and commodity will eventually be digitized over time, I believe that to be true. I probably had much more conviction from a timeline perspective that it was going to happen really quickly. You know, like it would already have started. But obviously, I was wrong on that. And so one of the hard things about kind of predictions is in order to have a legitimate

• 48:01Anthony Pompliano?

  prediction, you need to have both an event that's going to happen, like a thing that will occur in the world, and also the timing. You know, that kind of really forces you to be thoughtful about the prediction. I believe that I'm still right about the thing happening, but I definitely was wrong about the timing. And so what that one calls from a learning perspective is it goes back to like the Bill Gates quote. We overestimate what's possible in a year, we underestimate what's possible in 10 years. Like, I was a victim of that for sure, of being overly optimistic in the short term. And the second thing is, also, I probably didn't spend enough time critically thinking about every single step it would take to go from nothing being digitized or tokenized to everything being

• 48:45Anthony Pompliano?

  digitized and tokenized, right? What are the actual execution steps that that will take? And so, you know, if I'd kind of spent more time critically thinking about that, I probably would have ended up realizing that there was a longer timeline. So I think that's the big one. And, you know, I'll also say that, like, I'm constantly wrong about things. I've got a good friend who says, "The best investors in the world are right 55 to 60% of the time, but they only put trades on or investments on that are super asymmetric." Meaning that when they're right, they're really, really right, and there's big payoffs there. I tend to think of my investing that way as well. It's a very kind of Austrian way of investing.

• 49:27Anthony Pompliano?

  And so, I look for those asymmetric opportunities. And so, when I'm wrong, I don't really lose that much, but when I'm right, I can make a ton of money. And so, being wrong a lot is just kind of a natural part of this. And, you know, I recently tweeted and said that avoiding small losses as being important is one of the greatest lies. Like, actually losing a little bit, you know, over and over again is not a bad thing, as long as you're always in asymmetric trades that, if you're right, end up being, you know, kind of very, very lucrative, because those will pay for all the times that you lost. And so, I'm comfortable being wrong. I'm wrong all the time. It's just a matter of, like, you know, remaining disciplined and unemotional about the

• 50:12Anthony Pompliano?

  fact, like, that's part of the way that I invest. And so, don't get kind of caught up when you're wrong.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  Okay, final question. Paul Anderson asks, "Would love to hear what your asset allocation is and why. If you're not comfortable sharing your personal asset allocation, curious what you think the new 60-40 is?"

• 50:30Anthony Pompliano?

  So I definitely think 60-40 is dead for the foreseeable future in the sense of holding 40% bonds is absolutely insane in a zero interest rate environment. In terms of my asset allocation, I don't know exactly the numbers, but the way I would think about it is I'm probably 80% Bitcoin right now. I am, the other remaining 20% is probably 5% cash. And the remaining 15% is split between real estate and startups. So, you know, some of that is a function of

• 51:11Anthony Pompliano?

  the original kind of big, big bet I made on Bitcoin.

• 51:17Anthony Pompliano?

  In December of 2018, it wasn't the original investment that I made or anything like that, but just like that was the moment I think everyone kind of points to and says, you know, I took 50% of my net worth and I went ahead and I put it into Bitcoin at the bottom of the market. Obviously, that's played out very well. You know, I've been fortunate to kind of continue driving income and, you know, other investments that have gone well and things like that. So Bitcoin's grown to about 80% probably. And I don't plan to kind of, you know, really rebalance or anything like that. I've kind of made the investment and got the conviction I've got and we'll go from there. But everything else is real estate,

• 52:02Anthony Pompliano?

  cash and early-stage investing. And so that's kind of where I'm at now and I hopefully will end up being a good kind of, you know, asset allocation moving forward. So that's it for this episode. I appreciate Plana taking the time to ask all these questions from you guys. Thank you guys all for writing in and we'll have to do this again in the future.