#850 Operating A Baseball Team On The Bitcoin Standard w/ Steven Nelkovski

Steven Nelkovski is the CEO of the Perth Heat Baseball Team. They are the first baseball team to operate on a Bitcoin Standard In this conversation, we discuss starting back up in Australia after the pandemic, Expanding the Bitcoin Standard to more teams, Education the people about Bitcoin, and the recent world events that helped to Orange Pill more individuals. Steven joined us in studio last Friday as a guest host on "The Best Business Show". To view the full video interview, go to the "Best Business Show; LIVE" Youtube Channel. ======================= Bitcoin 2022 is the LARGEST Bitcoin event in the world that takes place April 6th - 9th in Miami Beach, Florida. All four days will be jammed-packed with exclusive content, exciting announcements and an incredible lineup of bitcoin speakers, artists and leaders. Day 1 is INDUSTRY DAY for enterprising bitcoiners who are looking to build a business or career within the ecosystem. Days 2 and 3 are general conference days featuring speakers like El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, CEOs like Michael Saylor, Elizabeth Stark, Jack Mallers, Adam Back and hundreds more. The conference caps off on the fourth day with the world's first and largest Bitcoin Music Festival - Sound Money Fest headlined by rapper and fellow bitcoiner Logic, featuring artists K. Flay, MØ, Royal & the Serpent, Apashe, Asadi and more. Stay tuned for the upcoming lineup announcement! Last year’s conference SOLD OUT and this year’s is on pace to be 3x larger so make sure you grab your tickets before it's too late. Visit b.tc/conference to learn more. Ticket prices increase on JAN 14th, use promo code POMP for 10% off and I will see you in Miami!ire ecosystem bringing utility to #NFTs. ======================= Brave Wallet is the first secure crypto wallet built natively in a web3 crypto browser. No extension required. Store, manage, and grow your portfolio, get NFT & multi-chain support, and more. Download the Brave privacy browser at brave.com/Pomp, and click the wallet icon to get started. =======================

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

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Steven Nelkofsky is the Chief Executive Officer at Perth Baseball. They're a baseball team based out of Australia that is going on to the Bitcoin standard. It's an incredible story. I really enjoyed talking to Steven and I hope that you enjoyed this episode as well. Before we get into it though, I want to first talk about our sponsors. Today's episode is sponsored by the Bitcoin 2022 Conference. Bitcoin 2022 is the largest Bitcoin event in the world that takes place April 6th through the 9th in Miami Beach, Florida. All four days will be jam packed with exclusive content, exciting announcements,

• 0:43Anthony Pompliano?

  and an incredible lineup of Bitcoin speakers, artists, and leaders. Day one is Industry Day for enterprising Bitcoiners who are looking to build a business or career within the ecosystem. Days two and three are General Conference Days featuring speakers like El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, CEOs like Michael Saylor, Elizabeth Stark, Jack Mahlers, Adam Back, and hundreds more. The conference caps off on the fourth day with the world's first and largest Bitcoin music festival, Sound Money Fest, headlined by rapper and fellow Bitcoiner Logic, featuring artists K-Fle, Mo, Royal, and The Serpent, Apache, Asadi, and more. Stay tuned for the upcoming lineup announcement. Last year's conference sold out and this year's is on pace to be three times larger, so make sure you grab your tickets before it's too late.

• 1:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Visit b.tc/conference to learn more. Again, that's b.tc/conference to learn more. Ticket prices increase on January 14th. Use promo code POMP for 10% off and I will see you in Miami. Today's episode is brought to you by Fundrise. You all know I believe that the best investors both understand and seek out extreme asymmetry. Fundrise is here to help you do just that. It's the largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform out there, giving you the opportunity to achieve upside of an asset class previously reserved for institutions and high net worth individuals. That's right, Fundrise is making high-end, private market, real estate investing accessible to everyone via an easy-to-use automated platform. Its 1 million users already know that the investment with Fundrise is

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Able to produce strong appreciation returns and income generation while helping to stabilize a diversified portfolio. That's more important now than ever in our inflationary environment. See for yourself how over 190,000 other investors have built a better portfolio with private real estate. It takes just a few minutes to get started with as little as $10. Go to fundrise.com/pomp today and for a limited time, you'll get $10 when you place your first investment. Again, that's fundrise.com/pomp. Go check it out and when you make your first investment, they'll give you $10 on top of it. Fundrise.com/pomp. Today's episode is brought to you by Brave. Brave Wallet is the first secure crypto wallet built natively in a Web3 crypto

• 2:50Anthony Pompliano?

  browser. What's Web3? Web3 is freedom from big tech and Wall Street. More control and better privacy. But there's a weak point in Web3, your crypto wallet. Most wallets are browser extensions, a Web2 technology. That means the same old risks, app spoofing, phishing scams, and theft. Brave Wallet is different. Brave Wallet is the first secure wallet built natively in a Web3 crypto browser. No extension required. With Brave Wallet, you can buy, store, send, and swap assets, manage NFTs, even connect other wallets and dApps, all from the security of the best privacy browser on the market. Whether you're new to crypto or a seasoned pro, it's time to ditch those risky extensions. It's time to switch to Brave Wallet. Download Brave

• 3:31Anthony Pompliano?

  at brave.com/pomp and click the wallet icon to get started. Again, go download Brave at brave.com/pomp and click the wallet icon to get started. All right, let's get into this episode. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 4:07Anthony Pompliano?

  Bitcoin standard for the baseball team. Let's just start there. Remind everyone kind of what you guys are doing and then we'll get into topics.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  Well, it's moving so fast. So much is happening. So we launched on November 17, that were the first team in world sport to be integrating Bitcoin and operating on a Bitcoin standard. And then unfortunately, the season was shut down. So we

• 4:29Anthony Pompliano?

  That was because of the weather, because of COVID.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  COVID, border restrictions, travel restrictions within Australia. So

• 4:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow.

• 4:37Speaker 02

  We weren't able to get a team into Perth without them needing to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel.

• 4:44Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, that's kind of dumb. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that to you or you're supposed to comment, but like, that feels stupid.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's been difficult. We've had a whole

• 4:55Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, here we go.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  We're working with the government, so we'll just play the right line here at the moment. But yeah, it's been difficult. But then we reset for a secondary season. And they got shut down as well. So finally, on March 3rd next week, our state will reopen to the rest of the country.

• 5:12Anthony Pompliano?

  It's been closed for two years, basically?

• 5:14Speaker 02

  The best part of it. It's been, yeah. Travel in and out unless you're the Prime Minister or a high ranking government official.

• 5:21Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, some people don't have to quarantine.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  Or part of the best business show, then you just can't get in.

• 5:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, we definitely are not invited. Who was it? There was a bank, I think it might have been Jamie Dimon's. I can't remember who it is. Somebody, one of the big bank CEOs, he like went to a number of different places. And he like flew in, flew out, and there was no quarantine going on. And everyone was like, what the hell? And they're like, oh, he has special, he got a special pass, you know, blah, blah, whatever. And it's like, well, how do I get a special pass?

• 5:49Speaker 02

  There's been a few of those special passes handing around. I think the

• 5:51Anthony Pompliano?

  Rules for thee, not for me. Exactly.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  Yes. But through that, we still managed to open up the ballpark on a couple of occasions and accept Bitcoin payments at our concession stand. So Things like movie nights, and they're really good test run for us to be able to buy beer with Bitcoin, buy hot dogs with Bitcoin, merchandise with Bitcoin. And that worked really well on the Lightning Network through OpenNode. There were certainly some issues that we found as we went through that process. But it was great then to go back to OpenNode, our payment processor, and say, look, we don't want all the contractors who are coming and operating these concession stands to have our two factor identification. So we need to now work on that and improve that system.

• 6:28Anthony Pompliano?

  So it's almost like permissioning and all sorts of different things where like you guys want almost like a master account. Then there's like vendor accounts. Like these are the, these are like the operational components of actually doing this. It sounds great. Like, oh, everyone can pay with Bitcoin, but you, in some degree, and it's a bearer asset, right? So all of a sudden, if I pay my Bitcoin to the vendor, the vendor's like, see ya. A little bit different, right than the legacy financial system.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  I don't want to be standing over their shoulder with Patrick down at other concession stands. So yeah, it certainly was something that we discovered early on that we need our app per the account, but then we need accounts for our concession stands as well. So we work through that and yeah, that will be a better, better place to operate next season. It was interesting when I went to crypto.com arena last week.

• 7:14Anthony Pompliano?

  And it lights?

• 7:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I saw the ice hockey, the Kings on the, on the Tuesday night and then the Lakers on the, on the Wednesday night. And I went to purchase some merchandise and I said, can I pay in Bitcoin? And they said, sorry.

• 7:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, interesting.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  I said, yeah, I'd like to pay in Bitcoin. And they said, would you like a Bitcoin shirt?

• 7:33Anthony Pompliano?

  Interesting.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  No, no, just Bitcoin. So obviously they're not set at the moment to take any sort of Bitcoin or.

• 7:39Anthony Pompliano?

  And I wonder how much of that is like the arena, the sponsor, right? Are the issues there or is it the actual individual vendors? Cause in some of those really large arenas, I do wonder, are they all using the same payment system? Or does like each vendor basically, hey, you're using squares, you know, point of sale system. Somebody else is using something else and they're not connected. I don't know what the answer to that is.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  No, there'd be so many different operations throughout a venue like crypto.com arena. But if you're investing $700 million into a naming rights, I personally thought there may have been some integration with it.

• 8:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Maybe it's coming, but as of right, as of right now, on the ground, not, not possible.

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Not, not possible. And then it gets you thinking, well, if they're crypto.com arena, are they just going to be accepting shitcoins? And then how many can they accept? Because that opens up a whole new issue in the accounting. Yeah. If you buy one shitcoin or use one shitcoin and it goes, just how, how do you work that out? Over 20,000 people using your arena on the one night.

• 8:32Anthony Pompliano?

  John would go and buy hot dogs with Shibu. Shibu, you know? I'd have to get some first.

• 8:40Anthony Pompliano?

  Right. But, but I do think it's interesting, like as you guys are getting deeper and deeper into this, you're starting to realize some of the operational, some are complexities, some are opportunities, right? And so like when people go to buy, let's say a hot dog, a shirt, whatever, in your stadium, is it just like you're having a QR code? Do you have an actual physical device? Like, what are you guys doing to make the user experience, you know, I guess just more efficient and effective?

• 9:05Speaker 02

  Lightning Networks instance, so phone with a QR code and payments processed.

• 9:10Anthony Pompliano?

  And you're basically just doing, you're literally generating the Lightning kind of invoice right there on a device, able to just scan it, just like I would do like a peer-to-peer type transaction, and then you guys got it.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  It's as simple as that.

• 9:20Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  And that's, that's what's great about having the ballpark and becoming a Bitcoin village is that we can educate and show how easy it is. So the next part will be introducing the ATMs into the ballpark as well. And then we'll discuss a little bit later what we're also going to do in the Bitcoin mining space.

• 9:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, let's just discuss it right now.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  The ballpark, well, that's probably the biggest thing that's come out of it in the last two weeks. What we've seen is probably what we thought may have taken a little bit longer to achieve is not going to be that hard to do. So we will become the first sports venue in the world now, and we're going to mine Bitcoin at the ballpark. If we're all in, we're going to go the whole.

• 9:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep. And where's the energy coming from? Is it just off of the grid or somewhere else?

• 10:03Speaker 02

  No, we're going to install some solar panels and use that. But if you actually look at sports venues across the world, you've got these huge facilities that are sitting there doing nothing for how many days a year? 300 days a year, 320 days a year, 250 days? And they've got the footprint that we can incorporate renewable energy to then create a revenue stream, which can also support the local community.

• 10:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  So any revenue we raise from Bitcoin mining, that will go back into the local community, be it to help young baseballers, equipment, help with fees that they may need, or if there's teams traveling around the country and they need support instead of doing fundraising, well, here we've got the facility.

• 10:44Anthony Pompliano?

  How much energy do you think, or like how many miners, have you guys figured out yet, like how big this could be?

• 10:49Speaker 02

  It all comes down to, yeah, how many supporters can we get on board? And we originally thought that potentially going with one mining company would be, would be the best way. But yeah, speaking to some leaders over the last couple of weeks while being in the United States, we chatted to Charlie Schumacher at Marathon, visited Windstone at the Riot facility, which is just crazy air. Chad Harris is an inspiring leader with what he's doing. We chatted with Parker Lewis at Unchained Capital, even CK from Bitcoin Magazine, the Managing Director. And what we'd collectively like to do is is bring all the miners into this project together. And we've got the opportunity to make this a global landmark now. Have you

• 11:29Speaker 02

  ever heard of, say, Fiat Ballpark or the US Dollar Ballpark?

• 11:35Anthony Pompliano?

  No.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  No, but we can go Bitcoin Ballpark. And we can get them all incorporated into this, uh, into this ballpark and they can all have their mining stalls within the one feature.

• 11:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  And it can be a great educational piece. And maybe instead of just having two or three machines, maybe we can have somewhere between, you know, five to 10.

• 11:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 11:53Speaker 02

  And it can really power the next generation of baseballers and the community. But more importantly, we can be the pilot program for what's possible around the world. And this is not something that can happen in 12 months or two years' time. We can do this in a couple of months.

• 12:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 12:08Speaker 02

  We're ready to press, press play because the quicker we start, the quicker we're helping our community. And that's what I think sometimes is lost with Bitcoin in, in the educational part, is how can we continue to feed other parts of our community? And if we're inspiring the next generation or supporting young kids with development programs, then fantastic. Then all, already the network and the community is huge and it's winning. But we're now showing every other stadium, look what can be done. Get onto your local governments, get onto your, you know, federal governments and start in, uh, incorporating some renewable energy that we can feed Bitcoin mining off.

• 12:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Can, uh, can John come sing the National Anthem?

• 12:47Speaker 03

  No, you don't want that. I am, I am curious though, on like a ground level for your guys' vision, what does that education look like? Cause that seems to be such a big part about just Bitcoin in general and getting the actual global adoption. What does the education on the ground level look like? Is it like a stand that you like kind of walk up to and talk about it? Is it kind of signage everywhere? What, what does that educational component look like for the fans and also for the players?

• 13:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. So when, when you, when you walk into the venue where we'll have the Bitcoin mining, that will be right in the main entrance. So people will walk in and you can't miss it. And there'll be people there and the education will start from there. Um, yeah, then you've got the ATM machines and you've also got, uh, you know, the concession payments at, at different stands as well. What we've got, which has been really good discussing with, um, companies here in the US is we've got a broadcast which we own. Now this is really different to anything else in world sport where you can have. A broadcast which you control for four hours and every message can be about Bitcoin. And we can drop in educational pieces. If we want to cross during the bottom of the fifth to yourself, John, and speak about what's happening in the Bitcoin world in Miami, we can do that.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  No one else has the ability to control the narrative throughout a broadcast and we can put on every platform we would like as well. So again, if you guys say to us, hey Steve, let's put the Perth Heat broadcast on the Best Business Show Twitter page, we can do that.

• 14:06Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 14:07Speaker 02

  So we can have a global reach and show how sport has the ability to connect, but also educate. Because as we know, sport is great in terms of inspiring. Sport is a great way to build communities and it's also a great way to integrate globally with different supporters and fanbases. So we feel our broadcast is one of the strongest assets we have in terms of going out to the masses, but also educating Bitcoin on a different level. So they don't have to go through a long rabbit hole or a deep on, but we can just say, you know what, Bitcoin is simply just a global monetary network for the internet. It allows peer-to-peer transactions. We don't have to make it any more complicated than that in terms of just the first part of the education.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  And then we can go deeper if required, but it can be a great entry level into understanding what Bitcoin is. And then if they want more, we'll have the, I guess, the additional sections through our website and through classes that we'll also run at the stadium as well.

• 15:07Anthony Pompliano?

  Have you talked to Peter McCormick about, I'm gonna call it a soccer team.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:11Anthony Pompliano?

  He calls it a football team, which is, we'll disagree. What do you think about his whole strategy?

• 15:18Speaker 02

  I think the more teams that do this, the better. Someone asked me this, a similar sort of question, said, are they a competitor? I said, no, I think they're a strategic partner.

• 15:26Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  And the more teams that we can have.

• 15:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, you guys would definitely hopefully beat them in baseball.

• 15:33Speaker 02

  I'm not sure about soccer because I'm also president of a soccer team and we're very good as well. We won a couple of championships the last few years. So if Peter or I are Bedford want to take on Olympic Kingsway, the challenge is there. Let's get it happening.

• 15:47Anthony Pompliano?

  If he lost to an Australian soccer team, he would never live it down.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  No, the mighty green machine is where we grow.

• 15:54Anthony Pompliano?

  I love you, Peter. Do not play, man. There's no upside.

• 15:56Speaker 02

  Here's the challenge. I thought maybe I'd I'd help him get to the Premier League in about five years' time, but maybe getting Olympic Kingsway, the green machine, up against McCormack. Let's go. Let's let's get it on. But the more companies that do it, or the more more teams, the better, because we'll build in this global network of sports teams. And I know there's a lot of teams at the moment which are heavily invested in looking at how to operate on a Bitcoin standard. The Miami Marlins, having a lot of conversations at the moment about integrating Bitcoin. We know the Houston Rockets have got a great educational program with NiDig, and that's evolving. And there's some really cool plans on the table there with what they'd like to do. There's a basketball team in Australia, which Matty Delavadova, who played in the NBA, is involved with and he's

• 16:40Speaker 02

  right into it. And he's trying to integrate Bitcoin as much as he can into that organization. So the more organizations, sports teams, then we're just building a Bitcoin league of different teams as well. And also with that, we can help educate each other as to the best practices. And yeah, how do we look through the payments of players? Because we've got a player who wants to be paid for five years upfront in Bitcoin. He has the Bitcoin mindset. What we need to work-

• 17:06Anthony Pompliano?

  He wants to get paid for five years. He's gonna take a discount on his uh on his salary. But he's like, give me the money now and I'll take it all in Bitcoin for my five-year contract.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  Yes, because he knows what the value of that will be in five years' time.

• 17:16Anthony Pompliano?

  And will you guys do it?

• 17:17Speaker 02

  We're talking through it, but this is what, again, we learned as a couple of the obstacles that we need to get through. So how will the Australian taxation department see that? And how will he be taxed over that period? Will they just look at it as a one-year payment? And then he's not working for the next four years? So that's, yeah.

• 17:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Where do you do you guys know where they'll come out on it yet? Or are you-

• 17:37Speaker 02

  Still discussing it. So yeah, I'd love to see him as the poster boy. Or a new poster boy for

• 17:43Anthony Pompliano?

  What a legend.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, for Bitcoin. Yeah, here is the Bitcoin boy. Yeah. Um, you know, the Bitcoin baseball boy or in so many ways. Yeah. Um, I'm all for it. I still need to convince my board.

• 17:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 17:53Speaker 02

  He's unfortunately coming back for, for, for some injury, but uh.

• 17:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, damn, they think he's not good?

• 17:58Speaker 02

  No, I think he's good. He, he's a slugger. He can hit baseballs. He crunches them. So, um.

• 18:03Anthony Pompliano?

  He needs you as his agent.

• 18:06Anthony Pompliano?

  He's a slugger. He's good. Rehab it all winter.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's a really exciting discussion and.

• 18:13Anthony Pompliano?

  What's the discount? Can you say? What, like over what he would be paid normally? Like, is it like a 20% discount or like more?

• 18:21Speaker 02

  It's hard to know what the discount will be because how will he progress over five years time as well? And what would his payment have been after five years? And yeah.

• 18:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Interesting.

• 18:28Speaker 02

  Who's got the discount in the end? Who wins?

• 18:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  So, yeah.

• 18:33Anthony Pompliano?

  It, it's pretty interesting when you start to think about, uh, you know, you could sign a long-term contract, but there's like performance bonuses. There's all this different stuff in there. But at the end of the day, if he just says, hey, look, just give me some money upfront and I'll, I'll take the price risk. For you guys, it's quote unquote cheaper today, but you do have to pay it all now, right? You're basically pulling forward, even though it's cheaper on a per year basis, you still have to pull it forward to pay today. And so, uh, you know, it, it's cash management, like, like there's a bunch of complexity here. Uh, that if you can figure out, could be really, really beneficial, but you still got to figure it out.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  Absolutely. And that, and we, and we always knew that once we stepped foot into operating on a Bitcoin standard, would we have all the answers? No. But if we wait, would we have all the answers? No chance. You get left behind. The quicker we do this, the better or the quicker we'll learn. And the more we'll be able to educate the next, uh, sports organization, um, that's ready to move as well. And that's important, being able to educate more teams to come on that Bitcoin standard.

• 19:30Anthony Pompliano?

  I just want you to know how, uh, how smart our audience is. Somebody just posted in the chat, C Grove said, a wise man once said, always make the money. Never don't make the money.

• 19:43Speaker 02

  Hard to argue with that.

• 19:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Genius, right? Like, like just boil it right down to, yeah, make the money.

• 19:49Speaker 02

  Get his name, we'll get him into our commercial department.

• 19:52Anthony Pompliano?

  What, uh, the team's name is Perth Heat?

• 19:55Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Is there any gonna, are you gonna change the name of the team? Could you change it at all? Or not really?

• 19:59Speaker 02

  The naming rights.

• 20:00Anthony Pompliano?

  I said Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Bulls.

• 20:02Speaker 02

  The Bitcoin Bulls. Oh, look, everything's always up for discussion. Depending on, on, on, on who the commercial partners are. Like, we would fully integrate with Bitcoin. We want to work with, uh,

• 20:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Whoever possible.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, Bitcoin companies and, and continue to support the network as, as much as we can. We're now known as Bitcoin baseball team. That's a really nice secondary line.

• 20:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 20:23Speaker 02

  To support what we're doing. Uh, there's 30 years of history and we've already, you know, tweaked the logo.

• 20:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Brand awareness.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  As you can see, you know, with the Bitcoin.

• 20:30Anthony Pompliano?

  No copyright with the Bitcoin logo.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  No, and, uh, that's, that was an easy hoop to, uh, to get through.

• 20:35Anthony Pompliano?

  What is the other one? Show the other hats real quick. So you got that one.

• 20:38Speaker 02

  So that's a pretty loud. Then we got, uh, something which is just more generic and Bitcoin baseball.

• 20:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Bitcoin baseball, pretty self-explanatory. And then I got this one right here.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  That's the navy blue.

• 20:49Anthony Pompliano?

  This is mine. There's many like it, but this one is mine. No one else is gonna get that one.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  There's a few here, so you're more than welcome to, uh, hand them out as you, as you see fit throughout the course, but, uh,

• 20:58Anthony Pompliano?

  I ain't giving shit to nobody.

• 21:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, just tweaking the logo naturally caused some, some dissatisfaction against former players when you start playing, you know, your logo is your badge, yeah? And people start asking questions like, there's, there's 30 years of tradition here that you're tweaking. There's championships which we've won and now you're playing around with a logo.

• 21:17Anthony Pompliano?

  So literally just putting the, uh, the Bitcoin in there, people got a little worked up.

• 21:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:22Anthony Pompliano?

  And what, it just previously was just like a full, uh, it was just colored.

• 21:25Speaker 02

  Colored, yeah. And I, I get it. I understand it, yeah. Um, your logo is, is pretty central to your whole organization. But I also need to make the organization better and I need to make sure that we're the best baseball team, not only in Australia, but within Asia. You know, over the next decade.

• 21:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you guys go play other teams in Asia?

• 21:43Speaker 02

  Oh, we will start now. Yeah, there's, there's a real appetite to create an Asian series, bring Japanese and Korean teams over to Perth and, and play international tournaments at the end of the Australian season. And heading into their seasons.

• 21:54Anthony Pompliano?

  I seen a couple of them playing Major League Baseball. They're pretty good. Be careful.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  They're incredible teams. Yeah.

• 21:59Anthony Pompliano?

  What is it? Ichiro, right? A legend. And then who was, who's the guy? Joe's always tweeting about him. The guy on the Angels. The guy who's like a pitcher and hits bombs. Yeah, Tony, right? Like, he, I think he grew up playing in, which league? John, I'll find it real quick. What league did he grow up playing in?

• 22:22Speaker 02

  The Japanese are phenomenal baseball players. We've actually got a Korean team in the Australian baseball leagues. Oh, really? Baseball League is an international league. There's a team from New Zealand, also one from Korea. It's a really interesting model.

• 22:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Americans don't know that New Zealand and Australia are different, by the way. They're.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  They're just a little island off the side. Yeah.

• 22:39Anthony Pompliano?

  They get confused, but yes.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  But yeah, that, that in a business sense, that's, that's quite an incredible model because they bring the whole Korean team into Victoria in, in, in Melbourne. And they base themselves there for the whole season. But the television audience is huge. Over a million people watching each Korean game. And they have been the worst performing side for the two years that they've been in the competition, yet they still draw those numbers.

• 23:03Anthony Pompliano?

  And so is the thought process that you won't necessarily get more teams into your league, but you'll basically play like out of league games? And you'll go into various Asian countries to play?

• 23:12Speaker 02

  That's, the great man said it. It's the Bitcoin Cup. You're coming to Perth and we're playing for the baseball Bitcoin Cup. And there's a team from Japan, a team from Korea, one from Australia, and there could be an invitational team that comes from, you know, the Tampa Bay Rays. Who our, our sister state, uh, team here in the US. And we've suddenly got a four team tournament with international teams. And we're playing for the most prized baseball, uh, trophy.

• 23:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Trophy.

• 23:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Which is, you know, powered by Bitcoin.

• 23:42Anthony Pompliano?

  So, uh. Otani grew up in Japan, Northern Japan, and it says that, I actually didn't know this, pretty interesting. He wanted to move basically right out of high school, straight to the major leagues, and he had received interest from the Rangers, Red Sox, Yankees, obviously the best baseball team, the Dodgers, etc. And he basically said, like, I'm going straight from Japan, I'm turning professional. But he ended up getting drafted anyways, but I'm gonna mess this up, so I apologize in advance, but Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, I guess is one of the Japanese teams, they drafted him anyways, and he actually then negotiated

• 24:23Anthony Pompliano?

  and to stay, played, I don't know how many years, and then went to Major League Baseball. So I think part of, the reason why that's fascinating to me is like, there's this whole idea of, America has a monopoly on the best baseball players. And sure, there's people who want to get to the Major League Baseball, but many of the best Major League Baseball players have spent years, I mean, he spent, it looks like, three, four years in the Japanese Baseball League before he went. And so you guys as well, in your league, have seen many, many people play for years there before they end up going to the Major League Baseball, or come back, right, after Major League Baseball.

• 24:59Speaker 02

  Well, everyone's journey is different. So, man, just look, at the Perth Heat, we've had 31 players, 31 players who have played for our organization and also played Major League.

• 25:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:10Anthony Pompliano?

  That's a big number. That's like, the whole team, right? Like, if they all play at the same time.

• 25:14Speaker 02

  If we look at our partnership with the Tampa Bay Rays, which I value as one of the most prized partnerships in world sport, for a team in Australia to be partnering with a Major League team.

• 25:22Anthony Pompliano?

  What do you guys do with them?

• 25:23Speaker 02

  So they send us out their 10 best prospects each American winter.

• 25:26Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, wow. Interesting.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  And that partnership's been going for four years. We've already had three players who've gone on to play Major League Baseball. Okay, so we've had Jake Fraley, who's currently with Seattle, Mike Brasso, who's a homerun for Tampa knocked out the Yankees in 2020 of the year.

• 25:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Chill with that, chill with that.

• 25:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, chill, chill, chill.

• 25:45Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, go ahead.

• 25:46Speaker 02

  And also Chris Sanchez, who pitched for the Phillies. You know, from here, I'll be heading up to Tampa to catch up with the Rays organization and talk through, but it's so valuable, the quality of the prospects they send out, and the individual that they bring, they add so much to our organization. But what we're finding is that this journey to Perth, Australia, is a really big part of their development.

• 26:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 26:09Speaker 02

  Prior to that, back in the late 80s, early 90s, it was with the Orioles. So over three decades, we've had two organizations.

• 26:15Anthony Pompliano?

  You dropped the Orioles, you're done with them?

• 26:17Speaker 02

  We're done with them. We're with the Tampa Bay Rays and what we're seeing is that, yeah, we've got a program and a system that the Rays organization trusts and that's, yeah, really powerful and, you know, we're, yeah, very grateful for that partnership.

• 26:32Anthony Pompliano?

  I, I didn't know where Perth was. I just looked up on the map and I actually met some people from Perth years ago when I was living out in San Francisco and I remember being like, oh, Australia, Sydney, right? Or Melbourne or whatever. And they're like, no, no, no, Perth, like way far away. But I didn't realize it's literally on the other side of the country.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  Well, like the ugly cousin here on the far side of the country there on the west side. Most isolated city in the world.

• 26:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Is it really?

• 26:57Speaker 02

  It is.

• 26:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow.

• 26:58Speaker 02

  But it's got the country's best baseball team.

• 27:03Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you guys have to travel when you go play these other teams? It's probably pretty far, right?

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 27:08Anthony Pompliano?

  How far is it to go to?

• 27:09Speaker 02

  To go to Sydney, four hours. Melbourne, three and a half. Brisbane, five hours. So there's a lot of travel for the teams.

• 27:15Anthony Pompliano?

  Driving four or five or four?

• 27:16Speaker 02

  No, flights.

• 27:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Flight. Oh, so this is like basically across the United States?

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 27:20Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. Again, similar like traveling across the US, a three hour time difference.

• 27:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, there's a three hour time difference too. Damn.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  So, yeah.

• 27:28Anthony Pompliano?

  How big is Australia? I thought Australia looked like a little small thing in the ocean. It's like as big as the United States going sideways.

• 27:34Speaker 02

  Now, so yeah, for a team coming out of Perth to win national championships is difficult because you're on the road so much more than the other teams on the, on the east coast. But good teams win regardless of what the conditions are.

• 27:45Anthony Pompliano?

  But you guys have nice beaches there. I think that's.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  Stunning beaches. They're gorgeous.

• 27:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. That's like the big thing is Perth's got the beaches.

• 27:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, we got Cottlesloe, we got Scarborough, we've got, yeah, Florrie, we've got, yeah, and then our southwest Margaret River, the wine region, yeah, yelling up. It's a stunning place to, to see which hopefully will get you out to.

• 28:04Anthony Pompliano?

  We've been talking about, we gotta come. But I gotta say, we gotta come after. I saw some videos. Yeah, everything's gotta calm down a little bit. We gotta wait till after the craziness is over.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  It's, I think we're just about there, but we've been saying that for two years.

• 28:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, alright. When I see videos of people like, oh, I could walk down through the, I think I saw one where they were walking with like a cup of coffee through the park and they got stopped and like they checked the cup of coffee. I'm pretty sure it was Australia. To make sure that they actually had coffee. Yeah, to make sure that they actually had coffee or something. And I was like, oh, I can't go there.

• 28:34Speaker 02

  We'll be back to our best.

• 28:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Alright, alright.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  And we've got a little hook to get you over to Australia, so.

• 28:39Anthony Pompliano?

  What's the hook?

• 28:40Speaker 02

  What's the hook?

• 28:41Anthony Pompliano?

  The best baseball team in Australia?

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. What do you think?

• 28:45Anthony Pompliano?

  Tell them.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Tell them. What? Well, it's, uh, it's never been offered to anyone internationally before.

• 28:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Wait, what is this?

• 28:54Speaker 02

  This is, uh, this is something that, uh, on behalf of the organization, we'll get this right on camera here.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  Oh, we got the wrong journey here. Take two. Building up the suspense here.

• 29:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, I'm so scared.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Come on. Take two. Here we go. Let's go. See, this is what Joe misses out when he goes trekking around the world, doesn't he? But, uh.

• 29:19Anthony Pompliano?

  No way!

• 29:20Speaker 02

  Here we go.

• 29:21Anthony Pompliano?

  Let's go!

• 29:22Speaker 02

  He, Pomp, will you become our international number one ticket holder?

• 29:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Number one ticket holder?

• 29:30Speaker 02

  Number one ticket holder.

• 29:31Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't even know what that means, but yes, in.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  You are in, and I think this will coordinate with some sort of trip, throwing the ceremonial first pitch, but, uh, here he is.

• 29:38Anthony Pompliano?

  Done.

• 29:39Speaker 02

  Our number one international ticket holder, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Perth Heat, the Bitcoin baseball team.

• 29:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Just do that to me. What? Alright, so hold on. First of all, hold on, rewind. Cause look, look at this. He's tricking me. First I get this one and he hands this to me. There's no name on the back. Like, okay, that's fine. 21 million, you know, obviously 21 million Bitcoin. I got it. But this, I might have to wear this as walking around Miami. That's awesome. Alright, so now my first question, before I agree to anything, which I already agreed, but, uh, what is the international ticket holder? What is that?

• 30:13Speaker 02

  Well, yeah.

• 30:14Anthony Pompliano?

  Like, I'm just, I'm just the best.

• 30:15Speaker 02

  That's the best, yeah. Absolutely. You come to the ballpark, you get the best seats, you get the best service. You are, you are the, uh, international ambassador for the Perth Heat.

• 30:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Done. I will, and when we get done, we'll take a photo of this and we'll post it on the internet and we'll tell everyone that John's gonna sing the national anthem.

• 30:34Anthony Pompliano?

  John's not excited about the National Anthem.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  You guys don't play the National Anthem there?

• 30:38Speaker 02

  We do play the National Anthem.

• 30:39Speaker 03

  They play the Australian National Anthem.

• 30:40Anthony Pompliano?

  The Australian.

• 30:40Speaker 02

  And at times.

• 30:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Every country's got a National Anthem.

• 30:42Speaker 03

  I know.

• 30:43Speaker 02

  At times we play the United States one as well, given the the number of imports we have, yeah. So we, we like to respect that a couple of times throughout the season.

• 30:52Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 30:52Speaker 02

  And also play the United States.

• 30:55Anthony Pompliano?

  I promise that we're coming. We got to figure out when we're gonna do it. And also, maybe we'll bring my, my daughter and Sophia can go see Perth and we'll convince Paulina to come. John can go. John will, I don't even want.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  I'll meet you there.

• 31:14Anthony Pompliano?

  John, you don't know this story, but we've told the audience before. John has a a history. It's not a habit, but a history of whenever we fly international, guy just, just slams Heinekens on the plane.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  I don't know what the problem is.

• 31:34Speaker 02

  That could be quite a fun.

• 31:34Speaker 03

  It's a long flight. It's like an eight hour flight. How far is it from?

• 31:37Anthony Pompliano?

  No, no.

• 31:38Speaker 03

  It's like 17 hours or something like that?

• 31:40Speaker 02

  Nah, it's fine. They're just getting to Doha for the transfer and then another 11. So you're looking at about 26.

• 31:46Anthony Pompliano?

  20 hours.

• 31:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, 26, yeah, with a stopover in between.

• 31:50Anthony Pompliano?

  So you go from East Coast to Doha or somewhere?

• 31:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. So on my flight home, I'll be going Miami to Doha. I think that's 13 and a half, few hour stopover and then Doha to Perth.

• 32:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Like another 11 or so.

• 32:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Man, 26 hours. Yeah, we definitely gotta go to a game.

• 32:07Speaker 02

  A lot of Heinekens.

• 32:07Anthony Pompliano?

  If we're going to fly 26 hours, we definitely gotta go to a game.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  Well, I'll get the chairman to fire up the boat and we're away.

• 32:15Anthony Pompliano?

  You guys got a boat?

• 32:16Speaker 02

  The chairman does.

• 32:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, who's the chairman? What's he doing? We'll go on the boat, we'll do the whole thing. The, one of my favorite stories actually is Ryan Leslie, who you may not know, there'd be no reason for you to know who he is, but he's a music producer. And so I asked him years ago, I was like,

• 32:37Anthony Pompliano?

  He'd spent a bunch of time with Jay-Z and a number of like very well-known artists. And I said, uh, tell me a story as to like, why are they successful? And he said to me, he goes, let me explain to you, I'm gonna tell you a day that I had with Jay-Z. And he said, they were in Australia and uh, I think it was either him or Beyonce or both of them. Uh, were doing like a special taping of the Oprah show at the uh, Sydney Opera House or whatever. Right? So they had some kind of event, uh, and then um, they went out on a boat and you know, spent a little bit of time uh, together for the day, came back, uh, had to do some work, ate dinner. And they went and in the uh, living room, they set up uh, the recording equipment.

• 33:20Anthony Pompliano?

  And so uh, the way that I remember the story him telling it was like, it was like two, three o'clock in the morning and he was Jay-Z, right? Like, like it's not like he was, you know, just starting out. He, he had already known Beyonce also. And uh, and he was still working at like 2:30 in the morning and he was recording. And Ryan Leslie, I think either said something to him or Jay-Z's other, or at some point it came up that like, you're Jay-Z, but you're still working. And he was like, ain't nobody gonna ever catch me. He's like, cause there's, nobody's gonna do this. And I always think about, I don't know why I have that story and cause it was in Australia and I have it like associated with Australia. I was like, man, Australia is dope. Right? And our brother went, uh, Vince went to Australia.

• 34:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:00Anthony Pompliano?

  Right?

• 34:00Speaker 03

  He loves the uh, Vegemite in Australia.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  Not one of my favorite sprays.

• 34:04Speaker 03

  One of or not?

• 34:05Speaker 02

  No, not, no, no.

• 34:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, me either.

• 34:09Anthony Pompliano?

  He wants you to answer first. He's gonna be ready to murder him for saying that. Uh, no, the thing that I remember uh, is that he uh, he came back, he went when he was like a teenager. Uh, I'm like, I don't know, some kind of program. Yeah, yeah, some program or something. And uh, he came back, he's telling us all about Australia and we were like, yeah, cool, man. Thanks for the invite, you know, whatever. But uh, he had, what, what is the uh, Aborigine, I think?

• 34:30Speaker 02

  The Didgeridoo.

• 34:31Anthony Pompliano?

  The, the tube thing?

• 34:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, the big Didgeridoo.

• 34:33Anthony Pompliano?

  My parents hated that thing. Cause this dude was blowing into the Didgeridoo. And he's making, he wasn't good at it, but he was, he was trying.

• 34:41Speaker 02

  He was trying, yeah. It's not, not, not easy to uh, to get the right sounds out of it.

• 34:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, it's crazy. That, that is like the musical. Instrument, right?

• 34:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's it, the night of musical instrument.

• 34:50Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, so let's talk, um, obviously, there's a whole bunch of stuff that's been going on around the world. Uh, the Russia, Ukraine stuff with crypto and Bitcoin. I saw that, um, it's like $4 million now that's been donated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Uh, also, I saw that uh, some of the centralized, um, I think it was Patreon, maybe froze a bunch of assets that was designated for some of them. Um, and then, uh, the Ukrainian national television was playing instructions on how to create Molotov cocktails, right? They're like, hey, you gotta fight back.

• 35:31Anthony Pompliano?

  They're handing out guns to people. Uh, there's a pizza place in, uh, in Ukraine that's giving out free pizzas to anyone that shows up, uh, and shows the weapon that they're gonna use to fight the Russia. I mean, it's like crazy stuff, right? But, but it's, it's war. What's your general read on like, uh, maybe the situation, but also just like Bitcoins role in these types of situations being like a censorship resistant technology?

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Well, we, we saw it first with the Canadian truckers, didn't we? And the influence it had, um, in Ottawa. And now, now we're seeing it in, in, in a different role, um, in war. So in the space of two weeks, um, its ability to transact in, in different ways, um, is showing, you know, the, the outside world or people not involved with Bitcoin, yeah, how it can have value and how it can be, uh, used as a, as a global monetary network. Um, what we're seeing, obviously, Russia and the Ukraine at the moment is, is heartbreaking. Um, it's, it's, it's confronting and, um, if we could stop it right now, we would love to, yeah.

• 36:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Ideally.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Um, but unfortunately, that's, that's not the case. So how can Bitcoin, you know, play a role? And if, you know, we can continue to donate, donate, uh, in, in ways that so far as raised a $4 million, then fantastic. And if we can support, um, communities, uh, with Bitcoin, fantastic.

• 36:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I was on a, on a call this morning. There was a couple of people who run Bitcoin or crypto companies and multiple people said, hey, we have folks that we work with, whether they're partners, employees, contractors, whatever, that are in Ukraine. And each of them, you know, kind of briefly mentioned, oh, we've instructed our employees on how to store Bitcoin. We've sent them some Bitcoin and they're like literally leaving the country right now. Another guy said that he actually had a pretty large, it sounded like employees. He was like, they're literally driving to the Polish border right now, right? And like, we're helping them. And so it's this weird thing where it, there's a lot of ties from

• 37:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Ukraine to the technology world, right? And I think that we're seeing the Bitcoin community in these situations, whether it's Canada, whether it's Ukraine, elsewhere. There's just something about like Bitcoiners helping Bitcoiners, right? And it feels like that is

• 37:53Speaker 02

  It's the network. Absolutely.

• 37:55Anthony Pompliano?

  And it feels like there, there's just something about this like loose connection of people who all have a similar vision of the world. And in these situations, the global audience steps in and tries to help.

• 38:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, without doubt is, if you just look at our, our baseball team, as soon as we've adopted the Bitcoin standard, we have plugged into the Bitcoin community and everyone we have spoken to has wanted to help. You look at some of those images of the lines at the ATM machines and people trying to take their cash out. How many won't be able to transact the money that they've saved in those accounts? One of the best things I loved about Bitcoin as I was starting to go down the rabbit hole was the fact that I could walk over borders. As long as I knew my words, I could take as much as I wanted to. It always fascinated me traveling, you know, over the years that you're only allowed to have $10,000 in your pocket out of Australia. That's the single most amount you're allowed to have.

• 38:42Anthony Pompliano?

  It's crazy.

• 38:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:44Speaker 03

  Same with, same with the United States.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. $10,000. Yet now I can take my Bitcoin anywhere and nobody knows. It's pretty cool. Yeah.

• 38:53Speaker 02

  And yeah, so what we're seeing is even with what its price is at and how it's managed to hold its position over the last 48, 72 hours as well. If there was going to be a test for Bitcoin again, you start a war and let's see what happens with the price. And right now we're seeing real strength in the value of Bitcoin because there hasn't been any huge volatility with the price at all, which

• 39:16Anthony Pompliano?

  I went on television this morning and they asked me yesterday, hey, will you come on tomorrow morning? And Bitcoin was, had gone down three or 4%, right? So I genuinely think that they're, they're trying to figure it out. They're trying to understand, hey, what's going on? Let's bring on people that have opinions and we'll kind of sift through it. And right before I went to bed last night, I looked and I was like, oh, Bitcoin was up, you know, eight, nine percent. I was like, all right, I got a little more firepower going into the conversation.

• 39:43Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 39:44Anthony Pompliano?

  If it's down three or 4%, right?

• 39:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's people waiting for you for it to trip up really, yeah. And a war's generally a time when you see stocks crash, but is Bitcoin? No. We're actually now seeing the strength of it in the way that the world can transact and it can help communities like the Ukraine and people throughout there, which is fantastic.

• 40:07Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, yeah, it was, let's see, at 5:30 or so yesterday morning, Eastern time, it was sitting, you know, kind of $34,000 or so, 34.5, 34.7. And now it's at 39,300 bucks. Like it's up, you know, 12, 13% over the last 24, 48 hours. And if you look at, let's see, gold, gold, I think is, before I say anything, let me check. Yeah, it's down, it's down, you know, 1, 2%, which is interesting though, because actually when the conflict started, it was opposite. Gold went up and Bitcoin went down. And then it feels like

• 40:49Anthony Pompliano?

  once people realize after about 12 hours or so, like, okay, here's what's going on, they reversed. And so like, I don't know what to read into that, but, but it's fascinating to watch.

• 40:57Speaker 02

  Maybe people have worked out you can't cross the borders holding gold bars.

• 41:00Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, it's like, we all joke about it to some degree, but like, one, true. Two is, I think that also you start to realize that like,

• 41:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Gold, even if it quote unquote works, it's going to stay flat, right? Like, like there isn't going to be some 300% increase in the US dollar value of gold. Bitcoin is different. Now Bitcoin can go down or go up, but there's more volatility to the asset. And so if gold and Bitcoin both work, right? So forget in either or world, they both serve as sound money. One's physical, one's digital. In that scenario, you're going to want to have the one that's more volatile, right? Because they're both working. And so I, I, I do think that it's this very, um, just a really interesting way to kind of look at this. And then you get into this idea of like, you know, printing trillions of dollars will get everyone up to, there's only 21 million.

• 41:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Confiscating it from truckers will get everyone up to like, you know, the, the inability to confiscate it. Now you get financial sanctions wakes everyone up to censorship resistance. Like the world just kind of continues to get orange pilled over time, right?

• 42:11Speaker 02

  It's been a great two weeks of marketing for Bitcoin, really, or, you know, or month in terms of the globe, understanding how it works. And in, in, in different formats as well. Obviously there's no company or CEO behind Bitcoin, but what we've seen is that it's marketing itself. Yeah. Canada's been a huge player in that.

• 42:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Justin Trudeau's the CMO of Bitcoin right now.

• 42:33Speaker 02

  He's done beautifully for us in a roundabout sort of way.

• 42:38Anthony Pompliano?

  And we should all thank him, actually.

• 42:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. If, if, if we can somehow, but, uh, and, and with what we're seeing in the Ukraine now, um, is, is also another way of understanding how Bitcoin works globally. In, in different markets and communities and at different times, um, in world moments.

• 42:58Anthony Pompliano?

  The technology clearly works and has use cases as we've seen over the last few months. How do you think about the price volatility and holding Bitcoin on your guys' balance sheet? And everything that goes along with like paying players, um, to not kind of take that price volatility? If it has a massive drawdown like it had in the last few months?

• 43:13Speaker 02

  I always, always say zoom out's only heading to one corner, isn't it? Um, we, we, we feel the strength of your organization will be hodling Bitcoin. If we can continue to. Huddle Bitcoin, there was an example, I spoke in Sacramento Bitcoin Day last week, and I was speaking about how all our partnerships moving forward, we would like to either be paid in Bitcoin or convert into Bitcoin. Now, if we huddle that Bitcoin, say we've got 25 Bitcoin from 2022, about a million US, what will that be worth in 10 years' time? Will one Bitcoin be worth a million? So will we suddenly have 25 million on our corporate treasury? But that's just one year out of 10 years. We've still got another nine years of stacking to go from

• 43:58Speaker 02

  there, and that will be the strength of the organisation, and we can't lose. It's to the rest of the competition, try and catch us. You think you can win championships with this sort of corporate treasury that we've got, with this strategy that we've had since 2022? I just cannot see how any other team in the Australian Baseball League will be able to compete. And people say, yeah, but you've got operating expenses. Yes, we do. But those operating expenses will be covered from things like merchandise, ticketing, memberships, concession stands. If we can cover our operating expenses through those revenue streams and continue to huddle our partnerships, then we're in a really good position come 10 years' time.

• 44:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think it's a no-brainer. How can people help you?

• 44:45Speaker 02

  In so many ways, certainly the Bitcoin community in terms of organisations, we want to partner with them. We said when we spoke on the show the first time, we're not a shitcoins sports team. And-

• 44:58Anthony Pompliano?

  That's actually what the name of the team now is, Perth Heat, we're not a shitcoins sports team.

• 45:02Speaker 02

  Exactly. But we only want to partner with Bitcoin-focused companies. And we've had the big exchanges come after us, and we've had to say no. And that's been part of the education to the board as to how it works and who we're going to partner with. So certainly, we want to continue working with Bitcoin-only companies. And for fans and members or people around the globe, you can jump on our website, and you can purchase merchandise, you can purchase-

• 45:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, memberships globally.

• 45:31Anthony Pompliano?

  So people could basically get.

• 45:33Speaker 02

  Online. We've just had the second shipment that's come through from New Balance. They are online and they're available to be shipped immediately.

• 45:40Anthony Pompliano?

  New Balance paying you in Bitcoin?

• 45:42Speaker 02

  They're not at the moment. Yeah, certainly.

• 45:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Previous deal, yeah.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  One of our partners, we would like to do more with.

• 45:50Anthony Pompliano?

  What is the, what's the conversion of AUD to US dollars?

• 45:55Speaker 02

  It's about 71, I think, at the moment.

• 45:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, 72 to 1, 72 cents to 1 AUD.

• 46:03Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. So it's about 30% less of, so if a hat is $50, it's kind of like $35, give or take.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 46:12Speaker 03

  36.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, and there's the.

• 46:14Anthony Pompliano?

  Listen, I don't do public.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  You're close, you're close.

• 46:18Speaker 02

  But yeah, jump online. We're ready to ship those out. That's global in terms of the network that we've got to distribute. And then, yeah, we just keep supporting us.

• 46:30Anthony Pompliano?

  And people can, are they going to be able to watch the games on the internet?

• 46:33Speaker 02

  Once, once we start up again, which with 22, 23 season, and that will be the Bitcoin broadcast. And that's where we will integrate.

• 46:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Sick.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  Anything and everyone to do with Bitcoin in a four hour broadcast. We can cross to you for a one hour pre-show if we would like and just speak Bitcoin. Yeah. It was pretty cool. We met up with CJ Wilson up in Sacramento. He's a two-time All-Star.

• 46:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  He's pitched in the World Series twice, 11 years in the major leagues. This is how the Bitcoin community works. We met up. He loves what we're doing.

• 47:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 47:05Speaker 02

  And in a conversation said, wouldn't mind coming out and being part of your organization.

• 47:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Can you get him to play?

• 47:11Speaker 02

  He's been out of the game for a few years, but you know what? He can add a lot.

• 47:16Anthony Pompliano?

  I bet you he's still got a nasty fastball.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, it'd be pretty cool. But he was speaking about, yeah, maybe joining our pitching staff. And how cool is that that, yeah, once we've joined the network, we've now aligned ourselves with someone who's played 11 years at the highest level, over 1,200 strikeouts. That can only improve our organization.

• 47:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 47:35Speaker 02

  And that's where, yeah, some of the people who haven't understood what this whole process is about go, how does it work? Well, that's how it works. And just in one way of so many ways, we've now got CJ Wilson offering to help our ball club.

• 47:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  And that's only going to better. Our bullpen, our younger players coming through.

• 47:52Anthony Pompliano?

  For sure.

• 47:53Speaker 02

  And anyone within our organization that we've had someone play at the elite level and can educate us in so many different aspects of baseball, but also running an organization.

• 48:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  I firmly believe you can learn off anyone in any capacity. Yeah.

• 48:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Completely agree.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Absolutely. So, um, yeah, um, our, our, our broadcast will be phenomenal. I've, I've got, we've got some ideas and I'll share one with you. So you've got the home run fence. Yeah.

• 48:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 48:17Speaker 02

  And there's different ways we can now integrate people in different parts of the world in, into competitions. So we may have our international number one ticket holders face right up there behind the home run fence.

• 48:27Anthony Pompliano?

  That's me, John.

• 48:28Speaker 02

  We may be able to get Michael Salas face up there as well. We may be able to get, uh, you know, Jack. And if a home run is crunched and it hits one of your faces, well, that can support the Bitcoin community in so many different ways.

• 48:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Ah, interesting.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  So we've got the game of baseball happening. We've got players being.

• 48:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Gamified a little bit.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. Why not?

• 48:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 48:50Speaker 02

  Um, you know, let, let's bring the fans into the ballpark as well. We appreciate that not everyone worldwide will be able to come to Perth to watch the, uh, the Bitcoin baseball team. But there's so many ways.

• 48:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Ticket holder will.

• 49:00Speaker 02

  Absolutely. Front and center, right behind home plate.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  But there's different ways that we can now integrate fans.

• 49:07Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 49:07Speaker 02

  And the network into a game of baseball and we're controlling this broadcast.

• 49:12Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  Um, so many teams would love the ability to be able to control.

• 49:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 49:16Speaker 02

  What they put out.

• 49:16Anthony Pompliano?

  It's like the yes network for the Yankees, but, uh, but better.

• 49:20Speaker 02

  But better. Yeah. Um, so some really cool things that we're working through. Do we put like a, a QR code on the back of a player? And yeah, it is, is the way that people can scan through that and maybe a partner can give, you know, free Bitcoin to people. But yeah, we'd like to experiment, have some fun with that, obviously taking what our focus is, which is winning championships.

• 49:38Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  I love winning more than anyone.

• 49:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. You know what our dad used to tell us? He, well, he still tells us, uh, he used to say all the time, he goes, listen, we'd like finish up with like a practice, a game or something. He would just say, listen, now all this nonsense of telling you whatever he goes. There's nothing more fun than winning.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  It's the best.

• 49:55Anthony Pompliano?

  I just for whatever reason, I always remember that I say, yeah, that is true. There is nothing more fun than winning.

• 49:59Speaker 02

  Absolutely. Um, since I've been with the organization, we've lost two championship series in, in three seasons. And, uh, yeah, we need some rings on our fingers. And, uh, yeah, well, the focus is always on producing baseballs and winning, uh, winning championships at Claxton Shield. But, um, you know, part of our, a big part of our business is in, in integrating with Bitcoin. And how can we, uh, work with the community to, uh, improve the education, um, but also taking it to different, uh, parts of the world, which, you know, we've got Twitter space at the moment. We've got these great podcasts, um, but how also can we connect with, um, with different, uh, generations of fans right around the world through sport because it's got the power to connect and to inspire. Um, and we think we've got a, a really wonderful chance to do that.

• 50:39Anthony Pompliano?

  For sure.

• 50:40Speaker 03

  Well, the idea, I believe of like plugging into the Bitcoin standard is not only the, uh, monetary, hey, you can set payments this way, the price appreciation, you get the capital appreciation on your balance sheet, appreciation or depreciation, depending on the timeline and how you look at it. Um, but obviously all of us here think appreciation. Um, and then you, you tap into the community, right? Where CJ Wilson, you have guys that are coming in and saying, hey, I like what you guys are doing. How can I help? Um, and it just broadens your guys' reach outside of Perth and outside of Australia in general, um, globally, right?

• 51:08Speaker 02

  Without doubt. Um, you look at our merchandise sales and what we've been able to achieve since, uh, we launched our position, um, on November 17th. What we'd previously done in three years of international sales, three years, we eclipsed in four weeks. And that's just Bitcoiners around the world saying, I want to buy the jersey. I want to buy the hat. Uh, we want to support. It's crazy. Three years of merchandise sales eclipsed in four weeks. Um, and that's

• 51:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Welcome to Bitcoin.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  It's pretty cool. Um, and I know Pete McCormack's had, yeah, similar sorts of, uh, success with his merchandise with Real Bedford. Uh, the more people we have wearing Bitcoin, uh, jerseys, hoodies, caps around the globe, uh, the better for the network, the better for the community.

• 51:51Anthony Pompliano?

  If we go to this, John, by the way, this is very important detail. I don't need any 50 cent like first pitch. I don't need a Conor McGregor first pitch. I need you to-

• 52:03Speaker 03

  What about a Fauci first pitch?

• 52:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Don't even get me started. I need you to hit me with the George Bush 911, uh, right down-

• 52:11Speaker 03

  Foot on the rubber, just strike right down the middle.

• 52:14Anthony Pompliano?

  I saw a documentary. He said, I knew that I had to throw it. And he says, then if I messed it up, I'd never hear the end of it. He said, I need to throw it right down the middle.

• 52:21Speaker 03

  Apparently Jeter told him. He was like, I'm gonna throw it like from right in front of the mound. Jeter was like, get on the mound.

• 52:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, he was like, you'll get booed.

• 52:28Speaker 02

  The greatest ceremonial first pitch of all time.

• 52:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Probably of all time, right?

• 52:32Speaker 02

  And that documentary on the ESPN 30 for 30s is just-

• 52:35Anthony Pompliano?

  That's what it is.

• 52:36Speaker 02

  It's just phenomenal. It's one of the many ones. It goes for 30 minutes. Wow. What a story.

• 52:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. That's why I just need to make sure John knows that we go in George Bush style. We're not going Conor McGregor throwing it off into the-

• 52:49Speaker 03

  I gotta rewatch McGregor's.

• 52:50Anthony Pompliano?

  McGregor throws it into the stand, like literally.

• 52:52Speaker 03

  I think I remember him saying, it was a rocket though.

• 52:58Speaker 02

  If that's his rocket, gee.

• 53:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 53:04Speaker 02

  That was awful.

• 53:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, you do it hard. Just got in the wrong direction there, buddy. Um, all right. Before, uh, before we let everyone go, uh, what is the website that we should send everyone, uh, to?

• 53:15Speaker 02

  Well, if you, if you go to our website, which is just perthheat.com.au or you go to the, uh, the Bitcoin Perth Heat, uh, there's, there's two different ones there. So that we've got the option there. Uh, our main website, then we've also got the additional one, which has, uh, got all the merchandise, uh, memberships and, and tickets for you to purchase as well.

• 53:31Anthony Pompliano?

  The Bitcoin baseball team. What, uh, and do you see, John, do you see the attention to detail here? Do you see what I see?

• 53:40Speaker 03

  Laser eyes on the-

• 53:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Laser eyes on the, uh, on the guy swinging the bat. Like, come on.

• 53:45Speaker 02

  That's our captain, Tim Cannelli, uh, also captain, the Australian team, uh, yeah, wonderful player. The best slugger in the competition.

• 53:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Really?

• 53:55Speaker 02

  Kane Crunch Baseball.

• 53:56Anthony Pompliano?

  We'll see. We'll, we'll do some batting practice. Well, we'll see what he has. John will throw him some BP. John, that's the only way John throws.

• 54:03Speaker 03

  Meatballs for this guy.

• 54:06Speaker 03

  Outfielders back up.

• 54:14Anthony Pompliano?

  No, your hardest job.

• 54:15Speaker 03

  John. Throw a 65 mile an hour fastball right down the lane for him. 65 miles an hour, bro. What are you gonna throw left handed? Come on, 65? I could, I don't know how fast I could throw. You can't throw.

• 54:28Speaker 02

  70, sure.

• 54:29Speaker 03

  70, yeah. I don't know. I didn't throw it on baseball.

• 54:31Speaker 02

  We're gonna get a speed gun out on you. That's what we're gonna have.

• 54:34Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, come on. You don't want to get that.

• 54:36Speaker 02

  70 is your benchmark.

• 54:37Speaker 03

  Some people would be embarrassed, yeah. I mean, I'm not throwing 90 miles an hour, so.

• 54:41Speaker 02

  You're gonna be throwing 70 if you're coming to Perth. We don't want anything.

• 54:44Speaker 03

  If I got CJ Wilson helping me out, I'm throwing 100.

• 54:48Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. If you go into the chat right now, I just dropped Steven's Twitter handle. Make sure you follow him on there. We appreciate you coming in. Just, just one more time in case anybody didn't realize I got this now. Yeah, your boy's gonna be wearing this on Saturday night at the club. I don't go to the club, but it sounded good.

• 55:09Anthony Pompliano?

  And now, we have confirmed that John will be singing the National Anthem at a game and throwing out the first pitch left handed.

• 55:16Speaker 03

  Not left handed.

• 55:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, well, if he throws 65. And we.

• 55:22Speaker 03

  I'm trying to have Tommy John after.

• 55:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Somebody said, somebody said rubber arm. He got like a wet noodle going on over there.

• 55:27Speaker 03

  Tommy John after. One pitch.

• 55:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Make sure you subscribed on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. And if you're looking to try to transition to get a new job in the Bitcoin or crypto industry, we've got you covered. Head over to pompscryptocourse.com. We've developed a curriculum with the top teams across the industry. It's a three week intensive training program with over 50 events packed into that three week time period. Go to pompscryptocourse.com to learn more and I'll meet you guys for the next episode.