Today I talk with Ben Jarvie. Ben is a Bitcoiner working for Amber App, a Bitcoin-only exchange, and he is also a writer.
In this episode we talk about a piece that Ben wrote for Bitcoin magazine titled "New Zealand's Past, Pūtea, and Future: CBDC vs Bitcoin".
In this article Ben illustrates a fascinating perspective on the contentious relationship between state & centralised money, and the Māori people of New Zealand.
The very existence of a singular undemocratic Reserve Bank of New Zealand goes against the principles laid out in the Treaty of Waitangi for self-determination, though this is conveniently ignored to instead focus on a seemingly unending culture war that sees the Reserve Bank co-opting Māori imagery and symbols of guardianship whilst simultaneously engineering a recession.
More broadly the article outlines how New Zealand has always been at the mercy of overseas banks and the monetary policy of the crown and we are still paying for this today.
Ben and I explore various avenues of discussion here, and we arrive at a place that sees Bitcoin present an opportunity for the empowerment and self-sovereignty of not only Māori communities but all of New Zealand.
If you want to get in touch follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/TTOVpodcast or send an email to hello@thetransformationofvalue.com and I will get back to you.
Links:
Ben's article "New Zealand's Past, Pūtea, and Future: CBDC vs Bitcoin" in Bitcoin Magazine - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/new-zealands-past-putea-and-future-cbdc-vs-bitcoin
Amber App - https://amber.app/
Amber App Telegram Tribe - https://t.me/theamberapp/1
Reserve Bank of New Zealand - https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/about-us/tane-mahuta-and-our-financial-system
I talk with Jimmy Djabali of Swiss Bitcoin Pay, an app for easily accepting Bitcoin payments at point of sale. This is an important area of development, and unfortunately there are still not that many solutions out there for making accepting Bitcoin as a business easy. Swiss Bitcoin Pay seeks to fix this with a simple interface that is suitable for shops, restaurants, or any kind of customer-facing business.Jimmy shares how the project came about and his vision for it, as well as the Bitcoin merchant situation in Switzerland including the city of Lugano which has over 300 merchants accepting Bitcoin already.
I talk with Matyáš Kuchař, co-founder of BTC Prague in the Czech Republic, Europe’s largest Bitcoin event.We talk about BTC Prague’s origin and Matyáš's connection to New Zealand.We also discuss the Bitcoin scene more broadly in the Czech Republic, with a number of well-known Bitcoin companies and projects emerging from the country.I will be attending BTC Prague 2024, in June which is going to be awesome. There are some great speakers lined up including Adam Back, Michael Saylor, Parker Lewis, Peter Todd and many others.🎉 Use discount code TTOV to get 10% off your BTC Prague tickets!
Today I talk with Nicki and James in El Salvador. The couple left New Zealand, buying one-way tickets to El Salvador just over a year ago! We talk about what it is like in their new home and the hope and optimism that they see around them.
I talk with Kevin Whitmore from Callaghan Innovation. We discuss payment innovations with the Lightning network, Bitcoin, Nostr, and more. I am encouraged to see an interest in Bitcoin technology from the New Zealand Government. I welcome Callaghan’s approach of objectively looking at everything that comes their way and making judgements based on first principles. Ultimately having a vehicle like Kevin’s work at Callaghan Innovation could be one of the ways New Zealand becomes a first mover in adopting Bitcoin. I am quietly encouraged to see the label "Web3" reclaimed by genuinely decentralised tech such as Nostr, Lightning Zaps, and Fedi.
Dr. James Kierstead is a Research Fellow with the New Zealand Initiative focussing on higher education policy, including academic freedom. James co-hosts Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to free speech in New Zealand, and also has a background in classical studies, in particular democracy in Ancient Greece. We talk about the declining state of New Zealand universities and the impact this has on graduates bringing their ideologies into the public sector. We also dive into the importance of language learning and, the economies of ancient Greece city states, and what we can learn from the past.