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Feb. 20, 2024 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
01:32:33
Episode 33, Feb 20, 2024 – Revolutionary crypto ecosystem: Interview with CryptoGuard...
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Welcome to today's interview on Decentralized TV. I'm Mike Adams, the founder of Brighteon, which carries Decentralized TV. And my co-host Todd Pitner joins me today for what I think is going to be a really exciting interview.
Welcome, Todd.
Thank you, Mike.
And I'm just going to give away the ending real quick.
I want to let people know that after the interview, hang in there for our new segment, because in our after party, because after parties matter, is we have a new segment, which is Ask Mike Anything.
Oh, no.
And I have some awesome questions for you later, Mike.
All right, Todd.
Well, I have decorated my desk with more interesting things.
In the meantime, I've got some silver buffaloes here because we believe in self-custody of assets.
So silver coins in addition to the Rubik's Cube and this silver 308 Winchester round that another guest gave me here.
It's still sitting here.
But let's bring our guests in because they have a really exciting project and I'm thrilled to be able to have them on today.
So we have Dr.
Kapp and also Gabriel who are community members of a project called Particle.
And the website is, it's like the word particle but without the E on the end and then.io.
So particle with no E,.io is the website.
So welcome Dr.
Kapp and Gabriel.
Hey Mike.
Hey, pleasure to be here.
It's great to have both of you here.
This is cool.
We have a four-up format here.
We've got us all on the same screen.
The reason we wanted to invite you onto the show is because your project offers so much of what we believe in, self-custody and free trade and anonymity, privacy, all these things.
So Dr.
Kapp, perhaps, or you can choose who wants to answer this, but could you give us an overview of what Particle is all about?
So the Particle project is a privacy project, but essentially what we're about is about bridging the gap between e-commerce and that store of value that's Bitcoin.
So we've basically created a KYC-free, anonymous, privacy-focused eBay.
Wow!
Trades.
It allows you to buy and sell goods on marketplaces that you can create on our platform or on our standard marketplace.
Without any fees, essentially.
With complete privacy.
So, hold on a second.
So we can create marketplaces based on your technology, but is there also one sort of overarching marketplace where we could just list products or buy products?
So, if I am permitted to share my screen, then I could literally show you a demo of this live in the background.
We'll do that.
It works.
Yeah.
Yeah, to my crew.
Can we give him permissions?
Give Dr.
Kapp, like, God powers?
Over the screen sharing?
Okay, they're working on that.
So I'll give you a heads up when that's ready to go, Dr.
Kapp.
But yeah, I mean, essentially, it's an app, a bit like Spotify.
At the moment, it's really just for Windows, Linux, and Mac PCs.
We are working on the architecture to get it ported onto mobile apps and onto general purpose websites as a whole.
But at the moment, it's kind of go to the Particle.io website.
You can download Particle desktop.
Essentially, you install that.
Go through a few prompts.
Microsoft will give you a few warnings.
Just brush this off.
This is very secure software, I promise you.
Once that's installed, you basically set up your wallet.
Wait for it to basically sync with the network.
Because essentially what it is, it's a bit like Bitcoin in some ways.
You're connecting to a peer-to-peer network of traders and users of the Particle network.
Once you've done that, and once it's synced in, you can connect to...
There's basically a default marketplace that's just there, which you can join, and that's got its own set of listings.
But anyone is free to build their own private marketplaces, which have their own addresses, and only those who know the address to that marketplace can see it.
Okay, you're good to go with the screen control, so go ahead and walk us through it.
Can you see that now?
Yes, we can.
I'm just going to shift to this.
So this is just kind of me.
This is the particle marketplace.
So you can see this.
This is just the overview.
You can kind of see.
I'll just basically go to manage markets.
And you can kind of see these are some of the markets that I've already joined.
This is the default marketplace that's visible to everyone when they kind of download it, so you can join this one.
I'm just going to open that one up and just browse it, actually.
So you can kind of instantly see, you know, KYC free, £100, £100 sent by PayPal.
These are some of the listings.
I'm just going to filter a couple.
So this allows you to kind of flip through some of the marketplaces that you've already joined up to.
So I'll just filter this to, say, home.
So this is the default open marketplace.
So anyone here can basically be a buyer.
Anyone can be a seller.
So, you know, anyone can join.
If you have the address for this marketplace, this particular one, anyone can be a vendor on it.
Anyone can sort of buy and sell goods, as it were.
There's no commissions.
It's just the...
There's no commissions, basically.
This is an open-source, free-to-use network to encourage people to buy and sell goods online freely without any fear of censorship, without having to give up their personal information.
Sorry, I'm just going to quickly...
Normally I'm a lot more slick than this.
I'm just going to be up front with you, but you're kind of getting the point.
Dr.
Kapp, real quickly, what is the medium of exchange?
Is it just the particle?
Is that a cryptocurrency or can it be any coin or can it be fiat?
What's the medium of exchange?
Excuse my interruption.
At the moment, the medium of exchange is the native cryptocurrency of the particle network, which is the PART token.
That can be acquired through several established exchanges such as MEXC, Bittrex, and a couple of others.
What we're working towards, and this would actually be the second part of our discussion, would be we've built our own decentralized exchange called BasicSwap.
Which is, again, a KYC privacy-focused currency exchange and swap service.
It uses something called Atomic Swaps.
And it essentially allows you to swap one cryptocurrency type with another cryptocurrency type in such a way that a third-party or outside observer doesn't even know the swaps occurred.
Did you say KYC or non-KYC on that?
Non-KYC. There is no KYC in our entire ecosystem.
Okay, so...
Stress that.
The minute you download this, once you've got it loaded with some of the part tokens, it's just a case of if you find a listing that you happen to like, you go through the order process.
At no point will it ask you for your name.
At no point will it ask you for your date of birth.
There is no sign-up process.
There's no passwords as such.
You just create your own custom wallet.
And then you explore this.
When it comes time to checking out, as it were, you just simply specify a shipping address.
If it's a physical good, you just simply specify a shipping address.
It doesn't have to be your own.
It could be a friend's.
It could be a post office box.
It doesn't matter.
But this is how, you know, from every step of the way, if you look at our system, it is designed to preserve privacy.
Now, a practical question in all of this.
I know you've probably had these questions a thousand times, but so is there an escrow system or how is trust established between buyers and sellers so that they're not ripping each other off?
Sure.
So the escrow is quite elegant.
It hasn't got a third party, so we don't use human third parties in our escrow.
What we use is a concept called the MAD escrow system, mutually assured destruction, which sounds a lot nastier than it really is, and ironic given the times we're living in.
I'll give you an example.
Say you're using the particle marketplace, and this is what I give to my colleagues at work.
Look, you come across a coffee cup that you like, and let's say that coffee cup is on sale on the particle marketplace for $5.
Well, you as the potential buyer We're good to go.
Me, I've put my $10.
The seller's put their $5.
Now it's up to the seller.
We agree the address.
The seller then sends the items across to me.
If I receive them, I say, this is great.
Escrow is released.
The seller gets my $10 plus the seller gets the $5 they put into the escrow plus my $5.
I get $5 plus the coffee cup.
In that way, essentially, I put double the price of the item into the escrow.
The seller puts the price of the item into the escrow.
And if everything goes to plan, seller gets the profit, I get the goods, and we both get our deposit values back.
In the worst case scenario, if something goes wrong, we can extend the period for which the escrow remains unresolved.
And then we can work out dispute resolution through messaging each other directly.
The platform allows that.
So then the buyer, if the buyer tries to say, I got the coffee cup, but I'm going to screw the seller and not release escrow, then the buyer loses double the value.
They're paying $10 for the coffee cup instead of $5, and unfortunately the seller loses their deposit as well, but everyone loses in that scenario.
That's brilliant.
Thank you.
Obviously, you know, we've updated, we've advanced it now, so a seller can set a variable escrow, so it doesn't have to work that way.
But that is the default sort of setting that we advise to kind of maximize the probabilities of everyone acting honestly.
And in practice, everyone is pretty honest.
You know, no one's, you know, it's, you know, I find people, you know, it is an elegant system.
Really, I would like to connect you to the IRS in the United States with that system because if I pay my taxes, you have to put it to the use that you promised or you lose twice the amount.
Something like that.
I wish I could say the same about Great Britain.
I'm just going to say that now.
I hear you.
I hear you.
Okay, so that's a really elegant system, and I want to make sure, you know, Gabriel is on here as well, even though Gabriel's not joining us with video, but Gabriel, do you have anything important to add to that?
I think it pretty much covers it.
It's a solution that we've developed to provide an infrastructure to cryptocurrencies.
I'm sure that, you know, especially with the CBDCs coming, Probably try to fence off real cryptocurrencies off of the digital economy because they can't control it.
And although we have solutions, we can use Monero, we can use Bitcoin, we can use Particle.
If we have to sell that every time for fiat that we want to buy products and services online, it sort of defeats the purpose.
Because I could see certainly a future in which they At least try to totally fence off real cryptocurrencies from the digital economy.
So if we want Bitcoin or Monero to truly thrive as an independent economy, we have to have infrastructure that's as decentralized as the currencies themselves.
So that was kind of the thinking behind the marketplace and the techs.
Well, we love this solution because, as Todd knows, I'm all about the practical applications of cryptocurrencies.
And by the way, I continue to collect a little bit of Monero every week or two.
And I don't plan to ever sell Monero.
I plan to use Monero to buy other things, other goods and services.
So Particle is a perfect example of that.
Now, Dr.
Kapp, could you tell us about the part...
Token or coin, what are its privacy features and how does that work?
So the part coin utilizes the same sort of privacy algorithm as Monero.
It utilizes Ring CT. It utilizes a combination of Ring CT and CT. Now, it's different from Monero in that it has multiple states.
So you can have We're good to go.
In that form, the sender, the receiver, and the amounts are completely hidden to outside observers.
And that's because you're using a combination of CT and RingCT technologies, RingCT being found in Monero, to essentially obfuscate the transaction flow.
So that's the key feature of the PART token, is that actually it's a privacy coin at its core.
But it's implemented into the particle ecosystem directly for these sort of e-commerce purposes.
The reason we utilize this with structure is essentially because our escrow system requires something called programmable inputs.
And the particle coin supports that natively, which Monero doesn't.
Now, one thing I'm going to say is that Once we've kind of fleshed out our web framework and once we've fleshed out basic swap, our DEX supports Monero swaps with Particle and other tokens directly.
So I kind of envisage a future where when that's a bit more fleshed out, you'll be able to essentially use the particle marketplace with Monero and Bitcoin and multiple other cryptocurrencies.
And I can see two potential solutions.
I think the most obvious one is the underlying settlements occur in our part token.
But on the front end, you're just seeing Monero, Bitcoin and other currencies.
I also see a different situation where if you're willing to change some of the escrow parameters, you can just use the particle marketplace architecture and direct transact directly in Monero.
So I think there's a lot of flexibility within our ecosystem.
And I stress that even though we've got our own coin, we are fundamentally a crypto agnostic ecosystem.
We are building in the direction of supporting as many different cryptocurrency systems as possible.
We are all about freedom of choice.
So, that's outstanding to hear, but if you don't take a percentage of the sale, then what is the source of the funding for your project?
So, the native token, it's a proof...
So, the actual currency going back to the PART token, it's a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, which is built using the Bitcoin codebase.
Now, because it's proof-of-stake, there's...
There has been agreed rules within our own governance whereby half of the block rewards go to a decentralized treasury.
And that's actually been sufficient to fund the project.
So essentially half of the block rewards that generate so many tokens per block, which is so many tokens per annum, essentially every six months the community has a vote to say, are we happy with the developers?
Are we happy with what they're doing?
If yes, we will carry on directing this block reward towards them.
And then generally that's actually how it's been working because, well, our devs have been delivering for the last few years.
Well, 50% seems, I mean, that's the highest that I've ever heard of in terms of block rewards paid out to a treasury.
Yeah.
So...
I would think that...
But I guess it just depends on the current market value of the part coin, of course.
Yeah.
Well, I'll be up front with you.
Our project's been largely very much under the radar.
In fact, we were surprised that, you know, you found us.
I appreciate from a governance perspective that that sounds like a centralization risk.
But what I will say is that we have community governance and on-chain voting built into our protocol.
governance and on-chain voting built into our protocol.
And that's built in at the level of the cryptocurrency layer.
And that's built in at the level of the cryptocurrency layer.
So it's not that that block reward is going to a set number of people.
It's that the community is actively deciding via six monthly votes that, look, we will direct some of that block reward to them.
Now, there's nothing stopping the community.
We got the particle CCS page.
There's nothing stopping anyone from going to our CCS and using our governance to create proposals that then direct funds elsewhere.
So it's open in that sense.
You said proof of stake, but that some of that was built on Bitcoin code, but that it was really modeled after Monero with the ring signatures.
And Monero is proof of work.
So can you tell us how this kind of goes together?
Yes, so the Particle blockchain, if you look at the underlying codebase, so the underlying codebase is a fork of the Bitcoin codebase.
Okay.
Now, our project is old.
We go back to about 2017.
Actually, if you look at some of the work that some of the devs invoked, we go back a bit before that, but really we started in 2017.
Particle is a fork of Bitcoin.
And it's a proof of stake fork of Bitcoin.
So rather than using proof of work like Bitcoin does, it uses proof of stake.
With our coin, the other thing is we were able to adapt Ring CT technology.
So that's not something that's just isolated from Monero.
That can be adapted to other blockchains.
So we were able to incorporate the functionality and that kind of technology into our blockchain.
That's not something that exists on Bitcoin.
It could if the Bitcoin...
I'm gonna get flamed for saying this but if the bitcoin development community wanted to have Ring CT if they wanted it they could have it they could look at our codebase and they could literally port Ring CT and there are a couple of other codebases so if they wanted it they can have that level of privacy why they don't have it I'm not gonna say that's just not my place sure but We've had those discussions here on the show as well.
But we prefer privacy coins for all the obvious reasons, and that's why we're talking to you today.
Because, I mean, let's be honest.
We live in a world right now where, depending on what you say, you may have your ability to buy and sell restricted or completely deplatformed.
And that's not acceptable to those of us who believe in liberty and personal sovereignty.
And so that's why we appreciate your solution.
I think every living human being has the right to buy and sell, to earn, to keep their money, to have assets, to gift assets without interference, even if you don't agree with their thoughts or speech.
That's our view.
Yeah, well, look, I agree with you completely.
I've said this.
I think you've been on with Douglas Tumon on Monerotopia.
Yes.
I've been on Monerotopia.
And one of the things I said is that, you know, the diversity Diversity of thought is really, you know, free speech permits diversity of thought.
That's right.
And you need diversity of thought to have diversity.
You know, the diversity of ideas is what allows man, humankind, to be adaptable.
It allows it to create...
To, you know, to diversify, to create all of these different technologies, to think of all of these different solutions that we have now.
As soon as you start censoring people, you start shutting down the ways in which they can be creative, you start shutting down on their right to free speech.
And that, I think, is fundamentally detrimental to mankind.
You are making us less and less resilient.
So I think we should be allowed and permitted to have diversity of thought, diversity of ideas, diversity of speech, lots of things which certain aspects of society may think is immoral.
You know, 30 years ago is suddenly not so immoral now, if that makes sense.
And things that were banned before are not banned now.
Things that aren't banned now may be banned in the future.
So I realized that life and society, everything has a certain relativity to it, but without the ability to express and explore, You know, what are we doing as a species?
We're just setting us, I think we're doomed if we take that road.
I completely agree.
Todd, you want to chime in?
If not, I've got questions.
Sure.
Dr.
Kapp, I've read that you are a privacy absolutist.
And my question, why is privacy critical for the preservation of our rights with your point of view?
The most free thought is a private thought.
It's that simple.
The most truest form of free expression is the one that can be privately said.
If you and I are having a conversation and no one else can hear it or see it, we can say whatever we want to each other.
We can be completely honest without fear of judgment.
Maybe each other's judgments.
But even within ourselves, the most truly private conversation I can have is one with myself.
And if I can't be honest with myself, how can I be honest with other people?
And if we can't be honest with each other, how can we truly have a meaningful conversation?
How can we truly share information?
I think that's entirely enlightening.
I'm always curious about people with the privacy bent.
Can you share what happened in your life, if anything, to where all of the sudden you were like so focused on privacy that it was that important to you?
So.
So, OK.
I'm going to give you I've been in this project since 2017, and when I started in it, I didn't have nearly the level of appreciation for privacy that I do now.
A lifetime of reading geopolitics.
One of the examples I can give you.
I have a friend who was from Zimbabwe.
He's from Zimbabwe.
And him and his dad had left essentially fleeing persecution.
They'd come in as asylum seekers.
The UK. And there was fleeing persecution from their government.
And this is years ago, by the way.
I didn't really understand the significance of this at the time.
But it's something that really dawned on me as I kind of got more and more into this project.
The more I started thinking about it was just the fear that you live in when you're not...
It's just the fear.
The fear of not being able to be truly free.
Not being able to express yourself.
And the reality is, you know, the world is a cold, hard, judgmental place, but privacy permits the environment through which one can be free.
They were having conversations which were being spied on.
I know that.
I, you know, and when you are living with that kind of paranoia, and that, you know, for me, I'm really trying to think when it all just clicked for me.
I think it's just that there's so many things, as in the amount of news that I've read over the year.
If you look at the NHS, if you look at what's been happening with our government, but sorry, it's just this idea that if you really want to do something, you need to have that level of privacy.
And for me, at some point, it just clicked.
I can't tell you exactly when, but it just clicked.
And when it did, it was not going back.
Let me point out that even during COVID, the NHS was tracking the geolocation of people without their permission.
And in many cases, some cases with consent, but in some cases without consent.
And I believe this happened in the UK where if you had walked past somebody who was later diagnosed with COVID, then you could receive a notice where you've been exposed and therefore you must now engage in a quarantine, even though you are symptomless yourself.
That went on in the UK. Am I correct about that, Dr.
Kapp?
It's extremely close, yeah.
That's very close.
So if you were in contact with someone who was then found to be positive with COVID, then you would receive a notification suggesting that you would potentially need to isolate.
And I think...
Well, and that's just an example.
I mean, they can do the same thing tracking your cars, you know, tracking where you are.
Oh, your car was tracked going by a place where a crime was committed.
Therefore, you're a suspect, right?
That kind of thing.
There comes a point when you realize that governments can abuse their authority and power.
We've seen a lot of examples of this in the UK in the last few years.
When I was talking about news, there are so many acts of legislation that have been passed in the UK which are extremely authoritarian and And to me, feel very much like the imposition of a police state.
So my trust in government is extremely low, and I know I'm not alone in feeling that.
I just happen to be very vocal and open in saying that.
I have always had a natural mistrust.
Ironically, as much as I have a position of authority, I've always had a mistrust of authority because I've always understood how it could be abused.
When you understand the ways in which authority can be abused, And when you see how authority can be abused, when you see how people can misuse their power, you suddenly come to realize, well, people with lots of power and no restraint, lots of power and lots of ego, they tend to be a little bit obsessed with surveillance.
And when you're a little bit obsessed with surveillance and you have a lot of power and a lot of ego, you tend to be a little bit insecure and you tend to dwell on the little petty things.
You tend to go after people for the petty things in the harshest of ways.
I've seen that.
I've seen that professionally.
I've seen that in my personal life.
I've seen that organizationally.
So that's where I'm coming from with this.
Privacy acts as that safeguard to just go, we're having a private conversation.
Don't worry.
Well, I think you have described the philosophy of privacy, I think, better than anyone that we've interviewed on this show.
So thank you for that, Dr.
Kapp.
That's really enlightening.
If I could segue and ask a practical question about your marketplace.
So I'm assuming that since it is, of course, decentralized, that you obviously have no centralized control over what sort of products get listed by various players.
So the obvious question is, What about products such as, let's say, CBD oil or cannabinoids that some governments consider to be illegal?
Am I correct that there are no centralized controls over what is bought and sold through these peer-to-peer mechanisms?
Yeah, so look, at the end of the day, I remember in 2019, I got asked pretty much the same question, and it was someone trying to sell an RPG, and I said, look, At the end of the day, if someone wants to list CBD oil or an RPG, they can create their own private marketplace and list CBD oil and an RPG. Odd combination for selling things, but they can do it.
Now, look, that marketplace, that may be only known to two people.
And if those two people don't leak the address of that, That's between them at the end of the day.
The bigger that marketplace gets, the more people know about it.
Say there's a thousand people.
There is some functionality within the default client, and I say that the default client where, look, if you see a listing that you think, okay, that might be something that's not to your taste or something that's very inappropriate, you can flag it up.
It'll go into a queue, and that queue, if the community votes for it, it can essentially not necessarily be delisted, but hidden from that view, essentially.
So there are features in place for community-governed moderation.
However, obviously, if you get a listing that gets removed from one marketplace, Look, I'll be upfront.
There's nothing to stop you from putting it on another.
And I think I appreciate the concerns that can raise.
And I leave that as a challenge to...
You know, to my peers, to other people to deal with, because ultimately this is a technology that exists.
It's a technology that's very real.
And I don't think you can stop the advance of technology.
And I think the advance of technology moves towards the side of freedom.
And that's the price, if that makes any sense.
Yes, well, I think that's well said.
And I'm curious about your reaction, Todd, as well.
But let's say, you know, the invention of the telephone.
Right, so any two people can get on the telephone and talk about selling an RPG to each other if they have one.
And it doesn't mean we should ban the telephone, right?
It comes down to other layers of responsibility and application of technology.
And also, we don't support, even though this happens, we don't support governments spying on every telephone conversation, although they do, obviously, especially in the UK. There's no doubt about that.
And in the US. But, Todd, what are your thoughts on this?
Well, my only thought on that would be, and I appreciate the fact that there is something built in there.
My mind automatically goes to people who abuse this kind of privacy the most, and that's those who trade in child porn and the likes.
Or actual children, like trafficking.
Right, right.
So that would be...
Something to where, I mean, they just, they're so far ahead of the curve, most of the time, my fear would be that they would say, hey, this is great technology, and they set up their little marketplace to where they trade amongst themselves by invitation only, I guess.
Could that Dr.
Kapp be quelled or flagged or no?
No.
So if those marketplaces leak out and people then flag them up, they will appear in the queue.
And then, yes, that's the sort of thing where, you know, it could potentially be, you know, that can be sort of delisted.
It becomes tricky because those people could then recreate marketplaces.
I think that creates a very interesting conversation.
Actually, CryptoGuard, do you have any thoughts on this?
Because we've had a few chats about this stuff in the past.
Yeah, well, you've got to see the marketplace as more of like an open protocol.
So anything that's public-facing, there is indeed a moderation system that's based on a voting system across the community.
But since there's so much privacy that goes into it, It's really just interacting with code.
And so if nobody sees the, let's call it harmful code, there's no way to forcefully take it out.
It's the same way, like if I can give a comparison, you have people, let's say, making deepfakes of celebrities or people, you know, basically copy-pasting a face onto a nude scene or something of the likes.
Um...
Obviously, if these people operate in an illegal fashion and they get caught either by law enforcement or any sort of authority, they can get arrested.
But Photoshop itself, for example, cannot literally monitor every instance of their product.
And then when they see that some sort of harmful or undesirable content is created...
Just being an open protocol or free software, I think there's a limit to which content can be moderated.
It's the same way as what you have with torrent systems.
Pirating video games or movies is illegal in, I think, maybe all countries or most countries.
Peer-to-peer torrents being a free, open protocol is I guess some clients could implement some sort of monitoring or tracking, but it's really not the norm.
If you get caught sharing a link or pirating yourself, then yes, you can get caught.
But the protocol itself is...
It's just free software.
So there's a kind of balance that, like, do you want it to be, like, spying on users, or do you really want it to be free?
And if it's going to be free, there's always a, you know, like criminals.
Yeah, they're bad actors.
I honestly think there are other ways...
Yeah, I was going to say, I think there are honestly other ways to get bad actors, and I think traditional forensics goes a long way towards that.
You know, it's funny that we're talking about this.
If we think about artificial intelligence and the advent of that, I think all the chaos that's going to create for modern forensics, and I'm thinking right now, we're in an era where, certainly with regards to that, modern forensics is going to have to evolve in a huge way.
I don't think forensics, as we have it, is prepared for what we have right now.
Never mind this, you know, factor AI and stuff like this.
You know, that's my take on it.
But if you want to have freedom, that comes with a price.
If you want to have freedom of expression, unfortunately, one of the things is you are going to have people expressing themselves in a way you don't like.
But the underlying platform, you know, like you said, you can't ban TV. You shouldn't ban TV. You shouldn't ban the telephone.
You shouldn't ban the internet.
You shouldn't ban a piece of software.
For enabling freedom of expression.
What you should be looking to do is looking at the ways in which you can...
I think forensics has to evolve from that perspective in a very simple short term.
And I think for modern forensics has real challenges.
And let's be honest about this.
I will just kind of go to the flip side of that.
We've been talking about child porn, but I see the positives to this network.
Getting what I, so things I think of like foreign aid, for example, you know, if you're having to, rather than dealing with, you know, some corrupt middlemen who'll take 30, 40, 50, 60 percent commission of the aid you're giving, you can bypass them entirely and get all the aid across to the intended recipient.
I think about the enterprise-grade solutions for this, you know, I look at a platform like this and I see, you know, in the future I could see companies going, Alright, we want to mask our entire supply chain from our competitors because they're trying to spy and figure out where we're sourcing our components from.
Well, I can create individual market players.
As a company, I can create an individual marketplace for each of my component suppliers and have direct trades with them in such a way that no third party sees what's going on.
Good point.
As a researcher, I can do the same.
If I'm doing sensitive research and development, if I'm making the next major scientific breakthrough and I don't want my work to be stolen, this is the perfect medium to not only do my messaging in, but to source out the required materials that I need.
This is Alibaba on steroids.
I will just say that right now.
And I think that's one of the big potential here is actually whilst it may permit some kinds of corruption, it provides the tools to bypass so many other kinds.
Well, absolutely.
Dr.
Kapp, you really nailed it there.
And let me add some examples to that because during COVID in the United States, for example, we saw the establishment tell people, don't take ivermectin.
We saw pharmacies refusing to prescribe ivermectin.
And I think morally, and by the way, even the FDA has reversed its position now and says it's okay and claiming they never said don't take it.
But I think morally and ethically it is moral to acquire ivermectin through a decentralized platform in order to help save someone's life.
If they are under the care of a qualified medical practitioner who understands what ivermectin can do, you shouldn't be restricted from getting it just because the establishment doesn't want people to have it.
So I would say it is moral.
To bypass the pharmacies and acquire ivermectin with the intention to take it as a human being and your platform provides that life-saving potential.
That's my example.
Well, going into that, I think pharmaceuticals.
You know that the price of pharmaceuticals in some countries is much, much, much exponentially, unaffordably higher in some countries than it is in others.
That's right.
And I see the opportunity for arbitrage markets to form.
And you're right.
I think, you know, we could have networks where people are giving sensible, focused consultations.
Giving solid, informed advice, allowing people to make informed decisions, and then getting the best deal on the global market.
Never mind internationally, the entire globe.
And I think, you know...
There was a Netflix documentary I saw a long time ago, and I just kept thinking of the particle marketplace the whole way through, which was, you know, it's the cost of a treatment for Wilson's disease.
It was, what was it, Valiant, the pharmaceuticals company.
They basically bought out a ton of patents and then jacked up the prices of those drugs like 10,000%.
Oh, yes.
To the point where the sufferers of those conditions simply could not afford to get those essential, lifesaving, disability-preventing medications.
And to me, that's immoral.
That's unethical.
You know, I thought, why are these guys having to go across the border to get their medication from Canada and having to do everything under the radar?
Surely there should be a legal, safe way to permit international global commerce...
Of these medications.
By the way, I'm not encouraging anyone to break the law here.
I'm just pointing out the potential for networks like this to heal people, as you rightly pointed out.
Well, yes, and I would add, I don't encourage people to break the laws either, but there are also, I would argue, higher laws of humanity.
That many government regulations are violating.
And there's been cases in the U.S. where there were U.S. citizens, medical tourists, would go to Canada, mostly senior citizens, who couldn't afford to eat and take medications.
They had to either starve or stop their meds.
They would go to Canada.
They would go to pharmacies there.
They would get their medications at one-fifth the price, let's say, get on a bus, come back across the border, and then in at least one case, that bus was raided by the FDA. And these people were subject to criminal charges for engaging in this.
And that's absurd to me.
So that's the law, but it's a violation of a higher law, which is that humanity deserves access to, if in their case, maybe medications that they need, but also things like water and food and electricity and so on.
That's my take.
Well, I agree with you on this.
I think it's ridiculous.
A government...
Governments, firstly, I'm not going to go on to the full spiel about this, but a government fundamentally, a governance system is fundamentally about, not only about protecting its participants, but also fostering their growth and wellbeing.
Now, if the decisions of that governance system actively cause harm, To uphold just, you know, just actively cause harm to the participants of that system, then I think those participants need to take a step back and go, hang on, what am I doing here?
What's wrong with the system?
What have we got to change?
How are we going to change it?
Can we change this system?
Do we need to adapt it or do we need to introduce a new system?
And that's kind of my take on this.
I see technology as providing the new systems to allow us to adapt to Governments that are kind of failing in my eyes.
Governments that have reached their limits.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but the British pound doesn't have a future, nor does the US dollar for that matter.
I mean, we are both living in societies.
I mean, the British pound was once ruling the world.
Almost all the trade that takes place in the dollar today was under the British pound.
That's history.
The dollar will become history.
I mean, we need systems that work better than these fraudulent counterfeit systems that our governments try to force upon us.
That's why I love what I'm hearing from you about Particle.
It will outlast that.
No, so thank you, but this is my thing.
The thing that I've really grown disillusioned with over the last three or four years is this idea of representative democracy.
It's no longer representative, and it hasn't been for a long time.
If you think about it, you know, I think of the UK, you know, Fifty, sixty years ago when the population was physically a lot smaller and the working patterns were very different, the technology and the mindset was very different, you know, you had smaller communities and a representative democracy in that sense, you're in the UK, it's a member of parliament, they had much smaller constituencies to answer to.
Therefore, the time that each constituent got was more because you're dividing it between fewer people.
Now populations have grown a lot larger.
Working patterns have changed completely from 60, 78 years ago.
We simply have a society in which fewer people are able to engage with their democracy, not because they don't want to, but because they're physically not able to.
Either they don't have enough money, so they're chasing money, or they don't have enough time, usually because they don't have enough money because they're chasing that.
And the reality is they may be working days, they may be working nights, they may be working one job, two jobs, three jobs.
I don't know.
There's a lot of things.
They may be struggling to feed kids.
And at the end of the day, it's that person trying to make the time to engage with their representative who may or may not represent their interests.
And that same representative, you know, has...
You know, maybe receiving a word from someone who has a lot more time and that's typically someone who has a lot more money and the alignments of interests for those individuals may not match.
So I'm not sure representative democracy in its current form truly is representative.
I think systems like this are the building work for direct democracy.
Yes.
Well said.
I think you've got your store of value that's Bitcoin, and I think your privacy-focused store of value, which is Monero, I think that's actually the gold standard here, because I think you need a privacy-focused store of value and a privacy-focused currency to really have a building block for your Then you have your trade and your currency.
Once you've got a good economy going, then you can start thinking about building Real, robust governance systems.
And I think there's a real stage to that.
So I know there was a lot of hype about DAO's decentralized autonomous organizations, but I think that's probably a step before where we currently should be, which is really working on getting the e-commerce, the privacy-focused commerce aspects of this ecosystem in place.
Once we've got that in place, we can move towards a much more democratic society and world.
That's how I think and feel anyway.
Completely agree.
And once there are more marketplaces that work in this fashion, it also underscores the value of storing privacy crypto such as Monero.
If you know that you can take that Monero and you can trade it for something in the future, and it's not just speculation on price, it's actually, oh, I know I can go to this marketplace and I can buy all these goods.
Like you said, you're creating the privacy version of eBay, right?
Or maybe the privacy version of Amazon.com, you could argue, I suppose.
And that's perfect.
It's like I said earlier, and Todd, you know this, I never plan to sell crypto for currency, because number one, that creates a taxable reporting event, which I refuse to engage in.
But secondly, it's because I want to hold the crypto to use it.
Todd, go ahead.
I just think when people are watching this, Dr.
Kapp, I think they're going to be really interested in the PART token.
So I'd love to discuss a little bit about tokenomics.
If you could let us know, I mean, what is the market cap?
What's the market price right now?
Where can people acquire it?
You mentioned MEXC earlier.
Are there other exchanges?
Just give us a little bit of insight to all of that, please, Dr.
Sure.
Particle's market cap is tiny.
We are the most...
I don't know how you guys...
Well, I do know now how you guys discovered us.
But, you know, if you look at us, a part token trades at around 29, 30 cents at the moment.
Yeah.
Daily trading volumes are pretty low.
There's only 13 million in circulation at the moment with about six and a half, 7% PA inflation rate, which will go down to about 6% sometime next year.
So, token.
Tokonomics-wise, we're a small, tiny, unheard of project that's actually achieved a lot from a technology point of view.
A lot more than the big two.
I'm just going to say that now.
Miles more than the big two.
Privacy microcaps, because they're the little engines that can.
And, you know, whether it's Monero or Firo or you, I mean, it's just, I applaud your vision and the fact that you're actually rolling up the sleeves and doing it.
So this has been intriguing for me, Mike.
Well, yes, and also, you know, remember that in the post-FTX collapse era, you know, virtually all coin projects have settled from their more speculative highs because of SBF creating all this extra, you know, digital assets that were flowing through everywhere.
But the point is that I think that crypto and I think the Particle Project also is in the maturity level A development phase right now.
So things are becoming more mature.
Values are settling to what are more realistic and practical rather than so much speculation.
And just looking at the history of the price action on Particle, yeah, before FTX it was much higher, but it's very stable right now where it is.
And it sounds like, Dr.
Kapp, that you're still almost kind of in the pre...
Dare I call it pre-launch?
I mean, I know it's active, but you haven't made a push for a lot of publicity at this point.
Yeah, I think that's a very fair comment.
We have spent very little on marketing.
We have spent a lot of our time on the development phase.
I'm not saying there's been no marketing, but what I'm saying is that we are exactly what we are.
You are free to sort of download Particle Desktop and have a play around, set it up.
I'm going to say to you right now, you know, what we're building for is a vision for everyone.
And the way I kind of look at it is certainly once we've got our sort of, you know, someone who, let me think about it.
You don't need to be as knowledgeable as someone comfortable using the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem to use our ecosystem.
It's actually more straightforward.
It is more, you know, there's still a few more hoops than, say, downloading an app on your phone than just cracking on.
What we're working towards, and I'm hoping a year from now, what we can say is that we are essentially go to this website.
Get some tokens, crack on.
That's kind of what I'm hoping will be.
Where can we acquire it now, though?
Is it the MEXC exchange?
Yeah, so the best exchanges for it, I would say, are MEXC, ProBit, No KYC, Bittrex, BitBNS.
So those are the main ones.
And we would actually recommend you to download our, you know, if you want to do it truly anonymously and privately, I would recommend that you sort of download our basic swap decks, install that, because not only will you be able to get hold of part anonymously, you'll be able to get hold of Monero, Litecoin, Thero, PIVX, Bitcoin.
How do you get fiat on to be able to do that then?
So at the moment, the fiat is going to have to enter through a centralized exchange.
So I'm going to give you a vision of the future though.
I know there's a lot of hate towards CBDCs, but if you look at the architecture for how basic swap works as a DEX, hear me out.
I'm looking forward to CBDCs because I know full well that we probably will be able to incorporate CBDCs directly into our DEX. Oh, that's huge.
That's amazing.
That's possible.
And if you look at the way our decks work, so you can see two swaps back and forth.
A third party, the way we do it, a third party only sees this side.
They don't see this side.
So I think we're going to be able to have ways to get digital fiat.
Into and out of the privacy ecosystem, the privacy liquidity ecosystem.
So I think we're going to see two very different liquidity systems.
We're going to see the public liquidity system, which is going to be public blockchain, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and CBDCs.
And I think you're going to see the privacy-focused liquidity ecosystem, which is going to be things like Monero, Particle, Fero, PIVX, Beam.
There's a whole bunch of privacy.
And bridging those is going to be atomic swap-based DEXs like ours that use...
Actually, do I have time to talk about that?
Yeah, sorry, I'm getting so excited thinking about it.
Hold on, I've got it on my screen.
So if my producers could show my screen, it's showing the basic swap private cross-chain DEX.
But Dr. Kapp, we don't have much more time.
We're actually kind of up at the end of time here.
But I've got it on my screen if you want to give us a quick overview.
So this is a cross-chain atomic swap DEX.
The way it works, we basically...
The one thing that currently makes current atomic swaps less private is that the hash signatures of transactions are stored on the chains themselves.
The way our DEX works, and actually it's a large chunk of the way our marketplace works, is a lot of the smart contracts And a lot of the transactions occur on an end-to-end encrypted intermediate token-free data layer.
It's called the SMSG network.
So think like BitTorrent, like a network like that, a data network like that, or think like the Tor network, and all of the data on that is end-to-end encrypted.
But it's a network that supports the execution of blockchain-type smart contracts that supports them being executed off-chain.
So the atomic swaps Traditionally, they would occur on each blockchain.
So you'd see, say you did Litecoin to Bitcoin, the atomic swap would occur.
You'd see a signature on the Litecoin chain, a signature on the Bitcoin chain.
What we do is we take the signatures for each and put them into this intermediary layer that's end-to-end encrypted so an outside observer can't see it.
So that's what you get with basic swap decks is that degree of anonymity.
So actually you can have ultra private, you know, the most private swaps will be using privacy coins, but you can get much more private swaps even using, you know, public blockchain type coins because an outside observer can't see the link between those two chains.
They can't see that signature that links the swap.
So this is what basic swap decks does.
Effectively, you could go for it.
Let's just fast forward.
Let's say the CBDCs, you could do a basic swap with them.
And let's just say the Druid Babylonian bastards who are surveilling everything.
When you actually do that, all of a sudden that surveillance just absolutely stops, right?
Right.
The link in the chain is gone.
All they would see is CBDC going from CBDC address A to CBDC address C. They won't see the counterparty transaction, which would be privacy coin going from address A to address B. What is CBDC address C then?
I'm a little confused.
Let me explain.
If I was doing a straight swap of a CBDC with a privacy coin, So when you do an atomic swap, you're sending your CBDC from one wallet address to another wallet address, and you're sending your privacy coin from a wallet address to a different wallet address.
So it's kind of like crossing over.
Now, with current atomic swaps, the signatures for those transactions are on the chains.
So, I'm really sorry if I'm not making any sense here, but basically, if the signatures are on the chain, you can kind of link them in time, say, if you're an outside observer, you can say, okay, I could see this transaction looked a little bit irregular,
and it has a signature for what looks like an atomic swap at this point, and on this other chain, I can see a slightly irregular transaction, and at the same time point, I can see What looks like a signature for an atomic swap.
So I can probably link these two.
With the basic swap decks, it moves those signatures At that moment in time, it moves them off the chain so that you can't really...
It just looks like a one-way flow of currency to an outside observer.
It doesn't look like a swap is occurring.
Does that make sense?
My basic question is, to dumb it down so that I'll understand it, is if that CBDC, let's say you had $2,000 worth and you wanted $2,000 worth of XMR, You could do that and nobody would be able to know that you just entered into Monero, correct?
No, no one would know the swap occurred, exactly.
And then on the other side, so if somebody wanted to get into private crypto and enjoy it for, let's say, two years, but then there is an instance in your family, let's say somebody had a medical issue and you need some money, You could go the other way and they wouldn't know it came from private crypto.
It would just show up as CBDC money.
This is realistically what's going to happen.
That's powerful.
The underlying tech behind BSX makes that possible, which is why I have no problem with CBDCs.
I like bringing it on.
This is instant liquidity for the privacy.
Yeah, I think that's great.
This could serve as a bridge into privacy crypto, which would be amazing.
And I'm also thrilled that finally I see how I'm going to be able to buy a tank.
So thank you for that.
I always want to drive one around the ranch.
Just freak out the neighbors.
Just buy the biggest tank you can.
I will be waving the flag.
We'll buy a tank and it'll fire like privacy rounds or something.
Anyway, we are...
We need to wrap this up because we're out of time here for this, but also want to give Gabriel a chance to chime in on anything that we have neglected to mention here as well.
And also, Dr.
Kapp, your final thoughts as well.
So let's go into wrap-up mode here, if that's okay.
Who wants to go first?
I guess it's you, Dr.
Kapp.
I was hoping Gabriel would have something to say.
He might be muted.
I'm not sure.
Fair enough.
My final thoughts are, look, it's a beautiful ecosystem that's working towards freedom in a world that is less safe and less free.
There are going to be a lot of people trying to restrict what you do or say or want to think.
And ultimately, we're the safeguard against that.
And I don't mean we as in just the Parlicle project.
I mean, everyone that's working towards this.
I mean, the guys over at Monero, the guys over at Furo.
I keep mentioning them, but the guys over in the privacy ecosystem, we are literally building freedom from the matrix.
Yes.
How do people get in touch with you?
Yeah, how can people reach you?
Are you on Telegram?
Are you...
So we have a linked channel.
So if you basically look for the Particle Project, we are on Telegram, we're on Element, and we're on Discord.
All of those channels are linked.
And we're on Twitter as well, at Particle Project and at BasicSwapDex.
So you can follow either of those.
Yeah, GG. Gabriel?
Yeah, sorry about that.
Yeah, just be mindful that we're a very development-focused project still.
We're not at the phase that what we've built right now, we can sort of consider it as the backbone of what will be in a year or so.
Kat mentioned it throughout the interview.
We're working right now on a sort of web framework, so taking our applications and making it easy to port to a mobile application or a website.
Or Cap also briefly touched on this, but we have the SMSG network and we're working on a 2.0 version of that, which basically acts as a sort of like Tor network.
So you'll be able to host applications or websites on it.
And so this is still very early.
And so when you test or use some of our products, it's fair to say that you can expect some rough around the edges behaviors.
And you'll have to work a little bit to get it working and set up.
But with the web framework, what we're really aiming for is to have these applications be as easy to use as your typical online marketplace or currency exchange.
So we're still a little ways from that, but we're working towards that.
And so, yeah, that's what I would add.
Just be mindful that this is still early, even after six, seven years.
It's still early.
But we're in it for the long run than for the mission, for sure.
Love it.
Okay.
Outstanding.
And so I just want to give out the website.
Basicswapdex.com is the basic swap.
And then Particle, without an E, is particle.io.
Without the E on Particle, that's the correct website for that.
.io, not.com.
Yeah, if you go to.com, you go to some Silicon Valley startup that tracks all of your data and does the exact opposite of what we do.
We call that the antiparticle right there, so antimatter.
Okay, well, Dr.
Kapp and also Gabriel, a pleasure to meet you both.
This has been a really fun and invigorating conversation.
We really appreciate you taking the time to share this with us today.
Yes, likewise.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you both.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Yep, absolutely.
And Todd and I will be back after this quick break with the after-party discussion and the challenge of, I guess, Ask Mike Anything.
So we'll see where that goes.
Stay with us.
We'll be right back.
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All right.
Welcome back, folks.
Now, Todd, I got to say, this was one of the most enjoyable interviews that we've done on the show, and I really love Dr.
Kapp's ability to articulate his philosophies of why privacy matters and why freedom matters.
I found it really refreshing.
I love his vision.
I love their vision.
And boy, if you can't tell, you know, he goes by Dr.
Kapp, and he actually is a doctor.
I mean, not just a PhD, but he's a real emergency doctor.
And you can just tell when he talks, right?
I mean, he's amazingly smart and articulate.
Yes.
And I just, I love everything about this project, everything about Him, them, and you're right.
It was really one of the most enjoyable interviews.
I couldn't believe that it was over.
It just felt like it was a five-minute interview.
Yeah, I felt the same way.
I couldn't believe that an hour had gone by.
But the other thing is, I can't believe that I'm not hearing a lot more buzz about Particle, but that's just because, like he said, they're really unknown.
They haven't put effort into publicity.
They're not out there just trying to push a coin for speculative purposes.
They're actually building an infrastructure of human freedom, which is what really this show is all about.
Yes.
It's a great fit for what we believe.
It really is.
And, you know, I've been part of a community privacy coin for a lot of years, and it's hard when you're a microcap and you're community-funded, right?
So it sounds to me like that 50% reward block that they get that they can put towards development, I think that's actually pretty darn smart, you know?
Because the alternative is to...
Have someone in the community be that spearhead, the evangelist, if you will, and get the community to then raise funds for certain initiatives.
I'm amazed that they are on the exchanges that they are, because I know what it takes to be able to support those.
You know, with the market making.
So that still kind of boggles my mind.
But it sounds to me like they have a core of developers who are committed.
And you know, there are certain people, we've spoken with them, Diego Salazar is one, you know, with...
He created Cake Wallet and Stat Wallet, and he is just hyper-dedicated to privacy, period.
A privacy absolutist, which is what Dr.
Kapp self-proclaims to be.
And I love the fact that we heard from Dr.
Kapp that he believes CBDCs can be used as a bridge into privacy crypto.
Now, I have not heard that from anybody else.
Blew my mind.
So if that's possible...
Then, yeah, it makes the on-ramp into privacy crypto so much easier, assuming all the swaps work like you're talking about.
But basic swap, the DEX that they have, is a really cool thing to learn about, especially with its support for Monero and the fact that the Particle Project understands the value of Monero.
Yes.
Which you don't hear that from all corners of crypto.
So many people are like Bitcoin maxis and they're like, ah, Monero doesn't have the market cap.
Well, Monero is huge, actually.
It's huge.
And it's private.
It's private.
Yeah, I was kind of interested in just kind of them being a fork of Bitcoin, but I guess when they were a fork of Bitcoin, they had the vision that we're immediately going to Convert this to where it's a private blockchain.
Yeah, right.
So that's good.
And proof of stake as well.
Right.
And you know, what you and I have learned in this show is that proof of work can be overpowered by computational power without requiring a whole lot of money.
Proof of work is actually very vulnerable in smaller projects, at least as I understand it.
Could you imagine, though?
I mean, let's fantasize a little bit.
CBDCs come, and then the jokes on the Drew Babylonian bastards because it makes it so easy to be able to get into private crypto.
That would be something.
It would be amazing.
And then to be able to get out of private crypto to where, you know, and this is not legal advice or accounting advice or whatever, but if all of a sudden there appears X amount of money in your account, But yet it's not associated with anything.
If a tree fell in the woods, would you hear it?
If money appeared in your CBDC, was there ever a crypto sold?
I don't know.
Well, I don't know.
I would imagine on the CBDC side, there's, of course, full surveillance and full tracking and reporting and compliance and all that stuff.
So I still think, like I said during the show, I don't ever plan to convert crypto into fiat.
I plan to hold and then spend the crypto on practical things.
And that's it.
But A lot of other people may want to go back and forth in various forms, but, you know, the bigger picture is what happens when the dollar collapses.
And then, you know, the remaining infrastructure that actually functions in our world is going to be things like particle.
I mean, I'm convinced of it.
I'm convinced there's a day coming that the Western banking system just ceases to function and everybody loses their minds.
And then suddenly they're trying to figure out what do we do for commerce, you know, like trading garden seeds or whatever, which is viable.
But what about longer distance transactions or private transactions?
You're going to need an electronic means if you don't have like face-to-face silver barter and things like that.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
That's why I love the idea of the platform.
And he was talking about really being able to set up shop in there to where you could move value privately.
So when he was thinking about that, I was thinking about how when it was so difficult for my wife, who's Russian, to be able for us, when all the sanctions started to happen, her mom lives over in Russia, for us to be able to get her any money at all.
That's right.
And so I was thinking this would have been a way to be able to, no worries, Brontislava, let's just, here's a link, go to here and set up this wallet and we'll send it through this private exchange.
Right.
That's pretty powerful.
Well, we're rapidly moving into a world where, you know, the Western financial tyrants, as I call them, that want to inflict sanctions on every country in the world, and also sanctions upon individuals, effectively, by debanking you, and that's happening in Canada, and so on, that whole system is becoming obsolete.
And you can see it happen.
And it's obsolete because they weaponized it.
I mean, they weaponized the SWIFT system against Russia.
They've weaponized the sanctions.
They've weaponized the dollar.
And now we're being told by Janet Yellen in the United States that she's going to oversee the printing of whatever money is needed to wage two wars or maybe three wars.
I mean, why not make it ten wars?
I mean, just print quadrillions.
Just get rid of the whole damn system because it's going to crater anyway.
the alternatives that will be here I mean, frankly, Bitcoin and Monero will outlive the dollar.
I have no doubt about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And...
Yeah, go ahead, sir.
Did you hear that Venezuela or the Biden administration is lifting sanctions on Venezuela so that they can buy their oil?
I did hear that.
I mean, again, it's just cherry-picking whatever policy...
I mean, they have no principles.
It's just whatever policy suits them at the time, and suddenly they need fuel prices to go down to win an election, so now they want Venezuelan oil, you know, for the moment.
Which, by the way, everything that's happening in the Middle East, I just want to applaud you, Mike, for your coverage, humanitarian coverage.
I know you've taken a lot of crap for it.
Which I just cannot reconcile in my mind how being anti-genocide brings on the wrath of so many in your life.
So I just want to, as your co-host, thank you.
You've been just a beacon of goodness for many of us.
I appreciate you saying that.
That means a lot coming from you, Todd.
And, you know, let's remember by the time people see this episode, there's a couple of weeks delay.
Who knows what insanity will happen by that time.
But I do want to say, even on behalf of the show, and I know you agree with me, that we are principled people.
We are driven by key principles.
One of those principles being privacy.
But another principle being a humanitarian principle, which is that every living human being has the right to self-determination, just as an across-the-board universal principle, which means also that they have the right to engage in free trade.
They have the right to hold assets.
They have the right to gift money to others.
They should also have the right to defend their home.
I mean, we could articulate a number of things, but This show is a pro-humanitarian show, and the principles that we espouse here of freedom and self-custody, liberty and privacy, these are the principles that have sustainability for human civilization, whereas the antithesis of these principles, which is surveillance and control and punishment and dehumanization, those are the principles that will destroy human civilization.
We are on the right side of history.
There's no question in my mind.
Agreed.
And that's why I don't care if somebody criticizes one principle or another.
I know that we're on the right side of history.
We're on the side of humanity.
And that's what this show ultimately stands for.
Yes, and I've had a lot of private conversations this week, Mike, with different people, and all of them really, really appreciating your coverage.
And this leads kind of nicely, at least for one of the questions.
You know this, we started a new segment called Ask Mike Anything.
Okay.
Oh, boy.
And this keeps people around, you know?
And I'm the one who gets to make up the questions.
Oh.
So, yeah.
So we're going to start with a layup.
Just an easy layup.
Okay.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
Name two countries that start with the letter Z. Well, Zimbabwe, I suppose, would be one of them.
Yeah.
Zimbabwe.
I don't know.
I can't think of another one.
I haven't asked anybody who has ever gotten both right, but it's Zambia, and I got it wrong as well.
Zambia?
Okay.
Yeah, I recognize I've heard that word before, but other than that, never had Zambia in my conversation.
Yeah, well, you know that I found a decentralizeddirectory.com, and in there, you know, I encourage people to embrace off-grid living solutions, teach them how to keep more of what they earn, protect their purchasing power, etc.
And I was doing a consult with this wonderful woman who has been listening to you.
She said for...
20 years.
And she asked me to ask you a question.
So this is really coming from my good friend.
Okay, okay.
Although I did think of another answer to your original question.
Oh, good.
It's Zimbabwe and Zanada.
And Zanada is what happens when the Canadian dollar collapses.
So...
Get ready for Xanada, all of you watching from Canada.
Oh, Xanada!
Right, exactly.
And the Prime Minister will be Zustin Trousseau, or True Zero is probably what he's...
This is why you tune into the after-parties, everybody, because after-parties matter.
All right, so she wanted to get some insight, Mike, into the day in the life of Mike Adams.
You know, we both submit that you are probably the busiest, most productive person I personally ever met, ever.
And so...
I'd love to hear about your standard day, Mike.
I mean, how do you organize them to get so much done?
Because I know, A, you don't watch TV, but I know you live on a ranch and you have to take care of animals and things like that, amongst everything else.
And you've got to research like crazy.
So can you just give us some insight?
Okay, well, I'll start with this.
You know, I make this smoothie every morning, and I drink this all day.
I don't eat a meal until the evening.
So that saves me a lot of time.
I'm not making a breakfast or a lunch other than just the smoothie.
That's pretty easy.
Yeah, I live on a ranch, and after this, after this recording, I'll go back to the ranch, take care of the animals, walk the goats, Play with the dogs and so on.
And, of course, I've got Rhodey here in the studio, and I play with him during the breaks.
So it's more training.
I'm throwing the toys that he's fetching to keep him in tip-top shape.
Nice.
Then, on days that I'm not in the studio, that's when I'm doing my own fitness, exercise, or doing a ranch project, taking care of things like that.
And I do writing and research in the late evenings.
So look, the bottom line is, I don't watch television.
I don't have children to raise.
And I'm not part of the social scene anywhere.
So really, I'm very much focused on my life's missions, which are reflected here in the show.
And you'd be surprised how much time you actually have in a day if you don't waste a lot of it on frivolous things.
So that's my answer.
Yeah, I did a little self-assessment, and I've said before I'm a knuckle-dragger that likes watching way too much football.
Right.
But, you know, when you combine the podcasts that I listen to that cover the football and everything, I was like, man, if I cut out all of that, I would definitely have a few more, not a few, but a couple more hours out of a day.
So, yeah, I really appreciate that.
The other thing that I think is timely right now that I wanted to ask you, I want to discuss fear.
You know, the controllers control a lot through fear, and I'm sure you'll agree.
And Mike, I just have a question.
Have you ever had a time in your life where you were consumed by fear and paralyzed by it, or no?
No, no.
I knew that was going to be your answer.
Yeah, I don't process fear the same way that a lot of people do.
When I'm under threat from something, and let's say world events or things like that, I become hyper-focused and hyper-productive.
A lot of people become paralyzed, right?
The saying, paralyzed by fear.
Anything that would be fearful to a lot of other people actually gets me really, really focused and thinking about problem-solving.
Yeah, it's funny because at my lab, this is a funny but true story, at my lab we have visiting chemists and scientists from other labs and so on, and one day several of them were visiting and having a conversation, and they voted me, just spontaneously, they came up with this, they voted me the person they most want to have on them in a submarine if the power goes out.
I'm like, what?
What kind of designation is that?
They're like, if anybody can solve the submarine problem, it's you, you know?
It's true.
Because I solve so many problems at the lab.
I mean, it's with the most hilarious solutions, like MacGyvering the mass spec systems.
In ways that are completely outside the rulebook but totally work.
So that's where that came from.
They're like, if shit goes bad, we want you with us because you'll solve problems.
I guess that is what I do.
And I try to share that with people in terms of preparedness and so on.
But I'm not...
No.
I mean, even...
Even in my firearms training and combat training and so on, it's like my attitude, even if a vortex opened up and demons started pouring through, my attitude is, well, if they can move, they have a structure.
If they have a structure, I can break it with rifle fire.
It's like, I'm not running from these demons.
I'm taking them out.
I'm going to reload.
Well, I have one last question, Mike, because you are the health ranger, and let's talk high blood pressure.
How do you go about lowering high blood pressure naturally?
Oh, wow.
Thanks for a health question.
First of all, high blood pressure is often a result of dehydration.
So think about if your blood is thicker, more sludge-like, it's harder to push around, right?
It's common sense.
And also, of course, There is micro-clotting, which is a factor in blood.
If your red blood cells don't individually articulate their position and move freely, you're going to have clotting, and then that prevents your blood from flowing through the smaller capillaries that especially feed your extremities, for example.
And, you know, I have really great circulation, you know, warm fingertips and blood flow and so on.
But you hear about diabetics who have to have their feet amputated because of a lack of circulation.
And, you know, Obviously, that's a blood sugar problem, but in terms of getting your blood to flow better, You also have to remember that inflammation causes a cardiovascular constriction.
And most people pursue what I call a pro-inflammatory lifestyle, which is pro-inflammation foods.
And so most of the processed junk foods, and also I believe the seed oils, which is canola oil, corn and soy oil, the cheap oils, and also the hydrogenated oils, which is the shortening.
These are inflammatory to the cardiovascular system.
And as a result they can raise blood pressure.
So a lot of people, they try to address blood pressure with a blood pressure medication that artificially Achieves a lowering of blood pressure through the dilation of blood vessels and a few other mechanisms.
That's artificial.
That's not going to solve your problem.
You probably need...
Now, again, I'm not your doctor, so check with your own doctor and make your own medical decisions.
But you probably need to look at more water, potentially.
You need to look at your diet, get the inflammatory foods out of your diet.
And you need to look at healthy oils, which fish oils are really excellent for improving blood flow.
But there's also a plant-based fish oil replacement that we sell in my store.
It's called ahi flour, A-H-I. Ahi flour oil is the only oil in the world from plants that functions like fish oil.
It's very similar in terms of its makeup at a molecular level.
It's not exactly the same, but it's very similar.
So how do you consume it?
It's just in a capsule.
Oh, it is?
Like a giant gel capsule.
Yeah, it's like swallowing fish oil.
Okay.
Like a fish oil supplement.
So how many do you take a day?
Well, you can check the website.
I don't want to give dosing information because people decide for themselves.
But I take that.
I also do take some cod liver oil from time to time.
I think that's excellent.
It also contains vitamin A as well.
And it's the healthy oils that keep your blood flowing well.
And overcoming inflammation and overcoming microclotting that is caused by all these other things.
So how much should someone optimally drink during the day?
Let's just talk about the big smart waters, right?
Let's just say that.
What would that be?
A liter, right?
I don't know.
Is that a liter?
I think so.
I don't know.
Look, it all depends.
The best indication is the color of your urine, frankly.
Your urine should be very clear, only slightly yellow.
If it's not, you're probably not drinking enough water.
Okay, that's good.
But you can perspire a lot of water depending on the climates that you're in.
If you're in a desert area like Arizona, you can lose a lot of water through perspiration.
Is coffee bad, Mike?
Coffee's not bad when used in moderation.
No.
Okay.
I sometimes blend freeze-dried coffee crystals into my smoothie.
Okay.
Because caffeine can be supportive when used appropriately, but also coffee is loaded with antioxidants.
Okay.
So, in fact, coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the diets of most people.
Interesting.
Yeah.
If they weren't drinking coffee, they would have no antioxidants because they're not taking vitamin C or these other things.
Right.
Do over-the-counter vitamins and things like that, are they just...
B.S., or can they be good?
Well, it depends.
Especially the minerals.
Watch out for the mineral forms.
The cheap...
Well, let me say this.
If you go to the store and you buy the store-bought almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, all these so-called milks, almost all of them, with just a couple of exceptions, They're made with calcium carbonate blended in to make it look kind of milky, chalky white.
Wow.
Calcium carbonate is great for goats, not so great for humans.
You can't really properly digest calcium carbonate very easily.
And I've seen many cases where people are in overload of calcium carbonate.
Which can contribute to calcification, but really a mineral imbalance in your body because of drinking so much of that store-bought almond milk, let's say.
Right.
You're not designed to drink ground-up rocks, which is what that is.
It's ground-up rocks.
Okay.
Not good for you.
Not good.
No.
And so the forms of calcium really matter.
As well as forms of other minerals like magnesium.
But here's the other thing a lot of people don't know.
Cheap calcium pills that you get at various retailers, let's say.
Calcium is almost always contaminated with lead because calcium and lead go together in nature.
And since this calcium is often derived from cheap sources, you know, calcium carbonate, they can mine it out of the ground.
There's lead in it.
We've seen this in our lab where we are testing mineral supplements and we're getting crazy levels of lead or sometimes cadmium, not so much mercury, but you can get arsenic in certain minerals as well.
And then there's also the fact that people take too much copper.
So if you're getting copper in your diet, if you're eating any amount of meat, you're probably getting sufficient copper in your diet.
Some people end up eating meat, taking copper supplements, which often gives them four milligrams of copper per day if they're taking a typical multi-day.
And then on top of that, they're getting trace copper from the copper water pipes in their home, and then they begin to suffer copper toxicity, which results in psychiatric effects, like hearing voices.
Yeah, and we probably know some people in the crypto industry that probably have had way too much copper.
Somebody's talking to them, and it's not human.
Like, okay, whatever.
But copper toxicity is a very real thing, and there's also much higher cases of schizophrenia in areas surrounding copper mines because of the copper toxicity in the environment.
One more thing.
When it comes to vitamins, remember that your body can eliminate vitamins relatively easily because those are...
Those are complex molecules, like vitamin C is water-soluble, and vitamin D is fat-soluble.
Your body can eliminate those things, but minerals, your body can't really break down minerals, because calcium is an element.
Calcium is calcium.
Your body's not going to undergo fission and reduce it to smaller atomic masses.
That's not going to happen.
It's still calcium.
If you eat it, you got it, and you're going to have to deal with it.
And I promise, Mike, this is the last question that was important because it was emailed to me by the Chief of Staff of President Joe Biden.
And he said, can you please ask Mike?
He said, I always hear that when there's an emergency, to call 9-11.
And...
In the spirit of full disclosure, I just cannot find the 11 button on my phone.
Can you help out President Biden?
Did you hear that from my podcast?
Is that where you heard that?
Did I hear it?
Because I think I said that in my podcast a while ago.
Maybe it stuck, but yeah.
The answer, Joe Biden, is that the 11 button is on the other side of the phone.
That's the correct answer.
Okay.
All right.
Well, ask Mike anything.
You passed with flying colors, man.
I hope people like this part of the show because I certainly enjoy just inquiring with you and getting some of your sage counsel on some other things.
Well, thank you, Todd.
I'm going to have to have an Ask Todd segment.
For an upcoming show.
So let's do that.
In the meantime, thank you for the questions.
I know this show is about decentralization, but health and nutrition and all these things also count because that's how you stay out of the centralized medical system, which is not going to do you any favors, typically.
No.
I do want to give credit.
I want to plug a couple of our sponsors here.
And abovephone.com is one of our affiliate sponsors.
If you go to abovephone.com/dtv, that's a forward slash dtv, then you will help support the show as you acquire a de-Googled phone.
And you could also use data SIM cards that you acquire from them that you can pay for using Monero.
So this is a way to actually have a working, truly private phone that's not tied to your name, your credit card, your social, anything like that.
That's abovephone.com slash DTV. And then also, even though they're not a sponsor, redpillprints.com slash DTV. That's the URL for them, right?
Slash DTV? Perfect.
Okay.
That gets to them, and I don't have the mannequin set up today.
I'll bring him back next time to show off all the shirts and hoodies and caps and cups and everything.
And then finally today, we also have beready123.com, which provides preparedness gear, including these solar generators with the solar panels.
And they've got a lot of specials on these.
These are the EcoFlow devices.
I own several of them, and they really work.
And you can keep your laptop charged.
You know, you can keep your satellite comms going, your satellite phone, your flashlight, you know, your blender even you can power off of these devices.
So this is all about preparedness in a world that is increasingly unstable, as we are seeing.
So that's a wrap, Todd.
Yes, sir.
I wish you and yours a great weekend.
You too.
Yeah, this was a great show and really appreciated our guests.
Oh, yeah.
And I hope folks enjoyed it as much as we did.
I really enjoyed it.
In fact, I'm going to go see if I can use the SimpleSwap decks because I haven't used that one before.
Yeah.
And I'm going to download the Particle software and give that a shot.
Start playing with it.
That's great.
That's great.
Excellent.
Good idea, Mike.
Okay.
Well, listen, go do your walk your goats.
Yeah, animal duties.
Okay.
All right, Todd.
Well, that was great.
Thank you, Mike.
Have a great evening.
Thanks for joining me.
Cheers.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
And thank all of you for watching today.
Be sure to check out our website, decentralize.tv.
For all the other episodes that you may have missed, there are, well, a couple dozen almost at this point.
Every single one of them is worth watching.
And they're timeless.
It's not based on current events.
They're timeless and they're valuable.
So check them all out.
Thanks for watching today.
I'm Mike Adams with Brighteon.com, the platform that carries this broadcast.
Take care, everybody.
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