1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,440 When the Bitcoin blockchain paper was published, this was 2009. 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,920 That was the first time in history where you could transfer value on the rails of the internet, 3 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:12,640 have the ledger updated in real time. Without any intermediaries, 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:17,760 to travel evolutionary about this technology, it is value transfer at its very core, whether 5 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:23,920 that's transferring Bitcoin, stablecoins, the tokenization of real-world assets, even money market funds. 6 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:33,280 We're using stranded power. We don't want to go into a major metropolitan area and use 7 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:39,360 expensive power because that power was high in demand. We would see tokenization in the real-esick sector 8 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:44,160 and other real-world assets on the business side. And so what I mean by that is in the structuring 9 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:48,800 of these financial instruments that people syndicate in order to buy property. I think what's 10 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:54,240 here now and what people can use to learn to get up to speed on how the asset transfer mechanisms 11 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,680 work in the digital asset world is to open a wallet. I think... 12 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:12,320 Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast. I'm Alyssa Arskog and today I'm excited to welcome 13 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:19,760 Lee Bratcher, founder and president of Texas Blockchain Council. Welcome Lee and thank you for 14 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,880 being here today. Thanks for having me, Melissa. Looking forward to the conversation. 15 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:32,400 I'm so excited to talk to you. You built the Texas Blockchain Council into a powerhouse 16 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:40,320 for blockchain advocacy. What inspired you to focus on making Texas a hub for blockchain 17 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:49,440 and Bitcoin? And how has this vision evolved? Yeah, several years ago, 2019, I saw a 18 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:57,200 report from the Brookings Institute that said that Texas was reactionary and eloquit and 19 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:04,720 unprepared in the realm of blockchain policy. And so there were other states that were leading the 20 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:10,160 charge that were a winning business, that were winning entrepreneurs and capital allocators to move 21 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:18,640 to those states. And I was disappointed that Texas hadn't taken a lead because Texas is a jurisdiction 22 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:24,960 that prides itself in being pretty business-friendly and also being at the forefront of innovation, 23 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:32,960 right? And especially now with DFW earning the moniker, Y'all Street, there's more finance 24 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:39,600 professionals in Texas on a per capita basis than anywhere else in the world or anywhere else in 25 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:45,760 the United States except for New York City. And I think the digital asset and crypto ecosystem is 26 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:51,600 realizing that over the last couple years and starting to make their home in places like Houston, Dallas 27 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:58,320 and Austin. I love it. I'm so excited to talk about this today. Now let's start with the basics and 28 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:04,480 the essentials for those that are new to blockchain. Can you share a little bit about what it is 29 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:12,640 and some foundational knowledge before we get started? Sure. Yeah, it is at its core just a ledger. 30 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:20,400 So, Debellinger Accounting, it's the way that we tracked value transfer for centuries since the 31 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:27,840 1500s. Debellinger Accounting is a great system but it doesn't work without a significant 32 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:36,000 structure of intermediaries and databases and ledgers. And so when the Bitcoin blockchain paper 33 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,960 was published, it's the first time in history, this was 2009. The white paper was published in 34 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:46,560 just Nate, the first Bitcoin transaction was 2009. That was the first time in history where you could 35 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:53,680 transfer value on the rails of the internet, have the ledger updated in real time without any 36 00:03:53,680 --> 00:04:00,400 intermediaries and the counter parties did not necessarily need to be to know each other or be in the 37 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:09,120 same geographic area. And so that's really what's revolutionary about this technology. It is value 38 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:16,560 transfer at its very core. So whether that's transferring Bitcoin, stablecoins, the tokenization 39 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:24,960 of real-world assets, even money market funds, are being tokenized by BlackRock and other large 40 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:30,720 behemoths of the French services industry. Pretty much all assets will run on the rails of blockchain 41 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:39,040 just like all information today runs on the rails of the internet. So 30 years ago, very little of the 42 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:45,200 information that we had ran on the rails of the internet. It still was in encyclopedias and in 43 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:52,320 the brains of very intelligent figures, thought leaders. But over the last couple several decades, 44 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:57,600 pretty much all of that information has migrated to the internet and culminating now in this A-AGMUM, 45 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:04,160 where that information is being able to be aggregated and queried at an increasingly rapid pace. 46 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:12,800 The same is happening with asset transfer. So anytime we're recording asset ownership, asset transfer, 47 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:21,520 updating ledgers about who owns what, whether that's, you know, any asset really from stocks to bonds 48 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:27,040 to real estate, that will all one day happen on on blockchain rails. 49 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:34,800 I'm curious, what are some of the misconceptions about blockchain that you've encountered 50 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:38,160 and how can we kind of reframe those concerns? 51 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:44,800 Yeah, I'll start with the terminology. It's pretty complicated because, you know, when we use 52 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:49,520 the term blockchain, it's a very broad overarching term, similar to the term Web3, 53 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:55,040 there's a lot of things that fall under it. Of course, the biggest bucket under blockchain is Bitcoin. 54 00:05:55,040 --> 00:06:00,880 Bitcoin is the premier digital asset is the first instance of of blockchain technology. 55 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:07,360 And there are other verticals of digital assets within the blockchain, 56 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,760 kind of digital asset umbrella. You also have other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana. 57 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:18,640 You know, those are considered to be more of the programmable blockchain, like smart contract 58 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:22,880 platforms where you can program business logic into the chains. 59 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:29,440 You can also program business logic into Bitcoin, but it's less frequently used for that. 60 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:38,000 Bitcoin is kind of the asset, the currency, the store of value, whereas Ethereum, Solana, 61 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,800 and some of these other chains are serving different purposes. And then you've got other 62 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:47,520 components within digital assets like tokenization of real-world assets. 63 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:53,280 That could be the tokenization of dollars, that's stablecoins. You know, stablecoins did more 64 00:06:53,280 --> 00:07:00,080 transaction volume last year globally than the Visa credit card network. And we're just... 65 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,000 Are you a high-income professional, looking for smarter ways to protect your wealth? 66 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:10,000 The Texas Freedom Fund gives you the opportunity to invest in energy assets leveraging proven 67 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:16,560 fracking technology and prime access to global markets. With strategic oil and gas investments, 68 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,640 you can build real wealth while benefiting from tax advantages under laws, 69 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:25,040 dating back to the Reagan era. Take control of your financial future. 70 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:29,680 Visit Texas Freedom Fund.executiveconnectpodcast.com 71 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:34,960 Getting started. So I think Visa actually has a dashboard that tracks this. Visa, a master card, 72 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:40,560 or both getting a baldened stablecoins because they realize that money should move at the speed 73 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:49,360 of the internet, not at the speed of 3% transaction fees, and, you know, T+2 transaction time, 74 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:57,600 and lack of finality. You know, ACH transactions can be clawed back 90 days after the transaction 75 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:05,760 has been made. So we're getting there, I think, in a lot of ways in the traditional finance world, 76 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:08,880 but blockchain and digital assets is going to get us there a lot faster. 77 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:15,200 Yeah, that's unbelievable. They hear with Visa and master card, and I'm excited to see what's 78 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:21,200 going to happen in Texas. Now we hear research on blockchain and land registries. How can 79 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:29,520 businesses and individuals benefit long term? Yeah, my PhD research was on the property rights, 80 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:36,080 blockchain for land administration. My thesis was essentially the technology is there to do this, 81 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:43,760 but the institutions and particularly like the land registry offices, the county clerks offices, 82 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:50,080 they have very, very little incentive to innovate. So I predicted that it would lag from a 83 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:55,280 records land administration standpoint because that is a function administered by 84 00:08:55,280 --> 00:09:02,560 the government, but that we would see tokenization in the real estate sector and other real world 85 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:08,480 assets on the business side. And so what I mean by that is in the structuring of these financial 86 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:17,840 instruments that people syndicate in order to buy properties. So take the typical structure, Melissa, 87 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:21,360 that you guys are very familiar with, like the general partner, limited partner structure. 88 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:29,280 That is where you can tokenize some of that limited partner ownership and even general partner 89 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:36,560 ownership doesn't matter. And those assets can trade with greater liquidity 24/7, should there, 90 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,600 right now, they're not 24/7 because you have to trade them on, alternative trading systems, 91 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:52,240 ATSs, which are regulated securities exchanges for these kinds of assets. But I think in the future, 92 00:09:52,240 --> 00:10:00,800 we'll see those trade like crypto trades 24/7. Now there has to be an amalgamation of that. You have 93 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:08,560 to have a marketplace with clear information, enough liquidity, enough buyers and sellers. And so, 94 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:15,680 you may not see one individual building being tokenized and trading with that kind of liquidity 95 00:10:15,680 --> 00:10:22,880 in the near term. But I think all of that is coming. And it goes back to the original conversation we 96 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:30,240 had at the top of the call, which is we're transferring, we're democratizing asset ownership, 97 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:37,040 and we're making it faster and cheaper for the asset owners to acquire more of the asset, sell the asset 98 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:42,720 and do whatever they want, exercise their property rights over the asset. 99 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:49,920 Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? On the Executive Connect podcast, 100 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:57,680 we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. Hit the subscribe button now. Don't just watch 101 00:10:57,680 --> 00:11:04,240 Act. Seems a lot easier, right, than historically in other areas. And so I love first, 102 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:10,160 you know, I've had a lot of these conversations recently with people that are learning about it, 103 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:16,880 are, you know, concerned about it, but they're watching from afar. So from some of it's looking to 104 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:24,080 invest in or adopt blockchain, what is one kind of practical first step that they can take 105 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:33,280 from your experience? I think the easiest way to get into it, you know, there are real estate assets 106 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:40,800 that are trading that are tokenized right now. And you can go find those. But that use case has 107 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:46,560 got a few more years left in it before it's ubiquitous and before like all real estate deals are 108 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:51,840 syndicated in that way. I think that's several more years away. I think what's here now and what people 109 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:58,480 can use to learn to get up to speed on how the asset transfer mechanisms work in the digital asset 110 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:05,760 world is just to open a wallet and buy Bitcoin. By Bitcoin, you stablecoins anytime you have to 111 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:14,720 send money overseas or send money where you are going to have $30 wire transfer fee, just use 112 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:20,000 stablecoins and Bitcoin. I mean, stablecoins, you can send a million dollar to stablecoins for 113 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:28,480 just a few cents transaction fee and it'll clear in moments, right? And then opening a Bitcoin 114 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:34,480 wallet and buying some Bitcoin Ethereum or some other digital asset and playing around with that 115 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:39,600 and understanding how the custody works, understand the difference between self-custody and 116 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:48,160 institutional custody. I think that's the best way to get into it right now. I love it. Now in Texas, 117 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:55,040 shifting to a really hot topic right now is Bitcoin mining and their regulatory environments are 118 00:12:55,040 --> 00:13:02,160 trending right now in Texas. With your focus in this area, what's your take on where we're headed 119 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:08,880 from a regulatory standpoint? Yeah, we've got some great things happening both at Texas and at 120 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:13,840 the federal level. Obviously, federally, we expect to see market structure legislation and 121 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:21,760 stablecoin legislation this year. I think that's not a foregone conclusion, but extremely likely 122 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:30,480 is what I would say. In Texas, we are, in fact, just yesterday, Senate Bill 21, the Texas strategic 123 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:36,400 reserve bill, just one that we've been working on for a long time, passed the Senate Business and 124 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:42,720 Commerce Committee unanimously. It will be through the four of the Senate soon and over to the Texas 125 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:48,720 House. We expect over the next 45 days it will move through the House in pass, maybe not unanimously, 126 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:54,800 but it will pass. It's likely that the governor will sign that in the law in the coming months. 127 00:13:54,800 --> 00:14:03,120 Of course, you also have Bitcoin mining in Texas, about 45% of all, US Bitcoin mining takes place in 128 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:08,880 Texas. There are a couple of bills that we're watching closely like Senate Bill 6 related to 129 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:14,160 energy consumption, data centers, large loads, like Bitcoin mining and AI data centers, 130 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:19,360 and we do a lot of advocacy on the policy front, but I don't want to bore your audience too much 131 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:29,440 with the nuances of grid policy and data center policy, but we're happy to dive into that offline. 132 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:34,960 Yeah, that's a good point. Is there anything that they should be aware of and 133 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,440 for what's coming or just let it flow as it comes out? 134 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:46,160 I think it's interesting for people to realize that the state of Texas is actually going to put 135 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:51,920 Bitcoin in the balance sheet. The comptroller's office is going to have Bitcoin in a strategic 136 00:14:51,920 --> 00:15:01,280 Bitcoin reserve likely this year. This is exciting and I think people, when they see that Texas is 137 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:05,760 moving in this direction, of course, we have the Texas Stock Exchange. It's opening up here in Dallas. 138 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,400 The New York Stock Exchange just announced that it's moving all their 139 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:15,440 like Chicago sub-exchange is to Texas. Really Texas is the place to be for financial services, 140 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:23,280 and we're already a powerhouse in energy. We produce more energy than any other state, 141 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:28,160 more energy than California by a long shot even though they have about 30% more people than we do. 142 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:35,440 And we're also going to be a leader in financial services. And innovation too, 143 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:41,200 I think innovators are pouring out of California and into Texas by the day. 144 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:47,680 And so Austin is a little bit stronger than Dallas and Houston on that front, I think, it's known as 145 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:53,120 Silicon Hills versus Silicon Valley. So we're excited about all those developments. 146 00:15:53,120 --> 00:16:00,080 It's so true. With South by Southwest coming up here, I'm excited to see how things shake out with 147 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:09,200 that. There is a ton of us on YouTube about sustainable mining practices. I'm curious from your 148 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:14,800 perspective, how does Texas Block Chain Council promote eco-friendly solutions? 149 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:22,960 Sure. Yeah, mining does use a lot of energy. And depending on the day, on a nice, beautiful day 150 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:29,040 like today, it would use about 5% of all power produced in the state of Texas. And other data centers 151 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:37,520 are using, you know, double that probably about 10%. And that could be a scary number if someone 152 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:44,720 doesn't understand the way in which the power is used, right? So the first thing that I'd say is 153 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:53,200 we're using stranded power. We don't want to go into a major metropolitan area and use expensive 154 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:58,640 power because that means that that power is high in demand. If power is expensive, it's in high 155 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:05,040 demand. And if power is cheap, it's in low demand. So we go into the rural areas using excess wind and 156 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:10,560 solar excess power that was never going to make it to a population center. Anyways, there wasn't 157 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:16,240 enough transmission capacity to get it there. I think what a lot of people don't know is a good bit 158 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:23,760 of the power that we produce globally is actually unused and wasted. Just because you can't get that 159 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:29,840 power to the point of use, there's not a transmission and it's not the right time of day. You have to use 160 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:37,360 produce power and use it within the same few seconds of time. And so that's just how the game goes. 161 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:44,160 So we locate the industry locates Bitcoin mining operations far from population centers using 162 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:51,280 excess and stranded, typically renewable energy in West Texas. And another thing that we have 163 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:58,880 worked on is a piece of legislation that clarifies that flared gas. So gas that is, this is natural gas 164 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:05,520 what's called associated gas that comes up out of the ground when you're drilling for oil, 165 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:12,480 typically in order to not vent that gas in the environment, which is much worse for the atmosphere, 166 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:18,880 they burn it, producing CO2, but that's way less than the methane that was just venting. 167 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:24,960 So they'll flare it, they call that flaring. So we actually authored some legislation that clarified 168 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:33,760 that it is not a taxable event, not a severance taxable event, to redirect that flared stack from 169 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:41,360 the flared to a generator for onsite production for a mobile data center in Bitcoin mining AI or 170 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:49,040 otherwise. And so what that does is actually create a 67% reduction in the carbon footprint of a 171 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:56,320 a flare that was previously just flaring that gas into the environment. So a couple of different 172 00:18:56,320 --> 00:19:03,440 ways where Bitcoin is really driving clean energy innovation, driving investments in renewables 173 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:11,760 and nuclear power, and also reducing some flared gas. That's great to hear. I'm, you know, I know 174 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:17,920 global interest in cryptocurrency. There's so much interest around the world to invest in 175 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:24,000 cryptocurrency. How do you, I'm curious, how do you think Texas policies and legislation changes 176 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,840 are going to affect the other states or other countries around the world? 177 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:35,920 Well, it is a concept called game theory that I think many of your listeners will be familiar with 178 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:45,440 that if there's no jurisdictions or sovereign entities that are giving an industry any time of day 179 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:53,600 or any interest, then there is no game theory pressure for other jurisdictions or sovereigns to 180 00:19:53,600 --> 00:20:04,160 take interest. But the theory goes or kind of the process or the logic goes that as countries do 181 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:09,440 start taking interest in passing things like strategic Bitcoin reserves and realizing that digital 182 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,360 assets are the future of value transfer and the future of finance. 183 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:21,200 They will start taking notice. And so the faster they start to pile in, the more pressure 184 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:27,040 there is on the ones that have yet to pile in. And so right now we're kind of still in that early 185 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:33,040 adoption phase. And we still probably have 20 more years to go before we get to the point where 186 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:39,360 where these assets are ubiquitous and used by all 8 billion people across the world. Right now, 187 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:46,080 only about 500 million people globally have have a wallet or transact in digital assets, 188 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:52,640 stablecoin, crypto or otherwise. So long ways to go, still early days. 189 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:59,680 That's interesting. That's not a lot, right? Given I'm curious how that stacks up against other 190 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:07,920 investments around the world, but 500,000 is not a lot. So get in early, 500 million. 500 million. 191 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:13,440 Oh, yeah, there we go. But still, that's only one 16th of a global population. It's less than 10%. 192 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:20,240 Yeah, that's so get in early, I hear. Get in before everybody's in. 193 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:26,640 We like to ask our listeners. I know Bitcoin has been something that has been of interest to our 194 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:34,400 listeners to submit questions about Bitcoin. So we have one, how do I start learning about Bitcoin 195 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:38,240 and Bitcoin mining? Do you have any recommendations on where to start? 196 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:45,760 Yeah, for Bitcoin and digital assets, I would go to one of the exchanges. They have really good 197 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:55,920 quality educational content, exchanges like river, Coinbase, Kraken, crypto.com, blockchain.com. 198 00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:02,240 These are all great places that have really good content for folks to learn. And then on Bitcoin 199 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:07,440 mining, they can go to our website. The Texas watching council does a lot of education about Bitcoin 200 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:15,200 mining in particular. If they want to learn about sort of the, you know, the academic side of it, 201 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:20,640 like understanding how it interacts with the grid, you know, why it's good for the grid, why it's good 202 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:26,480 for the United States. If they actually want to mine Bitcoin, like they want to learn about them 203 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:33,040 actually purchasing a Bitcoin mining machine, we don't do that. But one of our member companies does 204 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:38,400 that for individuals, their compass mining is the name of that company. And so if they want to 205 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:43,840 actually purchase a mining machine, have it shipped to a warehouse, a data center, where it will 206 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,880 mine Bitcoin into their wallet, they can do that through companies like Compass. 207 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:55,440 I'm curious to know, how can listeners or people get involved or become a member of the Texas 208 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,200 blockchain council? Is there a way that they could connect with you and your team? 209 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:06,480 Yeah, just a Texas blockchain council.org, we have a page on membership. It's probably not for everybody 210 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:12,960 because it does have a cost to it. But for those that are in the industry or wanting to, 211 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:20,160 you know, network in the industry, have looking for clients in the industry, we're typically 212 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:24,320 well equipped to help there. If it's people who are really just wanting to learn more about it, 213 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:28,080 I suggest they just go to like our YouTube channel, YELL's YouTube channel. 214 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:33,760 There's so much free content out there for people who are just wanting to learn. I wouldn't pay 215 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:39,200 for anything that's just content. We give content away for free, y'all give content away for free, 216 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:45,840 and many other folks do as well. And there's a lot of great content out there. It does take about 217 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:52,560 some people say a thousand hours to really become, you know, deeply versed in this industry. 218 00:23:53,200 --> 00:24:01,840 But I'd say, you know, if somebody spent 15, 20 hours reading and watching videos, they could get pretty 219 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:10,480 up to speed. You know, the best book I think that's only like 75 pages is called "Inventing Bitcoin 220 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:16,320 by Yance Pritzker." There's another book called "The Bitcoin Standard" by Safety and Amos. 221 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:22,000 It gets a little bit more theoretical. Safety is an academic like myself. He's an economist. So 222 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:30,400 it's a little bit more heady, but still a great read. And then there's similar ones for other assets. 223 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:36,000 I think if you understand Bitcoin first, then you can understand more easily, understand some of 224 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:44,560 the other assets like Ethereum. That's great. As we wrap up, I always like to look at the future. 225 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:50,880 Your teaching, experience, and summit hosting, you clearly have a passion for education. 226 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:56,160 How do you see blockchain evolving in the future? 227 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:03,200 You know, I think it will become like the internet where we don't all know how the internet works, 228 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:10,400 but we all use it every day. So when we educate people about it, we don't want to educate 229 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:16,160 everyone about the entire ecosystem. It's impossible to learn. I think specialization is key. I mean, 230 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:23,600 that's a principle that Adam Smith and the wealth of nations beautifully elucidated centuries ago 231 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:31,040 that we thrive as communities when we specialize. And to specialize in the digital assets ecosystem 232 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:37,760 means to go narrow and to understand, you know, if you're a finance person or maybe you're an accountant, 233 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:42,960 then you can specialize in the tracking, you know, understand the software mechanisms and understand 234 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,520 the reporting requirements and the FASB stuff. If you're in the energy industry, then of course, 235 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,520 you're going to go into data centers, Bitcoin, mining, AI, GPU, high performance compute. 236 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,760 If you're in real estate, you're probably going to want to learn about the tokenization of real estate. 237 00:25:55,760 --> 00:26:01,360 So there's all these different angles, and I wouldn't suggest anyone try to learn the whole 238 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:06,560 industry, just like no one's going to learn everything about the internet, right? Like, you're not 239 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:14,080 going to learn everything related to TCP/IP, Chrome protocols or email works and different packets 240 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:20,320 or sit over the internet. You're going to learn how the internet impacts your industry and your 241 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,120 business. And so that's what I would suggest to folks is just find that niche and, 242 00:26:25,120 --> 00:26:31,920 you know, make sure that niche is adjacent to where you already are from a business perspective. 243 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:39,440 Yeah, that makes me think, with your research, your PhD research on blockchain, land registries, 244 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:45,920 I'm curious from my perspective, how this technology might change property rights in the next five 245 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:52,400 years. Do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah, I do think it gets people closer to property ownership. 246 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:59,120 It makes them better able to utilize assets that they own to provide 247 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,680 more value to them and their families, right? So what do I mean by that? I mean, if you, 248 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:13,280 so let's take a pretty simple example, like money market funds. Imagine if you could take, you know, 249 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:19,760 your money market funds that's earning like a kind of treasury, like a T-build rate of return 250 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:26,960 and use that as collateral to, and get some tokens with it, some stablecoin tokens or money market 251 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:34,240 tokens that are redeemable for that money market fund or a stablecoin or back to the US dollar 252 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:42,080 in kind of in the original sense. And you collateralize that and you use that to invest in real estate. 253 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:48,560 Or if you're able to kind of exercise your property rights over, you know, your rental houses that 254 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:56,080 you own or over an asset, maybe you own multiple cars and like, there's a decentralized 255 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:00,160 touro that comes up where you're able to exercise your property rights and ownership over those cars 256 00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:06,720 by renting them out in a decentralized way where touro is not taking a cut. There's any number of 257 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:12,880 things, anything of any asset that you own, how do you put it to productive use? And there's probably 258 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:19,040 a more efficient way to do that with with in the digital asset realm because what you're doing is your 259 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:24,320 increasing speed, you're cutting out middlemen, you're cutting out fees and that means that you're 260 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:33,360 accruing more value to the asset owner. Yeah, that's great. I know, I've got all these questions. I'm curious 261 00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:41,200 to ask you. I'm curious just looking back on your journey from professor to blockchain advocate. 262 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:45,680 What is one message that you hope that carries forward in this industry? 263 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:57,200 I think right now it's important to let people know that speculation is really not what this 264 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:03,840 industry exists for, although there is a lot of that going on right now. So I would caution people 265 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:12,400 against the meme coin frenzy. I would make sure to use reputable partners, do not get scammed. I mean, 266 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:18,960 it can happen to anyone, so be very vigilant. Not even with necessarily a crypto, just in general, 267 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:26,000 anytime you're dealing with financial services, you know, you want to use reputable service providers 268 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:33,760 and connect with reputable actors. And so I would just make sure people, you got to understand 269 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:39,520 the asset, right? You want to understand what a wallet is and how to send a transaction. And 270 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:50,160 even professionals get, you know, buybit was hacked for $1.5 billion just days ago. So even professionals 271 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:55,680 can fall, fall victim to some of this stuff. So education is the watchword of the day and using reputable 272 00:29:55,680 --> 00:30:01,840 service providers. And, you know, if you want to play the lottery, you can buy meme coins. That's fine, 273 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:09,200 but it is like penny stocks. There is a, it is very similar. So meme coin behave like penny stocks, 274 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:15,120 and they behave like slot machines. And that's really good advice, paying attention to some of 275 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:21,440 these scams or these emails or click here for this or some of the, you know, bait that we have 276 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,840 and be smart. I think that's really good advice, be smart and wise and pay attention to it, 277 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:32,160 because it is your currency, it is your money and it can, you know, just be lost the same as any other 278 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:38,160 investment. I want to get in kind of closing any final thoughts or anything you want to share 279 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:43,040 with our listeners about the things we may or may not have covered today during our time. 280 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:49,680 You know, the last thought I have is said, we'd love to connect with your listeners in person. 281 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:53,680 Now, we have the North American blockchain summit that we host every year in the fall. 282 00:30:54,400 --> 00:31:02,000 It will be at the Bush presidential center in Dallas, Texas next to SMU. Beautiful venue, 283 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:10,240 very high, high class. And it's not going to be 50,000 people. It's not like, you know, a huge 284 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:16,480 conference. We typically have anywhere from 700 to 1,000 people. But they're, but they're business 285 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:22,080 professionals. They're people that are on the kind of that institutional side of things. And 286 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:27,680 you know, it's a good place for folks to safely come and network with, you know, 287 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,880 traditional finance people who are interested in blockchain, digital assets, and also crypto folks who 288 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:40,080 are are native to the industry, but are a little bit less crypto bro-esque in their, you know, 289 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:48,400 the way they they carry themselves. That's great. What an insightful conversation. 290 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:52,960 Thank you so much. You're a busy busy man. I know you have a lot of places to be. We've 291 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:58,400 covered so much about blockchain, the future education. Lee, I want to thank you for sharing your 292 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:05,840 expertise and time. Where can listeners connect best with you? Sure. I mean, our website is one 293 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:14,480 we listed that earlier. I'm also on Twitter at Lee_Bratcher. Thank you so much for sharing that 294 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:21,600 to our listeners. Stay challenged. Make sure you like and connect with us. And until next time, 295 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,440 And that's the Executive Connect podcast.