149: Dr. Saifedean Ammous - Cryptocurrency, The History of Money, and More

Bitcoin allows us to build an international monetary system and an international clearance system independently from central banks and governments. Share on X

Dr. Saifedean Ammous is not the typical health-focused guest I usually have on the podcast but he’s an expert nonetheless.

His expertise happens to be in cryptocurrency, economics, and so much more, which made for a really interesting episode.

Dr. Ammous and I get into a ton of great topics like the history of money, using gold and other metals as currency, cryptocurrency, hyperinflation, dispelling a big criticism of Bitcoin, and what the future holds.

The ability to save is what allows us to start prioritizing the future more and more. Share on X

Dr. Ammous, a carnivore for several years, also ties the conversation back to health so it’s not completely missing from this episode.

If you don’t know Dr. Saifedean Ammous’ work, he’s authored two books, The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking and The Fiat Solution.

He also holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the American University of Beirut.

When you tune into this episode, you’ll hear about these topics

How crypto currency gives people hope
Principles from Saifedean’s book, The Bitcoin Standard
A brief history of money and how we got to this point
What we’ve learned from using gold and other metals as currency
Easy versus hard money examples
What was the incentive to come up with separate currencies?
What are the long-term implications of all this?
What hyperinflation can lead to
What makes Bitcoin different from gold or the US dollar?
How is crypto currency possible now and why wasn’t it around sooner?
What about the biggest criticism of Bitcoin — that it uses incredible amounts of energy?