Tuur Demeester: The Bitcoin Reformation in Times of COVID-19
Ep. 57

Tuur Demeester: The Bitcoin Reformation in Times of COVID-19

Episode description

Today I am talking with Tuur Demeester, who recommended Bitcoin as an investment to his readers at $5 back in 2012. I would say Tuur is a philosopher with a greater perspective and an historical approach to today’s developments. We discuss his findings in his paper “The Bitcoin Reformation”. Published that at the end of 2019 he is drawing comparisons between the Dutch reformation in the 16th century and the emergence of Bitcoin in this century. This bring us to discuss COVID-19 and Tuur’s thoughts on the impact of this crisis on the Bitcoin reformation and he tells us which assets will stay liquid and accessible.

A Crash Course on Economics, Interest Rates, Debt and Inflation

“I think that the long tail of cryptocurrencies is going to be small. I think that the Bitcoin market cap is always going to be 80 or 90% of total.” – Tuur Demeester

“If you really think about what interest rate is, it’s just the price of money, like the price of liquid capital in the economy. Now when we’re talking about 0% interest rates, it means that the money is incredibly cheap. But that’s not natural because this interest rate is set by the central bank.” – Tuur Demeester

“It’s kind of a great excuse for governments and economists to blame everything on the pandemic, like people are losing their jobs because, because of the lockdown. But like if you look at the 1918 Spanish flu, there was no mass unemployment like there is today. It wasn’t as bad at all because people had actual savings and they could weather things like this. It’s kind of making everything happen that was already going to happen, but it’s just making it happen faster.” – Tuur Demeester

“What assets are going to be liquid and accessible? My analysis so far: I ended up with gold and bitcoin, I think those are the two likely assets that will still retain their value. And be actually usable.” – Tuur Demeester

  • The similarities between the Dutch reformation and Bitcoin
  • Who is profiting from the current financial system
  • The Catholic church and Central Banks as rent-seeking monopolies
  • Differences between the schools of Keynes and Austrian Economics
  • Bitcoin lending
  • Attacks on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash
  • Money as a language
  • The growing risk of hyperinflation
  • Interest rate is the price of money
  • His take on liquid and accessible assets in the future