Can Bitcoin really protect humans from corruption?

Nobody tells you that the worst sentiment in Bitcoin's history arrived right alongside the best fundamentals on paper. Governments buying, institutions stacking, every business able to accept it, and yet the mood feels like a funeral. Tomer Strolight has a theory about why, and it starts with what new buyers were never taught.

Most systems of law punish you after you break the rules. Bitcoin won't let you break them in the first place. That single distinction reshapes everything, from how we think about governance to why politicians accumulate wealth that their salaries can't explain.

Tomer spent a decade as a convinced atheist building a career in corporate boardrooms. Then depression, psychedelics, and a deep study of Bitcoin's design pulled him somewhere he never expected to go. The guy who once dismissed faith ended up being baptized in the Atlantic Ocean at a Bitcoin conference.

This conversation covers civilizational decay, the aligned incentives that make Bitcoin ungovernable, why democracy might be the god that failed, and what happens when a philosopher stops fighting the idea that the universe has a creator.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[01:56] What Bitcoin cycles, the Ethereum hard fork, and Satoshi's sacrifice all have in common

[13:27] Why Bitcoin's incentives make cheating the system impossible

[17:05] Free will vs. predestination: why God had no choice but to give us one

[21:32] Why a Holocaust-era family and the 2008 bailouts destroyed his faith in Western institutions

[34:51] The case that democracy was always going to fail, and what Bitcoin does about it

[58:22] Bitcoin as civilization's foundation: the system where breaking the rules is impossible

[01:07:38] Why unchecked government power has a genuinely demonic quality

[01:16:56] What the BIP 110 debate reveals about Bitcoin's developer problem

[01:40:58] From atheist to baptized believer: the psychedelic experience that led him to God

Resources Mentioned:

Bitcoin is Generational Wealth - A Short Film | YouTube

Ethereum | Website

Mt. Gox | Wikipedia

Silk Road | Wikipedia

Square | Website

Genesis Block | Wikipedia

2008 Financial Crisis | Wikipedia

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Tomer Strolight | X

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Adam O’Brien | X

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At some point, every system breaks when people stop thinking for themselves.

I’m joined by Julian Figueroa, a bitcoin educator and filmmaker known for turning complex ideas around hard money and self-custody into content people actually stick with. We keep coming back to the same underlying problem: what happens when you stop thinking from first principles and start outsourcing judgment, whether that’s to AI writing tools, authority figures, or the crowd.

There’s a clear difference between content built on conviction and content that’s engineered to perform, and that gap shows up in everything from content creation to how ideas spread. The same pattern starts to appear in unexpected places: how people treat Bitcoin, how they think about privacy, even how belief systems form and fracture over time.

At a certain point, the question stops being about tools or strategy and becomes about responsibility… Who's actually doing the thinking?

Somewhere between the pressure of the YouTube algorithm, the pull of certainty, and the temptation to defer, there’s a line that’s easy to cross and hard to notice.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[06:11] Why AI can't replace a writer who thinks from scratch, and what strong conviction has to do with it

[14:33] What it actually takes to make a Bitcoin video go viral

[28:30] Why the Bitcoin philosophers who never spend it are missing the point

[37:21] Bitcoin's privacy problem, and why it matters more than most Bitcoiners admit

[40:57] The three types of governments that will exist on a Bitcoin standard

[01:01:51] How much history can actually be trusted, and the archbishop who found Marcus Aurelius in the ruins

[01:05:12] Decentralized church, false doctrine, and why Bitcoin maxis and religious followers make the same mistake

[01:16:15] The danger of outsourcing your thinking to AI, leaders, or anyone else

[01:29:05] Pascal's Wager and why Bitcoin conviction follows the same logic as faith

[01:39:00] Bitcoin is a foundation; it changes how you value your time and everything else

Resources Mentioned:

Pascal’s Wager | Website

Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius | Website

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Nakamoto, S. | Article

Find more from Julian:

Julian Figueroa | X

The Exit Manual | YouTube

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Adam O’Brien | X

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What happens when faith collides with politics, economics, and questions about authority?

What starts as a casual chat about hockey fandom and Canadian rivalries quickly opens the door to something bigger: the tension between government power, personal freedom, and what the Bible actually teaches about authority. I’m joined by Alin Armstrong (Pastor Coin), who focuses on helping the church understand Bitcoin and why it matters for the future of money and freedom.

I wrestle with questions many believers are asking right now. Verses like Romans 13 are often used to argue that Christians must submit to the state, but what happens when government actions start crossing into areas many people believe belong to the church or to individual conscience?

We connect those questions to Bitcoin, free markets, and the argument that decentralization may lead to stronger and healthier societies than centralized control. Along the way, the story of the Tower of Babel raises a deeper issue: why humans repeatedly build systems of power that place authority in human hands instead of God’s.

If you’ve been thinking about the intersection of Christian theology, government authority, Bitcoin, and decentralization, this episode raises questions that may challenge how you see all of it.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[08:26] Why pastors are becoming more politically engaged, and what the Bible actually says about it

[17:12] The biblical origin of centralized government, from Babel to Israel's kings to the gospel

[31:17] Romans 13 as a slavery text, and why "maximize Jesus, minimize Caesar" is the biblical

[47:20] Biblical entertainment, the rise of shows like House of David, and whether Christians should make better art

[55:13] How studying Bitcoin led a pastor to Scripture, fiat debt, sin, and who actually bears the guilt

[01:08:43] Why denominational labels have lost their meaning, and what "Jesus Maximalist" replaces them with

[01:14:46] Mary as the second Eve, the Genesis 3 thread that runs all the way to the cross

[01:25:47] Applying "minimize Caesar" to diet, homeschooling, and food sovereignty

[01:32:54] Biblical archeology, Sodom's sulfur, the Book of Enoch, and the Giant of Kandahar

[01:41:31] Cold Case Christianity, why the resurrection is the only question that matters

Find more from Alin Armstrong (Pastor Coin):

Pastor Coin | X

Alin Armstrong | Website

The Bible and Bitcoin by Alin Armstrong | Book

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Adam O’Brien | X

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Do we have proof that angels and demons exist?

Roberto Rios, a macro thinker and Bitcoiner, joins me to connect central banking, elite corruption, and what he believes is the spiritual dimension behind power itself.

We move from macroeconomics and investing into the darker implications of the Epstein files, blackmail networks, and systemic compromise. The conversation challenges the idea that corruption is random, suggesting instead that centralized institutions (financial, political, and cultural) may reflect deeper forces at work.

Questions of spiritual warfare, free will, and demonic influence surface as we examine why power structures persist and why reform often fails. Material explanations alone may not fully account for the patterns we see in global finance and governance.

Bitcoin is about more than money. It's about power, control, and the spiritual forces behind them.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[17:12] Carnivore diet, oxalate inflammation, and why modern produce is nothing like ancient food

[33:07] Bitcoiners, Christianity, and whether atheism requires more faith than theism

[40:30] Epstein's Baal bank account, satanic ritual in the files, and elites summoning demonic power

[43:40] Demons feed off human emotion, every deal backfires, and elites keep making them anyway

[50:57] Epstein's blackmail ring, Trump's compromise, and CERN as evidence of coordinated elite capture

[55:54] Three true stories of demonic influence

[01:06:59] Island exile over prison, capital punishment, and calvinism

[01:26:20] God-given curiosity, a TB genome that stumped PhDs, and how The Big Short changed everything

[01:35:29] Roberto's case for holding gold and silver, the utility theory of value, and paper markets suppressing Bitcoin's price

[01:51:16] China's silver rush, the Shanghai premium, and the next Fed easing cycle as Bitcoin's catalyst

Related The Adam O’Brien Show Episodes:

Is It Really Bitcoin?? How To Evaluate Bitcoin Treasury Companies | YouTube

Resources Mentioned:

Plant Free MD | Podcast

Find more from Roberto Rios:

Peruvian Bull | X

Peruvian Bull | YouTube

The Dollar Endgame| Book

The Dollar Endgame | Substack

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Adam O’Brien | X

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Bitcoin might be less about money and more about time.

In this episode, I’m joined by Scott Dedels, Co-Founder of Block Rewards and author of The Dao of Bitcoin. Scott blends hands-on experience in Bitcoin infrastructure with a deeper exploration of how time, value, and decentralization shape the systems we live in.

We dig into how blockchain technology and Bitcoin challenge the way modern society measures and monetizes time, and what that means for the future of finance. Scott reframes debt as monetized future value and inflation as a devaluation of the past, positioning money as a temporal instrument rather than just currency.

Drawing from his own experience navigating cryptocurrency, including the Terra Luna collapse, he explains why he sees Bitcoin’s energy-based structure as fundamentally different from other digital assets.

If you’re interested in decentralization, financial sovereignty, and the bigger ideas behind Bitcoin, this conversation goes well beyond market headlines.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[06:46] Pizzagate, YouTube censorship, and the moment Scott stopped trusting what he was shown

[11:57] Clock time, accelerationism, and how Bitcoin enables cathedral thinking again

[24:13] Governments as self-serving organisms, and the anomalies in recorded history that don't add up

[36:47] From Saturn to the moon landing: the full story of how time, history, and technology have been altered

[57:13] Satanic imagery in mainstream media, the theological framework for who holds the keys, and the devil's limited playbook

[01:02:25] The Bible as an edited document, the omitted books, and the free will vs. predestination tension

[01:11:28] The brain's tape delay, block universe theory, and the idea that consciousness might be God

[01:34:16] AI compressing time infinitely, and Bitcoin's low time preference as the only real cognitive anchor

[01:36:16] Scott's daily practice: no TV, physical books only, and retraining a dopamine-fried brain

Resources:

The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders | Book

The Dao of Bitcoin by Scott Dedels | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Scott Dedels:

Lantern Bitcoin | X

Lantern Bitcoin | Website

Scott Dedels | LinkedIn

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Adam O’Brien | X

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Bitcoin isn’t just another asset; it’s a response to broken money.

In this episode, I sit down with Seb Bunney to discuss why so many people feel uneasy about money, privacy, and technology, even when everything appears to be working as intended. That discomfort doesn’t come from paranoia or ideology, it comes from living inside systems that quietly extract data, shape behavior, and centralize control while calling it convenience.

Privacy used to be assumed. Now it’s something you actively defend. The same pattern shows up with money, where long-held beliefs about inflation, authority, and stability go mostly unchallenged. Bitcoin enters the picture not as a shortcut to wealth, but as a response to broken monetary systems and incentives that no longer reward long-term thinking.

Decentralization starts to matter when trust erodes, and financial sovereignty becomes practical rather than philosophical. This conversation connects Bitcoin, privacy erosion, and technology through a systems lens, focusing on how people begin questioning the structures they’ve inherited, and what happens when they do.

If you’ve felt that something about modern systems doesn’t sit right, this episode offers language, context, and a clearer frame for why.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[04:03] The "nothing to hide" fallacy and why privacy should be the default setting

[07:59] Sophisticated scams and why high-trust societies are collapsing

[14:41] Societal trauma in the downstream of broken monetary systems

[18:07] Somatic therapy, upward spirals, and the Buddhist fable of perspective

[27:22] Shifting from ego-driven hustle to trusting synchronicities and divine guidance

[45:41] 5D guidance, sensing truth in your chest, and why intuition predates data

[01:03:01] The Bible as distributed ledger, Shroud of Turin evidence, and crucifixion medical accuracy

[01:22:46] Biblical design of rules without rulers and Israel's tragic demand for kings

[01:26:30] The Trojan horse book strategy, flawed money maps, and why people reject Bitcoin

Resources Mentioned:

The Hidden Cost of Money by Seb Bunney | Book

Biblical Apologetics with Wes Huff | Website or Podcast

Find more from Seb Bunney:

Seb Bunney | Website

Seb Bunney | Instagram

Seb Bunney | X

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Adam O’Brien | X

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