Episodes

  • Read_942 - Stepping Outside the Fiat Frame
    May 3 2026

    "They say the ruler is bent, then use the bent ruler to measure the table.

    They say the clock is broken, then solemnly read out the hour.

    They say the instrument is false, then ask it, with perfect seriousness, for one final certification.

    This is, in itself, a form of bondage.

    To measure gold in fiat terms is, in Jung’s sense, to deny the shadow: to denounce the paper system in public while continuing, in private, to let it decide what counts as value."

    ~ Craig Tindale

    1 BTC = 1 BTC. If fiat is broken, why do we still trust it to tell us what gold or Bitcoin is worth? Craig Tindale argues that even the rebels against fiat money remain captive to its grammar – measuring their escape in the very units they claim to reject. But is stepping outside the fiat frame really that simple, or does the nature of price itself trap us in ways even Bitcoiners haven't fully reckoned with?

    Check out the original article: Stepping Outside the Fiat Frame by Craig Tindale (Link: https://x.com/ctindale/status/2040918715961901280)

    References from the episode

    • My recent two‑part series Read episodes: "Number Go Down" by Allen Farrington & Sacha Meyers and "Modern Money Only Works by Cheating" by Tyler Durden – both great companions to this episode.
      • (Number Go Down: https://fountain.fm/episode/fLqds61ds9YbsnqGOkE8)
      • (Modern Money Only Works by Cheating: https://fountain.fm/episode/UN8NHIQ3tR9tdc9ER89h)

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

    Check out our awesome partners!

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)
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    42 mins
  • Guy's Take_106 - When Cheating Is The Law
    May 1 2026

    "When you really dig into the heart of how finance, how our monetary system and how our political system work, and how deeply married they are, you begin to see something that's pretty disturbing. That cheating and manipulation aren't simply something that arise in bad behaviors. They're fundamentally required by the system itself. They're baked in. They are the standard. It is the law. And if that is our reality, then the only way we can actually restore honesty and sensible standards is to create a money that refuses to bend to the law. So the question is, have we done that?"

    ~ Guy

    What if the cheating, the manipulation, and the bailouts aren't bugs in our financial system, but the very features that keep it alive? In this rant, I push back hard on the idea that "elastic money" saved us from the 2008 collapse, the 1929 catastrophe, or any other economic event we've "papered over", and argue it's the very thing guaranteeing a far worse one. Is hard money really the villain of the 20th century, or have we been telling ourselves a comforting lie?

    References from the episode

    • The previous Read of "Number Go Down", the essay by Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/fLqds61ds9YbsnqGOkE8)
    • And the previous Read of "Modern Money Only Works by Cheating" by Tyler Durden (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/UN8NHIQ3tR9tdc9ER89h)
    • Custodia Bank's ongoing fight for a full-reserve banking charter (Link: https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2026/04/tenth-circuit-denies-rehearing-en-banc-in-custodia-banks-lawsuit-over-master-accounts/)

    Affiliate Links

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
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    47 mins
  • Chat_166 - The Great Distraction: Epstein vs. Quantum in Bitcoin with Rob Wallace on Bitcoin News
    Apr 27 2026

    "The whole point of libertarianism is that we should recognise that we don't know how to plan the world. We don't know what the solution is going to be. You can't have a central planner decide it.If it was really just that libertarians understood how the world worked, then you could have a central planner. You would just need them to be libertarians. That's not how it works at all. It's antithetical to the whole concept.

    That's why the Block Size War was such a huge success, because it did not hard-fork. It did not decide: 'Oh, if there is a schism in the community, one small group is going to be able to force it onto everybody else.'
    And that's exactly the thing that you actually need to have society's rules be sustainable, because otherwise, that's all you get. You get people who will violently disagree about the tiniest shit, and then they will put a gun to everybody else's head, and they will say: 'You just got to come along with me or you're screwed.'"

    ~ Guy

    Lately, it feels like an endless stream of noise tries to predict the death of Bitcoin. So I joined Rob Wallace on the Bitcoin News channel to cut through the panic and tackle the two loudest distractions: Google's latest quantum computing claims and the wild conspiracy that Jeffrey Epstein dictated Bitcoin's code.

    We look at the actual physics of quantum processing to see if scaling qubits without catastrophic environmental noise is even possible. But the Epstein drama is what really gets me fired up. People are rewriting the history of the block size wars to fit a comfortable narrative. We lay out why he had zero practical influence over Bitcoin, and why some folks would rather believe an elaborate lie than accept the reality of decentralized consensus.

    But we do not just stay in the weeds. I also share why I am incredibly optimistic about non-custodial scaling solutions like Ark, and how vibe coding is sparking a peer-to-peer renaissance. Big thanks to Rob and the Bitcoin News channel for hosting me!

    Chapters

    (00:00:00) - The failure of central planning and libertarian ideals

    (00:01:41) - Assessing the actual quantum threat to Bitcoin

    (00:08:44) - Why quantum experiments lack genuine cryptographic proof

    (00:20:06) - Prioritizing quantum resistance among protocol developers

    (00:22:50) - Debunking the Epstein and MIT Media Lab narrative

    (00:31:06) - The reality of the early Blockstream investments

    (00:39:41) - Why the liberty movement split over Bitcoin scaling

    (00:44:12) - Hard truths about network architecture and TCP/IP

    (00:52:29) - Can Bitcoin truly separate money from the state

    (00:55:08) - The friction of living entirely on a Bitcoin standard

    (01:00:12) - Vibe coding and a new peer-to-peer renaissance

    Guest Links

    • Rob on X (Link: https://twitter.com/_Rob_Wallace)
    • Bitcoin News on X (Link: https://twitter.com/bitcoinnewscom)
    • Bitcoin News Website (Link: https://bitcoinnews.com/)

    Affiliate Links

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bi...
    Chapters
    • (00:00:00) - The failure of central planning and libertarian ideals
    • (00:01:41) - Assessing the actual quantum threat to Bitcoin
    • (00:08:44) - Why quantum experiments lack genuine cryptographic proof
    • (00:20:06) - Prioritizing quantum resistance among protocol developers
    • (00:22:50) - Debunking the Epstein and MIT Media Lab narrative
    • (00:31:06) - The reality of the early Blockstream investments
    • (00:39:41) - Why the liberty movement split over Bitcoin scaling
    • (00:44:12) - Hard truths about network architecture and TCP/IP
    • (00:52:29) - Can Bitcoin truly separate money from the state
    • (00:55:08) - The friction of living entirely on a Bitcoin standard
    • (01:00:12) - Vibe coding and a new peer-to-peer renaissance
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Read_941 - Number Go Down - Part 2
    Apr 23 2026

    "The idea that some authority can deduce the correct level of this balance is not merely wrong, it is not even wrong, it is methodologically incoherent. Asking for the 'correct' interest rate is like asking how much the color orange weighs."

    ~ Allen Farrington & Sacha Meyers

    What if deflation isn't the economic boogeyman we've been told to fear, but the very *signal* that progress is happening?

    In Part 2 of Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers' brilliant essay, we dismantle the central myth of fiat economics – that printing money creates growth – and reveal why falling prices are the only honest measure that innovation has actually occurred. If the fiat prescription worked, where's the evidence? And why have central authorities never let us run the experiment?

    Check out the original article: Number Go Down by Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers (Link: https://x.com/allenf32/status/2045477517201477686)

    References from the episode

    • Part 1 of "Number Go Down" – make sure you catch it before this one. (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/fLqds61ds9YbsnqGOkE8)
    • "Bitcoin is Venice" by Farrington & Meyers – second edition announced for 2027. (Medium: https://allenfarrington.medium.com/bitcoin-is-venice-8414dda42070) (Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Venice-Essays-Future-Capitalism/dp/B09TTTGT11)
    • "On the Manipulation of Money and Credit" by Ludwig von Mises. (Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2212135)
    • And the companion Guy's Take coming soon on Bitcoin, Trust, and The Human Problem.

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

    Check out our awesome partners!

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

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    46 mins
  • Read_940 - Number Go Down - Part 1
    Apr 21 2026

    "The fiat economist universally chooses to set the printing press to brrrrrrrrrr. While the enlightened elite watch their stock portfolios moon and their debts disappear, the common man is told to be thankful that he was 'this close' to the horror of living in a world where his wages bought more every year, and his government respected his private property. Imagine how hard it would be for that government to raise debt in such a world. It would have to justify its spending. We cannot have that."

    ~ Allen Farrington & Sacha Meyers

    What if falling prices aren't the economy stifling nightmare that fiat economists claim, but instead is actually the only natural spending incentive of a real economy fundamentally?

    Dive into Part 1 of Number Go Down, Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers' latest essay, where we dismantle the deflation myth, explore how hard money fuels real growth, and question why Bitcoin's promise hinges on surviving extreme stress. Could this be the key to a more stable, productive world?

    Check out the original article: Number Go Down by Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers (Link: https://x.com/allenf32/status/2045477517201477686)

    References from the episode

    • Give a listen to our two-part episode "Modern Money Only Works By Cheating" by Tyler Durden for the backstory on what the market's really pricing in Bitcoin. (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/UN8NHIQ3tR9tdc9ER89h)
    • Don't miss my audiobook version of "Bitcoin is Venice" by Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers – it's one of my all-time favorites and dives deep into these economic themes. (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/s6Fu2VowAddRACCCIxQh)

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

    Check out our awesome partners!

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

    “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spiri...

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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Read_939 - Modern Money Only Works By Cheating - Part 2
    Apr 19 2026

    “what matters now is not belief, but endurance.
    bitcoin does not promise comfort. it does not promise justice. it does not promise to save anyone. it offers one thing only: a set of rules that do not bend to price, politics, or persuasion. whether that is valuable depends entirely on who is holding it and why.
    the mathematics will almost certainly hold long enough. the question has always been whether we will.”

    ~ Hugh Hendry

    Today, we are back with part two of Tyler Durden's piece "Modern Money Only Works By Cheating".

    Most people think the ultimate danger to Bitcoin is quantum computers cracking the math. But this article highlights something far scarier: human coordination. I read through the rest of the essay, which asks a brutal question. If Bitcoin ever needs to change to survive a threat, can a network built on resisting authority act together without a leader? Or will we just splinter into stubborn factions?

    Because Bitcoin's rules don't bend, the pressure falls entirely on us. I share my thoughts on the read, explaining why the Block Size War was a preview of this exact test, and where I push back heavily on the author's defense of fiat money.

    Check out the original article: Modern Money Only Works By Cheating by Tyler Durden (Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/modern-money-only-works-cheating-if-youre-long-bitcoin-or-not-long-bitcoin-read)

    References from the episode

    • Part 1 of this Read -- go back and catch up if you haven't. (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/UN8NHIQ3tR9tdc9ER89h)
    • Hugh Henry's article Bitcoin in the Problem of Hardness on his Substack -- that's the main one we dove into. (Link: https://hughhendry.substack.com/p/bitcoin-and-the-problem-of-hardness)
    • Hugh's other piece Bitcoin and the Human Problem is worth a read for the full picture. (Link: https://hughhendry.substack.com/p/5f0)

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

    Check out our awesome partners!

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
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    39 mins
  • Chat_165 - Family and Focus with Aleks Svetski
    Apr 16 2026
    "I think there will come a point where you get excessive, you swing too far on the individual side of the spectrum, and then it becomes advantageous to group together again, and you become more fulfilled, more happy, more culturally flourishing in collectives again." "I think there's a resurgence of the desire for people to build tribes, communities, even fucking network state, even microstates, and saying that we're going to do this, and we're going to really group together because getting 10,000, 100,000, million people, 10 million people of a similar mindset, similar ideology, similar vision for the world is way more powerful than individuals doing it." ~ Aleks Svetski In this Chat, Svetski and I talk about something I think a lot of people feel but don’t say out loud: the internet just doesn’t feel as real as it used to. We cover learned helplessness, micro-echo chambers, the collapse of trust, and why the future of social life may look a lot more like curated groups, in-person communities, and small circles of people you actually know. So this episode isn’t a standard industry update, but more of an honest, slightly cynical, and deeply hopeful look at why the best way to handle a world that feels increasingly fake is to double down on the things that are undeniably, physically real. Chapters (00:00:00) - Shifting tribalism and the need for community (00:04:15) - Unplugging from Twitter and public social media (00:14:37) - AI agents and the death of public internet (00:23:31) - Learned helplessness from social media hysteria (00:26:05) - Telescopic versus microscopic thinking models (00:44:20) - The necessity of life consequences and dueling (00:51:04) - Political power and the illusion of constitutions (01:01:43) - The role of borders and cultural trust (01:13:07) - Bitcoin as a standard framework for excellence (01:23:24) - Autonomous bazaars and the reality of collectivism (01:32:19) - Being completely offline as the new status symbol (01:34:24) - Information overload and the reality of mental obesity (01:37:40) - Physical scarcity and the booming experience economy (01:49:11) - Identity shifts and embracing fatherhood Guest Links Aleks on X (Link: https://twitter.com/)Satlantis Website (Link: ) Affiliate Links Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)(Under construction) Check out the list of products and services I use and recommend on BitcoinAudible.com (Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/) Host Links ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: h... Chapters (00:00:00) - Shifting tribalism and the need for community(00:04:15) - Unplugging from Twitter and public social media(00:14:37) - AI agents and the death of public internet(00:23:31) - Learned helplessness from social media hysteria(00:26:05) - Telescopic versus microscopic thinking models(00:44:20) - The necessity of life consequences and dueling(00:51:04) - Political power and the illusion of constitutions(01:01:43) - The role of borders and cultural trust(01:13:07) - Bitcoin as a standard framework for excellence(01:23:24) - Autonomous bazaars and the reality of collectivism(01:32:19) - Being completely offline as the new status symbol(01:34:24) - Information overload and the reality of mental obesity(01:37:40) - Physical scarcity and the booming experience economy(01:49:11) - Identity shifts and embracing fatherhood
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    2 hrs and 1 min
  • Read_938 - Modern Money Only Works By Cheating - Part 1
    Apr 15 2026

    “This piece is my attempt to finally map the terrain I'd been circling for years: Bitcoin's hardness, its fragility, its human governance, and its uneasy relationship with a world that increasingly runs on elastic money and digital abundance. It's not a defence. It's not an indictment. It's an audit.”

    ~ Hugh Hendry

    We keep pretending modern money is a stable system, but Hugh Hendry explains the quiet part out loud: fiat only survives by cheating, bending the rules, and offloading pain onto the future.

    What if Bitcoin’s "flaw" - its rigid, unchanging code - is actually the only way to stop the cycle of constant bailouts? We’ve become so addicted to monetary elasticity that we’ve lost sight of what it means to have an asset that doesn't bend. And Hendry’s brutal audit of our financial landscape serves as a perfect reminder of why the current system is so inherently fragile. If you want to understand why we need an anchor that refuses to compromise, you need to listen in.

    Check out the original article: Modern Money Only Works By Cheating by Tyler Durden (Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/modern-money-only-works-cheating-if-youre-long-bitcoin-or-not-long-bitcoin-read)

    Host Links

    • ⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
    • ⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
    • Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
    • Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
    • ⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
    • The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

    Check out our awesome partners!

    • Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
    • Get ⁠10% off the COLDCARD⁠ with code BITCOINAUDIBLE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
    • Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)

    “If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”

    ~ Bruce Lee

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    48 mins