 Podcaster Natalie Brunel looks at Bitcoin as a path for achieving the American dream. The principles that Bitcoin stands for, individual freedom, economic opportunity, sovereignty, those were always really important to my parents and that's what they instilled in me. Last year, Natalie quit her job as a journalist and launched the CoinStories podcast, where she interviews the leading personalities in the crypto space. In this video, Natalie tells us about her mission as a Bitcoin educator. She also explains why we should look at Bitcoin as a completely different asset from the rest of crypto, especially in these dark times for the industry. Before we get started, don't forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel. I'm Giovanni, your host. Let's get into it. So Natalie, let's start with your background first. You had a quite successful journalistic career. You were working for major news outlets like Reuters and ABC News. Then last year, you decided to go full-time into crypto. So can you tell us what motivated you to drop your previous career and join full-time in the crypto industry? Sure. So I really believe that Bitcoin is the solution to so many problems that exist in our society and I think that two things really stood out to me that informed my decision. Number one, I'm a first-generation immigrant. My family came to the US in pursuit of the American dream and my parents grew up under communism. So really the principles that Bitcoin stands for, individual freedom, economic opportunity, sovereignty, those were always really important to my parents and that's what they instilled in me. And as I watched them work really hard in order to be able to afford a home and a mortgage for us, for my brother and I when we were growing up, they lost everything in the financial crisis of 0809. So I started my career with sort of this predisposition that something is wrong and something is broken in the fundamental system. It's almost rigged against the little guy, the worker like my parents were, and I wanted to better understand what that was. And so I started my journalism career really not having great financial literacy, but I was reporting on issues that really hit home to me because I would watch in every single city that I worked in, homelessness was increasing, poverty was increasing, the wealth disparity was increasing, public corruption was increasing. And yet I really didn't understand why these problems existed until I started to study Bitcoin. So I discovered Bitcoin in 2017 while I was a news reporter and it really allowed me to start to connect the dots with, you know, how much everything is related to our broken financial system. Our money is broken and I started to better understand how Bitcoin could really fix a lot of these issues, at least address them, maybe not overnight, but really in the long term if we set up this beautiful new foundation. And so I became passionate about it. I started my podcast just to learn more about the people that are in the space, learn more about their voices, why they had conviction for Bitcoin, what their backgrounds were, their origin stories. And the podcast grew organically and I was able to leave my job and I felt that my mission, it would be a much more fulfilling mission and career to spread the education on Bitcoin and how it can address so many of our societal issues as opposed to remaining in the role that I had as a journalist. And now I would like to ask you, among all the personalities in the crypto industry that you interviewed, which one is the most fascinating for you? The one that you find the most inspiring? I mean I had the chance this week to once again interview Michael Saylor who's always such a voice of reason and just so brilliant in the way that he articulates Bitcoin and metaphors surrounding the ecosystem. I've had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Booth who's one of my favorite authors. He wrote The Price of Tomorrow. I recently spoke to him about everything that's happening in the current financial system and how Bitcoin presents the most amazing opportunity. I talked to Lynn Alden recently. She's I think the most brilliant mind when it comes to macro and she was on my podcast recently once again to talk about everything that's happening with the Federal Reserve and inflation and Bitcoin's price drop. So I've had the chance to interview a lot of people that I really admire and who I think are doing a lot of amazing work just educating the public on what this asset is and what this technology is and the potential of it. So you often point out the distinction between Bitcoin and everything else. Would you consider yourself a Bitcoin maximist? Yes, I really believe in free markets and capitalism. So if people want to invest in other tokens or currencies based on their own risk tolerance, then that is their business. But for me personally, I just find that the potential of Bitcoin to be the world's most powerful savings technology is really important to me because I think that especially here in the U.S. where I grew up, we went from being the world's largest creditor nation and everyone had this real concept of saving to accumulate capital, to accumulate wealth. We turned into the world's largest debtor nation. Everybody is in consumer debt and housing debt and school debt. And I think that's really sad. I don't think that that leads to a lot of production or progress. I think it leads to these bus bubbles, booms and busts in our economy. And I think it leads to greater wealth disparity. And I think it's really important to be able to save so that you can plan for your future. Otherwise, you start thinking a lot more in the short term. So Bitcoin presents that opportunity to me. I see it as digital property, as a savings technology. And that's why I focus my energy on that because I see its upside potential is almost unlimited. As opposed to the other currencies, I view them as securities where I have to worry about who's creating them, who's expanding the supply, who might be hired or fired. What experiment are they trying? Are they going to cash out? And I don't want to worry about timing the market. I'd rather just spend time in the market with Bitcoin. Right now we are seeing the markets in turmoil, partly because of what happened with Celsius, a centralized lending platform that allegedly had some insolvency issues. So, of course, some of these claims need to be verified, but it's still a fact that it froze access to customers' money. So what do you think? Can Bitcoin be taken separately from all the infrastructure around it? Well, certainly things in this ecosystem are connected. And I think on the base layer, there is Bitcoin. There is the monetary protocol and the network. And then on top of that are these other layers, these applications, these exchanges. And I think it just shines a spotlight that people really have to be careful. And when you see companies emerge that offer tokens or they promise yields that may sound too good to be true, well, perhaps they are. And I think Bitcoin, at the foundation of that, is the safest place that you can be. It's volatile, certainly, in the short term, but in the long run, the performance has spoken for itself and the whole concept behind it is to be trustless, is to take individual sovereignty. Whereas when you add these layers on top of it, these other applications and third parties, now you introduce trust. And so do you trust those entities? Do you trust those companies, those token issuers? So you often point out that Bitcoin is apolitical, according to you. So can you expand on that thought? Yes, I really believe that Bitcoin is the most democratic form of money that has ever existed. I love the fact that it can never be controlled, manipulated, inflated. And we've never really had a system of money like that that can't easily be taken under control or can't easily be confiscated by a power. And I love the idea of separating money from power, money from politics, because I think that that is at the root of so many of the problems that we have in many countries. And so Bitcoin, I see as really appealing to, you know, in the US, we have two parties, really. We have the left and the right. It seems like you can't fall anywhere in the middle. These days. And yet it appeals to both sides. It allows for financial inclusion and for a whole new population of people who were previously disenfranchised or left out of the traditional system to have access to generating and accumulating wealth. And that should, you know, be important to the people on the left or the progressives. And then on the right, Bitcoin also stands for smaller government and individual freedom and sovereignty. And I think that that should be important to the folks on the other side. And so I see this as this beautiful almost bridge to both sides where it really allows us the opportunity to take back power and create a system that's based on value as opposed to one that really allocates capital and advantages to the very few that are at the top, the people who are closest to the money printer, the people who are politically connected. I think that our incentive system is really broken because of our system of money and politics. And I think Bitcoin can address that because no one can control Bitcoin. Everyone has a seat at the table. And I think it allows us to sort of reorder our economy based on supply and demand, based on the goods and services people bring to the table, based on maybe real interest rates, which we haven't seen in a really long time, really based on value as opposed to where you're at in terms of the pyramid or the social structure. So I view Bitcoin as apolitical and I hope that it's the one thing that can sort of bridge that gap, bridge that divide, especially here in the US. And now I would like to touch upon your vision of the future. So now we are in a very tough situation in the crypto markets. We are probably in a full-fledged bear market. Still, can you maybe name a few milestones that you hope to be achieved in the near future for Bitcoin and crypto in general? I think one of the biggest milestones that will happen will be on the regulatory front. I think that policymakers as well as big institutions are starting to take Bitcoin seriously. And prices like this, honestly, whether you're an institution or a retail investor, are a great accumulation point. They certainly, it's certainly more in reach than it was when it was in the high 60s. And so I'm going to be watching for regulation developments, just signifying that Bitcoin is a digital property and that maybe there's more fair accounting that can be done to allow institutions to invest. And the other cryptocurrencies, I think, will be deemed securities. And so I think that as this regulation unfolds, as the government tackles things like stablecoins, altcoins, and Bitcoin, I think Bitcoin will have a spotlight on it as pristine collateral, as a savings technology, and really as digital property. On the other hand, don't you think that this latest turmoil in the crypto industry, these issues that are affecting trust in several platforms is going to affect also Bitcoin and then making the regulatory process more painful for Bitcoin as well? I think it's going to put a spotlight again on just the idea of trust when it comes to exchanges and third parties and the companies that arise in this ecosystem on top of Bitcoin. And I think that there needs to be regulation there. There needs to be regulation of crypto exchanges and of the tokens that come out that make big promises. Whereas I think Bitcoin is great as it is. It doesn't need to be touched. It just needs to be clarified to people and people need to get education on it so they really understand what they're investing in and they can make the appropriate decisions of how and where to invest in it. Okay, now final question. Let's talk about price movements. So I know that you don't have a crystal ball, but maybe you would like to give us some price prediction for Bitcoin for the next few months, let's say by the end of the year. Well, I wish that I had a crystal ball and obviously humans are not great fortune tellers. Otherwise, a lot of us would not have necessarily bought in the 40, 50, 60 range if we knew it was going to go down into the low 20s. But listen, I think that Bitcoin's price will go lower before it goes back up because of the larger macroeconomic forces that are in play right now. I think that the Federal Reserve, which has so much power in terms of the whole global ecosystem of our economy, I think that they're trying to take inflation seriously. They're trying to tighten the balance sheet, raise interest rates, and something in the system is going to break. I think that there are already signs of a liquidity crisis forming. And I think in that event, just like it did in 2008 and 2009 and in 2020 when the pandemic first hit, I think that that's going to cause a giant red candle down before ultimately the Fed comes in and tries to save the economy and print money again and reinflate the bubble. Unfortunately, every time they do that, they make the situation worse in terms of wealth disparity because all that money flows into assets and the majority of people in the world don't hold their own assets. But also it makes them lose more and more credibility. It makes people lose credibility in the U.S. dollar, in the Federal Reserve, and currencies in general that are controlled by governments. And so I think that that once again will be a great value proposition for Bitcoin as more and more people learn about it. But I think that Bitcoin will suffer from a crash or a bust before it really takes on its destiny of getting to those all-time highs or becoming a global reserve currency. So I think more volatility ahead and it will probably go a bit lower before it goes higher. Yeah, let's hope it doesn't go too low because we are already quite low in terms of price, but I'm definitely optimistic for the long term. So thanks a lot, Natalie, for being with us today. And I hope to see you soon on our show again. Thank you.