Bitcoin vs. Crypto Understanding the True Decentralized Revolution with Evander Smart

Episode Overview

Evander Smart is a distinguished figure in the cryptocurrency landscape, renowned for his deep expertise and commitment to Bitcoin education. With a background as a Wall Street banker from 2008 to 2011, Evander transitioned from traditional finance to the burgeoning world of digital assets, founding Bitcoin University™ in 2015. This platform has since become a premier destination for individuals seeking comprehensive knowledge about Bitcoin and its transformative potential. Evander’s unique perspective, shaped by his experience in both conventional banking and decentralized finance, enables him to bridge the gap between these two realms, offering invaluable insights to his audience. Beyond his educational endeavors, Evander is an accomplished author and thought leader. His book, “The Book of Bitcoin: The Future of Money Explained,” serves as a definitive guide for those looking to understand the intricacies of Bitcoin and its role in the future of finance. In addition to his writing, Evander hosts “The Smart Money Podcast,” where he delves into various aspects of Bitcoin, providing listeners with practical advice and thought-provoking discussions. His contributions to prominent publications like Coin telegraph and Bitcoin News further establish him as a credible voice in the cryptocurrency community .Bitcoin University

Evander’s dedication to Bitcoin education is evident in his proactive initiatives. In 2023, he inaugurated the world’s first Bitcoin University™ campus in Houston, Texas, marking a significant milestone in making Bitcoin education accessible to a broader audience. His efforts have been recognized in various media outlets, highlighting his role in promoting financial literacy and the adoption of digital assets. Through his work, Evander continues to empower individuals to navigate the evolving financial landscape with confidence and informed understanding.

Episode Transcript

Kevin Rosenquist: Hey, welcome to Pay Pod, where we bring you conversations with the trailblazers shaping the future of payments and fintech. My name is Kevin Rosenquist. Thanks for listening.Evander Smart had a great job as a banker on Wall Street. He learned a ton and he values that experience. But he also had a strong feeling that something wasn’t right. He thought there was a better finance option out there. So he left and after a few years he found what he was looking for Bitcoin. Evander started Bitcoin University and has become one of the biggest champions for the controversial currency. He’s made it his mission to educate people on how Bitcoin works and how to get involved. In his opinion, it is the smartest investment someone can make. So if you’re ready to get an education on all things Bitcoin, please welcomeEvander Smart. So you spent about three years as a Wall Street banker, and you founded Bitcoin University in 2015. What was the response to your new venture venture from people you knew in the financial world?

Evander Smart: Yeah, it was kind of a dramatic move. And I kind of just broke away from the tradition and the establishment. And yeah, at that time, nobody really had heard of it.  so I had been reading books like The Creature from Jekyll Island and watching zeitgeist movies on YouTube and learning how the world really worked. I didn’t really understand how the world really worked, and how the world of finance worked until I had entered Wall Street. So I’m thankful for the education when I got in the real world, boots on the ground type of experience I got as far as finance and economics, and I’ve been in the financial space for over 15 years and went to school for economics to basically get the job. I got my series six. My series six three. My series 66. They were certified to sell annuities in the state of New York, and I did all of that and learned a lot about myself by being a banker. How to sell. Uh, how financial advisors work. Did a lot of work with them. And,  yeah. And I found that I was kind of just on the wrong side of history going through Tarp. We’re going through the start of quantitative easing and,  basically turning the US into more monopoly money as far as the US dollar is concerned. And, uh, I was like, this is not going to work long term.

Evander Smart: This is not the move. So I didn’t really have a place to go. I decided to leave in 2011. I was actually doing very well at the bank and they were asking me to stay, but I was like, I think I’ve learned enough here. I think I’ve, I think it’s enough. And I’m thankful for the time there because I really learned how to be a salesman and a better person and how to go out and find business. But now it’s time to go out, basically, and find my future and find myself. It took me a couple of years, but I found Bitcoin in 2013. I was just watching a financial investment news show and they were talking about the fall of Cyprus. I was like, What is Cyprus? I don’t even know what Cyprus was. It’s an island in the Mediterranean Sea in the EU. And they started giving a haircut to anyone who held over $100,000 in their banking system. So you just took the money to recapitalize the bank. So what the people were doing to counter that was they were moving their money out of the banks and into Bitcoin. So Bitcoin, from February of 2013 through the end of March 2013, rose from 20 USD in value to $200. So 110 x. So it made news.

Evander Smart: So I was like, oh, this must be what I was looking for. And I basically left the bank and I was like, there’s something missing. I’m missing something here. This can’t be the pinnacle of the financial world. They’re just printing money.  just for tar programs and quantitative easing, and to protect the US dollar. There’s gotta be something more. I’m missing something here. So then two years later, I found Bitcoin and the rest is history. Uh, I founded a Bitcoin university in 2015. I started writing articles for Bitcoin.com, Crypto Coins News, Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist, and basically, I was earning a living, uh, writing articles every day. So I would get $10 in Bitcoin for this article, $20 through this site. And this was not a side hustle. This was my life for four years as a Bitcoin journalist and news writer. So basically, right, for anyone who would hire me and my value was I had been on both sides of the street. So I was on Wall Street. Now we’re into this new economic system, this global economic system. And I could compare apples to oranges, and I could see now more clearly. I could learn more just by writing and researching my articles and talking to people in the space, like Andreas Antonopoulos and other mentors. But,  yeah, it was just a kind of a wild ride.

 Kevin Rosenquist: And yeah, I would say so.

Evander Smart:  learn how to live on seven, $800 a month. I spent some time overseas in Panama. Uh, doing that really cut down my cost. Uh, 2016 election. Learned how to vote overseas, voted for Trump overseas and such. But,  yeah, it’s just been, uh, it’s it’s, you know, Bitcoin’s a it’s a roller coaster. Like the meme shows. It’s a roller coaster. It’s up and down. But now I’ve been through it so much. You know, when Bitcoin price drops it’s nothing. It is nothing to me. And again next month you’re going to see what Bitcoin can do. Now that Wall Street is invested. And uh there is a lot of liquidity and a lot of people who are just waiting for the new fiscal year to start October 1st. So it’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be quite a close to the end of the year. So,  uh, I hope I hope you’re invested. I hope you can take advantage.

 Kevin Rosenquist: How bullish are you about crypto as a whole? Obviously your Bitcoin fan, but do you see as much potential in Ethereum and even some of the smaller players as well?

Evander Smart: Well, in the book of Bitcoin,  the book that is coming out on Amazon this month, uh, I go over that. That’s one of the first chapters that I tackle because I get that question a lot. Should I invest in Ethereum? One of the most important parts of understanding Bitcoin is understanding that it’s not crypto. So you’re going to hear that term actually probably as much or more than Bitcoin. You’re going to hear the term crypto. But inside of the Bitcoin space once you understand bitcoin you understand that there are two sides. There is bitcoin and then there is crypto. How I would explain it to someone who’s outside of Bitcoin is Bitcoin would be the sun and the planets would be crypto. They revolve around crypto. They derive their energy. They derive from all around Bitcoin. They derive their energy from Bitcoin. Without Bitcoin they wouldn’t exist. It would die off. So yeah basically Bitcoin is the sun in this universe and it empowers everything going on in it, and it is wholly decentralized, unlike crypto. That’s the main difference. Bitcoin is decentralized. The rest of crypto is effectively centralized. It has a lead developer. They have ICOs. They have venture capitalists. They have lead developers and so on. As far as I understand how securities law works, they are unregistered securities. Now, that hasn’t stopped the SEC’s from basically moving forward with a spot ETF for Ethereum.

Evander Smart: But that doesn’t legitimize Ethereum. What it does is really it delegitimizes the SEC in my opinion, because Ethereum has proven over its lifespan since about 2015 when it started, that it is an unregistered security. It is highly centralized. It basically has the Howey test for what a security is. It’s not much better than frequent flier miles or anything like that. It can be easily manipulated from the inside. So I’m not a fan of Ethereum and I can’t recommend it to new users. Now, if you are in Bitcoin and you’ve been in Bitcoin for six months or what have you, and you have a feel for it, and you want to make an investment because you want to make an investment, that’s fine. But also keep in mind that Ethereum is a utility token. It’s not really designed for investment. So Wall Street’s investing in it because they see it as the second largest coin. They don’t really understand the dynamics of it. It’s not really built like Bitcoin. It has nothing to do with Bitcoin. So they can make money on it. And you can invest in Ethereum and make money on it. But it has ethical issues and a lot of historical issues that separate it from Bitcoin. And I cannot recommend it to new users.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I started hosting this podcast in April. It’s been around for years, but I just became the host. And it’s been fascinating talking to people in fintech, payments and finance about Bitcoin and crypto. Some very smart minds think it’s the bee’s knees and others super smart minds think it’s fool’s gold. Why is there such a disparity between people with similar knowledge and experience and backgrounds in finance, between love or hate?

Evander Smart : Well, I would.

Evander Smart: Question if they actually held bitcoin. That’s the first thing. So I’ve been in a space for going on 12 years now, and I’ve never met anyone who regretted entering Bitcoin or said it was a bad investment. The only people who have a problem with Bitcoin are people who are on the outside looking in, who are not invested and don’t understand it, or people who actually had bitcoin and then sold it based on FOMO, sold at the wrong time, sold it when it was peaking, and then regretted their decision. So they may hold it against Bitcoin. So they’re just not savvy investors but those who have invested and worldwide we’re talking over 200 million people or so. And it keeps growing. The people who are invested and people who have done this work and who are educated, it’s the best investment they’ve ever made. It’s changed my life. It’s changed my family’s life. And all I’m trying to do is just pay it forward and share it with the community.  so my mother, uh, I call her the Queen Mary. She was a social worker. She would go out into the community. She would help for 15 years.

Evander Smart: I help people who are as poor as her or more poor, and she always taught me, hey, you know, if you can’t help, go out there and help and do what you can. And you know, I brought you here for a reason. So I’m here to share this amazing technology. And I don’t see anybody in this space who’s doing something like this book. I’ve purchased other books. The Bitcoin Standard is a wonderful book, but it works on a more macroeconomic level. So I focus this book on the individual investor. If you have no knowledge of Bitcoin, how does this affect you and the touch points that you would encounter. And and how can we help you kind of understand and get your mind around this concept? Because it’s a concept. Using Bitcoin itself is fairly simple. It’s copy and paste. If you can pay a bill online, if you have an Amazon account, you can use Bitcoin. That’s not the issue. It’s why should you get started? Why should you invest your hard earned money in this new technology? And how does this technology help you? So that’s what the book of Bitcoin focuses on.

 Kevin Rosenquist: So how deep in the weeds do you get as far as how it’s mined mind and how it started and all that stuff. Is that relevant or are you more focused on, hey, this is the financial end of it. This is where it is now. Don’t necessarily worry about how it became, because there’s a lot of people that are like, I don’t understand what it is. You know, there’s a lot of people who still don’t understand the process of it, right?

Evander Smart: Well, you can go as deep into the weeds as you want. I don’t really talk about mining too much because again, it’s not going to affect the individual user. Right? Mining is actually now it’s becoming a thing in the United States. But you can mine up a bunch of different ways. You can mine off of, uh, solar power. They’re doing a great job in El Salvador, mining off of volcanic power. They have a large volcano there. Uh, China has done a lot of mining as far as hydroelectric, using dams and so on. Uh, I’ve been personally a Bitcoin node, so I help validate transactions on the blockchain and so on. You can make this as technical as you want.  but again, it’s like the internet. You don’t need to know how fiber optic cables work or how you know. Information packets affect you. It doesn’t really. It’s not something that a consumer would need to know. You need to know how to turn on a computer. You need to know, you know, how mice work and how to copy and paste. You need to know those things. So I’m focused on getting you started, not overwhelming you with the tech jargon and making it as easy for the common person to understand, because it can be intimidating and it’s overwhelming. So you make it as difficult as you want. I want to make it as simple as possible and give people a reason to learn more. At Bitcoin University.

 Kevin Rosenquist: So if you deal with people or you help people, uh, who might be new to Bitcoin might not understand how to do it, how to use it, what its benefits are. Do you do they ask questions because I’m not? I don’t want to harp on this, but I do think there’s a lot of people who just like, but it doesn’t. What is it? How is it valued? How is it currency? Do you get that question a lot, and how do you handle that question without getting too deep in the weeds? Because it’s hard to answer without getting kind of technical. Right?

Evander Smart: Right. Well, the book of Bitcoin is basically a book of questions and answers. So you will have a lot of questions before you enter Bitcoin and you should. So I focus on basically the 60 plus questions I get the most. And I provide answers in a simple conversational tone. And it takes only a few hundred words to really answer the question effectively and succinctly. But yeah, it’s an online global decentralized economic network. It’s a lot like the internet itself. It’s basically a financial version of the internet. So if you like the internet, you’re going to love Bitcoin. And imagine if a generation ago you could have bought shares of the internet. How wealthy would you be today?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Very.

Evander Smart: Yeah. So think of it that way. There are 21 million full shares of Bitcoin, effectively an Internet of Money term coined by my mentor Andreas Antonopoulos. But if you could invest in another internet, would you do it? So in the book of Bitcoin, I kind of go over why to do it, how it would work. And again, making it as simple as possible and removing everything you don’t need to know and focusing on what you do need to know and why you should get started. And it’s really not as complicated as you would think.

Kevin Rosenquist: What happens.

 Kevin Rosenquist: So so Bitcoin is only going to do so many coins right. They’re going to cap it at some point. Right.

Evander Smart: 21 million is uh is the max is the max.

 Kevin Rosenquist: When, when, when will we get there. Do you have a sense of that? Do we know exactly when we’ll get there? Right.

Evander Smart: It is automatic. It is automatically capped at 21 million. So we’re at about 19,700,000, I believe, that have been mined. And it will mine out through the year 2140. But by 2032, about 99% of the bitcoins will be out there and on the market. So these next ten years is basically going to be a race to get all the bitcoins that are available. And,  you know, it’s an opportunity. This next 8 to 10 years is an opportunity because there are still, you know, bitcoins available. But as Wall Street has now entered the space this year with the Bitcoin Spot ETF, now you have gigantic whales and more whales entering the space and just eating Bitcoin every day. And now you’re gonna have nation states. You’re gonna have banks. You’re going to have hedge funds.  and you’re going to have large investment combines attacking this, uh, incredible investment. So when Wall Street saw the amount of returns just last year, Bitcoin grew over 150% without Wall Street. So I’m expecting with Wall Street’s investment, we should see 300% returns this year, which would take Bitcoin to about 175-180,000 by the end of the year.  so there’s still time for you to enter. You don’t have to buy a full bitcoin to get started. You can do what I did. You can work for bitcoin. Make $10 in Bitcoin here, $20 there. You can buy satoshis which are little tiny pennies of Bitcoin. Effectively you can buy a few thousand for a few dollars and just get your feet wet. The hardest investment is the first one, but once you do, you’re gonna be like, why haven’t I been doing this for years? It’s just one of those things. Once you enter, it’s like, why? Why haven’t I been doing this? Why isn’t everybody doing this?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Is there a? You said you can go on for any amount. I was joking with you before we hit record that I recently moved some failing crypto over to Bitcoin, and I was like 50 bucks or something like that. Is that even worth it to somebody? Do you, do you say, hey, whatever you can do, just do it. Or is there kind of like a well, if you really want to get any sort of return or anything, you probably should start with X amount of dollars.

Evander Smart: Well, it depends on your time horizon. Sure. It’s not really here for day traders. So if you’re looking towards your retirement. If I were you just like really with any other top investments with Apple or IBM or what have you, you should be probably putting away $50 a week or something like that. If you can keep investing dollar cost averaging, what have you. That’s probably the best thing you can do. Okay.  I never tell anyone to throw everything they have into it. Uh, everyone I’ve seen do that has made a fortune, but obviously it would be irresponsible to just say, trash all your other investments and just throw everything in Bitcoin.  but the more you invest, the better. Because again, it is the best investment of the 21st century by far. Nominally, you can look that up.  These are facts. It’s not my opinion. And again, maybe five years from now, there’s going to be a point where you’re not going to be able to make the investment. It’s going to be too expensive. There’s not going to be the supply around. I predict in 2026, when we normally have a bear market based on our four year economic cycle, There will not be a bear market. It will be an effective super cycle. So I don’t think we’re going to have 50, 60, 70% annual drawdowns like we have in the past. I think now that Wall Street is here and now that the major institutional investors are here and they have a vehicle to enter the space, they won’t allow much more than a 1,520% drop. And then it’ll keep moving up. So I’ll take advantage of these times because these are the last times you’re going to see Bitcoin under $100,000, for example.  by the end of the year, by Thanksgiving it should pass six figures in my opinion. Okay.

 Kevin Rosenquist: And going back to the cap that they have, what do you do when that cap is reached, do you see a big shift happening in Bitcoin as far as its value as far as you know. Like what happens at that point in the larger scheme of things.

Evander Smart: Yeah. It would be like trying to buy a piece of real estate in Manhattan, you know, with real estate, you can keep building up and you can change buildings around. But imagine if there were no more, uh, real estate options, if everyone had a condo, if everyone had a building and you wanted to live in Manhattan, how would you do it? So it’s a matter of supply and demand. Uh, it’s actually elegantly simple in its beauty, in that it works on basic economic principles, supply and demand. And years from now, you won’t be able to get them, but you will have the opportunity. Now it’s just a matter of are you educated? Do you understand it? And is this something you’d be interested in investing in this new technology? So, you know, it’s just like anything else. Would you buy an iPhone or would you rather use a rotary phone? It’s just a matter of, you know, what are your priorities? Are you thinking long term? Are you thinking towards your retirement? This is really why I would look at Bitcoin more as a retirement vehicle, because now saving money in a bank account doesn’t really make any sense. You may get up to 1% on your savings, but the rate of inflation is anywhere from 7 to 20% per year.  so it’s just not the right way to go about it. So what’s your time horizon? What are your plans? Are you investing for yourself or are you investing for your family? Where do you want to be in 5 to 10 years? Bitcoin is one of the very few things that can take you there. Mhm.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah. So are you someone who sees huge potential in the blockchain and web3 technology in general outside of Bitcoin specifically, or do you not really venture into those areas.

Evander Smart: I don’t see a tremendous amount of value relative to Bitcoin because blockchain works inside of Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin’s blockchain is open and permissionless and censorship resistant in the private sector, it’s going to be used more as a closed loop network.  so it’s a walled garden. So it depends on what your plans are and why you are using blockchains. A lot of people over the last few years have acquired blockchains for their business, but they don’t know how to apply it to their business. So it’s like 30 years ago getting a PC, but you didn’t know how to use a PC. You didn’t understand the programs. No one had taught you properly how to integrate with the internet or PC programs or what have you. So it’s not appropriate for every company. It’s not appropriate for every business. It’s not appropriate for every person. Uh, as far as using closed loop networks and blockchains outside of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the world’s largest, most powerful, most secure blockchain. There were no operational blockchains before Bitcoin came along, so I would recommend you use that blockchain before you use other blockchains okay.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Okay. And you know, I think one of the things, you know, I talked about how people don’t know what it is and all that. And with blockchain technology in general and, and all this, we’ve talked on this show before about it’s not the best user experience in a lot of ways. Sure. Once you get used to it, you understand it. But getting started with Bitcoin or any crypto really, you’re setting up a wall. It’s kind of weird. And you get this strange code and there’s all this stuff, like, do you think that if there, if they could improve the user experience and make it a little more easy for people to understand and follow that it might be there might be less resistance to it?

Evander Smart: Well, again, it kind of goes back to education. There isn’t a Bitcoin store that you can go to with customer service and help you like you’re buying a computer. It doesn’t really work well. There’s bitcoin.

 Kevin Rosenquist: University org.

Evander Smart: Right. Exactly. So education is really where it starts. And I would recommend uh I would offer for you to read the book of Bitcoin and after reading that book decide if this is right for you. That’s really why I wrote the book to really filter out those. Maybe it’s not for everybody.  you can’t help everybody, but once you go through it and you see how elegantly designed it is and how it can work for really any application,  then you can decide, hey, do I want to do more with this technology and how to get started. And then we have other programs and online courses at Bitcoin university.org to help you. As far as like a masterclass, I can teach anybody in one two hour class how to go from never understanding bitcoin to using it after the class or Bitcoin owner’s manual basically goes over everything that I would know 80 videos, 24 hours of video content, all the books, all the information, the lifetime membership. So it will cover all of your questions and you can just pick and choose where you want to learn. And I’ll walk you through it. And I can be that mentor that you may need.

Evander Smart: I would recommend getting a mentor in this space. I’ve seen so many people over the years just jump into space, just throw money at it and lose a fortune because they don’t know when to buy, when to sell, and how to handle it.  It’s a lot to handle just walking in off the street. So, uh, find someone who is in the space who you may trust and take as much information as you can from those who have the experience and, you know, take it slow. But the issue is now we’re really late in the game. So, I mean, 3 or 4 months, you’re going to see a lot of price volatility on the upside. So this is really a rare opportunity right now. Uh the days are dwindling. And I think once the fourth quarter hits the price is going to change. You’re going to see Bitcoin a lot in the mainstream media. We’re already seeing it with Trump while Harris is talking about it. Um, it’s important. And there are a lot of people who are invested and  you know, they should be. But Bitcoin’s a hot button topic and it’s important to take advantage of these times.

 Kevin Rosenquist: It certainly is a hot button topic, but I thank you for shedding some light on it. I really appreciate your time. This isEvander Smart with Bitcoin University and the new book The Book of Bitcoin. You said it comes out next month.

Evander Smart: Yes. It’s coming out later this month here on Amazon. Um so we’re targeting September 15th. And again it basically will answer all of your Bitcoin questions. So if you have questions, we have answers. I’ve been in the space almost 12 years now, so I just basically go over what I’ve learned and teach everything that you need to know. And when we leave the tech jargon out of it, and we’ll bring you along and we’ll get you up and running in this amazing investment opportunity, it’s amazing technology that’s really changing the world of finance for the better.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Well thanks again Evander. Really appreciate it. The book is the book of Bitcoin. It’s going to be on Amazon uh mid September. Thanks again for being here. Appreciate it.

Evander Smart: All right. And you can also visit Bitcoin University. Org. You can pick it up now if you like.

 Kevin Rosenquist: So Bitcoin university org is the website. Yeah. Get on it. Otherwise Evander’s coming for you. Thanks. Thanks for your time.

Evander Smart: Have a good one Kevin.