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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Bitcoin and let me just jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Nation, that is nationthailand.com, the article is titled: Pichai to launch cryptocurrency pilot project in Phuket this year. I already discussed this in another video. I have certain issues regarding all of this digital money stuff and I think now where after the past year the government was effectively forestalled, or sort of stymied from pushing through their "Digital Wallet" plan which was going to put the country into a bunch of debt and in exchange we were going to get a bunch of digital magic bean money that would then track and trace all of our transactions wherever we went, lead to a totalitarian state and I imagine eventually they would try to bring in Social Credit Scores on us, but again that was stymied roughly in 2024. Now it looks like the powers that want this digital panopticon financial surveillance grid are now sort of pivoting and they are moving toward Bitcoin. It's happening in the US too. I love all this talk about a Bitcoin Reserve which is completely antithetical to what Bitcoin was originally designed for.

I have just sat around watching Bitcoin for years. I have some Bitcoin, let me be clear but I'm not like a hoggler, I'm not one of these people that's just like die hard Bitcoin. I see it's use case under certain circumstances; I don't view it as money; it's not legal money as I will get into here in a moment, but long story short, it's one of these scenarios where, look who wants it. For years Bitcoin was an anathema out here. In fact it was affirmatively illegal for a while here in Thailand, then they just stopped kind of caring about it; it was like sort of sort of benign indifference. Now, especially these technocrat types who have been trying to push Digital Wallets down our throat, oh now magically bitcoins looking like something amazing. That said, quoting directly: "Deputy Primer Minister and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira on Wednesday unveiled a project to test the use of cryptocurrency as an alternative to cash in the tourist destination of Phuket." Why do we need an alternative to cash? That's the first question I have. Cash works. You don't need a phone to use it; you don't need to be hooked up to the Internet to use it; you can just transact with people on a one-to-one basis. You just hand them something; they hand you something. That's about the most efficient way to handle things in my opinion. That said, quoting further: "Speaking at a seminar organized by the Marketing Association of Thailand.." - note that. It is the Marketing Association of Thailand that this brilliant idea came from. These are the types of people that sit around all day long trying to convince you how to part with your money or trying to convince you to do something that may not necessarily be in your interest. Quoting further: "..Pichai stated that the Government's policy is to trial crypto currencies in tourism-focused cities to make it easier for foreign tourists to use their digital assets for payments." My question is, the Thai Baht is legal tender in Thailand; it's legal money and there is a notion of legal money, cash, legal money. It's on the bar exam. I remember on the multi-state exam when I took the bar, now going back some 20 years ago almost, 19 years, wow, going back that long but yeah on the bar exam there was actually a question. I remember it, because when I was taking the Bar briefings, we actually went over this whole concept, the notion that title always passes with cash. You can't ever say that "oh I'm here to get that cash back because some robber three transactions ago gave it to you." Bitcoin, you can do that. That's how the blockchain works, or any crypto. They can trace it and they know where it came from. It's not cash, it's not money, it's not legal money. Thai Baht is legal tender in Thailand, period, end of discussion. And as we will get to further along in this article, you're going to have to still convert into Thai Baht under the current system. My question is why are all these folks from outside trying to bring in other forms of currency to supersede our national currency here in Thailand? Is there an ulterior motive for that? Could it be to try to get us all back into digital currencies in some roundabout way? Quoting further: "He announced that the experiment would begin in Phuket this year as a pilot project, emphasizing that it would be conducted within existing legal frameworks." Well how does that work? There's either money or there's not, and the legal tender of Thailand is the Baht, period, end of discussion. So what are we talking about here? I have got to be honest with you, a lot of these pie-in-the-sky notions coming out of this Finance Ministry are just absurd, and how they try to explain them to us it's somewhere between obfuscation and quite honestly Bolshevik rhetoric, it's "oh everything's going to change!" Well where's the legal framework to change that? Ahhhhh, no answer. That's how Bolsheviks always talk, "oh we don't need the law". It freaks me out. I'm not saying this person's a Bolshevik or this is some big plan by Bolshevism, but what I'm saying is - not to go too far down that line - but when people start saying oh, we don't need the law, just ignore the law, we'll go around the law, you know you are dealing with an operator that may not be operating in your best interest especially at the nation state level. Quoting further: "We won't do anything that is illegal, Pichai reassured." Well thanks good to hear that. What was it, I think was Jim Mars it once said, “I don't believe anything until the Government categorically denies it!” And I have got to tell you, you saying that, makes the hairs on the back of my neck go up further. Quoting further: “He clarified that no amendments to current laws would be necessary..” well how does that work?  Baht is legal tender. Now you're saying how we're just going to come up with some new magic bean, digital computer money and that's going to be legal tender now, but we don't need to change any laws on that? Again when they start coming at you with all this nonsense, start asking why. Quoting further: “..as the government already has the mechanisms required to support the initiative.” What are those? What are you talking about? Specify what mechanisms because again the Baht is legal tender, nothing else is. Again there could be foreign exchange that you exchange into Baht but the Baht itself is legal tender in Thailand. So again, what is the Finance Minister referring to? It sounds a lot like the nonsense we saw throughout the last year where they constantly said, “oh we don't necessarily have to change the law, we'll just get the media to convince everybody it's legal anyway and then we'll just do it.” I'm sick of that okay? I think everybody in Thailand is sick of that I'm here to tell you, folks that earn their living on the street by making Thai baht cash are not going to like being financialized into some system where they have to take some foreign magic bean DOGE coin, Fartcoin whatever else, in order to just live their lives and make their living. Just maintain cash. Why is that so hard? And by the way, it's not better in terms of fit for purpose than any of this stuff because it doesn't need the Internet; it doesn't need your phone to operate; you can just carry in your pocket, hand it over and you get a coconut in return, or you get whatever you're trying to buy in return. We already have a good enough system. This is one of those circumstances where it ain't broke, so let's not try to fix it. And by the way, this isn't a fix either, it's the pretext of a fix because again they want to sheepherd us all into this thing that’s going to be totalitarian, they can surveil us all, all the time, all of our transactions here in Thailand but they're trying to put it under this cool and hip rubric of cryptocurrency. Now quoting further: “He clarified that no amendments to current laws would be necessary as the government already has the mechanisms required to support the initiative..” - gone over that already, what mechanisms? – Quote: “He added that the trial in Phuket would ensure that Thailand remains competitive and does not lose out on business opportunities." First, they always pull this, “you are going to lose out on business opportunities; you have got to join this supranational organization that is going to tell you what to do, or you're going to lose out on business opportunities." It doesn't mean anything; it is a meaningless phrase. Meanwhile, “remains competitive”. How about you just remain legal, okay? The Baht is legal tender and again it's not fit to better purpose as cash; it’s not fit to better purpose transactionally. Walking up to somebody, hand them cash and they hand you back whatever it is you bought - that's the most efficient, that is the most streamlined way to do this. Having a phone or a computer in between the transaction that's just more inefficiency. And meanwhile, again they talk about competitiveness and not losing business opportunities, but nobody seems to care about the law and these people are supposed to be from the Government. So, my question is, what the heck is going on here?