Bear Market Diary 2023: Javier Bastardo Interview
By @piratebeachbum - Analyzing The Bitcoin Bear Market Series - Volume 18
Name
Javier Bastardo
Country
Venezuela
How do people know you?
Mainly through Twitter
How long have you been into Bitcoin?
Since January 2017
How many Bitcon market cycles have you been through?
So far, 2
What are you optimistic about in this space despite the current state of the market?
I’m optimistic about having a limited kind of money. Since I’m from Venezuela, and lived through the destruction of our national currency, knowing that in the market there is an asset with moneyness that is limited and easily verifiable is a relief.
What tips do you have to those who are new to this or who might be upside down?
Stop using Bitcoin as a way to enrich yourself. Yes, it is really possible to make money, but if that’s your main drive, you’re going to underestimate what Bitcoin is and what we can achieve using it. It’s a tool for financial freedom, but not in the sense of buying a lambo or a big house. It’s about taking control of how the energy you spend earning money is going to be stored through space-time.
Biggest regret during the last bull market?
I feel like I did my best stacking, so in a personal point of view, everything was great. As part of the Bitcoin community, maybe I should be more toxic and stuff, but after some years, I feel like I don’t have any kind of responsibility in the what-people-does-with-their-money realm, so in general, I would say that there are no regrets so far.
What have you learned so far in this bear market?
That the cycles and the hype around them could be really dangerous, especially if you don’t understand or really don’t care about what Bitcoin is. If you’re looking just for the gains, it could be really problematic, because there are a lot of scammers that could use your greed to steal your bitcoin and to make you buy some shitcoins because of a bigger gains promise… So innovation and revolution could be just a charade to scam you, as it has been for years. Even big Bitcoin proponents could end up being simply scammers, and let’s not talk about the Do Kwons, and SBFs of the world, I mean, the Carlos Matos of the world lol.
What is the biggest fail you have seen during the last bull cycle?
Lack of self awareness, like if Bitcoin will hit 100K just because. Promoting shitty platforms and services which are against Bitcoin and its goals, especially self custody. Listening to faulty models as truth. Caring about what a guy like Saylor or Musk has to say instead of looking at why P2P markets are booming in places like Argentina or Nigeria.
But I feel like as Bitcoin gets into its teenage years, people that are joining the community and are starting to use it are really far away from the core values, of the cypherpunk goals and all that. I don’t feel like it is bad itself, but it is something that is happening and should be more commented on. We’re entering in a new mainstream phase, even with the bear market just starting, in which I think we’re going to dilute the message and the goal, not because of the bitcoiners leaving their stances, but because of the new blood entering in the space.
It’s the easy and fast way, I suppose…
What do you think about all the influencers promoting companies and products that have imploded?
I kinda blame them, but at the end, if you use something because a guy told you, there is something wrong with you.
But well, the incentives are broken. I see it by myself: it is hard to get sponsors to do Bitcoin-only educational stuff. And I’m not talking of marketing, but really education. Fundamental stuff, basics, information and formation.
I’m not doing a marketing funnel to make the people that listen to my shit join X platform, nor I will start at it after 3 years in the podcast market. But because of that, I’ve been losing sponsors, and there are a ton of “opportunities” in the shitcoinland that it makes me wonder if the bitcoiners behind Bitcoin only companies thinks that the bitcoinization -or the succeed of their business models- is going to happen without them pushing and putting some skin in the game. You can just build a service/product, a Bitcoin position and then sit in your hands. In that way, the company is just going to be linked to a little echo chamber of already convinced Bitcoin acolytes.
But back again to the question… Do I expect influencers to be as ethical as I think I am? Yes, but it is just a hope, not an assumption nor something that I feel I can impose on others. Do I think that many of them are just clowns? Yes, def, but again, it’s a strategy that seems to work, especially in the american market, and I also think that all the influencer vs plebs affair is something that happens in the american community.
At the end, money talks, my man. Not everyone has Diogenes The Dog as a moral model lol.
Why do you think people still listen and support these people?
Mainly because they have clout. It's like people want to be part of something and those are the cool guys, the kind of people you want to hang with. But are each of the influential people in Bitcoin worth to follow as a role model? I don’t think so.
A role model, and also an influential Bitcoin persona, is Adam Back, which is an absolutely great profile, but by each Back we have 100 influencooooors. Influencers are mainly larpers to me.
The influence is something that you don’t even need to build. It happens, like with Mr. Back.
But it isn’t something that happens just to Bitcoin, it is something that is happening in the clown world we are living in. The music we listen to, the artists we follow, the architecture we build, even the food we’re eating; everything is tending to get worse and worse, and so the models and the influence system.
What do you think helped trigger the current bear market?
Mainly greed. Everybody was looking to get the major amount of X in their investment, so things like NFTs, and liquidity pools and many other zero-sum-game style “investments” started to pump. In Venezuela, Axie Infinity was really popular. It’s kinda odd, because, at the end, we all knew how this ends, but there were many people that took some gains for these kinds of things. I really don’t think that there are many people that are focused in the fundamentals and how fucked the fiat system is, so I think that’s why Bitcoin has lost some traction to those who are just looking for gains. It is good, because we can get rid of the moonbois, but it also enables capital to flee to those “products”. So, what triggered the market? Greed, ignorance and also guys like SBF/3AC, which took advantage of these, plus the naivety of the market.
Who was most exposed during this last market meltdown?
People who are looking for gains and that trust their investment choices to gurus, fund managers, experienced investors, people who never used Bitcoin by theirselves. As I said, incentives are broken, so the key idea of all the marketing that the “industry” has is to make people buy X thing to maximize their gains. And everybody operated to maintain the “yielding” at every level. From exchanges to “influencers” everybody in crypto seems to be part of some kind of marketing funnel.
So those who are trusting these people and platforms are the most exposed and probable those who went down harder.
What are your thoughts on Bitcoin Maximalism?
I think that, as far as you understand its origin -a misrepresenting by Vitalik- and see if it has some useful ideas in terms of the narrative, it could be a good meme, adn even a good way to describe many bitcoiners.
Embracing maximalism, like embracing the taboo around focusing in Bitcoin instead of the “innovation” of the “industry” is something that could be useful, but, at the same time, it creates some barriers between who understands why Bitcoin is what matters and those that are in it beacuase of the gains and trusting their favourite influencers. Do we need those people for Bitcoin to succeed? Do the average Joe want freedom and the separation of the money and the State?
So I think that been a Bitcoin only advocate, a Bitcoin Maximalism, or whatever we call ourselves is good if we can help others to understand why Bitcoin is what matter, to improve their views on how money is created and corrupted and how Bitcoin fixes part of that.
Why do you think there is an emerging narrative to demonize Bitcoin Maximalists?
Because it is easy to attack people that seem to be toxic and hold to their ideas and convictions. I think that specially in developed countries, you see this wave of wokeism and political correctness, so a maximalist, someone that focuses on Bitcoin and dismisses every shitcoin will be someone that is against the status quo and how things can be done. You can’t be that open and sincere in the world we are living in right now, and also you can’t call a scam a scam. You need to be polite.
As Bitcoin is fuck you money, a maximalist, who is convinced of its future, won’t fit in the world. So obviously it is easier to attack. Close minded, against innovation, meme coin adorators, there are plenty of names. But that is just in the meme and fun realm. Key issue with this is while attacking maximalists or bitcoiners who focus on Bitcoin, these people are attacking the Bitcoin ethos too. So it is not only attacking some people, it’s also an operation to discredit important concepts like self-custody, privacy preserving and such.
Is this the early stage of the answer that we’re going to have for thinking in Bitcoin as a tool for radical freedom? Maybe. Some of these critiques are aligned with the emergence of new crypto banks, or with networks that will allow Central Bank Digital Currencies in their systems.
What kind of damage do you think the latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment?
Right now, I think that everybody hates crypto and Bitcoin by extension. All the scams, all the dominoes… It’s an absolute shitshow and everyone is hating crypto. But as the industry has been built on top of Bitcoin success, it also affected the Bitcoin narrative.
Bear market slows the idea of world adoption, but it also erodes the arguments about Bitcoin as a hedge for inflation or conflictive times. It’s harder to explain those key points to people in this context. Narratives are dangerous when they become the official or only truth, so maybe we’re seeing a new transition on how people market Bitcoin in the ideas realm, to then see if that new idea to explain how Bitcoin is important fits the market, or at least, the sentiment.
I don’t know if this is really the worst bear market, but it has been savage. I think that we are not yet done with the worst of the worst, but fundamentals are strong and the application of a neutral digital money will continue to be necessary.
What is it going to take to turn this around?
To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t feel like the halving will be enough. And as there are some expectations after El Salvador’s adoption, I think that things have to really escalate to see a new bull market. Maybe I’m just the voice of the bottom right now, but it’s hard to think in a new narrative turnaround that takes us to the moon, or at least, to revisit ATH. At least not in the short term. We need some macro bullish signs and those are gone.
What are your tips for HODLing Bitcoin through this cold bear market winter?
I’m not a trader nor a gambler so I don’t know how it feels to lose money because you’re taking risks in the market. I earn Bitcoin and save some. It’s not the money that I will need tomorrow, nor in a year.
If you’re down in dollar terms, and you came to Bitcoin looking for gains, maybe you should take the L and move on, but if you really feel like in the future we’re heading to, something like Bitcoin will be useful, I think that as long as you keep DCAing, you’ll be good.
Improve your security setup, learn more about how to manage your keys, share info with other peers… You don’t need to spend money on anything beside savings while using and interacting with Bitcoin.
You don’t need a fancy setup nor to buy that much hardware, so in terms of self custody and learning, you can use the bear to improve your strategies and keep saving sat by sat.
In one word: learn why Bitcoin matters.
How do you feel about alt-coins and NFT’s and stable coins right about now?
Altcoins and NFTs are just gambling and speculative assets, so to me, they’re irrelevant. I don’t have money nor time to lose there.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, are really useful to me. I’m from Venezuela and I do live here, so my local currency is a piece of garbage. Obviously our market -as in every developing country- demands dollars to cover this disaster. Even with the Dollar inflation, developing economies do demand it as hell.
But I can’t access to an american bank account, nor can access to PayPal or other platforms alike, and as we’re facing a bear market in which there are many parts involved that could be heading to bankruptcy and might dump the bitcoin price harder, it doesn’t make any sense to stay exposed to that downtrend, specially if that is the money that you’ll need in the next, let’s say 18 months. So in that scenario, stablecoins do solve my wish to stay “in cash” instead of in the middle of liquidations and the crypto shitshow we’ve been looking at for the last months.
But there is something special with the stablecoins: at the end, it’s a fiat solution. I’m using it after acknowledge that they might disappear if the issuer goes to bankruptcy. It’s a counterparty risk that doesn’t exist in Bitcoin -and that is why I hold my long term savings in sats- but that you accept to surf its short term volatility or to simply get dollar denominated value in markets like Venezuela, Argentina, Turkey or Nigeria.
What do you think about the whole collapse of FTX and Blockfi?
Ponzis explode, my man. I hope everybody could learn from these episodes without living them by themselves… And I also hope that people can set the differences between this shit show and what Bitcoin is and what it offers.
What is the best way to accumulate Bitcoin during a down market?
DCA all the way down and not capitulate. It’s easy to say if you've been stacking enough, like since sub 5K, but let’s say that you started at the top. If you’re really convinced on why you’re buying your corn, now you’re buying 3x more than in that moment. So the best way is to hold on to your convictions, learn more about the fundamentals and the problems we might face, and keep stacking!
Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin?
Don’t trust anybody, but specially don’t trust influencers. Remember that we are talking about money here, it isn’t a game. Everybody wants to use you as exit liquidity, so don’t allow them. And hold your bitcoin by yourself. It’s kinda stupid have all your savings in a bank and it’s worse to hold it in a crypto bank or so called “exchange.
Don't exit liquidity. Don’t let your Bitcoin in others' hands.
Any last words of wisdom?
Thanks fot the chance to share this interview.
If you’re thinking in fiat terms, remember that once upon a time when Venezuela’s Bolivar was one of the strongest currencies in the world, and now it’s garbage in the streets. Learn why and understand that it could happen in your country too. Maybe it’s happening right now! On guard!
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Getting peeps to ask themselves why bitcoin matters is indeed the optimal super spreader results we are looking for.
Buying bitcoin is part of it but the rabbit hole (reading/listening list) is ultimately how this spreads everywhere.
Not easy but most folks will give you an appropriate way to suggest the right question(s), that meets them where they are.
Great interview. Thanks!