Everyone Talking Crypto, NADA Kicks Off Tonight, The World Needs Friction

Kyle Mountsier  0:00  
All right, good morning is Thursday, March 10. The man the myth, the legend Ben Hadley is sitting next to me. The start of nada, and we're talking crypto I've been waiting so long. You've been waiting so long. It's so good. I feel I feel extra, like every time we have someone new on the show, I feel this this energy around the bounce that it's like, you know, cuz when you do it every day, it just kind of becomes like, okay, here we go. Let's get into the thing again. Right. But there's something about it. I think that that energizes me when there's someone else and then also when I know new people are, you know, coming in and, and hearing what's going on. So

Ben Hadley  0:49  
let's get real. I'm sure every single person that listens to this, like you you cause like a seismic wave of bouncing, right every time this thing airs. Bouncing happen all over the world. Yes. It's so good.

Kyle Mountsier  1:01  
Yeah. Everybody like and then and then the people that listen on their way home at night is like, yeah, I can. I can finish my day. I can finish my day. Let's go. Alright, well, let's get into it today. Today, I woke up and this was literally I'm I put this in the show notes. But literally the thing that I woke up with was Archie ever saw. I don't know if you know who Archie Eversole is. Nobody knows who he actually is. But he's a rapper. And he did this song. We ready? Which everybody's heard. Yeah, let's go You ready? We right. Everybody's like, Who's this Archie guy, but he's the original guy that did the song. I think a few people have redone it in the in the past. But I was just like, okay, nada is coming in. There is a ridiculous amount of news around so many things today. Right? And and that was just the energy that I had waking up out of after all of the planning all of the things that have happened I was on last night late at night Paul's not on the day obviously. I was you know, we were we were doing tech issues. He was showing me just the na da I don't know if many people know this but over the pandemic actually the convention the convention center in Vegas got a full like it is brand new basically. Oh really? Right. So he was like, I thought I had been here before but I've never I've never seen this like this there's this massive when you walk in it's like it's a screen that's like three storeys tall in the in the lobby of the thing and like stuff is running on it the whole time. So I just I think people are gonna when they walk in today to automotive news retail for him at Aria or to the convention center to get their badges they're just gonna kind of be this like, holy cow. I've never seen this before.

Ben Hadley  2:50  
So we got to get that bounce going. Get the whole nada crowd bounce.

Kyle Mountsier  2:54  
Ah, man, how fun. I know I'm hoping that there's this like mob mentality around this energy at nada. And I think there probably will be so yeah, it'll be good. It'll be good for sure. Well, that's the energy if you are following us just like little housekeeping. Follow a hashtag or soda or automotive say the Union on social or go to a soda nada.com and you can catch all 13 live streams that are happening over the next what is it four days that we're doing we've got partners like cyan, digital, effective auto fi all coming in. To add to the flavor we're doing interviews, special interviews, we're doing man on the street at the welcome thing tonight just be be around that stuff. And if you're not at nada, like Ben and I are sitting in our offices at home, we're just going to try and bring you that energy that is happening out in Vegas Real Time as often as we possibly can some exciting press releases that are coming that Ben you you you have a little you have some inside check on a few some really things dropping really cool stuff. Speaking of dropping segue yesterday our president Mr. Biden signed a really really cool executive order that we are chatting about this morning with the first kind of regulations coming out for cryptocurrency which which is huge. And and so Ben like walk us through you know why that why that's important. Because I think a lot of people are like cryptocurrency kind of is a it's it's almost seemed like a stock exchange right now. Right? Yeah, to a lot of people but it's so there's so many more layers to that. And up into this point. There's not been any federal regulation or engagement around cryptocurrency, right?

Ben Hadley  4:54  
Yeah, I mean, I think I think what's going to happen the market's going to look at this and in two different lights. One's going to be really good which is sort of more and more validation that this thing is real that this thing is common. And it's the future, right? Because you're only gonna regulate something that you're pretty sure isn't going to leave. Right. And then on the flip, you know, sort of the ethos of a lot of crypto is sort of this decentralization. Like, who cares what the government thinks we're gonna do it anyways. Right? And so, you know, there's a dichotomy there. There's like a little little bit of a friction between those two. But I think that's going to be good. I think that's actually really healthy for the market. And it's actually something some of the major players, you know, the coin bases the exchanges have been asking for. Just treat us like everybody else, especially when you get into stable coins. Yes. That in particular, where it's like, look, these things are pegged to the US dollar. Why is this? Yeah, I

Kyle Mountsier  5:52  
actually grabbed. So Jeremy Alera is the CEO of circle. And they they have a lot of, they just do a lot with the US dollar coin. Right? Yeah. And he just said that the Biden administration's executive order on digital assets represents a watershed moment for crypto akin to when the government in the 90s realize the commercial power of the internet, which is a really interesting relationship. It's like, oh, when the government finally decided, oh, we need to put some structure around what the internet means to enterprise to information and all that type of stuff. And so it's it's that like, when when you think about that, think about the way people in the 90s, were saying the internet will never last. We won't need websites. But the government's saying, No, this is the thing. And I so I think like you said, this is a big moment for crypto.

Ben Hadley  6:44  
I mean, in addition to that, Biden also said, he's gonna back some more studies around creating a federal digital currency, right to help with the Federal Reserve switching over now. That actually has some crazy implications, too, you know, they, there's this thing called Zero bound. Okay. Where basically, you know, there's only so much you can do with interest rates, you can certainly make them go up. Right, right. But to make them go down, it's like, well, there's this thing called zero, and I can't go really lower than that. Yep. What digitizing? The Federal Reserve would actually add the potential to do is you can just delete coins, right? Delete currency, which gives you that extra flexibility to react and crazy marketing conditions. Like right now. Yep. Now?

Kyle Mountsier  7:37  
Yeah. Because like thinking over the last two years, especially, right, where we essentially, I mean, printed money at at a at a faster rate than we have, since since the Great Depression, right? Yeah, just straight up been printing money for two years. And now we're dealing with a mat a high rate of inflation, and the only thing to do is raise interest rates, but now with economic issues globally, right, we've got issues where interest rates alone aren't enough to like reconcile the balance sheet essentially

Ben Hadley  8:10  
100%, man, so I'll leave you this to like, so I was reading something earlier. And it's a beautiful Bill Gates quote. It was banking is always going to exist, banks aren't always going to exist. And I was like, bro, let's go. I mean, really, like if you think about to kind of like cryptocurrency world, and how the Federal Reserve kind of works. It is actually equipping all of us to be our own banks. Yes.

Kyle Mountsier  8:48  
It's decentralization of banks. 10%. Yeah. And

Ben Hadley  8:51  
so it's going to be a really interesting next few years. But you know, definitely if you're not in crypto, you really should be

Kyle Mountsier  8:58  
well, and I think I honestly think the the research that like having the structure around it, the banks or banks have an opportunity to not be blockbuster Blackberry, right. Yeah. To lean into how do we make sure that these assets are secure? How do we ensure that people have, you know, the wallet set up? I imagine a bank going, how do I how do I become, how do I create a crypto wallet? You got Coinbase over here? So owning owning someone's digital assets in an app based format, which is all that Bank of America or or SunTrust does with their app? Right? I don't, I don't have cash. Right? They own all of my digital assets in an atom based format. Right? It's just a different version of that. So I think pivoting for some of these, which shoot square is doing that. They already said yep, we're just going to be able to wow man Cash App. Oh my goodness. They are really Venmo there. All leaning into holding these these digital assets in an app based format. And that's all that that's all that these banks have to do to become a centralized place for decentralization. Right, totally.

Ben Hadley  10:13  
It gets wild when you think about, you know, MVA knows. No. So MVA knows or I'm trying to think of one like, I think Boost Mobile is a mobile something something network, which basically, it's these like telephone providers that are really just micro providers on top of existing infrastructure. Oh, yeah. Boost really just uses like, I think it's like Verizon and at&t network or T mobile's networks

Kyle Mountsier  10:43  
T mobile's network. Yeah. So yeah, so like, yeah, there's a few Verizon has a few that use their network, actually, Comcast uses Verizon network, they use all their tears, all that type of stuff.

Ben Hadley  10:52  
Yes, exactly. So think about the MBA No, as an analogy to like sort of new banking, which is really just like, layers, brands, really? Yep. Right, that centralize all of all these very specific individuals on top of kind of existing infrastructure. And I think you see how we get to the Web three of things in that in that progress. It's like, I think that's like the roadmap. Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Mountsier  11:18  
Well, I want to get to just because we're talking crypto, and I'm not gonna force a segue into this, I apologize. But you and I both know of a company. And we'll be talking actually, to them later today on a live stream that we're doing with nada, called Siam digital, that is really attempting to break the ice, per se, on crypto in automotive. And I just want to tie that down for dealers or dealer personnel that are saying, Well, how am I going to what does it mean for me to engage with crypto on a daily basis within our within our departments in sales or service and accept those payments? I don't even know. You know, I don't even know what is what's going on from like, I don't even understand the whole thing. And now you're telling me I might actually have to accept these people's payments. And I think what cyan is attempting to do is kind of demystify it. Oh,

Ben Hadley  12:15  
yeah. They're taking all the all the sort of like, the plumbing and the infrastructure, the pipes that you got to connect to make this all work. They're taking all that dirty work, and then they're like making it and cleaning it up to make it really easy for dealers to accept crypto. Yep. But you know, I'll hit you with a fact like on Redfin's survey last year. So 2020 to 2021 of first homebuyers. 12%, almost one in eight, used crypto as part of their downpayment. That's right. Crazy.

Kyle Mountsier  12:49  
That's a That's a big number. I know, like 12% Doesn't seem like a ton. But it is a massive number when you're thinking about the accessibility to funds that maybe these people wouldn't have had prior. But because they and what I'm guessing is that there was probably an early investment in something like eath or Bitcoin, right? And now instead of having to save that money after college or high school or something like that, they've got investment funds that they're able to do to deploy as downpayment funds.

Ben Hadley  13:21  
So I take it a step further, because what science is really able to do, aside from just creating trend, making transactions really easy, and removing sort of volatility from it, switching it into Fiat for the dealer. So the dealer really doesn't have to like hold coins or something like that, right, taking a lot of liability off of the table. Aside from that. Most people that are holding crypto right now, especially millennials actually view it as something that's only going to go up into the right, right, so they don't want to sell it. This is where Siam actually does something really cool where they allow not the car to just be the collateral, yes, the crypto you own to be the collateral. So you can basically secure a loan based on the crypto and the loan is in Fiat. Now, why would you do that? Well, when you sell feet, or when you sell crypto, it's a cap there's going to be a capital gains tax. Right? And if you've held for a year is probably around 15% if you you know or 30 Yeah 15% If you've held under a year, probably around 35%. So if you're doing some quick math and you're like I've got $10,000 of crypto, do I want to shave 3500 off right? So I could buy this house buy this car buy this whatever or do I want to get a loan at 70% right so I can take 7000 out of that in fiyat cap gains none because it's alone. Put that as the down payment use that to buy the car yeah, that's like the mind blower

Kyle Mountsier  14:52  
and now now you're now you're actually like protecting your your tax about a taxable liability because you're now you're in are showing a loss on the year, right? Because you're

Ben Hadley  15:03  
Wow. Yeah. Is that right? That's true.

Kyle Mountsier  15:06  
I mean, like, that's the way my brain would think about it. Whoo,

Ben Hadley  15:09  
I gotta investigate that, man.

Kyle Mountsier  15:11  
You got to investigate that. No, I'm that we are not financial advisors.

Ben Hadley  15:14  
But yeah, I can subscribe. But this is for

Kyle Mountsier  15:18  
entertainment only. Oh, I one more stat I actually read that only 16% of Americans have actually engaged in some sort of crypto trading. So you're stat about 12%. Right? But get this in 18 to 43 year old men. Yeah. 43% have engaged in some sort of crypto trading, selling or buying. Yeah, right. So you now know as a dealership employee, like who you're probably going to be dealing with in the people that are wanting to pay with some sort of crypto whether it be full payment or down payment, right, dude. And

Ben Hadley  15:56  
also, yeah, like, you've also guarantee the population is pretty set. Like, everybody has that buddy. That's like tap them on the shoulder and gun like, Dude, you should have gotten the Shiva. You should have gotten those when I told you, you don't have curiosity factors high on this one. Definitely.

Kyle Mountsier  16:14  
Definitely. Well, look, we didn't get to everything we wanted to today, check out our article on on rivian getting sued now by their investors for this crazy snafu that they had last week that their their stock is down 37%. After they absolutely mess with their customer base lost trust. Now they've lost trust in their investors and their investors are coming back and suing them for poor business decisions. So watch what happens when you don't take care of your customers, the people that are invested in your business care, as well. That's all the time we have for this morning. Just so you know, if you get on with Ben and Kyle, you're always going to get into a conversation. We've had a fun time today. Watch out for nada.

Ben Hadley  16:59  
Let's go. Let's go