Max Kaiser: Bitcoin becomes the dominant cryptocurrency

Today on BitNews an exclusive interview with Max Kaiser from Sergey Simanovsky.

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Question: Those whowatching your activities, noticed that inIn recent years, you began to appear more often on RT than on the BBC. This is an interesting fact, given the growing Russophobia and geopolitical changes taking place in the world. Why did you choose RT as your main channel?

Answer:I've worked with a variety of different channels.RT has the loosest editorial policy of any other media outlet, including the BBC. Their editorial department allows the most freedom. That's why we talked about things that no one else talked about. In 2011, we started talking about Bitcoin. We did entire episodes about him because we were allowed to do so. Other media did not do this. RT's editorial policy allows journalists to be real journalists and the management department to conduct its activities freely. This channel is working on creating a network, distribution, and its journalists are engaged in real journalism.

Question: Let's talk about Russia. What do you think of the latest demonstrations and arrests in Moscow?

Answer:I'm not an expert on Russia.We do a show on RT, on RT English, but I'm not an expert on Russia. Of course, I follow what is happening in Russia, but I am not Stephen F. Cohen, who is a professor of Russian studies at an American university. It would be interesting to talk with him about Russian politics. Personally, I believe that these street protests are part of a trend of awareness and increased opposition around the world. This happens in all countries of the world. This is not a unique phenomenon for Russia; it happens everywhere. We talk about this phenomenon on the show and call it a worldwide revolt against banking power. I often think about similar cases in different countries. I have been to Moscow several times, I have been to St. Petersburg and I hope that I will be able to visit Russia again and see with my own eyes what is happening there.

Question: Those who have been watching your shows for many years have noticed that you have become less furious and have begun to express themselves more gently. How do you comment on this?

Answer:Yes, I think so.I no longer have the rage that I had a few years ago, and there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, I do live performances that I call &#171;Max Keiser Rage&#187; or &#171;Bitcoin Rage&#187;. I show rage because there is a great demand for it. People like to see rage, my rage in particular. The second reason has to do with Stacy. When I get enraged during a show, I consume all the oxygen, so to speak. I think Stacey's abilities as a producer and writer have gotten better and better over the years. The show's high level of quality today is due more to the writing and production than to my rage. Take the ten-issue To the Moon series for example. It was entirely written and produced by Stacey, I have nothing to do with this work. I really liked this job. Now she is going to do another series of episodes about politics on the RT channel. The program will be filmed in New York City and Stacey will once again serve as writer and producer.

I always possessed this dynamic, but ourscripting and scripting abilities get better over the years. I also often used props: a chicken or a slinky toy. I don’t do this anymore. The third reason is that we talked about the global collapse of financial markets for ten years, and today this topic is no longer so relevant. The show goes on for 26 minutes, and I think that maybe it's time to fill this time with information that will really bring people pleasure. Ratings are constantly growing, today we see an increase in audience in Latin America. Sometimes a duplicate version of a show in Spanish gets more views than an English version. That is why I am going to go to Latin America and meet with colleagues. In addition, we have been doing the show for 16 years, and this kind of work has certain cycles related to the dynamics of the releases.

Question: Some say that your words played a serious role during the very first surge in the popularity of altcoins in 2011 (for example, you influenced their prices). It's true?

Answer:In 2012–2013, when altcoins andthey started being traded, I talked about them on the show, and my words really started to affect the prices of those currencies, so I stopped mentioning them. We didn't see the point in talking about altcoins because of their price. From 2013 to 2018, in the present era of altcoins, and in 2014 there was the peak of altcoin popularity, about a thousand or even more altcoins appeared, and I did not have time to keep track of them all. Then people appeared such as, for example, John McAfee with the columnCoin of the day. He talked about altcoins and similar things. He became the media person who talks about altcoins. At that moment, we were no longer engaged in altcoins, because for this was John McAfee and others. Then SegWit was introduced, Bitcoin scaling solutions appeared, and hard forks such as Bitcoin Cash failed. All this returned attention to Bitcoin, and for the first time in three years we saw an increase in the number of bitcoin maximalists. To some extent, we talked about the era of altcoins, just casually mentioning them. Take, for example, CNBC and Jim Cramer. He talked about stocks and thereby influenced their price. Of course, our words influenced altcoins, even tweets have such an effect. In 2011 and 2012, my tweets affected the price of Bitcoin. I do not think that someone else in the media once had such an impact on the price of Bitcoin. There were traders at JP Morgan who suggested banning the trading of bitcoins. But they did it anyway, collecting information from Max Kaiser’s twitter and his statements, because the market at that time changed very much about every 6 hours. They used it. When I found out about this, I tried to make sure that they lost their money. In 2012 or 2013, we really were the most powerful force influencing Bitcoin, because no one else spoke about it. Other media outlets began covering Bitcoin in 2014–2015, various podcasts and interested people appeared. But for three years the whole market was in our power.

Question: Do you consider yourself a bitcoin maximalist? Obviously, believing in one religion / one god is not effective. How do you feel about altcoins?

Answer:Again, let's go back to 2014-2017.This was a period of great experimentation, with many altcoins emerging, some emphasizing privacy, and there were stablecoins and high-transaction currencies. It truly was a period of great experimentation. About 1,500 altcoins were created and the market accepted them all. Some were popular for a while but then fell out of favor. Now that the market has survived this period, Bitcoin is considered to outperform all other cryptocurrencies. Just look at the hashrate. Bitcoin wins the hash wars and becomes the dominant cryptocurrency.

I understand your point of view as an anarchist. You want to move away from monoculture, from a monopolistic view of the world, but you cannot ignore the emergence of standards. And in this case, standards are units of measure that have been tested by time. Gold is the product of several thousand years of trial and error when people tried to use different things as a means of accumulation. There were those who wanted to use not gold, but, for example, shells or nuts. It worked, but over time, the same people realized that the only thing that always works anywhere in the world was gold, and they made the gold exchange standard. But it took a lot of time to create a gold exchange standard. This standard has existed for so long because it has gone through a long phase of trial and error. If you look at the history of gold, we will see that in order to become a means of accumulation and exchange, it took him several thousand years. In the case of Bitcoin, this period was reduced to ten years. It was an incredible experiment. After it, after all trial and error, we need a means of calculation, accumulation and exchange. Bitcoin is a market leader. This is evidenced by the market itself. Anyone can try any altcoin, any cryptocurrency, try to hack the blockchain. This is anarchy. You can create your own cryptocurrency today. This is not prohibited by any rules. For example, Facebook is creating the Libra cryptocurrency, which will compete with Bitcoin, with fiat currencies and central banks. They are trying to launch Libra and are facing serious resistance, and perhaps this currency will never be created. But they have the right to try. Many corporations will try to do this. We will have stablecoins, corporate cryptocurrencies, there will be many attempts to create a competitor to Bitcoin. Therefore, the race is not over yet.

Your question implies that the game is completed andBitcoin won, but it is not. Now we are only in the initial stage of the middle of the game, and Bitcoin is leading, but there will be many more rivals that we may not even have heard of. Another cryptocurrency will appear, and the battle will continue.

Another reason I'm not talking aboutthere are as many altcoins as before, that today Bitcoin is already waging serious battles with states and central banks. Four to five years ago, in the age of altcoins, there were people like Roger Ver and so on. It was a battle of altcoins. But it has already ended. Now Russia, China, Iran, the United States and Great Britain, as well as other countries, have taken up the theory of games in the field of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in particular. This is a war for individual sovereignty, and we have little time. The altcoin war is over. Now Bitcoin is participating in the battle.

Question: If you were offered to make a film with any director of your choice on the topic of cryptocurrency, who would you name?

Answer:Abel Ferrara. This is an incredible director.He directed the magnificent film “Bad Lieutenant.” I remembered another film - “Death Wish”. This is a remake of the legendary film of the same name with Charles Bronson about a folk avenger who kills gangsters. It was also directed by Abel Ferrara (Ed.) And yes, Abel Ferrara is a fan of the Keiser Report. And if he had five million dollars, then I would make a film.

Interviewed by Sergey Simanovsky