When bitcoin hit $10k, many journalists immediately began calling Max Keiser to ask, "How did you predict this!?" One of them was a new online publication, WikiTribune, which I gather is at least part funded, if not entirely so, by Jimmy Wales. Much of the interview got edited down, of course, but, as that is often the case, I was also recording the interview for my own Steemit piece! First up, Max explained that he was able to predict $10,000 simply because bitcoin has been rising in price by 1% per day on average across the years. The math is easy from there. Into the conversation, the journalist asked Max why and how bitcoin is a 'store of value:.' MAX: So there's a high degree of confidence now that Bitcoin represent a safe, secure store of value. And this is a, we live in a world of hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of derivative contracts and other financial liabilities. And [bitcoin] is a very desirable place to put some of your hard earned wealth to preserve it. And this used to be province of gold, but gold has run into some serious problems over the last 10, 15 years that it can't seem to shake. So that only leaves really cryptocurrencies and principally Bitcoin. So that's the first reason why you see price appreciation. From there, you drill down a little bit, and I think we're at [the point of the] collapse of the nation state. So you'd have to go back to Mediaeval times and the introduction of printing press, where you had the more of less, the collapse of the Catholic church, and you had the Reformation, you had [Martin Luther], you had the abandonment of that monopoly of information by the church. And you had the common people suddenly able to read books. And it was a huge shift in the power structure of the Mediaeval era. And really there was a huge shift. The church at that time was engaged in selling papal indulgences. You could buy your way into heaven with giving them some money. So now, skip forward, and the printing press of money has been controlled by the state. And now with Bitcoin, the state is no longer in charge of printing the money anymore. I just watched Joe Stiglitz on TV being interviewed about Bitcoin, he was practically crying. JOURNALIST: Really? MAX: He was in a puddle of tears. Because he kept uttering and muttering that there's no government behind Bitcoin, as if that's the problem. No, that's the feature, that's the good bit. That's why we're popular. JOURNALIST: The centralization. MAX: Yeah, the nation state that lost our trust. And the social contract that John Locke spoke of between the government and not doing the governing. Has shattered, has broken. And before in history, the only recourse people had was to insurrect, overthrow the government. But now with Bitcoin, they have a soft insurrection, which would be a good name for a band. The Soft Insurrections. Will publish more of the interview tomorrow. In the meantime, do your own research and hodl onto your hats! [Signed, Stacy]