00:00You've also said in the past, though, that part of the reason that the effort you led at Meadow with Libra didn't work is because just regulators also put up a lot of roadblocks.
00:07I think the quote you said in the past was it was 100 percent a political kill.
00:11Yes.
00:11Do you think if you were working on it today during the Trump administration, things would have been different?
00:16Well, maybe.
00:17But I think the bottom line is, you know, when we announced Libra a week later or two weeks later, I was testifying in front of Congress.
00:25You can't call Satoshi Nakamoto to testify in front of Congress.
00:28And the point is, if you're actually putting so much power in the hands of a consortium or a foundation or like, you know, someone leading this thing, like is identifiable, then you have a problem.
00:41And so you want to build on top of something that really looks and behaves just like the Internet.
00:46And for money, this is Bitcoin.
00:48Bitcoin is the Internet of money.
00:50We just need to build the technologies and capabilities to enable it to move the money where it starts and where it ends.
00:57Have you had these conversations with the Trump administration, with regulators?
01:00Are you encouraged by the direction they're moving in?
01:03Yeah.
01:03I mean, I think it's definitely better now than it was.
01:07And, you know, that's pretty low bar given what the previous administration tried to do in terms of putting roadblocks in front of the entire industry.
01:14But I think, you know, we're building on top of Bitcoin.
01:17And now you have like all of these ETFs and all of these large financial institutions that are supporting and embracing Bitcoin.
01:24And so I think, you know, the horse has left the barn.
01:27Like, there's just no way that we're going to change that.
01:30And Bitcoin is the most accepted and trusted digital asset in the world right now.
01:34Speaking of which, LightSpark does have its own Bitcoin investment that you bought when there was an ADR in the cryptocurrency about three years ago.
01:42You're probably feeling excellent about that.
01:44What do you make of this most recent run-up?
01:46Have you been buying more for the company?
01:48Does it have further room to run?
01:50Well, we bought Bitcoin because we're in need of Bitcoin liquidity to facilitate transactions on the Lightning Network and now on Spark,
01:58our new Bitcoin Layer 2 that facilitates real-time transactions and supports stable coins on top of Bitcoin.
02:03And so we were lucky enough that when we started, we were in a bear market and now we're not anymore,
02:10which is kind of an unusual place to be for a startup, but, you know, a nice place to be.
02:16The run-up is basically a factor of many things.
02:20I think, you know, I still feel Bitcoin is severely undervalued, especially if you compare it to gold.
02:26Like, if Bitcoin was worth as much as gold, it would be $1.3 million of Bitcoin.
02:31And I think it's just a matter of time.
02:32And I also feel like the utility phase of Bitcoin as a neutral settlement network and asset for all of the payments in the world hasn't been priced in at all.
02:41So I think it's just still so incredibly early for the asset and the network.
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