There's a pattern in Bitcoin nobody talks about: skeptical, first-principles thinkers keep walking themselves into Christianity, often after years of study. Jimmy is one of Bitcoin's most respected technical voices, an early developer, author of Programming Bitcoin, and co-author of Thank God for Bitcoin, which puts him in a rare position to explain why this keeps happening.

I wanted his honest take on it. Not the surface-level orange-pill version, the deeper one.

His answer starts with what he calls little-t truth pills. You learn that the monetary system lied to you. Then you start questioning the food, the medicine, the experts, and the education system. Eventually, you run out of small lies to expose, and you hit the big one.

We also get into Rene Girard's scapegoat mechanism and how it explains losing VP candidates, the difference between judges and kings in Scripture, why debt sits uneasily with a sound-money worldview, and the one barrier Jimmy thinks stops most Bitcoiners from going the full distance.

You’ll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:48] Begging his dad for a Commodore 16, then learning BASIC from a pregnant tutor

[14:27] Writing two-hour emails in college quietly made him a better thinker

[23:53] 2008 and Ron Paul's End the Fed turned a coder into a libertarian

[26:43] The five-person email list that became his first Bitcoin community

[33:38] Nobody predicting AI's future actually has a clue what it will become

[40:11] The COVID Bible study that became Thank God for Bitcoin

[48:56] Bitcoiners keep converting to Christianity through slow, methodical study

[1:03:44] Judges over Kings, and what Israel lost by demanding a ruler

[1:07:19] René Girard, mimetic rivalry, and why kings function as sacrificial scapegoats

[1:13:08] The pattern of losing VP candidates as modern-day scapegoats

[1:20:03] Coming to terms with sin is the real barrier for Bitcoiners meeting Christ 

Resources Mentioned:

End the Fed by Ron Paul | Book or Audiobook

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, et al. | Book or Audiobook

The Ethics of Money Production by Jörg Guido Hülsmann | Book

Honest Money by Gary North | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Jimmy:

Jimmy Song | X | Website | LinkedIn

Programming Bitcoin | Book

Thank God for Bitcoin | Book

The Little Bitcoin Book | Book

Bitcoin and the American Dream | Book

Fiat Ruins Everything | Book

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Most people think a second passport is a luxury. Katie the Russian, founder of Plan B Passport and now CMO at CitizenX, treats it like a Bitcoin custody plan for your identity. Her work helping Bitcoiners and high net worth individuals build out flag theory comes from lived experience.

She grew up in post-Soviet Russia, lived through two hyperinflations before 20, and was repeatedly denied visas as a national team athlete. That's what made her the passport chick. Her framework is simple: figure out the attack vectors, then stack flags accordingly. Bitcoiners already do this with seed phrases and inheritance. Borders are the next layer.

The conversation goes deeper than I expected. Her predictions on the fall of the EU, the fourth turning we're inside right now, and why El Salvador may be the first country out of crisis are worth sitting with. Her view on marriage, raising three kids including one with cerebral palsy, and the overlap between the Bitcoin journey and the Jesus journey changed how I'm thinking about a few things.

You’ll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[5:10] How Russian sanctions work for employees hired through third-party providers

[20:29] Why Katie walked into a Sunday school at twelve, in an atheist country

[29:32] Why Orthodox Christianity feels like suffering and Presbyterian feels like Disneyland

[44:55] El Salvador might be the first country out of the fourth turning

[52:34] The flag theory security model, and when you need a passport versus residency

[1:00:35] How selling glow bracelets at nine years old funded a sailing career that almost reached the Olympics 

[1:11:02] Why the 100k São Tomé passport is the play for Canadians and Americans

[1:22:31] How motherhood forced her to make peace with the system she rejected

Find more from Katie:

Katie the Russian | X

Plan B Passport | Website

CitizenX | Website

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

In this episode, I chat with Daniel Prince, a British Bitcoin podcaster, author, and digital nomad known for sharing how Bitcoin reshapes real lives. We get into how homeschooling, unschooling, and world schooling challenge the traditional education system, and why lived experience often teaches more than any textbook.

We also get into spirituality and the Bible, including how you can actually trust it and why that matters when you start questioning bigger systems. I reflect on how following incentives changes how you see everything from Bitcoin and financial systems, to health conversations around vitamin B3 niacin and natural light.

Daniel shares how stepping away from conventional paths led him to rethink parenting, learning, and what freedom actually looks like for a family. This conversation hit close to home as I navigate homeschool vs public school, screen time, and raising kids who can think for themselves.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[03:06] Who actually owns the science, and what they do with it

[10:38] Why Daniel walked away from a 15-year forex career to travel the world with his kids

[40:50] The 1902 secret meeting that built every system you grew up inside

[49:57] Why Bitcoin, of all things, led Daniel straight to Jesus

[59:00] What ancient tablets, a dying prophecy, and a NASA eclipse confirm about the Bible

[01:13:34] Fallen angels, the Nephilim, and what the Bible says caused the flood

[01:27:41] How Macron's homeschool crackdown exposed the indoctrination hiding in plain sight

[01:30:29] The word no one wants to say and the paper trail that proves they should

[01:40:00] The slow-motion capture of Bitcoin most people refuse to see

[01:48:38] How Bitcoiners are building community offline and why the code war still matters

Resources Mentioned:

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss | Book or Audiobook

Niacin: The Real Story by Andrew W. Saul MS PhD et al. | Book

The Grant Williams Podcast | Website

TrustedHousesitters | Website

Willard Krehl’s Vitamin B3 research | PubMed

John Holt’s Growing Without Schooling | Website

Peter Gray | Website

John Taylor Gatto | Website

Dr. Naomi Fisher | Website

Daylight Computer | Website

f.lux® | Website

Find more from Daniel:

Daniel Prince | X

Once BITten Podcast | Website

Choose Life by Daniel Prince | Book

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

Nobody tells you that the worst sentiment in Bitcoin's history arrived right alongside the best fundamentals on paper. Governments buying, institutions stacking, every business able to accept it, and yet the mood feels like a funeral. Tomer Strolight has a theory about why, and it starts with what new buyers were never taught.

Most systems of law punish you after you break the rules. Bitcoin won't let you break them in the first place. That single distinction reshapes everything, from how we think about governance to why politicians accumulate wealth that their salaries can't explain.

Tomer spent a decade as a convinced atheist building a career in corporate boardrooms. Then depression, psychedelics, and a deep study of Bitcoin's design pulled him somewhere he never expected to go. The guy who once dismissed faith ended up being baptized in the Atlantic Ocean at a Bitcoin conference.

This conversation covers civilizational decay, the aligned incentives that make Bitcoin ungovernable, why democracy might be the god that failed, and what happens when a philosopher stops fighting the idea that the universe has a creator.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[01:56] What Bitcoin cycles, the Ethereum hard fork, and Satoshi's sacrifice all have in common

[13:27] Why Bitcoin's incentives make cheating the system impossible

[17:05] Free will vs. predestination: why God had no choice but to give us one

[21:32] Why a Holocaust-era family and the 2008 bailouts destroyed his faith in Western institutions

[34:51] The case that democracy was always going to fail, and what Bitcoin does about it

[58:22] Bitcoin as civilization's foundation: the system where breaking the rules is impossible

[01:07:38] Why unchecked government power has a genuinely demonic quality

[01:16:56] What the BIP 110 debate reveals about Bitcoin's developer problem

[01:40:58] From atheist to baptized believer: the psychedelic experience that led him to God

Resources Mentioned:

Bitcoin is Generational Wealth - A Short Film | YouTube

Ethereum | Website

Mt. Gox | Wikipedia

Silk Road | Wikipedia

Square | Website

Genesis Block | Wikipedia

2008 Financial Crisis | Wikipedia

Find more from Tomer:

Tomer Strolight | X

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

I’m joined by Julian Figueroa, a bitcoin educator and filmmaker known for turning complex ideas around hard money and self-custody into content people actually stick with. We keep coming back to the same underlying problem: what happens when you stop thinking from first principles and start outsourcing judgment, whether that’s to AI writing tools, authority figures, or the crowd.

There’s a clear difference between content built on conviction and content that’s engineered to perform, and that gap shows up in everything from content creation to how ideas spread. The same pattern starts to appear in unexpected places: how people treat Bitcoin, how they think about privacy, even how belief systems form and fracture over time.

At a certain point, the question stops being about tools or strategy and becomes about responsibility… Who's actually doing the thinking?

Somewhere between the pressure of the YouTube algorithm, the pull of certainty, and the temptation to defer, there’s a line that’s easy to cross and hard to notice.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[06:11] Why AI can't replace a writer who thinks from scratch, and what strong conviction has to do with it

[14:33] What it actually takes to make a Bitcoin video go viral

[28:30] Why the Bitcoin philosophers who never spend it are missing the point

[37:21] Bitcoin's privacy problem, and why it matters more than most Bitcoiners admit

[40:57] The three types of governments that will exist on a Bitcoin standard

[01:01:51] How much history can actually be trusted, and the archbishop who found Marcus Aurelius in the ruins

[01:05:12] Decentralized church, false doctrine, and why Bitcoin maxis and religious followers make the same mistake

[01:16:15] The danger of outsourcing your thinking to AI, leaders, or anyone else

[01:29:05] Pascal's Wager and why Bitcoin conviction follows the same logic as faith

[01:39:00] Bitcoin is a foundation; it changes how you value your time and everything else

Resources Mentioned:

Pascal’s Wager | Website

Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius | Website

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Nakamoto, S. | Article

Find more from Julian:

Julian Figueroa | X

The Exit Manual | YouTube

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

What starts as a casual chat about hockey fandom and Canadian rivalries quickly opens the door to something bigger: the tension between government power, personal freedom, and what the Bible actually teaches about authority. I’m joined by Alin Armstrong (Pastor Coin), who focuses on helping the church understand Bitcoin and why it matters for the future of money and freedom.

I wrestle with questions many believers are asking right now. Verses like Romans 13 are often used to argue that Christians must submit to the state, but what happens when government actions start crossing into areas many people believe belong to the church or to individual conscience?

We connect those questions to Bitcoin, free markets, and the argument that decentralization may lead to stronger and healthier societies than centralized control. Along the way, the story of the Tower of Babel raises a deeper issue: why humans repeatedly build systems of power that place authority in human hands instead of God’s.

If you’ve been thinking about the intersection of Christian theology, government authority, Bitcoin, and decentralization, this episode raises questions that may challenge how you see all of it.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[08:26] Why pastors are becoming more politically engaged, and what the Bible actually says about it

[17:12] The biblical origin of centralized government, from Babel to Israel's kings to the gospel

[31:17] Romans 13 as a slavery text, and why "maximize Jesus, minimize Caesar" is the biblical

[47:20] Biblical entertainment, the rise of shows like House of David, and whether Christians should make better art

[55:13] How studying Bitcoin led a pastor to Scripture, fiat debt, sin, and who actually bears the guilt

[01:08:43] Why denominational labels have lost their meaning, and what "Jesus Maximalist" replaces them with

[01:14:46] Mary as the second Eve, the Genesis 3 thread that runs all the way to the cross

[01:25:47] Applying "minimize Caesar" to diet, homeschooling, and food sovereignty

[01:32:54] Biblical archeology, Sodom's sulfur, the Book of Enoch, and the Giant of Kandahar

[01:41:31] Cold Case Christianity, why the resurrection is the only question that matters

Find more from Alin Armstrong (Pastor Coin):

Pastor Coin | X

Alin Armstrong | Website

The Bible and Bitcoin by Alin Armstrong | Book

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

Roberto Rios, a macro thinker and Bitcoiner, joins me to connect central banking, elite corruption, and what he believes is the spiritual dimension behind power itself.

We move from macroeconomics and investing into the darker implications of the Epstein files, blackmail networks, and systemic compromise. The conversation challenges the idea that corruption is random, suggesting instead that centralized institutions (financial, political, and cultural) may reflect deeper forces at work.

Questions of spiritual warfare, free will, and demonic influence surface as we examine why power structures persist and why reform often fails. Material explanations alone may not fully account for the patterns we see in global finance and governance.

Bitcoin is about more than money. It's about power, control, and the spiritual forces behind them.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[17:12] Carnivore diet, oxalate inflammation, and why modern produce is nothing like ancient food

[33:07] Bitcoiners, Christianity, and whether atheism requires more faith than theism

[40:30] Epstein's Baal bank account, satanic ritual in the files, and elites summoning demonic power

[43:40] Demons feed off human emotion, every deal backfires, and elites keep making them anyway

[50:57] Epstein's blackmail ring, Trump's compromise, and CERN as evidence of coordinated elite capture

[55:54] Three true stories of demonic influence

[01:06:59] Island exile over prison, capital punishment, and calvinism

[01:26:20] God-given curiosity, a TB genome that stumped PhDs, and how The Big Short changed everything

[01:35:29] Roberto's case for holding gold and silver, the utility theory of value, and paper markets suppressing Bitcoin's price

[01:51:16] China's silver rush, the Shanghai premium, and the next Fed easing cycle as Bitcoin's catalyst

Related The Adam O’Brien Show Episodes:

Is It Really Bitcoin?? How To Evaluate Bitcoin Treasury Companies | YouTube

Resources Mentioned:

Plant Free MD | Podcast

Find more from Roberto Rios:

Peruvian Bull | X

Peruvian Bull | YouTube

The Dollar Endgame| Book

The Dollar Endgame | Substack

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

In this episode, I’m joined by Scott Dedels, Co-Founder of Block Rewards and author of The Dao of Bitcoin. Scott blends hands-on experience in Bitcoin infrastructure with a deeper exploration of how time, value, and decentralization shape the systems we live in.

We dig into how blockchain technology and Bitcoin challenge the way modern society measures and monetizes time, and what that means for the future of finance. Scott reframes debt as monetized future value and inflation as a devaluation of the past, positioning money as a temporal instrument rather than just currency.

Drawing from his own experience navigating cryptocurrency, including the Terra Luna collapse, he explains why he sees Bitcoin’s energy-based structure as fundamentally different from other digital assets.

If you’re interested in decentralization, financial sovereignty, and the bigger ideas behind Bitcoin, this conversation goes well beyond market headlines.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[06:46] Pizzagate, YouTube censorship, and the moment Scott stopped trusting what he was shown

[11:57] Clock time, accelerationism, and how Bitcoin enables cathedral thinking again

[24:13] Governments as self-serving organisms, and the anomalies in recorded history that don't add up

[36:47] From Saturn to the moon landing: the full story of how time, history, and technology have been altered

[57:13] Satanic imagery in mainstream media, the theological framework for who holds the keys, and the devil's limited playbook

[01:02:25] The Bible as an edited document, the omitted books, and the free will vs. predestination tension

[01:11:28] The brain's tape delay, block universe theory, and the idea that consciousness might be God

[01:34:16] AI compressing time infinitely, and Bitcoin's low time preference as the only real cognitive anchor

[01:36:16] Scott's daily practice: no TV, physical books only, and retraining a dopamine-fried brain

Resources:

The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders | Book

The Dao of Bitcoin by Scott Dedels | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Scott Dedels:

Lantern Bitcoin | X

Lantern Bitcoin | Website

Scott Dedels | LinkedIn

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.

In this episode, I sit down with Seb Bunney to discuss why so many people feel uneasy about money, privacy, and technology, even when everything appears to be working as intended. That discomfort doesn’t come from paranoia or ideology, it comes from living inside systems that quietly extract data, shape behavior, and centralize control while calling it convenience.

Privacy used to be assumed. Now it’s something you actively defend. The same pattern shows up with money, where long-held beliefs about inflation, authority, and stability go mostly unchallenged. Bitcoin enters the picture not as a shortcut to wealth, but as a response to broken monetary systems and incentives that no longer reward long-term thinking.

Decentralization starts to matter when trust erodes, and financial sovereignty becomes practical rather than philosophical. This conversation connects Bitcoin, privacy erosion, and technology through a systems lens, focusing on how people begin questioning the structures they’ve inherited, and what happens when they do.

If you’ve felt that something about modern systems doesn’t sit right, this episode offers language, context, and a clearer frame for why.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[04:03] The "nothing to hide" fallacy and why privacy should be the default setting

[07:59] Sophisticated scams and why high-trust societies are collapsing

[14:41] Societal trauma in the downstream of broken monetary systems

[18:07] Somatic therapy, upward spirals, and the Buddhist fable of perspective

[27:22] Shifting from ego-driven hustle to trusting synchronicities and divine guidance

[45:41] 5D guidance, sensing truth in your chest, and why intuition predates data

[01:03:01] The Bible as distributed ledger, Shroud of Turin evidence, and crucifixion medical accuracy

[01:22:46] Biblical design of rules without rulers and Israel's tragic demand for kings

[01:26:30] The Trojan horse book strategy, flawed money maps, and why people reject Bitcoin

Resources Mentioned:

The Hidden Cost of Money by Seb Bunney | Book

Biblical Apologetics with Wes Huff | Website or Podcast

Find more from Seb Bunney:

Seb Bunney | Website

Seb Bunney | Instagram

Seb Bunney | X

Find more from Adam O’Brien:

Adam O’Brien | X

Adam O’Brien | Instagram

Adam O’Brien | Spotify

Stay connected with Adam’s latest insights by following along on all social platforms.