Europes Plan For Digital IDs and CBDCs is Accelerating!

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]We cannot ever let them enforce a digital ID and let alone a CBDC uh and this is what to those listening a central bank digital currency at the time of recording the ECB the European central bank is a lot of people will fall into this and a lot of people probably will live in one dystopian life and this is their decision they have no idea what's coming up that's their problem to be honest >> all right Roman great to have you here thank you for joining us this This is uh another episode for the BTC Prague platform where we're going to discuss all things going on in Bitcoin around Europe hopefully, but more importantly what you're seeing in your home country of Germany. So, thank you for doing this. Thanks for coming on.

[00:00:46]>> Hi, nice to be here and I'm happy to talk to you about um the current situation in Germany. That's very interesting. So before we do like uh the rabbit hole story and you know what got you into Bitcoin and what you were doing before Bitcoin like fiat career and everything I just want to say huge congrats on your own journey like with your YouTube channel. you, and I just checked, Block Trainer has 230,000 subscriptions from what I can see on your YouTube channel. And you've posted 1.7,000 videos of educational content uh over the last how long did you say eight years?

[00:01:26]>> Two 2018. I started 2018. Yeah.

[00:01:29]>> Right. That's incredible. I wonder is this digital digital ID? Is this all part of, you know, splitting us again?

[00:01:38]Because you're going to have most pe here's the problem. Most people are ambivalent. Like they they just don't care. Like they don't have an opinion.

[00:01:48]And they're like, okay, yeah, if it comes in, it comes in. You know, I don't care at all. Then you have some who are like, we absolutely need to get this done. This is going to solve immigration and all of our problems, right? And then you have the other guys like us are like, this is [ __ ] up, guys. It's like we cannot ever let them you know enforce a digital ID and let alone uh a CBDC and this is what uh for those listening a central bank digital currency and at the time of recording the ECB the USB the European central bank is hoping when's the trial uh going to be launched do do you know >> I think they try to launch this end of the year but uh it was more like a plan for um launching the CBDC in the end. I I think this will take some years >> and yeah.

[00:02:42]>> What's so what what what's the feel in Germany? Where where's um where's the conversation going at the moment?

[00:02:48]Obviously, you're in a Bitcoin focused uh ring of people. Uh do do you see if you ever do look at the mainstream media or like you're going out with some friends that haven't fallen down the rabbit hole yet? Where where are people on this topic so far?

[00:03:05]>> I Yeah, I think you see both sides. Um the ones which fear this and uh very are very critical about this. You see some arguments from the pro side like from Christine Lagard and others. But you see also in the mainstream very critical voices about this because they say why do we need this? So we have digital money or or bank accounts are digital.

[00:03:29]So why do we need the central bank? uh money for this but um most of them uh know this is a part which will 100% come. So we we cannot stop this and the central bank does know this as well and what they say is yeah look we don't want to bring all the money to the central bank we just want to bring one alternative because we lost all the good payment provider services or we never had them. Uh everything is made via PayPal and Mastercard and Visa. These are all American companies. Uh we need something in the EU and uh yeah the free market uh bring no services up. So the central bank bring their own central nice service you can use but you don't have to use. So that's a that's an argument. And they say, "Yeah, it's just for, I don't know, €1,000 a month, not more or it's limited to €1,000 and it's totally anonymous, so you we will not see your your payments and so for sure." So I I'm pretty sure it's not open source and we can never prove, but um I think this will come up in a very slow way. That's um so so though there's not a hard opposite position which says you cannot force us to this. So they just bring it up like a small thing on the side and will force people after and after into this. For example, when you uh buy in Germany uh a new electric vehicle car, you will get I think $5,000 or so uh euros from the government. I'm pretty sure in the future they will say, "Yeah, if you want to have this $5,000, you have to use your central bank uh currency for this." So, uh we will give you all this nice stuff and the nice gifts from the government, but only if you use your central bank uh uh central bank account for getting your pay from your job and so on. Yeah, this is what I think how it it will come. But this will take some years and people has not really other good reasons for using this. In the end uh we cannot stop this.

[00:05:48]I'm pretty sure we cannot stop this.

[00:05:50]They will do this because they want that. But there I I don't think it will end up in an absolute dystopia because there are so more so many more forces out there like you see China with their own digital currency. You see Iran, you see uh the US with the stable coin law.

[00:06:15]You have so more forces. Uh I don't think that the euro can uh can stand this and I don't think the euro will uh play very well in this game and they cannot stop that uh bad decision they made just because they they more centralized their money. So a lot of people will fall into this and a lot of people probably will live in dystopia one dystopian life and this is their decision. I mean as you said some has no uh they they have no idea what's coming up. that's their problem to be honest because every time you think you can bring a solution for other people it's the beginning of a socialist system because you say ah I see this is probably very bad for all these people out there I have the solution I need to tell them uh I I don't think so I I think yeah let's let the people make their own experience and uh in the end they will wake up so we will never fall into this final dystopia where we never can come out of.

[00:07:28]And maybe it's good because yeah, I like good times for sure. Who who does not like good times, but if you read a book of a time period of the world or you watch a movie where nothing happens because it was just a good time, it's so boring. And when you when you're one of these guys living in the time period where nothing happened, it was just a good time. No one will remember you, right? So what is the stuff which makes us a legend? This is handling the bad situations. So yeah, okay, try it. Try to destroy my society. Try to destroy my nation or whatever you the [ __ ] you want. Uh I will become a legend because of you because I will never break and uh you can try to fight me but you will never you will never stand this. So in the end I think uh the people will wake up. It's always in the history of human being some people doing very bad for the society society is waking up and after this a very very good situation will follow.

[00:08:39]>> I I often think about uh how old are you Roman?

[00:08:44]>> Uh 36.

[00:08:46]>> Right. Okay. So do you remember the Deutsch mark?

[00:08:49]>> Yeah for sure.

[00:08:51]I think I was 12 or 14 when it was introduced.

[00:08:54]>> Right. Okay. So, you'd been earning your pocket money and everything else in a Deutsch Mark. Uh, and I often think about um, you know, the French Frank and the Spanish beta and the Belgian Frank and the Dutch Gilder and the you know the Greek uh, Drakmar and you know the Portuguese eskeewer all of these currencies that went to zero overnight and the the lasting trauma that that's carried through um, probably generation X that and the boomers who had spent many decades building up, you know, wealth to look after their families in a currency that they were forced to use, a medium of exchange that they were forced to use in their country and then have that completely changed. And we're facing this again because if we go to a so-called CBDC, then you know that's not the euro as we know it, right? So we could have certainly in those countries that I just mentioned two uh a generation of people see two fiat currencies go to zero on their watch and that's crazy and look you know we in the United Kingdom they kept the great British pound in Sweden they kept the croner in Denmark they kept the corona so they they did maintain some kind of so-called sovereignty at least over their currency Uh but as we know as Bitcoiners and the more we learn and for those that are still learning about it, you know, all fiat currencies tend to zero. Uh and I was wondering whether there would be more push back from the countries from those people that had already gone through one of these transitions.

[00:10:38]And it's my hope that like you you know I want to keep this positive right. I want to keep it positive and say there will be push back. It is inevitable. And uh to paraphrase, I won't be able to quote him ex exactly, but to paraphrase Parker Lewis, uh human beings uh tend towards the the the strongest form of money on the market at any one time. And right now, we know that's Bitcoin. We know. And we're trying our best to to, you know, educate other people. Uh so I have hope. I do have hope. And I want everybody listening to to feel that, too.

[00:11:20]I think I have more than hope. I'm I'm uh absolutely sure about that we that we uh will rise and uh will making something good of out of this situation.

[00:11:35]That's the point. Bitcoin is such a powerful tool and years ago it was inevitable. Now it's it's like it it's it has always it's still on the point uh where Bitcoin has won the game. I mean look at Iran and all this stuff right now they realize yeah when you when you try to have a currency which can no one stop they tried stable coins which which the Scott Bend uh he he said it on a on an interview I think on CNBC. Yeah, we burned uh 300 million in stable coins or so. I mean, they realized, yeah, you there's no currency out there like Bitcoin, so we need Bitcoin in the end.

[00:12:23]Everyone will need Bitcoin. Bitcoin has won the game. this. Yeah, I think it's inevitable that the fiat system will burn down, but I'm sitting on this arc on Bitcoin and I can sit here with my popcorn and I can watch the fiat system burn down and can see how Bitcoin is a solution for everyone which is uh running out of this burning fiat house. It's just uh nice to see how people become uh yeah how how they lose the dependence on the system right on the on the fiat system and uh how they find the new solution and it's sometimes more slowly like in the beer market you see yeah bitcoin uh no one is interested bit in bitcoin except the bitcoiners but in all beer markets we had we see that the critical mass of Bitcoiners was becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. So yeah, you have the hype phases and some tourists come and going out of this after but a lot of more a lot of people will stay and become to open their eyes and realize what's happening here and how Bitcoin is a great tool is the best tool to uh to live an yeah strong life and an individual life. So yeah, it's more like hope. I see all this and I have the deep knowledge of that we make this. Uh I I don't fear that we not make this. I I mean what what can happen to Bitcoin? There's there's nothing which can happen to Bitcoin. And to be honest, some people think yeah uh maybe in in 10 years fiat money is gone. I don't think so. I think fiat money will stay forever like uh this is an organism as well but we are not in that dependence to the fiat system in the end. So they cannot force us over the fiat system.

[00:14:31]Credit is always there. People will will make credit when they want to do this.

[00:14:36]So uh how can you force people to not do this? You cannot force them. So fiat will be there always but the role of fiat in the world in the political decisions will becoming smaller and smaller and smaller over the time and it's more important to uh to play like a yeah like someone who understands hard money and uh is a good entrepreneur and so maybe politics will turn more back into some yeah good decisions for yourself and for your companies and which you created or which you hold alive and Bitcoin is um the way into this world and we see this I if you if you would ask me five years ago will governments buy Bitcoin at some point I would say yes definitely but I think this will take 10 or 20 years there's a video I think I I talked about this maybe six or seven years ago I said yeah governments will for sure buy Bitcoin but I think this will take a lot of time and I thought maybe the US are the the last final boss to do so in the end we have now since last year or or yeah I think since last year a strategic Bitcoin reserve um in a decreed so it's not a law now but uh this was fast for my I'm very very bullish for Bitcoin but even for me this was quite fast. Yeah.

[00:16:09]So, uh I'm pretty sure uh this is unstoppable from here.

[00:16:14]>> Yeah. And we have uh well the Czech central bank they did add I believe as a test 1 million euros worth of of Bitcoin. Uh so we have a Bitcoiner there within the central bank. I have it on well I I did I can't remember who told me but they had it on very good uh hearsay. You know how it goes. the rumors that he got a very sharp call from Christina Lagard uh about that decision. But I also have uh some whispering in my ear that there's a couple of sleeper Bitcoiners actually working at the European Central Bank and are currently writing papers uh about um you know the the importance to to actually look at at Bitcoin. And you know, there's the there's always the the narrative of, well, the last people we want in the world buying Bitcoin are, you know, the the people that set out to destroy us in the first place with their fiat currencies and their inflation. Uh, which I'm open to all kinds of debates around that particular uh topic, but what's happening is happening. And I I think as Bitcoiners, if you are the Bitcoiner sitting there, if you are even a Bitcoiner, you know, silently sitting there in your organization at the moment, whether that is um you know, your your day job or a charity or whatever, and um you're not having these discussions, uh it's it's high time we can do that. and my first Bitcoin even recently have released like a not a diploma a um a structured way to look at approaching Bitcoin uh from an organizational standpoint especially if you are the like the chief risk officer of uh of a bank or of any company especially listed companies right because you have to find issue a duty there uh to to look at this and get it on the risk register all of this is happening and that's available in 50 odd languages I'll send you the link for the German uh one so you can uh share it with your community because it just takes one guy >> listening to this or listening to your show to print that out, put it in a manila envelope, address it to the chief risk officer, care of the CEO so it lands on the CEO's desk who passes it to the chief risk officer and he opens it up and there's a whole like thing about going through Bitcoin and um you know put getting that on the risk register. So there's all this kind of stuff going on. I'm very bullish like you. The fight is here.

[00:18:46]It's on our doorstep. And Germany was well known uh in Europe for having lenient in air quotes loosest term of the word. I suppose when we talk about tax because tax I think is uh you know completely unethical in the first place.

[00:19:06]But the idea that if you held your Bitcoin for longer than one year in Germany without selling it, that would be forever tax-free.

[00:19:18]Now, I've got a headline here in front of me that was written on 8th of May, 2026, so just 20 days ago. Uh, Germany plans to end tax-free Bitcoin holding after one year starting 2027, tightening crypto taxes.

[00:19:38]What's going on, Roman?

[00:19:40]>> Yeah, they want to change this, but it's not that easy probably. So, the reason why Bitcoin is taxfree after one year is because Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are uh in a basket of other other uh And let me check the correct word.

[00:20:03]It's um other yeah other economic assets. So ju that's a that's a point like old-timers uh watches, Pokemon cards, gold. So even our the the uh gold, silver and so on, everything is taxfree after one year.

[00:20:23]And Bitcoin is uh also there like uh other other um currencies as well. And uh it's very hard to get this out of the basket because you need something similar you do like you push gold out of it or so because otherwise it's not allowed to do so. So it's not that easy to bring this out.

[00:20:48]And the interesting situation in Germany right now is um the chosen party uh is a party of a strong uh like CDU and they work with the SPD. It's it's a very leftwing party and they did that because they don't want to work with the AFD. FD is a very so German media would say right-winged party to be honest I think they are left as well but uh so there's a there's a nonworking agreement of all other parties to this uh alternative for Germany that's a that's a translation and the CU could only uh could only be in the government because they working with another small party together and the small party does know that and they can force them to their wishes. So it's last cling by from the SPD. You have to imagine in some in some bundeser in some of our uh smaller countries they don't have 5% right now. So that small and he can force our bundler Fred to to act like he wishes because he knows when they leave the party the CDU can't stay in the government anymore. So they so our our counselor is not really Fred it's more last cling by and uh so a very leftwing person can decide uh laws and things like that and he is wishing this but most people from the CDU don't want that so we asked them we asked the fraction as well uh and is it is it the correct term sorry my I I'm talking not a lot in English. So um political party so we asked the political party and the answer was we don't want to change that and they are the strongest party right now. So normally they can say no we don't do this but the small party SPD can force them to everything literally. So we cannot be sure but I know this will a hard fight for them to uh to bring the land get rid of this tax-free situation for Bitcoin and we will uh yeah I I'm very curious what's the plan is how how do they want to do this? Uh in fact as I said it's not easy because of the German laws. In the end politicians can do whatever they want for sure but it's not that easy and uh yeah let's see what their plans are. They not delivered the plans right now. So we have some some uh people they say this from internal they say yeah this and this is a plan but there's not an official plan right now.

[00:23:47]I think we will get this plan in one month or so and then they try to discuss this and I hope people from the CDU party will uh will hold their word and say no this not going to happen.

[00:24:01]>> Did you stay up to date with what was going on in the Netherlands as well whilst this was kind of being rolled well uh talked about in Germany because the Netherlands >> was absolutely crazy >> unrealized gains tax. Yeah.

[00:24:17]Do you want to explain that to those people listening that might not be up to date on what the Netherlands were trying to uh to push through?

[00:24:25]>> Yeah, in the Netherlands uh selling Bitcoin is not taxfree and uh this is a situation now and they also want um taxes on unrealized gains. So if your Bitcoin is more worth from last year to this current year, you have to pay taxes as you sold them. So you have to sell them because uh you need to pay your tax or you have another income where you can do it from but in the most uh cases you are forced to sell this uh asset in the end. Uh so you can watch from time to time how your wallet will shrink. uh interesting is there are some game theories and uh you you can follow up this mathematical comparison to uh you hold your bitcoin and you sell it in the future versus you hold your bitcoin and you have to sell every year. In the end the tax which the government gets out of it is way smaller with unrealized gains tax because they eliminate the asset in your portfolio which will working more great in the future and this is very crazy. So in Germany for example the same way uh all the numbers show that if you change this situation right now they will not make more uh taxes out of this but they will have a lot of more work to uh to um bring this new structure in and uh teach all the government parts and uh especially make the tax law every year.

[00:26:01]And people will for sure have not that much money when they becoming older and older and this is in the end the point where they live from the state. So the problems for the state are becoming bigger and bigger if they change this and they will even not make more money out of this uh changing this tax situation. So they will probably get one time more money for the first moment when we when they change this but after this they will get less money and we have this because we can we can be sure about this because in Austria they changed this some years ago they had this tax-free situation after one year as well they changed this uh as well and in whole Austria in the year 2024 the bull market year of Bitcoin they made I I think it was 25 million or so in taxes for the whole country for this market. So they lost the tax-free situation for $20,000 in a bull market here. What the [ __ ] That's absolutely insane, right? So why should they do this? I mean, they will not make money out of this. This is so stupid. People will not sell their Bitcoin in the end.

[00:27:22]>> Yeah. I'm fingers crossed and I've got a report up here that was written in February that says this does look as though it's been benched. It's been pushed back. It it got too much uh bad press and um it's been struck down uh by by the Supreme.

[00:27:40]>> You have to see you have to see I think uh we have now more than six million people in Germany which are into Bitcoin and crypto. Six million. this is not uh so so I think this is a critical mess and uh you will you will probably have a lot of problems. So I think per per head Germany is one of the strongest Bitcoin countries worldwide and making such a bad political decision will probably uh so no one no one of these people will vote for your party again after that's insane. Yeah.

[00:28:17]>> Yeah. I I think I've misread that. I just want to get this totally clear. The the actual return in box 3 act approved on February 12th with 93 votes was designed to replace a deemed return system previously struck down by the Supreme Court for violating property rights. So, okay, the the Supreme Court had struck something down previously which we don't have the uh the exact details for. But as far as this idea of taxing realized unrealized capital gains tax in Holland >> in the Netherlands >> in the Netherlands, yeah, it is >> they pushed it back. Yeah.

[00:28:52]>> Is it has been pushed back and now they're saying uh the new rules savings and investments would be taxed at a flat 36% rate based on actual yields. even that holds its own problems. But it's good to see that that overreach was batted back and it wouldn't have just been the the Bitcoin community that managed to do that. Like the the outrage there was, you know, countrywide for sure. Uh and then um so if I just uh skip over to to Spain uh Spain and this was uh this was proposed at the back end of last year. Spain proposes 47% Bitcoin tax and sees your rules. Uh so it wants to classify all digital assets as seizable.

[00:29:43]Uh again this is completely insane and uh I've just done a podcast about 3 weeks ago with one of the guys who runs the South African conference down there.

[00:29:55]South Africa are going through something very similar right now. uh very much a 6102 attack going on that they're saying that uh all uh Bitcoin held in self-custodial wallets must be returned to one of three government regulated exchanges and uh you know it at risk of being fined or put in jail, right? Does this sound like FDR's 1933 rule that uh give us all your gold? This is and you know they've mounted again it's not just the Bitcoiners that are mount an attack against these laws. It's something like this is so politically charged like the game theory right there is other parties are going to get involved and just try and strike that one down immediately because they know that they can garner votes from people. This is it's it's what's the word I'm looking for? uh encouraging to know that when these things are put on the table, they are being looked at critically not just by our small group of people, but by you know the wider um mainstream.

[00:31:07]>> I think yeah, I think that's a like uh like you said before uh we're becoming more and more Bitcoiners. They're sitting in political situations in in in all governments everywhere you have Bitcoiners. It's a Troan horse. And maybe now Bitcoin is large enough to have a critical mass of people to defend it and uh defend their their own uh yeah capital and their own assets.

[00:31:39]Uh but you know Murphy's law. try try something again and again and again and at one point it will happen and it feels like they do this look at the EU they try to bring this uh EU law for reading all the chats and so on this chat control stuff I mean I think we had two votes last year about this I mean do one vote and if it's not going to happen just leave it but I tried again and again and again and I have the feeling at one point they will probably get what they want. So but the world will not becoming a better world after and their political power will decreased over the time because this nation which leaves freedom to their society to their people will the most um powerful nation in the end. And uh the way to control your nation is the same way how to decrease your uh wealths and and everything and you will lose everything. So when you destroyed your country, you you it's great that you have a government then but what's uh what's your force? What's your power in the end? Yeah, you have no more power then. And uh look at the DDR.

[00:33:00]I mean uh that's that's the best thing you can see this how Germany developed in the BRD uh and I would say even the BD was very very close to a socialist system but it was way more free than the DDR and in the end the DDR couldn't uh hold this up so they they paid for the bus and paid for the food for the people. Yeah. But the money the wealth of the money needs to come from somewhere from and uh when you have no freedom in your society you have no wealth you have no power and you will lose everything. So yeah let them try to do all this stuff. Let them destroy our our economy but uh we will build this up again and then we will build this up without these parasites.

[00:33:54]What's going on in Germany that we wouldn't have heard of positive news in the Bitcoin space? Anything that you can think of like recent projects that have been announced or uh no nothing because uh I think good news uh some years ago like the Fox Bank they um uh went full Bitcoin like you can buy Bitcoin from your bank account but they have no custody for you. They teach you how to self custody which is great I think and they make clear we are bitcoin only we don't want to do something with altcoins this was special as well I think um the sparkle is going this way now that they have custody you cannot self custody but probably they will bring this in the future and you can buy for sure bitcoin and all the altcoins but this is a good development I think and um Yeah, the best the best advertisement for Bitcoin is the bad political decisions and so I think it's very great to see how good Germany develops on this way.

[00:35:06]Yeah.

[00:35:08]>> Yeah. Great to hear. Okay. What are you going to be talking about at BTC Prague?

[00:35:12]Any spoilers?

[00:35:14]>> Yes. I think we see some you you talked about dividing the society and the problem of a divided society and I see I see some topics which divides the Bitcoiners as well and I try to bring a new view on some stuff which is coming up and which is probably um making some people fear probably strategy. Some people fear the institutions coming to Bitcoin, the Wall Street coming to Bitcoin. Some people fear the fiat system and some people think we need Bitcoin as our daily medium of exchange to be successful. I want to give the people a little different view on this. some points maybe to rethink because um uh in the end this is a log logical part when Bitcoin is that good as we think why should the wall street leave it on the side why so Bitcoin is a Troan horse and that means everyone will come to Bitcoin right and uh yeah my my um topic will be this like uh showing a possible way how Bitcoin will act like a Troan horse in our society and that the things we see right now maybe not that bad for Bitcoin as we think in the first moment.

[00:36:44]>> You know, why did you decide to start a YouTube channel in the first place and where you are today and how far that's come?

[00:36:53]>> Yeah. uh when you say that I recorded so much videos or so many videos, it's hard to believe for myself because it's just a continuing job, right? So, if you tell me now, please record more than 1,000 videos, I would say, oh wow, that's that's a lot. I I don't know if I can can handle this. Uh yeah before I was an IT project manager for a larger company and um so I started to uh yeah get my own money when I uh yeah when I started my own life living my own apartment and so on and then you realize okay I have maybe a little a little bit money on on the side what can I do with this and as a guy which is very interested in technical stuff there was for sure also for Bitcoin and um I was interested in Bitcoin since I think 2013 but I never bought in that time. I it was more like oh look the darknet has an own money that's interesting and 2016 I uh started to mine Bitcoin but I never received Bitcoin. It was more like uh yeah education for myself. What's going on there? how does it work and so on. And then I was falling down the decentralization rabbit hole. And this was a point where I realized in 2017 uh in the first mainstream hype like Bitcoin was going to $20,000 and YouTube was full of advertising for scam and stuff like Bitconnect and so on. And I realized, okay, that's not the point of Bitcoin. That's I I don't know what's happening here, but no one of them understands the technology. No one of them understands what Bitcoin really do.

[00:38:48]They all promote some very Yeah. Susange services which will give them probably a lot of money and so on. Yeah. Then the bubble was uh u exploding. So the beer market was coming and uh most of these channels were completely deleted in the end. So YouTube uh was kind of free of all the stuff now and I realized the people think that's everything. So now Bitcoin is dead and uh yeah the show show was funny but uh let's go to another topic and I realized now there's more behind Bitcoin and I uh I was digging down so deep in the rabbit hole at that point that I thought I want to give that knowledge to the people and I started my YouTube channel just as a hobby as a I don't know I I I like to give my knowledge to other people. it was at my job as well. I trained my my employees and so and so on. And yeah, I did the same on YouTube and I thought that's a good point. And in the in the beginning, my channel had I don't know 30 views per video or so. Nothing.

[00:40:03]Literally nothing. But it was so much fun to create videos and uh I never stopped this. Just continuing my job, continuing my job and it became bigger and bigger. But I so I was on a point where I wanted to not advertise my channel. So I don't want to get money from my my YouTube videos because I saw just like an hobby that's everything. So in 2019 the end of 2019 I became very ill. I have uh several uh serious um uh yeah diseases and I was in the hospital. I was on a hard medicine for 9 months or so. Uh you can see my videos back then. My head was blowing up. Everything was full of uh uh yeah pickles or what's the yeah English word for this. And um this was a point where I realized okay maybe it was it was very serious back then. So uh it was not sure if I will live longer than 3 months from from that point. And this is a life-changing moment where you think about your life and where you don't get me wrong I was happy as an IT guy because technical things are just inspiring me. My my whole life was technical driven. But I realized I want to do something for myself, something where I can go my very own way. And I decided to make this hobby to my job.

[00:41:44]And I said, okay, maybe I will not own any money with that. Maybe maybe you will lose everything and you will sit on the street in the end. But um on the other side, maybe you are dead in 3 months. So what what do you regret in your life when when your last day will come when you lay on the bed and you know I I'm dead in one hour you think about your life you will regret everything which you not did. Yeah. No no no one I think no one will regret anything he did in his life. You will think about your life and you think oh now I'm I'm too old or I have no more power to do this or this and so on. And I realized I want to start my own business out of my hobby because this is what makes me most fun. Yeah. And this was um the beginning from this was a moment where I created the block trainer company and uh yeah I had uh I talked to my community back then.

[00:42:43]And I told them, hey, something life-changing happening with me and this channel will now more and more and more uh becoming an corporate uh thing. But I I'm be honest to you guys, I will always um I I will never let the money uh set my voice or so. I I don't know if you know what I mean because I think it's very important to be honest and uh that you that you never promote stuff for the money that when you promote stuff you do this because the stuff is really good like like this. Yeah. And I talked to my community and everyone said yeah we can understand that and that was the beginning. So now it's big like this big how it is today and I have a nice team a nice company and uh in the end when I look back I would say my uh diseases were the best gift the life could give me because this was the opportunity to turn something very bad and something very good and this changed my view of life and bad things totally because when something bad happens Today I realize yeah maybe that's very bad for the situation and this will kill the situation where I am living in and which I like but maybe I become uh a very better person after this when I start to uh to work on it and make something good of the bad thing.

[00:44:15]>> Yeah, 100%. And I I I came to similar realizations as well over the course of my life. you know, that door closes right in front of you. And uh the old saying goes, well, one door closes, another one opens. And uh you know, it's all very philosophical, but I like to think of it, one door closes, and then if you step back and look left and right down the corridor, you you realize there's thousands of other doors open that you can go and start exploring and putting your energy towards and generally you end up in a better place.

[00:44:45]Uh so things do happen for a reason, and if that sounds a little bit woowoo, then so be it. But what's um did did they ever find a correct diagnosis for what you were suffering at that time?

[00:44:57]>> Yeah. Yeah. Let me let me uh translate this because I I'm not familiar with the English uh words. It's like um uh the first thing is an autoimmune pancreatitus.

[00:45:15]Then um morbus Crohn it's Crohn's disease. Yeah.

[00:45:20]>> Um u and the other one is autoimmune hepatitus >> uh with my liver. It was um inflamed and um I have uh bacter disease. Uh it's just um it's a romatism in my back.

[00:45:44]>> Okay.

[00:45:45]>> Yeah.

[00:45:46]>> Holy crap, brother.

[00:45:48]>> Yeah. and everything was uh inflamed. I had uh very very bad um they checked my blood and uh my my uh the the inflammation of my liver was uh way higher than it should be. So normal the normal border is 60 and my value was at,400.

[00:46:10]So very very high and this was the reason I I had um um let me check this as well. It's um Pretzolon.

[00:46:22]Pretzolon. It's an um it's a very uh hard medicine. Um it's what's a let me check this as well.

[00:46:35]Um yeah, it's a cortisone. A cortisone.

[00:46:39]And I got a very high uh very high uh intention of this over nearly one year because when I uh in the end your own body does not produce any cortisol if you take cortisone and you need to slow down the medicine over a longer period.

[00:46:58]And when I did that, my disease was uh flaming up again and I had to go to the hospital again and they do all the all this stuff again, take some probes out of my body and so on. So little fractions of my uh organisms and so on.

[00:47:17]And uh yeah, then I had to take this medicine again for months. And yeah, this was a very horrible time but it also was a very nice time because uh I created this business out of nothing and this is something which gives you so much power and uh so much I don't know you just want to live right. I think this helps a lot. Today I take absolutely no medicine because I found out which makes me ill. I think it's it's a it's a combination of a lot of things. It's stress for sure, but uh also our food, our fiat food, I think.

[00:47:55]And the um I I think if you live in a fiat world and you take all the stuff the fiat world will give you, you end up maybe in in a situation where you have to take medicine for your whole life because they they just uh take the uh symptoms out of you but not the root of the problem. If you want to fight the root of this what makes you ill, you need to change your own life. That they no one will come and give you a good um a good marriage or or a good um a good life or a good business also. You do this for yourself. You need to do this for yourself. No one can do this from out there. And with your health, it's the same way. I think it's good when you have a hospital when it's really critical and they need to do something like you lost your arm or in an accident or so. But in the end, if you want to be a healthy human, you need to do this with for yourself. And Bitcoin was was a way uh was my way to a healthy life because you realize what inflation does or what devaluing of the euro or dollar does to our society and to all the economical parts and you realize everything is under a shrinkflation and the quality is getting more worse and worse and you're living in that and you don't realize you just feel more bad over the time and Bitcoin is the tool to turn this around and you feel better and better and better over the time because you take your life in your own hands and making something good out of it.

[00:49:39]>> That's amazing. Did you also like link it to kind of fiat lifestyle as well? I mean, you mentioned stress and you were working in it. So then you're I'm assuming you're and this is the Dr. Jack Cruz thesis, right? If you're working in tech, you're around. First of all, all of the non-native EMFs that are being pumped at you, you've got the blue light that's getting pumped at you as well.

[00:50:01]Maybe you're sitting in an office all day under the uh the the the lights, the neon lighting in the office. Uh and everything just adds up over time. And yeah, Jack's coming back this year to give a couple of talks and uh he's going to be on the VIP stage and there's a stage outside as well, which is the uh the the lifestyle stage. So, was that all a fact? Have you been down those rabbit holes? Is that a way you've also managed to find uh the path to selfheal rather than like you know kicking the medicines, mate? That is incredible.

[00:50:33]Like that is so key because you you honestly Yeah. You could be living on those things for the rest of your life and having no idea what side effects are manifesting inside your body.

[00:50:47]>> Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, I think it's um when you fall down this uh rabbit hole of um Austrian economics and so on and you realize how bad things turn under a fear standard. Um you change your whole view on this world and whole view on our society and everything. Uh so you start to I don't know you you just um you you you try to do the opposite of everything the system tries to tell you, right? In in all parts because you you realize, yeah, it's like I'm in the matrix and now you are Neo which was woke up outside of the matrix and you realize, oh, what did I live before?

[00:51:38]What was this? It was a a big lie and look what it made to me. Look how ill I was and uh how bad things worked for me.

[00:51:47]And uh now you have the you have the power to to make your life which it should be. So I think there's something inside every single person that's your your I don't know um it's a it's a it's your it's your deepest drive like what do you want to do as a as a human which coming to earth and and no one tells you what to do. I think you want to eat, you want to hunt, you want to do all this stuff and this world try to kill this drive. They try to give you a new personality from upside down and say here look uh we try to make everyone looking the same, everyone feeling the same, everyone behaving the same. This is how how how you should be. And this I think is in the end what makes people uh sick because if you if you follow your drive you will al uh you will automatically um follow the healthy way because uh your your drive is for is made for this. This is what the nature gave us. You want to live. So if you fear a situation this feeling fear is there to secure you to to save you from a car accident or so.

[00:53:09]Yeah, you're standing on the street and fast cars driving around and you say, "Oh, I I don't cross it now because I fear is a bad situation for me." So everything is given to you and you just have to hear it. And this is what Bitcoiners probably say if there's noise outside in the fiat matrix and bitcoin is a signal and the signal is deep inside you. You just have to hear to your own to your uh stomach feeling or how can I say like uh it's uh everything which can make you happy is inside you and we have I mean we've lived a life of these people trying to divide us too and this is what I love about what uh BTC Prague you know was built on it was built on the ethos of bringing all of the Bitcoin uh communities for one of a better word from around Europe uh to one place once a year to all get together and to share the successes and the ideas and the projects that are being uh built out and rolled out in their own countries. I mean, in your own recent history, you know, I'm 50, so I remember uh growing up and and being taught through secondary school all about World War I and all about World War II and how our nations were, you know, devout enemies and uh and other nations as well. Oh god, what do we get to call them? The axis of evil. like this is this is the nonsense narrative that gets pushed down through the education system and the the older generation to ours. Um my parents are of Boomer and uh my grandparents, one of which is still alive, who was actually um you know living in London during uh you know the bombing raids and everything else. This is tangible stuff still like this happened yesterday really like uh and with the division that they they try and push through and keep us divided is is so disgusting and the best way you can do that is by destroying uh money and that um I'll be interested what do you remember growing up like what what your parents or your grandparents certainly must have gone through uh well first of all like um you know the the the breaking of the country from east into west and then uh hyperinflationary events and all this kind of like nonsense. So not only were you divided from the rest of Europe but you were divided inhouse like it's it's crazy.

[00:55:43]>> Yeah. I think fiat money uh destroys prices because um the intervention of the banks of the politics uh um destroys um the natural price on the market and when you do this you will end up in a situation where problems coming up and every time a problem is coming up you have several uh possible solutions for this and as the politic goes through they say yeah this is our solution for this problem which we create by ourselves and this will divide the society in the end because look at corona um what what did the the mainstream do the mainstream was following the political view and the others said oh I'm I'm curious if it's really good that we we kill our completely social life and we wearing mask and all this stuff and the mainstream was uh Uh yeah had a very rough behavior against these people against these critical people and this is splitting the society for sure. Um you you said Germany was split as well.

[00:56:55]Yeah, it was uh like the DDR um the big wall and uh West and East Germany and uh yeah, we can see this behavior coming up again and again and uh very divided society is society which you can control more easy. I don't know if this is a big plan. I sometimes don't believe that because I don't think that they have so good skills to do so because if they have had skills like this they they were in the in the open market and would make a lot of money. So now they sucked the money out of the people. I I don't believe that they're really that clever. I think more the fear system is something like an organism which also creates a situations to live because he need that to live the system itself and everyone living in this system is uh is a part of the system. So when I build a house and I I take the loan from the bank, I create fiat money out of nothing for this or the bank did this for me. But I'm a part of this situation. So I don't have to feel bad for doing this because I just play the game and the reality we all in and but this shows how the system works and why it's so hard to get rid of the fiat system. Uh we all live in this reality in our fiat metrics, right? So, Bitcoin is a way out which comes automatically because people has more or or it's better for the people to save their money and their life into Bitcoin instead of credit system of the state and uh this turns out to be good for everyone even for the people working in the state like uh Christine Lagard and the central bank. I think finally she probably will become a bitcoiner if she living long enough. Yeah. And uh this maybe is something which will devalue the system from inside out and uh this makes bitcoin like a troan horse.

[00:59:12]>> Well, thank you Roman and we'll see you in June at BTC Prague.

[00:59:16]>> Yes, I'm looking forward to this and uh let's drink a water and a beer.

[00:59:21]>> Absolutely. Take care, brother.