Monero + Voluntaryism: Why the Philosophy of Liberty Is Essential (Derrick Broze - Monerotopia 2026)

Next up, we have Derek Bros. He just finished hosting his own conference literally a week before this one. We collaborated on that, thought it'd be a good idea. I think we align very well in terms of our vision of what we think, the direction we need to move society towards. And I think Derek Bros. Does a great job at describing that. So without further ado, Derek Bros. Man, come take it away.

All right. You guys hear me? Okay, here's this. Is this loud enough? No.

Cool.

So some yes, some no. Okay, cool. So this is my third year at Monerotopia, so shout out to Doug and Sunita for all their work. I borrow this chair. I am not a dev, I'm not a coder. I'm not really anything on the technical side. I always come to Monerotopia to speak more as somebody, as an activist and as a journalist who's been in the freedom space for about 16 years and who has been out of the bank since 2008 and sees the value of things like Monero. So my, you know, my talk is more practical in terms of that. But today I actually wanted to focus on something a little different. And that is what I think. I think that there could be more effort made by each of us here, whoever considers themselves part of the Monero community. Whether you're watching online or hearing this later, I believe that there could be more effort made in order to make sure that the community surrounding Monero, not only the coders and the developers, but the people who use it, the people who believe in it, understand the philosophy of liberty and more specifically, the philosophy of voluntarism. Does that term mean anything to anybody in this room? Voluntarism? Maybe most people. Some people cool. And maybe some of you at home. So we're going to talk about that and I'll make my case for. Again, why? I think not to say Monero needs an official philosophy, but maybe it does. And I'll give some. Some ideas for why that might be necessary. So one thing about Monero is it is the idea of having a crypto, a tool that can be privacy built in, Privacy by default, right? And we can use it to avoid security systems and things that we don't like. At least that's why I use it. I use it to avoid the banks. And being in Mexico, it's pretty easy to go from Monero to Pesos if you know the right people and you have an economic community, which is, to me, the ultimate goal of this whole thing. And I know that we don't see as much of the the number go up and the shield one stuff going on in Monero community as opposed to Bitcoin and elsewhere. But I still do think that there are certain strands of people who support or abuse Bitcoin and by juice Panero who might not understand that what I can eat is the intrinsic value and the philosophy behind the philosophy of voluntary. So we know that Panera was all about privacy. People come to privacy for a number of different reasons. Some people come to privacy because they want to buy drugs. Okay. Some people come to privacy because they just think it's important. They don't have anything to hide, they never will do anything illegal, but they just understand the value of privacy. Who fits in that category? You just like privacy, you're not doing anything wrong, you're not hiding anything even. You just want to be private, right? I think that's probably a lot of people. So we all come to different avenues to get to the point where we say, look, I value this particular project Monero or Xeno or others that are around because I believe in privacy. But I want to ask you guys, is privacy the end goal? Is privacy enough? You know, is it enough to be a community of people who use this, this tool, which is what it is and we value privacy and that's, that's the end game Again, what I'm going to argue today, or make the case war is that that isn't enough. That I do believe along with privacy, that the respect for individual liberty, automated self ownership should also be the other cornerstone, the value of the Monero community. Otherwise you start to get people who use the product, use the tool, which anybody can use it. Of course I'm not saying ban the people who don't have the same values or principles, but if you don't have that core, that foundation, then sure, you get people who come into the Monero community or the broader crypto community, but they have principles, they're degenerates and somebody love that, in fact. So the question is, should there be dying for us Monero? Should we try to bring about more of a voluntarist movement within the Monero movement? You know, there's this idea. So I started using and being involved in the Bitcoin in 2012. Got my first transaction in 2013, went to Texas Bitcoin conference. That's where I'm originally from. And I was starting to report on it again as somebody who was very much inspired by the end the Fed movement, Ron Paul, we were using silver dollars back then and we were like, yeah, and The Fed and I first learned about agorism and Samuel Conkin iii, who knows about Conkin and his work, which basically inspired everything you're doing today, whether you know it or not. He was one of the first people back in the 70s, 60s, 70s and 80s in the libertarian movement in the United States who was saying, we're not going to win through politics and we're not going to win through violence. And instead we need to use counter economic system. So we need to create our own local economies outside of their hands, parallel institutions. And in many ways he predicted what would become bitcoin and others. He unfortunately died in 24. He didn't get to live to see any of this stuff, but he was predicting, like many people, computers were going to play a major role. And he was definitely kind of more of that cypherpunk mentality. So I discovered his work in 2011 as I'm waking up to the Fed. And I realized, well, the way we're going to defeat them if we ever could, is to stop using that system as much as possible and to put our energy into new systems. And then I heard about this thing called bitcoin. I was like, wow, maybe this is, you know, what, what we're after. Started going to bitcoin conferences, started reporting on it, started getting paid for my writing in bitcoin and learned all about it. And obviously fast forward today and bitcoin is not what it was in 2012, 2008, 2016 even. And the idea though, because I do go to bitcoin conferences sometimes to do reporting and interview people and it's definitely much more mainstream, it's way bigger, like say the bitcoin Nashville and all those kind of stuff. They got presidents and RFK and all these people. But how many of those people genuinely understand again, that sort of anarchist mindset that was originally behind Bitcoin? Maybe 5%. Yeah, he says zero. Maybe zero. I mean, definitely seems like that, right? And I, I feel more at home within this community, but even within this space, I think we could do more work. So if there's this idea that bitcoin is for everyone, right? You know, it's a. It's not about competing with the system anymore. It's just stock. It's just digital gold. It's just an investment, whatever. So. So if bitcoin is for everyone, then maybe Monero is for the principled people, for people who actually do care about privacy, and for people who actually understand that privacy and liberty are intrinsically tied together. You can look through history of Any major authoritarian movement of the last 200 years, and I'm sure even further back in history and today even. And when privacy goes, liberty goes pretty quickly behind it, right? Because if you're not free in your own mind, your own house and your own, you know, thoughts to organize and to think and to, to try to, you know, exercise your voice, then you're not free ultimately, right? So when privacy goes, which we know the state and states all around the world are working on every single day, then our liberties go very quickly after it. So just, just like that, that'll be our liberty, just gone in a moment. And so if we don't fight for, if we only focus on privacy, but not really recognizing how it's tied to our liberty, I think that maybe we'll be selling ourselves short. So what I'm arguing again is that Monero should be the place where people who are voluntarists, who recognize that all relationships should be voluntary, free of coercion, consensual, no matter how you say it, right? And most of us, when we study that school of thought, and without getting too nerdy on you guys, there's a voluntarist school of thought that started in the 70s and 80s. You can find it, I think, @voluntarist.net or.com it's still up. And then there's a voluntarist movement from like the 1800s. Some really brilliant thinkers who are all starting to ask these questions about the nature of government and our relationship with the state. And the state is one of those areas where you recognize that our relationship is anything but voluntary and consensual, right? Try to sever that relationship. Try to say, I don't want to pay your, your extortion fees anymore. And they send men with guns eventually. And eventually they take your and garnish your wages and all that fun stuff, right? So we are existing in an involuntary, non consensual relationship with the government, all of us around the world. And of course, people like us being digital nomads or crypto users or just freedom minded people, we try to learn how to navigate that and, and you know, get multiple passports or multiple bank accounts or just whatever it may be, we're all trying different strategies. I still believe that voluntarism should be your guiding light. Because the philosophy of voluntarism, again, it just simply means that all relationships should be voluntary and consensual. And when there's of course, more to it as you get deeper into it, but for the sake of today, that's what it comes down to. Right. And so if we're going to hold that as our guiding light, and I believe that would be a good thing for the Monero community. This means that as long as you're a person that doesn't use force, fraud or coercion against other people, you're a voluntarist. Whether you want to wear that hat or say, hey, I'm part of the club, you're already acting in that way. Does that describe anybody here, like, who generally tries to not use force, fraud, coercion in their relationships, who tries to only exist and voluntary relationships, like right now, this is a voluntary relationship. If you don't like what I'm saying, you can get up and walk away and you're free to do so. And that's great. Otherwise you're choosing to be here with me and we're, we're engaging with each other. Right? That's a voluntary relationship. And so I think that describes most of the human race. It's just when we start to get to government, people start to make excuses. Well, but I'm technically not funding the violence, it's just my tax dollars and I have to do that. Right. It gets a little more complex. But at the end of the day, if we strive towards that, towards promoting and building the voluntarist movement, which has already been burgeoning around the world, not only in North America, places like here in Mexico and the US and elsewhere, but I think the crypto community, and specifically the Monero community, who already are more principled, privacy oriented people, are prime for helping us grow this voluntarist movement. And so another part of the voluntarist ideal is, which I basically described is known as the non aggression principle. Who's heard of the non aggression principle? There's also the zero aggression principle. You know, different people have their own twist on it, but essentially it's what I just described. Other people might call it the golden rule. Basically, the thing we've been being told to since we were in kindergarten, treat other people the way you want to be treated. Again, things get a little more complex in real life, but that's what it really comes down to is you don't want to be ripped off. You don't want to be, you know, frauded or have violence used against you. Then don't do it to other people. And indefinitely don't go vote for government to do it, because that's just another way to get to the violence. The volunteerist movement is also about valuing individual liberty so this means that we don't have to all agree on everything. We can be voluntarists who are vegan and voluntarists who are carnivores and volunteers who are Christians and volunteers who are atheists and voluntarists who use Bitcoin and volunteerists who hate Bitcoin or whatever. Right? It's just that we agree that that foundational philosophy will guide our interactions and guide the way that we come together. Right? And the other cool thing I think about that is that so, for example, in the United States, most of the voluntarist movement sometimes gets tied into like anarcho capitalist and libertarian, American libertarianism and crypto, stuff like that. But even if that's not your jam, even if you hate the market and you're a communist or a socialist or whatever, technically you can still use Monero, right? You don't have to be a free market capitalist or, you know, individualist, anarchist or voluntarist. But even under that label of voluntarism, whether you like socialism, communism or capitalism, as long as you're not using force to force it on people, you're still welcome, basically, you know what I mean? So socialists can be part of the Monero community as long as you're not going to use force, fraud against me, capitalist, etc. And I know we can get into some finer debates there, but generally speaking, everyone who doesn't use force, fraud, coercion or violence against another person and understands the value of Monero and privacy, we're united on those principles. And I think if we make that the foundation, we can prevent the Monero crypto community and Internet community and real world community from becoming contaminated by a lot of the same pitfalls that I've seen happen to numerous other really kind of lofty ideal movements with good intentions that end up becoming corrupted. Because that foundation, it disappears. You know, it's like this constant battle in all movements, and I've read about this from other activists, that you have this effort to try to grow the movement as much as possible, right? We want as much Monero adoption as possible. We think it could change the world. But the rate at which you grow, it really determines how principled your movement is, right? Let's say there was 10,000 people here. But again with the bitcoin question I asked earlier, how many of them would actually be the ones to get the philosophy right? Maybe they just come here because it's a cool party and because it looks cool on Instagram, because they want to explore Mexico City or whatever, whatever so they're here. The numbers are there. But are the values there are the principles. There is the real core reason that this movement and this tool exists still there. So the other value that I believe is very much a big part of volunteerism is self ownership. So I believe each and every one of you own yourself. You own your person, your possessions, the things that you create, things that are freely, involuntarily and consensually given to you by other free people. And so because I believe that, because I believe in my own self ownership and I respect your self ownership, I don't violate it, right? It's all kind of tied together. The non aggression principle, individual liberty, self ownership. To me, these concepts all are core together, and those are things that go perfectly along with Monero and the use of Monero. So again, my argument is that if we could insert more voluntarist ideas and values, and even if for those of you who are hearing this and you're like, yeah, we're all voluntarists, maybe we all are. Like, we're these guys here with the anarchist shirt on, right? And some of us are the ones over here tripping on mushrooms too, there's that. You can do it, all right? As long as you're not harming anybody. You're not. No. Force, fraud, coercion, take your mushrooms. So what I'm guarding against, though, is the, the injection of strains of authoritarianism into the Monero community as well as the broader crypto community, right? Who in the world, and who in the Monero community could have a problem with the non aggression principle, with individual liberty, with self ownership? I'll tell you who. Authoritarians, groipers, Nazis, people who don't actually get what I think is the underlying value and who are just maybe some 20 something edgy kids on Twitter who think that, like, yeah, Hitler, and they're just trying to troll or whatever. Sure, be a troll if you like. It's fun, I get it. But for those of us who take things a little more seriously, I do think we should be on guard against authoritarianism from the right and the left, because an authoritarian might value privacy and see the use of Monero in one case, but that doesn't mean they respect your individual liberty, that doesn't mean they respect your free speech, that doesn't mean they won't on one hand use Monero, because, oh, I'm being censored on the Internet because I say the Jews are the problem and then turn around and want to use the boot of government against you. So how do we stay on guard against that? I think we make it clear that voluntarism, in my view, is the underlying philosophy that could guide the Monero community to a place that prevents that from happening. So, of course, authoritarians, as I said, they can be coders, they can be devs, they can be users, but they should be rejected, in my view, from the Monero community, because I don't think that really goes along with the philosophy. Sure, encourage adoption and use for everybody. Go ahead, Nazis, use Monero. Go ahead, authoritarians, use Monero. But how about making it clear? But that's not the philosophy we believe in our space is that in our space we respect individual liberty, we respect bodily autonomy, respect self ownership and those kinds of things. And.

Yeah,

And this really just, you know, as I'll start to wrap up here, this really brings us, you know, to thinking about. I get it. I mean, it's. It's Internet culture, I grew up with it, and just the gens, right. And how we all. Not, not me, but many of you have embraced that, you know, in crypto culture. And I get that it's a joke for many of you. I also think on a higher level, maybe even a spiritual level, if you're open to it, that referring to yourself or the community as degens, which is degenerates. And I think we understand what degeneracy means in reality, when we look at the world around us. Let's say, for example, Jeffrey Epstein, those are the degenerates, right. I don't think anybody here truly would want to say, no, I'm one of them. I'm the one going to the island and doing all this crazy stuff. No, that's degeneracy. So why would we want to ascribe that to our movement or to ourselves? I believe there's a higher calling, and part of that is bringing in voluntarism, bringing in concepts like natural law, morality, and recognizing that Monero using it, it's a moral action. Because you're saying the state. I'm not going to use your institutions, I'm not going to participate in that violence, I'm not going to pay your taxes in the genocide that you're funding. I'm going to do something that I know isn't right within me and within natural law and within the creator, I'm going to do that. To me, that's a huge thing that we're choosing to do, whether you see it the same way or not. But I just want to encourage you guys to think about that think about how using, choosing to use tools and technology like Monero and others who are similarly aligned and fighting for that privacy is also a moral action. It's in line with natural law, it's in line with volunteerism. And I believe if we fight for those principles and we keep growing the Monero community, we'll be headed in the right direction. Thank you, guys. I'll mention one more thing. I don't know how much time I actually got. Oh, shit. Okay, that went faster than I expected. Okay, well, I wanted to mention one other thing I have on one other note. So again, for those who don't aren't familiar with my work, I will have a table over there if you want to come check out my books or shirts and stuff. I'm here today, tomorrow and Saturday. My work does largely focus on what I just described, natural law, volunteerism, but also what I've come to call exit and build. Has anybody heard that phrase, exit and build in the last couple years? It's starting to get out there more and more around the world, which is cool. And it was very much inspired by Samuel Conkin, what I mentioned earlier. Agorism, building parallel institutions, counter economics, counter and parallel economies. I've got a book called how to Opt out of the Technocratic State you can find at my table, or you can download it for free@the consciousresistance.com howtotheconsciousresistance.com howto and so, along with promoting volunteerism and natural, I promote this exit and build strategy. And you're going to hear, I think, probably more about similar ideas from Aaron coming up. Make some noise for Aaron Day, everybody. Stick around for his talk. And so everything that I do in my life is all kind of guided by everything I just described here. Natural law, volunteerism, and also trying to use this exit and build strategy to get to that better world that I think is possible. I, as I said earlier, I didn't come into crypto because I was trying to get rich into bitcoin. I believed it was originally, this is the way we're going to end the Federal Reserve. And this is the movement that I believed in where fighting to overthrow this system that's been enslaving, you know, the, the United States and the central banking system that's been enslaving humanity. I take it very seriously. And so when I later discovered Monero and then saw the flaws within Bitcoin, I felt like this is what I've been looking for. And in other projects and people out there who are trying to create that infrastructure. We need those of you in the tech tech area and those who are devs and coders to be helping build the tools that people like me can then go out from a stage and say, hey guys, check out this new cool tool. They're doing the awesome thing. We need that piece of the puzzle we've been looking for for they're creating it. So shout out to everybody who is doing that sometimes behind the scenes work to build the infrastructure that we desperately need. I again want to remind you though that Monero and the digital tools are really just one piece of the puzzle that I believe we should take a holistic exit and build strategy. And I'll just mention a few things about that. I talked about this last year, but I'll just recap it briefly. What I mean by that is, yes, not using government currency when possible is a step in the right direction. Yes, avoiding the banks when possible is a great step and I encourage everybody to do that. And at the same time, if we have all the Monero in our wallets as possible, and we've got, you know, these other digital tools set up, but then at the same time, we're still dependent on their food systems, or we're still dependent on their education systems, or we're still dependent on their governmental systems, then we're still not free, right? So I encourage you to think about this in a holistic fashion. Start to look at different sectors of your life. You've already got the crypto, the finance, you're kind of thinking about that Defi, Monero, Zano, darkfi, other projects, right? But then start to see the other ways which you might be dependent on these current systems. And if a collapse was to happen, or somebody asked earlier about a Carrington event, or whatever sort of things people are expecting in the near future, how would you be doing in that situation? Would you be thriving? Would you be surviving or would you be barely making it? Right? And I think the answer to that question is directly related to how dependent you are on these current systems, right? Because if you're sitting pretty and you're like, I'm growing my own food, I got a piece of land, I'm raising my family here, I got all the Monero I need, I've got tools and skills. You're probably a lot less stressed than the person that is completely dependent on the current system, right? So I just want to invite you guys to think about this, that Monero is one piece of the puzzle in a broader holistic effort to exit and build from unsustainable, unprincipled, wasteful and destructive systems in the hopes that we can exit from them and then build new ones that will last for our generation and for the coming seven generations ahead. All right,

cool.

I can. If there's any questions, I'll take some questions. If not, thank you for having me here. Appreciate you. Oh,

any questions?

Come on, it's all good. No worries. Come on. Okay, here we go. Yeah. Paul, give it up for Edge. How the hell do you do communism without force? That's a good question, right? I'm not a communist, so I wouldn't know. But they swear that there's a way to do it. No, I mean, there, there. I think there are ways to use what people commonly understand is communism. Because their argument would say, how do you do capitalism without force? Right? Because I think the problem is state communism, state capitalism, state socialism, when it becomes forced on people. But let's say, like the five or six of us, if we just formed a group and we decided to have communal resources or something like that, you know, we might run into some problems eventually. But as long as we're all voluntary there and, you know, nobody's forcing you to be there, you can leave when you want, then technically you could call that voluntary communism. You know, it probably would only work in smaller settings. But if you want to learn more about that, my brother Kenny's got an awesome machine. Right, Kenny? What's it called? Yeah. Yep. Okay.

Yes, sir, I'd like to escape from isms, Communism, capitalism. I think the problem is deeper. It's our psychology, our human nature, which is tribal, which is deep in our subconsciousness. And my question is, do you think our human nature is compatible in general, for 95% of our human society with the ideas that you. I love your ideas, but how. How? Well, they're supported by our human nature that we can change.

Gotcha. So he's saying, you know, he has problem with isms, which I think many of us do it again, I'm not trying to say here's another ism, but it's the way humans describe ideas and philosophy, right? And his question was, does. Do I think that 95 of humanity is even ready for these kind of ideas? And the answer may be no. You know, I don't. I'm not a person who thinks that we need to wake up the entire world in order to. To win. There's this idea that made many revolutions, including the American Revolution, have just been like 3% or less of the population or. Right. That. Because I think we probably could point to different people in our lives that are just the type of people. I don't want to use derogatory terms, but sometimes get called normies or what I mean by that when I say that is somebody who just goes along the latest trend. Right. Whatever the hot thing is, that's what their Facebook profile is. Or they go to the mainstream movies, they listen to the mainstream music, they listen to the mainstream conversations. And their whole worldview is kind of informed by that. Right. And they don't really appear to have a thought for themselves. I think the majority of human humanity is fully 100 capable of choosing sovereignty. I do believe that is within each of us. I think there's a seed of that within each of us. And we're also facing the largest apparatus of propaganda, narrative, shaping that humanity's ever seen with the Internet, with, you know, intelligence, operation, all kinds of things. So I try to have some empathy for why people aren't here. Right. And aren't considering these ideas. And yet you could be true that maybe. You know, I don't. I don't know how to say this without it being like we're the enlightened ones, because I think that's just another trap, right? We've got it all figured out. Everybody else is a bunch of sheep. That doesn't help anything. But maybe there are certain situations that prevent people from getting to that point. In my other work, I didn't talk about this today because I don't want to give you guys a whole different lecture, but my main website is called the Conscious Resistance. I wrote a book called the Conscious Resistance Trilogy. And the sort of underlying idea of that is that in order to create the better world that we're all after, yes, we need to expose the physical machinations of government and corporations and all that stuff. And that's a piece of the puzzle. But the other side is confronting what I call your own internal tyrant. Your doubts, fears, insecurities, and limiting beliefs and traumas which prevent us, I believe, from becoming the best versions of ourselves. So like you said, it's the psychology. I absolutely think that's part of it. Yes, we can have Monero. We can have all these tools, but if we're all still fucked up inside and we're not working on our trauma and shit, then we're probably just going to cycle back. It might take a couple of generations, and then we're going to become the same thing we were fighting. So to me, ultimately, this is a spiritual battle.

Not that I disagree with you. But I would like to possibly point to some deeper problems. Our human nature is hard coded in us, right? It's not software that you can download or change. I'm talking about genetic disposition of us as human.

What about epigenetics?

Not epigenetics. Genetics I said. Right.

Epigenetics shows that our genetics aren't static.

I am aware of molecular biology. That's maybe too deeper discussion. But at the moment I just try to voice my doubts that we can change our human nature. And the status games, the control games, people dying to control other people's. So it seems like you implied that that can be changed by narratives, by education. My concern again, I don't want to. To bring up.

It's all right to have it a different.

Just. Just to share my own deepest fears.

Right.

We can change it.

Thank you.

That's my feeling.

Thank you. Thanks for being here guys. Appreciate you. Thanks to everybody on streamyard and at home watching.

Hey Derek, been a big fan for a long time, kind of from afar. What are some like 1% efficiencies that you would suggest for us to depending on where people are on their journey, kind of exit and build, move out of each of these systems. Maybe it's kind of a too big of a thing, but just look for people who are trying to get one step further along the journey.

Sure.

What would you say?

What was your name, brother?

Cj.

Good to meet you man. Thank you. So yeah, the question was some ideas on people, you know, if you're just getting started on exit and build. Right. Like maybe some steps to take. I actually created a free 45 day exit and build challenge on my website for this purpose and it is 100 free. There's no nothing, you know, behind it. Theconsciousresistance.com EXB as an exit. Build exit, build EXB. It's a 45 day challenge. Basically the idea of doing do one of these a week. So like it's. I think it starts out with finances. Talks about the banking system, talks about Monero. And I basically go through each of these areas. We talk about finances, we talk about food, we talk about digital technology, how to get off, you know, big tech, browsers and apps and all the different things and all the different tools that are available to us. Talk about education, talk about travel, land, all different pieces like that. So I would encourage people, if you're just at the beginning or even if you're maybe already on this journey and looking for, for some more Ideas, try the 45 day exit and build challenge and actually do it. You know, actually pick a date that you're going to start on and then see what you can accomplish in that first week. Because every week basically I say here's the problems, here's the solutions, here's some homework to try, you know, do it. See what you can do in a week. Like some of them is okay, let's say you are like the majority of humanity living in a city or the suburbs and somewhere and you're completely dependent on the grocery stores and you want to take a step away from that. You want to start to exit from that system and build something better. You could volunteer at a community garden, you could volunteer at a community supported agriculture, an urban farm. And I'm not saying everybody needs to turn into a farmer or anything like that. I think there's great value in it for sure. But even just giving yourself that experience of going to a local place where there is food being grown and getting your hands in the soil and just putting in that time for a couple of hours, even in just a couple of hours, you will learn. And if you imagine if you made time for that once a week, two hours on a weekend, in a month you've got eight hours of new knowledge. You know, in a year you just like you're stacking up new information, learn about permaculture, learn about these types of tools and ideas that are widely available. And the cool thing about the Internet, you know, one of the valuable things as we know there's so much free information out there. So I would just do that, start to look at the different areas I also talk about in one of my other books, taking a holistic self assessment. And what I mean by that is so maybe your crypto Monero game super strong. And so obviously you don't need to worry about that right now. But then start to look at the other areas of your life where you feel like, yeah, I'm kind of, you know, I'm stuck in the bank still though, or I'm super dependent in this area or I don't have much skills in this department and start to strengthen those areas. Because as far as I'm concerned, what we witnessed during COVID 1984 was them showing these psychopaths, showing their hands that where they're going to attack us. And what they tried to do was to isolate us. They tried to make it hard to get food and access to food. Unless you had a shot or you had a mass. They, you know, they start try to control travel and things like that. So we can see these different attack vectors and I think we should take note of that and seek to strengthen those in our own lives.

Fantastic. We, we've still got ten more minutes, so. I mean, you got the stage, Derek.

What else is there? Another question. I saw some other hand. If not, I'm just gonna plug all my stuff. We can do both.

One more in Spanish.

So how to, how to function? You talking about using Monero but functioning with it, still using the banks, using paying taxes. Stop paying taxes if you can. That's the first step. And you can. I didn't say that. That was just a tip I heard from somebody. If you want to follow it, it's all up to you. Did you ever use local Monero? No. You know, but you know what local Monero is? Who here used local Monero before it went down? Yeah, so one of the cool thing, I was mentioning this earlier. One of the cool things about in local Monero in Mexico is you can do the effectivo sink on the atm. So you could send somebody, however amount of monero, say 10,000 pesos and they send you the code and you go to the atm. You don't have to have a bank account or anything. If you want to wear a hat and be super incognito, you can do it because there's probably a camera there, but you don't have to show id. You put it in the code, they go and then you get your money. And that still happens, that still works. Of course, now it's just about the peer to peer economy, which is where crypto in my mind should always be anyways, right? Like it's great we have digital tools, but when you have friends in your own community that you can go to and say, hey guys, I need to sell some Monero for pesos and you do a trade. So there is definitely still that counter economic system working here in Mexico. And that's what I use. Like whenever I need to pay for rent or somebody who doesn't take Monero, I will cash out, you know, or I'll, you know, move assets around and, and I have some context and I'm sure you could find some lovely people here who would be willing to become a part of your counter economic circle. And for me, the more you're moving your money into that, whether Monero or something else, the less the government's going to know anyways. And it might be slightly different here in Mexico compared to the US where I'm from, but generally speaking, in my experience, if you don't talk to the government and you don't fill out their paperwork, you're a lot less likely to be in trouble because then you're not committing fraud of making, you know, saying, I make this much, but you actually make this much. If you just don't talk to them as much as possible, then you're in a better position. Of course, I live in Morelia, and I would love to work with anybody who does live in Mexico on, for example, the, the biometrica, the freaking Internet ID they're trying to pass and all this stuff, because to me, that's another part of this problem we're facing, right? It's not only the banks, it's the Internet ID and all that. And that's happening in places around the world. So I want to work with anybody, yourself and others, like, how do we create systems? And David, raise your hand, brother. This is one of the epic brothers here who's brilliant and is working on some of these ideas. So everybody who lives in Mexico, and we want to work on the counter economic system, let's work together. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate you. Come see me at my table. Thank you, Derek.

That was fantastic. And I'll give a plug for the people's reset. That was a fantastic event. I went to that this year and for the first time. And thank you very much for running that.