06/07/13 – John Logan Jones – The Scott Horton Show

Okay, welcome back to the show.
I'm Scott Horton.
I'm sorry to cut off Pepe Escobar, and right when he was getting to what I wanted to talk about too, which I had forgotten, I brought up lesser points at the expense of this one about the Saudis and the Qataris and their role, and aren't they just sock puppets of the Americans, and aren't they just not very plausible deniability for the CIA and the Obama White House arming these Syrians, and what are their separate agendas, because Pepe has been really good at explaining, well, the Saudis prefer these Syrian factions, and the Qataris prefer these, and they're at odds with the Egyptians over those, and, man, good old Pepe, but I had to cut him off, but you know why?
It's because business is business.
This is a libertarian show, and we got to get to business, which means conflict of interest.
This isn't really a radio show.
This is some kind of infomercial sort of manipulative thing that you shouldn't even listen to or something like that.
Welcome to the show, John.
How are you doing?
Great, Scott.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Thanks for joining us, everybody.
It's John Logan Jones.
He is the co-founder of Rocky Mountain Miners, the currency mining hardware solution, rockymountainminers.com, and let's see.
First of all, we met back in 2000-and-something when I gave a speech at the University of New Hampshire about how everything wrong with the world is because of Woodrow Wilson.
How'd you like it?
It was great, Scott.
That's a very memorable time for me.
That's when I first got out of the Air Force and started getting into activism, so yeah, that was great.
I was glad to meet you then, and I'm glad that we've been able to keep in touch this way.
Good times.
What's funny is the YouTube of that speech, the aspect ratio is all messed up, so my head is even taller and skinnier in that footage than in real life, which it's already kind of that way anyway, and so it's sort of hilarious.
I look like the guy from the banking clan in Star Wars Episode 2 talking very bad about Woodrow Wilson, if anybody wants to take a look at that.
Well, speaking of banking clan, we've got a great opportunity here for your listeners to push back against these bankers and against Barack Obama's snooping of their personal lives.
Well, now, let's get right to that.
Give us kind of an overview, would you, of the cryptocurrency movement and what it is that we're talking about here?
All right.
Well, I'll just give you the quick synopsis.
I always throw at people for what cryptocurrency is.
The existing forms that are most popular right now, Bitcoin and Litecoin, and there's a handful of others, they can be easily understood as being a public accounting ledger.
This ledger is maintained by a distributed network of computers that anybody can lend computing power to, and you're rewarded for helping maintain the public ledger with new units of currency, which are essentially new space in the public accounting ledger.
What I'm doing with Rocky Mountain Miners is trying to make mining hardware more accessible to people who aren't, like me and my partner, big geeks.
For the last several years, if you wanted to get into cryptocurrency mining, it's largely been the domain of computer geeks and hackers and that sort of thing.
And so we want to make, with the product that we're offering, we're building miners that anybody can use.
When they get them in the box from us, they're going to be able to plug it into their internet connection and their power source and be able to start mining without having to do a whole lot of computer setup.
Right on.
Now see, I really like that part because I'm not a mathematician, and I'm not a computer hardware or software engineer genius type, but you're telling me that I could do this?
Yeah, yep.
And see, I like the idea of the mining of the new electronic currency because I guess it has to be inflationary up to a point.
And the reason people like the bitcoins, the reason libertarians like the bitcoins, and I don't know as much about litecoins, but I believe you've already instructed me it's basically the same setup, where there's a hard limit number of how many of these things will ever be inflated into circulation, and then that is it.
And so in neither case are they at that number yet.
But then who gets all the new bitcoins?
Does the guy who invented bitcoin, he gets them all first and gets to buy a new truck whenever he wants, or what?
But no, the answer is you gotta have a computer that cracks the math problem to so-called mine the new bitcoins into existence.
And then I guess the way you put it, what you're explaining to me, if I understood you right there, is that really in mining the new bitcoins, you're actually part of the network that makes bitcoins possible at all, and so in a sense, this is your reward for letting them use your bandwidth and hardware to help keep the network up, in a sense.
Yeah, you've got it, you got it exactly right.
And it's also, you know, for the listeners of this show, I think a part of bitcoin that's really interesting for these types is that it's a way to push back.
You know, we use digital currency every single day.
A lot of people, you know, get turned off by digital currency, but we already use it.
Less than 1% of the U.S. dollars exist in paper or coin format.
It's mostly all digital, you know, entries in the Federal Reserve's computers somewhere.
They're already using digital currency.
Difference is that this bitcoin is, anyone can access it.
Anybody can see how many bitcoins there are.
You know, anybody can help create new bitcoins, as opposed to the old system where it's controlled by a small cartel of people who get to, you know, keep secret the currency supply and that sort of thing.
So it's basically switching over from a secretive system to an open source public system.
And then on the other hand, it's anonymous too, right?
Or you could use bitcoins.
I mean, hell, I guess, you know, my IP address is no secret from the man, if he's looking.
But if I was one of these computer savvy types, I could actually use bitcoins and or litecoins in a way where it's completely anonymous, right?
Yeah, a better word for it is actually pseudonymous, like a pseudonym.
Because when you have coins, they're tied to an address.
And that address is a long string of letters and numbers.
So as long as you understand how the system works, you can hide behind the pseudonym of your address without having to, you know, have a credit card that they can look at under the Patriot Act and look what you're spending it on.
So pseudonymous is a better way to look at it.
And when used correctly, it is effectively anonymous.
Yeah.
Well, and it's going to keep getting more and more anonymous.
See, I just I'm kind of fascinated by the whole idea of this, because I always thought the cashless society was a scary thing where, you know, ultimately, like we're learning about with this NSA scandal, like we already knew, I'm keeping track of all of our all of our telephone data, and already all of our financial transactions that at least they're still cash, at least on the low end, you can still just take money out of the bank and then spend it where you want without having to account every penny that you spend to the state, you know, but then a cashless society would make it where like, no, basically, everything is trackable.
And if they're saving it all, they can always go back on you and bust you.
But then so what's so cool and exciting about it to me is that, well, it's not really like that.
This isn't an invention of the state to, you know, better throttle us.
This is an invention of those pushing back against it to get around their monopoly on currency.
And, you know, their networks of currency, their sources of capital that you may or may not be allowed access to and whatever.
And as you said, if you use it right, it's basically anonymous.
That sounds fine to me.
You know what I mean?
That sounds like cool.
It's like cashless society only without any of the scary part about it being a tool of totalitarian power.
You got it.
Right on.
Okay.
So now tell me about, well, first of all, tell me about the difference between bitcoins and litecoins.
And then let's talk a bit about, you know, and get into detail about the prospector here.
But first of all, talk about the difference between bitcoins and litecoins.
Okay.
Yeah.
The difference really isn't that much.
They both can be thought of the same way as being these public accounting ledgers that anybody can help maintain.
So that's the same.
The major difference between the two is the cryptography algorithm that they use to encrypt the blockchain, which is the ledger.
The blockchain is another name for this ledger.
So bitcoin uses what's called SHA-256 encryption.
And then litecoin uses what's called script encryption.
So that's one of the big differences.
And that's pretty immaterial to the user who's just, you know, mining and using the coin.
Another, one of the bigger differences, I guess I should say, is that the transaction times for litecoin are significantly faster.
So when I send you bitcoins, it takes about 15 minutes for the network to give me my first, what's called a confirmation of that transaction.
Whereas with litecoin, I believe that first confirmation comes in about two minutes.
So it's a little bit faster.
And so, you know, some people compare litecoin to bitcoin as silver to gold.
There's going to be four times as many litecoins as bitcoins, 21 million bitcoins, 84 million litecoins.
So those are some of the main differences between the two.
Okay.
And then on the difficulty of mining them, we talked a little bit about there are changes coming to computer technology, or there's changes coming to bitcoins that are going to make the prospector much more in tune with litecoins than bitcoins in the near future.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
So bitcoin's been around a little bit longer than litecoin.
It's obviously gained a lot more public notoriety and it's worth a lot more.
So one bitcoin is worth about $115 today, I think.
And then one litecoin is worth about $275-ish today.
So I'm sorry.
The question was along the lines of it's going to be soon more difficult to mine bitcoins.
Oh, right.
Okay.
So what's happened since bitcoin has been, you know, it's worth a lot more, there's a lot more incentive to develop hardware for it.
So what's happened with bitcoin is there's specialized hardware, they're called ASICs for application-specific integrated circuits.
So it's a chip that's designed specifically to mine bitcoins or similar cryptocurrencies.
That ASIC, that chip that's been developed for bitcoin is ineffective with litecoin.
It's because litecoin runs on that script algorithm that's different than bitcoin.
So for the next year or so, we expect that litecoin will be the coin of, or script-based currencies, I should say, will be the currency of choice for people who are mining with the hardware like we're selling at Rocky Mountain Miners, which by the way, is consumer hardware.
That's the beautiful thing about cryptocurrencies that anybody can do this.
You know, anybody can build a machine that's similar to the prospector.
What we do that's different is that we automate the hardware.
So all it does is take a push of a button to get started.
So, you know, some people don't know how to use command line and get in there and use root access to a machine to start installing software.
So we cut out all that part and we just make it easy for people to turn on the machine.
Right, okay.
Now, so in other words, this new chip that they're developing for mining bitcoins with, it's going to make it, on one hand, harder for your prospector to compete with the new chip in mining the new bitcoins, but also it's going to take all the people who are focused on the bitcoins away from the litecoins because that new chip is not going to be effective for the litecoins at all.
Whereas right now, what you've got, this prospector, is effective for both for the time being.
Right, yeah.
Mining both bitcoin and litecoin is profitable right now.
And we foresee that for, you know, we don't make any, give any financial advice or tell people, you know, whether they're going to make money mining.
It's a speculative venture.
You know, like I said earlier in the show, I just see this as a way to help people sponsor a node in the network by offering this product.
If they make money, that's great.
And I think they will.
I think these coins are going to appreciate in the future.
So hanging on to them is a good idea.
But yeah, the bitcoin folks, you know, they've got their specialized hardware now, and that's actually going to be a good thing.
It's going to make the network stronger.
It's going to make it, you know, more of a competitor on a global scale.
But we're just focused on helping people sponsor a node in their living room.
We just make a machine that's really easy to turn on and get started.
Hmm.
All right.
Now, well, you know, I already told y'all there's a conflict of interest and everything here, but I'm not one to pull punches.
I mean, it does in a way, it could sound like that sort of a cop out here by this thing.
Really, you're just helping fight the man.
It's not about turning the money around.
But on the other hand, I would say sure seems to me like there's reason to believe that this thing will pay for itself.
I guess I haven't done the math, but it'll pay for itself for too long.
And especially like you said, there's reason to believe that these things are going to appreciate in value in probably even just the near term future.
Hell, bitcoins were five bucks last summer when people started donating them to me.
And I wish I had told I wish I'd taken every donation I got and invested them in bitcoins, man, I'd be a millionaire right now or something.
Or I don't know, I didn't do the math on that either.
I'd be a thousandaire and that would be plenty.
So but yeah, I mean, look, nobody in the world's even heard of these things.
Just wait until the world knows about litecoins and you're telling me I can buy them up.
I can mine them up at, you know, two bucks a piece and and buy up more than that.
It seems to me like there's no point in even saying it that way.
It seems to me like maybe you can't put a definite date on it, but it seems like a pretty sure bet that this thing's going to pay for itself.
Yeah, it's something to keep in mind if you're going to look at, you know, the past history of mining is that this hardware does usually pay for itself.
People who have gotten into bitcoin and litecoin mining over the last few years, they've generally been able to pay off their hardware costs well within a year.
And if you have the hardware, when we see one of these run ups in prices, then you're making a good chunk of change if you're looking at it in dollar terms, because if you're in place with the hardware, when the price starts taking off, then the coins you're mining, you're still mining the same amount of coins, but they're worth a lot more.
So if you're the kind of mining, you know, there's different strategies to mining.
Some people like to cash out as they get them and get dollars, or you can sell your coins for gold and silver.
That's something else to keep in mind.
Somebody could be mining litecoin in their living room, and they can cash out through vendors like Amagi Metals or coinable.com.
They can cash out these cryptocurrencies for physical gold and silver.
So, you know, a lot of people say, uh, cryptocurrency is not backed by anything.
I don't like it because it's not backed by anything.
Well, it absolutely is, in my opinion, because you can convert any day of the week to gold and silver, uh, using cryptocurrency.
So, you know, right now, uh, the prospector makes about a hundred dollars a month, uh, in profit, um, depending on your electricity costs, and that's, you know, three or four ounces of silver that you could cash out, uh, from your cryptocurrencies if that's something you wanted to do.
Right.
Well, and the thing about, um, you know, backed by anything, that sort of, you know, implies that there's intrinsic value in gold, which there's not.
I mean, all value is subjective, just the same.
Traditionally, you know, for all of human history, people have valued gold at some price or another, and it's a pretty safe bet that they're going to in the future, too.
But then again, like we've been talking about, there's a reason to believe that people will value having Litecoins and Bitcoins over holding on to Federal Reserve notes, uh, for example.
Yeah, you know, gold and silver are great stores of value, but if you wanted to buy something, you know, for online, it's kind of tough to do with gold and silver.
Yeah, you gotta cash in for something.
A lot of people, uh, you know, talk about cryptocurrencies as being a complementary currency.
They think, you know, it's not intended to replace anything.
It's meant to be complementary.
So, you know, if you have gold and silver, um, but you want to buy stuff online, well, maybe it's a good idea to have a little bit of cryptocurrency that you can buy stuff online with.
But then if you wanted to, you could easily convert it into gold and silver.
Right.
Okay.
So this Prospector, how much does it cost and how do people get one?
And how do people learn more about it?
So our website is RockyMountainMiners.com, RockyMountainMiners.com.
And, uh, right now, we're retailing it for $1,495 plus shipping and handling.
Uh, but for listeners of this show, we have a promotional code, Scott Horton Show, one word, all caps, uh, that you can get $100 off, uh, your, your Prospector.
And, uh, we also, you know, if you want to contact us and you're interested in, you know, really getting into this and going beyond $1,500, you know, we're, uh, building stronger, stronger models.
We'll do custom model models as well that, you know, carry more weight.
It's, it's all relative to how much money you invest.
And, you know, the Prospector is the, you know, we call it our gold standard model.
It's the basic, you know, get started, turn it on and sponsor a note, uh, a model miner.
Right on.
And again, that's $100 off.
If you use the, the promo code Scott Horton Show, which seems like a pretty good deal.
Uh, if I had the money, I'd buy one.
Uh, it's an interesting thing.
I, I need to learn more about it, but I'm pretty sure that what's going to happen here, John, is that I'm going to hear from a lot of people about this.
Um, and hopefully you're going to hear from a lot of people about this.
Um, and, uh, and I'm going to end up, you know, hopefully there'll be a robust discussion about it and I'm going to learn more and more and, uh, hopefully we'll get rid of a lot of these things and then I'll be able to buy one from you.
Or maybe you'll make so much money that you'll just give me one.
And then I'll be able to come on the radio every day and tell you how many Litecoins I mined and see if we can get rid of even more than that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That'd be great.
That's the idea.
Okay.
Well, right on, man.
It's a, it's a hell of a good project.
It seems like to me.
And, uh, I sure hope you guys make a killing on it.
I sure hope that, uh, that people find this useful.
It's RockyMountainMiners.com.
The number is 855-355-MINE or email info at RockyMountainMiners.com.
That's 855-355-MINE or email info at RockyMountainMiners.com.
And, uh, that's, uh, John Logan Jones, uh, selling the prospector at RockyMountainMiners.com.
Thanks very much for your time.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on, Scott.