Ethereum vs Bitcoin: Why Ethereum Leads the Crypto Landscape

Name: Why Ethereum Could Matter More Than Bitcoin – Tom Wheelwright, Matthew Leising
Uploaded: 2026-01-31T23:15:41.907497+00:00
Channel: The Rich Dad Channel
Description: Summary and key takeaways on Ethereum vs Bitcoin: Why Ethereum Leads the Crypto Landscape, covering Introduction The Wealth Build Show shifts focus from

The Rich Dad Channel

Jan 31, 2026

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4 min read

YouTube video ID: kiII6_Q6NWM

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Introduction

The Wealth Build Show shifts focus from Bitcoin’s price swings to the broader crypto world, spotlighting Ethereum as the leading platform beyond Bitcoin. Guest expert Matt Lysine, author of Out of the Ether, shares his journey from Bloomberg financial journalism to becoming a blockchain authority.

Matt Lysine’s Background

Financial journalism roots – Started at Bloomberg in 2004 covering Wall Street, futures, and derivatives.
Crisis‑driven insight – Covered the 2008 financial crisis, OTC derivatives, and the Dodd‑Frank reforms, which sparked his interest in market‑structure innovations.
Blockchain awakening – A 2013 Economist article on blockchain revealed the trust‑less ledger concept, linking his Wall‑Street experience to the potential of distributed ledgers.
From Bitcoin to Ethereum – Initially skeptical of Bitcoin (seen as a tool for illicit activity), he recognized the underlying blockchain’s value and later embraced Ethereum for its programmable capabilities.

Bitcoin: Digital Gold

Purpose – Designed as a peer‑to‑peer, permission‑less digital cash (Satoshi’s vision).
Supply – Fixed cap of 21 million BTC, giving it a scarcity similar to gold.
Functionality – Primarily a store of value and medium of exchange; the blockchain records only transactions.
Strengths – Robust, censorship‑resistant, widely recognized as a global payments network.

Ethereum: The Global Computer

Creator – Vitalik Buterin, a Bitcoin enthusiast who realized Bitcoin’s blockchain couldn’t support complex logic.
Smart contracts – Allows developers to write self‑executing code (if‑then‑else) that runs on a decentralized network.
Use cases – Token creation, decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, automated bonds, supply‑chain tracking, property titles, and virtually any programmable agreement.
Supply model – No hard cap; however, recent EIP‑1559 upgrades burn a portion of transaction fees, creating a deflationary pressure when network activity is high.
Developer ecosystem – Largest number of active developers; most new blockchain projects launch on Ethereum.

Competition and Scalability

Solana – Offers 10,000‑50,000 TPS (transactions per second) but sacrifices decentralization; has experienced network outages.
Ethereum’s roadmap – Ongoing upgrades (e.g., the recent “Fusaka” fork) aim for 100,000 TPS, improving speed while preserving security and decentralization.
Trade‑off – Faster chains often compromise on decentralization or security; Ethereum prioritizes a balanced, trustless environment.

Economic Comparison: Gold vs. Silver Analogy

Bitcoin ≈ Gold – Limited supply, pure store of value.
Ethereum ≈ Silver – More abundant, multiple industrial (financial) uses, and a lower price per unit.
Market perception – Despite a ~30× price gap (BTC ~$90k vs ETH ~$3k), many argue the gap is too wide given Ethereum’s utility and institutional adoption (Visa, Stripe, banks).

Adoption Barriers

Speed & usability – Current transaction throughput is modest; user‑friendly wallets and stablecoins are needed for everyday payments.
Incumbent resistance – Title companies, banks, and other intermediaries may block blockchain adoption to protect existing revenue streams.
Regulatory clarity – Ongoing legal developments will shape how corporations integrate blockchain.

Future Outlook (Next 5 Years)

Enterprise integration – Corporations and financial institutions are increasingly adopting blockchain for efficiency and global reach.
Stablecoins – Provide a low‑volatility bridge for payments, exemplified by JPM‑Coin.
Scalability breakthroughs – If Ethereum reaches 100k TPS, a surge in DeFi, gaming, and real‑world asset tokenization is expected.
Long‑term relevance – Like the internet after the dot‑com bust, blockchain may experience cycles of hype but will persist as foundational infrastructure.

How to Learn More

Read Out of the Ether – Matt’s deep dive into Ethereum’s human story and technical evolution.
Follow decentral.io – The media outlet co‑founded by Matt covering blockchain innovators.
Stay tuned to Wealthability Show – Ongoing analysis of crypto, tax strategies, and wealth building.

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin remains the premier digital store of value, but Ethereum offers a programmable, decentralized platform that powers the majority of modern blockchain applications.
Scalability and user experience are the main hurdles; once solved, Ethereum’s adoption could accelerate dramatically, potentially narrowing the value gap with Bitcoin.
Institutional interest is growing, and stablecoins are bridging the volatility gap, making blockchain a viable tool for global finance.

Ethereum’s smart‑contract platform makes it the engine of today’s crypto ecosystem, and as scalability improves and institutions adopt the technology, its real‑world impact—and value—are set to expand far beyond Bitcoin’s role as digital gold.

Frequently Asked Questions

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How to Learn More

- **Read *Out of the Ether*** – Matt’s deep dive into Ethereum’s human story and technical evolution. - **Follow decentral.io** – The media outlet co‑founded by Matt covering blockchain innovators. - **Stay tuned to Wealthability Show** – Ongoing analysis of crypto, tax strategies, and wealth building.

Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

Out Of The Ether Matt Lysine Paperback Recommended

Provides an in‑depth, human‑focused history of Ethereum and its creation, helping readers understand the technology and its market potential

Amazon →

Ethereum: The Definitive Guide Physical Book

Offers a comprehensive technical and practical overview of Ethereum, ideal for investors and developers seeking to grasp its capabilities and future roadmap

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Full Transcript YouTube

Lots in the news about Bitcoin uh prices
going up, going down. Um what's going to
happen? Are they going to go down more?
Are they going to go up more? Nothing in
the news about Ethereum and other
cryptocurrencies. So, we've talked about
Bitcoin before on the Wealth Build Show.
Today we're going to talk about the
other cryptocurrencies, in particular,
Ethereum, just because it it is uh
certainly the leader of the other
cryptocurrencies. Um certainly from a
pricing standpoint and we have an expert
with us today on the Wealth Buddy Show,
Matt Lysine. Matt, really, really good
to have you on the show today.
>> Oh, thanks Tom. It's really a pleasure
to be here and thanks for asking me to
come on. So Matt's the author of Out of
the Ether, the amazing story of
Ethereum. Um, and the $55 million heist
that almost destroyed it all. So, we're
not going to get too deep into that, but
u Matt, if you would give us a little of
your background, why um you you seem to
have specialized in uh Ether and
Ethereum and uh kind of what what's that
background? What got you into that? Why
aren't you a Bitcoin expert instead of
an Ethereum expert? Yeah, that's a great
question. Um, so it comes from my
background as a financial journalist.
Um, I began, uh, I got hired by
Bloomberg News in 2004 in New York City
to start writing about Wall Street and
finance. Um, I sort of made my way, um,
through a bit of a serotious
route um, to kind of market structure
and this is like how markets work in the
United States. Um, I started in the
derivatives market where I was covering
futures exchanges like the New York
Merkantile Exchange where oil and gold
futures are traded. Then I expanded into
the Chicago exchanges where you've got
financial products like US Treasury
bills. Um, the dollars held overseas
known as Euro dollars. Those are futures
products. And so this is a whole area
that I had nothing I knew nothing about.
But um it's got a huge market structure
component to it because there's um
there's like clearing and the banks are
involved and there's brokers and there's
obviously the buy side with you know
hedge funds and insurance companies and
um agriculture companies and all that
sort of stuff. So I started kind of
dipping my toe into how those markets
work. Um I expanded a little bit into
then like US treasury markets like for
cash bonds and how the treasury market
works. Then the financial crisis of 2008
happened and everything hit the fan and
it turned out the market structure was
kind of a big deal coming out of that
crisis because one of the problems in
the financial crisis was the um
over-the-counter derivatives market
which had um was unregulated. And so now
coming out of the crisis they wanted to
regulate how over-the-counter swaps
traded. And I was sort of that's what I
had been writing about for a couple of
years. So I kind of like I was in a good
position to write about that. So
DoddFrank came about which was the US
law that was going to change all of you
know the financial financial world to
make sure that another financial crisis
didn't happen again title seven related
to swaps and so I was into that for
quite a few years after the crisis um
into about 2010 2012 or so you know as
now in the same period of time Bitcoin
had been released and was in the wild um
it started trading in 2009 I didn't get
it for for several years I just thought
it was, you know, vaporware. I thought
it was ones and zeros. How can that have
any value? Um, so it didn't hit me at
first, but then um after a little while
I read something in the economist about
the blockchain, and that was like, wow,
okay, that was the light bulb moment for
me because now I understood that what
made Bitcoin possible was the
blockchain, which is in essence a
network of computers that are spread all
over the world. And what they do is
maintain a ledger of blockcoin, bitcoin.
So every time a bitcoin is sold or
bought, it's recorded on the ledger.
Every computer on the network updates to
make sure that the ledger is accurate.
And that's what allows for a trustless
environment. So you can trade Bitcoin
with somebody in Argentina. You don't
need to know who they are because you've
got this network of computers that's
making sure that the transactions are
valid. If they're not valid, the
transaction gets killed and you don't
trade. So with that knowledge, I'm like,
"Oh, wow. Wall Street is just like that.
It's a network. It's all all these guys
are connected by computers. there's
you've got the banks, you've got the
hedge funds, you've got pensions, you've
got, you know, insurance companies,
you've got uh broker dealers and all
that stuff. And I'm like, if if they're
on a network to begin with and then like
there's this, you know, Bitcoin network
that's working, blockchain could
probably come to Wall Street and
revolutionize the way that transactions
are managed and it could cut down on the
time. It could cut down on how um errors
are made in the system. And so that's
where I sort of like said, "Okay, I
think I should start covering blockchain
as part of the market structure beat
that I'm doing at Bloomberg News." Um,
at first my editors like, "What the heck
is a blockchain?" But, you know, they
they came along and it, you know, it
kind of bore fruit um because that's
what Wall Street was working on. It was
this idea that if they got into a
network and they were all connected um
in a horizontal way rather than these
silos like these vertical silos that
banks have built around themselves,
right? So they could in a horizontal
fashion like a flat kind of
architecture, all of a sudden they could
be um confirming and you knowing
transactions w in minutes rather than in
hours or days. So, I just thought that
that was like a huge potential and um so
Wall Street was kind of working on that
and that's that's how I got into it. Um
Bitcoin never came into the equation um
because Wall Street didn't really want
to touch Bitcoin back in those days. It
was seen as um something that was used
by drug dealers and criminals and um it
was completely unregulated. You had the
scandals of like Silk Road uh with Ross
Ulrich and a lot of other things had
happened. A lot of hacks like the Mount
Gaus exchange hack and it was just seen
as just you know poison. So
Wall Street didn't want anything to do
with Bitcoin but they like the idea of a
blockchain. And so that's sort of the
the dichotomy of of why I didn't become
an expert in Bitcoin but I did become an
expert in blockchain. And then um a few
years later, I think 2015 is when
Ethereum came around. And so that was
the next step.
Okay. So let's talk about the
differences between Ethereum and
Bitcoin. So we've talked about Bitcoin
before on the wealthy show. Bitcoin is
uh really in my mind just a token.
That's all it is. As has a very single
it has a single use. It its only uses as
a token just like uh just like frankly
gold. its only use is as um an exchange
of value because it doesn't do anything.
Okay, so Bitcoin is you know people talk
about Bitcoin is digital gold. It's not
a stable in its pricing but it's got the
same idea that doesn't do anything but
and it's a very limited supply. Bitcoin
has very limited supply. So, talk about
the differences between Bitcoin and
Ethereum. And it's really I'm I'm going
to use Ethereum
um because people know Ethereum a little
better, but it's really Ethereum and
everything else u frankly um because
Bitcoin is unique in its in it in its
structure. Um and so how do you
differentiate those and why is it and
then we'll talk about why is it that
Ethereum doesn't move up and down? um as
in in pricing in value as much as
Bitcoin,
>> right? Yeah, I agree with you. Um
Bitcoin is good at one thing and it's
really good at it and that is being um a
digital form of cash. That's that's
exactly what Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in
the white paper. He wanted an electronic
um permissionless form of cash and
that's what Bitcoin became. So it is
seen as a unit of value. Um it is now
what was created and what has um
propagated since 2009 is a global global
payments network that anyone can access
from anywhere in the world that can't be
censored by banks or corporations or
governments. So that's incredibly
powerful. You you know prior to this you
had to go through a bank, you had to go
through Western Union, you had to go to
somebody, you had to have an
intermediary if you wanted to send money
anywhere around the world. Now with the
Bitcoin network you can send it to
anybody peer-to-peer anytime you want.
So that to me is more than enough reason
for it to exist and more than enough
reason for it to have value. Whether
it's worth $91,000 right now, I'm not
going to opine on that. But it has a
value in my opinion. It is not it is not
useless. It is not vaporware. It is not
a Ponzi scheme like a lot of people are
still saying to this day. So
it does that really well because it was
built to do that really well and it's a
very lean blockchain um protocol. It
doesn't have room for other bells and
whistles, right? So it it just moves the
Bitcoin and it keeps track of the ledger
and that's what it does. And like you
mentioned, it has a cap on 21 million
Bitcoin that will only ever be released
into the world. So that's another
function of it that people like that
that there is a supply limit. So with
that being, you know, the the inventor,
the creator of Ethereum is a guy named
Victalic Buterine and he was a huge
Bitcoin fan and wrote about it for
Bitcoin magazine. uh was really um taken
by the technology um because it involved
you know crypto cryptography and it
involved finance and it was just
something that really caught his
attention. He tried to change like he
tried to like kick the tires with the
Bitcoin blockchain and see if he could
like do the things that he wanted to do
with it like the what he had in his mind
as the vision but he realized pretty
quickly that he couldn't. So he knew he
had to build a new type of blockchain
and that's where Ethereum was born. And
what Ethereum does is it uses the same
concept of the Bitcoin blockchain where
it's a global network of computers that
verify and check every transaction and
keep track of it on the ledger. It's
immutable. You can't change it. Nobody
can censor it. But what it what Ethereum
did was it now allowed instead of just
like moving Bitcoin from point A to
point B. Ethereum allowed you to write a
a computer code and write a program,
basically a script, and you could um
write this program, what's known as a
smart contract, and then put it and
launch it out onto the Ethereum
blockchain. Um, so
that opened the door for you to do
almost anything on a blockchain. And I
know so before I get ahead of myself,
that that's the promise, right? That
that is the breakthrough of Ethereum was
that now all of a sudden you could do
almost anything you wanted because if
you think about it almost any contract
or agreement or function can be put into
code and written as a script of a if
then XYZ you know like you can have a
bond that is encoded into a smart
contract. So you somebody buys the bond
and you have an interest payment that's
due every month and it's x amount and
the all of that will be written in the
code and it will live on the Ethereum
blockchain and it will send out requests
for payment you know or and if you don't
make your payment then you default on
the bond and everything is encoded and
the bond is no longer yours and it's
taken back and so this sort of
automation of of finance or of other
aspects of um you know industry
was was the huge breakthrough. Um it was
like I wrote about in my book um it was
sort of like Vitalic and the people who
created Ethereum were giving you a
canvas um with the blockchain and you
could put anything you wanted on that
canvas as long as you were able to write
a smart contract that could you know go
and live on the um Ethereum blockchain.
So it was a huge um step forward uh in
in this technology. One of the first
things that was um created were you know
you can now with a few lines of code
create your own cryptocurrency and
that's where all of the altcoins came
from all the
>> so they all came off of the Ethereum
blockchain
>> they they began with the Ethereum
blockchain for sure and when we talk
about blockchain and what it does in
culture or finance or commerce we really
are talking about Ethereum if if
Ethereum wasn't hadn't come about none
of this would have you know that's the
beginning of it all. Um, other
blockchains have come along like Salana
and a few others that have improved upon
some of the uh functions that Ethereum,
you know, has. They've improved on the
speed or they've improved on um the
security, but none none of them have
really captured what Ethereum has
captured in in totality. And that's why
it remains um the most active blockchain
and that's why it has the most
developers and that's why um pretty much
everything you know while there's a lot
going on the big stuff is always
happening on Ethereum and that's
>> so like like most of the smart contracts
most of the most of that kind of stuff
is happening on Ethereum.
>> Yeah. I I mean you're starting to
definitely see um you know like Salana
is is very fast um but it's not
decentralized the way that Ethereum is.
It's in fact Salana has gone down
several times and needed to be
restarted, which
>> if you're a blockchain enthusiast,
that's the last thing you want to hear
is that somebody's in control of that
blockchain and can like kick it, you
know, and like restart it. Um, Ethereum
in its in its history of what 13 14
years now has never gone down, which is
quite amazing. Um, it's very robust in
that way. The problem is it's not very
fast. Um it it is working on becoming
quicker in terms of the amount of
transactions per second that it can
handle. Um but it it is a slow process
and uh they are trying to do that. They
keep having upgrades. The last one was
Fusaka which was a couple months ago
that is helping to improve it. Um but in
terms of the the safety and the
scalability and the um reliability uh of
a blockchain and the decentralized
nature which is is key here, Ethereum's
got all of those attributes going for
it. [snorts] So so Ethereum does a lot
more than Bitcoin does. Basically uh you
know I look at blockchain I I think that
the the the the miracle of blockchain
frankly uh from my point of view is it's
triple entry accounting right you have a
debit credit and you have an audit um
because every transaction is audited by
every other transaction right so every
every computer on the blockchain is
auditing that transaction make sure
making sure it's right um which I think
is the beauty of uh of of Ethereum and
and you know the the whole blockchain in
the first place. So, but one of the
things that is different between Bitcoin
and Ethereum is that uh Ethereum doesn't
have a limit as I understand it on how
much uh Ethereum can be produced. It's
more like from that standpoint, it seems
like it's more like a stock, right? Um
Apple can issue more stock. They can go
and and say, "Hey, we're going to just
issue stock." And they can actually
raise money by issuing stock. And if I
understand right, you you correct me if
I'm wrong, but Ethereum can do the same
thing. They can issue there's there can
be more um uh uh more Ethereum out
there. It's not limited like Bitcoin is.
Is that one of the reasons that uh first
of all, have I said that right? And
second of all, is that one of the
reasons it doesn't have, you know, the
high uh price point that Bitcoin has?
>> Yeah, it is true that there is no limit
on the amount of Ethereum that will be
issued. um they don't have a 21 million
cap like Bitcoin does. Um so yeah it it
that is you know it can be inflationary.
Um they they have implemented in in
recent years though um a system where as
Ethereum gets used uh like as the
blockchain gets used and transactions go
through uh a certain amount of ether
which is the cryptocurrency that we're
really talking about um it it it goes
and it gets burned it gets destroyed.
So, um, there are times when there's a
certain amount of activity on the
blockchain where more ether ether gets
burned than is being created. And so,
that's kind of putting a check on the
overall supply of it. Um, but I think
the founders of Ethereum um, and the
people I wrote about in my book, you
know, they the cap on Bitcoin to me has
always been a monetary policy. You know,
that's that's sort of like what Satoshi
was interested in. it was creating a
digital currency. Ethereum and Ether are
very different. They are much more um a
global computer. That's the way that it
was being sold back in the day when it
was coming out in like 2015, 2016. It's
it's a global computing platform that
anybody can put a contract on and it
lives there and then anyone in the world
can access it. And so with that in mind,
um they weren't really thinking about
capping ether. They thought of ether as
the fuel. you know, that's what you need
to have to um fuel transactions on the
blockchain. So,
to me, so that that makes sense to me.
And what so that is a big difference in
my opinion for you know, if you're
looking just at the economics of of the
different of the cryptos of Bitcoin
versus Ether, you know,
>> which which would be in in a way like
silver versus gold, right? I mean,
silver has a lot of uses. um gold is
just a a token, right? Whereas whereas
silver, there's less of gold, right? And
um and and it's not produced as readily
as silver, but it doesn't have all the
uses that silver has. And so there is
this in my mind this kind of
relationship, gold versus silver and
Bitcoin versus um ether.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's a good
comparison. Um,
and it's never really quite made sense
to me that, you know, right now, let's
say, just quick math, you know, Bitcoin
is roughly 90,000, ETH is around three.
So, you know, that that's a um 30 30fold
difference. like I I don't in my opinion
I don't think it should be that big of a
difference in the value because I feel
like Ethereum has you know a really
the value proposition for Ethereum is is
really strong and um you're seeing more
and more um banks and uh payment
processors like Visa and Stripe and all
these other folks are getting into it
and when they're getting into it they're
usually using Ether you know and
Ethereum um there's some Salana out
there Salana is really big in gaming
world um for for web based web 3based
gaming because it's fast. Um but by and
large when we're talking about you know
corporations and banks getting involved
in blockchain and and this this tech
it's it's Ethereum we're talking about.
And so with that in mind, you know, kind
of that's like to me that tells me
that's where people should be investing.
you know, that's where that's that's the
that that's kind of what is grabbing the
mind share. That's why ETH um Ether has
I think the most developers still
working on it. Salana might be close
with that, but it is it is the thing
that is, you know, grabbing people's
attention and has been grabbing people's
attention for years now.
So, do you see so we're seeing a runup
in silver um because of supply and
demand? I mean there's just a this
hugely increased demand because of AI
and uh electric cars etc etc technology
um uses silver because it's such a good
conductor of electricity. Um do you see
that potential um happening with ether
then that ether will all of a sudden
like silver's tripled in the last two
years. Do you see that kind of potential
um with ether happening in the
foreseeable future? And if so, what
would cause that what would cause that
that acceleration?
>> Yeah,
I
so I'm I'm not an expert in this by any
means, but I you know in in the the
whether it's going or you know I don't
have a crystal ball is what I want to
say, but I I would say that I think what
I mentioned before is that Ethereum is
still slow as a network. um it's it's in
the 30 40 50 transactions per second um
range, you know, where Visa is just, you
know, through the roof. It's it's
I can't even remember what it is, but it
might be it's many many many times
higher than that. So, what I would keep
an eye on is, you know, Ethereum and the
developers working on it have been
pushing for years to increase that speed
and the throughput. And once you start
getting um you know Vitalik has has made
a goal of getting to you know 100,000
transactions per sec um that would be
huge. Um and there's a lot that needs to
be done to to get to that point. A lot
of changes that have to be made there
and they're working on these. There's a
road map. It's all very public. Um but
takes time and
>> so by comparison how fast is Salana?
>> Gosh, I don't have the um I don't have
the
numbers in front of me, but it's it's
much much faster. Um it's it's more like
um you know,
five five digits, you know, like 10,000
50,000 transactions per second. I mean,
I I hope I'm not wildly off there. I'd
have to check that. But um it it's it's
magnitudes faster. Um but it sacrifices
some things to to be fast. So, one of
the things I mentioned was the
decentralization. Um so, um I I would
keep an eye Ethereum's um transactions
per second and how that road map is
being executed by the developers. Um
because if the mainet that's what you
know is called like that's the Ethereum
mainet. Uh if if it gets to that point
where the underlying Ethereum mainet can
go to 100,000 transactions per second
that's that's a gamecher and I would
think that the runup to that where
people are starting to see that would
probably lead to a lot more investment
into ether. So, so do you see that as a
as a reason that some
um uses aren't being done for, for
example, to me the obvious use of
blockchain would be um uh title, right?
Title, property title, uh goods title,
all of that. The the that's a logical
use for blockchain because you need it
audited. We have title insurance now
which to me like is such a scam but all
the banks require it because you have to
prove title. Okay. Whereas blockchain
you could all you have to do is prove it
once. Once you proved it it's there
forever. So is it is it the speed is
that part of the reason for the slow
adoption or is it just or is it just the
the other political and economic
pressures?
>> Yeah but something like title um it's
not the speed at all because that's a
very simple thing. You just encode the
title into a smart contract, put it on
the blockchain, and then you can see the
ownership chain. So, you don't need to
pay what is it thousands of dollars
when, you know, you buy a house to
somebody to just go check a record. You
can do it yourself. The the thing there
to me is the incumbents. You know,
you're taking away that market from
somebody. So, are they going to buy in?
Are they going to give away that market
to the blockchain where, you know, the
title companies no longer, you know,
exist? So that's, you know, and you you
get this friction in everything because
it's a new technology. It's coming in to
try to take away markets. It's trying to
get rid of intermediaries like title
brokers. And so that's that is the the
thing you would need like somebody um
who's really big in that market to kind
of buy in and and move in that direction
in my opinion to see that change. And a
lot of times they have entrenched
interests and don't want to do that
because it means less revenue.
>> Got it. So, um, what, so I I I get you
don't have a crystal ball.
>> Yeah.
>> But five years down the road, um, what
do you see happening in the, uh, uh,
blockchain world? Because, you know,
when it first came out, everybody
thought it was going to take the world
by storm. It was it was the next big
thing. It was bigger than anything. And
then now we have AI. AI is way, you
know, has just blown by. Um, blockchain
as a technology. And yet to me there's
so many great uses of blockchain and
it's like but it's not happening. And I
I I get what you're saying. There's
political there's economic interest
there, you know, there's push back on
that kind of stuff. What do you think it
would take for that I mean outside of a
big player in a particular industry?
What do you think it would take for that
for blockchain to catch on the way AI
has caught on?
I think it is catching on to be honest.
Uh it's a bit behind the scenes. Um but
the days of you know the big shift that
I've seen in 2025 was that um
corporations and banks and financial
institutions are now pretty much all on
board with what blockchain technology
can do for them. They for a long time a
lot of people kind of put their head in
the sand and and said it was it was you
know this is there's nothing there. This
is useless. But they've they've realized
that the efficiency gains and the way it
can open up a global market for you and
a lot of other other things um are too
um enticing to ignore. So a lot of the
naysayers I think have have lost that
battle in the corporate world um in the
financial world and they are moving to
implement blockchain technology
distributed ledger technology into their
businesses and their industry. Um, some
of it is behind the scenes, but you
know, if you just keep an eye on the
headlines, every week there's more, you
know, huge names that are doing things
um, using this technology. So, it's it's
not going away. I think corporate
America and corporations around the
world have bought into it. Um, they
realize that if they don't stay on top
of this, it's going to pass them by. And
and so that is going to continue. The
Genie's been out of the bottle for a
long time, but it took a lot of people a
while to really get their head around
what what the technology what the
promise of it is and what it offers for
them and I think that has now uh that
has now happened and is materializing.
So um whether you know we are going to
see it in our everyday lives is is a
bigger question. Um
the convenience factor for me is is a
huge hurdle. Um it's still very
difficult to um to open a you know to
get a wallet for a cryptocurrency you
know for just you know a wallet a
digital wallet on a blockchain is how
you use you know basically it's your
point of entry for for using crypto and
DeFi and all that stuff. It's not easy
enough to use still and it's been years.
So u it's also the fluctuations in price
you know scare a lot of people off. It's
definitely not something you want to
use. um to be paying bills or to be, you
know, I wouldn't want to get paid in it
right now because you have the chance
that it could go up, but you have the
chance that it could go down. You know,
it's not stable enough. I think stable
coins are are really interesting um
adaptation. I think stable coins have um
brought along a lot of the corporate
interests and a lot of the financial
interests where they see, oh, here's a
digital asset that can move
instantaneously around the world and it
doesn't fluctuate in value. So, that's
that's such a huge plus for them. That's
why JP Morgan has been using JPMcoin for
years. It's their internal um it's
basically a dollar a version of a dollar
but that's digital. They use it um among
their branches around the world with
certain customers and you know these
things are working and they are being
used every day.
>> So basically that's just a faster way to
move uh money.
>> Yes. Yeah. A faster u more secure less
errors. Um, if you've ever looked into
like the correspondent banking market
where you want to send money around the
world, it's it's costly. It takes days.
It's often errorprone. Um, but it's a
huge market. But digital currencies and
stable coins can disrupt that, you know,
almost immediately. Again, the
gatekeepers of that market don't want to
give away um the billions the billions
of dollars they make every year in that
market. So, it's that's another friction
point.
I I I like it.
>> So I I Yeah, I think this is, you know,
this is the long game. This has always
been the long game. It's it's not um you
know, we've had booms and busts, but the
technology is not going away. It's very
similar to the internet boom um and the
bust of um the late, you know, the
2000s, the.com era bust when all those,
you know, companies that thought just
putting a.com at the end of their name
is all they had to do. a lot of that,
you know, and there's a huge investor
interest and a lot of money. All of that
went away, but the internet didn't go
away. You know, the internet continued
to grow and continued to change our
lives. That that's the same thing here.
Um, all the frauds, all the silly stuff
you hear, yes, there's a froth and
there's there's scammers and but there's
also a real technology here that is
changing has already changed the world
and continues to change the world.
That's not going away. And people are
getting more and more um convinced of it
and are now more and more willing to
invest in it and and figure out how it
can help their business or help as an
entertainer or as an artist. Um it's
it's spreading into all these other
different parts of our lives um in
commerce that you know I is not going to
stop.
I I love it. I'm I'm a huge fan. I've
been a a big fan of Ethereum for uh
[snorts] ever since I first learned of
blockchain because I I I do know that
that's where the development is and it's
encouraging to hear that they're working
on making it faster uh getting broader
uses um despite the you know push back
by people who would lose lose right
if it's adopted but certainly with a
higher speed it would make it easier um
the the easier it gets to use the the
more it [snorts] it will be used. The
book is Out of the Ether and the author
is Matt Lysing. He's been with us today.
Matt, where um besides buying your book,
where else could we find more about your
work? Um you can search the web for me.
Um I was running dessential.com or
dentral.io. Uh it was a web media
company where we were writing about um
the folks that were building um this
stuff, all the interesting, fascinating
people behind this technology. um
decentral.io.
Uh and um yeah, check out the book. The
the thing I love about the book is that
it really dives into the the people
behind this and it's a very human story.
There's there's all sorts of um you know
there's a lot of drama. There's a lot of
like different people that came together
to make Ethereum um reality. But there
was also drama. There were firings.
There was, you know, backstabbing. There
was, you know, a lot of greed. a lot of,
you know, a lot of geniuses at work here
and and they created something almost in
spite of themselves that is is what
we're talking about today. So, it's a
fascinating human story that um kind of
resulted in this.
>> I I love it. The the the real story
>> the real story behind Ethereum. I I love
it. Um, just I think that whether it's
investing as as as a pure investor like
we would in the stock market, we invest
in Ethereum, we in Ether, we invest in
uh Bitcoin. What we're investing, the
more we learn about this, the further
ahead we're going to get, particularly
in ways that we might be able to use it
or we might even be able to create our
own industry. Um, I'm a big fan of
creating new industries. uh uh and I
think that there's so much potential
um logically um with the blockchain and
with cryptocurrency and ether Ethereum
is at the center of that and the more we
learn about it, the way more money we're
going to make and the way less tax we're
going to pay. We'll see you all next
time on the Wealthability Show. Thanks
for listening to the Wealthability Show.
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