Bitcoin, Shamanism, and The Bubble

Backstage in the cavernous Las Vegas auditorium, I thought about the thousands of fired-up Bitcoiners who were waiting for my talk. They had recently heard Eric and Donald Trump Jr. and J.D. Vance speak from this same stage. Those three were celebrated as Bitcoin supporters. I had worked for “the enemy,” the World Bank, IMF, and Federal Reserve.

I was prepared for a hostile reception.

Stepping onto the stage behind my host, the environmental Bitcoin analyst Daniel Batten, I tried to calm myself by flashing back to something that had happened a few days earlier in San Francisco. I’d guided 200 supporters of the non-profit Pachamama Alliance on a shamanic shapeshifting journey.  

In less than a week, I’d experienced these two worlds that seemed so far apart. 

I was relieved, as I walked across the stage, to hear the thousands of Bitcoiners applauding. I peered out at them, but the massive bank of spotlights blinded me from seeing all but the front row of shadowy figures. Then I spied my partner, Kiman Lucas. She was kneeling near the stage, snapping photos with her iPhone.  And in that moment I was struck by the similarities between the two seemingly disparate worlds of Bitcoiners and shamans. They are connected by a simple truth.

But before getting into that, a little background:

The Bitcoin conference was attended by about 35,000 people. The organizers had shocked me when they invited me to speak – and on the main stage no less. I told them that I didn’t know much about Bitcoin and they responded that they wanted me to talk about my life as an economic hit man. The venue was the over-the-top Venetian Hotel, complete with an indoor life-size replica of a Venetian plaza, Italian restaurants, small upscale shops, gelato stands, and a long winding canal where genuine gondolas piloted by striped-shirted, straw-hatted gondoliers who sang traditional Italian songs maneuvered their boats past Byzantine-Gothic villas, along winding streets, and under arched bridges.

By contrast the shamanic event was held in a private room at the Presidio Golf Club, just across a quiet tree-lined park from the Golden Gate Bridge. Three of my Indigenous Amazonian friends, Manari Ushigua, Narcisa Mashienta, and Belen Paez performed traditional chants from their Achuar, Sapara, and Shuar nations and classically-trained American musician Lauren Turk sang songs she’d written. Accompanied by a drum and rattle-like bundle of Amazonian plant leaves, I led people on a shapeshifting journey inspired by the Prophecy of the Eagle and Condor, a legend that describes the importance of transforming the current degenerative Death Economy that is polluting and consuming itself toward extinction to a regenerative Life Economy that creates sustainable human societies.

Bitcoiners and shamans. Two worlds. The simple truth that connects them: Each is molded by our perceptions – as are most aspects of our lives. Perceptions drive the actions that create reality.

My first perception of Bitcoin had been influenced by my training as a Keynesian economist and by the attitudes of many of the people in my cohort – a negative knee-jerk reaction to a new technology that seemed contrary to the bubble of beliefs that encased me.

We all live in bubbles that are built around perceptions shaped by our families, friends, teachers, spiritual leaders, politicians, and these days by the algorithms of social media and AI. In turn, our perceptions and the resulting actions produce reality. As the saying goes, “one person’s garbage is another's gold.”

My own bubble began to expand before the conference when I zoomed several times with Daniel, my designated host. He helped clarify many aspects of Bitcoin that were unknown or misunderstood by me – as they are by many people I know.  The more I researched Bitcoin and talked to people at the conference, the more I came to understand that Bitcoin is now part of our economy. It is classified as a commodity by the SEC and has a rapidly growing asset value of more than $2 trillion (right behind the highest asset valued corporations, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon, and Microsoft). Whatever you feel about Bitcoin, it is an important fact of modern life. It can facilitate international exchange, or it can expedite money laundering. It can drain money from the economy when it is hoarded as a speculative investment, or it can serve as collateral on loans that are invested to build the economy. It can cause energy demand to skyrocket, or it can level out peak demand and encourage solar and wind farms. It can finance projects that destroy ecosystems, or ones that rejuvenate them. It can break up the industrial-Wall St.-FED oligarchy, or generate a new oligarchy of tech billionaires. In other words, Bitcoin is a tool that can be used in many different ways.

My talk reflected many of the themes I’ve written about in previous newsletters. I described my experiences as an economic hit man, the dangers of imperialism, and the role the Federal Reserve system plays in promoting US hegemony. Then Daniel and I discussed some of the benefits of Bitcoin and the concerns we also have (like those above and in my notes below) and warned about the dangers of replacing the current oligarchy with a new oligarchy. Judging from the applause and comments made by people who approached me afterwards, the talk was a success.

But what was most important during that week for me was the understanding I gained about the divisiveness caused by our bubbles of belief. Bitcoin, like Climate Change, has become politicized. Democrats tend to view Bitcoiners as radical right-wingers because many supported Trump and other Republicans who advocated for US leadership in cryptocurrency in general and Bitcoin in particular. Bitcoiners tend to see Democrats as radical left-wingers because Biden and his SEC chair Gary Gensler initiated numerous lawsuits against crypto firms. Widening the divide, Climate Change regulations are generally viewed by Republicans as Democratic policies that play into the hands of China and against US prosperity, while Democrats accuse Republicans of ignoring the dangers that threaten their children’s futures.

Two worlds – each created by a different set of perceptions and the people living in the bubbles built around those perceptions.

On the morning after the conference ended, I rose early and wandered around the hotel’s Venetian plaza. It was unusually quiet. The crowds of tourists had not yet arrived. The only people were those preparing to open their gelato stands, small shops, and coffee bars. I sat on a bench and thought about the way these three days had changed me. I’d learned a great deal about Bitcoin – things I liked and things I feared (see my notes below). Most importantly, I’d come to understand the value of expanding my bubble. I’d gotten to know and like and respect people who had perceptions that were very different from what mine had previously been. As a result, my bubble had expanded. I’d also been told by some of the other participants that I had changed their perceptions.

As I sat there in that faux Venetian plaza, nursing a cup of coffee, the quiet was suddenly broken by men’s voices singing in Italian. From around a corner came a single-file line of striped-shirted, straw-hatted gondoliers, their long-handled oars resting on their shoulders, headed to their boats.

It took me back to a year earlier when I had risen early in the real Venice – the Italian city – and, nursing a cup of coffee, sat on a bench. Suddenly workmen appeared and began installing raised wooden walkways in St Mark’s Square. A few minutes later, water from the rising tide started to flood the plaza. It was a shocking testament to the fragility of modern civilization.

Those walkways and the rising water were proof that Climate Change is real. The conference was proof that Bitcoin is here to stay. Neither Climate Change or Bitcoin is a Republican. Or a Democrat. The division is a perception. When we buy into one perception or another, we imprison ourselves in shrinking bubbles.

And the shrinking bubbles plunge us deeper and deeper into the dark abyss of crises that today threaten our very survival.

The challenge now is for each of us to expand our bubble and unite it with that of our neighbor – especially the neighbor we have seen as the “other,” or even the “enemy.” Climate Change and Bitcoin send messages that call for tolerance, understanding, and unity. They urge us to open ourselves to new perceptions of what it means to be human beings being human on this wonderful planet. They  beseech us to come together and act to confront the problems we all face. They demand that we create a reality our children and grandchildren will want to inherit. 

The shamanic Prophecy of the Eagle and Condor originated more than two thousand years ago in South America. The Eagle represents cultures that believe that people live apart from nature; the Condor represents cultures that believe that people live as a part of nature. The prophecy foretold that the two would fly in different skies for many centuries; then around the year 1500 in our calendar they would clash and the Eagle peoples would practically drive the Condor peoples into extinction – but not quite. We know that’s what happened. After Columbus, the industrialized nations nearly destroyed the Indigenous ones. But not quite.The prophecy goes on to predict that 500 years later (about the year 2000), the two would have the opportunity to dance in one sky, mate, and produce an offspring that represents higher consciousness.

During the past 20 years or so we've witnessed the manifestation of the prophecy. People in the industrialized, high-tech world have become increasingly interested in Indigenous cultures and shamanism, while people from those cultures have shared with the rest of the world their traditions, ceremonies, and wisdom about connecting with nature. 

Indigenous perceptions have a long history of molding US reality. As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – an event that has impacted the entire world –  it’s good to remember that the three people who wrote it, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, studied Native American governments and practices. What they learned changed their perceptions and resulted in actions that transformed American reality from British colony to independent nation. It seems a fitting time for us in the US and people everywhere to listen to all the messages that urge us to change our perceptions. It is time for us to come together and take actions that will create a reality our children will want to inherit.

Let us write a new Declaration of Independence that frees us from the perceptions that have imprisoned us in bubbles of divisiveness.

Las Vegas Bitcoin 2025 Conference: Observations

John Perkins

May 31, 2025

Bitcoin, like AI, is a fact of life. It is a tool that can be used in many different ways. The challenge is to understand it and use it against the growing threat of anti-democratic movements and channel it into  pro-environmental ones. Many Bitcoiners at the conference advocated for regulations like the “Genius Act” that aim to establish a regulatory framework for crypto in the US. (It is significant that 16 US Democratic Senators recently voted, along with Republicans, in favor of the “Genius Act.”)

What follows are a few of my personal take-aways from the conference.

A few reasons to like Bitcoin:

1. Bitcoin facilitates cross-border monetary exchanges and encourages international trade. It happens instantaneously and in many cases less expensively (vs banks, Western Union etc. that take days and charge high fees). This is especially true for the foreign laborer sending amounts under $1,000 home to his family (“remittances”). 

2.    To people who live in nations where they cannot trust the bank, or there is no bank (e.g. many African nations, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and others) bitcoin can and has been a lifeline. 

3. Many Bitcoiners use it to finance innovative businesses  (“Digital Pioneers”). They invest their Bitcoins in projects that maintain the US’s position as a leader in high tech.  Bitcoin can also collateralize loans and continue to appreciate in value while the debtor uses the borrowed money to buy a house or build a business.

4. Many Bitcoiners are very concerned about climate change and other environmental issues. Several panels included people who build mining facilities in communities where steel plants and other industries closed or were planned but never built and where, as a result, utility companies now have excess electricity production capabilities and where there is high unemployment. They emphasized the importance of working with the communities to build consensus, use local trades, and train local workers.

5. Since Bitcoin mines have flexible operating hours and can be switched around global time zones they can flatten out baseload vs peak energy demands. In addition, Bitcoin energy use is now 52% sustainable (compared to 21% for overall US energy use) and growing. This has become true because wind and solar farms, like Bitcoin miners, seek inexpensive real estate, sustainable energy has become generally cheaper than fossil fuels, and Bitcoin miners can use cheap, stranded, and wasted energy. 

6.      Bitcoin may offer an alternative to the US Federal Reserve and thus weaken US financial dominance.

A few reasons to fear Bitcoin:

1. Big Bitcoin owning countries and institutions can impact demand and therefore prices. Countries like Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, and the US can build significant Bitcoin reserves and conceivably use these to manipulate supply – and therefore price (possibly weaponizing Bitcoin).

2. A new Bitcoin oligarchy (led by tech billionaires) could replace the current industrial-Wall St.-FED oligarchs. This reflects similar strategies of replacing one oligarchy with another that have been employed by dictatorial leaders like Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orban. 

3. Heads of state or other influencers could use policy or PR statements to manipulate demand and thus price ( e.g. the Trump and Saudi families’ increasing crypto business interests).

4.      Unless done with careful planning and use of non-fossil fuel sources, Bitcoin’s demand for electricity can cause increasing amounts of pollution and worsen the climate change crisis. 

5. For those who want to see the US continue as the global superpower, Bitcoin could pose a threat to the US dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency. 

6.       The growing popularity of Bitcoin can lead to a greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies (“shit coins”) that are merely Ponzi schemes, undocumented support of political candidates, and other scams.

7.   Although Bitcoin energy use is now 52% sustainable and growing, this can change if regions of the world where fossil fuels may be less expensive (ie: gas in parts of Russia) become more attractive to miners.  

Perhaps, the most important observation is that Bitcoin is likely to become increasingly influential in global trade, economics, and politics. The challenge is to understand it and make sure that it is used in ways we like rather than fear.   

Watch my full discussion with Daniel Batten here.