Quick bite: Bitcoin vs inflation with Luke Kemeys

💸 From lotto to a “life raft” against inflation — is crypto gambling, the next property boom, or a store of wealth like Bitcoin believers say? In this quick bite, we dig into why more Kiwis are paying attention to Bitcoin, what drives the hype, and why trust (and education) matters.

This quick bite is from our previous episode 'Creating opportunity in a cost of living crisis'

For more or to watch on YouTube—check out http://linktr.ee/sharedlunch

Shared Lunch is brought to you by Sharesies Australia Limited (ABN 94 648 811 830; AFSL 529893) in Australia and Sharesies Limited (NZ) in New Zealand. It is not financial advice. Information provided is general only and current at the time it’s provided, and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. We do not provide recommendations and you should always read the disclosure documents available from the product issuer before making a financial decision. Our disclosure documents and terms and conditions—including a Target Market Determination and IDPS Guide for Sharesies Australian customers—can be found on our relevant Australian or NZ website.

Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with. If you require financial advice, you should consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.

Appearance on Shared Lunch is not an endorsement by Sharesies of the views of the presenters, guests, or the entities they represent. Their views are their own.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to a share these podcast Krypto.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I don't know what your thoughts are on crypto. It
seems like one of those things that five minutes ago
everybody said was a terrible idea, and now suddenly everybody's
woken up and gone, hang on, this actually could be something.
I mean, is that a conversation that the people that
you relate to and make content to and talk to.
Is that something they're talking about. Is it in their

(00:25):
mindset or is it not something that they're even on about.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
I think it's another good example where some people are
seeing forms of crypto as gambling, and so they won't
be interested in lotto or a casino or something, but
they go, oh, I've heard about this thing, and if
we all get into it, and it could pop off
and I put my thousand dollars and it's going to
become worth six, but your thousand could be come worth
zero as well. Like how much do we really know
about it? I think there's a big difference between bitcoin

(00:49):
and the people who really get into that space and crypto.
I don't know a lot about crypto, but you know,
I've kind of focused my understanding on bitcoin and why
people are so interested in bit coin. Over this last
five years, what I've noticed is that there's a massive
increase in understanding of how the purchasing power of our
dollar is losing its value. So we might not go

(01:12):
on the reserve bank inflation calculator and run the numbers.
But when someone says, oh, but it has now cost this,
we go there is crap. How can this happen? And
so people have gone, well, what can I do? And
I think those people are seeing bitcoin as a store
of wealth in a way to kind of exit some
of the impact that they're feeling on the other side,

(01:34):
where they're watching money get created and then lose its value,
and they go, Okay, this looks like a life raft
they might call it, or a different form of technology
and solution.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
I'm going to learn more about it. I'm going to
back my education.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
I'm going to put some money into bitcoin to protect
myself from the losing value of.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
The New Zealand dollar or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Right, But you could also argue, but that's why people
brought property, and that's why people you invest in shares,
because we're all trying to beat inflation so that our
dollar that we do have that will work so hard
for isn't becoming worth even less? And maybe bitcoin and
cryptos just the new wave of people understanding there and
learning about that. Now, if it helps increase education, amazing.

(02:19):
Will people be scammed and taken advantage of and whatnot?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Probably because you know humans, we're looking for a quick
win or whatnot. So you know, that's the dangerous side
of it that I think people need to accept the
decisions that they're making or be very educated before hitting
transfer money somewhere.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I guess that trust part is hugely important, right, is
who you're dealing with and how can you trust that?
Because people will know, okay, you can buy a house,
and there are the these are the ways that it
could fall apart. These are the reports you can get.
You know, if you're dealing with a real estate agent,
they've got a history. You can check that out. There's
a trust path you can follow. For the crypto part,
it seems like maybe there are fewer trust paths around,

(02:59):
or maybe maybe I'm just not across all of them.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, when I first brought crypto, it was twenty twenty,
but I'll take your step back, So it was twenty seventeen.
I was working in an accounting office and bitcoin is
bubbling again, and a client came in and said, oh, hey,
I got given a bitcoin when I was traveling in Europe.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I need to cash it in.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I was like, oh, my mates are talking about that,
and said to my boss and he's like, oh, see
if they'll buy it. And next thing, they're in the
car drive into the accounting practice and they've got a
group of them pulled together their cash and like yeah,
we'll bite off the client.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm like, what the hell just happened? What did they
just buy? How much?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
What is this twenty twenty? I start kind of thinking, oh,
what's happening in the world. Maybe I should be buying
some gold. And I'm self managing my KEYI save and
I'm like, hey, I'm going to allocate some to gold
and they're like, oh, we don't advise that.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I'm like, dah, the world's going to fall over. I've
seen this before.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
I need to And then I start learning about bitcoin
and I'm like, these people talking about this again, I
might buy some. So I go through to learn the
process and I think, you know then I and I
go in my mind, I go, money follows attention. If
this gets more attention, it will probably increase some price.
I'm willing to take some risk on it. And then
I start just getting back to my normal life. And

(04:03):
then I see more and more people talking about it,
but really intelligent and smart people, and I stop and go,
why is this thing attracting so many bright minds? Like
why are some of the cleverest people in the world
working on this? They either aren't and the whole thing's
going to pop and it's going to be like what
were they thinking?

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Or they know something? And I'm like, I'm not intelligent
enough to.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Figure that argument out, But I'm going to go along
for the ride and put some money into bitcoin and
understand more about it, and if it goes to zero
and the whole thing pops, I'm going to go, Wow, Okay,
maybe there's a really good life lesson in there for me.
If not, at least I backed my own judgment.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Money makes it matter, Eh, Maybe you put a little
skin in the game there and you're actually paying a
little bit more focused attention.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yes, investing involves the risk you might lose the money
you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
We also recommend reading product display LaSure documents before deciding
to invest,