Welcome to Slate Sunday, a weekly feature from CryptoSlate that presents in-depth interviews, expert insights, and thought-provoking articles exploring the ideas and individuals influencing the future of cryptocurrency.
For over a decade, Jeff Booth has been sounding alarms about the dangers of technology intertwined with debt. The Vancouver-based entrepreneur and author of *The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future* asserts that our financial system is essentially an elaborate illusion, hindering true progress and innovation from benefiting everyone fairly.
“The inherent condition of a free market is deflation,” Booth reminds me early in our discussion.
“When we compete to deliver value, we must continually offer more at lower prices. With technology, you’d expect prices to decrease rapidly. But in a debt-based system, this is impossible; they are fundamentally opposing systems. A debt-based system requires endless expansion.”
Booth, who spearheaded the tech firm BuildDirect for nearly two decades and now heads venture firm Ego Death Capital, was recognized among Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
In recent years, he has focused on one central notion: the future need not be bleak. However, to create a promising future, we must adopt new incentives.
The illusion of stability
Global economic indicators suggest increasing instability. The U.S. unemployment rate has risen to 4.1%, corporate bankruptcies are at their highest since 2020, and credit card delinquencies have surged beyond pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, real wages stagnate against a backdrop of record debt, with global borrowing exceeding $337 trillion this year, according to the Institute of International Finance.
Despite this, prices continue to climb. In the U.S. and Europe, the rising cost of living has compelled millions to turn to short-term credit. Booth believes this outcome is built into the very fabric of the system. He explains:
“When you approach a bank, the money isn’t real; it’s lent into existence, and you pay interest on that debt. This creates a system where money must perpetually grow. It needs constant manipulation… If a debt-based system experiences deflation and prices decrease, then the debt resets, leading to a collapse of everything reliant on that debt.”
Booth contends that we’ve never truly experienced a free market; rather, we’ve only seen various controlled economies masked by different ideologies.
“Communism, capitalism, socialism—they are all constructs of control… We’ve yet to witness a free market.”
Bitcoin fixes this
Booth views Bitcoin as the first genuine global free market, uncorrupted by manipulation. He asserts:
“If you had an open, permissionless, decentralized, secure protocol bounded by energy that governments couldn’t alter, it would epitomize the first true free market.”
According to him, Bitcoin “reprices the entire world” because it operates outside of a debt-structured system. Global assets are steadily losing value compared to Bitcoin’s scarcity-driven, deflationary model, with real estate illustrating this trend. While home prices may be increasing in fiat terms, they are substantially decreasing in BTC.
“If my house was worth 300 Bitcoin five years ago and now it’s 12 Bitcoin, then prices are perpetually falling in Bitcoin terms. It’s not that my house appreciates in value; it’s that the currency it’s measured in depreciates.”
This shift in perspective explains why Booth advises not only to buy Bitcoin but to invest one’s time in it. When asked about those who feel it’s too late to begin acquiring Bitcoin, he confidently states, “We’re incredibly early,” with a smile.
“Understand Bitcoin deeply. Then buy it, utilize it, and invest your time in it. You’ll see a reflection of the world you aspire to create rather than contributing to a world that frightens you.”
His outlook is counterintuitive in an era marked by anxiety.
Fear and systems of control
Booth suggests that our collective fears—whether of inflation, artificial intelligence, or geopolitical unrest—are symptoms of being ensnared in a rigged game. Maintaining constant uncertainty and fear serves the interests of those in power.
“Monopolies can only exist within a control system. Monopolies benefit from regulation. Who gains from public fear of AI? It’s the big AI firms, as they can maintain prices above their production costs.”
In a genuinely competitive market, prices naturally fall until they align with actual production costs. Anyone attempting to set higher prices will soon be undercut until prices stabilize at their lowest feasible level.
As Booth points out, the cost of creating an additional line of code is zero; therefore, once AI becomes free, and its cost approaches zero, its abundance can be shared with everyone (provided governments cannot manipulate money).
Under a Bitcoin standard, he argues, technological deflation would ultimately benefit society rather than a select few monopolistic gatekeepers.
“AI, robotics, Bitcoin—they create a perfect symbiosis. They amplify one another. In that environment, you become progressively wealthier, even without active participation.”
The irony is that, even as economic anxiety escalates, Booth radiates positivity. He chuckles:
“I’m incredibly optimistic. I thrive in an environment of builders who are pursuing this daily, and witnessing its rapid expansion makes it hard not to feel extraordinarily hopeful.”
The choice to act
Booth’s key message emphasizes personal agency. He asserts that individuals possess more power than they realize.
“You, personally, have agency. Operate a node. Spend in Bitcoin. You don’t have to wait for approval or ask permission. You can just act.”
When I inquire about his feelings regarding the impending rise of digital IDs, such as those proposed in the UK or Europe’s CBDC, he highlights emerging technologies like Nostr, a decentralized social protocol, and Fedi, a privacy-preserving platform for launching personal digital federations.
“That’s precisely why I’m no longer on Twitter. I’m on Nostr. It can’t be censored. My voice remains unrestricted on Nostr… And Fedi is unblocked. It’s utilized in numerous authoritarian regimes due to its life-saving capabilities. It’s already available.”
Ego Death Capital invested in Fedi three and a half years ago, foreseeing the danger of a centralized system, and recognizing the need for this technology before that danger materialized.
The ego death
The name of his venture firm, Ego Death Capital, reflects much about his philosophy.
“It felt fitting for what I believe Bitcoin will eventually accomplish for everyone in time… One rule in Bitcoin: never attempt to deceive it, or you’ll deceive yourself.”
Booth’s journey toward this realization wasn’t instantaneous. When he came to terms with the fact that most of his work was entrenched in the fiat world despite understanding Bitcoin’s advantages, he felt hypocritical.
“I realized that 90% of my time was spent in the system I was worsening. Ego Death Capital was established to resolve that conflict, enabling me to allocate my time to the system I championed.”
He encourages others—entrepreneurs, creators, and educators—to follow suit:
“Everyone is ensnared in pain and fear, endlessly scrolling through Twitter. Yet each issue within that system represents an opportunity to alleviate suffering in the new one. You can generate remarkable wealth by providing value. That’s true free market dynamics.”
The abundance ahead
Booth’s assertion that we should welcome, rather than fear, technology-driven deflation is more relevant and hopeful than ever. With global youth unemployment nearing 13% and Goldman Sachs warning that automation could displace 300 million jobs by 2030, Booth envisions abundance on the other side of this shift.
“The same AI that many fear will harm us has the potential to create unimaginable abundance. If prices decrease faster than wages, everyone prospers. But that can only occur in a manipulable-free system; a genuine free market.”
When I ask Booth if he believes we’ll witness the world he envisions in our lifetimes, his reply is immediate. He beams:
“I already see it. It’s the reality I inhabit. It reminds me of William Gibson’s quote: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” You can enter this world tomorrow. It’s merely a matter of choice. The more you engage with it, the more it will reflect back to you.”
