Making Bitcoin Babies: Sovereignty Starts in the Womb | Bitcoin 2026

Thank you guys. Thank you all for being here. Uh this is making him Bitcoin baby. Sovereignty starts in the womb. And I'll start by saying that uh before I had children, my father would always tell me, you'll never know what it's like to have a kid until you have one. And I'd always roll my eyes. You know, it was annoying hearing that. But sure enough, after having a kid, I did experience what he was talking about that unconditional love for something that uh you made with someone. So, I'd love to turn it over to our uh two Bitcoin mamas over here and ask once you guys had a child, how did your life change? dramatically, right? Um it's no longer about you. Uh you are now not the most important thing in the room. Um and every decision that you make now affects uh a child for the rest of their lives. Um so that's an emotional experience and also it's the most beautiful thing ever. Um if you're wondering if you should have a child, it's totally worth it. Please do. We need more big wine babies. Um yes. Uh but yeah, it's it's a wonderful experience. >> I think there was a big change. I got really humbled cuz there were so many things that I was like, I'll never do this. This is exactly how I'm going to run my household and this is exactly how I'm going to raise my kids. And I keep getting humbled, but um we still stick to our principles. Um I would say so the vision that we had for raising our kids, it's definitely still in place. But at this point, I'm uh scared to say things because motherhood humbles you like nothing else. Better than the bare market. puts everything in perspective, too. >> It does. You definitely have some grace for your parents after having children. You realize how difficult it is and how easy it is to be hypocritical with your children. It's very easy to tell someone not to look at a screen while you're scrolling on one to not eat that cookie while you're eating the cookie. Um, one thing we were talking about backstage is the education component. And I think there's actually a lot of similarities between Bitcoin and home birth in the sense that there's trade-offs no matter what you decide whether to give birth at the hospital or to give uh birth at home. So I'd love to hear you both kind of dis you know discuss the things you learned during the process the things people should be aware of and uh you know regardless of where you have the birth whether at home or at a hospital how to have a successful birth. >> Um I think the most important thing is that you need to find the place that you feel most comfortable. Fear is like the worst thing in birth to ever happen. Um it will slow down your your labor. It will uh make everything stop. Um so I think finding the place that you're comfortable. Um but just like with Bitcoin, it is like there there has to be some sort of self um self-education. You are taking extreme ownership, right? You have a lot at stake. Um so I think it's finding the network near you that you can learn from. Um, even if it's a documentary, the business of being born, I think it's a documentary that Ricky Lake did like I don't know forever ago. Um, and it's just very educational of what is wrong with the current system. We trust doctors. We trust hospitals, right? They have our best interest at heart, but but actually all of the things that they do or the way that they do them isn't for us. it it's for their convenience or it's because that's what's easiest or they're trying to um create the less uh less liabilities, right, for the insurance companies or whatnot. That doesn't mean that the doctor doesn't care about you. It just means that this is the way that they were taught. Uh one thing we were talking about backstage, which is by a nice fun fact, is like, "But why do we lay down in labor, right?" Well, there must be a reason. It must be because that keeps us healthiest or the baby is is the best in that position. No, it's because King Louis the 14th thought that that was the best position for him to view his wife's giving birth because he liked to watch and then doctors were like, "Oh, that's super convenient. Wow, okay, we should we should stick with that." Uh, so women are shamed to be in positions that actually fight against labor. You need gravity. You need to move. We we we used to um squat as women during labor until King Louie decided elsewhere. Um, so I think those sorts of things are really important to kind of like fall down that rabbit hole. these decisions that are made in the hospital may not be the best interest of us in our child and may not actually be the best for long-term success for your child's health and for you. So, you really do have to dig into that and there's great resources uh documentaries, anything by gay uh Gaskins is wonderful. Um there's one called um gentle birthing, gentle mothering, wonderful uh you probably have a local home birth network. You probably have moms who are doing natural birth in hospitals or you have hypnoirthing courses. So, you really have to dig into that and get comfortable with it and educate yourself. >> Yeah. And just like with Bitcoin, the first jump is to consider, oh, maybe it's not the money of the crazy internet people. Let me try to learn about it. Same with home birth, you're like, let me consider birthing outside of the hospital. And once you make that trigger, you start learning about it and it makes so much sense. the more you learn, the more you realize, yes, this should be the default option and then there will be, you know, a crisis option. And I was going to say it doesn't mean you can't have a natural birth in a hospital. Maybe you do feel the most comfortable there. You can do that and many hospitals are very supportive of it. Um, I tried that myself. The problem was I was constantly fighting with those uh who weren't supportive of it. And during birth, I didn't want to be fighting with someone. So the next time I did home birth and it was the most amazing experience. Uh unlike some women who I'm extremely extremely impressed with like honors wise as well, I didn't seek out wanting to do a home birth. I wanted to do like a birth center and then as I started to get into it thought, oh actually a home birth is better from like a microbiome perspective. Never considered that, right? I can have all the same things that I have in a birth center at home. Um I don't have to go anywhere. And so, you know, it's not something that I sought out immediately, but as you dig, it's like, oh wow, yeah, this might be for me. This might be for you, too. Um I was actually kind of on the other side. I was terrified of a hospital birth because imagine I was I gave birth to my first child in 2021 postco completely complete distrust to the system. I thought there are little evil people thinking how to make your make you sicker. Um but then over time I gained some respect for modern medicine and I realized they're not evil people. They just optimize for scale. Right? So you're not an individual, you're part of the protocol and the protocol is optimizing for thousands of people doing the same thing. Um it is hard to be able to navigate and customize this care when you have 300 women giving birth simultaneously in this hospital. So you have to stick to the protocol to minimize mistakes. But are we there to minimize mistakes or are we there to actually have your perfect birth? Because perfect exists. There are like I had a birth where two minutes after that I said that was amazing. I want to do it again and it like I have shivers right now because of how amazing it was and women need to hear that more because we're terrified of this experiences. I was lucky I witnessed my sister gave birth 9 years ago and it was peaceful. It was beautiful. It was out of outside of a hospital. She trusted her body. She trusted her care provider and I was right there to see that miracle. So I was never scared of the birth itself, but I did I was scared of the hospital birth. Well, now I know that there's definitely time and place for interventions. But when people imagine what if something goes wrong with the home birth, they think it's like a total crisis scenario. Everybody's dying and we might not make it. Well, in reality, that barely ever the thing. In reality, your body gives you kind of like little triggers to tell you, hey, there might be complications. Your midwife, if she's a knowledgeable, she will know, she will know ahead of time, maybe even during the pregnancy, that there might be potential complications. The risks are going up. Let's reconsider. And you will see those signs. Your care provider should see those signs. And it's never like crisis transfer. It's usually uh you know what, let's reconsider. We might change the plan. Be ready for that. >> And many wives are prepared for for many emergencies. Um that was a question I had when we decided to help Earth as well. I was like, the what if what if something happens? And my then wife was like, well, that's why we're here, right? Like our job is to make sure that the whatifs were ready for those. Um and there are situations where you might have to go to the hospital of any type. They're prepared for any of the small stuff. We told Connor we could just take over this panel and talk forever. making my job easy and that's beautifully said from both of you. You know, uh it's funny after the 9 months, you know, that's that's just the start and I mean there's a lot of similarities when it comes to Bitcoin like both of you elaborated. It's all just trade-offs, trade-offs to consider. Everyone's situation is different. You know, I wouldn't tell my grandpa to roll his own keys. I'd probably say buy an ETF. But to someone my age, I would definitely highly encourage them to buy Bitcoin and take self custody. And I think it's the same thing. Assess your situation. the more you know, understand that, you know, fear is not a productive thing. And, you know, unfortunately, there is a lot of that in the system. But the more you know, the more you can uh likely have a better birth experience. But that's just the start. Once the baby is born, that's when the real fun begins. So, I'd love to hear uh from both of you. You know, we live in a time where AI is exploding and you know, a hammer is a tool, right? And a hammer can build a house or bash one's heaven. Same thing with AI. You can build the world with slop or you can create beautiful things that you'd never otherwise would be able to create. So, when it comes to screens living in the modern world, raising a kid in these times, I'd love to hear how both of you think about it and uh you know, any practical tips you guys have from from raising children, little bitcoiners. Welcome to predict. The world is a market. Everything is a market. Get a 100% cash back up to $100 on your first predict bet if it loses. predict where everything is a market. >> Well, you know how they say the guns don't kill people. They don't the guns don't kill the people do. Well, as of right now, I would say the same with AI and screens. Like, it's not the tool that is bad, it's the user. So, I find AI a great tool for mothers. Like, I was able to customize my home home uh homeschooling classes for my child specifically because I know his challenges and I know his strength and that's been just such a wonderful tool. I'm totally bullish on homeschooling because of that. >> Um, one thing regarding having children with Bitcoiners, what I noticed is we thrive in discipline. It like Bitcoiners just are more disciplined people. Huddling requires discipline and uh that actually really helps people like helps parents because kids thrive in discipline too. If you can stick to good routines over time, kids thrive with that stuff. That's why I feel like Bitcoiners just need to have kids. We're good at it. We're good to sticking to the plan, building good habits. So yeah, have kids. >> Hey man, Bitcoin and Bitcoin there's never go technology. Yeah, I think um kind of what Katie said earlier about uh parenthood will humble you, right? You may start out thinking I'm going to only do wooden toys. I'm going to never have a screen. Um those are great goals. I My child watches TV. I'll admit it on stage. Uh we try to limit that and uh what they watch um and what kind of TV it is and nothing too close in front of your face. Um, but I think as Vic winners, we're really thinking about long-term that that low time preference. So, it's like, okay, this might fix the issue right now. It's easier if I give my kid McDonald's. It's easier if I do this. It's easier if I give him a tablet. So, last night at dinner, my child's going crazy. And it would have been really great if I had an iPad that I would put in front of him so I can relax. But that's not going to help him long term, right? So, it is really always thinking about the future. And I think that many people come to Bitcoin because they have that thought process or Bitcoin brings them to that thought process. Um, so I think that's one of the revolutionary things about Bitcoin is it starts to make you think about incentives and starts to think about how your decisions affect you long term. And of course that's super beneficial in parenting. We're always thinking about the future. Um, try not to get too black about it. Future feels a little bit rough right now, right? Um, but it's like we're raising the next generation and that's really important. the decisions that you make are really important. And to bring it back to birth, all those decisions in birth actually do affect them long term. C-sections result in higher uh allergies. They result in lung issues. Um you they don't have the microbiome, their their immune system isn't set up. So even though a doctor won't tell you that because at the end of the day, you go home with a healthy baby, it might have effects long term. So I think that as Bitcoiners, these are things that we're thinking about. It's like, well, how is this affecting us long term? And I think as a parent that's yeah that's a super vital uh trait to have and I think many Bitcoiners have what they do the same. >> Yeah. Yeah. I remember I wrote an article for Bitcoin magazine about you know comparing home birth to Bitcoin. And uh from my wife I learned that a little under a third of women in the United States have a C-section which is kind of a crazy number considering you know the United States is you know what it is. Um you know one thing obviously children are not investments. They are so much more than that. But and this is anecdotal evidence. But it seems like of all my friends who are having babies, it's mostly Bitcoiners, people who are hopeful for the future, who uh you know are very bullish on the things to come. Whereas a lot of my friends and I'm just calling who are fiat minded, they're very nervous. They think it's too costly. And if you're going to look at a child that way, I think one of the things to keep in mind is that I can't think of a better ROI. Not even Bitcoin. You know, the return on investment from having a child. And I always think I don't care how robots how good robots get. I do not want a Tesla optimist bot next to me on my deathbed. I want to be surrounded by my family. So, I just love to hear you both uh quantificate on, you know, the return on the investment that children bring because so often I feel like people focus on just the cost rather than, you know, what you get back from having kids. >> I mean, kids are hope, right? Um I I know I'll quote Sailor that Bitcoin's hope. I I'll take kids over Bitcoin. And sorry, I know we're at a Bitcoin conference, but like if there's no children for the future, then why does the money even matter? We're trying to build a better life for our children, and therefore, we need to build a better future, but we need kids to live that future and continue on, right? So, I I think that yeah, I mean, kids are the best investment you can ever make, 100%. Um, I' I'd get rid of all my Bitcoin if I had to choose between my kids and Bitcoin. And I recently heard a saying, "Kids are not expensive, you are." And that's totally true. Like, my kid doesn't need expensive crepe that I want. My kid doesn't need beautiful outfits that I want her to wear. So, it's definitely not my kid. It's me who is expensive. And um you need to realize, >> yeah, it it's totally me. Um so, I I want to tell it to all parents like reconsider those things because kids don't require that much. Your convenience does. And that's definitely what I'm currently buying with with with money. Like I want convenience because that will allow me to have more and more kids. That's maybe kind of expensive. Living next to your in-laws might be more expensive than living in the suburbs and things like that or having a cleaning house. So I love having kids. I want to have more kids. And uh I have a friend who was speaking here in the family panel last year and they have eight kids over the la over the last 15 years. They had eight kids. And she basically says chew more than you can bite and figure out how to chew it. And I think if you want kids, that should be your moto. You will figure it out. You will definitely find new regimen. You will find new routine that works. Um, for us transition from two to three kids three months ago, I was like, I heard both sides of the coin. Somebody said that was the hardest transition. Others said they didn't notice it. And I'm from the part that didn't notice it. Two to three was probably the easiest transition so far because our house is optimized for children. Our lifestyle is optimized for children. And obviously, I have more knowledge now on motherhood than ever. So, I I feel like I can have a lot more just because I built the life around this goal to have kids. >> I love that quote. Kids aren't expensive. You are. I'm totally going to go home and tell my wife that one. >> I bet that'll go over really well. >> Maybe I'll phrase it. You know, it's a we instead of a you. But one thing I love to double click into, you mentioned homeschooling, Katie, and I'm trying to convince my wife to do the same thing and my mother is very set on putting her in monastery school. And you know, it's a debate we talk about. But I do feel now with these AI tools that you can use them to build custom curriculums, make story books with your kid in them. You know, it's it's never been easier to, you know, educate a child, assuming you know what you're doing. So, I would love to hear how both of you think about educating your kids, things to keep in mind. Um, yeah, anything on that? Remember how I said I got humbled many times? So, I'm not going to say that I'm for sure going to homeschool my kids, but it is the plan. And um I was wondering like for the last 4 years I've been putting together the Figma board of like different curriculums that I find but now it's useless because there's AI that is helping me so much better than my Figma board that I've been gathering for 4 years. Um I think this is going to be a great tool for mothers to help us build those curriculums. Uh but I'm going to give Mike to Justine because she's actually uh >> I homeschooled my oldest. Um, so I think home school is great. Um, what I'll say is that she's she's in public school now. I'm going to age myself, but she's in high school now. Um, and she wanted to go to public school. I think homeschool is wonderful if you have the community and also it depends on the temperament of your child. I probably will not homeschool my son. He is extremely social, feral, and needs to be moving constantly, and he needs that outside um, enrichment. But I think that we do have choices now. Uh, near us. there's a farm school where they they're out like helping with the chickens and the goats and while they're learning things. So something like that might be a good option while you're also doing at home as well. So I think homeschooling is amazing resource. I do just think the most important thing about parenting is that your child's temperament is going to to decide how things work. You might think you have the perfect plan. I'm going to do this. This is what I'm supposed to do. You know, why is this child not going along with the thing that I'm supposed to be doing? And when you realize the temperament of your child should be really what's guiding you, it makes it all much easier. Um, so I think homeschooling can totally work for families. Um, I do think community is really important though. And I think when kids get to a certain age, those outside community do matter. Um, I think it's silly when people say they have to go to daycare because the kid needs to be socialized at like 6 months. The kid doesn't need anyone but their mother at 6 months. Um, but at some point, yeah, like our peers are important, right? Um, the greatest thing is though, you can decide who your peers are. As a as a parent, you should be deciding who your child's peers are. And so whether that be homeschooling or choosing the education that works best for your family and your child, it should be a top priority for you. You should not just be choosing because you live in that district. That's where you're going to be sending them. Um, I think schools are unfortunately ran by the same people that we have issues with the medical system and the military system. The industrial school complex is not really looking out for us. It's that blanket treatment. So, it's important to stay informed. Yeah. >> I also want to mention in the US there are certain states right now that really support homeschooling. They will actually give you resources for that. And by resources, I I mean actual money. Uh if your kid is not utilizing a public school system, you might be eligible to get from $6 to 12,000 per year to homeschool your child. And you can spend this money on all kinds of education and skill development, even like jiujitsu classes, buying books, buying toys of Amazon, things that will help you educate your child. And I know Arizona does it, Texas, Florida, they definitely uh they definitely give people pretty solid checks to help with that. Um, and then there are cities that are very homeschool oriented and you will find nice communities that will have, look, bring your kids on Mondays to my home. You have some free time. I'll do some music classes for them. And this village is pretty cool. It doesn't scale. Again, good things seems like they don't scale. Um, but it it will be more customized to you. And then you really do get to pick and choose the people your kid is hanging out with because again it's hard to stick with your routines and principles and habits. If your child sees other kid eating candy for lunch like how are you going to explain to your three-year-old that oh that's actually not good. That's not nutrient dance and we need to eat steak. Like it's going to be hard explanation. But if you bring your kid to the village that sticks to the same principle in the sea, we are on a similar diet. We are on a similar principle regarding the screen time. We spend our time on the sun, we really value that. Um then there's not going to be a question on how to keep them out of this world that gives them bad habits. It's just like there's a birth community, a co-op for homeschooling. Um when it worked with my daughter was when we had a really strong co-op with the same thing. We would there would be certain classes that she could take. We would all get together. Oh, you know how to can. Let's teach the kids how to can this week, you know, or they're like doing robotics. They had all sorts of fun stuff to do. Um, sometimes it's like a paid co-op with a professional teacher. So, there are a lot of options out there that you should look into. Um, and when we didn't have that village is when it felt like it wasn't what was best for her anymore. And that's kind of, you know, losing the village has affected us in many ways. I think birth is a really important factor is we don't grow up around birth anymore. our mothers weren't at their sister's birth. Uh, you know, our aunts aren't at her birth. They're not our our network anymore. And because when we lost that, we lost the the knowledge, right? As women, we grow up seeing birth on movies as a woman screaming in bloody murder and you're like, "Yeah, I'm going to take the epidural. Why would I do that?" Right? So, a lot of fearmongering. I think it's the same in homeschooling is that we we don't see it. We're not exposed to it. So, it's really important to get around folks who do have that knowledge and you can't just see a little bit of it and see if it's right for you. >> Yeah. No, that that's all incredibly well said and you know the point about it's kind of like the hospital system. there's so many kids in a classroom and uh when you have to you know standardize something because you have that many people in one place it's hard to uh you know to get it right for every situation and you know doing the proof of work to get educated about whether it's birth homeschooling your kids whatever I think makes a big difference so you can make an informed decision rather than a fear based one and an informed decision is going to be much better I know all of us out here have multiple children and you know obviously everyone's situation is different but if you can I highly recommend having multiple kids now Maybe I just found it easier cuz we always co-slept and my wife was like, "All right, you're going to take the three-year-old and wean her and she's the one changing the diapers and breastfeeding the six-month-old." But I would love to hear, you know, going from one to multiple kids, what that was like for you guys and uh yeah, you know, you found it was easier, more difficult, etc. We actually have a joke about it in Russia, Katie the Russian, as you can see. Um, iPhone is like very expensive thing for Russian economy, right? So there's a joke that when a new iPhone comes out, you buy it for the wife, the older one goes to the father. So, same with children. Once you get a new one, the older one goes to the father. Um, and I definitely had to rely on my husband a lot in the I'm 3 months postpartum right now in the early postpartum days. He had to deal with two toddlers and he figured that out and I really appreciate that. Um, and we also have pretty good village in Austin, Texas. My in-laws live there who are very hands-on. They're they're really part of our family for sure. Um so but again we optimize our life for that like our house legit optimized for multiple children now. Everything is convenient for them or for me to mother them and building this system like investing effort into the system really pays off. >> Yeah, I have a big span in mind. So I didn't have that where I had a toddler and hopefully soon we'd like to have some more. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think that you're you're kind of your your brain has to be split whether you're in newborn and toddler mode or for me I'm in teenage and toddler mode, which is very confusing many times. Um, you're like you have to be in multiple places at once and your partner does have to step in. My husband was great postpartum. Um, if we're able to have more, he's going to Yeah, he's going to be in toddler mode. He's um he's running around or my little one's running around over there now. So, yeah, like that is going to be his responsibility. And I think that you just when you're in it, you figure it out. Um, and you just you just go through the moves, right? Like you're you're in that season and that season will pass. And when it's hardest, I always try to remind myself like the season will pass and I'll be in a new season. And uh it's just it's all part of it. And a lot of it depends on your overall health for sure. Um like postpartum depression very often comes from nutrient deficiencies. Like figure out other things in your life that do not help you be a mother there. Figure out your sleep so you have so you can be a better mother. Figure out your diet so you can be a better mother. It makes your life so much easier when other things are in place. And what I found is Bitcoiners really thrive on numbers. Go figure. So I really advise everybody to look into functional medicine. I've been really into that for the last 6 years. It just gives you perspective on your health in numbers and that's how my brain works. I know how to optimize things based on wrong numbers. How to bring them back to normal. Um, so I highly recommend looking into functional medicine. If you've done your blood work before, do not trust the normal American ranges of optimal because they are optimized for sick people. So look at the functional medicine ranges and optimize for those. Being healthy really helps you to be a better mother, a better parent because you have so much more energy. you don't waste your time and effort on other things that don't deserve your time when your children is around >> and it's vital for wanting to do a natural or home birth. Um, you need to take extreme ownership if you you know like that is extremely important. You are taking a risk essentially and your health is vital. Um, so as a woman who decided to do home birth, I'm, you know, you're looking into all those things. You're making sure that you're eating the right things. You're taking the right herbs to make sure your nutrients are right. Um, yeah, my nutrients were terrible after I I had my son and didn't prioritize my health and nursed for over two years and I was they were in the tank and so it's like now I'm having to rebuild that. So, next time that's going to be a main priority for me. So, I think that's an important part of like extreme ownership with birth. >> Yeah. Well said. I think it's pretty clear we're all pro children, pro making more Bitcoin babies. And I know we're coming up on time, so I'll turn it over to you guys for final thoughts. And I'll just say one last uh reason to have children is for your grandparents. I swear to God, it makes them younger. watching my grandparents play with the babies and their great-grandparents. I mean, I'm blessed that my children so get to meet their great-grandparents. It's been such a godsend. So, I I can't recommend it enough. And I'll turn it over to you YouTube for any final comments. >> Bite more than you can chew and figure out how to chew it. I really like that quote, so I'll stick with that. You can have more kids than you think you're able to, so just keep going. >> Amen. >> Birth is not a disease. Uh the medical industry treats it as that. Birth is an amazing right of passage. You were built to do it. I don't care what anybody else says. It's beautiful. It's amazing. And many times who women who are home birth want to talk about it cuz we want you to experience it. We want you to feel how amazing it is. So if you have any interest whatsoever, please dig in more. And I have a Bitcoin mom Telegram chat if anybody wants to join. >> Awesome. Well, Justin Katie, it's been a pleasure chatting with you guys and everyone who attended, thank you for listening. Have a great conference. Every year this community comes together to celebrate, to debate, to build what comes next. And every year the stage gets bigger. Sound money center stage. So, where do you go to celebrate the next chapter in Bitcoin history? You come home. Nashville, July 2027.