Zoomer to Boomer: Why Each Generation Needs Bitcoin | Bitcoin 2026

All right. All right. Welcome to Zoomer to Boomer. Why every generation needs Bitcoin. We're going to start off with a little bit of an introduction. Um, we'll go from, I guess, Zoomer to Boomer. Uh, with your name, your generation, what you do for work, and then really quick, I want you to think of one word that you would use to describe fiat and one word you would use to describe Bitcoin. and we'll start with you first. >> All right, guys. Hello. Good morning to everybody. My name is Ben, also known as Gen Z for BTC. For work, I'm an entrepreneur. I actually help pick up dog waste for tons of homes in my area, and I also like to educate about Bitcoin. A word I would use for Bitcoin would be freedom. And then a word for fiat would probably be prisoner. >> That's tough to follow. That's right. Uh, my name is Ally Tager. I'm vice president of um of external affairs at the National Cryptocurrency Association, which is a nonprofit that's here to help everyday Americans understand and use crypto with confidence. I am a millennial and the first word that comes to mind when I think of Bitcoin or even cryptocurrency as a whole is sovereignty. And for fiat, oo, not prisoner, but maybe a little bit outdated. Outdated final answer. >> Nice. Hi, I'm Mel Sans and I am a am I Gen Z, >> right? I don't know. I'm not a boomer. I'm the one before the Boomer. >> Gen X. >> Gen X. >> I created the Bitcoin Boomers podcast. Um, and I also work for Bitblock Boom. >> And let's see. Hope is my word for Bitcoin. And fiat. I'm not It's just garbage. Nice. >> Hi, I'm John Drew and I produced the uh Bitcoin Day Naples conference and the Bitcoin I mean the Naples family office symposium. Thank you out there. Thank you. And uh I also run a mining company called Curated Mining where we partner with high netw worth individuals and family offices to deploy their capital into Bitcoin mining projects. Um my word for Bitcoin Mel took it. It was hope. But I do have a backup and it's future. Bitcoin is the future and uh fiat is a scop. >> All right. My name is Julian Figueroa. I run a show called the exit manual on YouTube. And uh I am a millennial, but I I dabble with the Gen Z haircut a little bit. And uh my word for Bitcoin would also be freedom. My word for fiat would be slavery. Kind of polar opposites there. First question I'd love to tee off to all of you uh since this is a very generational panel and I don't you don't need to put your parents on blast but you know what advice about money have you received from your parents that you feel was completely wrong. >> All right, I'll go first. This is a hard one cuz my mom is sitting right there. I love her very much. She's a Bitcoiner and has taught me a lot of what I know. >> We love the Bitcoin moms. >> Yes, we do. So, this is a hard one. One thing she's taught me that's wrong is probably it's it's pretty hard one. I'm not going to lie. Um, probably that >> she's a good mom. She's a really good mom. She's really taught me much that I know and she's sitting right there. So, I'm going to say I'm going to pass this one over. I don't want to publicly say something wrong about my mom right now while she's sitting there cuz I will hear it when I get back home in Florida. >> Round of applause for the base Bitcoin mom. I love it. >> Well, my mom's not here so let me trash talk. >> I think that, you know, my parents taught me that if you work hard and you invest in your 401k, uh, you know, you'll be able to retire and it'll be there for you. Same same deal with social security, right? you know, this this generation grew up with it. As a millennial, I grew up understanding that that might not be the case. And traditional investment products like the stock market, 401ks, sure, those are great. No disrespect to them, but there's so many other ways you can diversify your assets, diversify your portfolio, your income, obviously with cryptocurrency being one of them. And so I think that it's a new frontier and I'm excited to get my parents on chain and to help them understand how they can not just retire but also prosper by uh by understanding the power of this tool, the power of this technology, educating themselves and getting on board. So I was taught by my mom that money is only good for the things it buys. So, this is probably the worst advice ever given to anyone. Um, and be because of that, I was not a saver. I was not a money was good for what it bought. And it wasn't until I found Bitcoin that I realized it was worth saving. >> Yeah. So, um, I forgot to say what generation I am because technically I'm Gen X, but I'm just right on the cusp of the Boomer and Gen X thing. And I do work with a lot of uh boomers. A lot of uh boomers come to my meetup in Naples. And of course my parents are boomers. So my parents um interestingly enough taught me a very similar thing to her parents where I uh you know should work hard and invest in my 401k and u invest in my savings account. Um, and but the the other thing is that interestingly, and I don't know if this applies to people in my generation and older, uh, but I my parents didn't actually teach me a lot about money. So, I think I had to learn it on my own. And, um, that was probably the worst mistake that they made. I think for me, my dad was not a market operator or real estate professional, and he unwittingly bought his first home at age 60 in 2007, not knowing what was to come. And our family got stuck holding the bag on a like 10-year fixed mortgage on a house that lost 40% of its value. And it basically froze our family in place for a really long time. And my dad kept telling me even through this, he was like, "No, real estate's a good investment. You should try and save up for it." And I just I just saw the pain that he went through, beholden to these banks, the calls he made to the bank, "Can we pause the mortgage payment for this month?" And then basically stringing them along, they would send people up our driveway to try and get money for it. Banks are terrible and mortgages are they can be a form of prison if you don't know what you're doing before you get into them. and and uh a lot of the previous generation says that's the number one pathway to wealth, right? No other financial asset will give you 5x leverage based on a you know a job slip that that has a couple payroll statements. But it's very dangerous and it is a form of gambling if you don't know exactly what's going on with the housing market. But we've been told that a housing only goes up and it's just not true. So >> yeah. >> Hey Julian, before you just triggered a memory my dad used to say all the time, buy more house and less car. Yeah. Yeah. Um, >> that's not a terrible >> That's not a terrible That's pretty good advice. >> What is a take on Bitcoin that you see in your generation that drives you insane? >> All right. I could yap about this for probably three hours straight, but I'm going to get to the point. I think my generation, a lot of the kids have great ambition to do great things in their life, but they have no direction with that. They see Bitcoin as just an investment when it comes to fiat monetary regain and they don't really internally understand what it is and how much it can provide for them without even looking at dollars. I think if people really understood the tool that Bitcoin is and how much it will provide and that it's the first of its kind, people will be able to utilize it so much better. So, I would say we really need to work on educating about Bitcoin and that it won't make you millions of dollars in two years from now, but it will provide you with skills and an understanding of life that will make you rich internally, not externally. >> I love that. And I think, yeah, totally >> education is so important and that's exactly what the NCA is doing. You know, John, you mentioned your podcast. I also host a podcast called Crypto Explained where we're just trying to teach people what crypto is, how they can use it, how it works without any of the hype and jargon. You know, as a millennial, we're a pretty skeptical generation. We were around before the internet. We were around for early days of the internet, AI, cell phones, we grew up without it and then we adopted it. And so, I think we see the fake news, we see the hype and the misinformation and the negative headlines and the internet trolls. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that we're taking a close look to make sure that things are really legit, but uh I the biggest thing that drives me crazy is the fact that so many millennials and so many people are held back from even trying crypto and being open to it just because of what they hear in the news. And we know that 76% of crypto holders in the US say it's making a really positive impact on their lives. And so I couldn't agree more. I think we just got to educate and help open people's eyes and perspectives so that they can figure out where, when, and how crypto might be a tool for them. >> Okay, I'm going to rant rant a little bit myself. Um, my generation, I've heard this from my generation and the boomers generation. Um, on the Bitcoin Boomers podcast, we had um a Ronald Reagan insider who worked for him and Nancy for years and years. And as you can imagine, his circle of friends is pretty wealthy. And the question to them was, "Why haven't you gotten in?" And the answer was, "We think we missed it." And that's the same thing with my generation. We think we missed it. Like, too late. And I said, "No, no, no. Like, you don't understand. You just get off zero. Get something in your wallet. I don't care if it's $25 a month because I feel like if you just did that, you might start to see the rest of it. And yeah, that's but that's it. It's the I think I missed it. >> Yeah. So, um I'll I'll talk from the boomers perspective. Uh cuz I uh hang around a lot of boomers in Naples. Uh and they uh they all say that they don't they they don't need to learn anything new or they don't want to learn anything new. They've already made their money. They're already set for life and there's no need for them to learn anything new. Um, and so my response to them is, well, think about your your future generations. If you're intending to leave some of your wealth and your estate for future generations, it's important to learn this new technology or at least encourage your sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters to learn it. >> I'm going to jump back in for one second. One of the reasons I started the Bitcoin Boomers podcast was because I wanted people to hear from three guys who did not need Bitcoin. They were completely good with the money that they made. I mean, it's Larry Leard, Gary Leland, and Bob Bernett. And all of these guys would have been completely fine without Bitcoin, but they chose to invest like 75% of their income, their wealth to Bitcoin. And I wanted people to listen to them to hear why, you know, they didn't have to do that. There was no reason for them to absolutely have to except that they understand what it is and they believe in it. And I would actually pile on to what Mel's saying, we we seeing how people are using it, hearing from real people about the why is so so important. And we've actually been doing that at the NCA, traveling across the country, meeting people who are using crypto and asking them why, what lessons did you learn along the way? What benefits are you seeing? What challenges have you overcome? So that you can sort of inspire and inform others who might be curious but don't know where to start. So yeah, I think humanizing the tool is such a critical part that we don't talk enough about. >> I think for me there's a lot of overlap between how millennials view Bitcoin and how Gen Z view Bitcoin. You have the people who are Gen Z Bitcoiners, millennial Bitcoiners, they understand it's a solution to a problem. the people who don't get Bitcoin yet look at it as just another problem, another derivative from the financial industrial complex that is a Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme. So the skepticism is one of the most frustrating things for non- Bitcoiners. But I think one of the big differences, one of the things that really frustrates me about talking I find with millennials, you can be on the border of it, is that it feels like millennials want someone to descend from the heavens and provide them a solution to fiat and Satoshi kind of did, but they won't accept it. And and Gen Z is seeing all the problems going on. on. They're the really the fourth turning generation and they're really trying to do something about it. Like there's a such a high propensity of Gen Z that are like building their own car setups because they're like, I can't afford the housing market. And then millennials are just on Reddit and they're just bitching about how they can't afford homes. And it's it's frustrating to get through to people who feel like they're screwed but are also passive about the solution. And I've I've really tried to figure out like how do I talk to people in my cohort that don't want to take action? And eventually you just you just go hands off. If it's it's there for you if you want it and if if you don't want it, you don't do anything. But that that's why I particularly focused on tailoring the work that I do to Gen Z because I see so many of them taking action and I find their propensity towards things like self custody has been a lot higher. They're using stable coins. I think Ally, you might have a stat or two on the immense stable coin usage and I really look at stable coins as a gateway to the Bitcoin ecosystem. >> Yeah, I totally agree. We're definitely seeing stable coins as a type of digital asset. Some people don't even see it as a cryptocurrency at all. They think it's this other category, but it's bridging the gap between DeFi and Tradi. And it's helping more traditional institutions, banks, retailers come on chain in a way that just makes sense. Okay, that's how I know that if I buy a shirt for $20 and I pay you in crypto, I'm it's not suddenly going to be 25 or $30 and I'm losing money on the deal. So, it really is uh a way that uh Tradfi and DeFi can and should coexist. And hopefully soon there will be more regulatory clarity coming on stable coins. Uh check back in a couple weeks. But actually a stat that I think is really interesting that will sort of uh cast this conversation in a really diff potentially different light Julian is uh no we think that digital natives are adopting cryptocurrency at higher rates and to some extent that's true but what we're actually seeing is that uh more people over 55 hold crypto than under 25. >> Yeah. >> But Gen Z and millennials are using their crypto more. They want to spend it. They want to donate it. They want to pay small businesses with it. And so sort of like what you were saying, it's it's a everyday tool that's baked into the system that just makes sense with their lives because they grew up with everything being digital. >> Yeah. All right. I'm going to open a can of worms here. Uh can we get a show of hands? Who in the audience is a boomer? All right. My controversial question of the day. Boomers. Do we give them too much flack or not enough flak for everything that is going on? >> So, I'm the youngest person over here and I would say what happened in that generation of course with the gold standard is not good. But we cannot blame every single old person. Sorry guys about that cuz it already happened. Now all we can do is figure out how to change the future. We have the tool. So, I would I would say I'm grateful for everything that happened. Happened for a reason. Bitcoin's real now. I think we're going to have a chance to see great changes in humans as a whole with this new technology. And the technology was made because of those mistakes made previously. So, I wouldn't blame every old person. I would just be grateful for what we have now and continue to utilize it. >> Totally. I I agree. I think we give boomers way too much flack. I think actually uh speaking of our parents, it's today is my mom's 78th birthday. And yes, happy birthday, mom. Um and uh I see her every day. Her email, her text messages, her phone calls. It is just scammers non-stop. You hit a certain age, you end up on some lists, and everyone is trying to come after you. Luckily, she's a very, very savvy person. I say I pity the fool who tries to scam her. Uh she will not fall for it, but so many people do. And I think that when we put people in this box of this category of older people, they're not adopting this technology, we we miss the opportunity to help them learn how to use it safely and responsibly. And so that's another big thing that the NCA is focused on is how to spot scams. What does it mean when people are um doing systemic crypto fraud like Sam Bankman Freed? I know that's such a blemish on the crypto industry and has kept so many people back, but that was just traditional fraud. the same way that we see that in traditional finance and banking. And so the more that we can educate, the more we can spread the word, take the hype out of it, take the jargon out of it, make it feel not so complex and overwhelming, I think the better everyone will be. And so, um, I think we just need to bring boomers and every generation along in that journey. So, people over the age of 50 are controlling 80% of the United States's wealth. So, I think um giving boomers any kind of flak would be silly. Um I think you know that creation that's a huge amount of wealth. Um the youngest boomer right now I want to say is 61. Um boomers aren't going anywhere for a while. I like there seems to be this this misconception that boomers are all on their deathbeds and they're going to be gone soon. But if the youngest boomer is 61, there's a lot of time left and this is the group that is making the majority of our decisions even today. >> Yeah. So, um I know we're up here talking about generations and we're very much generalizing about generations and all the people in them. Uh I truly believe that every generation has a spectrum of people on their financial journey, on their learning journey. And you could probably find boomers and genzers and millennials who all fit some category of where they are in their education and how they how much they understand Bitcoin, how much they understand the fiat system, how much they understand uh how money actually works and what money actually is. So, um I don't think it's appropriate to give boomers any flak. Um, I think that we're all um I don't like to use the word victims, but we're all we're all part of this this bigger um uh SCOP that was started back when the central bank was started and we all learned what we learned because we were fed that information. And now Bitcoin has given us a reason or at least for me uh before Bitcoin I was just you know what uh uh somebody said the what's the fish thing you you you swim the swimming by and they they say how's the water and the fish goes what what's water like I'm like what's money right and so uh I think that we're we're all on that journey to figure out that that uh we've been part of this system and now we have a way out of that system. >> Welcome to predict. The world is a market. Everything is a market. Every headline moves the line. Every moment is your market. Call the moves. Bet on your instinct, your prediction, your edge. dual bits predict where everything is a market. >> I think I I can't blame an entire generation for things that happened with the Federal Reserve and the gold standard. I will say that it's wise that the younger generations are not just simply accepting the knowledge that the boomers are passing on about the state of markets and how things work because boomers have had a long period of prosperity where everything just seemingly goes up forever and you can just throw a dart at a stock and it feels like Gen X and and millennials kind of they follow really closely in their footsteps and it's nicer to see the younger generation start getting a little bit skeptical but cynical about that advice and saying, "Hey, we have to try some other things." There's also going to be a massive massive wealth transfer at some point. And you know, millennials and and Jenz are in a very big position to inherit that wealth. So, we're going to have a very interesting next 30 years because I don't think that the same rules of, oh, I'll just buy a house and park it there are going to work anymore. And that's like what $84 trillion of wealth is going to shift over the next 30 years. and those decisions and those allocations I just don't think are going to look like what they do today. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that was a concrete answer, but uh we kind of touched upon this a little bit, Ally. Um but I'd like to hear from everyone. How does your generation view Bitcoin in terms of a tool? Do they look at it more as a tool for wealth creation or a tool for wealth preservation? I would say the majority of people my age in school all really want to be rich. They want to have a cool car, be able to have fat stacks of cash and flex and be super cool and awesome and post it on Instagram. So when they hear and see Bitcoin, they think of other rich people that are posting on Instagram faking how well they're actually doing. So, I think the people my age see it as a getrichqu tool and they see it incorrectly and then they think since I don't already have money, I'm not going to be able to use it to get rich. And we need to change their thought process of what it is so that they can understand it as a tool for everybody and not just the people wanting to make insane amounts of fiat money. >> I'm just so happy that you said Instagram cuz I feel a little bit le. I thought you were going to say Tik Tok or something and I'm like, "Oh, no." So, okay. Gen Z's are still using Instagram. Great, great, great. Um, so I would say you said wealth preservation, wealth creation. I think it's it's yes and I think it's both of those. But I also think that we're seeing more gener more more younger people in particular, but really all generations again seeing this as like everyday money, a way to donate with nonprofits like Movember or the Giving Block, a way to shop at small businesses, but even large enterprises like Home Depot, Starbucks, Whole Foods, you can actually shop and pay with crypto right now. Um, but I think that uh people are also seeing the underlying blockchain technology as a way to power their businesses, as a way to tokenize other real world assets like property and artwork and even cattle. Any industry where there's fraud, where they would benefit from greater transparency and providence, we're seeing the tool really find its footing there. Um, and so I think that it's even I would go a step further. It's not even just about wealth. It's about the way that any value moves. and anybody who wants more control and ownership of their assets. >> I got I got really caught off guard there when you said tokenizing cattle. >> I'll tell you all about it. I know we're running tight on time, but so go to the nca.org to check out Rob the rancher story, but he is actually putting RFID tags on cow's ears so that you can track every single cow, how big it was, was it vaccinated, is it humanely treated? So that not only are cattle ranchers knowing that they are not being duped and being double sold the same cow, which I see heads nodding, that's a real problem in the industry, but also consumers can scan QR codes when they buy a packet of beef at the grocery store and see the whole health history of the animal. Pretty cool what people are doing with blockchain and crypto. So, my um three best friends in high school, I still talk to them today and none of them are into Bitcoin and when I'm with them, I have to pretend that I'm someone else kind of, you know, it's not something they want to hear me talk about non-stop. Um, one of them actually said to me when she had she had seen the numbers that are supposed to be at this conference and she said, "Meliss, do you really think that many people are coming?" And I said, "Yeah, I do." Um, and then finally, one of them, the one I absolutely expected the least to ever ask me, asked me last week and told me, "I'm in." She said, "I'm going to try this." So, I gave her my River code and she got in and I was like, "All right, now you're in. She can watch and she will have questions and I will be ready for her." I think that uh boomers and Gen Xers both are thinking of Bitcoin more as a wealth creation tool and a wealth preservation tool. I think they uh so they I think they see it mostly as an investment at this point. Uh and that it's a way to just preserve the wealth that they've already created over their lifetimes. Um yeah, and I'll stop there. I think that's what it is. >> I want to jump in really quick and look at the word wealth. So wealth is in my opinion just like energy stored externally over time and you over there probably have been alive a lot longer than me I could assume and I have a lot of time left. So when he's talking about his generation adopting they have lots of this energy stored externally because they already spent that energy over time years of working. They have it stored and it's should be able to stay worth the same amount. Time should not affect how much it's worth. And since I'm so young and I have so much time left, I have so much energy I'm going to be outputting and hopefully being able to earn value back and store it. Having Bitcoin is going to be so amazing. I'm so looking forward to being able to share and help so many other people. And I'm super glad we have this panel up here because it's really getting to highlight how Bitcoin is affecting everybody across the whole entire world. All differences aside. >> All right, well said. >> Thank you. >> This kid's going to go far. >> That was great. >> Um, yeah, that's a wrap. >> Thanks everyone. 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.