EP26: Crypto without the noise: What Business Owners Actually Need to Understand

Most business owners either ignore crypto or feel quietly intimidated by it.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Francois sits down with crypto specialist Nicolas Richardson to strip the hype away and explore what cryptocurrency actually is - not as a speculative asset, but as financial infrastructure.

They unpack the philosophical and economic foundations of crypto, why it’s often misunderstood, and why judging it through traditional financial lenses misses the point entirely.

This episode is not about buying coins.

It’s about understanding a system that is already reshaping global finance, whether business owners participate or not.

Three Key Takeaways

1. Crypto is infrastructure, not a replacement for money - It doesn’t aim to destroy fiat — it modernises the rails behind it.
2. Most criticism comes from lack of framework, not informed disagreement - Crypto requires new mental models, not old assumptions.
3. Volatility and transparency are features, not flaws - crypto, businessinfrastructure, financialsystems, leadershipthinking, futureofbusiness, bizrev, entrepreneurship, fintechWhen understood properly, both play a critical role in trust and efficiency.

👉 Visit www.bizrev.co.za to learn more about our coaching, consulting, and full-service business support solutions.

📊 Want to see where your business really stands today? Take our free Biz Clarity Score™ — a 3-minute diagnostic to uncover gaps in financial visibility, tax strategy, advisory support, and business resilience. Get instant feedback and actionable next steps.

[Take Clarity Score  Quiz Here]

💼 Have a business challenge, need strategic mentorship, or want to be featured on an upcoming episode of The Rev Room? Reach out directly via our site—we’d love to hear from you.

Let’s build better, together.

Transcript

welcome to the Rev Room powered by Buzz Rev Advisory
Today we have a special guest uh
we're gonna interview um
Nick Richardson hi Nick morning
how are you good great
so Nick is the most um knowledgeable person I know
uh with regards to uh cryptocurrency and um
I
thought it's great to have a discussion with Nick
with regards to the current status
and where it's come from
and to answer some questions that um
either viewers might have
with regards to cryptocurrency
so so Nick
if we can start at the beginning
and so how did you personally get involved in crypto
in the space
uh
2018 um
I think like any other I was 18 at the time
like any other 18 year old uh
spent most of my time on the internet
and I kind of stumbled into it
um figured like this was some like quite interesting
seemed like a like a more advanced video game
um
and then yeah I kind of went down the rabbit hole
got some got some money for my birthday
um couple hundred bucks
I can't remember how much it was
and then sort of started started from there
wow so
so obviously back then you saw something that
most people around you didn't see
and you took your birthday
money and invested it into that
and where did that go to from there
um
where did it go
I don't know if I saw something different
different I think I think it was just uh
I think it was arguably like dumb luck um
but where where did it go to from there I think
from there it just became like a like
you know you kind of start and then you
you learn a bit more
and then it becomes quite interesting
and then you you fall down a rabbit hole that like
I've never quite been able to escape um
just sort of like learning about the technology
etcetera etcetera
okay
cool so that is quite
it's quite a different rabbit hole given the nature of
of of
of what it is but
so if we go to the next thing
so beyond the price movements and speculation
um what is it about the technology that excites you
it's
it's fundamentally meritocratic by nature
it is
uh it's equal access
uh independent of geography
um or maybe let me take a step back and like
explain it a bit at a bit higher of a level
so the the
the basic idea is um
the creation of like a financial economy through uh
like math smart contracts
um
and this economy is
accessible to anyone with an internet connection
and everyone plays in this economy on equal rules
has equal access to capital
equal opportunity etcetera etcetera
so it's it's like what I find exciting about it is like
it's meritocratic and the
there there's no like
um different rules for different players
and I think that is on like a philosophical level
a solution to a problem like
like the the cleanest solution to like the
uh unequal
like distribution of opportunity problem that
like society faces um
it's a very like Austrian economic
uh idea
um I think it
like the other interesting thing is like uh
you kind of separate the economy from state like
like kind of we separated church and state like 5
600 years ago
but we never really separated economy and state
um
it's a bit hard to separate economy and state in like
the current financial system
given the like requirement of the state to like
intervene in the economy but the
when like your economy
when your economy is based on like
math and like code is law
then you can like separate the state from the economy
which I think is like generally
generally a good thing um
I I think that's very deep and I think it um
has a number of very good elements
and I think that are that's brilliant
so I mean
with regards to I mean that
I mean I think it's brilliant
so so I think maybe just to take
to lead on from there if we talk about um
what do you think people
most people misunderstand about crypto
at a fundamental level I mean
what you said now is brilliant
but we're talking about the man on the street
and that on its own is like
a massive amount of
information that you've just unloaded
but most people I mean
there are those for and against them
but I mean most of them that are nervous of it
for obvious reasons um
I mean how do you
how do you get them to understand it a bit differently
from a mainstream perspective
I don't I don't think most um
I think there's a difference between
lack of knowledge and misunderstanding
um
I think most people have a complete lack of knowledge
but like disguise it as like misunderstanding
like the the sort of
like the basic building blocks required to like
conceptualize the idea of like cryptocurrency or like
like a very strong understanding of like
macro microeconomics like math
computer science game theory
um like geopolitics
etcetera etcetera
so I think it's just this like melting pot of like
very complex
uh ideas that like absent a
certain like hurdle of general understanding
make no sense to most people
um
it becomes like
I've tried many a time to sort of explain crypto to
like to very like intelligent people
but like it's it's very hard
it's very hard to explain
um
so as in like what most people understand
I think what most people misunderstand is the kinda
like
clickbaity headlines that are all around the place
so like uh
crypto is a uh
perfect instrument for like financial crime
uh which is like demonstrably not the case
I mean it's a
it's a transparent Ledger
so like that that is
that is arguably the worst thing to do
crime on like a transparent Ledger with like a
like a with his history for like from inception
like completely visible um
so I think like the crime is probably the biggest one
uh the other one is uh
like
uh apprehension around it's like volatility profile uh
it it sort of trades with like a 40 to like 50 vol um
but most most people like
think about it as if it's like a 400 dollar asset
um and I also generally don't think like
if you ask someone what like
their apprehensions are on crypto arts
like generally like crime or like volatility um
volatility crime being like an easy one to debunk um
like crypto is obviously volatile
but it like it's
it's no more volatile than the likes of like
an Invidia or something like that um
and it's also not demonstrable that like
volatility is a bad thing
it's just it's just a bad thing if like
the general drift is not upward like uh
volatility should be embraced in my opinion
um
so yeah I think that those are probably the two biggest
misunderstandings and in general
just misunderstandings around like
how the technology actually works and like
functions at like a at a at a base level
yeah which it
cause it is quite it is quite technical
so one would understand that
great so the I
I do think the volatility
I mean that's what the most people that I speak to are
are a bit apprehensive with the volatility
um and
and you can understand it
but I mean the world is volatile in any respect
so it doesn't um
move away from that
but so from a business perspective Nick um
how do you see crypto and blockchain
technology changing the way business is done globally
I think it depends on the type of business
um
it's really just like back in financial infrastructure
right that's like kind
that's like really about what it is um
like Ethereum and Visa Mastercard
or like the Swift network are not hugely dissimilar
right it's just
it's just like financial plumbing for like
facilitating trade so okay
like what really changes
things like cross border settlement
um
like times you know
like it's usually sort of like t plus 1
plus a bunch of fees
maybe t plus 3 depending on where you're moving money
um plus a bunch of fees like with stable coins
you can get that down to you know
anywhere from like
a couple seconds to like a couple minutes
with legal fees so I think like that
that kind of stuff's quite important
um
things like remittances
like if you if you kind of think about what
staff in South Africa pay in terms of like
fees to like get remittances
back to their families like it's it's
it's arguably like theft um
so things like that you know
you put some stable coins in their hand
they can get that money there in seconds
for fractions of a cent like that is huge
uh value add
and then if you think about in terms of just like
the business on the street
take like your generic coffee shop um
the the sort of fees they pay
uh like credit card fees
like processing fees that kind of stuff like
you know I don't know the exact figure
but it like
it accounts for like maybe 150 basis points of
of like transaction notional
so like getting that kind of
um fee down
it's like the general mental model is that with crypto
the money moves faster
uh and it is cheaper to move it
so that's like very broadly applicable to like
whatever business you pick
exactly so
so you you're suggesting at some point
the crypto will replace the fiat
methodology of payment as we understand it now
um I mean
is that is that
is that foreseeable is it
is it possible in the next 10
15 20 years
30 years
I don't think it replaces Fiat
um
I think it's just better back end infrastructure right
so why use like Visa Mastercard
like corresponding banking system
Swift like that infrastructure
um with
you know like long settlement times
like extractive like fees
etcetera etcetera
when you can swap that out for like Ethereum or Solana
and you can move those stable coins
you like you swap the dot
you swap the fiat out for stable coins
then you swap the back in infrastructure out for like
uh blockchains
they are one blockchains and then you can like the
the actual like real world transaction doesn't change
it's just that the the money moves a lot quicker
so I don't necessarily think it like replaces uh
the financial system as a whole
I just think it's like better infrastructure right
so it's like kind of how we went from sort of uh
like steam to like the combustion engine right
it's just OK you're doing the same thing
it's just better infrastructure
for doing the same thing
gotcha but
but but naturally
if there's a shift to cryptocurrency
in whatever form
or whatever vehicles within cryptocurrency
the Fiat model will take strain
and will have to morph into something different
going forward because it
it hinges as you mentioned
with regards to the fees
and the way the costs are involved
it does change about I mean
if you think about it practically
so there will be a change
with respect to how people see it
and how the back end gets affected by that
with regards to the different income streams
I I
I think that the
the Fiat model like maybe that's like
like defining a fiat model
I guess like in this context
the use of like fiat money
I don't think the use of fiat money goes anywhere
okay fiat money has like a demonstrably robust moat um
but it's just like instead of using dollars
like you use stable coins
which are still like tokenized dollars um
so those dollars still sit somewhere
they're just
they're now on rails that are more efficient
so I think it's just like
the back end rails that change um
not the entire like it's
we're not gonna be
I don't see necessarily a world in which like
we're going to like defy protocols to get a loan for
like to buy like a house
like I I don't think like maybe
maybe not like I
I don't I think that's further in the future
but for the purposes of like the next
like five to 10 years I just think like
you know like the
the the banking infrastructure
how it is currently built is like 50
60 years old um
like somewhere in that region probably due an upgrade
and like this seems the logical upgrade
make sense
so so if uh
if we if I had to say to you for the viewers
if they had if you could tell them
one thing
that they could take away from this conversation
so far um
what would you want them to understand about crypto
um that would help them or assist them in in some way
I I
I think it depends I
I think it depends on like what their objective is
like to generally
assuming an objective
of wanting to get involved in the space
or like wanting to express a view on the space
I would say
the most important thing to understand is that
unless you unless you wanna spend like many
many hours like researching the space
they're they're like very far from like
an understanding of like how the space works
um I think maybe to step back a level
the
Reese Mog I forget
let me find the name of the book
James Reese
Mog wrote a book called The Sovereign Individual in
I think he wrote it in 1994
um
maybe a bit earlier a bit later than that
but it's like a
it's a it's
it's like a book that like
outlines like
technology and like the sort of future past
like it's a bit hard to explain
but the point I'm alluding to is like
he outlined these ideas of what
what he calls like megapolitical uh technologies
I think that's the word he used
but these are things like the printing press
like the steam engine um
the internet artificial intelligence
like
these are technologies that cannot be reasoned about
within the framework
that we currently use to think about the world
like these are technologies that change the framework
within which we like
think about the world so it's like
you can't reason about
the distribution of knowledge through church and state
in the presence of the printing press right
so now like how like knowledge is disseminated
like materially changes so like it
it is my opinion that crypto is one of these
megapolitical technologies
like therefore
we cannot take current mental models
of how the world works
and reason about crypto through these mental models
like the the reasoning about crypto requires like
really like reunderwriting
like fundamental assumptions around like
understanding of the world and like
how the world works
and how the world may work in the future
and how these things could be different
so I think like going back to the question of like
what would I advise like I would advise
that this is like a a
an idea that requires like many
many like hours of research to like fully understand
and before like expressing a view or an opinion
um I advise like doing quite a bit of
quite a bit of research because once like
I've seen many people go from having a complete like
misunderstanding expressing a view to like
doing a lot of research and then going
oh like
there actually really is something here
like this is a very interesting idea
I might not agree with it
but like
I understand it enough to see the utility of this idea
so I think I think that's what I advise
well no
I saw solid advice um
but I mean you
as you would say there's
there's a lot of information
that needs to be uh
read and understood before you can even
because it's very it is a complex
the subject with respect
so Nick thank you very much
we so appreciate your time um
and the valuable input that you've given
so we thank you very much