E176: Eric Larchevêque: Why Bitcoin Is the Only Money You Actually Own

**Eric Larchevêque** (0:00)
I never saw Bitcoin as a way of enriching myself. I always saw it as a way to protect the fruit of my work. As long as everyone believes in Bitcoin, then it will continue to raise in value in the long term. I always count my net worth in number of Bitcoins and not in euros.

**Kevin Follonier** (0:16)
I read you have 100% of your liquid net worth in Bitcoin.

**Eric Larchevêque** (0:19)
It's a long-term view. That's the only way.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:22)
Eric Larchevêque, the co-founder of Ledger and CoinHouse, leading companies helping expand access to digital assets and secure crypto ownership, a prominent French entrepreneur, author, and advocate for Bitcoin adoption.

**Kevin Follonier** (0:34)
What do you think is extremely hard today and will be a commodity in not 30 years, but three, five, 10 years?

**Eric Larchevêque** (0:39)
What is already a commodity is the ability to build something. It's becoming a commodity. Now the question is not, how do I build the best product? It's how do I sell my product? How do I find the right customers, the right market fit, the right sales pitch, which has a lot of humanities inside.

**Kevin Follonier** (0:55)
You didn't take these things that seriously until something happened to one of your Ledger co-founders.

**Eric Larchevêque** (1:00)
My co-founder David has been kidnapped by criminals with his wife. He got tortured, his finger was severed, some videos were made, put pressure on me because they were asking for 10 million euros in Bitcoin. So it was like a ransom. I was not the victim, but the recipient of the extortion. And...

**Kevin Follonier** (1:20)
Eric, you're the co-founder of Ledger. Where do you think Bitcoin goes in 10 years?
What's the bet?

**Eric Larchevêque** (1:26)
My bet and my conviction?

**Kevin Follonier** (1:34)
Hi everyone, this is the little bit that I know none of you like that can help us make a huge difference for this show, and we want to take it next. 71% of the people who regularly watch When Shift Happens have not subscribed. And so, all I'd ask you if you want to make a huge difference is the following. If you've seen this show before and you like it, help me, help my team, hit the subscribe button, and we'll continue to build this show for you. Thank you.
So, first podcast in English.

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:04)
Yeah, let's say, yeah, I've done some interviews in English, but podcast, not sure.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:08)
How do you feel about it?

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:11)
No problem.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:11)
Oh, it's good.

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:12)
Yeah.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:12)
Hopefully not the last one.

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:14)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. I'm much more on the French market, on the French media. So, yeah, English is quite seldom.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:23)
How are you doing?

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:25)
Great.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:25)
Good. Yeah, always great. Always happy.

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:28)
Yeah, always. Always an optimist. I'm an entrepreneur, so I have to.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:32)
Where do you think this comes from? This optimism?

**Eric Larchevêque** (2:35)
I don't know my character, the way I think, and the way I'm always thinking about the future, not the past, not thinking about all the failures I've done, always thinking that the future is there. And even though the situation is quite difficult for everyone, I'm always tending to think about what could be best.

**Kevin Follonier** (2:58)
Did you have very optimistic parents? Did you grow up in an optimistic environment?

**Eric Larchevêque** (3:03)
Yeah, at least not pessimistic, for sure.
I don't know if my parents were big optimists, but I've always been like that, always every morning I wake up happy. You know, I never have bad days or okay, maybe sometimes, but it's quite exceptional. And so, yeah, always happy to be there, because anyway, I'm doing what I love, which is like building stuff. And that's amazing.

**Kevin Follonier** (3:31)
What's the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning?

**Eric Larchevêque** (3:34)
It depends on the days. Right now, I think about the results of my coding AI agents that worked all night. And I say, OK, what did they do? But like three months ago, I was thinking about something completely different. So it depends really of the moment. It's, but for sure, it's always about business, companies, building.
And that's because that's really what I have in mind.

**Kevin Follonier** (4:04)
What do these AI agents do?

**Eric Larchevêque** (4:06)
Oh, they are coding.

**Kevin Follonier** (4:08)
What do they code? Are they working on the army of agents?

**Eric Larchevêque** (4:12)
Yeah, well, you know, it's like personal and business projects related to my new company, TBSO.