S7 E2: Colin Aulds on Video Games, USSR History & VR

Colin Aulds describes himself as a Bitcoin accelerationist who is a humanist and a consequentialist before being a libertarian. His main job is to sell Billfodl metal plates and hardware wallets of all kinds on the PrivacyPros website, but he is also one of the four co-hosts of the Unhashed Podcast (his brother Bryan is another member of the quartet).

This episode of the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast concerns none of the roles and duties described above… though there is one small exception. In the beginning of the episode, I’ve asked Bryan Aulds to sing the theme song of the Unhashed Podcast, and then proceeded to sing the opening guitar song of my own project.

But after friendly musical contest, we decided it was time to get to the more serious matters: so we started talking about video games. See, Colin Aulds is such an enthusiast of interactive pixelated media and gaming consoles that his buddy Mike in Space publicly satirized his interest. This might just be the reason why the Privacy Pros CEO decided to kick off the discussion with an explanation on why video games are popular today among middle-aged men.

So we spoke about PlayStation 4 titles, covered the territory of next-generation console gaming, and then Colin mentioned Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and we inevitably changed the subject to talk about the USSR history and politics. Finding an American who finds fascination in the history of his nation’s Cold War nemesis is definitely a rare phenomenon. But part of it might be due to the kind of internet media he consumed, as Colin Aulds is responsible for introducing me to the YouTube videos of Bald & Bankrupt.

After we talk about the USSR and how Romania was never a part of it, we do touch a little bit upon American politics. Because nowadays it’s easiest to blame every phenomenon on something that the US presidents have done sometime in the last 233 years.

But we don’t let politics drain all the fun left in our discussion and swerve to the land of virtual reality. Colin Aulds is an early adopter of the Oculus Rift and seems enthusiastic about the technology, yet still awaits a headset design which is lighter and has fewer wires. We talk about the state of the VR industry, why it didn’t meet the expectations, and how close it might get us to living in the Matrix.

You can listen to my discussion with Colin Aulds in the marathon video attached above, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and my RSS feed (no signup required, so it’s best for privacy).

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