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Jeff Booth has been sounding the alarm about the dangerous intersection of technology and debt for more than a decade. The Vancouver-based entrepreneur and bestselling author of "The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future" argues that our current economic framework represents one of history's greatest distortions. This artificial system prevents the natural benefits of technological progress from reaching everyone equitably.
"The natural state of a truly free market is deflation," Booth emphasizes early in our exclusive interview.
"When we compete to deliver value to others, we're constantly forced to provide more for less. With technology driving efficiency, prices should naturally decline rapidly. This cannot function within a debt-based system—they're fundamentally incompatible. A debt-based system requires perpetual growth."
Booth, who led the construction technology company BuildDirect for nearly two decades and now heads up venture capital firm Ego Death Capital, was recognized among Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
He has spent recent years building and investing around a central thesis: the future doesn't have to be dystopian. But achieving this hopeful vision requires embracing aligned incentive structures.
Global economic indicators paint an increasingly volatile picture. U.S. unemployment has climbed to 4.1%, corporate bankruptcies are at their highest since 2020, and credit card delinquencies have skyrocketed beyond pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, real wages remain stagnant against a backdrop of record debt: global debt surpassed $337 trillion this year, according to the Institute of International Finance.
Despite these challenges, prices continue rising. The cost of living across both the U.S. and Europe has forced millions of households to depend on short-term credit. In Booth's analysis, this outcome is embedded within the system's very design. He explains:
"When you approach a bank, that bank doesn't actually possess the money—it creates it through debt, and you pay interest on that obligation. This establishes a system where money must perpetually expand. It requires constant manipulation... If deflation occurs in a debt-based system and prices fall, then debt obligations reset and everything built upon that debt collapses."
We've never experienced a genuine free market, Booth argues, only variations of constrained economies dressed in competing ideologies.
"Communism, capitalism, socialism—they're all bound by constraints... We've never actually witnessed a truly free market in action."
For Booth, Bitcoin represents the first authentic global free market—one that resists manipulation. He reasons:
"If you had an open, permissionless, decentralized, secure protocol limited by energy expenditure that couldn't be altered by governments, it would instantly create the first genuine free market in human history."
In his view, Bitcoin "reprices the entire world" because it operates outside our debt and compounding interest system. All global assets are steadily losing ground against Bitcoin's scarcity-driven, deflationary model, with real estate serving as a prime example. While home prices may be rising in fiat terms, they're becoming dramatically cheaper when measured in BTC.
"If my house cost 300 Bitcoin five years ago and now it's just 12 Bitcoin, prices are perpetually falling in Bitcoin terms. It's not that my house increased in value; it's that the unit measuring its value has appreciated."
This paradigm shift explains why Booth encourages people not just to purchase Bitcoin, but to transition their time and energy toward it. And what does he say to those who believe it's too late to start stacking sats? Quite the opposite: "We're incredibly early," he smiles.
"Understand Bitcoin—truly understand it. Then acquire it, transact with it, and align your efforts with it. You'll help create the world you want to see, rather than drifting toward the one you fear."
This perspective feels counterintuitive in an era defined by widespread anxiety.
Booth believes our collective fear—whether about inflation, economic uncertainty, or geopolitical tensions—reflects our entrapment within a rigged game. Those in power benefit from maintaining cycles of uncertainty and fear.
"The only way monopolies can exist is through a bound system. Monopolies favor regulation. Who benefits from AI fear-mongering? Major AI companies, because prices can't be allowed to fall to their natural production cost."
In a genuinely competitive market, prices naturally decline until they match actual production costs (the marginal cost of production). Anyone attempting to charge more would be immediately undercut until prices settle as low as possible without producers losing money.
The cost of replicating software approaches zero, Booth notes, so when AI becomes essentially free, its abundance flows to all people (provided governments can't manipulate the currency).
Under a Bitcoin standard, he argues, technological deflation would ultimately benefit humanity rather than monopolistic gatekeepers.
"AI, robotics, Bitcoin—they form a perfect symbiosis. They reinforce each other. In that world, you become wealthier and wealthier, even without active participation."
The paradox, of course, is that while economic anxiety grows, Booth radiates optimism. He laughs:
"I'm ridiculously optimistic. I'm living in the optimism of builders who are creating this reality daily. When you witness this expansion happening at its current rate, it's impossible not to be extraordinarily optimistic."
Booth's core message centers on agency. He insists individuals possess more power than they realize.
"You personally have agency. Run a node. Transact with it [Bitcoin]. You don't need permission or to wait for anyone. You can simply begin."
As individual freedoms diminish globally, I ask about concerning developments like digital ID systems similar to those planned by the UK or Europe's CBDC initiatives. He points to emerging technologies like Nostr, the decentralized social protocol, and Fedi, a privacy-preserving wallet enabling anyone to create their own digital community.
"That's why I left Twitter. I'm on Nostr. It can't be shut down. My voice cannot be silenced there... And Fedi can't be closed. It's being used in authoritarian countries because it's life-saving technology. And it's available right now."
Ego Death Capital invested in Fedi three and a half years ago, recognizing that everyone would eventually fall into " centralized systems," and this technology needed to exist beforehand.
The name of his venture firm, Ego Death Capital, reveals much about his philosophy.
"It perfectly captures what I believe Bitcoin will eventually bring to everyone... There's a principle in Bitcoin: don't try to cheat it, because you'll only cheat yourself."
Booth's own journey toward this realization wasn't immediate. When he recognized that most of his work remained in the fiat system—even while championing Bitcoin's benefits—he felt like a hypocrite.
"I realized 90% of my efforts supported the system I was criticizing. Ego Death Capital was created to resolve that personal contradiction, allowing me to transition my time into the system I claimed to want."
He encourages others—entrepreneurs, creators, educators—to do the same:
"Everyone is trapped in pain and fear, scrolling through social media. Every problem in that system represents an opportunity to alleviate pain in the emerging one. You can create tremendous wealth by providing genuine value. That's the free market."
Booth's thesis that technology-driven deflation should be embraced rather than feared has never felt more relevant—or hopeful. According to the International Labor Organization, global youth unemployment approaches 13%, and Goldman Sachs warns that automation could displace 300 million full-time jobs by 2030. Yet Booth sees opportunity beyond this disruption.
"The same AI that people fear will destroy us will actually make life unimaginably abundant. If prices fall faster than wages, everyone becomes wealthier. But this can only happen within a system you can't manipulate—a true free market."
When I ask Booth if we'll live to see his envisioned world materialize, whether it will happen within our lifetimes, his response comes instantly. He beams:
"I already see it. It's the world I inhabit. It reminds me of William Gibson's quote: 'The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed.' You can live in this world tomorrow. It's simply a choice. The more you embrace it, the more it reflects back at you."
