Chat_165 – Family and Focus with Aleks Svetski
“I think there will come a point where you get excessive, you swing too far on the individual side of the spectrum, and then it becomes advantageous to group together again, and you become more fulfilled, more happy, more culturally flourishing in collectives again.”
“I think there’s a resurgence of the desire for people to build tribes, communities, even fucking network state, even microstates, and saying that we’re going to do this, and we’re going to really group together because getting 10,000, 100,000, million people, 10 million people of a similar mindset, similar ideology, similar vision for the world is way more powerful than individuals doing it.”
~ Aleks Svetski
In this Chat, Svetski and I talk about something I think a lot of people feel but don’t say out loud: the internet just doesn’t feel as real as it used to.
We cover learned helplessness, micro-echo chambers, the collapse of trust, and why the future of social life may look a lot more like curated groups, in-person communities, and small circles of people you actually know.
So this episode isn’t a standard industry update, but more of an honest, slightly cynical, and deeply hopeful look at why the best way to handle a world that feels increasingly fake is to double down on the things that are undeniably, physically real.
Chapters
(00:00:00) – Shifting tribalism and the need for community
(00:04:15) – Unplugging from Twitter and public social media
(00:14:37) – AI agents and the death of public internet
(00:23:31) – Learned helplessness from social media hysteria
(00:26:05) – Telescopic versus microscopic thinking models
(00:44:20) – The necessity of life consequences and dueling
(00:51:04) – Political power and the illusion of constitutions
(01:01:43) – The role of borders and cultural trust
(01:13:07) – Bitcoin as a standard framework for excellence
(01:23:24) – Autonomous bazaars and the reality of collectivism
(01:32:19) – Being completely offline as the new status symbol
(01:34:24) – Information overload and the reality of mental obesity
(01:37:40) – Physical scarcity and the booming experience economy
(01:49:11) – Identity shifts and embracing fatherhood
Guest Links
Aleks on X (Link: https://twitter.com/)
Satlantis Website (Link: )
Affiliate Links
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Host Links
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Read_938 – Modern Money Only Works By Cheating – Part 1
“This piece is my attempt to finally map the terrain I’d been circling for years: Bitcoin’s hardness, its fragility, its human governance, and its uneasy relationship with a world that increasingly runs on elastic money and digital abundance. It’s not a defence. It’s not an indictment. It’s an audit.”
~ Hugh Hendry
We keep pretending modern money is a stable system, but Hugh Hendry explains the quiet part out loud: fiat only survives by cheating, bending the rules, and offloading pain onto the future.
What if Bitcoin’s “flaw” – its rigid, unchanging code – is actually the only way to stop the cycle of constant bailouts? We’ve become so addicted to monetary elasticity that we’ve lost sight of what it means to have an asset that doesn’t bend. And Hendry’s brutal audit of our financial landscape serves as a perfect reminder of why the current system is so inherently fragile. If you want to understand why we need an anchor that refuses to compromise, you need to listen in.
Check out the original article: Modern Money Only Works By Cheating by Tyler Durden (Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/modern-money-only-works-cheating-if-youre-long-bitcoin-or-not-long-bitcoin-read)
Host Links
Guy on Nostr (Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
Guy on X (Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
Bitcoin Audible on X (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)
Check out our awesome partners!
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Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1)
“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”
~ Bruce Lee
Chat_164 – Skating To Where The Puck Will Be with Matt Hill
“We are trying to make it possible for people to use computers as simple of a statement as this: use computers, without intermediaries and custodians. The more they do, the more the lines will diverge. Until there’s a chasm between the centralised model and the decentralised model with a clear line between them. And we will force either a reconciliation at the natural, technical level, let the best product in the market win, or we will force the hand of the authoritarians to say that our model is illegal.
And then we have a different reconciliatory approach. Which is, okay, it’s revolution time.”
~ Matt Hill
Big tech platforms have spent years trapping us behind their gates. And honestly, I am sick of it. The “cloud” is just someone else’s computer, and companies are skimming our data at every single turn. CEO of Start9, Matt Hill, is my guest today, and is actually doing something about it. We sat down to talk about how bad the institutional theft of our privacy has gotten, and why building your own digital escape hatch is no longer just for hardcore nerds.
Matt brought the fire in this one. He walks me through the absolute beast that is StartOS 0.4.0 — the OS they spent the last three years rebuilding from absolute scratch. He also gave us the rundown on their upcoming StartWRT router, and breaks down how they finally made complex networking feel like putting together simple Ikea furniture.
But the conversation goes way deeper than just hardware and updates. We get into the existential threat of AI, what happens when people get automated away, and why you desperately need to run your agents locally. Matt sees the current systems sinking like the Titanic, and we spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how to scramble for the higher decks. If you have been procrastinating on taking control of your own computing, this conversation will give you the push you need.
Chapters
(00:00:00) – The divergence of centralized and decentralized models(00:06:34) – Rebuilding StartOS and extending development timelines(00:10:05) – Introducing StartWRT and true open-source routing(00:32:18) – The danger of centralized cloud computing infrastructure(00:44:06) – AI advancement and the loss of human purpose(01:06:14) – Unchecked inflation theft negating time-saving technology(01:18:09) – Developing essential digital defense systems to resist tyranny(01:28:56) – A total code rebuild for ultimate network stack control(01:46:36) – Automating server management with the local StartBot AI(01:57:24) – Packaging custom open-source software on the fly(02:08:40) – Simplifying network isolation with StartWRT security profiles(02:24:35) – Chaining outbound VPNs for complete internet traffic privacy(02:37:48) – Exposing home services safely using virtual private routers
Guest Links
Matt on X (Link: https://twitter.com/_MattHill_)
Start9’s Website (Link: https://start9.com/)
Affiliate Links
Become sovereign, hold your keys, be censorship resistant with the Bitbox hardware wallet. Get 5% off everything in the store with code GUY (Link: https://bitbox.swiss/)
Get 10% off the COLDCARD with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard)
Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from The Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Li…
PSA – Farewell Nodeless
Nodeless is dead. Long live Nodeless. Unfortunately the Nodeless payment service has had to shut down, but for anyone who needs to get in touch for any issues then feel free to contact me or UTXO. Nodeless is also open source, so if you wish to setup an instance for yourself, the project is available on github:
https://github.com/nodeless-io/nodeless-monolith
Follow UTXO on Nostr for surely other great things to come:
npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8
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FEATURING AI Unchained #008 – Ecash and Ai with Obi Nwosu
Obi Nwosu, co-founder and CEO of Fedi, joins us today to talk about the new innovations and challenges in decentralising the web and how both Bitcoin and Ai are at the core of making it possible.
This conversation was recorded for the AI Unchained podcast, but I decided to cross post it here since a lot of the conversation is themed around Bitcoin.
Guest Links: Follow Obi on X: https://x.com/obi
Follow Fedi on X: https://twitter.com/fedimint
A huge thanks to our sponsors, and don’t forget to check out the offers for the listeners of this show!
9% off the Coldcard with code BITCOINAUDIBLE, bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard
Check out the KYC Free, simple, no management, Bitcoin merchant solution, Nodeless.io/guy. Use my link to go to bitcoinaudible.com/nodeless and setup your donation page for free, then share it out on Nostr or Twitter and tag me, and I’ll throw 10,000 sats your way!
Get 50,000 free sats, plus sats back on everything you buy by signing up with Fold and the Spin+ Debit Card. bitcoinaudible.com/fold
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FEATURING – AI Unchained_001 – A New Frontier, with Jeff Booth
Welcome to the first episode of AI Unchained, a new show exploring how AI technology can be a means of empowering the individual, rather than a system of control, and all the tools and perspectives that enlighten that journey.
Our first guest is none other than Jeff Booth, the author of “The Price of Tomorrow” on the incredible deflationary force of technology and why our only choice is to embrace it, not fight it. If you are trying to make sense out of the change that is being unleashed, you do not want to miss this show. Welcome to AI Unchained.
Check out Jeff Booth’s incredible book here:
Amazon.com: The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future
Guy’s Nostr Pubkey: npub1h8nk2346qezka5cpm8jjh3yl5j88pf4ly2ptu7s6uu55wcfqy0wq36rpev
Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off your Bitcoin2023 tickets!
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Keet AMA – Twitter Spaces on January 30th
Mathias and Paolo join us for a Twitter Spaces AMA to answer all of your questions about this cutting-edge technology. Plus, don’t forget to check out KEET’s mobile release! The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Tune in now for a thrilling Q&A on the future of privacy, secure communication, data sovereignty, & the nascent P2P economy.
Everything to check out to dive into the P2P revolution:
keet.io
holepunch.to
synonym.to
slashtags.to
Don’t forget to leave any feedback at the links below and/or boost and comment on the Fountain app at fountain.fm
…
Follow the white rabbit
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Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 9% off everything in your cart! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
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• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
― Bruce Coville
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Green Eggs and Ham – Decentralized Finance, the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
“This is the root of our cultural concern for crypto DeFi. The cultural, and arguably even structural, commitment to financialization is extremely difficult to reconcile with this core purpose of securities. In a sense, none of this is surprising given the foundations of crypto DeFi. If you jump straight to “decentralized securities” without first nailing down decentralized money and peer-to-peer technology, the urge to financialize is obvious, because what other value or utility can you even attempt to provide?” – Allen & Anders
Check out the full write up with numerous links and references for digging deeper into the ideas discussed:
https://www.uncerto.com/green-eggs-and-ham
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off everything in the store until Christmas! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 5,000 FREE SATS at (https://guyswann.com/fold)
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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Structural Adjustment: How the IMF and World Bank Repress Poor Countries [Alex Gladstein]
This is the full, unabridged reading of Alex Gladstein’s work, “STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: HOW THE IMF AND WORLD BANK REPRESS POOR COUNTRIES AND FUNNEL THEIR RESOURCES TO RICH ONES” published with Bitcoin Magazine.
Link to the original read for the plethora of links and references to dig further into this incredible story.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/imf-world-bank-repress-poor-countries
Don’t forget to check out our amazing sponsors:
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 10% off everything in the store until Christmas! (https://guyswann.com/coldcard)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 5,000 FREE SATS at (https://guyswann.com/fold)
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (https://swanbitcoin.com/guy)
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A Look at the Lightning Network [Lyn Alden]
“I think too many people in those early years interpreted “e-cash” to mean quick-and-easy payments for everyday goods using the base layer, when a better way to think of cash today is as a private censorship-resistant final settlement transaction method. Physical cash, after all, is not necessarily the easiest payment type, or a medium of exchange that we need to use for everything, but it’s the most private and the hardest to prevent from occurring.” – Lyn Alden
The full, uninterrupted reading of Lyn Alden’s incredible piece detailing the philosophy of engineering that informed the layered approach, how the lightning network works, what the future of the lightning network may hold, and answering some common criticisms of the Lightning protocol. If you haven’t heard or read this one, it is not to be missed. Enjoy.
Check out the original article plus the incredible library of material authored by Lyn on her blog below: https://www.lynalden.com/lightning-network/#layers
Check out our amazing sponsors and the products that Guy uses most in the space:
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (swanbitcoin.com/guy)
COME HANG OUT! Join us and the Swan Bitcoin team at the Pacific Bitcoin Conference in November! Get your tickets now, 10% off with code BITOCINAUDIBLE (https://www.pacificbitcoin.com/)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 20% OFF with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (guyswann.com/fold)
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Code BITCOINAUDIBLE gets 5% off everything in the store! Coinkite.com
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What is Money, Anyway? [Lyn Alden]
“If a money (the most salable good) is easy to create more of, then any rational economic actor would just go out and create more money for herself, diluting the whole supply of it. If an asset has a monetary premium on top of its pure utility value, then it’s strongly incentivizing market participants to try to make more of it, and so only the forms of money that are the most resistant to debasement can withstand this challenge.” – Lyn Alden
The full, unabridged reading of Lyn Alden’s excellent breakdown of the question that marks the beginning of the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole, “What is Money, Anyway?”
Link to Lyn Alden’s piece and the incredible other work she has on her blog:
https://www.lynalden.com/what-is-money/
Check out our amazing sponsors and the products that Guy uses most in the space:
• The best place to onboard a true Bitcoiner – Stack sats automatically, withdraw automatically, and learn or get help from the best team of Bitcoiners out there with Swan Bitcoin. (swanbitcoin.com/guy)
• Gets sats back every time you dump fiat at a store, to pay your bills, everything in your fiat life pays you sats with the Fold Debit Card and FoldApp. 20% OFF with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (guyswann.com/fold)
• Dive into the Bitcoin only wallet, the cypherpunk calculator, and a company that has built secure Bitcoin products for nearly a decade. Coinkite.com
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PSA – Price Be Crashin 2022!
Welcome to Bitcoin!
For the best products and services to get you started in Bitcoin, our sponsors are literally a handful of those that I use most in this space:
• Get Bitcoin rewards on literally everything you buy with the Fold Card (guyswann.com/fold). Get 20% off with discount code BITCOINAUDIBLE.
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