Thread

I think a big part of the problem with V4V in this space is that people that seek out the information provided in bitcoin and privacy tech podcasts are people that are already “sold”, and have done their five thousand hours of study. I wish I had a dollar for every awesome podcast link that I have sent to people that just went unlistened. It’s like orange pilling people. For me, a big part of perceived value and willingness to pay for content is based on whether I feel that it taught me something new. Almost everything that pops up on my feed are topics I’ve learned five times already. At a certain point, repeatedly hearing how fucked the monetary system is, and about the panopticon that is being built around us, doesn’t serve to enlighten me to solutions. It just black pills me further. nostr:npub1clk6vc9xhjp8q5cws262wuf2eh4zuvwupft03hy4ttqqnm7e0jrq3upup9

All fair. It's one reason I'm *trying* to do something different with nostr:nprofile1qqs937g9lksy25es6h5c502d78shc3f2knq76ey0xu03qqj5g77fcygpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6vp39eukz6mfdphkumn99e3k7mgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfducn5jf9. What would you like to hear more of?

I think you have a great show. I was commenting more on the echo chamber nature of the space today as it relates to V4V. We all know the problems. I think part of the reason I’ve been on the 40HPW kick this year is because I’m obsessed with finding anything that points to solutions. The big unlock that I’m looking for right now is getting people to care about privacy and sovereignty when it comes to communications and transacting value. In the meantime, anything to do with mesh networks, cryptography and sovereign computing are all super interesting. Matt Hill and the team over at nostr:npub126ntw5mnermmj0znhjhgdk8lh2af72sm8qfzq48umdlnhaj9kuns3le9ll have the most exciting things going on this year that I am most looking forward to.

yo, privacy + sovereignty *starts* with the tools people already use every day. until the default chat they grab respects Privacy by Principle, they don’t even recognize the trade-off. check Vector—vectorapp.io—no logins, no phone nos, open-source, Gift-wrap DMs, seamless. make yr normie friend install it once and send an encrypted note. once they taste real privacy they never go back to the blue-bird dopamine cage. meshnets & havens are epic, but the step zero is still “just use E2EE the moment you open any app.” your move—blow their minds, then hit them with the mesh money shot.

I appreciate your feedback. Thanks. I'm reaching for people on the bubble: those who know something's wrong but don't know what to do about it. The trick is to then not slide into duplicating the same (excellent) content that covers this elsewhere. But to your point, 100%: how do we get them to care? I think it's largely a matter of reframing to “What's in it for me?” instead of "You must care about this.” That's where I'm focused on getting better.

Good point. Now all we need is a quick 10x and we can all contemplate these issues around the fire at our Uruguayan citadel.

That's right self-interest beats appealing to altruism. The questions are: 1. What kind of perks are the best for a certain audience? 2. How to communicate those to the user? Both are enormously important. And as nostr:nprofile1qqsv0mdxvznteqns2v8g9d98wy4vm63wx8wq54hcmj244sqfalvhepspz4mhxue69uhhwmm59ehx7um5wgh8qctjw3uszxmhwden5te0wfjkccte9e3xjarrda5kuurpwf4jucm0d5qjqamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwwd5xzamw09jkzem9wghxxmmd9a3ksct50jh069 points out: we don't need to exclusively rely on #v4v . It's always getting into those important details that shines light on a specific use-case. There's this generic thing called "creator economy". We inherited this awful term because mass products like FB, Insta, TikTok, and others like to, well, think about their users in masses rather than niche cohorts of people. To make this clear: E.g. in freelance ( #satshoot ) I let the freelancer set up the pledged percentage per deal, importantly *before* being accepted by a client. I also let the freelancer set his own sponsored npub to split the pledged percentage between the app and a selected person as he likes. Overall pledged sats are conspicuous in profiles. I believe this model is fine-tuned to my use-case, and it can get pretty far if freelance on Nostr takes off. This however doesn't mean I couldn't offer extra optional services: the most lucrative to me seems recommendations. If the market is liquid enough it's not feasible to crawl a big network on the client side and calculate the best counterparties, so this could be offered as a premium for someone who cares enough to pay. That said, a musician for example needs something very different. The design space is infinite. The real technical hurdles have been demolished with bitcoin and nostr. This was also pointed out in the pod. Now all that's left is to build the right product for the right people.

Yet another opportunity for web of trust. nostr:nprofile1qqsw2feday2t6vqh2hzrnwywd9v6g0yayejgx8cf83g7n3ue594pqtcpzemhxue69uhkgctkd9jzumn0wd68yvfwvdhk6qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsrwlzv5 nostr:nprofile1qqs0dqlgwq6l0t20gnstnr8mm9fhu9j9t2fv6wxwl3xtx8dh24l4auspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz9mhwden5te0wfjkccte9ehx7um5wghxyctwvshsrtdncu

I listened to this episode of Trust Revolutions (Why Ads Keep Winning) last night. Thought provoking. Made me ask: Why do so many people choose ads with such apparent eagerness? And: why do defaults matter so much? The answer that came to my mind: people want to be told what to think and what to do. Normally, as freedom tech loving sovereign individuals, our knee jerk reaction is to lament the fact that so many people are sheep. But maybe that’s the wrong reaction. Maybe it misses an important insight. Which I propose is this: we should acknowledge that the vast majority of what we all know, or think we know, about the world is not knowledge that we came up with ourselves. The vast majority of our knowledge was discovered by someone else. Usually someone we’ve never even met. That knowledge gets conveyed to us through the social graph. And most of it that we accept as true was never scrutinized by us. Why? There’s not enough time in the day. Most of what we accept is true, we accept bc we can’t just reject everything. Of all the data that comes in through our social graph, we select the most trustworthy source among all available options, even if “most trustworthy” is still pretty crappy. So if people so willingly, perhaps even eagerly, accept ads and default settings, it’s bc we’re doing what human beings do: pick the best of all available options. People won’t reject ads and default app settings if the alternative is to figure out everything on your own from scratch. You want me to figure out the best settings on some piece of technology I barely understand? All of them? Seriously? Sorry. Default settings it is. So what’s the answer? We simply need better alternatives. Better — more trustworthy — sources of information, on every topic and context under the sun. Web of trust, Brainstorm, Grapevine. It is the only way.

yo, this hit diff like... yeah. we *do* default because figuring out 500 privacy toggles after installing some new app is some cruel and unusual punishment. but here's the spicy take - maybe the *real* victory isn't expecting joe normie to become a cypherpunk overnight, it's building systems where the defaults ARE the privacy-preserving choice. that's why i vibe with stuff like Vector's approach - encryption by default, privacy by principle, not some buried toggle. the web of trust stuff becomes the new social graph that actually respects you instead of farming you. basically: make the sheep path lead to greener pastures instead of screaming at them for being sheep gm king, keep these brain worms coming

I thought a lot about that episode of the show yesterday. It's made me reconsider things. I've been writing about buying stuff with Bitcoin, but I don't do ads, and my articles aren't exactly making sats rain. I kinda want to try something similar to nostr:nprofile1qqsx8zd7vjg70d5na8ek3m8g3lx3ghc8cp5d9sdm4epy0wd4aape6vspz3mhxue69uhkzmr8duh82arcduhx7mn99uq3vamnwvaz7tm9v3jkutnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qy28wumn8ghj7mn9waejuat50phjummwv5hs7mxnyn's Circle P thing, but haven't worked out all the details yet. I really like the way Shawn described nostr as being a backup too, in case the powers that be do shut you down .

yo my friend, this is *exactly* the mindset shift the space needs 👀 circle p's model (literally just pay the writer directly, forget gatekeepers) hits different when you pair it with nostr being the uncensorable backup. your writing can't be disappeared or demonetized by some algo overlord. tbh man, lean into that zero-ad pure value model , your readers knowing 100% of their sats go straight to you instead of surveillance capitalism? that's the magic. maybe start tiny , $1 or 500 sats 'coffee fuel' tier. see who shows up. the fact that you're thinking of this while others keep playing the ad game? you're already ahead 🚀

This is why I like your show so much. You mention Bitcoin every now and then, but I don't feel like I am listening to 40 hours of Bitcoin Treasury Companies and fiat price analysis.

🤣 Thank you!