“The history of social change shows us that it’s not fear that leads to better situations. It’s Hope.” – Rabble
My guests today are Ben Arc and Rabble. Ben is a FOSS (free and open source software) hobbyist and activist, founder of LNbits, bitcoin/lightning software and hardware builder, and creator of one of the first twitter clones utilizing the nostr protocol. Evan “Rabble” Henshaw-Plath is a social media pioneer, Jack Dorsey’s former boss at Odeo (where they worked together on code that would become what we now know as twitter/x), and and creator of Nos social, a nostr client. In this episode we discuss all things social media and how Bitcoin-inspired tech like Nostr aims to reinvent social media as an open ecosystem beyond the control of big tech gatekeepers. Beyond social media and bitcoin, we discuss culture, how we interact with one another in this rapidly evolving and information intensive world, and hope we have for social change. It’s such a pleasure to sit with two technology/social media pioneers like Ben and Rabble and hear their reflections on the world and a possible path forward.
Ben Arc twitter: https://twitter.com/arcbtc nostr: https://primal.net/p/npub1c878wu04lfqcl5avfy3p5x83ndpvedaxv0dg7pxthakq3jqdyzcs2n8avm Rabble: twitter: https://twitter.com/rabble nostr: https://primal.net/p/npub1wmr34t36fy03m8hvgl96zl3znndyzyaqhwmwdtshwmtkg03fetaqhjg240 Trey: https://nostree.me/Trey@progressivebitcoiner.com
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Start 00:00:06 Introducing Guests 00:06:02 Bitcoin and Social Media 00:17:16 Building on Nostr 00:25:21 Freedom of Association 00:31:15 Economics and Social Change 00:38:52 Hopes for the Social Web 00:45:30 Sponsor Ad 00:46:05 Early Adoption Challenges 00:55:01 The Shock Doctrine 01:10:00 Building Connections 01:18:10 Conspiracy Theories 01:27:02 Catastrophe and Control 01:35:10 Slow Change Over Sudden Revolution 01:41:00 Where to Find the Guests 01:45:36 Conclusion
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