📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ Why does China build so much faster—and what does that reveal about two very different ways of running a society? Ryan and David sit down with Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, to unpack China’s “engineers-in-charge” model versus America’s “lawyerly” governance. We cover how this shapes daily life and growth (from subways and high-speed rail to batteries, EVs, and drones), common wes ...

I think Naval has this line where it's, you know, it best to be wealthy and anonymous. Do do you believe anonymous. Yeah.Rich and he said the opposite of that is poor and famous, which the only example I could come up with is like Monica Lewinsky or something like poor and famous of like of like everybody knows you but you didn't even make any money from it. That's that's the worst position to be in. But rich and anonymous is great.I think Jim Carrey had a similar thing. He was like if you think you want to ...

There's this great quote from Will Smith where he said, "Getting famous is amazing. Being famous is okay, and losing fame is the most miserable feeling that you could ever have." It's a great philosophy. >> He would know. Exactly.He has experience with all >> Rock slap in the face. >> Exactly. >> He's speaking from experience, but I think it's a great observation and I think it applies to money as well that getting rich is awesome.It's so much fun. Being rich is merely okay and losing wealth is mortifying. ...

Repression Technology Landscape - The repression technology sector is progressing rapidly, with surveillance, biometrics becoming more common and cheaper globally [1] - Digital repression technology includes surveillance technologies (mass, social media, targeted), censorship (firewalls, keyword policing), disinformation, and internet shutdowns [1] - Authoritarian states often use a system of repression, balancing different tools for different purposes, combining physical and digital techniques [3][4] - The level of sophistication in applying digital repression is key, with subtle manipulation of online conversations and planting distractions being more effective than blunt censorship [4] Nepal Case Study - Nepal's government attempted to enforce a law requiring platforms to register, suspending approximately 26 platforms, which triggered mass protests [2] - Protesters in Nepal used encrypted communication technologies like Signal and Telegram, and reportedly cryptocurrency [1] - The Nepal government primarily used censorship and internet shutdowns, combined with "lawfare," to suppress dissent [2] Geopolitical and Economic Factors - China has become a preeminent model for authoritarian technology, exporting its technology and techniques to other countries [5][6] - Western companies, including Meta, have also contributed to powering repression, both in China and elsewhere, particularly in disinformation campaigns [6] - The economics of digital repression make it cheap and scalable, driving its adoption [15] Future Trends and Concerns - The combination of AI and drones is a concerning future technology [15] - Predictive policing, hypercharged by algorithms and AI, raises concerns about profiling, false positives, and infringement of civil liberties [15] - AI-driven automation in targeting, as seen in warfare, can lead to higher civilian casualty rates [16] Financial Repression - Financial repression, including debanking and control over financial transactions, is a key element of digital authoritarianism [19] - Vietnam's requirement for biometric data for bank accounts and transactions above $750 is an example of financial control [20] - Cryptocurrency can serve as a liberation technology to circumvent government financial controls [21] Countermeasures and Individual Actions - Maintaining a strong emphasis on politics, voting, and organizing is crucial to counter technological determinism [21] - Individuals can use encrypted communication apps like Signal and practice self-censorship on public social media [24][25] - Establishing a pipeline to cryptocurrency can provide a financial escape route if needed [29]

Model Overview - OpenAI's new video generation model features a face and voice scan for user verification and digital clone creation [1] - The model's flagship feature, Cameo, allows users to insert themselves into videos and collaborate with others [1] Potential Applications - The technology enables the creation of personalized video content featuring real people [1] - Collaboration features allow multiple users to be featured in the same video [1] Technical Challenges - Addressing potential issues with AI server stability is a concern [2]

Google Maps, for instance, made no money for years, but now there's ad revenue inside of Google Maps because it they figured out that like, oh, people are using this on a massive scale. It's providing a ton of utility. We can stick ads in there.And so Google Maps is just top offunnel adoption for Google and Ethereum like onchain sovereign identity. If the whole world's like internet citizenship standard is on Ethereum, that's just a massive top offunnel magnet to the entire world. And at the bottom of that ...

DeFi is far from perfect, not really that decentralized, not really that safe. From the perspective of a wealthy first world citizen, safe DeFi can be unattractive. But for the other 90% of the world that doesn't have the privilege of using trustworthy financial institutions under the purview of a reliable government, local banks are shady, regulation is unreliable, and confiscation is always just one bureaucrat's signature away.DeFi fixes this. We are exporting the best banking system of the world to every ...

What are banks like? What function at their core for society do banks perform? Wow, I love that that question. I have to put a plug in before I even answer it for the book that I wrote about a decade ago with Steve Haber called Fragile by Design, which is um about the modern era from the perspective of banks. that is understanding the history of the world from the perspective of something that started about 400 years ago which is the chartering of banks. So the first thing in answering your question that so ...

We also have some other Fed rate cuts that people predict are are coming. >> So it's not just the 0.25% that we got cut yesterday. There is going to be another 25 bips in October or at least is what Poly Market is predicting with an 80% probability >> that we're going to get another 25 bips cut on October 29th and another 25 bips cut on December 10th.So it's not just about getting 25 bips now. It's about the trend of we're going to get 75 bips cut by the end of the year is what the poly market people are pr ...

We got the first Fed rate cuts in almost a year. Thanks, Powell. December 2024 was the last time they did it. They cut it on the 25 basis points.So, it was pretty much as prediction markets predicted. Want to look at the the Fed fund rates over the a 10-year time horizon even longer. So, we've been up in the five range all the way from 2023 and then it sort of started to drop in the end of 2024 and then we've been hovering at this uh 4.25% range and now we're down another 25 basis points.So, it's not the 50 ...