The Net Society crew is back together for a wide-ranging conversation on crypto, AI, art, and the strange timing problems shaping the current market. They begin with the disconnect between crypto prices and onchain growth, weighing durable signals like stablecoins, RWAs, ETH activity, and agent standards against leverage, volatility, and renewed concerns around Zcash. From there, the episode turns into a deeper debate about AI fast takeoff, IPO narratives, model costs, market bubbles, and whether rapid technological progress can still create near-term economic dislocation. The crew then shifts into digital art, asking whether the next wave of creative energy is moving away from traditional NFT markets and into AI-driven artistic production. They close by exploring the coming wealth effects of AI IPOs, the future of philanthropy, the millennial midlife crisis, personalized media, community, and whether AI should be shaped by sovereign wealth funds, taxes, or broader industrial policy.

Mentioned in the episode

AI is moving fast https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2062568862479208923

Third wave of American philanthropy https://nanransohoff.substack.com/p/the-third-wave-of-american-philanthropy

Gmoney and Hunter Biden? https://x.com/gmoneyNFT/status/2062888418229596409?s=20

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

• (00:00) - Crypto Drawdown vs Onchain Growth

The Net Society crew is joined by Alejandro from Fellowship for a full-episode debate on the state of NFTs, crypto art, and digital art in 2026. Sparked by Pri’s essay and Alejandro’s response, the conversation digs into what made NFTs feel new in the first place, from internet-native markets and global distribution to transparent ownership and community formation. Alejandro pushes on the limits of decentralization, arguing that while ownership and access may be open, attention, visibility, and support are still far more centralized than the space likes to admit. From there, the crew debates whether crypto art has drifted too far toward traditional art logic, whether collectors are asking the wrong things from the medium, and whether artists need to take bigger risks with work that feels native to the rails. They also explore the difference between crypto art, digital art, and contemporary art, before turning to attention, distribution, pricing, auctions, royalties, and the long hangover from the last NFT cycle. The episode wraps with a more open-ended conclusion: there is no single path forward, but the space probably needs more experimentation, more honest reflection, and less nostalgia for the moment when everything only went up.

Mentioned in the episode

Special guest Alejandro Cartagena https://x.com/halecar2

Pri’s ‘Stay Native’ article https://x.com/pridesai/status/2057851772924833837

Alejandro’s response https://x.com/halecar2/status/2058180410476019953

Joana’s response https://x.com/museumghostart/status/2058550572345704895

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - Pri’s Essay & Alejandro’s Response

The Net Society crew is back together for a wide-ranging conversation on AI IPO season, market structure, and where capital flows next. They kick things off by debating whether massive public listings from SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic could mark a top, a wealth creation event, or a new chapter in the AI economy. From there, they explore how the AI trade is pulling attention away from crypto, the role of data centers as the new bottleneck, and whether ETH benefits from building in the shadow of the AI boom. The conversation then turns to open source models, local AI, margin compression, and whether frontier AI companies should be valued like software businesses or utilities. Later, the crew gets into orbital data centers, regulatory arbitrage in space, and the “network state” taking its final form above Earth. The episode wraps with a cultural detour through paid speech, dead internet theory, New York discourse, vibe shifts, political exhaustion, and the strange experience economy of waiting in line for mediocre coffee.

Mentioned in the episode

SpaceX IPO https://x.com/FT/status/2057896888863510658

Sam Altman overdoses on GLP-1s https://x.com/Overlap_Tech/status/2056847843743162448

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - AI IPO Season & Retail Liquidity

The Net Society crew is back together to unpack a week of internet spectacle, AI froth, crypto privacy, and demographic anxiety. They kick things off with Shl0ms’ Monet fakeout, using the viral AI art discourse to talk about attention games, bots, and the strange durability of crypto art. From there, they debate Martha Stewart’s AI home management startup and whether celebrity-backed ChatGPT wrappers are a real consumer wedge or just another top signal. The conversation then widens into model commoditization, low switching costs, U.S.-China chip strategy, robotics, and the next phase of the AI race. The crew also digs into Zcash, financial privacy, Hyperliquid’s USDH drama, and the exhaustion of retail crypto getting co-opted by insiders. The episode wraps with a detour through World Cup bloat, declining birth rates, “full-time children,” family formation, and the unsettling prospect of pregnancy robots.

Mentioned in the episode

SCHL0MS Monet post https://x.com/SHL0MS/status/2054280631807316329

Martha Stuart Home AI https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260512987617/en/Martha-Stewart-Announces-Hint-a-New-Home-Management-Platform-Built-on-Human-Expertise-and-AI

99% of people don’t use paid AI https://x.com/JohnLeFevre/status/2025334966884708846

Trump’s trip to China https://x.com/nypost/status/2055098939351650595

Robots working 8 hour shift https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2054603963996278786

Coinbase x Hyperliquid news https://x.com/coinbase/status/2054894760859504936

World Cup halftime show lineup https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/madonna-shakira-bts-co-headline-historic-final-halftime-show

Jasmine Sun China on AI and work https://x.com/jasminewsun/status/2055069143716766099

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - Shl0ms, Monet & AI Art Discourse

The Net Society crew is back together for a wide-ranging conversation on politics, crypto, AI, and the accelerating weirdness of the internet. They open with Spencer Pratt’s LA political rise, using it as a lens for how celebrity, AI slop videos, and direct-to-feed campaigning may be reshaping political media. From there, they compare LA and New York political content, Mamdani’s street-level style, and the possibility of a broader reform movement breaking through old institutional structures. The crew then turns to crypto, unpacking major token and infrastructure moves around Arc, Canton, Circle, public companies, and the growing convergence between blockchains and traditional finance. Consensus in Miami becomes a referendum on crypto’s cringe problem, before the conversation shifts into AI, where Anthropic, xAI, Colossus, Cursor, Grok, OpenClaw, Hermes, and agent harnesses all point toward a new phase of frontier technology competition. The episode closes by asking whether AI agents are following a DeFi-like arc: real innovation buried under waves of noise.

Mentioned in the episode

Spencer Pratt LA Mayor Campaign AI Slop vid https://x.com/charliebcurran/status/2051647381981290697

Mamdani Ken Griffin video https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2044508902809628760?s=20

Bullish acquires Equiniti https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/crypto-exchange-bullish-strikes-4-2-billion-deal-for-transfer-agent-in-tokenization-push-4af8f41f

Consensus 2026 memes https://x.com/cryptosmiff/status/2053175297818911145?s=20

And https://x.com/brookejlacey/status/2053196312091427119

xAI and Cursor https://x.com/xDaily/status/2052867330418335989

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - Spencer Pratt, LA Politics & AI Slop Campaigning

The Net Society crew is joined by John from SuperRare for a wide-ranging conversation on AI agents, headless software, crypto infrastructure, and the strange future of machine-mediated markets. They open with AI psychosis, neurotic models, compute subsidies, and the rising push toward CLI-first products, before exploring what happens when agents become the primary users of SaaS, payments, marketplaces, research tools, and crypto rails. From there, Aaron walks through a set of 2035 and 2040 agent economy predictions, including autonomous micro-enterprises, agent procurement, machine capital markets, self-sovereign AI, robotic factories, and AI-managed civic infrastructure. The episode then turns toward internet culture, Brian Johnson, peptides, crypto’s identity crisis, NFT market momentum, DeFi hacks, AI-assisted hacking, and the question of what new digital culture could actually bring buyers and creators back into the room.

Mentioned in the episode

Guest John from SuperRare https://x.com/SuperRareJohn

Rare protocol https://rare.xyz/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Bankr https://x.com/bankrbot

Brian Johnson Tweet https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/2049687845082910812

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

Everything is Casino. The Digital Art Timeline is a Church Basement Art Fair. New York is alive and well. Austin and El Segundo are hardware hot zones. Another Vibe Shift? The future of adaptive web design and AI UX. Etc....

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Substitute Producer/Editor: https://x.com/v_kirra
The usual Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

The Net Society crew records live from New York and opens with a familiar question in unfamiliar times: are we actually back, or just bouncing inside a bear market. From there, the conversation moves through competing views on crypto’s current state, with debate around institutional demand, stablecoin growth, ETF flows, and why the next leg up may still require more pain. The crew then explores what machine-to-machine payments could actually look like, from agentic software and API micropayments to the early shape of a machine-native economy. That leads into a sharp discussion on AI product building, where they argue that the models are already good enough and the real bottleneck is ambition, taste, and the ability to frame better problems. In the back half, they work through a run of crypto casualties and controversies, including Foundation’s collapse, Lattice shutting down, and the Bittensor Templar blowup, before closing on a more optimistic note: why so many of the most interesting builders in AI seem to come out of crypto, and how that culture may shape what comes next.

Mentioned in the episode

Response to Covenant https://x.com/const_reborn/status/2043083033969033610

Lattice winding down https://x.com/latticexyz/status/2044103611072835744

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - Are We Actually Back?

The Net Society crew opens in full doomer mode, unpacking the growing public backlash to AI and whether fear around job loss, surveillance, and elite control is hardening into a broader political movement. From there, they debate whether AI anxiety is overblown, whether the real effects on labor are already here, and how anti-tech sentiment differs from the internet’s earlier adoption era. The conversation then shifts into model safety, Anthropic’s posture, and the strange mix of hype, secrecy, and moral panic shaping the AI discourse. In the back half, Aaron spins out a wild but compelling Bitcoin scenario around the Strait of Hormuz and the possibility of a future fungibility crisis, before the group detours into Sam Altman media narratives, Satoshi speculation, and the enduring appeal of unsolved mysteries. They close on a more human note with a sharp travel riff on the Azores, network state jokes, Europe’s slower pace of life, and whether AI’s best case is not mass replacement, but a world where people work less and live better.

Mentioned in the episode

Sam Altman targeted in attacks https://x.com/nypost/status/2043616560921633060

Jasmine Sun - AI populism's warning shots https://open.substack.com/pub/jasmine/p/warning-shots?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

The Bronx is Burning https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29389.Ladies_and_Gentlemen_the_Bronx_is_Burning

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Producer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - AI Backlash, Fear & Political Resistance

With most of the crew out for the holiday, Pri and Chris hold down the fort for a loose but sharp conversation that moves from Gen Z Catholic revival to the state of crypto, digital art, and the social internet. They start with the strange resurgence of churchgoing among younger people, framing it as a reaction to loneliness, hyper-online life, and the search for meaning. From there, they turn to the muted vibes around EthCC and the broader sense that crypto conferences, NFT culture, and online art discourse have all lost some of their energy. The conversation digs into whether digital art is being absorbed into more traditional collecting structures, why the timeline feels broken, and how AI and agent culture are crowding out everything else. Later, they unpack OpenAI’s acquisition of TBPN as a play for distribution and influence, before pivoting into a discussion on Palantir, neurodivergence, labor, and the dangerous edges of techno-evolutionary thinking. The episode closes with reflections on political pendulum swings, Massachusetts’ economic drift, and a surprisingly long detour through sitcom canon, cultural durability, and what still holds up.

Mentioned in the episode

Gen Z’s Catholic Church https://x.com/Evie_Magazine/status/2039774646703161413?s=20

Marc Zeller on ETHCC https://x.com/Marczeller/status/2039975610282324389

TBPN has been acquired by OpenAI https://x.com/jordihays/status/2039756490387624327?s=20

Palantir Ontology https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2039020569115439598

ADIN: Homo Divergens: What If the Weirdos Are the Next Species? https://x.com/ADINresearch/status/2038752657125556240

Creators of South Park AI Company https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/matt-stone-trey-parker-deep-voodoo-ai-south-park-trump-1236552586/

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai

Production & Marketing

Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

Social: https://x.com/v_kirra

• (00:00) - Holiday Open, Gen Z Catholicism & Meaning in the Digital Age