Rudyard Lynch runs the popular YouTube channel WhatIfAltHist. We're both into applied history — namely, studying the past to forecast the future — and everything we spoke about fell under that rubric. We cover alchemy vs technology, left vs right, nature vs nurture, China vs America, communism vs wokeness, and (of course) networks vs states.Our overarching goal with the pod is to learn about the world to build new startup societies. If these ideas interest you, we're putting theory into practice at Network School, so do apply at https://ns.com.

OUTLINE

00:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history

03:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes

07:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software

09:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries

11:30 - The idea from Balaji that most influenced Rudyard: God, State, or Network?

13:25 - What is the most powerful force in the world: God, State, or Network

20:28 - Only 4% of Democrats marry Republicans

22:24 - The purpose of alchemy: how early alchemy lead to modern tech

33:25 - We have entered the age of the phrase

42:33 - The reading list: genetics books you should read

43:07 - Communism was based on economics denial, wokeness is genetics denial

50:49 - The Vitruvian Man: our moral responsibility to accelerate technology

57:42 - We are on the verge of global instability

1:20:43 - Internet community becomes physical community: The Network School (ns.com)

1:23:08 - Both Soviet and American empires were built on false premises

1:28:16 - Bitcoin is the strongest new identity

1:32:55 - The total military dominance of the Chinese drone armada

LINKS

https://youtube.com/@ns

https://ns.com

Where do you legally set up your DAO or web3 organization? You might check out the Marshall Islands. They recently passed a new bill that's a model for global crypto regulation. The Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Act of 2023 has several major features: it allows DAOs to be set up in 30 days, limits DAO liability for open-source, and makes clear that governance tokens are not securities.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ojbWm9HqVj0

Joe Lonsdale is one of the most prominent investors in technology. He's the co-founder of Palantir, 8VC, Addepar, and the Cicero Institute — and one of Balaji's longtime friends. We have fun talking about education, longevity, space, and the little matter of completely reforming all governments with the internet.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ny93ZjlR93g

Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, joins Balaji to talk about the new Solana Phone (https://solanamobile.com). The idea of the crypto phone is one where balances, encryption, privacy, and property rights are built into the very fabric of the operating system. Anatoly talks about how they did it.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/QIoXKWl4c4s

Bryan Johnson founded Braintree and sold it for $800M. Then he plowed the proceeds into eternal life. He turned himself into the world's most measured man, got completely jacked, wrote a book, and just launched the Blueprint store (https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com) for the world to copy what he's done. Now Balaji and Bryan talk about how we can extend lifespans through better technology.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/YvSX0rLyERs

Read Write Own (readwriteown.com) is a new book by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and founder of the largest crypto fund in the world. It's an important work that is simultaneously the best crypto tutorial for newcomers and an accessible reference for experts. Balaji and Chris are long-time friends and worked together at a16z for years. Here they discuss Read Write Own and the state of crypto in 2024.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_nIQztk5KWY

The $16B acquisition of Flipkart was the largest in Indian tech history. Balaji speaks with Flipkart founder/CEO Binny Bansal on how he built the company from scratch when Indian startups weren't even a thing — and how Flipkart's rise parallels the rise of India itself.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss talk with Balaji about how Washington, DC is losing crypto, while other countries like the UAE and Japan are winning web3.

OUTLINE

0:00 - I'm 6'5", 220, and there's two of me!

0:58 - Crypto flippening from America to Asia

7:15 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the US: Wyoming, Tennessee

8:10 - The SEC is a failed regulator

18:45 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions worldwide: Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai, El Salvador

27:31 - Winklevosses expanding in India

33:25 - What comes out of crypto?

35:45 - Flashback to 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt

37:01 - Crypto and AI, without the buzzword bingo

44:14 - The Winklevoss city

LINKS

1) Gemini: https://www.gemini.com/careers

2) Wyoming DAO law: https://legalnodes.com/article/wyoming-dao-llc

3) Tennessee DAO law: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/beyond-reasonable-daoubt-tennessee-s-limited-liability-statute-decentralized

4) UAE Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA): https://www.vara.ae/en

5) Japan Web3 support: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/04/06/japan-releases-web3-white-paper-to-promote-industry-growth-in-the-country

6) 2013 TechCrunch with Balaji, Naval, Winklevosses: https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/disrupt-sf-13-bitcoin-panel

YouTube: https://youtu.be/STbYujxjk1E

https://twitter.com/cameron

https://twitter.com/tyler

https://twitter.com/balajis

https://thenetworkstate.com

The President of Palau and Balaji discuss how the tiny island country is becoming a digital leader, experimenting with everything from on-chain identity to drone delivery.  

Despite having less than 20,000 citizens, Palau is a full UN member state. Its path to diplomatic recognition holds many lessons for aspiring founders of new communities. Joining Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. in this chat is William Wang, founder of rns.id, the Palaun government’s crypto identity partner.

OUTLINE 

0:00 - Intro 

2:03 - The Republic of Palau 

6:18 - Palau's path to sovereignty 

8:35 - How Palau is using crypto 

10:40 - The President's background 

16:51 - Returning to Palau 

18:42 - What is RNS.ID?

25:08 - Palau's government structure 

27:23 - Partnerships in Palau 

34:15 - Diplomatic relations 

36:29 - The advantages of small countries 

42:00 - Palau's developing technologies 

45:04 - Gaining diplomatic recognition 

48:59 - Outro  

VIDEO 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/3FuQvG2dmM4

CREDITS 

Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep

Images: twitter.com/elijah10t 

SOCIAL 

twitter.com/Surangeljr 

rns.id 

twitter.com/balajis 

thenetworkstate.com/podcast

Tobi Lütke (Shopify Founder & CEO), Kaz Nejatian (Shopify COO), and Balaji review how Shopify rose from tiny startup to $180B+ global economy, with an annual GMV on par with the GDP of New Zealand. In the process they touch on Hayek, the Hanseatic League, merchant cavemen, the history of the corporation, and the optimal level of platform decentralization.

OUTLINE

LINKS

VIDEO

CREDITS

SOCIAL