WEBVTT 00:00:05.899 --> 00:00:08.119 Welcome to the Bitcoin Street Journal Bitcoin 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:11.179 Market Update, Episode 4, Week 21, Tuesday, May 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:15.220 31, 2023, Headline News Edition. Stay ahead of 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:17.500 the game and subscribe to our podcast for daily 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:20.000 live Bitcoin market updates, Bitcoin technical 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:23.820 analysis, BTC price movements, market capitalization 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.980 and market supply news. Don't wait for the government 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:29.120 and central banks to interfere with your Bitcoin 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.039 holdings. Take control and tune into the Bitcoin 00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:34.700 Street Journal. In today's episode, we'll cover 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:38.479 the rise of Noster, an open, censorship -resistant 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:41.060 social media network that allows users to take 00:00:41.060 --> 00:00:43.179 their profiles to any competitor with the same 00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:46.219 protocol, the background and development of Noster's 00:00:46.219 --> 00:00:49.240 creator at Fiat Jeff and the support he has received 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:52.079 from industry leaders, including Jack Dorsey, 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.920 Noster's expansion to include Bitcoin rewards 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.640 in video games, Dorsey's investments in Noster 00:00:57.640 --> 00:00:59.820 and his donations to support its development. 00:01:00.219 --> 00:01:02.679 and the challenges facing Nostra developers, 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:05.980 including monetization without centralized advertisers 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.260 and threats to centralization and lack of payment. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.719 The Bitcoin Street Journal has published an article 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.920 that takes a deep dive into Pac -Man, Bitcoin, 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:26.540 and a recent Forbes article about the origins 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:31.000 of a developer known only as at Fiat Joff. The 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.459 editors of the Bitcoin Street Journal have extensive 00:01:33.459 --> 00:01:36.219 experience with Pac -Man and have been shadow 00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:38.620 banned by social media platforms for being pro 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.519 sound money, known as Bitcoin, which led to the 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.599 creation of this episode. The developer at Fiat 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:47.480 Jaff, who is reclusive and disenfranchised with 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:50.040 social media options like Twitter, tells Forbes 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:52.280 how he created his chat and payment service for 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.519 people who dislike corporate control. Welsh software 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:58.980 developer Ben Ark first met at Fiat Jaff in 2019. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.560 while hacking a Pac -Man arcade game to make 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:04.840 it accept Bitcoin. After having difficulty using 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:07.959 software designed to simplify the process, ARK 00:02:07.959 --> 00:02:09.919 sent a message to a mailing list for Bitcoin 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:13.199 developers. The only person who wrote back to 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:16.879 me was at Fiat Jeff. Their most notable effort 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:20.080 is a protocol called Noster, which lets users 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.780 take their profiles and followers to any competitor 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:25.800 using the same protocol, a network of interoperable 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:28.710 networks. That concept has been gaining traction 00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.229 with at least a dozen decentralized social media 00:02:31.229 --> 00:02:33.810 alternatives accumulating millions of users in 00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:36.849 recent months, spurred in part by dissatisfaction 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:39.490 with Twitter's policies regarding privacy censorship 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:43.710 and civility. Noster, short for notes and other 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:46.509 stuff transmitted by relays, initially generated 00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:48.629 interest among people savvy enough to know how 00:02:48.629 --> 00:02:51.349 to interact with it. But with only a few hundred 00:02:51.349 --> 00:02:53.629 thousand users, it caught the attention of Jack 00:02:53.629 --> 00:02:56.490 Dorsey, co -founder and former CEO of Twitter, 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:00.860 who donated 14 Bitcoin to Atfiyajaf, worth about 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:03.659 $200 ,000 at the time, who is now distributing 00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:06.379 the proceeds to developers working on additions 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:10.400 to Noster. More recently, Dorsey donated $5 million 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.539 to Noster, even though he invested $13 million 00:03:13.539 --> 00:03:16.340 in a similar decentralized social media project, 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:19.500 BlueSki. Meanwhile, Noster improvements have 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:22.280 made the network easier to access, and it has 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:24.360 developed the ability to transfer Bitcoin among 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:28.819 users. Already 500 ,000 daily Noster users have 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:33.060 sent each other 792 ,000 tiny Bitcoin transactions. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:35.780 This article is based on multiple interviews 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.280 with Atfiat Jaff and people around the world 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:40.719 who have joined him in what many consider a social 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.300 movement. Forbes agreed to honor his request 00:03:43.300 --> 00:03:45.439 for anonymity because he feared for his safety. 00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:48.280 Some of his personal details were impossible 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.780 to verify, but whatever could be corroborated 00:03:50.780 --> 00:04:02.550 checked out. Let's talk about at Fiat Jeff who 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:05.430 was born in Brazil in 1991 and how he became 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:08.349 one of the pioneers of cryptocurrency. Raised 00:04:08.349 --> 00:04:10.469 by entrepreneurial parents, he was from an early 00:04:10.469 --> 00:04:13.330 age aware of the negative impact taxes and regulations 00:04:13.330 --> 00:04:16.870 had on businesses. One day while on a field trip 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:19.730 to a local Fiat auto factory, he received a hat 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:22.069 with the company's logo. This would later play 00:04:22.069 --> 00:04:24.850 a role in his online identity. Fast forward to 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.389 his university days, where at Fiat Joffe studied 00:04:27.389 --> 00:04:29.509 economics and fell in love with the Austrian 00:04:29.509 --> 00:04:32.149 School of Economics. He stumbled upon Bitcoin 00:04:32.149 --> 00:04:35.029 in 2011 on a website dedicated to Ludwig von 00:04:35.029 --> 00:04:37.529 Mises, one of the founders of the Austrian school. 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:41.649 When the cryptocurrency was worth only $15, immediately 00:04:41.649 --> 00:04:44.810 he began mining it on his computer. Despite spending 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:47.790 all night mining, he only ended up with 5 ,000 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.949 satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, now worth 00:04:50.949 --> 00:04:55.300 $0 .0003. At Fiat Jaff started writing software 00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:57.399 that merged Bitcoin with other decentralized 00:04:57.399 --> 00:05:00.540 technologies, resulting in his 2018 creation 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:02.980 called PILN, which allowed servers to charge 00:05:02.980 --> 00:05:05.420 Bitcoin for storing files on a decentralized 00:05:05.420 --> 00:05:08.680 database. This eventually led to his breakthrough 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:11.779 in June 2019, when he started working on his 00:05:11.779 --> 00:05:14.699 own version of Diagon Alley, an idea that could 00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:16.980 let virtual shop owners move their store from 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:20.800 Amazon to the dark web and back. After months 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:23.350 of hard work and dedication, T. Fiat -Jaff's 00:05:23.350 --> 00:05:26.750 ideas matured into what he calls the Noster Manifesto. 00:05:27.470 --> 00:05:29.670 Noster is a global social network that operates 00:05:29.670 --> 00:05:32.490 on a series of instructions on how to build interoperable 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:35.290 applications. Instead of the public key identifying 00:05:35.290 --> 00:05:38.470 a token like Bitcoin, it defines a user and there 00:05:38.470 --> 00:05:41.350 is no underlying blockchain. A lot of things 00:05:41.350 --> 00:05:43.689 people wanted to see built on Bitcoin, says Ark, 00:05:44.129 --> 00:05:46.910 could actually be built on Noster. Interestingly, 00:05:47.529 --> 00:05:49.990 a month after Fiat -Jaff published his manifesto, 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:53.540 Twitter CEO Dorsey proposed a similar idea called 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:56.139 BlueSki. Though they came up with the same idea 00:05:56.139 --> 00:05:58.740 independently, it goes to show the significant 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:00.879 impact that Fiat Jeff has made in the world of 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:12.800 cryptocurrency. Have you heard of Nostr? It's 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:15.339 a fascinating protocol for creating decentralized, 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:18.079 interoperable identities. And the founding of 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:21.019 Nostr? was accelerated by a perfect storm of 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:24.339 controversial Twitter events. In January 2021, 00:06:24.939 --> 00:06:27.259 Jack Dorsey banned Donald Trump from the social 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:30.540 media platform. Then Elon Musk bought the company 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:33.000 and quickly alienated many of its most loyal 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.420 users by charging for services they considered 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:37.980 vital. Though Noster had been in development 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:41.800 since 2019, founder at Fiat Joff was taking a 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:45.120 deliberately unorthodox path. There's no company. 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.430 There was nothing. he says, not even an intellectual 00:06:48.430 --> 00:06:51.550 property license. Instead, at Fiat Joff, opted 00:06:51.550 --> 00:06:54.029 for an ambiguous disclosure, putting the software 00:06:54.029 --> 00:06:56.829 in the public domain, potentially opening himself 00:06:56.829 --> 00:06:59.990 up to legal attack. Since anyone can build using 00:06:59.990 --> 00:07:02.050 the Noster standards, it's hard to say for sure 00:07:02.050 --> 00:07:04.550 when the first users of an app built on Noster 00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:08.389 signed up. But in April 2022, a slow trickle 00:07:08.389 --> 00:07:11.509 of new users became a downpour. Bitcoin engineer 00:07:11.509 --> 00:07:14.329 William Kasserin launched Vancouver -based Damus 00:07:14.329 --> 00:07:17.029 on the Noster protocol. And shortly thereafter 00:07:17.029 --> 00:07:19.470 at Fiat -Jaff added Kasserine's upgrade to the 00:07:19.470 --> 00:07:22.029 Noster protocol, letting anyone build to the 00:07:22.029 --> 00:07:33.649 same specifications. We've got some interesting 00:07:33.649 --> 00:07:35.810 news regarding the intersection of social media 00:07:35.810 --> 00:07:39.069 and payments. It turns out that Block, a payment 00:07:39.069 --> 00:07:41.310 processing company founded by Twitter's former 00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:44.560 CEO Jack Dorsey, is now supporting a social media 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:47.420 platform called Noster. And let me tell you, 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:49.759 Noster is really making some waves in the world 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:52.879 of decentralized social media. They've been cultivating 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.480 a grassroots movement and now they've got the 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:57.920 attention of some big players. It all started 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:01.000 when a Serbian born developer known as Rockstar 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.420 got a little annoyed that Noster hadn't been 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:06.339 mentioned in a detailed analysis of decentralized 00:08:06.339 --> 00:08:09.769 social media ecosystems. So he took matters into 00:08:09.769 --> 00:08:12.269 his own hands and privately messaged Jack Dorsey 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:14.930 on Twitter, suggesting he take a closer look. 00:08:15.350 --> 00:08:18.089 And to Rockstar's surprise, Dorsey actually got 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:21.509 back to him. A few days later, Arnold Jun, a 00:08:21.509 --> 00:08:23.810 Twitter corporate development strategist, reached 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:27.029 out to Rockstar with interest in Noster. Jun 00:08:27.029 --> 00:08:29.329 said he had read Rockstar's write -up on Noster 00:08:29.329 --> 00:08:32.269 and really liked the simplicity of their approach. 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:34.769 But not everyone was thrilled about this new 00:08:34.769 --> 00:08:37.210 attention. In fact, at Fiat Jaff, one of the 00:08:37.210 --> 00:08:40.330 key players behind Noster wasn't pleased at all. 00:08:40.889 --> 00:08:43.309 He thought that talking to Jack Dorsey, who runs 00:08:43.309 --> 00:08:45.769 both Block and Twitter, was too dangerous for 00:08:45.769 --> 00:08:48.669 their grassroots movement. Rockstar, however, 00:08:49.009 --> 00:08:51.769 urged at Fiat Jaff to take the call. saying that 00:08:51.769 --> 00:08:53.950 the big players had too many talkers and not 00:08:53.950 --> 00:08:57.289 enough coders. Though skeptical, Atfiyachaf decided 00:08:57.289 --> 00:08:59.330 to take the call and find out more about what 00:08:59.330 --> 00:09:01.470 Block could offer to help Noster continue its 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:04.190 momentum. And it seems that Noster is not the 00:09:04.190 --> 00:09:06.470 only one benefiting from this new partnership. 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:09.669 Block has become a serious Bitcoin investor with 00:09:09.669 --> 00:09:13.470 a pile of cryptocurrency worth $220 million as 00:09:13.470 --> 00:09:17.590 of December 31st, 2022. And now, with an eye 00:09:17.590 --> 00:09:20.409 on the burgeoning social commerce industry, Block 00:09:20.409 --> 00:09:22.710 is hoping to continue its growth by exploring 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:25.350 new ways to leverage the intersection of payments 00:09:25.350 --> 00:09:28.730 and social media. According to Accenture, the 00:09:28.730 --> 00:09:30.889 social commerce industry is expected to reach 00:09:30.889 --> 00:09:44.379 a whopping $1 .2 trillion by 2025. So you've 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:46.179 heard of social media platforms like Twitter 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:48.620 and Facebook, but have you heard of Noster? It's 00:09:48.620 --> 00:09:51.259 a new social network built atop the Bitcoin blockchain, 00:09:52.419 --> 00:09:54.419 meaning there is no central authority and users 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:57.519 own their own data. Jack Dorsey, the billionaire 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:00.019 CEO of Twitter, has already shown support for 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:02.840 Noster by giving the founders a whopping 14 Bitcoin, 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:06.700 about $10 ,000 at the time. This May, he also 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:09.679 donated $5 million to a nonprofit dedicated to 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.340 supporting Bitcoin efforts, specifically to fund 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:15.879 Noster development. But as Noster grows, developers 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:17.879 are struggling to find a sustainable business 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:20.980 model. Traditional social networks generate revenue 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:24.200 by charging for ads, and blockchain social networks 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:27.399 pay users in crypto to avoid centralization. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.419 However, Noster developers are looking for a 00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:33.059 different way to keep the lights on. For example, 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.860 Zebedee and ARK's EllenBits are building products 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.799 that let users charge Bitcoin to host their own 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:42.220 servers. Meanwhile, Deimos is experimenting with 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:45.220 a tool that lets users directly support the company. 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.519 But centralization risks are also a concern for 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:51.740 Nostr. Only a limited number of insiders have 00:10:51.740 --> 00:10:54.159 the right to add features to the GitHub repository. 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:57.080 An internal document shared with Forbes shows 00:10:57.080 --> 00:10:59.639 that Atfiyachoff has given seven people the power, 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:03.090 but few use it. Nonetheless, developers are still 00:11:03.090 --> 00:11:06.769 flocking to build on Noster, with 7 ,500 building 00:11:06.769 --> 00:11:09.789 26 relays to support the network and developing 00:11:09.789 --> 00:11:12.669 decentralized clones of Twitter and Reddit. One 00:11:12.669 --> 00:11:15.110 group even plans to create a geolocated service 00:11:15.110 --> 00:11:18.190 for decentralized taxis, like Uber, without a 00:11:18.190 --> 00:11:21.450 corporation. Despite the challenges, this new 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:23.429 kind of social network is gaining attention, 00:11:23.870 --> 00:11:26.539 even from experts like at Fiat Joff. whose latest 00:11:26.539 --> 00:11:29.059 project uses the Bitcoin blockchain to let experts 00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:31.799 place bets on future events with the goal of 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:34.039 providing investors more accurate forecasts. 00:11:34.419 --> 00:11:36.759 So let's see where this interesting experiment 00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:48.399 takes us. On today's episode, we learned about 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.220 the rise of Nostr, an open source network for 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:54.049 Bitcoin rewards and video games. and its creator 00:11:54.049 --> 00:11:57.029 Efiat Jaff's continued efforts to build an interoperable, 00:11:57.269 --> 00:12:00.090 decentralized social media ecosystem, supported 00:12:00.090 --> 00:12:02.929 by investors like Jack Dorsey and Bitcoin engineer 00:12:02.929 --> 00:12:05.870 William Kasrin. Thanks for listening to today's 00:12:05.870 --> 00:12:08.090 episode. I'll see you guys at the next one. And 00:12:08.090 --> 00:12:09.210 don't forget to subscribe.