IMAGINE IF: MAKE FREEDOM PROFITABLE KEYNOTE

WEBVTT

NOTE
Transcription provided by Podhome.fm
Created: 10/14/2025 13:31:58
Duration: 657.666
Channels: 1

1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.820
So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable.

2
00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:20.985
That's what scales this movement. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin. Our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet. The solution is open source software and open protocols. The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature.

3
00:00:56.110 --> 00:00:59.250
Joining us on stage is Matt O'Dell.

4
00:01:02.830 --> 00:01:03.730
Thank you guys.

5
00:01:05.695 --> 00:01:08.595
Tough act to follow, but I'll try and make it worth your while.

6
00:01:09.535 --> 00:01:10.675
We'll see how this goes.

7
00:01:13.775 --> 00:01:18.655
It's impossible to make a slide deck without at least one UI error, but the year is 2025.

8
00:01:18.655 --> 00:01:20.755
We're gonna be talking about making freedom profitable.

9
00:01:23.229 --> 00:01:23.729
So

10
00:01:25.550 --> 00:01:28.530
the core problem that I've diagnosed in our society

11
00:01:29.150 --> 00:01:31.090
is we have a lot of problems, but

12
00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:40.545
the one that I think we can actually change and improve is that our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet.

13
00:01:41.405 --> 00:01:46.465
We rely on it, we spend way too much time on it and the way we built it out,

14
00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:54.939
the big tech paradigm, the way we built it out was through walled gardens, through big tech walled gardens. And as a result,

15
00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:59.500
the issue we're seeing now is we do not have freedom in the digital age.

16
00:02:00.915 --> 00:02:03.335
We're in a weird time where

17
00:02:04.355 --> 00:02:08.935
humanity is flourishing and productivity is growing and we're doing quite well,

18
00:02:10.195 --> 00:02:18.980
but at the same time we have less freedom than the generations before us. And I think people inherently struggle with this. They think about it all the time, but they don't

19
00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:20.819
realize there's a better path.

20
00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:26.500
And and where did this problem come from? This problem came from

21
00:02:26.955 --> 00:02:32.894
the business models. The the the business model of big tech is data surveillance primarily

22
00:02:33.194 --> 00:02:36.575
driven by ad models. We've effectively become

23
00:02:36.875 --> 00:02:45.630
digital cattle and they milk us for our data. We are the product and and they milk us for all it's worth. They sell that out to other tech companies,

24
00:02:46.569 --> 00:02:48.430
and then they monetize our attention.

25
00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:49.790
So their incentive

26
00:02:50.090 --> 00:02:56.865
is to addict us. Their incentive is to make us tied to our phones and tied to the platforms we use.

27
00:02:59.505 --> 00:03:03.845
Use. So what is the better path? What is the solution here?

28
00:03:04.705 --> 00:03:08.325
And the solution is open source software and open protocols.

29
00:03:11.410 --> 00:03:14.230
By going down that path, we can give individuals

30
00:03:14.610 --> 00:03:19.750
agency and freedom over their lives, and and they're able to choose the path they want to take.

31
00:03:21.650 --> 00:03:28.485
The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature. It's not controlled by a human, it's not controlled

32
00:03:29.585 --> 00:03:30.405
by corporations,

33
00:03:30.785 --> 00:03:32.245
it's not controlled by a government.

34
00:03:36.785 --> 00:03:37.525
It can

35
00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:39.560
go through generations.

36
00:03:39.940 --> 00:03:45.000
Generations of people improving it, using it, shipping it without permission.

37
00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:49.080
So how do we scale open protocols?

38
00:03:49.540 --> 00:03:54.365
How do we scale open source? Well, like many things in our life, money

39
00:03:54.825 --> 00:03:56.605
rules everything around us, and

40
00:03:56.905 --> 00:04:01.485
I think we're fortunate that we have a very organic and strong

41
00:04:02.185 --> 00:04:04.125
global open source community.

42
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:07.220
But life is short,

43
00:04:08.239 --> 00:04:16.260
and time is of the essence, and I think we need to speed it up. So the way we speed it up is by providing financial and other support

44
00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:23.085
to the many open source contributors around the world that are doing this with their own time. They are donating their own time,

45
00:04:23.544 --> 00:04:27.645
they are oftentimes not making money from it. And so we created OpenSats,

46
00:04:28.425 --> 00:04:29.645
which is a five zero one

47
00:04:30.104 --> 00:04:30.925
c three organization.

48
00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:48.985
100% pass through. If you donate to Open Sats, we do not take a cut of your donations. And we run the whole thing on Bitcoin. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin, the money that you can save and spend without permission is what makes it possible. We're able to run an incredibly lean operation.

49
00:04:49.685 --> 00:04:54.104
We're able to send out monthly grants to recipients in 40 plus countries,

50
00:04:54.884 --> 00:04:55.625
no wires.

51
00:04:56.645 --> 00:05:02.980
The world still runs on dollars, so we accept dollars, but we immediately convert it into Bitcoin, and because Bitcoin is the best money in the world

52
00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:05.060
we have more money in our treasury

53
00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:10.419
than we've ever raised in the lifetime of the organization, which is pretty pretty crazy.

54
00:05:12.585 --> 00:05:14.765
But I want to bring it back for a second

55
00:05:16.665 --> 00:05:18.765
to another two sets of open protocols

56
00:05:19.385 --> 00:05:22.605
that we've scaled our digital society on, which is the Internet

57
00:05:22.985 --> 00:05:24.125
and which is email.

58
00:05:25.705 --> 00:05:30.389
Now, the Internet has obviously changed society for the better. We've improved tremendously,

59
00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:31.910
we've been more productive,

60
00:05:32.290 --> 00:05:33.350
humanity has flourished.

61
00:05:35.010 --> 00:05:36.389
But on top of that,

62
00:05:37.330 --> 00:05:42.645
there's been these predatory business models that have scaled it out further, and that's where we end up in the situation

63
00:05:43.664 --> 00:05:45.925
where we do not have freedom in the digital age.

64
00:05:46.544 --> 00:05:56.450
So on this graphic, you might see, you know, a lot of the big tech companies here, but then you also see the open protocol that is email, and it's absolutely massive in comparison to everything else.

65
00:05:56.910 --> 00:06:01.090
What you don't see on this chart is about half those emails sent are Gmail.

66
00:06:02.110 --> 00:06:04.130
So another private corporation

67
00:06:04.510 --> 00:06:10.290
that has scaled out email, but in a very predatory way. They read all of your emails, they sell that data to advertisers.

68
00:06:11.445 --> 00:06:13.865
And now that we're seeing AI come into the picture,

69
00:06:14.485 --> 00:06:15.705
there's another model

70
00:06:16.085 --> 00:06:25.790
where they can also profit off of your data. Not only selling it to advertisers but building out LLMs, building out profiles on people and we're about to see it really accelerate and get even

71
00:06:26.970 --> 00:06:34.670
worse. So with all that said, what we're seeing is you have open source protocols, they compound really well, they scale pretty well,

72
00:06:35.370 --> 00:06:38.750
they promote human flourishing, but what scales them the best

73
00:06:39.905 --> 00:06:41.445
is for profit companies.

74
00:06:42.465 --> 00:06:43.205
But historically,

75
00:06:43.505 --> 00:06:45.445
they've had predatory business models.

76
00:06:46.865 --> 00:06:49.685
So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable.

77
00:06:50.385 --> 00:06:53.765
That's what scales this movement. That's what makes it happen quicker.

78
00:06:54.530 --> 00:06:56.870
And that's where 10/31 comes into the picture.

79
00:06:57.410 --> 00:07:00.070
Because at ten thirty one, we are focused

80
00:07:00.530 --> 00:07:02.230
on building profitable businesses

81
00:07:02.690 --> 00:07:05.190
that are sustainable and ethically aligned

82
00:07:05.570 --> 00:07:07.670
with the individual and with the user.

83
00:07:08.005 --> 00:07:09.705
Rather than the user being the product,

84
00:07:10.165 --> 00:07:11.545
the user is the customer,

85
00:07:12.245 --> 00:07:14.825
and our interests are aligned with them.

86
00:07:16.325 --> 00:07:19.385
So all that is really big picture, a little bit abstract.

87
00:07:20.325 --> 00:07:24.480
So I just wanted to dive in to the nitty gritty, give you some examples

88
00:07:24.940 --> 00:07:27.520
of what is happening right now in this ecosystem.

89
00:07:28.460 --> 00:07:30.640
So one of the companies we're supporting is Start9.

90
00:07:31.260 --> 00:07:32.880
Start9 is fully open source.

91
00:07:33.820 --> 00:07:35.920
You can use everything Start9 built

92
00:07:36.395 --> 00:07:39.935
and never pay them a penny. You can just build out your own Start Nine server

93
00:07:40.635 --> 00:07:53.120
on your own, never pay them anything. And what they enable is the ability to take everything we rely on in the cloud and bring it into your house, bring it into your office and easily run it yourself and have agency over it.

94
00:07:53.580 --> 00:07:56.000
And so then you ask, well, that sounds like a charity.

95
00:07:56.300 --> 00:08:00.160
No, they have a very strong business model, they should be profitable very soon,

96
00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:03.600
which is premium services and support.

97
00:08:04.805 --> 00:08:16.105
They also sell hardware, but you don't need to buy their hardware from them. You can imagine a situation where you could build your own iPhone, or you could buy the nice polished iPhone from Apple. It's kind of where Start Night is going.

98
00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:21.000
Then we have Maple, you're gonna hear from one of the co founders right after me.

99
00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:23.000
Maple is

100
00:08:23.780 --> 00:08:25.560
a incredibly secure AI

101
00:08:26.419 --> 00:08:30.039
where you can just chat with the AI, have completely private conversations,

102
00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:38.325
not worry about them building a profile on you. And what's really cool there too is they have an open API, so the way they do security

103
00:08:38.785 --> 00:08:41.925
in the Cloud, other people can build apps on top of it as well.

104
00:08:42.305 --> 00:08:44.885
And we can see a greater app ecosystem

105
00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:50.639
emerge around these core principles of security and privacy and agency.

106
00:08:51.660 --> 00:08:52.800
Then we have Primal.

107
00:08:53.420 --> 00:08:54.879
Primal is trying to build

108
00:08:55.660 --> 00:09:01.165
an open social layer for the world on top of the Nostra protocol and on top of the Bitcoin protocol.

109
00:09:01.785 --> 00:09:04.205
You own your identity, you own everything

110
00:09:05.225 --> 00:09:09.165
you build on the internet whether it's video streaming. This right now is streaming

111
00:09:09.545 --> 00:09:11.645
through Nostra viewable on primal.

112
00:09:12.390 --> 00:09:13.530
For the average user,

113
00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:16.090
you're just downloading in the App Store.

114
00:09:16.470 --> 00:09:18.890
But the coolest part is the entire stack

115
00:09:19.270 --> 00:09:26.330
is fully open source, anyone can modify it, anyone can distribute it, anyone can even sell the entire stack if they wanted to.

116
00:09:27.305 --> 00:09:32.125
How does Primal make money? Primal makes money through premium services aligned with the user,

117
00:09:32.665 --> 00:09:37.165
making sure that them and the user are both served to the fullest.

118
00:09:37.785 --> 00:09:43.740
And then we have Strike. Strike is a native Bitcoin business that just makes it incredibly easy to use Bitcoin.

119
00:09:44.520 --> 00:09:45.740
You can think of it as

120
00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:57.020
a more open competitor to a Cash App or a Robinhood. And it's built on basically two main open protocols, which is Bitcoin and then globally with Dollars, Tether.

121
00:09:59.555 --> 00:10:01.095
And the key here is

122
00:10:02.355 --> 00:10:04.935
the switching cost from something like a Strike

123
00:10:05.475 --> 00:10:08.855
versus something like a Robinhood is significantly lower.

124
00:10:09.475 --> 00:10:11.255
If Strike fails its users

125
00:10:12.170 --> 00:10:19.550
and a couple clicks, you can remove your Bitcoin, move to a different service, you can pay someone on Cash App, you can pay someone on Robinhood,

126
00:10:20.010 --> 00:10:24.910
you can pay someone on a self custody open source wallet, and Strike doesn't have control over that.

127
00:10:25.235 --> 00:10:27.095
So what I wanna leave you with here today

128
00:10:27.875 --> 00:10:33.015
is our goal needs to make freedom profitable. Our goal needs to make sustainable,

129
00:10:33.395 --> 00:10:34.935
profitable, ethical businesses,

130
00:10:35.635 --> 00:10:37.655
because anyone who's ever been involved

131
00:10:38.470 --> 00:10:42.490
in fundraising for charitable open source knows it's a forever grind.

132
00:10:42.950 --> 00:10:46.650
And the only way we scale, the only way we make this thing sustainable

133
00:10:47.110 --> 00:10:48.170
is if we have

134
00:10:48.621 --> 00:10:51.920
profitable businesses that are built on top of it. Thank you all.