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From 10 epsHost
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Recent episodes
Self-Custody for You and Your AI | Roland Bewick
Mar 6, 2026
58m 44s
Your Data's Already Gone. Now What? | James Lee
Feb 26, 2026
1h 11m 11s
Your Money, Your Data, Your Mind | Jesse Posner
Feb 19, 2026
1h 21m 38s
S03E04 John Robb — Total Surveillance Is One Switch Away
Feb 13, 2026
1h 10m 49s
S03E03 Aaron van Wirdum – Bitcoin's Origin Story and the Unfinished Fight
Feb 6, 2026
1h 04m 50s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/6/26 | ![]() Self-Custody for You and Your AI | Roland Bewick✨ | self-custodyBitcoin+3 | Roland Bewick | Alby HubBitcoin+3 | January 2025 | self-custodyBitcoin wallets+3 | — | 58m 44s | |
| 2/26/26 | ![]() Your Data's Already Gone. Now What? | James Lee✨ | data breachidentity theft+4 | James Lee | Identity Theft Resource CenterChoicePoint | — | data breachidentity theft+5 | — | 1h 11m 11s | |
| 2/19/26 | ![]() Your Money, Your Data, Your Mind | Jesse Posner✨ | self-custodypersonal AI+3 | Jesse Posner | VoraBitcoin+5 | — | self-custodypersonal AI+5 | — | 1h 21m 38s | |
| 2/13/26 | ![]() S03E04 John Robb — Total Surveillance Is One Switch Away✨ | surveillanceAI+4 | John Robb | TwitterBitcoin+1 | — | surveillanceAI+3 | — | 1h 10m 49s | |
| 2/6/26 | ![]() S03E03 Aaron van Wirdum – Bitcoin's Origin Story and the Unfinished Fight✨ | Bitcoindigital cash+4 | Aaron van Wirdum | Bitcoin Magazine | — | Bitcoindigital cash+5 | — | 1h 04m 50s | |
| 1/30/26 | ![]() S03E02 Jason Hughey – Companies Don't Keep Promises. People Do.✨ | trustorganizational behavior+3 | Jason Hughey | BitcoinEnron+3 | — | trustintegrity+3 | — | 1h 03m 40s | |
| 1/22/26 | ![]() S03E01 Oscar Merry — What Joe Rogan Lost for $100M✨ | podcastingcreator economy+3 | Oscar Merry | SpotifyFountain+3 | — | Joe RoganSpotify+7 | — | 1h 07m 46s | |
| 12/18/25 | ![]() S02E16 Pippellia – Reputation Without a Kill Switch✨ | decentralized reputationWeb of Trust+3 | Pip | VertexNostr+3 | — | reputationPageRank+5 | — | 1h 08m 58s | |
| 12/12/25 | ![]() S02E15 Christian Keroles – What Dissidents Know About Bitcoin✨ | Bitcoinhuman rights+4 | Christian Keroles | Human Rights FoundationBitcoin Magazine+1 | RussiaMyanmar+1 | Bitcoinhuman rights+5 | — | 54m 37s | |
| 12/5/25 | ![]() S02E14 Why Ads Keep Winning✨ | advertisingvoluntary payment+3 | — | NPRWikipedia+7 | — | Big Techadvertising revenue+3 | — | 24m 07s | |
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| 11/26/25 | ![]() S02E13 Cory Doctorow – Why Every Platform Betrays You | “The smallest government you can have is determined by the largest corporation you're willing to tolerate.” Cory Doctorow didn't just coin “enshittification”—he mapped the precise mechanics of how every platform you depend on will eventually turn against you, and why voting with your wallet won't save you. Episode Summary Cory Doctorow breaks down the three-stage process by which platforms lure users in, lock them down, and extract maximum value until the whole thing collapses. Using Facebook as the prototype, he traces how lock-in happens automatically through what economists call the collective action problem—your friends hold you hostage, you hold them hostage, and no one can agree when to leave. The solution isn't to shatter these platforms but to evacuate them through interoperability mandates and adversarial jailbreaking that lets users maintain connections while migrating to alternatives. Doctorow argues that the coming “post-American internet” will emerge as other nations realize they no longer need to tolerate US tech dominance now that tariff threats have materialized anyway—creating an unlikely coalition of digital rights advocates, profit-seeking entrepreneurs, and national security hawks who all want the right to modify and replace American firmware. For individuals, he's blunt: join the EFF or a similar collective and stop agonizing over consumption choices. Boycotts only work when they're organized, and the energy you spend debating whether to stay on X is energy you should spend building systemic change. About the Guest Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist who works as a special advisor for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and edits the daily blog Pluralistic. He coined “enshittification,” named the American Dialect Society's 2023 Word of the Year, and has authored over 30 books, including the recent Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. A former European Affairs Coordinator for EFF who helped establish the UK Open Rights Group, he holds honorary doctorates from York University and the Open University and serves as a Cornell AD White Professor-at-Large and MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate. He lives in Burbank, uses Linux on a Framework laptop, and remains doggedly enthusiastic about RSS. Mastodon: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorow Blog: https://pluralistic.net Website: https://craphound.com Key Quotes “The smallest government you can have is determined by the largest corporation you're willing to tolerate. And if you want a smaller government, have that government first and foremost enforce antitrust law.” — Cory Doctorow “People who tell you to vote with your wallet typically have thicker wallets than you and anticipate winning that vote.” — Cory Doctorow “We don't want to shatter the platforms. We want to evacuate them.” — Cory Doctorow Key Takeaways Lock-in happens through your relationships, not technology: The collective action problem means your friends hold you hostage on platforms—you can't leave until they do, and they won't until you do. This automatic lock-in is why platforms can degrade service without losing users. Interoperability is the escape hatch: The same tactics Facebook used to poach MySpace users (bots that scraped your feed and pushed replies back) could evacuate today's platforms. Mandating protocols like ActivityPub, combined with legal protection for adversarial jailbreaking, creates “supple but strong” pressure that companies can't easily evade. The post-American internet is coming: Other nations accepted US tech dominance to avoid tariffs. Now that tariffs exist anyway, a coalition of entrepreneurs (who want to cream off monopoly profits), digital rights advocates, and national security hawks (who fear Trump bricking their tractors) are converging on the same solution: jailbreak American technology. Individual action matters less than collective organizing: Stop agonizing over whether to stay on Twitter. If the platform still serves you, use it—then spend that freed-up energy joining EFF, organizing a union, or supporting mutual aid. Boycotts work only when they're coordinated; consumption choices are not politics. Timestamps [00:00] Cold open: Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse pivot as peak enshittification [03:53] The three stages of enshittification using Facebook as case study [09:48] Why this isn't collusion—it's unshackled business seeking its ideal form [14:16] How tech consolidation enables regulatory capture [26:12] Protocols vs platforms: Why Bitcoin isn't the answer [33:06] Interoperability: How Facebook killed MySpace with the same tactics we need now [37:05] AT&T's 69-year breakup and why anti-monopoly law matters [44:53] The post-American internet: Why other nations will jailbreak US tech [52:37] Technology as alchemy vs science—why secrecy makes everything worse [58:42] Hollowing out platforms vs shattering them [1:02:01] Bright spots: Digital Markets Act and bipartisan interoperability momentum [1:05:09] Good regulation vs induced mistakes—the UK water system catastrophe [1:10:30] Practical advice: Join EFF, stop agonizing, organize Resources & Links Electronic Frontier Foundation — Digital rights nonprofit Doctorow recommends joining Break Them Up by Zephyr Teachout — Referenced book on monopolies The Underground Empire by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman — Book on weaponized American infrastructure Podcast: Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man | 1h 14m 15s | ||||||
| 11/19/25 | ![]() S02E12 Average Gary – From classified ops to open source | Operating under a pseudonym fits the ethos—sovereignty starts with controlling your identity. Average Gary brought the “thinking shooter” principle from Naval Special Warfare into Bitcoin: you don't need to know every answer, but you need to know where to find it. His path from military intelligence through Microsoft to large-scale Bitcoin mining reveals how decentralized systems reward proof of work over credentials and why open source tears down the walls between citizens and the institutions meant to serve them. Episode Summary Average Gary spent 11 years in Navy intelligence as a Chinese linguist and Naval Special Warfare tech operator, learning discipline, cross-functional thinking, and how to act decisively in dynamic environments. He transitioned to Microsoft as a software engineer, where mentors guided him into Rust programming, then moved into FinTech before landing at a large-scale Bitcoin miner. His journey reveals how military training in networked analysis and independent action translates directly to decentralized technology work—where reputation systems replace bureaucratic credentials and proof of work matters more than permission. The conversation explores how open source development creates pathways from government service into sovereignty-focused tech, why Bitcoin aligns with veteran values of independence and service, and how showing up consistently in local communities builds resilience against centralized system failures. Average Gary's work with Bitcoin Veterans and the Shenandoah Bitcoin Club demonstrates that the transition from centralized institutions to freedom tech isn't about abandoning service—it's about finding better tools to serve with. About the Guest Average Gary is a software engineer at a large-scale Bitcoin miner and founder of the Shenandoah Bitcoin Club in Northern Virginia. He served 11 years in Navy intelligence, including roles as a Chinese linguist at the Defense Language Institute and tactical intelligence specialist with Naval Special Warfare. After his military service, he worked as a software engineer at Microsoft and in FinTech before moving into Bitcoin. He's active in Bitcoin Veterans, an organization helping military veterans understand and adopt Bitcoin, and regularly contributes to open source projects focused on sovereignty and decentralization. Connect with Average Gary: Nostr: https://primal.net/gary GitHub: https://github.com/average-gary Key Quotes “You can just do things, but when you do it, you better have an answer as to why you did it.” – Average Gary “If you show up and you're a good human being, if you put this excess time and energy that you've unlocked by saving in Bitcoin to good use in your direct immediate area, I think you're going to be rewarded.” – Average Gary “The best centralized system is when you control it, and I think anybody has the opportunity to do that in their local area.” – Average Gary Key Takeaways Open source creates sovereign career paths: Contributing to open source projects builds a public proof of work resume that matters more in Bitcoin than corporate credentials—Average Gary emphasizes finding projects that improve government transparency or serve your community, then building your reputation through visible contributions. Military discipline translates to decentralized work: The Navy's “thinking shooter” concept—knowing enough to act independently while understanding where to find answers—applies directly to Bitcoin development, where you need cross-functional awareness but don't need permission to contribute if you can justify your work. Reputation systems replace bureaucracy: In Bitcoin's reputation-based industry, your GitHub contributions and project work speak louder than degrees or corporate experience—this levels the playing field for anyone willing to put in visible, verifiable work regardless of their background. Local action builds systemic resilience: As centralized systems fail and Bitcoin creates new wealth, showing up consistently in local communities—coaching teams, joining churches, attending council meetings, or running ham radio clubs—creates the social capital and infrastructure needed when grid-dependent systems break down. Timestamps [00:00] Career arc from Naval intelligence to Bitcoin mining [05:30] Transitioning from military to Microsoft, learning Rust [09:45] Why family and bureaucracy drove the shift from Navy to tech [15:20] FinTech experience and recognizing surveillance in financial systems [22:10] How Naval Special Warfare training shapes decentralized thinking [28:35] Defense Language Institute, Chinese linguistics, and data analysis [33:50] The “thinking shooter” concept and cross-functional awareness [38:15] Moving to a large-scale Bitcoin miner as a software engineer [42:40] Bitcoin Veterans: helping military community understand Bitcoin [47:25] Why open source matters for government transparency [52:30] Building proof of work resumes through GitHub contributions [56:07] Local community action as centralized systems fail [59:10] Closing thoughts on consistency and showing up Resources & Links Mentioned in Episode: Defense Language Institute (Chinese linguist training) Naval Special Warfare (tactical intelligence operations) Rust programming language Kali Linux (penetration testing distribution) Bitcoin Veterans: https://bitcoinveterans.org Shenandoah Bitcoin Club: https://shenandoahbitcoin.club Podcast: Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man | 59m 57s | ||||||
| 11/13/25 | ![]() S02E11 Stephen DeLorme – Bitcoin and Freedom by Design | “It's really difficult to engineer freedom tech—solutions that require you to kind of take ownership of your money, take ownership of your data. These things typically have engineering solutions that are harder to build; they might take a longer time to build, or it might actually require the user to kind of learn something new.” Two days after Square unleashed Bitcoin payments on four million merchants, we're asking the uncomfortable question: what if buttery-smooth UX beats self-custody every time? Episode Summary Stephen DeLorme designs Bitcoin products at Voltage and helps run Atlanta's ATL BitLab. He's spent years working on the UX problems that make freedom tech hard to use. This conversation explores the tension between purity and adoption, recorded just 48 hours after Square's custodial Bitcoin launch reached millions of merchants. DeLorme argues that freedom tech's disadvantage isn't just technical—it's that most people in stable democracies don't feel the urgency to own their data or money until it's too late. He breaks down why good UX isn't just a design problem but an engineering challenge, how privacy tools gain users when partisan panic swings every four years, and whether beautiful surveillance will always beat ugly freedom. The stakes: if self-custody tools remain hard to use, centralized alternatives win by default. But DeLorme sees a path forward—freedom tech that works its way into daily life without users even knowing it's there, turning ideology into infrastructure one better product at a time. About the Guest Stephen DeLorme is UX/UI Leader at Voltage, where he works on Bitcoin infrastructure and Lightning Network products. He co-founded ATL BitLab, Atlanta's Bitcoin hackerspace that hosts weekly meetups and developer events. Previously, he received a Spiral grant to contribute Lightning Network UX best practices to the Bitcoin Design Guide. He's also working on the Bitcoin Builder Kit, an open-source component library at Voltage designed to make Bitcoin UX easier for developers and consumable by AI systems. Before focusing on Bitcoin, DeLorme worked as a graphic designer and web developer, bringing a rare combination of design thinking and technical implementation to freedom tech products. Key Quotes “I don't think it has to involve friction. There's this kind of idea that as something becomes more accessible, when you find something early on, you like it more because you had to work hard to find it. I don't like that kind of hipster mentality of just because something is more accessible it's no longer good.” — Stephen DeLorme “Good user experience is not just a design problem. Some UX problems have design solutions and some have engineering solutions. Sometimes it's just about working until we have the optimal engineering solution to make this stuff easier to use.” — Stephen DeLorme “Privacy doesn't need to be a partisan idea. You're always at risk of having your privacy breached. But every four years as the pendulum swings, we get a new crop of people interested in privacy tech.” — Stephen DeLorme Key Takeaways UX is both a design and engineering problem: Most Bitcoin products fail not because the interface is ugly but because the underlying engineering makes simple tasks complicated. Better UX often requires better protocols, not just prettier buttons. Freedom tech carries structural disadvantages: Self-custody solutions are harder to build, take longer to develop, and require users to learn new mental models. This creates a persistent advantage for centralized alternatives that abstract away complexity at the cost of control. Privacy adoption follows partisan cycles: Privacy tools see adoption spikes every four years when political power shifts and each side fears surveillance by the other. This creates opportunities to onboard users who stay for the technology even when their partisan panic subsides. Beautiful surveillance may win by default: If freedom tech remains clunky while centralized alternatives stay frictionless, most users will choose convenience over sovereignty—not because they don't value freedom, but because the cost of claiming it feels too high. Timestamps [00:31] Square's Bitcoin launch and the custody versus UX tradeoff [02:40] Stephen's background: from graphic design to Bitcoin product design [05:36] Does self-sovereignty require friction, or is that hipster gatekeeping? [08:03] Learning software deeply versus making everything easy to use [11:47] Why most people don't need freedom tech until it's too late [16:22] Freedom tech's inherent engineering disadvantages [21:15] The manual problem: when learning curves actually helped users [27:08] Merchant adoption versus user sovereignty in Bitcoin payments [35:42] Why governments resisted Bitcoin but not the Lightning Network [41:28] Intention theft: when free products extract value you don't see [48:19] Privacy as a cyclical adoption driver tied to partisan politics [54:37] Building Trojan horses: freedom tech that wins by being useful first [1:00:10] What if most people prefer beautiful surveillance over ugly freedom? Resources & Links Guest X: https://twitter.com/StephenDeLorme Nostr: npub1nxy56ame2gfnfj6fjylzxwq7r94phvgwt037mmvwr60qsqlaseksswlnxl Personal Site: https://d.elor.me Voltage: https://www.voltage.cloud ATL BitLab: https://atlbitlab.com Bitcoin Design Community: https://bitcoin.design Mentioned in Episode Square Bitcoin Payments Launch: Jack Dorsey announcement Bitcoin Builder Kit: Open source component library at Voltage (in development) Twelve Cash: Simple username for Bitcoin payment info at twelve.cash Podcast Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man | 1h 06m 28s | ||||||
| 11/5/25 | ![]() S02E10 Dan Gould – Turning privacy into Bitcoin's economic edge | “Bitcoin exists to remove intermediaries from the movement of money online. Without privacy, if someone can see how money is moving, they don't like someone you paid, they can discriminate based on that.” — Dan Gould Dan Gould builds PayJoin, the privacy protocol that breaks Bitcoin surveillance while cutting transaction fees up to 25%. Satoshi flagged Bitcoin's privacy problem in the white paper—PayJoin solves it without mixing, turning surveillance assumptions into dead ends. When privacy becomes an economic benefit rather than a cost, adoption follows. Episode Summary Dan Gould reveals how PayJoin breaks the core assumption that chain surveillance companies use to track Bitcoin users across the network. By allowing both sender and receiver to contribute inputs to a transaction, PayJoin shatters the multi-input heuristic—the dragnet surveillance tool that assumes all inputs come from the same person. This isn't just privacy theater: PayJoin delivers up to 25% fee savings while protecting financial activity from arbitrary discrimination. Gould explains why Bitcoin's Fourth Amendment moment hasn't arrived yet, how interactive batching supercharges both privacy and efficiency, and why merchant adoption creates network-wide privacy improvements even for users who aren't running PayJoin. The protocol requires no trust in third parties, no heavy dependencies like Tor, and works asynchronously so participants don't need to be online simultaneously. With integrations rolling out across wallets and exchanges, PayJoin shifts privacy from an expensive add-on to a default cost reduction. Privacy, cost savings, censorship resistance—or you can keep broadcasting your transaction history to chain surveillance firms. About the Guest Dan Gould is maintainer of PayJoin Dev Kit, a privacy-focused Bitcoin development toolkit supported by OpenSats and Spiral. He launched PayJoin Foundation with eight independent contributors and a volunteer board to eliminate the server requirement that blocked widespread adoption of privacy-preserving Bitcoin transactions. Gould's work on serverless PayJoin (BIP 77) enables asynchronous transaction coordination through encrypted messages, removing the barrier that prevented mobile wallets and merchants from implementing the protocol. His approach treats privacy as infrastructure rather than luxury—breaking surveillance heuristics while reducing fees makes adoption inevitable rather than aspirational. Social Links: X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitgould GitHub: https://github.com/DanGould Website: https://bitgould.com Substack: Privacy sans Mixing Email: dan@payjoin.org Key Quotes “Bitcoin exists to remove intermediaries from the movement of money online. Without privacy, if someone can see how money is moving, they don't like someone you paid, they can discriminate based on that.” — Dan Gould “Satoshi said all the inputs necessarily come from the same person. That assumption—the multi-input heuristic—is used to dragnet surveil everyone on Bitcoin. PayJoin is the simplest way to break that privacy problem.” — Dan Gould “Where else do you get to increase or improve privacy and pay less for it? Anytime you're using a custodian, assuming you trust that custodian completely with your privacy, you are getting fee scaling benefits. But the problem is you have to trust that custodian.” — Dan Gould Key Takeaways Surveillance companies exploit the multi-input heuristic: Chain analysis firms assume all inputs in a Bitcoin transaction come from the same person—PayJoin breaks this assumption by letting sender and receiver both contribute inputs, rendering surveillance attempts unreliable across the entire network. Privacy delivers economic benefit, not cost: PayJoin reduces transaction fees up to 25% through interactive batching and cross-input signature aggregation while simultaneously protecting financial activity—making privacy adoption a cost-saving measure rather than an expensive trade-off. Asynchronous coordination eliminates server requirements: Serverless PayJoin uses encrypted mailbox messages allowing participants to transact without being online simultaneously, removing the infrastructure barrier that prevented merchant and mobile wallet adoption. Network-wide privacy improves even for non-users: When PayJoin transactions look identical to standard transactions, surveillance firms can't safely apply their heuristics—meaning increased adoption creates privacy improvements for all Bitcoin users regardless of individual PayJoin use. Timestamps [00:00] Why PayJoin works like HTTPS—making surveillance unreliable across the network [02:11] PayJoin Foundation launch: Eight contributors building privacy infrastructure [04:30] How exchanges batch withdrawals to reduce fees without sacrificing privacy [08:32] Bitcoin's Fourth Amendment gap—why digital cash has less protection than physical [14:42] Breaking the multi-input heuristic that enables dragnet Bitcoin surveillance [20:15] Interactive batching supercharges Bitcoin transactions with privacy and cost savings [27:45] Why merchants get fee benefits while improving customer privacy [35:20] Cross-input signature aggregation delivers 25% fee reduction with privacy [42:18] Serverless PayJoin removes infrastructure barriers through encrypted mailboxes [48:30] Lightning integration: PayJoin for channel opening and splicing [52:26] Essential privacy hygiene for self-custody Bitcoin users [54:27] How developers integrate PayJoin into wallets and e-commerce platforms [56:17] Six-month roadmap: Production integrations and multi-party PayJoin advances Resources & Links Projects & Organizations: PayJoin.org - Protocol documentation and education PayJoin Dev Kit - Developer toolkit with Rust, Python, Kotlin, Swift, and WebAssembly bindings PayJoin Foundation - Nonprofit coordinating development and adoption OpenSats - Funding source for PayJoin development Spiral - Additional development funding Referenced Technologies: BIP 77 (Async PayJoin) - Serverless payjoin specification BIP 78 - Original payjoin protocol HPKE (Hybrid Public Key Encryption) - Encryption without Tor dependencies Cross-Input Signature Aggregation - Fee reduction through signature compression Mentioned Organizations & Projects: BTCPay Server - Early PayJoin implementation Bull Bitcoin - First mobile wallet with integrated PayJoin send/receive Cake Wallet - Recent PayJoin V2 integration Liana - Wallet with time-locked recovery exploring PayJoin integration Bolts Exchange - Integration proof of concept from MIT Bitcoin Expo Podcast: Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man | 59m 44s | ||||||
| 10/22/25 | ![]() S02E09 Tim Bouma — Digital ID architect builds the escape route | “You cannot have trust without some form of governance. And governance is basically rules.” Tim Bouma has spent two decades inside government building Canada's digital identity framework. He's also building on Bitcoin. This is the conversation about what he's learned straddling both worlds, why centralized architecture creates problems that better policy can't fix, and why the future isn't about choosing between government systems and freedom tech—it's about understanding what each reveals about trust itself. Episode Summary Tim Bouma dissects the architecture of institutional trust from a unique vantage point: architecting Canada's Pan-Canadian Trust Framework while building Safebox, a Nostr-based wallet designed so no single entity can shut it down. Currently on interchange assignment from Treasury Board Secretariat to Canada's Digital Governance Council, Bouma inhabits both worlds simultaneously—developing government standards for digital identity while experimenting with permissionless protocols. The conversation reveals why this isn't contradiction but synthesis: every trust framework embeds assumptions about who verifies, who controls rules, and who bears costs. Traditional frameworks optimize for institutional coordination across jurisdictions; Bitcoin optimizes for permissionless participation. Bouma argues the choice isn't technical but political, and that understanding centralized systems deeply is prerequisite to building alternatives that actually work. His work demonstrates that simplicity isn't rejection of complexity—it's what emerges after you've wrestled with every edge case bureaucracy creates. About the Guest Tim Bouma is Special Advisor to Canada's Digital Governance Council, currently on interchange assignment from his role at Treasury Board Secretariat where he spent over a decade developing federal identity management policy. He was a key architect of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework, working across federal, provincial, and territorial governments to create interoperable digital identity standards. For years, Bouma has maintained parallel work in both realms: developing government trust frameworks while simultaneously building on Bitcoin, Nostr, and peer-to-peer protocols. He's currently building Safebox, a wallet architecture designed so no single entity can shut it down, applying first-principles engineering to explore how cryptographic systems can provide trust without institutional intermediaries. Key Quotes “You cannot have trust without some form of governance. And governance is basically rules. And if you look at the etymology of the word governance, it means to steer.” — Tim Bouma “Bitcoin is the simplest trust framework. It's just proof of work, signatures, and clear incentives. Everything else is somebody's opinion about how trust should work.” — Tim Bouma “When you build identity systems for governments, you're building surveillance infrastructure whether you intend to or not. The question is who controls it and what constraints exist on its use.” — Tim Bouma Key Takeaways Trust frameworks are governance mechanisms: Every trust system embeds rules about who can participate, who verifies claims, and who resolves disputes. The Pan-Canadian Trust Framework demonstrates how collaborative governance across jurisdictions creates complexity that ultimately serves institutional coordination needs over individual sovereignty—the more parties involved in framework design, the more compromise and overhead required to maintain consensus. Complexity preserves power: Legacy identity systems remain complex because simplification would expose how much control intermediaries extract. Government digital identity programs optimize for institutional efficiency (reducing fraud, streamlining service delivery) rather than individual autonomy—the business case always prioritizes the institution's needs, not the citizen's sovereignty. Bitcoin replaces trust frameworks with proof systems: Rather than building elaborate governance to determine trustworthiness, Bitcoin uses cryptographic proof and economic incentives. This reduces the need for human judgment and institutional oversight, but doesn't eliminate governance—it shifts it to protocol rules and miner incentives that are transparent and auditable by anyone. Self-sovereign identity still requires trust registries: Decentralized identity solutions promise individual control but require someone to maintain lists of valid issuers, establish credential schemas, and resolve disputes. Moving from centralized databases to distributed ledgers doesn't solve the fundamental question: who decides what's true? Timestamps [02:15] Why Tim spent a decade building government identity frameworks and what he learned about institutional trust [08:42] The Pan-Canadian Trust Framework: collaborative governance as trust infrastructure across federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions [14:20] How digital identity programs become surveillance systems regardless of privacy-preserving design principles [19:55] Self-sovereign identity versus state-issued identity: moving governance rather than eliminating it [26:33] Why complexity in trust frameworks serves institutional coordination needs over individual sovereignty [32:10] Trust registries as the unavoidable bottleneck in decentralized identity systems—someone must maintain valid issuer lists [38:45] Bitcoin as the simplest trust framework: proof of work, signatures, and economic incentives replace governance committees [44:18] The business case for digital identity always optimizes for institutions, not individuals—examining who benefits from efficiency gains [49:50] Why Bouma left framework architecture for Bitcoin: recognizing that the best framework has the fewest assumptions [54:25] Nostr and peer-to-peer protocols as alternatives to identity systems—reputation without registration [58:30] The future of trust isn't better frameworks, it's simpler protocols with clearer incentives Resources & Links Tim Bouma: X: @trbouma LinkedIn: Tim Bouma Medium: Tim Bouma Nostr: primal.net/trbouma Mentioned in Episode: Pan-Canadian Trust Framework Overview - Tim's foundational article Digital Governance Council - Canada's digital governance standards body Canada: Enabling Self-Sovereign Identity - Tim's article on SSI Trust over IP Foundation - Architecture for Internet-scale digital trust Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat - Federal management agency Podcast: Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man | 1h 25m 20s | ||||||
| 10/15/25 | ![]() S02E08 Trey Sellers – Power Without Permission | "If you go into a local community bank and ask for $50,000 in cash, you're going to get a lot of questions—and very likely they're going to say, 'Come back in a week, we need to order that.' The cash doesn't exist." Former Goldman Sachs risk manager Trey Sellers spent 15 years inside the machine before realizing the wealth you think you control is just a ledger entry someone else manages. Episode Summary Trust is breaking where it matters most: at your bank. Trey Sellers ran risk models at Truist and Goldman Sachs, managing billions in a system built on permission structures most people never question. Then Bitcoin showed him the alternative—wealth you actually own, not just exposure to. This conversation cuts through the why: institutions hold leverage through licensure and ledger control, creating money when they issue loans while your "savings" evaporates at 7% annually through inflation. Bitcoin inverts this—cryptographic ownership that requires no permission, no institution, no government blessing. Sellers walks through the Silicon Valley Bank collapse as a case study in why sovereignty matters, explaining how business owners couldn't make payroll because their cash was trapped in an insolvent bank. The path forward isn't abandoning the system overnight—it's understanding the power shift when money becomes a bearer asset you control. For executives and founders, this is strategic: Bitcoin on your balance sheet isn't speculation, it's a hedge against the trust failures already playing out in traditional finance. About the Guest Trey Sellers is Vice President of Sales at Unchained and author of FireBTC, a newsletter on financial independence through Bitcoin. He spent 15 years in traditional finance at Goldman Sachs and Truist (formerly BB&T), running risk models and managing institutional portfolios. After achieving financial independence in five years, he left Wall Street to focus exclusively on Bitcoin. Sellers writes weekly on how Bitcoin enables true financial sovereignty beyond traditional FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) frameworks. He lives with his wife and two daughters, applying low time preference principles to family wealth building. Key Quotes "When you take out a mortgage, there is new money that is created. It will be extinguished over time, but for a 30-year mortgage, that's 30 years of new money in the economy. You can't do that as an individual—but as a bank, you have special licensure from the state that allows you to just conjure up new money." — Trey Sellers "What does it mean to achieve financial independence if you don't have sovereignty over the money you've saved going forward into retirement? The political environment is really weird right now, and it would make a lot of sense to at least have a little bit of a hedge there." — Trey Sellers "Bitcoin is so much more real than the dollars you see in your bank account. Sure, you can pull out a $20 bill, but it actually just represents a spot on some amorphous ledger. When you're holding Bitcoin with private keys, it's digital but physical in the way you actually interact with it." — Trey Sellers "If you are holding your own keys and using a financial advisor, they've got to actively ask you for their fee. It's a push, not a pull—and that keeps them in check because they have to be very nice to you and treat you well." — Trey Sellers "Number go up technology is the number one recruiter for Bitcoin. That has always been the case. And I think that's perfectly fine—people are focused on Bitcoin for the narrow purpose of making more money. But when you take control of your personal finances and adopt Bitcoin, you take that power back." — Trey Sellers Key Takeaways Fractional reserve is a myth in modern banking: With unlimited Fed backstops, banks operate with infinite reserves created through printing. Bitcoin can't be conjured—scarcity creates real accountability and forces institutions to prove solvency, not promise it. Your "cash balance" is trapped during crises: Silicon Valley Bank proved business owners couldn't access deposits to make payroll when regulators shut down the bank over a weekend. Holding Bitcoin with private keys means treasury you control 24/7, eliminating single-point-of-failure risk in banking relationships. Information asymmetry disappears with self-custody: Traditional finance obscures fees through expense ratios and advisor arrangements that pull from your accounts. Bitcoin forces push transactions—you must actively send fees, making costs explicit and shifting negotiating leverage back to you. Corporate treasuries are melting ice cubes: A $500 million cash balance loses 7% purchasing power annually through M2 expansion—meaning it halves in value over 10 years. Allocating even a portion to Bitcoin offsets erosion while maintaining liquidity, turning retained earnings into competitive advantage rather than shareholder value destruction. Timestamps [04:38] Why traditional banking is a permission structure—and what happens when you can't access your own money [07:37] The ledger illusion: How fiat currency is less real than Bitcoin despite being "tangible" [11:13] Fractional reserve banking is dead—banks now operate with infinite reserves through Fed intervention [14:28] How banks create new money through loans: The special licensure that gives institutions monetary superpowers [18:37] Why holding a Bitcoin ETF isn't sovereignty—and what financial independence actually requires [22:16] Information asymmetry and fee extraction: How custody models hide what you're really paying [28:11] Mathematical certainty vs. institutional reputation—when cryptography beats brand credibility [35:05] Silicon Valley Bank collapse decoded: Interest rate risk, balance sheet mismanagement, and payroll crises [38:46] Bitcoin treasury strategies demystified—why buying corporate shares to own Bitcoin usually underperforms [44:00] The $500 million melting ice cube: How S&P 500 companies destroy shareholder value by holding cash [47:38] From Wall Street to sovereignty: Trey's five-year path to financial independence through Bitcoin [56:14] Raising kids in a Bitcoin world—teaching autonomy when institutions demand compliance Resources & Links Guest Links: Newsletter: FireBTC X: @TreyBSellers Company: Unchained Episode Links: Subscribe: https://podcast.trustrevolution.co Show website: trustrevolution.co Music: More Ghost Than Man Subscribe to Trust Revolution at podcast.trustrevolution.co for weekly conversations on what's breaking trust, what's replacing it, and how to win through the transition. | 1h 02m 42s | ||||||
| 10/8/25 | ![]() S02E07 Rob Brinded – Can you trust your mind? | What if the mind you trust is running a four-year-old's survival code? Rob Brinded, author of Glitch: The Hidden Code Running Your Life (And How to Debug It), joins Shawn to reveal how childhood programming creates unconscious “hamster wheels” that determine who we trust, why we repeat patterns of betrayal, and how intelligent people make devastating choices. This conversation maps the five binary programs installed in early childhood that run our lives—left-siders seeking value through people-pleasing, right-siders compulsively achieving to avoid disappointment, both trapped in wheels that inevitably flip. Rob unpacks Bitcoin as collective consciousness technology that exposes our programming, the critical role of mineral restoration in clear judgment, and the path to “admin mode”—observing your patterns without judgment until they dissolve. Guest Background Rob Brinded is a mind coach and author of Glitch: The Hidden Code Running Your Life (And How to Debug It). Working with elite athletes, founders, and executives, he helps clients identify and dissolve childhood programming that drives self-sabotage, addiction, and misplaced trust. Rob spent years observing behavioral patterns to map the five “hamster wheels” that create our reality. He combines Eastern philosophy, somatic observation, and Bitcoin-inspired thinking to guide clients into “admin mode”: the ability to watch and reprogram their operating systems. Highlights The hamster wheel framework: five binary operating systems from childhood—left-siders people-please for value, right-siders compulsively achieve to avoid disappointment, both inevitably flip Intelligence doesn't protect you: PhDs at the Fed, David Deutsch blocking critics, Nassim Taleb's fragility—all running four-year-old survival scripts, not strategic thinking Bitcoin as collective consciousness technology: reveals the fiat hamster wheel, forces you to question your own operating system, price triggers fear as opportunity for observation Mineral restoration urgency: copper deficiency plus iron overload from fortified foods creating hormonal chaos, magnesium burning through under stress, lowest testosterone levels ever recorded Admin mode practice: observe your reaction to information—that reaction is a program, not you; “everything you don't want to be like your father is within you" Quotes to Remember “If someone keeps getting betrayed, it's because their operating system needs that.” — Rob Brinded “The only thing I can trust about chemtrails is that it triggers my hamster wheel.” — Rob Brinded “We have the lowest levels of testosterone ever recorded throughout the world. Look at our system—everyone feels completely unable.” — Rob Brinded “Know the truth. There's no forgiving.” — Rob Brinded “You cannot trust your mind. It's not intelligent. It's just scripts.” — Rob Brinded (citing David Bohm) Resources & Links Glitch: The Hidden Code Running Your Life by Rob Brinded: https://www.glitchthebook.co/shop/ Rob Brinded on X: https://x.com/RobBrinded Rob Brinded on Nostr: https://primal.net/RobBrinded The Place to Be / Citadel Garden: https://citadel.garden/ Rob Brinded website: https://robbrinded.com Subscribe: https://trustrevolution.co Music in this episode by More Ghost Than Man. | 1h 23m 22s | ||||||
| 10/1/25 | ![]() S02E06 – Privacy's last stand | September 2025 marked a critical turning point in the surveillance economy. Disney paid $10 million for illegally collecting children's data. Google faced $425.7 million in penalties for nearly a decade of smartphone tracking. Microsoft cut off a military unit for using their tools to surveil civilians. While corporations face mounting fines and compliance nightmares, governments worldwide are accelerating digital ID mandates—offering a false choice between corporate surveillance and state control. From cryptographic proofs to peer-to-peer networks, the alternatives exist right now. The question is whether we'll adopt them before the surveillance trap closes. Key Highlights The September 2025 Reckoning: Major enforcement actions against Disney ($10M), Google ($425.7M), and others signal the surveillance economy's breaking point The Digital ID Trap: How governments worldwide are using corporate surveillance failures to justify centralized identity systems The False Binary: You're being offered corporate surveillance OR government control—but cryptographic alternatives eliminate both The Compression Effect: Privacy regulations squeeze corporations while governments offer their surveillance infrastructure as "relief" 19 Episodes of Solutions: How every Trust Revolution guest has been showing us privacy-by-design alternatives that actually work The Personal Playbook: Five concrete actions you can take this week to reduce surveillance exposure and resist digital ID adoption The Fork in the Road: Why your individual choices in the next 6-12 months will determine whether surveillance infrastructure succeeds Resources Privacy-Preserving Communication Tools Signal - End-to-end encrypted messaging with no metadata collection SimpleX Chat - Anonymous messaging with no phone number or identifier required Nostr - Censorship-resistant communication protocol Tor Browser - Anonymous web browsing Privacy-Focused Browsers & Search Brave Browser - Privacy-first browser with built-in tracker blocking Firefox - Open-source browser with strong privacy extensions DuckDuckGo - Search engine with no tracking or profiling Brave Search - Independent search with no user profiling Financial Privacy & Sovereignty Bitcoin - Decentralized, permissionless digital money Lightning Network - Fast, private Bitcoin transactions Your Action Items This Week Delete one surveillance app - Replace it with a privacy-respecting alternative Learn about one privacy-preserving technology - Zero-knowledge proofs, Bitcoin, Nostr, or secure enclaves Have one conversation about digital IDs - Make someone aware of what's coming Resist one unnecessary data request - Don't give information websites don't actually need Subscribe to Trust Revolution - Stay informed as we continue covering alternatives | 32m 07s | ||||||
| 9/24/25 | ![]() S02E05 Live from Imagine IF 2025 | This week we feature the “Open Communities in the Age of Control” panel, recorded live on September 20th at the Imagine IF conference in Nashville. The discussion dives into the erosion of trust in a digital age dominated by surveillance, opaque algorithms, and centralized platforms. Trust Revolution host Shawn Yeager joins Matt Odell and Derek Ross to explore how broken incentives turn users into products, with censorship and deep fakes threatening livelihoods and verifiability. They advocate for open, user-controlled communities via protocols like Nostr, emphasizing personal responsibility, parental tools, and creator-owned ecosystems to reclaim digital sovereignty. Highlights Shawn diagnoses broken money as the root of exploitative business models and creeping KYC regulations. Matt reveals how censorship can erase years of online work, pushing for user-controlled algorithms. Derek highlights deepfakes and the need for verifiable identity in the AI era. The panel discusses Nostr’s potential to empower individuals, with Shawn recommending Primal as an entry point. Parental control and kid-safe Nostr apps are proposed to combat radicalization and unhealthy tech use. Quotes to Remember Shawn Yeager: “With broken money come broken incentives, and from that flow business models that turn us into the product.” Matt Odell: “Years of hard work can be taken away because you built your digital life on somebody else’s foundation.” Derek Ross: “We need easy tools for parents to choose how their kids are interacting with these things.” Resources and Links Primal.net - User-friendly Nostr client recommended by Shawn. Soapbox Tools - Derek Ross’s platform for creator-owned apps. Imagine IF - A two-day convergence of dreamers and doers Subscribe at Trust Revolution. | 22m 17s | ||||||
| 9/17/25 | ![]() S02E04 Alex Newman – Trust Crisis: Paths to Renewal | Centralized systems—Big Pharma, globalist agendas, government education—are crumbling under their own weight, leaving trust in tatters. Alex Newman, investigative journalist and CEO of Liberty Sentinel Media, joins Shawn to rip the veil off these failures. With 2025 exposés on digital IDs, vaccine mandates, and institutional overreach, Newman reveals how entities like the WEF and UN erode sovereignty. This Trust Revolution episode delivers a raw dissection of power grabs and practical, decentralized strategies to reclaim control, urging listeners to question narratives and act. Guest Bio Alex Newman is an award-winning journalist, author, and CEO of Liberty Sentinel Media. With a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Florida and global experience, he’s written bestsellers like Indoctrinating Our Children to Death and Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the Scenes. Newman exposes centralized power undermining sovereignty, advocating self-reliant, privacy-first solutions. His 2025 work, including The Sentinel Report and X posts, tackles digital IDs and Big Pharma corruption. Highlights Big Pharma’s Erosion of Confidence: Newman unpacks vaccine mandate fallout, drawing from his 2025 Dr. Robert Malone interview, and suggests decentralized health solutions. Digital IDs as Control Tools: UK proposals tied to migration expose surveillance risks; Newman offers privacy-first countermeasures (X, Sep 9, 2025). Education’s Centralized Overreach: Policies tying funding to curricula alienate families; community-driven learning is a path forward. Whistleblowers Driving Change: Dr. Kirk Moore’s case and Trump’s Warp Speed reflections show how exposure sparks critical thinking (Rumble, Sep 2025). Individual Empowerment: Newman shares steps to navigate globalist agendas with autonomy and skepticism, avoiding institutional traps. Actionable Takeaways Scrutinize Dependencies: Identify reliance on centralized systems (healthcare, education) and explore alternatives. Prioritize Privacy Tools: Adopt secure platforms to protect data from surveillance, like digital IDs. Build Local Networks: Create community-based systems for learning and resource sharing to reduce institutional control. Question Narratives: Use evidence-based skepticism to evaluate institutional claims and maintain autonomy. Books: Indoctrinating Our Children to Death (2024). Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the Scenes (2018). Connect Guest: Liberty Sentinel Media | @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU | The Sentinel Report Host: shawnyeager.com | @shawn Subscribe: trustrevolution.co Music in this episode by More Ghost Than Man. | 49m 20s | ||||||
| 9/10/25 | ![]() S02E03 Jeffrey Tucker – Breaking the spell of consensus | Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute and Austrian economics advocate, joins Shawn to dissect the COVID-19 response's devastating impact on institutional trust and explore paths to personal sovereignty. This conversation unveils how the pandemic revealed the “total state” pervading all aspects of society, why libertarian institutions failed during the crisis, and how Austrian economics principles point toward reclaiming individual freedom through timeless values and critical thinking. Guest Background Jeffrey Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, established in 2021 as a response to COVID-19 policies. He's authored numerous books, including his latest, Spirits of America: On the Semiquincentennial, inspired by Eric Sloan's The Spirit of '76. A prolific writer with 1,000+ articles, Tucker has been a leading voice against pandemic restrictions and institutional overreach. His work spans economics, technology, and individual liberty, with a focus on practical philosophy for modern life. Highlights Tucker's 2005 warnings about pandemic planning and his isolation as a lone voice against lockdowns How China scripted the global lockdown response and Western institutions' compliance Austrian economics explains how negative interest rates created the bloated managerial class The “total state” revelation: regulatory capture extending throughout corporations, media, and academia Brownstone Institute's mission to “outwit their experts” with intellectual accountability Personal sovereignty through reclaiming time, finding joy in routine, and mastering your domain Quotes to Remember “I was outraged when I saw what was happening. I had been writing about pandemic planning issues since about 2005 because I saw that there was a sector within government that imagined that the way to deal with infectious disease was by nationalizing everything.” “We experienced negative interest rates for two decades. And you know from Austrian production theory that under those conditions, what you get is a wildly blown up, overblown capital goods sector that's living off leverage.” “We need to reclaim our freedom by first reclaiming our time and the use of our time, the use of our personal space, and reclaiming our brains from those people who have stolen them from us.” Resources & Links Spirits of America by Jeffrey Tucker: https://www.amazon.com/Spirits-America-Semiquincentennial-Jeffrey-Tucker/dp/1630693014/ Brownstone Institute: https://brownstone.org/ The Great Barrington Declaration: https://gbdeclaration.org/ Jeffrey Tucker's articles at Epoch Times: https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-jeffrey-tucker Austrian Economics Center: https://www.austriancenter.com/ Jeffrey Tucker on Twitter/X: @jeffreyatucker Subscribe: https://trustrevolution.co Music in this episode by More Ghost Than Man. | 1h 04m 48s | ||||||
| 9/3/25 | ![]() S02E02 Mathias Buus – The future is peer-to-peer | In This Episode Shawn interviews Mathias Buus, CEO of Holepunch, about revolutionizing the internet with peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies like Pear Runtime, Hypercore, and Keet. Mathias shares his journey from math student to open-source powerhouse with over 1,000 NPM modules, driven by empowering individuals. They discuss centralized platforms’ flaws, Keet’s open-source controversy, and how businesses can adopt P2P for a trustless future. Guest Bio Mathias Buus, Holepunch’s CEO, is a Copenhagen-based JavaScript wizard who’s published over 1,000 NPM modules with billions of downloads. Creator of Pear Runtime, Hypercore, and Keet, he organized the 2025 P2P Summit to rally developers against Big Tech’s grip. His mission: empower individuals with trustless, decentralized systems. Highlights Mathias’s background: From university math’s humbling lessons to prolific open-source contributions, emphasizing individual empowerment through code. Origins of Holepunch: Inspired by BitTorrent’s resilience, Mathias generalized P2P for any data, removing infrastructure barriers for app building. Centralization flaws: P2P targets data control, censorship, and erosion of sovereignty by platforms like Meta, Google, and X. Keet controversy: Partial open-sourcing raises verifiability concerns; Mathias defends modular approach but acknowledges community demands. Future vision: A world of borderless, sovereign communication via owned devices; businesses should deprogram centralization and experiment with P2P. Practical steps: Start with hybrid models, join Keet communities for collaboration, and focus on sustainable decentralized business models. Quotes to Remember “I'm very driven by the power of the individual… What can I do as a person myself to make an impact on my surroundings?” – Mathias Buus “How do you stop a population that has financial and communication independence?” – Mathias Buus on P2P sovereignty “You need to learn how to deprogram… Start thinking these crazy things like, what if we just didn't have servers?” – Mathias Buus on adopting P2P Resources & Links Holepunch Official Website -https://company.holepunch.to - Overview of P2P technologies and company mission. Keet App Download - https://keet.io - Get the P2P chat app and explore its communities. P2P Summit 2025 Recap - https://company.holepunch.to/summit-2025 - Insights from Mathias’s developer event. Mathias Buus’s GitHub Profile - https://github.com/mafintosh - View his extensive open-source contributions. Mathias Buus’s X Profile - https://x.com/mafintosh - Follow for updates on P2P development. | 1h 02m 01s | ||||||
| 8/27/25 | ![]() S02E01 Nicholas Anthony – CBDCs and defying digital control | Shawn Yeager kicks off Season 2 of Trust Revolution with Nick Anthony, policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and fellow at the Human Rights Foundation, leading their CBDC Tracker. They dive into the escalating risks of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which supercharge government surveillance beyond laws like the Bank Secrecy Act. Nick, author of Digital Currency or Digital Control, traces the 2019 CBDC surge to Facebook’s Libra and flags authoritarian regimes as frontrunners. Learn why financial privacy hangs by a thread and how Bitcoin could be the lifeline. Guest Nick Anthony serves as a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and a fellow at the Human Rights Foundation, where he leads the global CBDC Tracker. He monitors the implications of central bank digital currencies across 139 jurisdictions. As the author of Digital Currency or Digital Control: Decoding Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Money, he focuses on dissecting the threats posed by centralized financial systems, advocating for decentralized alternatives like Bitcoin to protect individual privacy and freedom. Highlights Season 2 & Fountain.fm Launch (00:00): Shawn unveils Season 2, shifting to Fountain.fm for independent, ad-free distribution. Support via Bitcoin or fiat at trustrevolution.co. Nick’s Intro via Nostr (01:31): Shawn welcomes Nick, connected via Nostr, spotlighting his Cato role, CBDC Tracker, and book Digital Currency or Digital Control. Cato’s 2014 Mission (03:27): Nick details the Center’s start to challenge central banking post-2008, exploring Bitcoin and fintech alternatives. Public’s Financial Woes (08:51): Nick highlights confusion over inflation and government chaos, sparking CBDC curiosity. Authoritarian Edge (14:36): Nick reveals seven of ten CBDC nations are autocracies, using them for control. Quotes to Remember “Having conversations about [CBDCs] is so important… if [people] don’t know, then it’s just going to happen without our say.” – Nick Anthony “I want people to use alternatives because they’re better, because they’re running to them, not because they’re running away from something.” – Nick Anthony “The state is objecting to this… planting in the ground that the state is protesting.” – Nick Anthony “Activity is accelerating, but interest is waning… the allure across the world is fading.” – Nick Anthony Resources & Links Nick Anthony’s book: Digital Currency or Digital Control Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives: cato.org/centers/cmfa Human Rights Foundation CBDC Tracker: hrf.org/cbdc-tracker Nick Anthony on X: @Nick-C-Anthony Nick Anthony on Nostr Subscribe at trustrevolution.co. Music in this episode by More Ghost Than Man. | 1h 01m 53s | ||||||
| 7/10/25 | ![]() S01E13 – Reflecting on Trust Revolution: Season 1 recap | In this solo episode, Shawn reflects on the first 12 episodes of Trust Revolution, expressing gratitude to listeners and sharing insights gained from conversations with various builders, thinkers, and leaders. The podcast aims to explore the erosion of trust in traditional institutions and the potential of decentralization and technology, such as Bitcoin, to restore personal sovereignty. Shawn discusses the importance of reaching those curious about alternative systems and highlights key themes like the diminishing trust in centralized entities and the promise of decentralized solutions. Throughout the season, Shawn engaged with a diverse group of guests, including futurists, technologists, and policy advisors, to discuss topics ranging from private AI and alternative app stores to the implications of AI on society. He emphasizes the need for citizen action and transparency to challenge existing power structures and the role of technology in reshaping business and governance. As the podcast moves forward, we'll focus on conversations with builders and advocates who are leading the way in creating change and empowering individuals to reclaim control over their trust and privacy. Subscribe at podcast.trustrevolution.co. Music in this episode by More Ghost Than Man. | 19m 35s | ||||||
| 7/2/25 | ![]() S01E12 OpnState ‒ Global financial control: AML’s hidden cost | OpnState, a pseudonymous civil servant and former corporate banker, joins Shawn to expose the hidden mechanisms of global financial standards and their impact on trust and sovereignty. From his role drafting anti-money laundering (AML) legislation, OpnState reveals how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) enforces KYC and AML rules, centralizing power and eroding individual rights. He discusses the challenges of reforming a surveillance-heavy system, the power of citizen action through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, and the hope offered by cypherpunk innovations like Bitcoin. Recorded June 16, 2025, amid growing global tensions, this episode examines why transparency matters, what’s at stake in 2025, and how individuals can reclaim agency in a trust-minimized future. Background OpnState is a pseudonymous policy and legislation advisor in a jurisdiction with a major financial sector. Formerly a corporate banker managing million-dollar accounts, he grew disillusioned with a financial system rigged to enrich elites. Now, as a civil servant, he’s drafted over a dozen pieces of AML legislation, giving him an insider’s view of the FATF’s global standards. Through podcasts and posts on Nostr, OpnState critiques centralized control while advocating for transparency and decentralized governance. His pseudonym allows him to speak freely about the erosion of sovereignty and the need for citizen engagement. Highlights FATF’s Global Control: The Financial Action Task Force sets AML and KYC standards, pressuring countries into compliance through mutual evaluations and gray-listing, undermining national sovereignty. Erosion of Rights: AML/KYC rules bypass due process, enabling extrajudicial asset freezes and surveillance, a slow erosion of ancestral rights like property and privacy. Misaligned Incentives: Civil servants prioritize private-sector prospects and perks over public good, necessitating new incentives like GDP-linked bonuses. Bitcoin’s Disruption: Cypherpunk innovations like Bitcoin challenge centralized finance, though integration into traditional systems risks co-option by FATF’s focus on “unhosted wallets.” Citizen Power: FOI requests and policy consultation participation can hold governments accountable, with transparency as the key to curbing criminal activity. Decentralized Governance: OpnState’s paper on decentralized regulatory frameworks, inspired by game theory, and Taiwan’s POLIS platform offer paths to transparent governance. Quotes to Remember “The government knows everything about you, and you know so little about them. That’s not democracy—that’s a high probability of tyranny.” — OpnState “Transparency kills all criminal activity. Cockroaches love to hide from the light.” — OpnState “Send an FOI request. It’s free, it’s easy, and it scares the bejesus out of civil servants.” — OpnState “Bitcoin negates the old system by creating something better, not by reforming from within.” — OpnState “The incentives are all wrong. Civil servants chase private-sector deals, not citizen prosperity.” — OpnState Resources & Links OpnState’s on nostr: Follow his insights on global financial standards and sovereignty. OpnState's "inside the government" thread: chronicling his day-to-day observations as a government regulatory policy analyst. | 1h 05m 59s | ||||||
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