What Nostr Did with Ben Arc - WBD700
Mr Obnoxious
Peter McCormack
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2023
⏱️ 100 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Arc is a free open-source software advocate and founder of LNbits. In this interview, we discuss a range of subjects covering poverty, politics, and technology. We talk about the value of hard work, the impact of Brexit, the potential of decentralized platforms like Nostr, privacy concerns, censorship on social media platforms, and the importance of freedom of speech.
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Ben Arc is one of the Bitcoin community's most unheralded heroes’: there are numerous occasions when LNbits, which he co-founded, has been mentioned as a vital cog in the development of new Bitcoin software and hardware across the world, particularly in Africa. Then there is Ben’s leading development in the censor-resistant social network Nostr. And, he was an OG Bitcoin progressive pushing against the dogma that Bitcoin was solely a libertarian tool.
In this great podcast, we discuss a range of subjects close to Ben’s heart that fall into the big buckets of politics and technology. Ben has a personal experience of poverty, which has shaped his political views. We talk about this and the most important political event to have affected the UK in our lifetimes, Brexit, which has dominated headlines for years and still continues to divide opinion.
We then focus on Ben’s opinions of the potential for decentralized platforms to resist censorship and government interference. Nostr was developed out of an LNbits proof of concept application for a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace. It has morphed into a technology that's not only revolutionizing the way developers build applications but also facilitates a censorship-resistant global social network.
In an era of increasing digital censorship, alternative platforms that prioritize freedom of speech are more important than ever. With the backing of influential figures like Jack Dorsey, Nostr could become a dominant platform in the tech world that disintermediates middlemen and tackles censorship. And it shows the potential of Bitcoin to continue to revolutionize industries.
Show notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/what-nostr-did
This episode’s sponsors:
Iris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably
Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlers
Bitcasino - The Future of Gaming is here
Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet
Wasabi Wallet - Privacy by default
Unchained - Secure your bitcoin with confidence
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The model we have now, which is corrupting a bit evil, that'll probably still exist. |
| 0:08.0 | It's just you have a choice as a user to not use that model. |
| 0:12.0 | Hello from Ib betha. |
| 0:14.0 | How are you all? I am taking a well needed break. |
| 0:18.0 | I think a well deserved break. |
| 0:19.0 | It's my first holiday in about a year. |
| 0:21.0 | I was just trying to think through all the stuff we've done in the last |
| 0:23.6 | years. It's like 150 podcast. We've made three documentaries. We have won a League |
| 0:30.2 | and Cup double with a football team, I've bought a bar, |
| 0:32.8 | it's been super busy, just worked so hard over the last year. |
| 0:36.5 | So yes, I'm having a well-needed, |
| 0:38.8 | I think deserve break out in my betha with the kids but still we're still working we're still |
| 0:44.1 | getting shows out for you and we're still planning events we're planning |
| 0:47.3 | but I forgot events I think we've had like five events as well and we have got an |
| 0:51.6 | event in Australia we're taking our first trip to Australia soon so we have got an event in Australia. We're taking our first trip to Australia soon. |
| 0:54.4 | So we've got an event in Sydney with Nick Bartier, |
| 0:57.4 | Willie Wu, Checkmate, Russie Russell and Dan Robbers, |
| 0:59.8 | all on stage. |
| 1:00.4 | It's gonna be a banger. |
| 1:01.4 | If you wanna join us in Sydney on September the 9th, please head over to |
| 1:04.7 | what Bitcoin did.com. Click on WBD live and get yourself a ticket. Anyway, I'm going to get down to the pause. So firstly, |
| 1:11.6 | welcome to the what Bitcoin did podcast, |
... |
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