Hey, everybody. Shawn Yeager here recording a solo episode to do a bit of a recap of the first 12 episodes of Trust Revolution.
But I first wanna thank you if you have spent some time,
listened to the podcast. It's just beginning,
and
there are a lot
of podcasts, great podcasts out there competing for your time and attention. So if you've invested some with me, I am grateful, and I appreciate it.
When I began Trust Revolution,
I had an idea
that it was worth taking a lot of what certainly I benefited from, which is education information from
some fantastic individuals who have
taught about the importance of freedom technology broadly speaking, who've taught about the importance of Bitcoin
most notably,
but really have shown me and and that has in turn greatly enhanced my life what is possible
when you take back ownership, you take back sovereignty
over things like your money.
And that is hard to overstate. It's hard to
overemphasize
how meaningful that can be, how important that can be.
What I want to do uniquely, I hope, with Trust Revolution
is to reach out to those of you who may be on the bubble. And for those who are deep down the proverbial rabbit hole, I hope to
be able to deliver something of value to you as well. But really, it's those who are curious, who have an idea, an inkling that
something is not quite right and there must be a better way. And
the theme, the title, certainly Trust Revolution and and what I've written so far to convey the purpose
is that it really is about
acknowledging
that the traditional institutions, be they government,
media,
corporations,
have largely lost our trust, and we
can, you know, rake the,
coals over with with regard to how
badly it has been damaged.
But I think most of us, if we're reasonable, would would say that we just do not trust those institutions
as maybe we used to, certainly as our parents used to, as previous generations used to, maybe that's a good thing.
But on the bright side, there are tools
and there are,
assets, there's education,
so much out there
that we can use should we choose.
And so in season one, what I hope I've accomplished
is to present a pretty broad array
of
interesting conversations, certainly with people that have taught me a lot,
ranging from builders like Marx and Fran,
who respectively
are tackling,
private AI AI with with which we can share
intimate details and know,
certainly, cryptographically,
certainly,
that
that information is is secure, is safe
to, in the case of Fran, reimagining what an app store could be, which may in some ways sound trivial.
But, you know, as much as we we carry these things around and as much as we do with them,
the way in which we are held captive largely by Apple and Google in terms of what we're
allowed access to,
something as simple
as being able to pay for
an application outside the rails, outside the realm of an Apple or Google,
to being able to communicate in a way that we wish, to being able to say the things
that we want,
that has a really, really big impact on our day to day lives. We then have had conversations
with futurists,
Bronwyn Williams in South Africa to John Robb, who is a former special ops operator
and author and strategist who has presented some really interesting ideas in episode one
about
networked tribes, networked swarms, really. And so,
the idea that things are increasingly polarizing
and that there are means
of emphasizing a message that a particular tribe or swarm,
or controlling party wishes to get across and that that is only going to be magnified and accelerated with AI.
To conversations with, gentleman by the name of Rashad Tabakawala,
who is a global executive consultant and has a very particular perspective
on what AI and other technologies,
will do, what KYC
looks like in the future,
to,
a government insider. My most recent conversation in episode 12 with Open State, who is
a
policy
analyst and advisor,
in
a government.
We don't we don't know which,
but does,
work advising on things like anti money
laundering and KYC, which is a whole
sort of basket of
trouble that in many cases,
does far more harm than good, and I think that that is a statement I can make that's backed by data.
So everywhere we look from our money
to the devices we carry with us every day in our pockets,
to the way our money moves,
to the conversations we have individually and in groups,
these are controlled, manipulated,
assailed in some cases, certainly,
surveilled.
And so
we have that as a backdrop.
We have, for example, in my conversation with Matt O'Dell,
who is a long time,
Bitcoin advocate, educator, builder, investor,
presented us with
a number of options,
but also presented, I think, us with a humbling assertion that, perhaps only 5%
of individuals who could embrace things like Bitcoin will choose to do that, but that the choice is ours and we can.
So I can't say that there's been a straight line through these conversations,
but it has absolutely been exploratory and I hope it's been
valuable to you. Again, I know for me, what it has done is sort of put some pieces on the board,
and created a sense of
different perspectives from different angles and different roles and responsibilities,
be it corporate to independent developer and hacker and builder.
The themes that I see having come out, that I'll just, you know, talk about for a minute. The first is that trust is eroding, we know that, and that centralization
is largely the culprit.
And so a theme
of these conversations, a theme of,
for example, the sorts of conversations that I might have on a daily or weekly basis at a place like Bitcoin Park, where I'm a member here in Nashville,
are
about decentralization,
which is quite a buzzword, but I think it's one that's important
to underscore
in that many of the challenges that we face are in that so much of our technology, so much of our culture of our society
has tended toward centralization. And there are many reasons for this and and there are many others who could speak more eloquently to it than I can, but that is just the state of affairs.
And that in order
to reclaim
agency, in order to reclaim some of our own individual power, we need
to turn away from that centralization which means making hard choices.
I will just illustrate that example. I after having iPhones since 02/2007,
about a month ago, I personally made the switch to, a Google Pixel, irony not lost on me, running something called Graphene OS, which is a an alternative operating system that gives you immense control
over
how these apps communicate with each other, with the cloud, what data gets sent back to to whom.
And is it easy? Is it trivial? No.
As I mentioned on Noster today, privacy is a luxury good. I aspire,
to be in a place where it is a commodity, but it's not. You know, I have the luxury of taking the time to set something like that up.
I do appreciate that that is a luxury. I appreciate that that's a a benefit that I have. It is not going to be something everyone has the time to do, but the tools are there. So I use that just as an illustration
is that,
you know, this this centralizing
nature of coming down to really two devices, be it an Apple or or a Google device running Android, that is an example.
The fact that so many of us turn to x Twitter, Facebook, depending on really your demographic, your age group, that is also tremendously centralizing. There are alternatives. Here again, Nostra, big fan, big user, big advocate,
but it is
choosing
to, in some ways, leave behind these very, very large platforms and go somewhere where there is more freedom, where there is
far, far, far less control. And, certainly, we think little to no
surveillance going on, for example.
So I think, you know, the the takeaway here is that in this first theme, trust is running, we know this. I I believe if you're watching, if you're bothering to watch this, you would agree.
And the work to be done is to decentralize.
And and again, that's far harder said than done, but that is essentially the the theme in the work. The second is that
okay. So great. We have these options to, in in many ways, decentralize
communications,
money,
social media, identity.
Talked with,
doctor David Strayhorn who is a neurologist, but also has put has poured really ten years of blood, sweat, and tears
into
webs of trust. And that is to say, how do we create these emergent webs
of
relationships with individuals
for whom we trust or that we trust in particular context. And so I trust
Bob to be able to make, great recommendations
about
where to stay in a particular city. I trust Alice
to advise me
on how to invest my money. Whatever these these examples might be, the point is we can,
take back
this,
trust and place it in the hands of those that we choose
based on certain algorithms and and and data that we have access to and that is very transparent. So that's an example of a tool of an option of a choice we can make, but there's promise and there's peril. Peril in the sense maybe overstating it that
it's tough. It's tough. It's time consuming.
It is nontrivial to make these choices. It's nontrivial
to
become educated and equipped
to self custody your money in the case of Bitcoin.
But, again, incredibly
valuable, and I could go on for hours about why that is, but I wanna keep this sort of high level.
So that second theme, you know, again, is that, yes, there are tremendous
options. There there's great promise,
but
it is surprising to me to find in some of these conversations
that
many of these technologies are looked at as simply too nascent, too
geeky, too out on the fringe
by some of the folks that I've spoken with in the first 12 episodes.
It doesn't surprise me, but I was hoping to be,
pleasantly surprised. But I think it's a it's a good humbling reminder
of how early we are.
But again, for those who choose to make these these changes, the the options are there and they're powerful.
Another theme that I pulled out is that citizen action
and transparency
that we can bring about
through this action
is the kind of resistance that I think is going to be most powerful in bringing about change in institutions. And this is largely
through my most recent conversation with Open State, the pseudonymous civil servant that I mentioned.
He reminded us that I that, you know, it's not just pull out this piece of technology, it's not just use signal,
for your for your conversations, your chats, it's going to be freedom of information
requests, it's going to be putting pressure on elected officials.
Can we do the same in media? Can we do the same thing for corporations? Obviously, it works a bit differently,
but I think we can if we choose to. And that that inaction is is our greatest enemy. I'm just as guilty as anyone. But it was a it was a great takeaway for me
that to simply shine light on,
the dark corners where a lot of the creeping surveillance
and a lot of
the trickery happens is is a tremendous tool at our disposal should we should we choose to use it. Another conversation with Yael Asowski,
who is deputy director at the Consumers Choice Center,
is to remind us
that in so much of the legislative work
that
organizations like his do,
It is not to convince the government to permit us to do something. It is to restrain the government, and there too is a great reminder
of the power that we have, that we are by design given, at least certainly in Western
democracies and and representative,
governments,
that we do have that power,
you know, should we choose to exercise it, which I think is is the critical piece.
Another theme is
the business and economic shifts that are happening
in this world where trust is is diminished and and shrinking.
I think that erosion is reshaping work, reshaping business.
These particular guests,
thinking about Rashad and Bronwyn,
showed that centralized models dominate because they're profitable, and that's no surprise, but it's, again, good to underscore,
the cracks, you know, are are are forming,
and I think that there are real challengers.
AI, which is a central theme and it is not surprising because it is everywhere all the time,
that will make or break some of these
corporations, some of these governments. It will, you know, deepfakes these
thirty, sixty, hundred and twenty second videos that you can now
create through Google v o three
are, to my eyes, indistinguishable
from reality. I think the vast majority of individuals would not be able
to call out what is now AI generated versus real.
That is
horrifying
in some ways, but I think it's going to force, you know, much as much as literacy
became a critical skill, much as media literacy became critical perhaps in the nineties and February,
I think
this new level of, let's call it AI literacy, will be crucial, not only for the workforce,
but for individuals.
And
perhaps in a situation where
we cannot
simply and blindly trust what our eyes
see, we will need to dig deeper. We'll need to look at things
like
cryptographically,
signed media that we have
authenticity
guaranteed
or rather, presented to us. We have attribution,
that we can check and verify. So here too, don't trust, verify. I think that's that's the theme here.
So with that, I'm I'm jumping around a bit, but the idea is just to present what I took away from these first 12 conversations.
And so when I set out to begin Trust Revolution, as I say, it was really
to reach out to those of you who may be on the bubble.
I hope it's given you some some food for thought. I hope it's given you some some tools and techniques to pursue
this first season, as as I'll call it. Really,
the idea of a season is somewhat arbitrary given that it's a new podcast and that it is
a broad,
broader theme. You know, it's not a it's not a,
sort of a story driven,
season where you would be able to have natural break points. But the idea for me is to put some bookmarks on it and to say, okay. These first 12 episodes,
these were discovery and these were exploratory. And, certainly, as I say, it's been great for me. I've learned a lot. I hope it's been good and valuable for you, but I think what it has done is this. It has shown me
that
what is most promising and what's most interesting for me to pursue, and I hope in turn that will come through in in in, you know, greater episodes and and greater value,
is to
focus on the builders, the advocates,
the
cheerleaders, those who are showing the way
to how we make change, how we
take back control of what we trust, who we trust, what gets exposed about us to those who would presume to demand that we trust them.
That to me is is a particularly interesting sort of sub thread.
And so what I wanna do going ahead is
to
double down there. And so the conversations I'll be having, the individuals that I'll be reaching out to to have these conversations with will be
people who are pushing policy changes, people who are building alternatives, people who are educating and showing the way
with emphasis on
translating this,
you know, not going so deep that it's it's it's bewildering.
But starting with why. Why does this matter? What are we attempting to address?
And then highlighting some of the tools, the technologies, and the changes that we can make.
My
closing and really single request in addition to thanking you for your time, and I I really do mean that, is let me know. Let me know who I should talk to. It's,
new. It's a new production. It's a new podcast. And so a lot of the outreach
have done, you win some, you lose some. There've been some great folks
that I've been hoping to speak with that I haven't heard back, from yet at least. Conversely,
for example, and I'm holding this
fantastic book by Cory Doctorow, who I have followed for probably twenty years, and I'm really excited to speak with Corey later in the year. He coined this term.
He's got some long standing, fascinating perspectives on
the harm that things like digital rights management have done in total when, you know, in a narrow scope, they've been promised and sold to us as saving industries.
So, again, if you have ideas about individuals you'd like for me to speak with, if you have folks that are lesser known that, are doing great work, as I say, in
advocacy, education,
building, who are going
to make changes or rather, you know, enable us to make changes in who we trust and and how we trust, then I'd love to hear from you. And you could do that by finding me on noster at trust rev,
by emailing me hello at trust revolution dot c o, or just go to trust revolution dot co.
So thanks again, everyone. I look forward to bringing you some great, great episodes
coming up very soon. I expect that season two will kick off
by early August,
but,
follow on Noster.
Follow on YouTube at TrustRev
and
trustrevolution.substack.com.
Thanks. Talk to you soon.